Birthday in the Park

The nicest thing about Ella's birthday celebrations was not the opening of the presents or cutting the first cake, but inviting a whole lot of friends to a nearby park. Better still, it was a double birthday celebration because her friend Adam turned three at about the same time. Both families and their friends got together to create a long list of participants - my guess is over 30 and probably closer to 40. The park had several advantages as a venue, apart from nearby car-parking. These included swathes of shaded grass, a play area (with swings, climbing equipment, slides and a sand-pit) and fences to hang up decorations.

The advance party arrived at 10 am to set things up and this group included Emily, me and Emily. It took an hour for reasons that will become clear, and the party went on a long time, perhaps getting for three hours by the time we packed up.

The party had a lovely theme: insects, and all the kids attending received a present of a book on insects at the end. The fence next to our party area was festooned with paper insect strung together - and Emily made all of them herself from sheets of coloured cardboard and glue, aided by packets of purchased eyes.

We set up card tables to accommodate all the food - massive quantities aided by such local caterers as Starbucks. Notice the blue balloon which was for Adam and matched Ella's pink one shown in an earlier post, and the flower creations also made by Emily.

Here's the shaded area with flowers stuck in the lawn whirring around in the breeze. We also provided a pop-up shelter for (a) tired kids and (b) nappy changing.

And here's one of the guests of honour - guess who. She's inspecting the quality of the set-up, much as the Queen might examine the site of her next banquet.

And the piece-de resistance (sorry, no accents) were the two cakes. Adam's was the caterpillar in the foreground, and Ella had a ladybird in the background, complete with legs and feelers.

Flynn showed quite a strong interest in the proceedings, despite being smaller than most guests. He really enjoyed a push on the swings wearing a broad smile throughout.

And here are some general views of the proceedings with the party in full swing. The first sees Ella in the middle of the picture with her back to us. And the last shows the ceremonial cutting of the cakes - though not by the kids concerned on safety grounds.

Nice, eh! The only downside was two exhausted kids - Ella and Flynn.

AS