A Fairy Good Party

We weren’t planning on having any more parties this year. After a big celebration for husband’s and my 30th birthdays, the arrival of our third bundle of joy, and a second failed attempt at celebrating our Miss 2’s birthday (Winter birthdays are notorious for bringing sickness at the most inappropriate of times, two years running our middle child has spent her birthday sick missing out on the festivities we had diligently planned for her benefit) we were all partied out. But when our now Miss 4 acquisition-ed us for a Fairy Party after finally potty training (see toileting turorials), we knew we couldn’t refuse her request.  So the party countdown was on.

6 weeks until party: After discussing Miss 3’s request for a Fairy Party with her doctor and being told I unequivocally must oblige as she had made such great progress after a number of health set backs, I realised that yes, this party was happening, whether I was ready or not. Holding our 3 month old baby, chasing our now Miss 2 around the surgery, I could see the smile of satisfaction grow across my daughter’s face. She was getting her wish, and every day she was placing more demands about how things would progress for her party. It was really quite sweet how involved she was. Her requests weren’t outrageous by any means, just things to add to my ‘to do’ list whilst I juggle the role of SAHM of 3 kids under the age of 4 years. So I took a deep breath and after confirming with husband that the party was on, I checked our diary to find which weekend surrounding her birthday we would host this party.

After setting a date and scrutinising over what time to put on the invites, I quickly ordered invitations. I was definiately feeling more nervous about planning this party than her previous birthday celebrations. She was now in preschool and this meant we would be inviting preschool friends which meant inviting preschool mothers whom I hardly knew and had never seen outside of preschool before. And what if she went to primary school with these kids, I would have to make the best impression possible on these kids and their parents if I was going to set up any foundation for further friendships outside preschool for Miss 3 and for me. I had to remind myself to breathe, then much like my daughter I prattled off a list to husband of what required attention before the party. He looked at his new ‘to do’ list. “I’ll help you out, but don’t go too crazy, because if you go over tge top I won’t be helping with that”, he warned me to stay focused. My mind was like a bowl of skittles falling from the sky bouncing off in different colourful directions as I had ideas spilling out about what this fairy party could entail.

I tried to focus, I took to the web, both my saviour and enemy. I goggled “Fairy Party”…was this a mistake? Thousands of ideas splurged across the screen, and I clicked on a Pinterest link…..that’s when the panic set in. As I scrolled through the images of fairy party ideas I wondered, ‘How could I prepare a party this wonderful?’. I decided to book a fairy because after contemplating dressing up as one myself, I realised it wouldn’t be easy to do the gig when I would need to excuse myself to breastfeed our baby.

5 weeks until party: It was a long weekend so we had some extra time up our sleeves. Husband and I went shopping for various fairy items at a local craft shop. I described how I imagined a wand making craft might go (some silver cardboard, a paddle pop stick, glue and glitter), but husband had grander plans. After leaving with wooden stars, silver spray paint, coloured dowelling rods, ribbons, glue, glitter and sequins, as well as an array of decorations we hit the cake shop. Husband waited in the car with three tired kids and I became lost in a magical world of cake happiness. Miss 3 had requested a fairy cake after researching our cake decorating books at home. I knew it would be difficult to pull off so I thought the more ready made supplies I could buy the easier my job would be come party day. Husband maintains I was gone for well over an hour, but I think I was only in there about 15 minutes. I did get distracted there by the endless possibilities of cake toppers and decorations, but I don’t think I got lost for too long. Regardless, we had bags of party supplies and were ready to spend the rest of the weekend preparing what we could. That afternoon I baked a huge cake and three dozen cupcakes ready to freeze for the party and husband set upon creating a fairy themed garden. He paved a section of our yard, weeded, planted, mowed, painted our deck and by the end of the weekend our yard looked fantastic. Not to mention husband had painted and glued together over a dozen star wands for a craft activity.

4 weeks until party: Preschool was back after a two week holiday so I approached a teacher about my dilemma of whom I should invite. Miss 3 talked about the same kids after preschool each day but I wanted to make sure all her friends were invited and that I had the names correct. I was handed a long list, it appears our little girl is quite popular. I mentioned I was hoping to only have a small party as our place isn’t very big. The teachers consulted each other and handed me a smaller list. I asked if I should invite any of the boys as the list contained only girls names. Miss 3 did mention boys names after preschool to the point I thought she must only play with the boys. Could I even invite boys to a fairy party? A few more names were added so I went and placed the pink invites in message board pockets and quietly left. I messaged husband, “You might need to make more wands”.

