I must confess I love prepping for a kids party. Thinking of themes and fun ideas. Perusing Pinterest for all manner of wonderful ideas. My mind is always full of so many fun things to do. Then reality hits.
As the girls have got older I let them choose what they want their party to be. This year Molly requested Princesses. Obviously. She turned five last week and I figured it was probably one of the last years I could get away with a few friends coming round for party tea. I did however want to make it super lovely for her. I was also very aware that I wanted to create a pretty post for you all filled with lovely inspiration. Alice’s Hungry Caterpillar party in the summer went to plan and was a lot of fun. This princess party did not.
I had planned beautifully styled tipi’s, dressing up boxes brimming with crowns and tutus, and wonderful crafts to keep the kids occupied.
On the day I decided ‘f**k it’. I had neither the time nor the inclination and to be honest I’m sure you guys can find more pretty on Pinterest than I could create in my humble abode. Instead I dropped Molly at school, went to the gym for the morning and then let Alice play on the iPad whilst I sorted the house ready for the influx. I had a quick wobble where I decided that actually I should create all manner of fancy decor and spent an hour setting up a lace tipi (made from old net curtains), artfully draping fairy lights and hanging pretty dresses from the picture rail. It looked beautiful. Problem was Mr Weather Man had decided we were going to be in the midst of a ridiculous storm and it was so dark I couldn’t get any decent pictures so that was that. I removed said set up, put the furniture back in place and had a little laugh. I realised my life had become about creating ‘set ups’ rather than enjoying the fun.
I then realised I had 30 minutes to get everything put away and prep the food. Cue a hastily thrown together party tea of oh so healthy percy pigs, chocolate fingers, pizza and quavers. I did add in some strawberries and grapes for good measure. Luckily I had made the cake the day before and had managed to create a princess castle which Molly was super pleased with. You know I have to get the cake right if nothing else.
The next challenge was getting ten small children from school to my house in possibly the worst rain I have seen. Needless to say we arrived back at my house bedraggled and looking like drowned rats. Not quite the princess look we had planned. After a quick change though the girls were all in their prettiest frocks whilst I frantically tried to keep school clothes in neat piles so everyone went home with the right items.
The kids basically ran riot, knocked over the tipi in two seconds flat, ate A LOT of sugar, played pass the parcel and ate even more sugar. The fruit did not get touched. But it was everything the kids wanted. At one point I heard Molly say to her friend ‘Is this the BEST birthday party you have ever been to?’. And do you know what, to her it was. It may not have been artfully styled, despite my best intentions, and it may not have had any of the things from my Pinterest boards but they had so much fun. Friends together with cake is all they needed.
Yep, my house was trashed but a quick 20 minute tidy (accompanied by a cup of tea) had it all spick and span in no time. Although it didn’t go quite to plan it was still lots of fun and it made me think whether I really need to bother in the future. I’m sure I’ll still want to create pretty parties but when they are little I really don’t think they notice whether I had placed some pretty flowers by the cute baskets of decor or if they really only care about the jelly and ice cream. I’m very much guessing the latter.
This post really made me laugh Lottie ? And so true! My son and his friend had a joint third birthday pirate party on the beach in October. I had a treasure hunt and games planned but they all ended up naked and in the sea and had the best fun. So lovely watching them with their friends just being together isn’t it!x
A beach party sounds amazing. Also, what is it about kids getting naked in the sea?! Ok in warmer climes, not so good in the freezing British sea. xx
Absolutely love this!! y=You really made me chuckle 🙂 So true. I am blown away by some of the amazingly styled birthday parties I’ve seen. So much effort and cost and thought can go into them. However ultimately they are still just kids, and love ‘kids stuff’ ie running riot and simple party games like pass-the-parcel.
Happy to help with a Monday chuckle. I actually fancy a kids party myself. Why can’t we just run around like lunatics and no one bats an eyelid?! x
Awesome post. I think we all need a little jelly and ice cream on a stormy Monday.
Thanks Lucy. I’d have jelly and ice cream every day if I could x
Where are the pretty dolls from?!
Hi Rebecca. They are from m&s. They have 30% off at the moment. Xx
Thank you! x
Testify!
I’ve already started thinking about E’s second birthday party in the Spring. We have a couple of quirky Pinterest friendly play cafes locally that would look great on all the photos. Then I realised that actually, the local church hall (which is really not pretty) is stocked with all her favourite toys, it’s the perfect size, it’s round the corner from home and it’s completely free to hire.
If we had it at home, I’d be completely stressing about the weather/mess/breakages/styling. So why not just kick back and watch her run round, playing to her hearts content.
Of course i’ll still the sh*t out of it, but I’ll remember that it’s all about her, not about how it’ll look on instagram.
Of course you got your priorities dead right, and they had an absolute ball. Now… tell me more about that gorgeous tipi! x
A second birthday party is going to be so much fun. You will love it. And we do need capture a few Instagram worthy pictures of course. Um, the tipi was the best bargain ever. In fact I may have to do a whole post on it. I bought some bamboo canes for a few pounds and old net curtains from a fabric shop for 50p! Then did a bit of wrapping machine and voila! xx
Well I love it! Just when I was thinking we need a new take on the tipi… there you are with your gorgeous wafts of lace! Xx
I love that we live a life whereby we can legitimately ponder concerns such as the need for a new take on the tipi…
Tipi’s are an essential in my books. I wonder why it took me this long to make one xx
HA… Pip ive just seen this. TRUTH.
Haha….I think we’ve all had a moment like this. I do love the cake and the tipi – even if it lasted a few minutes. I’m a total pinterest addict and went to great lengths for both of A’s parties but as you say the kids could not care less! I need to kick back a bit next time too as there’s no need to get stressed and exhausted in the process….I do have a rather gorgeous watermelon themed party board lined up already though. I feel I’ll never learn.
A watermelon party sounds AMAZING. Off to start another Pinterest board now. Yes I know I said I wouldn’t but as you said, I’ll never learn xx
How REFRESHING! ?
I couldn’t agree more. Here is to the epiphany.
Here here, more of this stuff Lottie!
Love this! What colour paint is it on your walls, by the way – looks just like the shade I want for my hallway ….
Thanks Laura. Its dulux mellow mocha xxx
Ha! Love this post. I wrote a similar one on my own blog a few years ago after catching myself stressing over taking a perfect photograph of the rainbow cake I’d lovingly made for my then three-year old daughter, instead of just cutting and eating the blooming thing with her and our guests. So much on Pinterest is (beautifully) staged and isn’t realistic for normal life. Nothing wrong with using it for inspiration – I organised a rainbow unicorn party for her this year and we had a lovely time looking through Pinterest together for ideas most of which she then excitedly executed herself. The resulting decorations won’t get pinned any time soon but the party was “the best day of my life Mummy”. Def up there in my top five too ?