February 24th 2016 - Harry Potter Part 1 - Food ideas

As per my previous post about Halloween preparation for the Harry Potter Party (HP) I am hosting this year for Halloween here is part one - Food ideas for Harry Potter.  I shall add to this as and when I find new ideas/possiblilites of food for the night that are linked to Harry Potter, witches/Wizards etc.

As well as having traditional party food I do try and have some healthy fruit/veg options for the kids as well.  Food and it's witchy/halloween/hp names are below, some are listed more than once with different names:

FOOD	WITCH/HALLOWEEN/HP NAME
cocktail sausages	mummy wraps
jelly with eyeball	jellied eyeballs
grapes	witches warts (HP)
gingerbread men with cuts etc	gruesome gingerbread
cooked dough on a stick	dough snakes
hot dogs	severed fingers
coffin shaped sandwiches with ham man	coffin sandwiches
choc chip cookies, marshmallows & icing	dracs fangs
white marshmallows/merangues choc chips	ghosts
chicken bites/nuggets/chunks	chunks of flesh
choc chip cookies	moon bites
liquorice sticks	wands
cinnamon dough (shaped as hats)	sorting hat bites
cocktail sausages	owl droppings (HP)
sausage rolls	owl pellets (HP)
dough twists with sugar coating	unicorn horns (HP)
rice crispie treat balls with red icing	brains
shreddies	monster scabs
green popcorn	bogies

treacle tarts	treacle tarts (HP)
Snake cake (use a bundt tin for effect)	Nagini (HP)
ferrero rocher/lindt chocolates	Golden snitches (need add wings) (HP)
raisins	owl droppings (HP)
cheese puffs	"cheese-huffle-puffs" (HP)
chicken wings (any flavour)	dragon/griffin wings (HP)
veg sticks (carrots, cucumber etc)	herbology bites (HP)
breadsticks/cheese straws	olivanders wands (HP)
coloured hard boiled eggs	dragon eggs (HP)
dorritos	troll toe nails (HP)
green food dip	cave troll snot (HP)
cheese puffs	pumpkin poo
cocktail sausages	dead mans fingers
pizza slices	severed fingers
custard creme biscuits	cauldron cremes (HP)

February 24th 2016 - Halloween Preparation

YES I know it's MONTHS until Halloween 2016 BUT i'm stating preparation early, infact I started it this time last year with my spell book.

This years theme is going to be HARRY POTTER (HP)!  2/3 of my sons really like HP, me and hubby like it and it's going to be very easy to do.  During half term we went to the Harry Potter Studio tour and I took loads of photos to help with ideas. All of the people who will be invited have been pre-warned of the theme so that they have time to sort out witch/wizard outfits or a character from the HP series if they wish to.  If they want to just dress halloweeny that fine with me.

I have pieces of paper and word docs all over the place that have various ideas on - whether for decorations, outfits, props, food, games etc.  I plan to add them to here so that they are all in 1 place and I can access them (as well as helping others with ideas).  I can't claim that alll ideas are my own, nor can I remember exactly what page/site on google that I found.  IF I am able to add a link to the source I will do, but if not I thank the original person now for sharing their ideas.

I plan to post ALL ideas on here and I wont be saying which ones I am doing - I will confirm some but not all as I want them to be a supprise for my friends at the party. 

I think I will make extra posts linked to the party - 1 of food ideas, 1 of games, 1 of decorations etc, that way they will be easier to add to and easier to find.

My house has an "L" shaped lounge/dinner and part of that is the under stairs cupboard.  YES you've guessed it this is going to be "Harry's bedroom" under the stairs.  It does mean that all my "junk" that gets chucked in there will need to be moved in order to make it work.   BUT it will be sorted by halloween.  This is also going to be accessible for all of the children to go in one at a time and have a photo taken which I will print out for them to take home at end of party.  I am going to print out some book images to fix to the underside of the stairs as well as making a meter box from cardboard.  There will be toy soldiers, an air bed and cover and shoes and not forgetting "Hedwig" the owl in a cage and dustpan and brush on the door.

