THE BOOK PARTY

Hello...don't be shy...come on in!

Come on a little closer.

Come on, we won't bite (well maybe some of the children will, but we're working on that!)

There you are, welcome to the book party!

Big kidlet has been planning this party for a year, the invitations were made before Christmas, but to be honest, I don't need much encouragement to be drawn into the fun!

Her favourite book is Tatty Ratty by Helen Cooper, so I was instructed to make a cake with the aforementioned rabbit as the star. BK has her own rather scruffy Tatty Ratty, that, like it's namesake is often lost.  You can read about one of his escapades here, and how he was found here.

I have also been collecting old children's books on my travels for displaying the goodies.  Although when I was putting the display together I realised that in this case more was better, so I scoured the many book cases in our house for some of my old books.  I think I found three copies of Anne of Green Gables. (I'm filling up a little just thinking of those red plaits...and don't get me started on Pollyanna!)

We cut up some old picture books that the kidlets didn't read anymore to make bunting.

The dessert buffet, obviously the most important part of the party (to me!) included Tatty Ratty's favourite treat, doughnuts. (Although his were made by the Man in the Moon.) BK expressed her opinion the real doughnuts would take too long to make. So we whizzed up some cupcake mixture, half filled the holes of a shallow cupcake baking tray, a circle cutter, some glaze and sprinkles later and Bob's your Uncle and Tatty's your rabbit.

We also had mini cupcakes, cake pops, iced gems and strawberries to be a bit healthy.

For starters I made some old book pages into cones for their fish/sausage and chips.  I had suggested that I make some fish goujons, but this idea met with dismay "No, Mummy, they have to be packet fish fingers".  I was quite glad of one less thing to do so I agreed.

I used some more old book pages on the water bottles.

This actually came in handy as the revellers wrote their names on the bottles, so no germs were spread that day!

We had plenty of booky crafts on offer.  I had found these secret book here.  BK painted them a few days before the party, ready for the guests to create their own titles. We also had note books to be decoupaged and scratch bookmarks. 

I especially liked the tale of "The Big Bad Botom!" 

Then, of course, a pinata.

 I will write up a tutorial for this soon, it is so easy to make and one of the most enjoyable parts of the day.  Well who doesn't like to hit things with a big stick?

Mr Lemon Drizzle tried to read the the story of Tatty Ratty but quickly gave up as high spirits seemed to be the order of the day.

Each guest left with a party bag bursting with their crafts and some other goodies.  There was a beautiful hair band from Heartfelt Handmade. I had copied some text from a Milly Molly Mandy book and transferred it onto felt for Marie to use.  We also had a book biscuit for the bags made under BK's supervision.  I had her drawings to copy and the titles of each book handed to me.  There was also some letter sweets and a mermaid book each.

The whole two hours were over in flash, unlike the six hours leading up to it where we were constantly pestered with "How long now?"  "When are they coming" and "I want my party now!"

Anyway it was all worth it to see a happy kidlet curled up that night, clutching her raggedy rabbit and dreaming of cake!