Saturday, April 25, 2009

A Charlotte's Web Birthday

Note to self - don't plan birthday parties for Bright Week! What was I thinking? I need more time to recover from Holy Week than that - but, invitations had already gone out (a rather exciting news clipping about a mysterious spider web at a local farm) and guests were expecting to come view the web and participate in some old fashioned county fair style fun. So, here it is:

We served fried chicken, corn dogs, hot dogs, french fries,popcorn, cotton candy (you know, really healthy fair food :)

The barn was created following Mr. McGroovy's plans (the rivets are worth the money - we did the castle a few years ago - and I still have half a box after making the barn). The kids played in the barn and enjoyed carnival style games while they waited to eat.
Apple bobbing was perhaps not the best choice for a starter activity - we had lots of wet kids - but they didn't seem to mind.
My littlest joining in on the apple bobbing.

I will say, the cake is not what I had planned - ran out of time for all the animals I wanted to put on it etc - (see note to self at start of post!) and the barn ended up crooked and poorly executed (decorated an hour before guests began arriving) but, thankfully, children are such kind critics, they all said it was beautiful :) Hopefully it won't show up on Cake Wrecks some day!

One final note - this was truly a success in the good gifts department! In the never ending battle to fight the "tiny plastic toy campaign to take over my home" - I really don't care to have parties with lots of children where the kids get lots of junk that breaks within a week or clutters the house or wastes the brain or (you get the picture) - instead, this year, they got a butterfly garden, tickets to a children's theater performance, a trip to the zoo with grandparents, money for horse camp, an all day train ride from the other grandparents, a magic rocks kit, visits to the jump zone, drawing tools and supplies. So, thank you!

4 comments:

Erin said...

Fun! My favorite part is the huge spider web. I don't know how you did it. My house is still not recovered from Pascha. You and my brother need to join up, because he's a big fan of giving what he calls "experience" gifts as opposed to "thing" gifts. "Experience gifts" are things like tickets to a show or sporting event, a week at soccer camp, frequent flyer miles for a trip to visit grandparents/grandchildren . . . . I love this kind of gift!

Pres. Kathy said...

I can't imagine having a party after Holy Week and Easter. The pictures were beautiful! It looked like the party was a great success.

Ashley said...

I especially love that Hanneh looks like a demon with her blue mouth!

Jennifer@DoingTheNextThing said...

How fun! You throw the best parties! I think your cake is fabulous - not even close to a cake wreck. (I do love that blog, by the way. My friend sent me a link there a few months ago.)

How do you get those stacked layers to not bulge, tip, or sink? I tried to do that for one of M's cakes, used the Wilton boards, dowels, the whole bit. And it still sank. I wonder if it would be better witOUT the dowels???

Well done!