Tigerlily Turns 6!

 

As I mentioned recently, the past year has seen a dramatic change in my little girl: she has morphed into a confident, wonderfully forthright child who suddenly doesn't need me quite as much but who also remains as cuddly as ever. I love her more the better I get to know her - I am so proud of her easy kindness and ever-playful nature. As Nicky said of her some time ago now "Even if she wasn't my daughter, I would want to hang out with Tiger."

Brace yourself for the most photo-heavy blog post in TTBB history!

I wish that I had begun preparations for Tigerlily's birthday when she first mentioned that she wanted a fairy-themed event around six months ago. I would have thereby saved myself some three weeks of stress and manic behaviour (that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!).  At first, my plan was to have the party at a fairy store with a party room. After last year's beautifully easy party at the bowling alley, with the party coordinator and fully-catered wondrousness, I was determined that I could outsource everything except the cake.
A few years ago, one could not walk down the street without encountering at least one fairy store; they had their glittered feet in every suburb. These days, however, as far as I could tell, there remain only two such shops within reasonable distance from where we live: one in Mosman and one in Moore Park. Frankly, the only reason I am going to Mosman these days is when I drive through there on my way to the zoo and even that brief encounter makes me shudder.  At first, the shop in Moore Park was vetoed due to their exorbitant cost ($25/head with a minimum of 15 children) but, as it turned out, they were closing down in September in any case. This left me with no choice but to face the fact that I would have to organise and run the party myself.

I toyed with the idea of dressing-up as a fairy and doing face painting for the kids (after discovering how expensive fairy entertainers are) but I realised that it was probably impractical for me to organise the whole party and be part of it at the same time. At least all that research into entertainers did give me the idea which was to become our theme: a Fairy High Tea!

I included the snail-riding fairies on the invite as 

a nod to Tiger's love for snails (and I thought the 

blonde fairy at the top rather looked like Tiger).

It seemed like such a simple idea: some 'tea', some sandwiches, some cakes. I had not considered the hideous difficulty in organising tables and seating, not to mention the fact that, as it turns out, one cannot control the weather. All this, despite the fact that I had sworn never to have another party in a park after the nightmare of Tigerlily's first birthday.
When I started prepping for the party, I was carried away with the idea that it would be in woodland fairy style: I envisioned toadstools, spotted deer, and lots and lots of moss. There were beautiful deep greens, browns and flashes of red. After I got underway, I suddenly realised that Tigerlily would, if given the chance, choose pink as the main colour for the party. She would want lots of sparkles and lots of pink. I had to accept that this party was for her and not for me so I had to start my preparations over again.
Suddenly I was making pink tissue pom-poms; I was sewing a spotty pink runner for the table; I had little pink flower arrangements (which I forgot); and all the teapots and tea cups to organise. I also started making fairy wings which has since become something of an obsession:

 I made these green ones for Moo, well, actually,

I made them for me but Tigerlily decided that she

wanted them for herself and I was happy to oblige.

I originally made these for my nephew Elliot; then I

thought I would wear them as a 'sunflower fairy' at the

party; but, in the end, they found a much better use...

 Tara had accidentally

left her wings in her car

so I lent her the pair I was

going to wear...


I think we can all agree they look
look like they were made for her!

After a rather stressful 18 hours of rain, the weather broke and we were finally able to set up the party under a particularly beautiful fig tree in the park in absolutely perfect weather. I had planned to also have lovely Chinese lanterns covered in butterflies hanging from the branches, but they were left under a root until after the party was over.

 Maud tried to get a photograph of the whole tree

and party set-up which Emma could not resist 'photo

bombing'. :)

 As is usually the case, Granny helped set everything up

(while Max and I apparently were busy doing an 

interpretive dance).

 I was a bit bored of making 'fruit wands'

each and every year so this year I went

with a fruit 'bouquet'. I was a little short

on parsley foliage and it was rather unbalanced

but every single piece was eaten.

 The spotty runner...

The tea cups and plates with the black

rim are from a tea service my grandmother

was given as a wedding present. By some

miracle, only one was broken. The little
brown and blue teapot seen here is over 100 years
old and belonged to my great-grandmother.

 

The little blue teapot was a gift from my Thai-sister

Peung many years ago...

 The rest of the tea sets were from

which she generously let us use for the 

party.

 

The little corked bottles of water

were meant to be 'dew drops' and we

had apothecary jars full of pink and

white marshmallows and musk sticks.

