cyan in wonderland birthday party

Yesterday we held Cyan’s mad birthday tea party..

More on the party food and tiered vintage china cake stands here..

We had some fun Alice themed games and activities here..

See the invitations here.. stickers for favours here.. party bags and favours here..

















We even had a little caterpillar visitor who was happily munching on my mint.. if only he was blue..



The Eat Me birthday cake..







.. with a surprise inside! (and another surprise when you eat it – the blue marbled cake layer is mint flavoured and the red marbled cake layer is strawberry flavoured, the white icing square on top is also minty – unusual and very tasty!)



We made garlands from playing cards to decorate our yard..



And we had a couple of white rabbits to follow up to our front door as promised in the invitations.. I had planned to do full rabbit cutouts but I ran out of time, and my Mum kindly cut these out in the shape of the white rabbit pockets on the party bags (which she also helped me out on by sewing most of them), Cyan drew the faces on..



See our fun Alice themed games and activities here..

All in all it was a wonderful day, I myself enjoyed it immensely (despite only getting two hours sleep the night before – utter madness I know!), Cyan had the best day and informed me today she wants exactly the same party next year! (I’m sure she’ll change her mind a gazillion times before then) and I’m pretty sure all her friends had a blast. Once again huge thanks to my Mum and Karl without whose help I could not make any of this happen.

Sharing at some of the fabulous link parties in my sidebar, go check them out..

tiered cake stands from vintage china and party food

I made these tiered cake stands for Cyan’s Alice in Wonderland birthday tea party from a collection of vintage china teacups, plates and saucers. Some pieces I already had, I bought a couple of lots on ebay and the rest were found in charity shops.

I was inspired by this one made by Anji (yes – the same name as me!) of multi-purpose wings, the first time I had seen this idea. I used my hot glue gun to stick them together so it should be possible to take them apart later, as per this very helpful tutorial from Sherry of Creations From My Heart. Actually I am so pleased with them, I don’t know if I want to take them apart now! Not sure what else to do with them though..?

Here they are in action..



Filled with sweet treats..



Cupcakes with toppers I designed..



Jammie dodgers, jam tarts (pastry by my Mum and baked by Karl), and mini jammie dodgers.. grapes and mini marshmallows on sticks in a sugar bowl..



More cupcakes, marshmallows and marshmallow mushrooms; and the two-tiered stands in-between held sandwiches and carrot and cucumber flowers..





We had mismatched vintage china teacups and saucers for the kids to drink out of – which they loved – and not a single thing got broken!



Tea was served (apple juice tea or orange juice tea!) in two little teapots from our play tea-sets..



Sharing at some of the fabulous link parties in my sidebar, go check them out..

the dalek pirate party

To round up my posts on the dalek pirate party we held for my son Oliver’s 7th birthday..
• Invitations
• Party favours
• Décor, flags and stencils
• Pirate party games

• Food
I had this idea to make all the food
on sticks, so we had:

Fruit & marshmallow kabobs, cheese & pineapple on sticks, grapes & mini-marshmallows on sticks, breadsticks, sandwich bites on cocktail sword picks, pepperamis on cocktail swords, chocolate dipped orio pops.

We also made cupcakes with dalek pirate flag toppers, and chocolate dipped pretzels which were yummy (salt and chocolate is my new favourite taste combo!) and they went down really well with the kids too!











• Party masks
For our first activity the kids (and my two attending sisters!) made pirate dalek masks. I bought the dalek party masks, and the kids sat down and customised their dalek masks with pirate foam stickers, gem stickers, feathers, and brass curtain rings for earrings!

This was a lot of fun and we certainly had a colourful and interesting collection of masks! I never knew boys (other than Oliver – he’s a magpie like me!) loved bling so much! The boys asked if it could be a competition – they are so competitive!

Karl (Daddy) picked the best mask and the winner chose a prize from the Treasure chest lucky dip.. We played lots of fun pirate party games..



Oliver’s mask completed his look with the T-shirt I stencilled for him..



Cyan dressed up as a pirate princess!



Tucking into the feast..



• The birthday cake





I have seen a lot of cakes around the blogosphere made up of cupcakes.. which led to the idea for Oliver’s cake this year..

Karl baked and iced the cakes, which were made from three sizes of cupcakes stacked up to make an army of individual daleks! With chocolate buttons and mint matchmaker sticks for the appendages..

Each guest took a dalek cake home at the end of the party.. they went down a storm!



The party bags with custom made favours..



Cyan took this photo of Karl, Oliver and I at the end of the day..



The whole day was a lot of fun, with just a few little stresses (mostly down to the bad weather necessitating last minute improvisations), all the kids had a blast, and Oliver had a really special day to remember.. Yes – all the hard work and planning is worth it!

A big thank you to Karl, my mum and sisters; without their help these parties would not happen!

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