I looked over Pinterest again for ideas, focusing my attention on food now. I wanted something easy, and that I could do most of the prep work for the day before the party so I could be free to enjoy the celebration with our children. There were literally thousands of great ideas, creative people turning ordinary watermelons into pirate ships or fairy gardens, changing the way we eat chips and dip by juliette-ing veggies and placing them ornately in tiny cups filled with home made dips, jelly cups of all colour combinations and with varying decorations, biscuits on sticks, chocolate covered marshmallows on sticks, cupcakes on sticks, what is this new obsessions with sticks! Then some of the links took me to other mummy blogs with mothers all pristine and free of child vomit, snot and hand grub. These pictured mums smiled widely as they presented immaculate tiny treats for their tots party, “Look, its easy, I did this with my eyes closed and hands tied behind my back!”. I felt my heart race, I began to feel anxious, what if I couldn’t pull this off? What if my daughter didn’t like her party??????

3 weeks until party: Copious lists of ‘to do’ and ‘to buy’ and ‘food ideas’ were scribbled on different pieces of paper and stuffed in my diary so every time I checked the day’s plan I was reminded of the work I needed to do to achieve party success. Husband kept reminding me to keep it simple, “I am!” I pleaded knowing full well I was getting in over my head. I wrote more lists, shopping lists, daily plans leading up to the party about what needs to be done when. I peeked again at Pinterest, now I’m getting nervous. I have jotted down ideas I think I can handle, I show pictures to husband, he nods as he absorbs the world that has enveloped me since our daughter announced she wanted a Fairy Party. I’m lucky husband is creative, even if he says he won’t go out of his way to help, he is a perfectionist and I know he won’t be able to help himself. I breathe as details for the party race through my head.

2 weeks until party: Much of the same, more lists, shopping for non perishable food supplies, a visit to the party shop for balloons. Slight sense of relief when our Miss 3 chooses rainbow colours rather than pink, pink and more pink. There is likely to be boys at her party as it seems she has many friends who are boys. We buy brightly coloured cups, bowls, serviettes, and many many balloons. The party shop is hard to take in, much like Pinterest it has an overload of ideas that it throws at you and it can be difficult to focus. Luckily I have brought a list, and after only three circles of the shop looking at each isle as comprehensively as possible with three young kids in tow, we have our basket full of goodies ready to go. We find a few extras, like multicoloured marshmallows which are too amazing to leave behind. Husband has spotted a balloon ornament type thing. He decides he can make one himself and has the shop assistant help him find the right sized balloons and a fairy centrepiece. He really does love his kids more than anything in the world.

1 week until party: Awaiting on final RSVP’s, hoping we have enough food and craft and everything to accommodate our guests! Will siblings come along? Can I ask? Will they be here early enough to see the fairy we hired? I best tell them what time she arrives! Then to throw complication in our mix husband has gone and done what I have been waiting for for a long time, he has bought us a house! Well half a house, a duplex! Close to preschool! Close to the primary school we have been hoping our children would attend! But wait, this means I definitely need to make the best impression possible now, as its now highly likely our Miss 3 will go to school with these kids from preschool! No time to think about that now. I sign on a property I haven’t yet seen, put our property on the market. First open is the day before the party! We spend the rest of this week cleaning and tidying like mad. I bake cookies and make jelly cups during the week with our girls. Our now Miss 4 celebrates her birthday on the Friday before the party. We realise after that she would have believed us if we said her actual birthday was on the day of her party but it just wouldn’t feel right. So on Halloween I take our Miss 4 skating for the first time, a talented ice-skating coach whom I’m lucky enough to call our friend gives her a lesson. She does so well I cry, my tiny pink baby has grown into a beautiful, well articulated preschooler in what seems like the time it takes me to blink as I wipe away tears of happiness and pride. I make a shaky recording for husband as he is at work. I tell Miss 4 everyone is celebrating her birthday as people are in fancy dress and treats are being handed out. It is a very special day!

Later that day Miss 4 gets a splinter in her toe, trip to the doctors to remove it. Then a miscommunication has husband and I travelling in opposite directions to meet each other as we race to get to the solicitor to sign contracts. But finally we make it back home and as I shuffle the kids upstairs husband places a bicycle in the living room. I hear the cue and bring Miss 4 down the stairs. She stands there, still, motionless. Slowly a smile grows across her face as she does her upside down pointing, “Is that MY bicycle?” She smiles widely then walks towards the bicycle. Hopping on she check out all the fancy features; bell – check, pink ribbons – check, basket with flower – check, it’s pink – check! Our baby girl is immensely excited and proceeds to ride her bicycle around the yard for a very long time. It’s a beautiful sight, but how did she get so big, so coordinated, so amazingly beautiful!

