What A Swell Party It Was ...

Yesterday afternoon we threw a small party at home to celebrate Arthur's 2nd birthday. It was delightful. All the little guests seemed to enjoy the celebration. Experience has taught me that the under 6's actually make perfect guests, so long as you keep the numbers low (our party was for 8). A simple meal and plenty of toys to hand is a winner for them. Those who know me are aware that I have difficultly keeping things 'simple', but I think I did okay. I forcefully limited my creative bursts to the cake, a bit of decor and a little take-home gift. The weather was dry so we decided to bring some of the party outside. The children enjoyed playing in the red house (which was a rather weather-beaten pale pink until I got handy with a paint brush last week). I put table and chairs outside complete with printed place names and little floral arrangements (I know they're only two, but just humour me!) for an alfresco tea of fish-fingers & chips. When plates were clean out came the birthday cake. Arthur simply loves cake and ice-cream, so I kind of combined the two, making individual ice-cream cone cakes. They are basically a cupcake baked into an ice cream cone. The result was complete silence, a high usage of wet wipes and 100% approval from the little people! After more play came home time, which some guests find a little hard -  after all who ever wants a good party to come to an end? But I hoped that the take home gift of a jar of homemade playdough and a bag of No. 2 shaped chocolate-chip cookies made it a little bit easier to bare.