Hedwig is a soft toy owl that came from £1 shop, however, its more grey than white so I am going to keep looking for a more white one.


My spell book that I started last year is now in it's final stages.  From my original idea of printing the pages and sticking them to pages in an old book didn't work as the printed pages were the same size as pages and made the book too thick to close, so I have used a make your own book website and had the spells professionally printed.  This is going to be fixed (somehow) into the original cover I made.  Watch this space!!!  I also made a second book of Witches food and meals (not that I would want to eat them) but this has been printed as well.

december 16th 2015 - UV/Glow in the dark party

For the SJA christmas party this year we decided that we would do a UV/Glow in the dark party.  Back in July the cadets did a sponsored silence to raise money to buy the glow sticks and things that we would need.

They made t-shirts with UV fabric paint a few weeks back that they were going to wear on the night.  When the members arrived they were all given UV face paint (if they wanted it), glow sticks, finger lights, glow glasses etc and were taken to where the disco was (normal disco lights only at this point).  Once everyone was there and had thier bits n bobs we turned the UV lights on.  The reactions from the kids as their clothes n things started glow properly was brilliant.

Everyone had a great time and Santa was in his grotto for a short time and gave them each a present.

October 31st 2015 - HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!!!

On the last day of October we celebrate the pagan festival of Samhain.  It is believed that this is when the veil between living and dead is at its thinest and is a day to celebrate those that have gone before us.  The name is also known as all hallows eve, which over the years has become halloween.

I love halloween, and cant get enough of it.  I have spent most of this year making various potion bottles for my friend and making my spell book ready for next years harry potter party.  We have made halloween cakes and done loads of halloween crafts.  And now is the time it all comes together.  The halloween party is as much for the adults as it the children, we all dress up and have fun!

This year the party is being held at my friends house and she doesnt do themes or anything like that, it just gets decorated and every comes in what they like etc.

I decided after halloween 2014 that I was going to go as a nurse.  I got an outfit in my size very cheap and i was able to alter it and make better with fake blood!  Here is me:

Hubby's outfit didnt need altering, he went a skeleton master:

My eldest wanted to go as a mad chef.  We found a really cool top that needed some work, so I attacked it with fake blood.  I picked up a chef hat and plastic sword in £1 shop and a pair of checked trousers on ebay.  all of which were made better.

My middle son didn't know what he wanted to go as and as a result his outfit didnt get bought until 2weeks ago!  He went as a devil:

My youngest was adamant after halloween 2014 that he was going as a BLUE Wizard!  I found a lovely purple and black outfit but no it wasnt blue so he didnt want it!  I kept looking and found a blue wizard robe and hat, only snag was it was 2sizes 2 big for him (he's tiny!)  But I bought it, it arrived and I wasnt happy with it, it was very plain and needed making better.  I ordered some blue ribbon with silver moons and stars on and stitched it to various parts of the robe.  I bought him a blue jumper and trousers and added the ribbon to theses as well and we made a wand:

And here we are all together:

We had a great night and i can now start working on next years harry potter party!

October 30th 2015 - decorating for halloween

We eventually arrived at my best friends house yesterday, after a very long journey that took over an hour longer than usual and had the kids fighting more than usual in the car.

She had made a start on decorating for halloween but had left most of it for me to do as she didnt have the patience.

I raided the cupboard under the sink for bin bags and found both black and white (yes!) aand set up cutting them into strips, tying 2 together with a knot so that we could use them as a creepy door cover.  Some went up really easily to door frames but we had to staple them to the arch in the kitchen wall as tape and blue tak wouldnt hold.

they looked better in the dark and they did feel creepy asyou walked through them as they stuck to your face.

We (I) also covered her hallway, stairs and landing in spiders web stuff.  This was left to me to sort as she knew I had done my house with it last year and i managed to spread it thin and wispy.

 
















My friend changed all her light bulbs to red or green, and we added a few other bits like fabric spider webs, spider nests that I made, mummy wrapped dolls and skeletons, and the kids allcarved pumpkins.

