Birthday Party Success - Planning Pays Off!

Well the Birthday Party has been and gone for another year. And it was a huge success!

With all the planning I did prior to the event it went quite smoothly (see previous post). Quite a bit of the food was prepared beforehand and what I had to do at the last minute was quite simple. I am very lucky to have some wonderful friends who take care of the kitchen on the day so it frees me up to organise the kids games and activities. As part of my planning I drew up a chart of which food to put on the kids and adults tables. Unfortunately there was something I forgot to put on the chart and I forgot about it during the party so it didn't get served! We then had it for dinner that night. I think it is really important and welcoming to have lots of food for everyone so I tend to go a bit overboard.

Firstly the cake. I love making and decorating B's birthday cakes myself. I definiately wing it in terms of my cake decorating skills. So if you have any experience in cake decorating don't cringe too much at my skills!! As the theme of the party was a sport party we had to go for a sport themed cake too. The cake was an orange poppyseed cake which turned out quite well considering how long I had to cook it due the to shape of the tin. B chose a soccer cake and placed all the soccer players on the cake himself. I am quite happy with how it looked:

With it being a sport party I organised lots of races and games for the kids and then an obstacle course in the backyard for them to have a freeplay. Being winter in Melbourne it was a bit stressful during the week as to how the weather would be on the day, however, there was no rain and the sun was out for most of the day. Praise God! I did warn all the parents the day before though that there was a good chance that the kids could get wet and dirty as the backyard was a bit muddy from the rain during the week. I did this so they could bring a change of clothes just in case they were needed. Unfortunately it was a bit stressful for one of the girls who got very nervous about the party. Luckily she had a great time and now says that she likes sports parties!

Here are some of the races:

Egg and spoon race. I got plastic balls and put blue tak on the spoon to keep them attached. We had done a practise run before the party and B could only get 1 or 2 steps before the ball fell off so I figured it would be a lot more fun for the kids if they didn't have to worry too much. Of course, the older kids and adults who had a race didn't get that advantage!

Relay race. I got these rods a few weeks ago in my free stuff at Spotlight (see previous post). There were enough for the kids to take one home in their party bags.

Bean bags. We used these for a balancing game where the kids had to balance the bags on different parts of their body - head, shoulder, hand, foot, etc. Then we did a bean bag toss into the hula hoops. I made the bean bags myself. I took 2 squares of fabric, overlocked 3 edges, filled with beans and overlocked the final edge. These also went home in the party bags.

For the obstacle course/free play I had these set up:

This basketball hoop was actually B's birthday present from me.

This is a toy I got from my Toy Library. They are just separate pieces which click together for a balancing beam.

These tyres were set up in a meandering course for the kids to climb over and just generally muck around on.

The hula hoops to throw the bean bags in or just play around in.

A tarp with holes cut out of it to throw balls through and climb through. Unfortunately the tape I used didn't stick very well so I ended up having to pull it off. Oops!!

Everybody having a great time!

I feel really good about being on top of the planning this year. There was quite a bit of work in the weeks leading up to the party but it was worth it for the enjoyment the B and all the other kids got out of it. I was also lucky in that B was able to help with quite a bit of the preparation so that I did not have to resort to parking him in front of the TV to get everything done!