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! 

Do you believe in fairies?

The first thing I like to do when I switch on my laptop each morning is to have a look at the google doodle and this morning was no different.

The doodle read "International Fairy Day". Frankly speaking I had no idea that a day like this existed and I don't really "observe" these days. But then I thought why not? My little chefling is obsessed with fairies and it would be fun to make a fairy day snack for her when she returns from school today. I am going to have to think about what I am going to make for her but for now I'd love to share this Garden Fairy Birthday Party we had for her 5th birthday (five months back). Some of you lovely readers who also meet me at my other blog might have seen this before. 

If you're little girl like mine believes that there are fairies hiding in the garden and looks for them every evening  or loves to read fairy stories and you're planning to indulge in some fairy DIY today or planning a fairy theme party then you might enjoy reading this post :)

I think for just one day we too can pretend to be children and believe in the magic of fairies and the sparkle that the unknown holds.

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The girl has been obsessed with garden fairies for over two years now, so much so that she even wears her wings while sleeping and pretends that she lives in a toadstool! So the theme was pretty much pre-decided and like always we had a small get together at home just the way my mom did. Handcrafting everything right from the invitation card to the décor, cooking every little morsel and keeping it sweet and really small; sharing the day with six of her “best friends”.

Pink just had to be there was the little girl’s request and pink there was. What is a garden fairy party without some green and ofcourse the fairy and that was the starting point. 

We had very simple pink invitation cards for each of her friends with lots of sparkle and doilies with a short and sweet message inviting the fairies into the enchanted garden (Free printable from here).

I didn't really have to buy anything for the party decor because one there was enough to “shop” from Sara’s room and two, I handcrafted the rest.

At the entrance we had Sara’s blackboard with the line, “Do you believe in fairies?” and fairy lights from her room. She also had a pinwheel that had a cute flowery print which added a whimsical touch to the vignette.

I must mention here that each time Sara passed by the blackboard (before and after the party) she read the question and declared loudly to no one in particular, “Yes, I do!” and then broke into a big smile :)

Each of the little fairies were handed over their wings upon entering the home and I have to say that with seven little girls fluttering away I really didn't need any decor because all eyes were on them.

For a while they enjoyed playing in Sara’s room, post which I had two fun games planned for them.

One was a garden fairy version of the musical chairs. Musical Toadstools. I cut out several red circles out of thick handmade paper and then pasted smaller white circles on it so that they resembled toadstools. They not only looked cute on the green carpet (once again from Sara’s room) for they looked like toadstools on grass but also I didn't have to worry about arranging seven chairs!

And the little fairies looked so cute standing around/on it. Each fairy was given a magic wand when she had to leave the toadstool to go to her Fairy Godmother (their respective mums). It worked for we had seven happy faces because everyone won and it was not a competition where only one took back the prize. The wands actually came with the wings that I had given earlier (sorry I don’t have pictures but they were just like the pink wings). 

For my little birthday fairy who was in her white wings I handcrafted a wand that would go with her dress and the invitation card. Some twine around a chopstick, a doily, a handcrafted rose and some pink and green strings (left from her third birthday) and it was ready. She loved it and that made me very happy.

Post that we had a treasure hunt of sorts where the girls sat on their toadstool mats and I handed them over pink bags to collect their little treasures that were hidden in the living area. I used small pink gift bags and simply pasted a doily cut in half to maintain the theme.

Each one got a turn to open the little box that contained the clues and their mums helped them to read and solve. Each clue took them to a little goodie box which had seven goodies each and the little fairy had to share her treasure with all the other fairies. It was really cute watching them all wide eyed and surprised and also sharing the goodies with their friends; making sure they didn't miss anyone.

The hidden treasures were:

• Fairy dust (Bottle containing glitter)
• Shiny rocks (M&Ms wrapped up in some foil and made to look like sparkly rocks)
• Pixie kisses (Hershey’s kisses)
• Fairy clouds (little bags of popcorn)
• Gold coins (Chocolate gold coins)
• Sparkly hairbands (the set of wings that the girls got upon entering came with the magic wands (which I distributed during the musical toadstools game) and the fairy hairbands. So basically I used each of the three elements separately through the party. Once again for the birthday fairy I handcrafted her hairband. I used some tulle from an old torn tutu of hers and some beads I had on hand and handmade flowers; all on an old hairband of hers which she instantly recognized and said but this is my old headband! Kids I tell you!)