(this pic was from saturday night party when we put the fake candles in them).

I think at this point we were just about ready decoration wise.

September 24th 2015 - Halloween party bags

September 24th 2015 - Halloween party bags

Yes I know there is over a month until Halloween but you can never be too ready for it.  I had a bit of  a panic the other day as there was  a poosibilty that the party was ggoing to be at my house and not friends, I wasn't going to be able to do a theme as hadn't got the time, it wasnt going to be as good as last year and I didn't know how I was going to sort it all with my knee being bad.

Well my friend rang me, she has decided she will be ok to host it this year but can I help her with preperations, party bags for the kids and the games.  I agreed as these are not major, she has said that she will cover the costs that I incure for buying stuff.

Well I know that I had pinned this pin linked tohalloween party bags with the goodies being in a glove but I am unable to find it so had to re-pin it today.   I have had a very halloweeny day today, we started off by getting EVERYTHING out of the loft and making a new inventory list as we couldnt find the 1 we had.   Then I started on the party bags with what I had.

Take 1 first aid/medical glove:

 an assortment of halloween novelties - eye patch, spinner, rubber hand (also had spiders, finger puppets etc) and a mini puzzle:

Put all bits in gloves and set aside until you get the sweets next week to shove in the fingers - we are going for the gory body parts and eyeballs etc.  Then the gloves will be tied off at the top and ready to go in the box with party bits.

August 28th 2015 - Happy Birthday

August 28th 2015 - Happy Birthday

Happy 6th Birthday to my lil "dinky dot", I can't believe you are 6yrs old today, where has the time gone???

Me, my hubby and friend we were staying with put up Thomas Tank banners ready for him to wake up to.  We didn't do too many because it wasn't my house.  But lil man was happy.

He had already had some of his birthday presents before his birthday - like his scooter so that he had the 6weeks holidays to play on it and he had his presents from 1 of his godmothers before we went away so he could thank her.  We left his cards on the table but not his presents as we didnt want the dogs to rip them open!

He was really pleased when he opened his presents - a thomas tank  wallet (to put his birthday money into he said) and a thomas watch, a thoms tank dvd he has been asking about for ages, a set of speedstcks and lastly and most importantly a thomas tank mega bloks set that has Butch the recovery lorry in, he has wanted it for ages but it was discontinued 18months ago, I found it on ebay though!  He had £5 and a pack of malteasers from his great nan, a jigsaw from his other godmother, £10 from my sister and £5 from his best friend/girlfriend, and his other godparents sent him £20 as well.

He is 1 very lucky little boy.  We spent the day playing, and sorting out food  etc  as we were having a small party in the evening.  All of the food had thomas trains and labels, we played thomas games etc.

FOOD
 we had: sir tophams sausage rolls

Diesel'sfuel stop for the drinks

 Percy's pizza slices

rosie's rocks of grapes and raisins

Farmer mccolls fruit & veg car - carrot & cucumber

 Thomas's treat car - barney bear cakes, iced gems and party rings

Toby's twiglet lumber

Charlie's crisp car

Charlie's chicken bits

James's jelly

Thomas the tank birthday cake from asda

















GAMES

We placed sweets in gre and black balloons and said that they were fallen rocks and they had to burst them in order to move them from the track, once burst they had teh sweets but had to clear up the bits of balloon as "they were still on the tracks"!  (saved me cleaning up).

Here they are trying to burst them


We played "pass the train" instead of pass the parcel.  The train was an empty box with no lid and I covered it with a train front, back and both sides,  inside it we put sweets.  When the music started they passed the train around and when it stopped whoever had it took out a sweet.  We  made sure that everyone had 2 sweets (there were only 5 there but should have been more).  Then on the last go whoever had the train won it and the rest of the sweets.  This happened to land on birthday boy and he said would share them with everyone.

We also did musical bumps and musical statues.  The last game we did was "pin the light on thomas" (bought off ebay).  This is played in the same way as pin the tail on donkey etc.  We "cheated" for the 2 12year olds and turned the image upside down but 1 of them still won!

