Calling All Party Animals...

The holidays may be over but in our house the preparations for upcoming celebrations are getting into full swing again... Australia Day this weekend, Valentine's Day less than a month away and, most importantly, Ava's birthday coming up in a few weeks.

Each year Ava's birthday sneaks up on me. I mean, obviously I know when my daughter's birthday is, but each year I think I'm going to have a nice break between the Christmas season and preparing for Ava's birthday when in actual fact it all just merges into one big mass of crafts and party planning! I always fall into the trap of thinking I've got a two month buffer between the two (Christmas in December, Ava's birthday in February) but really there's only one full month in between, and it's always a busy one.

This year for Ava's birthday (the scarily big sounding 7) we're going for a reptile theme. She originally had her heart set on celebrating with friends at the new American Girl store in Palo Alto (possibly the complete opposite to a reptile party!) but after pet sitting her class gecko over the Winter break she's got reptile fever!

A reptile party is certainly going to be fun, especially with the special visit that I've lined up from some scaly friends from East Bay Vivarium, however I still wanted to keep it a little cute. Not super girly, mind you, just a touch of cuteness when it comes to the cake, party bags and invites.

So just how does one make reptiles cute? Well, it's a birthday party right? What could be cuter than colourful party hats? Tiny little party hats on tiny little lizards, tortoises, crocodiles and frogs. Cute and fun - perfect!

I rounded up a selection of Schleich reptile and amphibian figurines and made little party hats and ribbon-tied parcels for them. From scaly and scary to instant cute!

Party hats make everything cute

Mickey Mouse Party Ears

You may have noticed in the photos from Lola's recent Mickey Mouse themed birthday party that many of the children (and a few of the adults) were wearing Mickey Mouse ears. Now it was no coincidence that so many of Lola's guests were decked out like Mickey. We provided ears for them all to wear!

Ta da! Mickey Mouse ears!

I made all of the ears for the birthday party myself. They were quite simple to make and a hit with the kids (both big and little!) so I thought I'd share how I made them.

Happy Birthday Ava

Last Friday was Ava's 5th birthday.

Ava had been planning her 5th birthday party pretty much as soon as her 4th birthday party was over. She had such great plans: bouncy castle, pony rides, face painting... most of which were never going to come into fruition! But of course, our move to America made all of these party plans a little tricky.

I was a little worried that Ava might not have made many friends by the time her 5th birthday came around so I was looking into ideas for a small family weekend trip. It turns out though that Ava HAS made a few good friends at preschool and she was very eager to celebrate her birthday with them.

So Friday afternoon, after preschool, our roof top garden became party central for Ava and a handful of friends from preschool.

I felt a little disorganised for this little party. Normally I would have made invitations that would have been posted out weeks in advance. Normally I would have spent ages working on a cake design, party games and party bags. This year there were no paper invitations. There was no pinata. No face painting. There wasn't even any baking on my behalf, other than the birthday cake. Instead it was just a few kids running around on our roof top garden making their own fun.

There were party bags, of course. Ava decorated these herself with drawings of butterflies and girls with long hair (her favourite things to draw at the moment).

A few of the party bags