Kai's Birthday

We celebrated Kai's birthday on Wednesday last week, and then her party at the weekend.

We decided to have her party at home with lots of games and activities for the 12 girls.
It was a really wonderful morning and the girls were well behaved and they all played together nice. We kept them busy with musical hearts (instead of musical chairs), pass the parcel, decorating wand biscuits, making masks with glitter and other decorations, a treasure hunt, and a couple of other games.

To go with the 'pink' theme, Kai's cake (which she chose from a cake book) was a pink Cadillac. Phillip and I had great fun decorating it, and Kai really enjoyed the surprise of finding it in the kitchen when she woke up on the day of her party.

 I also had fun the day before the party makes lots of pink food, including these cute tea cups and strawberry tarts.

Kai's Birthday in July

Writing for SAbona has been keeping me very busy -- writing a few different newsletters, and some website copy each week, a printed magazine every two months, and then other bits and pieces too (I've even been selling some advertising recently!).
So this blog has really ended up at the bottom of the list of things to do.
But I really wanted to share some beautiful pictures of Kai's birthday. She turned six and after thinking of ideas of what party we could have in a relatively small space at home, we decided on a makeover party.
It was especially thanks to Princess Tiana who created a most wonderful party that the girls absolutely loved!
Kai invited seven friends and Flower Princess Tiana did their hair, some make up and they had their nails painted.


They also made flower crowns. She also gave them pictures to colour in, and there was a prize for the best. And they had a pass the parcel that she organised.


The most exciting part was once the girls were done up, Tiana had beautiful princess dresses and shoes that they could wear while having a photo shoot. It was so cute -- the girls all looked like they felt very grown up! A few days after the party Tiana sent us a CD containing all the pictures.



Apart from sorting out the food and chatting to parents, there wasn't much for me to do at all!!
I had a fun time with the food -- did these cute 'ladies' with ice cream cones, and made strawberry milkshakes (of course, we had to have something pink to drink) with real strawberries! And we had a fairy cake.


Most of the mom's stayed so that they could see their girls being made up, and it was a really nice atmosphere.
Finally, here is proof of what kids can do when asked to decorate plain brown paper for wrapping presents. Entirely on his own, this is what Slade did for his sister...

Kai's Birthday

Today was Kai's 5th birthday. I found it really hard to celebrate it so far away from family, people who've been friends for a long time and Kai's friends of several years. Both Slade and Kai's birthday parties in South Africa have always been celebrated at our home, with lots of children running around and enjoying themselves, and my family there too.

Yesterday afternoon we had a small tea party with a few friends. It was really great. The children had a wonderful time, and it was nice to be able to sit and chat to the adults. The weather was wonderful so we sat outside on our patio. The children ran around playing inside and outside and just generally having fun.

I continued with my tradition of making a decorated cake (in fact, I did two this year...more about that later). Kai had chosen a teddy bear cake for the afternoon party. I was pleased with the way in turned out, even though it did look decidedly dog-like during the icing process!



This morning Kai opened her presents. We gave her a little kitchen unit that has a fridge, dishwasher and sink. The tap and dishwasher make noises which she absolutely loves! Slade had chosen a Dora track for his sister. She is really pleased with it as she loves Dora, and Slade rather likes the track too!


Kai had asked her friends at school to dress up for her birthday. Her teacher decorated the classroom with streamers and balloons and put pictures of fairies on all the tables. Phillip and I took the princess cake that I had made to Kai's classroom around mid-morning and had a little party with them. We then left them dancing to Kai's new Hi-Five DVD (she's really into dancing at the moment).







When I went to collect her she had several presents that she had been given by her teacher. It was really wonderful how they had spoiled her and really made her feel so special on her birthday. We are really so happy with Calamvale Early Learning Centre, which is the kindi that she attends. The staff are all so wonderful and caring. One of the mom's who came to Kai's party yesterday, and also works at the centre, said that it was really great when Kai, encouraged by her teachers, shared stories about South Africa earlier in the year, and that some of the children still talk about Africa every now and again!