The next day, after the open house and a take away meal, we get the kids tucked up in bed and start making Fairy Party food of all sorts. We hear our Miss 2 pottering around upstairs but continue with the task at hand. Later I go upstairs to find her tucking her toys in in the bathroom, this kid just has her own agenda and is so involved with everyone else’s sleep, especially that of her toys, but isn’t interested in her own dreaming at all. Finally we get her off to sleep. Miss 4 is sound asleep and that is the main thing, we really really really want her to enjoy her party as it has been an emotional week for us with the stress of building inspections, marketing our property and everything else that goes on during a week with a busy family life. Husband starts with the decorations, he’s had an idea of creating balloon flowers, I give him the go ahead. Hanging up the first of the balloon flowers and marvelling at his work he declares that we can do this at our new place, only with much more balloons as we will have more space than we do in our current abode. We pause for a moment as we share a smile.

I begin by making Fairies on Toadstools (aka Fairy  Cut outs on toothpicks standing on chocolate covered marshmallows with sprinkles. All Fairy Food has sprinkles!). Then I go about crafting fairy mugs from biscuits, lollies and using chocolate as adhesive to stick it all together. In between I start to ice the cake. We both hold our breath as I turn the cake out onto the cake plate. Phew, it is still in one piece! It’s frozen so I work fast to ice it, but the icing keeps coming away from the cake. Husband has a go, he has more success than I do. He tells me later his tip of using two knives when icing the cake. I reply that he can now be in charge of icing cakes. I decorate the cake with edible flowers and a fairy ornament. It looks great!

We call it quits after a few hours, I revisit the list of what still needs to be done in the morning. Husband convinces me I don’t need to make food labels, the kids can hardly read yet anyway. The next morning I wake early, I only slept lightly as I dreamed about the party. I quickly get ready then we systematically follow the day plan. Kids fed and dressed – check, furniture moved to accommodate seating space – check, food table set up – check, fruit stars made, fairy bread prepared, finishing touches to food completed, decorations all up – check, check, check! Miss 4 and Miss 2 are excited to be in their pretty dresses with their fairy wings on. A few quick photos and guests start arriving.

The party is going so great, then husband leaves to pick up the fairy. It must have felt odd, collecting a grown woman dressed as a fairy from the train station. The poor girl had to get a train and a bus to get here so I offered for husband to get her from the station so she wouldn’t need to worry about a connecting bus. I described our car to her, and she replies, “I’ll be the one dressed as a fairy!”. I joked with husband that whilst he was picking up a woman in dress ups and handing her an envelope of cash, if I found glitter anywhere on him I would know!

The kids enjoyed decorating wooden wands and eating yummy snacks and I was able to chat with the mums. It was a lovely relaxed feel. Then husband arrived with the Fairy and she did a great job staying in character. It must be hard to have such great energy for all the games, and the magic show and face painting she did, and the kids were mostly a tough crowd, missing many of the jokes and running in opposite directions during Duck Duck Goose and holding onto the parcel in Pass the Parcel. It was the first party for Miss 4 with prepared games so it was a learning curve. The parents all looked on and smiled as their children’s personalities shone through. One mother labelled her kid the “Heckler” as she had witty responses for the Fairy during the magic show, another had incredibly telling facial expressions, and another laughed loudly at all the jokes as the rest of the kids sat quietly watching. Miss 4 was expressionless for parts of her party, probably absorbing it all, but her smile was priceless as she danced with her friends and the Fairy. There was one boy in attendance from her preschool, yet he didn’t seem to mind, and speaking with his mother I realised that our Miss 4 really does have a close group of friends as we discussed who was mentioned over family dinners at each others houses and found many similarities.

The party went on, we had cake, and Miss 4 generously allowed Miss 2 to blow out some candles as she had missed out for both her birthdays so far due to illness (silly Winter Birthdays!). It was all smiles and such a wonderful day. At the end of the day I slumped into the softness of our couch and breathed a sigh of relief, it really was a Fairy Good Party! Even now, weeks later our Miss 4 ponders as she recalls, “I really did have a Fairy Party, it was a great party!”. Makes all the stress and fuss worthwhile and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

What parties have you prepared as a parent? Have you found anything useful in keeping it manageable or do you like to go all out for your little one’s celebrations? I would love to hear your stories.