Report on an Arty Party

Today we head indoors for a report on the art party as mentioned here. We'll be back on the farm later this week...

So the art party. It was for the gorgeous girl who is in her last year of single digits. I am complete denial that I could actually have a child who is that age and flatly refuse to acknowledge that any small people in this house may turn into a double-digit age.

Still, there is a rule that the small people alternate having a birthday party each year. That's one every three years. This rule is (strangely) flexible ;-)The last party the gorgeous girl had to herself was 3 weeks before the littlest one was born, therefore it was very low-key.

Not so this time around...

The party started with a walk home from school. With eight year three girls, the littlest one and I it was more of an amble mixed with a giggle. Talk about a higgledy-piggledy straggle of females wandering up the street!

Then each girl chose her own custom-coloured ice cream spider. After two drops of food colouring the girls were all as high as kites! Why I didn't foresee this event I have no idea! Perhaps because my small people rarely get to indulge in food colouring, but boy, I won't forget the effect in a hurry.

Then there was a plate of chocolate biscuits... What girl party is complete without chocolate?! I laid all of the food out on the art table amongst the art supplies (minus the paint!). It looked fairly clean at this point. The paintbrushes certainly increased the anticipation for the art to come.

Colour was added to everything! Even the honey joys :-) Sitting atop some pretty, $2 cardboard cake stands the honey joys did look lovely. Sweet but not too girly.

And then there were the artist palette biscuits! These impressed the party-goers immensely! Much to my relief... These nine palettes are the only remaining complete biscuits from a packet of twenty-something! I kept cracking the biscuits when I 'drilled' the hole through with the apple corer. Grrr. You had to apply just a tiny bit pressure and the biscuit would crack! However, after making the hole it was simple to squeeze dots of icing in a row then sitting various coloured M&Ms on the icing dots. 

Of course, the op-shop/thrifted vintage plate only added to their impressiveness ;-)

Once the food was finished each girl took a newspaper 'placemat' and a canvas back to the table. Paint was poured into the egg cartons and brushes were applied! The party girls were kind enough to let the littlest one join in; washing her brush and dipping it in her next chosen colour. Nice girls.

It became predictably messy as the painting progressed! As the painting finished we rolled up the newspaper 'placemats' and chucked it in the bin. Back to an (almost) clean table! Worked a treat :-) Other arty activities included icing and decorating patty cakes, plus decorating a tealight lantern.

Then the cake. What's a party without a birthday cake?!

This one featured another artist's palette. In case you didn't catch the theme beforehand ;-) It was super easy; highly recommend it! Simple cake underneath, rolled sugar icing with drops of food colouring added to create swirly effect, then another sugar icing piece cut like a palette with hole 'drilled' through, icing pens drizzled to be 'paint' and a brand-new paint brush to add to the whole effect.

So there you have it. An Art Party. Full-on, simple fun. Fairly cheap and easy. Plus the girls went home with an armful of 'artworks'! Bet their mums love me ;-)


But, aside from all of this birthday business, I am enjoying SOME elements of the gorgeous girl being this age. It's like having a mini-adult about the place, a mini-adult who hasn't yet been disillusioned into any sort of too much cynicism. And this gorgeous girl is extremely aware of other's emotions. She occasionally uses this to our disadvantage but mostly she is a lovely, caring person. So maybe, just maybe I will enjoy her growing up. OK, maybe there will be some horror. Who am I kidding, there is some tweeny-horror-stuff happening already! But there are lovely things in this young adult and I am enjoying watching her emerge from being just a small person.

Back to the farm next time...