And finally the last clue that led them to the birthday cake itself that I carried to the table at the end of the treasure hunt

By now the fairies had played enough and were famished and so where their mums. Except for the cake that I never make for her birthday for there are just too many things to prepare and look after that day and plus I don’t think I can ever match up to what Aya did for us , I made everything else at home.

Aya from Aya Cupcakes did a fabulous job on the cake. I had sent her picture of what Sara and I had selected and what a fabulous job she did. It was like my little girl sitting there.

Too pretty to touch?

We couldn't make ourselves eat that pretty fairy and once the party was over we made Sara hold her and clicked away.

Next to the cake is my alarm clock which I took the batteries out from and got the needles to represent her time of birth. A tiny easel with the card (a little variation of the invitation card, can you tell or is it just me!) that doubled up both as décor and a wishing card of sorts which we used to capture the lovely wishes from the guests and this AWESOME garden fairy terrarium that a dear friend made herself and gifted to my little girl.

It was a gift that was shouting handmade, creativity and gorgeousness. You guys know me well enough I am sucker for handcrafted goodness and I wanted to give my heart away in return.

Just check out that mini pinwheel, those little mushrooms and ofcourse the fairies. I had half a mind of stealing it away from Sara for my room! Actually to be honest I still have intentions of doing that. Don’t kids get bored of things after a while, please tell me I am right:)

But I digress. Coming back to the food the menu was garden fairyish, had to be.

• Pixie punch (apple & orange juice for the kids and homemade mint lemonade for the mums)
• Snail sandwiches (cream cheese & grated carrot sandwiches with cucumber for the antenna)
• Toadstools (Cherry tomatoes sitting on cheese)
• Garden veggies with yogurt dip
• Butterfly Pasta (For no party is completed without pasta in the words of Sara. A simple farfalle in a homemade tomato, carrot and red bell pepper sauce)
• A patch of grass (Sliced baguette with labneh, dill, mint, coriander, cherry tomatoes and cucumber silvers and chilli flakes for the mums)
• Gnome bites with three kinds of dips (Falafel wraps with hummus and pickled cucumbers. Once again more for the mums than the kids. Though to my surprise the kids liked it as well)
• Fairy clouds (Store bought candy floss)

And doilies once again for food labels.

We had a fun evening and we thanked our little guests with a pretty pink notebook and a magic wand pen (Just my luck that I saw it at a stationery store and had to pick those for party favors for they went so well with the dreamy fairy theme).

I used a simple brown paper (my favorite to wrap all kinds of gifts) and made these little green gift tags with doilies and some sparkly nail paint for some shimmer.

The notes read, "Thank You Fairy Much!"

Also, I used a recent snap of Sara that we took during the holidays when we visited a garden for the table that carried the wings, wands, return gifts and the treasure hunt bags. It was so appropriate and it made me super happy seeing her as the “I” amongst the colourful and vibrant words happy birthday. All made with flowers. 

I used an old frame that we didn't need any longer and painted it white, distressed it a bit with sandpaper and used a thread to hang her happy-happy birthday picture.

And like each year I wanted Sara & us to look back at the heartfelt wishes from each of the guests and we asked the guests to write down a little note for her. It sure will be both nostalgic and enjoyable years later when Sara and we sit down and go through it all.

I, of course needed something on the lines of an annual leave after her party but I had so much fun putting it all together. I told my sister may be that is the reason we decided to have a baby after all; to throw cutesy birthday parties!!

Each year after her birthday party I think to myself that I will now have to wait for one whole year to do this again and that kind of makes me sad. However this year my little girl who is not so little anymore but who enjoys putting parties together just like her mum, came to me the very same evening and asked, "Mamma, How many days for my sixth birthday?! "

And I laughed. My daughter!

"365", I said.

Images : Personal Album. All images belong to orangekitchens and are subject to copyright.