We had planned to play coal toss (bean bags into a bucket) but we didnt in the end as the kids we're happy to just dance to the music and disco lights.

August 21st 2015 - Frozen party

August 21st 2015 - Frozen party

The local food bank had a frozen party today, complete with Olaf and Elsa.  Lil man wanted to go (so we went) and he was dressed as Sven the reindeer.

He joined in the singing and dancing and playing games even though he was only boy joining in, there were 2 others there but they sat with parents.  He said he really enjoyed it.

August 3rd 2015 - Making party bags

August 3rd 2015 - making party bags

Everyone buys the plastic party bags for treats etc to go in, well I wanted to be different!  As lil man is having a Thomas tank themed party the plastic thomas bags are over £2 for 8 and i have 12 kids going to be there.

I bought a roll of thomas tank wrapping paper for 99p and found a link on how to make party bags on pinterest.  They are actually quite easy to do once you get the hang of them and I guess with more practise they would  look much neater, but lil man thinks they are ok for his birthday which is fine by me.

You need a box the size of the bag you are making, another box you can cut up, scissors, glue or double sided tape, paper, hole punch and ribbon.

Take the box that you are using for the size of the bag and using 1 end draw round it onto the other cardboard (do this for as many bags as you are making) and then cut them out.

These will be used later to re-enforce the base of the bag and make it stand up.

Next you need to cut the paper so that it is bigger than the box you are using - you need about 2" more than the distance needed to wrap around the box and about 3" extra in the length of the box.  These extra inches are so that you can make the folds etc so the bag looks nice.









From here you need to fold the edge over about 1/2-1" (depending on size of bag your making - smaller bag = less fold).  And also fold down the top edge as it's easier to do now before the bag is assembled.  Once you have the folds you need to add glue or double sided tape to the fold on the side.  Place the box on the paper and cover like you would to wrap a present.  Before you stick the folded side to it you need to get it on the shorted edge (depth) of the box as it will look better.

You now have a part-wrapped present, you need to move the paper from the bottom part of the box so that it over hangs and you can fold the bottom.  Again do it as you would a normal present and glue or double sided tape it together.  Remove the box from the wrapper carefully.

Take the small rectangle of cardboard you cut out at the start and add glue or double sided tape to one side of it (the box I used had writing on one side so I put the tape on this side.)  Then push it into you bag and down to the bottom.

 From here you are almost done, you need to pinch the top at the sides and fold inwards so that you get a crease shape like shop bought bags have.  Crease them hard with your fingers on both sides.

You can now put holes at the top of both sides and add the ribbon as handles.  I'm not adding ribbon to mine but going to staple shut once they have the goodies in.  As you can see the bag is complete and stands up.  You can also fold them over so that they lay flat and take up less room if you need to store them or transport them anywhere.










I will certainly try and make them in the future rather than buying them.  I do think thicker paper will be easier than thin birthday wrap, but as I wanted thomas ones I had to use what I had.

June 29th 2015 - Party planning

June 29th 2015 - Party planning

As daft as it may sound I am planning my sons birthday party that is in 2months time (yesterday).  But there is a method to my madness, I have loads happening over the next few weeks and I won't even be holding the party at my house but my sons godmothers house over 5hrs drive away!

Therefore I am unable to stick loads of stuff on walls etc like I do at home and go OTT for the party.  Don't get me wrong it will be good but wont have stuff everywhere like I usually do.

I was looking online for Thomas the Tank party banners and bunting and realised very quickly how expensive they actually are.  The 2 images linked to the pins above gave me a good idea.  I started hunting the net for images of thomas trains with their names on them, there are loads that were made as jigsaw puzzles.  I added these to w word document, flipped them over and added next to it so that I can double side them.  Only thing I didn't thing about was the name is now backwards on the reverse, but never mind!  It's better than plain white paper.

Here are some of them:

Once they were all printed I cut them out, doubled them up and then laminated them all.  I am going to put a hole in each one and a few pieces of curling ribbon so they can hang from door frames.

