Joshua's 8th Birthday Party

So this was it; the big one! Last year, for Joshua's 7th birthday, we'd put the big tent up in the garden and hosted a great camping party. It was the talk of the school and of course that meant we had to up the ante this year with a new and improved version - hence the invitations for a Giant Indoor Sleepover! With fourteen kids on the entry-list we knew that sleep was going to be at a premium and so Lenore came up with a range of wild and exciting activities designed to engage and exhaust the most sugar-hyped child! That's probably why the first half of the party was all about making things - camping beds in the sleeping room, hand-made pizzas for tea, fire-pits for a barbecue and dens to hide from lions:

These pizzas are hard work!

Let it rain - we're snug as bugs

We didn't do it!

After this, well, it was more a case of unmaking things! As darkness fell spirits lifted and the garden became a place of magic, mystery and naked flames:

There's trouble brewing....

Speaking of naked flames there was plenty of fire-worship going on whether outdoors:

I think our marshmallows are ready!

Or indoors:

Lift-off!

After these heady times the plan was for everyone to wind-down with a nice DVD, lashings of hot chocolate and some slowly-dimming lights. Well as far as plans go it didn't last long - perhaps up until the midnight feast that got cracked open at about 9pm (luckily giving us adults enough time to relax with a hearty dinner). Beyond this point a succession of increasingly ineffective attempts were made to quieten the troops down and take the edge of the rampant party fever but it was no good; it was rumpus time and we just had to go with the flow. So we made them all sleep in the garden:

Rise and shine!

Okay that's not strictly true but it was certainly the case that 'musical rooms' was the order of the evening! Eventually at some time after midnight, and a certain laying down of the law, peace settled across the battlefield and we all regrouped for the grand finale. