Beatrice in Wonderland

Beatrice wanted an Alice in Wonderland party for her fifth birthday, so we began with the invitations.  

They were playing cards, with Alice and other Wonderland characters stamped on them, tied with some ribbon and a tiny key (after all, Alice spends a long time growing and shrinking to try to get the key to Wonderland) 

Then the amazing Carol McFaul offered to make us some cake pops for the party.

Most wonderlandy methinks, but she also arrived with a beautiful birthday cake!

Just look at Bea's reaction when she saw it!

Onto Wonderland.  Alice enters Wonderland through a rabbit hole.  So, I painted a sheet, opened the front door and pinned it to the door frame.

Then we cut a hole at the base.  I'll be honest, we had thought of digging a seven foot pit for the guests to fall down to create an authentic Alice experience, but that seemed a bit excessive, so we just attached it to a tunnel (borrowed from creche)

Once through the rabbit hole, they followed his footprints into Wonderland aka the back garden.

Also at the front door, the playing cards had been painting the roses red.  Fortunately, the Red Queen didn't appear at the front of the house.

Safely in the back garden Wonderland a croquet lawn with flamingo mallets was ready to play on.

There were refreshments if any of the competitors got thirsty...

Meanwhile Alice Beatrice opened her birthday gifts.  Of course she had Josie to help and now Mummy doesn't have a clue who gave her which present, which stresses no one out but Mummy!

Then in the back garden, the red queen lined up all of the guests and shouted "Off with their heads"*  

*She didn't really.

I  just like how Katie and Will are clutching their heads in this photo.

The children got into teams and raced to paint the roses red.

(Zachary and Jacob were of course much too old for this party and wouldn't take part in any of the games)

The next race was a Mad Hatter tea cup race....

In case you didn't spot the Hatter, here he is...

Once again in teams, the guests filled a tea cup from a bucked at one side of the garden and raced to fill their bowl on the opposite side.

Unfortunately, we couldn't work out which team had filled their bowl first because the umpire was sticking the chicken in the oven as she thought the game might take a bit longer...so everyone who played won a prize.

Then the Hatter took a delivery of hats and needed some help to finish them off.  

Then...

DISASTER!

It started to rain.

So as the mini hatters decorated their hats inside, we quickly covered up the Mad Hatter's Tea Table...

The tragedy of an abandoned flamingo...

Thankfully, the rain didn't last too long and as the oven dinged we were able to head outside again for a Tea Party, with many of his apprentices sporting their Mad Hats.

It can't be a tea party without tea pots.  

These ones were filled with that rare tea variety called juice.

Fruit kebabs, crisps, chicken drumsticks, sausage rolls, cocktail sausages and sandwiches.  With the same again inside for the adults.  (There were also white chocolate mice as you can't go to the Mad Hatter's tea party without seeing a dormouse!)

The Hatter joined the guests for their tea, can you spot him at the top of the table?

Evie and Beth have spent too much time with Gillian Doogan, as their hats formed the basis of an impromptu table dance routine.

All of the guests had a proper tea cup and saucer.

The sandwiches were caterpillars.  More about caterpillars later!

After tea, the tea cups had to be washed as they formed the backbone of the girl's party bags.  Granda Robert was used as slave labour at this stage (after all, a queen doesn't dip her hands in dishwater!)

I had painted a picture of Absolem the bubble blowing caterpillar.  I had meant to put the bubble machine beside him to let him blow bubbles over the party table...but I forgot.

However, to make her party magical, Katie found and gave be a real caterpillar...

At the same time, a beautiful butterfly landed on the Mad Hatter's toe.  Just to finish the theme perfectly, one of Bea's gifts is a butterfly hatching kit (from the Gastons....I knew that bit...she is also wearing a lovely, "very grown up, because I'm big now" golden bee from the Richardsons)

For the girls, the Queen of Hearts then provided a heart necklace, but being a bit of a mean lady, they had to make it up themselves....

Then a little circle was formed on the grass as we played "Pass the Doormouse".  

If the music stopped and you were holding the doormouse, you got a prize and were out.  The winner was the person who never got to hold the dormouse...guess what they won?  The doormouse.

Then it was time for "Happy Birthday" and buns....

The White Rabbit, and his clock made a reappearance at this stage.

The volume of the singing was deafening!  Bea was delighted.  The guests, great and small then got stuck into the cakes and buns while, pardon the irony, the Hatter got the coffee pot filled.

The cake pops were a HUGE success, largely because they looked gorgeous and tasted yummy.

Zelda is proudly sporting a bun which co-ordinates with her outfit.  She had chosen the purple one.  There were two colour choices, pink or purple - just like the stripes on the Cheshire Cat.

Sometimes...a cake pop doesn't even need a stick!

Then we heard a noise.  

It sounded like a Jabberwocky.  

We went to investigate and sure enough, there he was in the willow tree.

So brandishing the Vorbel sword, we took it in turns to battle with the Jabberwocky.

For health and safety reasons, the Queen of Hearts is using a mallet* to keep the line of Jabberworky slayers away from the swinging sword.

* Yes, I appreciate the irony.

Eventually, the bird was slain and the party guests flocked to mourn him grab the toys from his innards 

(I'm so proud of Bea sorting out wee Phoebe...tear)

Seth looks pleased with his victory spoils, but wants to make sure the Jabberwocky is really dead....

Then as some people started to leave, we handed out party bags.

The boys got a jam jar 

The girls got a tea cup

Inside the little gifts were Wonderland themed...

A fan...as Alice uses the White Rabbit's fan she shrinks.

Playing Cards ...a treat from the Queen of <3

A white rabbit

Some chocolate mice

An Alice charm on blue ribbon

Bubbles in honour of Absolem

There were also one or two little random extras because we liked them.

And everyone got...

...a brown paper, stamped bag filled with Carol's lovely cake!

The night before the party, we had painted and wall papered the dog kennel as the White Rabbit's house.  When Alice goes inside, she grows enormous.  So this was a little photobooth for the kids to be huge in....

A special mention has to go to Katie and Will who came in wonderfully perfect costume.*

*They did come in costume after most guests had left, as they watched people arrive from up the street and then Will wanted to be like everyone else and got out of his costume!  We were overwhelmed with how wonderful his costume was!  So glad he wore it eventually!

Even some of the adults tried out the White Rabbit's house...

There were of course, games which I forgot to play like "Pin the Grin on the Cheshire Cat" and "Musical Hatues" but we did manage to squeeze in an "I'm late hopping race" or two...

Then there was just enough time to tidy up before we fell exhausted into our beds (after having a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake)

Bea loved her day in Wonderland, and we have a lovely family photo to show for it...

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