My little chefling turns six : The Little Mermaid.

I clearly remember the day when my little chefling decided to come into our lives. Two weeks early. I called up DH in the middle of the night warning I would disown him if he didn't make it in time for the birth of our little monkey (He was travelling that night).

That day and last Saturday, 31st of January 2015.  Six beautiful years.

• From being a part of my right arm where you spent hours sleeping to moving into your own bed
• From not even being able to keep your head straight to becoming this young confident girl standing on the stage to recite a poem
• From teaching you ABCs to you teaching me alif, be, te
• From slipping your little fingers into mine to be able to walk to mastering the violin strings
• From me picking up the hundreds of toys strewn all over your room to you asking me to sit down while you set the dinner table
• From me feeding you apple puree to you making me a sandwich 
• From me planning your birthday parties to you announcing the theme for your next
• From pinafores and baby rompers to princess gowns and jeans
• From pink soft booties to silver ballerinas
• From soft baby hair pony tails complete with ribbon to long glossy untamed hair you wanting to always leave open
• From not leaving my hand for even a second to running away without looking back when seeing friends
• From mamma surprising you with lunch box notes to you leaving me a card for all of my special days
• From me tying your shoe laces to you asking me to change my heels for the other ones looked prettier
• From scribbling on papers to painting a canvas for our room
• From me asking you what you did at school to you coming back and inquiring how was my day
• From ten page board books to eighty pages stories
• From having tea parties with dolls to hosting your own real ones 
• From being a pint size to now reaching my waist and very proudly so
• From being my little baby to being my partner in crime
• From Dora and Barney to princesses and mermaids

To happy and tearful memories of the past, to precious moments of today and to all the unseens of tomorrow.

Happy Happy Birthday to you. My little chefling. You'll always be my little girl.

Always be your funny, mad, curious self. Always leave some room in your heart for the unimaginable. Always believe in mermaids and secrets that come in a bottle.

The girl has moved from pink to blue. From butterflies fluttering in the sky to mermaids swimming in the sea. 

It had to be a mermaid party. 

I was happy to oblige. Enough pink for the last five years. Bring on the blue.

Like each year we kept it small. She was surrounded by the the friends she loves, in the company of her family and we hosted it at home.

Whats a mermaid party without treasure bottles with secret messages inside.

So the invitations were mermaid treasure bottles. With tricoloured sand, a scroll carrying the invitation, a tiny blue star for every mermaid needs some sparkle and a name tag with a ribbon to complete it.

Tons of blue balloons and paper flowers that I handcrafted were decor. 

I also put together this shadow box with one of my favourite quotes that I just mentioned above. A bottle similar to the invitation, some shells and loads of sparkly white and blue stars. A shadow box is such a great and versatile medium to personalize any wall and makes for a pretty centerpiece too, Isn't it?

We welcomed the tiny mermaids and the pirates with this rubber tube on our front door or the "mermaid wreath" as Sara likes to call it.

Once everyone settled down a bit the mermaids and the pirates played three games. 

The first one was a take on pin the tail. Pin the fin. The little guests were blindfolded and were handed a fin each and then asked to pin the fin. I did cheat a little to ensure that each one did it correctly and won themselves a sea creature note pad. Can't have disappointed upset faces on such a happy day, can we? We can keep fairness aside for today :)

For this I used a free printable of a mermaid and added a personal touch to it by adding glitter to her tail, a tiara on her head and a moon for the night sky. A rock made with some white sand and some starfishes completed the picture.

The second game was take on the very popular limbo. We played under the sea limbo. I printed and cut out pictures of several sea organisms and the kids were asked to pick one from the lot. They then had to enact like the sea organism on their chit and go under the sea waves. We played the song "Under the sea" from the movie The Little Mermaid. 

This was such a happy game to play. The children were in giggles seeing their friends become jellyfish, octopus, dolphin and more. 

For this game I saved a brown paper tube the one that comes with giftwrap rolls and covered it with a white crepe streamer. On that were added several white and blue "waves" made from white and blue streamers. I twisted each of the streamers after every two inches so that the final thing looked twirly and wavey. This can take time but trust me it looked really pretty.

The mermaids got mermaid artprints to colour as prizes.

The third and final game was treasure hunt in the sand pit. Since we had the party at home, the sandpit was this container. Each mermaid/pirate had to find one fish eraser, one glitter box and a pair of blue rubber bands ( replaced with little dinosaurs for the boys).

After three games and some free play the kids were hungry. So we brought out the cake and served some kid friendly party nibbles.

Cake is one thing that I never even attempt to make for Sara's Birthday. My cakes can be best described as "rustic" :) not acceptable by little children who want pretty mermaids.

Elna from Cake Witch made this beauty. Multiple shades of blue, ruffles for waves and my little girl sitting there on the top as the little mermaid. Thank you Elna you made our day truly special.