I also copied the design of the above link and edited it to my sons name and age, and have printed loads and laminated them as well to go around the table edge.

I also printed food labels linked to the trains and have printed wheels to go on the food tubs as cargo cars behind some of sons trains that I will be taking with us.

Watch this space for more updates on the Thomas Tank party.

March 30th 2015 - Harry Potter Halloween Planing

March 30th 2015 - Harry Potter Halloween Planing

Today is the end of the first 3months of the 365 challenge, i'm impressed to have made it this far, there has been a few problems and I have had to pin new things to match what I have done on a few days, but we are here 1/4 of the way through the year.

For today there isn't 1 pin but a whole new board of pins linked to a Harry Potter Halloween Party for next year, 2016.  Yep that's right i'm planning Halloween 2016 already and we still have 8months until this years party - but that's not really my problem as it's being held at a friends house, although I am helping with decorations and such for it.

Me and hubby were talking about how we need to beat what we did with last year party and the spider theme - we had spider nests and webbing everywhere, hundreds of spiders all over the place and  it too us over a week to put it all up as we were stretching the webs and then layering it with another thinly spread bit in the opposite direction.  It did look really cool especially wit the disco and uv lights on.  I started looking on the net and the halloween forum for ideas and there was 3 possibles - Harry Potter, graveyard or scary carnival, but as the youngest will only be 5 and the next two up be 7 we decided the scary carnival can wait until they bit bigger and we only have a few graveyard bits that I picked up in the sale, we need to buy more!

So we decided to make a plan for the party - the plan is that everyone dresses up as a character from Harry Potter or comes as a Witch/Wizard.  This can be as easy or as hard as you like - Witch/Wizard costumes are widely available and so are proper Harry Potter ones, you can also get iron and stitch on patches that can be added to cheaper outfits.  There is no other rules, and if the adults want to dress as one of the kids at Hogwarts they can!

Hubby already has long blue wizard robes and a long white beard so he will be going as Dumbledore.  I always have my hair  dyed a bright red but will do it purple and I am going as Tonks - the punk Witch.  My eldest son has straight blonde hair and a major attitude, along with being gobby and opinionated so he is going as Draco Malfoy.  My middle son has dark brown curly hair and wears glasses, so he is going to go as Harry Potter.  My lil son is still really small despite his age, so I said about him going as Dobby the house elf but hubby says no he needs be a Wizard, we're just not sure which one or if going as "a Wizard".   He also has Wizard robes in blue that he is going to wear this year, but it wont take much to get a Ravenclaw badge and tie for him to wear next year so its not qute the same.   I have messaged our friends that will definately be here and 2/3 have replied so far saying it sounds a good idea so I will be going ahead with it.  Nearer the date next year when the kids decide which friends they want to invite I will let them all no about the theme so the parents can get Witch/Wizards as well.

My mind has gone into over-drive of the possibilities we can do to the house etc, and although this will be a party a think it is going to end up very big and a thing in its own right.   The internet is going to be a great help for ideas and printables as so many people have already held Harry Potter parties over the years.   Although my house isn't huge I do have space to do things if I move few things around.  Plus I have the garden but there is no guarantee that the weather will behave!

I plan to re-use the spiders and webs etc from last year, with a trail of spiders stuck to  my floor, across my bedroom door and into the bathroom where the big spider will be as Arragog!  The toilet is going to be re-named Moaning Myrtle's bathroom (as I can't put it as girls bathroom cos it will confuse the boys) and im going to have a picture of Myrtle on the toilet lid, I am going to try and find some quotes from her as well to put in there - if I can find a way to do it I will have her talking from the films on repeat playing somehow - this still needs to worked on as to how we can do it. 

I need a platform 9 3/4 sign and a brick wall making - my house is made from concrete so I don't have brick walls, so this will be done via a white shower curtain or bed sheet and a sponge with brown and red paint to give the brick effect.  I plan for this to go over the lounge doorway so everyone goes through platform 9 3/4 to get into lounge.  And hopefully on the other side of it a picture of the fat lady that is over griffindor house.