 

We had sugar cookies in the shape

of stars and butterflies (pink and green)
but, sadly, we didn't get a photo of the
butterflies.

And, of course, the birthday cake. Tiger requested

a 'Fairy Town Cake'. I massacred untold numbers

of the little blighters when I was trying to make them:

it's hard to see in this picture but they are tiny with 

little rice paper wings and curly blonde hair and it

was awfully easy to squash them when trying to shape 

them.

 My gorgeous sister-in-law made

sandwiches (smoked salmon and cream cheese

and ham and cheese) for the table.

 My mother made the obligatory

fairy bread (which most of you 

know is my secret vice).

I even got to use my glass cake stand

which is an annoying size for actual

cakes but perfect for cookies.

When planning the party, I had decided that I would have the kids sit down for the tea party as soon as they all arrived so that we could eat our fill of the goodies before running about like idiots. This proved to be harder than expected when some of our guests were not able to arrive until quite late. In the end, the treats were on display but off-limits for almost 45 minutes, something which six year-olds are not entirely understanding about.

 

Bella and Queenie were keen to get started...

...but Tigerlily was playing the enforcer as per usual.

"No, Mama said no one can touch the table until

everyone is here..."

 "Seriously, when are we going to get to eat??"

My first distraction idea was to pull out some bottles of bubbles I had in my handbag, this did, of course, simply result in fights over whose turn it was to help me make them. Seeing my frustration, Nicky took over:

 

It's possible that the whole reason I married Nicky is 

because he is the kind of man who not only wears 

wings for his daughter's birthday party, but also enjoys doing so

(he didn't take them off all day)...

Then there was a lot of the afore-

mentioned 'running around like

idiots' which was particularly beautiful

to watch when the participants were

mostly be-winged...

 Through it all, Wolfie waited patiently on
his very own picnic blanket.

Elliot was not at all convinced by the fairy party 

concept but little Hugo was entranced!

 After a short while, Elliot noticed that his big brother

Max had disappeared (fairy parties turn out to be not

really his cup of tea - pardon the pun).

He looked everywhere but finally thought to check 

in the giant toadstool (the obvious refuge of any right-thinking

young boy)...

 ...Max was reluctant to come out...

 ...but he obliged for the sake of a photo.

Finally all of our guests arrived and we were able to commence the high tea. I have to say that I grossly underestimated the joy that pouring their own drinks from little tea pots would give the wee folk (we had organic pink lady apple juice which I had tinted pink and called 'apple tea'). I am starting to think that we might serve all of Tigerlily's drinks this way in the future:

 

 Let the great gorging begin!

 Tiger and Mama cutting the cake.

Rainbows within!

 My very handsome nephew Max.

 Matilda, who was a strikingly pretty

fairy all in white.

 The now legendary Queenie.

 Mistress Tara.

 The birthday girl (attempting to eat

a toadstool made of solid fondant).

 Bella (in distinct danger of being

squashed by me).

Ms. Margot.

 Emma pouring herself some tea

(from my other 'Peung teapot'.

Oliver, a favoured guest since 2008.

 Tiger and Tara.

Not long after the tea party began, Megan and Dave arrived with Lulu and Matilda:

 This meant that Wolfie finally had some company.

 "So you see Matilda, the larger wooden ring is joined
with these smaller coloured rings...if one could just work
out how to free them then many things in this universe
would be understandable..."


Lulu came dressed as the sweetest ladybird
fairy imaginable.

As always, Nicky has been a great support over the past few weeks and has yet to complain (even when forced to deal with papier-mache goo). The one thing I asked of him on the day was that he run the pass-the-parcel as I find it terribly stressful: 

 I love that the game became a kind of 'Congress of

Dads" moment in the party (one running the stereo

and three supervising). Tigerlily asked for 'Swan Lake'

as the music.

After the pass-the-parcel, the dads took the children over to the playground and then it was time to open the presents. 

This photo makes me laugh every time I look at it -

mainly because of the manic look on Tigerlily's face

as she prepares to open her presents and the rather 

suspicious look on Sophie's...

 I think it is clear from this picture how very much
Tiger loved her presents.

All in all, especially given the close-call with the weather, the party went as well as we could have hoped. Nicky did ask me what on Earth I was going to do for her 7th birthday after this whole production but I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed all the sculpting, painting, goodie-bag compilation, and general fairy madness. I have, however, reconfirmed my old position that I will never, ever, have another party in a park or similar outdoor venue. That's my story and I am sticking to it!