Two hours of crazy party fun!

Our daughter Sophie will turn six on Boxing Day and we held a party on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate. Sophie insisted on having a traditional ‘party at home’ and was preparing and planning with her older sister, Charlotte, for the week building up to the party. It was going to be a very special party indeed, as dear Grandma and Granddad arrived the day before (from the UK) to join in the madness! Very brave (and I’m surprised they didn’t jump on a return flight midway through the party!).

This was probably the noisiest and craziest children’s party we’ve had at home so far, with around twenty children ranging in age from one to nine! Thankfully we had extra hands on deck, with not only Grandma and Granddad, but also my cousin Jane (who we collected at the airport at midday… on her travels back from the South Island). It felt incredibly special to share one of our children’s birthday celebrations with close and dear family. Jane was amazing with all the children and seemed to very much enjoy the madness (she’s getting married in September 2012 and I suspect she’s hoping for a little bundle of chaos of her own in the future!).

We had a couple of friends come round before the party kicked off – which really helped minimize Sophie from asking, every second, ‘What’s the time?’, ‘How long till the party starts?’, ‘Why did we say 3.30pm?, ‘I wish they could come now!’, ‘Can I pop over to our neighbour’s house and tell them it’s okay for them to come now?’… she just asked every five minutes or so, whilst telling our early arrivals, ‘The party hasn’t properly started yet.’

Thankfully, we had some arts and crafts activities planned, some food prepared and a stunning day of sunshine to make it easy to entertain.

As the official party start time approached Sophie was jumping up and down with great excitement, hovering on the drive-way (nearly taking off with her fairy wings on her back) to greet her guests.

Dan (Daddy) arrived just before with the cake (which Sophie was ecstatic about and Alice kept saying, ‘Daddy made cake! Wow! Daddy made cake!’ – erm, not quite – it was a New World gem, shhh! – but he definitely got a smile from his Birthday girl!).

Once all the guests had arrived the party flowed from one crazy game to the next – all organised by Sophie and Charlotte (with Sophie making sure ‘the little kids went first – wherever possible!).

There was fancy dress ups and catwalk parades… (video to come!), musical cushions (with the cushions slowly being removed, but not the dancers… so at the end everyone had to be touching the person on the cushion – this was Sophie’s idea to ensure no one felt left out and to ensure no ‘winner’ or losers’) and wild dancing.

Simple fun of bubbles and play in the garden (thank you sunshine!)…

Crazy photo booth snap shots…

A treasure hunt through the house and garden (with Sophie climbing a rope ladder in heels and her fairy costume!)…

which ended with the Pinata…

The present opening was the quietest part of the party, with Sophie reading out each card with the biggest smile of thanks to her lovely friends who had all chosen the most wonderful gifts.

There was a surprise musical interlude of piano playing by Sophie and a couple of her friends, which was so lovely, and then the cake (this was the second quietest part of the party – once the candles had been blown out and the cake was shared out under the watchful eyes of all the children).