I have a BIG idea of making a Professor Trelawney from a stuffed painters suit, hippy clothes (charity shop), wig, big glasses and sat at a table with crystal ball, set of rune stones and few other pieces.  This can be used as a photo station as well.

The other BIG thing I will be doing is turning the cupboard under my stairs into Harry's bedroom, complete with airbed and blanket, dressing gown and slippers, a pile of books, a dim light and a few other things!   This will be available for everyone to go into (carefully) for a photo that I will print out and they can all take home at end of night.

I have also had the idea of making a giant basilisk and fixing it around the ceiling of the lounge and up the stairs, just not 100% sure on how to make it - im thinking ladies tights stuffed with ? so it's light weight, just need to play around to make it look effective and like a snake not stuffed tights!  There is a bigger problem here though and that is HOW I fix it to my ceiling as I have horrid polystyrene tiles on it and I can't afford to take them down and get ceiling artexed.  I thought about somehow turning the ceiling black and added small fairy lights to it like the stars in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, but not sure on how to do it or to fix it up.  So again it''s a possibility that I have time to play with and see where it goes.


There is also loads of other things as possible decorations on my list but i'm not declaring them just yet as I want some of it to be a supprise for  the actual party but i'm sure it will be really good by the time Halloween 2016 gets here - I have 20months to get it sorted - that's a long time and gives me leverage to buy bits cheaply as and when I see them! Ebay has loads of jewellery type bits and other things from 1p, sent from China but as i'm not in a rush it doesn't matter.

I have started to compile a list of possible foods, or foods we can name as Harry Potter foods, possible games we can play and ideas for party bags - including Harry Potter magic frogs - i've found a template for the boxes and frog cards to go them.  I plan to label sweets as though they are from Honeydukes and hope to get some "tricks" like they have in Zonkos joke shop, all for as cheap as possoble.

I am really excited about this and I plan to make it a night to be remembered by all!

March 3rd 2015 - Making a clown wig

March 3rd 2015 - Making a clown wig

Yesterday lil man came home from school with a party invite for one of the lil girls in his class next friday.  The theme is circus and fancy dress is optional - well in my house that means "mum i'm dressing up what are you making me?"

Lil man said he wants to go as a clown and he will wear his blue onesie with green and blue stars on it, but he also needs a hat/wig/coloured hair.  Well i'm not dying a 5yr olds hair as it would be my luck it wouldn't wash out and he would be going to school like it the following week.

So I started looking on pinterest and found this wool wig, which gave me the idea to make him something similar but in the same way I made the lion the other year.  The lion was made with a yellow hat and strands of brown/cream wool, which I attached in a latch hook rug type of way.

This morning I hit £1 shop and bought the following things:

4 balls of wool and a green wooly hat.

That was the easy part.  I have cut a load of short strands that will go around the front of the hat and  a load of longer ones for the sides and back.

I will add more pics as I progress with it.

EDIT

The wig so far:

 

So glad I have over a week to get this done as my finger is getting sore from threding the needle.  I cant do it as latch hook as I can't find the  metal hook and the plastic loom ones are too big to get through the wool.  The wig above has 1 full row of wool and a part row of the 2nd. 

Still no where near finished but lil man wanted to try it on, and is really pleased with it.  will add more rows tomorrow, so glad I  have over a week as 2.5 rows done and my finger is killing me from threading needle.

 This is it almost finished, it took me over a week to do it.

Finally finished the wig, it took ages, but lil man is so pleased with it, and I think it looks really good.  Knowing what I know now, I would have done 1 piece of wool per 2 "rows of knitted hat" not 1 in every row as it would have used less wool and taken less time to do.  But we learn from trying.

January 1st 2015 - 2015 happy new year

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY

January 1st 2015

A good night was had by all and the kids all made midnight.  Loads of food  and plenty of drink!  and not a headache this morning, and to top it off the kids were sweeping up the mess on  the floor.



