weekend retrospective - part 2

Sunday was B2s 11th birthday. We have a pretty stock standard birthday ritual around here. Home parties always, friends and grandparents and a bit of a go-to-town kind of day. im such a tight @#!* throughout the year so on birthdays the kids can pretty much have whatever kind of party they like (well within reason, tight ass tendencies are hard to break). I had a limit of $150 for 17 people. B2 chose 8 school friends (small school, only 8 girls in her year so to leave anyone out is a bit of a school no-no) and a 'high tea' party.

So high tea it was. Saturday was spent getting last minute ingredients and baking and finding what i was hoping to God I'd find - a tea set at the local CFS fundraising stall! $3! and incredibly it matched a coffee set we already had, so 9 matching high tea cups! Nothing like leaving something till the last minute. Thank god i did coz on Sunday i started at 8 am and didnt stop until 6 when i abandoned ship with the boy and had a bath with lots of smelly stuff. When the kids were smaller i used to painstakingly do low sugar, natural colourings and still essentially believe in it, especially for growing bodies.

However, now they are older, Ive let go of the reins as we only really do this kind of food on birthdays, so i figure what the hey, blue food colouring today, LSD tomorrow. What do i prefer? We found white napkins and sparklers in the pantry and coloured sprinkles and cup cake pans too, leftovers from someone staying in the holidays...


All the kids had a great day and we had a fabulous treasure hunt around the garden where the kids had to work out clue after clue until they got to the end prize; the high tea set up in the studio (which isnt finished but served its purpose to keep the madness out of the house). They played the limbo, did the hokey-pokey, and weren't too old for pass the parcel. I love doing birthday parties and seeing them have a really really happy day.