Happy Fourth Birthday L!

Yesterday was L's birthday and it was wonderful.  I can't believe my little girl is four!

As I said in a previous post we kept it simple this year and rented out our local pool for her party.  It was really cool to have the entire pool to ourselves.

We kept the underwater theme going with L's cake.  I'm usually such a stickler for only doing healthy food with no candies and artificial colors.  I was seriously racking my brain on how to make blue.  Then my husband made me realise that every other birthday L goes to the kids have crazy cakes with tons of sugar and TONS of artificial colors.  L doesn't really even eat the cake and doesn't even know what the candies are so this year I went to town!  Nothing was off limits as you can see by all of the gummies.  All the other kids loved it and as I predicted L ate just one bite and then finished off two fruit skewers!  I know I'm soooo hypocritical!

3rd Birthday Celebrations part 2

There is a group of local young people in our community that have started an African marimba band.  They play at local events and family dances.  We went to see them last March and since then L has been besotted.

We have to go and see them every time they play, she always talk about them and pretends to play the marimba.

So we decided to try and make her one of her own.  My wonderful husband found some plans for a small xylophone on the Internet and spent hours in the garage creating it.

 Here is the finished product.

 L couldn't believe her eyes when she removed the cover.  She had to have a go and then another and another.

We also made a marimba cake for her.  I melted some dark chocolate into tin foil molds and then cut the cake in the shape of the marimba.  I used black licorice for the little key holders.

 The best part was that we actually managed to get the marimba band to play for her party!!  It was a surprise and L was in awe when they came to the door and started setting up.

My heart nearly burst when all the children were dancing and playing instruments and my little L was playing her marimba alongside her idols.

Now that my husband has the hang of it he's hoping to make one of the marimbas in the front of the picture for Christmas.  I can't wait!!

3rd Birthday Celebrations!

After long hours of preparation we finally had L's birthday and party.

I was so inspired by all the birthday decorations from the Childhood Magic blog that I wanted to make some for L's birthday.

Here is the felt birthday banner.  I love it and we'll be able to use it every year!

 My mom and I made pennants out of the left over pieces of felt and I made some Waldorf window stars to make the place look more festive.

 The spread.  I make a point to only give L healthy food and birthdays are no exception. 

 The birthday crown.  My mom and I spent ages making this felt crown which represents the four seasons and L refused to wear it.  Typical.  At least we have it now and hopefully she'll be more into it next year : )

 Some time last week I realised that I nothing prepared for all of the children to do.  Yikes! In a panic I put together this crown decorating table.

 Fabric painting which will make up a gift for L

 and bracelet making.

The kids managed to make a complete and thorough mess of it all but had a fab time!

L's Spooktacular Halloween/Birthday Party Part Two

Here is L's cake. I couldn't resist using the little tropical frogs. It was seriously experimental as I used blueberry jello for the pond and pistachio pudding for the grass. Yum yum.

I think one of my favorite bits of the party was after we sang Happy Birthday and L blew out her candles we started to sing Five Little Speckled Frogs. When we got to the jumped into the pool bit L took the blue frog and jumped it into the pool. Then all of the other children joined in and finally all of the frogs were in the pool. They loved it.

We had 17 adults at the party and we asked them to bring a carved pumpkin with them. We put them all around my uncle's back garden and the effect was breathtaking. A big thank you to Uncle Jason who took all of the night pictures.

Once it got dark we had a disco with sparklers and glow sticks and everyone danced the night away. It was totally fab! Now what am I going to do for next year.....

L's Spooktacular Halloween/Birthday Party Part One

I think I was truly blessed when my daughter was born so close to Halloween. Anyone who knows me knows I go a bit mad and absolutely LOVE Halloween parties. Since this would be L's last birthday in England I thought I would go all out. What fun!

We decided to have a night party and luckily the weather cooperated so we could have most of it outside. Here is L in her giraffe costume. The bizarre thing is that when I asked what she wanted to be she said "a giraffe" and I thought oh ya sure. Well the next day when I was talking to my mom she was so excited to tell me that she found a costume for L and yes wonder of wonders it was a giraffe. If only everything in life was so easy : )

We had lots of games set up outside. Here is the ghost skittle area.

A spooky center piece for the adults buffet table inspired by Chasing Cheerios.

and the piece de resistance.... the spider pinata. Here it is hung up inside

and here it is in action. The kids had a go and then we blindfolded the dads who all had a go. What fun.