The menu for the party was:

• Star fishes (star fish shaped sandwiches with grated carrot, cucumber and cream cheese filling)
• Conch shells (shell shape pasta with red sauce made with tomatoes, carrots, celery and leeks)
• Mermaid rocks (puff pastry vol au vents with a corn pesto filling)
• Seaweed (green grape mini skewers)
• Oysters with pearls (homemade butter cookies with a light blue frosting and white buttons for pearls)
• Shark's teeth (Mini cheese triangles)
• Seawaves (Store bought  multigrain waves with homemade yoghurt dip)
• Goldfish (well..just because and the kids didn't touch these..don't know whether to be happy or sad :)))
• Mermaid magic potion (orange and mango juice)
• Seawater (water)

We had quite a splash that day and Sara thanked her little guests with these blue beach buckets.

Each bucket carried a little thank you note that read "May you always have a shell in your pocket and sand in your toes".

The last activity of the day was the pinata for which I took a paper lantern and added white and blue crepe steamers (pinched every two inches) to resemble the tentacles of the jelly fish. We filled it up lots of little goodies.

The party could not have been complete without the yearly ritual of asking the guests to write down a little something for Sara for us and her to look at and smile years later. Each year right from her first birthday this is something that I always look forward to.

With that the FIN-tastic evening came to an end and like each year my little girl has already started the countdown for her next one :))

Before I bring this super long post to an end a quote Sebastian from The Little Mermaid is a must.

"You've got your own style, 

now let it shine through 

and remember no matter what, 

you got to be you". 

Birthdays from the past: First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask! 

Just another hard boiled egg.

I bet you think an egg is something you casually order for breakfast when you can't think of anything else. Well, so did I once, but that was before the egg and I. 

Claudette Colbert 

At our home we love eggs. We really do. I make sure Sara eats one every day. To become a "strong girl with lots of neurons in her brain". Most days it could be just a simple sunny side up or a creamy scrambled egg with chives that she likes to sprinkle on top. For special treats for her sweet tooth it could be a french toast with orange marmalade. For us it has to be the egg and ham or whatever else I can lay my hands on. We love our sun dried tomato,spinach and egg baked pie and when in a mood to spoil myself silly, my favorite Eggs Benedict. 

And then are the cakes and the pies and the cookies that all have the egg. Can't live without these babies.

Deviled Eggs are also a big favorite at our casa. And when we have friends over its always on the menu. Its so easy to put together, can be prepared hours in advance, a big hit with the crowd and really its my idea of  bite sized heaven. Did I mention how it also satisfies the creative bug in you because you can keep varying the recipe?

Sara is always in the kitchen with me. Standing on her little step stool to "help" her mum cook (Lately she has been choosing baking books over her favorite Giraffes can't Dance for her bedtime reading:)). She helps me peel the eggs with her tiny hands and combine the yolks with whatever else we may decide to add to them that particular day. She also likes to "dress" them up with capers and parsley. Cooking with Sara is fun and I hope you have fun "cooking" these with your "Sara".

Deviled Eggs

Serves 8-12

Ingredients

12 peeled hard-boiled eggs

1 tsp freshly chopped parsley

1 tsp chopped capers

1/2 can of oil packed tuna flakes

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp paprika

Some chopped capers & chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

1.Cut eggs lengthwise and remove yolks.

2.Combine egg yolks, chopped parsley, chopped capers,tuna flakes,salt and paprika in a medium sized bowl. Whisk till smooth.

3.Fill the egg white boats with the above mixture either with the spoon or if you prefer something more fancy with a pastry bag.

4.Garnish with some chopped parsley and capers and serve cold.Dust with paprika if you like.

You could replace the oil packed tuna with a mayo-tuna combination.I prefer the former.Also if you boil the eggs a day before and let them rest in the fridge it makes peeling much easier.

Know more : "The deviled egg originated in ancient Rome according to the show The Secret Life Of.... It is still popular across the continent of Europe. In France it is called œuf mimosa; in Hungary, töltött tojás orkaszinó tojás; in Romania, ouă umplute; in the Netherlands gevuld ei ("stuffed egg"); in Sweden fyllda ägg ("stuffed eggs"). In Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany sometimes a variation is served known as "Russian eggs", where the eggs are filled with caviar and served in rémoulade sauce. The title "Russian eggs" comes from the presence of the caviar. In Sweden it is a traditional dish on the Easter Smörgåsbord, where the yolk is mixed with caviar, cream or sour cream, optionally chopped red onion, and decorated with chopped chives or dill, perhaps with a piece of anchovy or pickled herring." via Wikipedia

Image: Personal Album

Recipe: Personal
While you enjoy reading this post with visuals.Please do not use them without asking. 
They belong to Orange Kitchens unless otherwise stated.