Hamishs 4th Birthday Party - The Monkey Party

Its been a busy week and the last few days have been spent getting ready for our Hamishs 4th birthday party.  This year he wanted a 'Monkey Party'.  As I have mentioned before, my kids ask for a theme and then I try and make them invitations and cake in that theme.  I also print out pictures in keeping with the theme and stick them on paper bags for party bags.

This year everything felt very together and organised until people arrived.  Then we had a manic 4 hours of 18 kids and 10-12 adults running around in our house and backyard.  Thankfully the weather was fine and slightly warm and the kids were happy playing with the party bags and climbing in the tree house.

The problem with being the host of a party (and the only person in the family who takes photos) is that there are only a few photos of the day.  Thankfully I got a few photos of the cake before we actually brought it out to be cut and devoured.  But I got no photos of the party bags and very few of the birthday boy.

This year I also decided to relax my ideals about food and toys.  So we had the usual cut fruit, sausages, hummus and vege sticks and little dukkah pizzas.  But we also had fairy bread, crackles, crisps and a few extra lolly in the party bags.  Jack seemed to enjoy the food and I was pleasantly surprised at the choices both of my kids made, eating a few crisps and then a few pieces of fruit and so on.

Hamish was to busy opening present to eat much.  Seeing as I was relaxing about presents, we now have a few superheros, some gratuitously noisy toys (including a very cool electric guitar, and a voice changer that the kids love and mummy might accidentally drop in a puddle :).  We also got a few long time favourites like volcano making kit, dinosaur excavation, puzzles and books.

We had a few costumes.  This was the only one I managed to get a picture of but we also had two homemade monkeys and one phone call an hour before the party asking if a monkey costume was a requirement to come.  It made me realise that while my kids want these themed parties, I may need to add a little more detail to the invites so as to not freak parents out.

Hamish was also rocking his new haircut that my gorgeous friend gave him earlier in the week.  This is one of the only photos I got of him and its not the best to show off the hair (or the grin he had on his face for most of the day ... honest he had a really good day, this photos just doesn't show it)

I asked this pair of friends to stand together so I could take a photo.  It was hilarious, at first they went to do the usual kids cuddle and then decided to strike a pose.

Later in the evening we started a fire and had some sparklers.  Both of my kids are a little nervous of sparklers having both burnt their fingers at different times.

Notice the focus, he has only just burnt his thumb.  Bless him he decided to give it another go.

And ever the cautious one.  As soon as Jack saw the sparklers he backed away.  But then he worked up the courage to give them another go.

Finally the party boy fell asleep half hanging off the recliner.

20 minutes later the last of the revelers crashed out together on the couch.

It was a lovely day.  The weather was perfect, we had just the right amount of food, everyone arrived, and left.  Today we spent the morning digging up dinos, jamming on the guitar, fighting superheros, learning about flags of the world.  Then they spent the afternoon with the kids from our street, running from house to house skating on Hamishs new skateboard, jamming more with the new guitar and the keyboard from christmas and playing superheros.

Thank goodness its all over though, I'm exhausted.