A big boy's 7th birthday

The fire truck cake of 2011

Last week, I blogged about my little girl's 4th birthday.

This post is about my big boy turning 7 years old. 7 years old!!

The theme for this year's birthday party was fire trucks. My husband is a firefighter, both in his paid work and as a volunteer and our big boy has definitely caught the bug.

The cake decided on is the same cake design as last year, from 'Party Cakes' by Julie Lanham - although I change the icing to the butter icing from the Women's Weekly cake books, rather than the ready-made icing.

I love a fire truck theme. I know I can get countless games, prizes, stickers, party plates....the list just goes on! ebay and I were friends again, after being let down in the poodle stakes for my daughter's party. I discovered a party game that was a twist on Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey - the kids had to stick the dalmation in the driver's seat of the fire truck. I found chocolate moulds in the shape of fire trucks - so we had fire trucks in jelly, rather than frogs in ponds (with some conjecture about who the inspiration was for bogging a fire truck). I bought paper plates with fire truck pictures and prizes that were fire truck squirty things. I found Scooby Doo firefighter stickers to put in the fire truck lolly bags.

Fire truck in jelly

After some rain on the morning of the party (and some panic slight concern about what we would do with a house full of 7 year-old boys for 3 hours) the sun came out and my son and his friends were able to run outside until being called in for games and food.

So much fun was had. So much laughter was heard.

My big boy, turning 7. 7 - shopping in the big boy section at the shops. 7 - no longer holding Mum or Dad's hand in public. 7 - no longer letting the 'little boy' references slide. 7.

Happy birthday to my big boy. Your Dad and I love you to the moon and back.

A little girl's 4th birthday

The poodle cake!

We're very nearly through the craziness of Birthday Month at our house.

My daughter turned 4 years old in early June and this year, her chosen cake from the Women's Weekly cake book was 'Fifi the poodle'.

I was so excited at the prospect of making this cake - look at all those marshmallows!! I suspect the marshmallows may have been a contributing factor in my daughter's decision-making process, combined with her love of all things dog related.

My excitement was tempered somewhat by the dilemma of how to fit a theme around this poodle cake. I searched high and low for party supplies featuring poodles. I even set my sights a bit lower and began searching for anything with a dog on it. Nothing. Nowhere did I find any matching poodle party pieces. My daughter came with me to each shop, eyes filled with hope as we searched aisles and questioned shop owners. Our shopping trips were for naught.

Not to be put off completely, we came to the conclusion that we could perhaps build on the marshmallows as a theme. My daughter was more than happy with the prospect of more marshmallows, and so we opted for plain white party plates (to match the white marshmallows, of course!) and animal stickers as prizes for the layers of pass-the-parcel.

One fantastic party food idea we had seen at a friend's party a while ago, tea cup biscuits, just happened to be in the new cookbook by the Manning-Great Lakes Group of the Australian Breastfeeding Association. A wonderful use of all the pink marshmallows that I wasn't able to use on the poodle cake! (as well as a few left-over white ones.)

The tea cup biscuits.

The day of my daughter's birthday arrived, with my older son having to wake her up and remind her that it was her birthday!! As soon as this news sank in, she was up and on the go for the whole day - presents, visitors, party, both sets of grandparents staying overnight.

My little girl, who so proudly counted down the sleeps until her 4th birthday. My little girl, who likes to randomly check with my husband and I that she is still 4. My little girl, so quickly heading towards kindergarten and school. My little girl, with her wacky sense of humour and her oh-so-expressive eyes. My little girl, who loves to snuggle up with her Daddy on the couch when he's watching his favourite fishing show. My little girl, who loves to sit and listen to me reading stories and play with my hair. My little girl is 4 years old.

Happy birthday, Sweetheart. Your Dad and I love you to the moon and back. 

Birthday Month confession

The odd-looking Mickey Mouse cake from 2010



From mid-May to the end of June is Birthday Month at our house. My calendar has no less than eighteen birthdays within this relatively short space of time.

My sister-in-law and hubby kick off Birthday Month and our 2 big kids have their birthdays in June. There are lots of other family birthdays in the mix, as well as friends' and friends' childrens' birthdays.

Every year for the last 7 years, I have put my birthday-party-planning hat on the day after my hubby's birthday. I make lists of ingredients for cakes and party food; lists for what will go into the lolly bags; lists of people invited and people who have replied. Being winter birthdays, I also have lists of what housework needs to be done to bring the house up presentably enough to host said parties, without being too spotlessly clean that I spend the whole day trying to work out the difference between how long it took me to clean and how long it has taken for the party guests to make a mess of...not that I tend to over-think things. Much.

The precariously balanced fire truck cake from 2010

Last year, there were clear themes for each birthday - Mickey Mouse and....well, pretty much anything fire truck/firefighter related.

So here is my confession. I love to hold themed parties. I sit the big kids down during May and get them to go through our 4 birthday cake books - 3 of these are the wonderful Womens Weekly birthday cake books and the odd-one-out is one I had to buy because of the inclusion of the fire truck. I don't try to influence the choice of cake and I'm often thrilled at what catches their eye - although after last year's Mickey Mouse effort, I have sworn off any cake involving sprinkles. I will spread icing, cut up liquorice and decorate with lollies, but I will never again attempt to stick sprinkles to the sides of a cake. Never ever. I don't always get the cakes up to showroom standard (that Mickey Mouse cake is barely recognisable!) but the kids love the finished results and that's all that really matters.

Once the cakes have been chosen, we (because the big kids love helping too) start hunting down matching cups, plates, napkins, novelty party toys, lolly bags, candles, even presents...anything we can find to fit the theme either in the shops or, more often than not, on ebay. Ebay is my friend during Birthday Month. I can search for almost anything and it will deliver results. With the added bonus of not having to drive around with 3 children in the car and trudge in and out of shops in search of what I need. And of course, there are lots of bargains - because the only thing better than a themed birthday party is a themed birthday party that involves bargains.

I can't wait to celebrate my little girl's 4th birthday in six more sleeps. Or my big boy's 7th birthday in nineteen more sleeps. And I know they will love this year's birthday themes. Because they chose them.