Turning 5 is a big event for a child – finishing preschool or daycare, ready to start primary school – a coming of age! I was so excited when my daughter was coming up to 5. We do small parties with a few friends at home, the challenge of a January birthday in the heat.
Upon asking what theme she wanted, my daughter chose Frozen (much to my dismay as this had been her theme last year). After a little convincing, I thought she had decided on a rainbow party. I had a great time researching pinatas and party accessories in rainbow colours and rainbow games.
Quite unexpectedly, my daughter changed her min
d and chose a supergirl theme. This was new as she hadn’t watched any superhero movies, perhaps from from a superhero day at daycare? Happy Mum, with great colours for the theme – I was ready to design!
The constraints:
Middle of summer
Western facing verandah – too hot to have in the afternoon
Yard in the middle of a garden renovation
Butter icing on the cake will melt
The solution?
An early party at 10am to avoid the heat
Verandah is shaded at that time of day
Keep the outdoor activites on the driveway (lots of chalk for drawing)
Use fondant icing on the cake, will stay decorated in the heat
The great thing about the verandah is having a fantastic old brick wall as a backdrop, good texture to contract the superhero colours.
To keep things simple I used decorations in super colours – red, yellow and blue. The red and blue would have felt a little heavy without the yellow to add some lightness.
Lots of balloons, a red table cloth that sparkled – a winner for any 5 year old and gave an added texture.
After searching for bunting in the right colour, I decided to make m
y own and cut out the letters from sparkly red foam – with lots of help from the birthday girl!
As we try to have reasonably healthy foods, and cater for food intolerances of friends, I made gluten and dairy free gingerbread in “S” shapes, which the kids devoured
Couldn’t find super party bags so bought some plain white ones and the birthday girls helped to decorate with lots of glitter
The birthday girl de
signed and helped decorate the cake.
The result? My daughter had a fantastic party, loved the decorations and colours and extremely easy to do.
Have a think of how your kids can help make decorations, they’ll love being part of it and keep them busy at the same time.
Do you have an event coming up?
Try using colours and textures to create a theme you’ll remember