The Party

Well, we did it. And it will be a very long time before we try something like this again. Not that it was bad. It was just a lot of work. A lot. I was up early this morning to make sandwiches and chop veggies and get everything packed up and loaded into the car. The baking was done yesterday including the cake which was my fastest, most simple one yet:Chocolate cake with with vanilla icing covered in rolled fondant, trimmed with ribbon, adorned with pink flowers and topped with a make shift birds nest constructed with mini Corinthian sticks and homemade fairy floss (which I have since learned disintegrates when exposed to air- luckily we made extra).
We arrived at the gate of our destination at 10:00 and had to wait for it to be unlocked. Tick tock people, tick tock. The guests were arriving at 11:00 and we had to make three trips from the car down the hill, through the field, over the bridge and into the garden carrying everything from chests of ice and drinks to picnic rugs and party favors. Then there was the setting up of the clues which had to be placed along the trail. There were three groups so this had to be done three times. To say nothing of the tables that had to be set up, the food laid out and the decorations strung up. The decorations I let to Mehran and the girls so my visions of the Secret Garden encircled in festive banners rapidly disappeared as most were haphazardly tied to the fence and a few were draped over trees. Sigh. Meanwhile I was busy trying to make sure that the clues were in the right order for each team while Bayan howled and screamed and distracted me. Then as the guests began to arrive someone very helpfully collected clues along their way to the party. SIGH! Thank heavens for the back up clue sheet I had for the guides in case some got scrambled or removed (as it was a public place I figured this was inevitably bound to happen). A big thank you to Martha, C. and T. for guiding the teams along the hunt, to T. for rearranging her schedule to provide awesome face painting for the kids, to S. for playing hostess at the Faraway Tree and doling out cupcakes at the fairy tea party, to H. for being my judge, recipient of scavenged nature items, bestower of final clues and collector of the keys, to A. with her gift of chocolate twigs and help with the cotton candy and to Martha again for her assistance with photography. I could not have done this without you.

The following are some random shots of the party.
Here is Anisa and a few of the members from her team, after unscrambling Aslan's name, on their way to find the hobbit house.

Martha's group leaving the Faraway tree in search of further clues.
Finding the fishing rod hanging from Tinkerbell's house.
Fishing in fairy lake for the right color key to open the treasure box at the end of the hunt. I forgot to take pictures of that but the prize for completing the treasure hunt was their choice of a chocolate bar (assorted variety) and something non-edible, there were erasers, bendy pencils and lots of jewellery.

Here was the cake. Minus a candle. I didn't want to risk fire hazards, on top of everything else. Also minus the cake knife that I brought and very specifically left in the pram. This item was moved and was only relocated when packing up after the party. So the cake was unceremoniously cut with the back of the fork. But look- we placed chocolate eggs in the nest and around the cake, so maybe no one noticed...maybe.
There were sandwhices, chocolate chip cookies, rice crispie treats, chips, crackers, dips, veggie sticks, fruit platters and orange slices filled with jello for lunch,
a little extra time to play,
and the humongous flowers and party bags (which sadly were plastic as I ran out of time to make the fabric ones) to collect before going home for the day.

Heaps of items were collected for the refugee kids and their families including toys, craft supplies, clothes and two bikes.

For the first time Mehran was in charge of a gift drop off. For the first time the children did not go and give the items themselves. When the office learned about how much we had collected they said it would be better to take the items directly to their warehouse which was apparently located at the back of some buildings in a notoriously rough area near the city. As I couldn't fit all of this stuff and the children into the car and as I did not relish the idea of prowling around a hidden warehouse looking for a loading dock, specifically as safety was a serious concern, I sent Mehran instead. In theory this party was fantastic. In reality, well, not so practical. But even so, I would still do it again. I would just make a few changes, like having the party after the fast and having it a little later in the day to give more time for set up and preparation, then maybe it wouldn't have been so chaotic rushing to get everything organized. The good news is, two weeks after the fact, the kids at school and the parents who came were still talking about the party. Apparently the kids had had a really good time and there were some very positive comments from mums who loved the goodie bags that their kids came home with. So, even though there wasn't enough time to set up and The Secret Garden was not encircled in festive fabric, even though some of the clues got scrambled and the cake knife disappeared, Ruhi had a great day with her friends, made very little waste in terms of the environment and collected some lovely items for people who really need them. Now, the question is, what will we do for Bayan?...