A very elegant Afternoon Tea Dance

What do you do with a very girlie ballerina when it's her birthday?

You organise an afternoon tea party of course

Make sure that the table is set with delicate china, flickering candles, flowery tablecloths and lots of wintery confetti.

Serve only the daintiest morsels from china cake stands, and make sure that they are themed.  The snowmen with the rolo tophats were a winner!

Tiny buns and festive shortbread....

Sandwiches cut as stockings, teapots or tiny little stars and circles...

Tiny little scones, with jam...

(See, these two can't keep their fingers off the finger food)

And in honour of the birthday girl....even the marshmallows were wearing pink tutus.

All of the guests knew to extend their pinkie.

And the birthday girl was recognisable by two things...

1 her glittering crown 

2 her megawatt smile

Once all the guests were seated....

The afternoon tea could commence.

Now, this girlie birthday girl does have three brothers...but the boys were banished to the other hall during afternoon tea  EXCEPT for a very dapper jazz pianist who tinkled the ivories AND the waiters.

Once tea was over, it was time to dance, and the church hall had be transformed into an honest to goodness real life discotheque (does anyone actually use that word anymore?) with lights and smoke machines.

The jazz pianist performed a little karaoke during the disco. (You have to get your monies worth out of the help you know!)

Then, during the dance off, everyone had the opportunity to show off their funkiest party piece.  Zachary led the way.  But I have to say, my heart nearly exploded with pride when the super self conscious Miss Josie bounced twirled into the middle of the circle and pulled a couple of gymnastic moves.

Then it was time to move back to finish off the tea and refuel...sing "Happy Birthday" and for Miss Evie to blow out her wobbly candles.  Being seven now (could you not tell from the cake?) she also insisted on slicing it for everyone.

After such a delicious day, all the little ladies were sent home with their very own pampering cupcake.

Princess Evie had a perfect party

(with a little help from her stack of Cinderellas)

Awesome Party

This is Joshua.

He likes Lego.

His Mummy and Daddy like him + throwing birthday parties.

This is the result...

There is lots of lego to play with...

for little boys...

and big boys...

There are lego figures to design...

using lego shaped crayons...

There are lego jigsaws to do (if you don't want to build a snowman)

There are giant pieces of lego everywhere...

Every window arch has some lego artwork...

There are lego party games to play.

There is a Photo Booth where you can channel Emmett.

There are lego team games...

like a lego and spoon race...

... racing lego cars...

... and a little bit of "I'm a celebrity" meets the lego movie, where the kids have to cross the lego stepping stones to the trash can to rescue a lego man...but beware!!!  The can contains, goo, spiders AND snakes.

There was a little financial inducement for rescuing the lego man...

Then the kids all adjourned for hot dogs, party food and a bit of a movie....

Love how Evie is bypassing the kerplunk kebabs

I suspect not too many kids bypassed the lego chocolate

Then the kids* made paper aeroplanes and test how they would fly with lego mini figures attached

(* and by that I mean the parents)

Then it was time to sing "Happy Birthday"

...and to attempt to blow out the sparkler.

It was also time to eat some cake pops...

The birthday cake

Or try some lego buns...

A totally awesome party Emmett Joshua.  Happy 5th birthday.

***

Watch the video HERE

***

Meanwhile, in a church bathroom somewhere, there was a little bit of make up application going on, accompanied by some good advice.

Evie..."that's blusher Bea, you need a bit to give your cheeks colour"

Bea..."That lip gloss suits you Evie"

Evie..."Bea! Don't put too much on, remember we have PE practice and you're not going on a date!"

There is not a lot left to learn.

The Phoebesaurus

When the Phoebesaurus turned four, there was really only one type of party that would fit the hadrosaurs bill.

She felt that the most welcoming toy would be a giant, inflatable T Rex.

And, she was right!

Everyone, from the largest to the littlest loved him.

No one loved him quite as much as Phoebe...

(Although Daniel did love him A LOT and was most gentle with him)

She did get a little concerned when the dinosaur wrestling began in earnest.  Bea did leap to her aid and waggle a finger sternly in the face of those who punched him too hard...but to no avail.  It does make me wonder if that is why the dinosaurs became extinct....underdeveloped wrestling skills.

However, she bore up like a little stegosaurus and entertained herself in her dino garden.

T Rex establishes his dominance over those silly herbivores

Now if you didn't want to tickle a T Rex's toes..... you could....

Get your face painted...

or...bounce on the bouncy castle...

or...play pass the parcel...

or...get a dino tattoo....

Just before the herd got hungry and ate the inflatable T Rex, a flock of dino lunch boxes appeared on the table...

...containing, amongst other goodies, dinosaur sandwiches!

(obviously dino shaped and not containing ACTUAL dinosaur)

To conclude, it was time for birthday cake.  A perfectly phoebish combination of dino-daisy

Phoebe loved her dinosaur cake topper...

,,, in more ways than one...

As the party ended it was inevitable, that the giant T Rex would finally get his go on the bouncy castle...

... and a go on the slide.