365 challenge - pinterest link

During 2014, myself and my friend Coralie decided that in 2015 we were going to do the 365 pinterest challenge, whereby you actually do 1 of the things you have pinned NOT just pin them or pin more.  I will be  adding pics and things as I do them.

As it stands at pressent I have 2 pinterest accounts, 1 of which I use for things linked to St John Ambulance and cadet courses/subjects, and a personal account that I have things that "may be useful" or "we will have to try that" and "things to do with the kids" to name a few.

From the 2 accounts I have a total of 121 boards (58 of these are linked to the SJA courses), and on these 121 boards I have 7,016pins (681 are on SJA).  Some of those on my personal account are already in a board named challenge and completed - a total if 19!  This means that I have 6,316pins of which I aim to do 365 - 1 a day for 2015, sounds right?  We will see!

JANUARY 1st 2015

Today, 1st January 2015, we as a family started to make the time capsule that we are going to leave in the loft, we have most things in it and will seal it tomorrow, which is when I will add a pic to here.

We discussed a few days ago what we could put in it and said we should have decided earlier as we would have had more things to go in it. But never mind.  We have:
*a letter explaining who we are and why we have made it
*a photo of us all and of our pets and our house and garden
*a toy car
*a miniture bottle of baileys (I have surrendered it!)
*a drinks bottle lable
*a chewy bar box
*1 of each UK coin
*a tesco receipt showing the cost of party food for new years eve
*a bus ticket

Pirate party the event

Well after a mad couple of months of preperation for the pirate party the day of it arrived, and no it didnt go to plan!  This was NOT my doing but the weathers - 2days before the wind got up really strong and our heavy weight gazebo buckled and took flight.  1day before it rained all day and all night so was too wet on the grass to do most of the games so panic set in as to HOW I could do it all indoors.  The answer to this was move table from lounge-diner into small kitchen and move small sofa into dining area, which gave more room in lounge.

I started hanging the bunting around my room, really pleased with how it looked -

1 of the mums even said she wouldn't have had the patience to sit and make them.  We hung a 3ftx4ft skull flag between 2 of the upstairs windows -

 

 and added a cross to the door and a wooden sign on the garden bench -

I also had a mini treasure chest (picked up from sealife centre) filled with gems and coins and necklaces (bought and won in 2p machines on holiday) and we sat a halloween skull beside it -

Luckily the rain held off (even though ground was wet) and we were able to dig for treasue in the sandpit and walk the plank outside -

 

As it was bit windy we couldn't leave the sail/mast in the ship but took them out for a photo - I cant addon here as it contains all the children who were at party not just my own.  We played pass the parcel that had pirate themed forfits in and "canon ball bop" - where they had to keep their canon (black balloon) afloat and if it hit the floor they were out, and pin the patch on the pirate, they really enjoyed the "canon ball busrt" - black balloons which had confetti and sweets in and they had bounce on them to busrt them (so glad I have laminate flooring and it was easy to sweep up) -

All of the food we had was given a "piratey name".  We had:

• captain's cakes (birthday boy was captain)
• dead mans fingers - cocktail sausages
• pirate gems on a stick - fruit chunks of plastic swords
• rat poo clusters - chocolate rice crispie cakes
• golden nuggets - chicken nuggets
• golden rocks - cheese & pineapple
• desert islands - cheese pizzas
• hawaiian islands - ham & pineapple pizzas
• vegetable island - mixed salad bits in a plate with a "carrot n lettuce palm tree"
• canon balls - malteasers
• golden rings - hula hoop crisps
• sea scrolls - wafer tubes with liquorice laces tied round them
• pirates teeth - popcon

The cake stand WAS a circus themed one and had animals all over it - that was until i attacked it with black paint and glued cut out skulls on it.  I think it looked really good.

Everyone seemed to have fun and enjoy themselves, which is the main thing.  My lil man said he loved his birthday party.



OH AND AS A LAST THING - I have already stated the planning and decoration making for my eldest birthday in November which is neon/UV/glow in dark - watch this space!!!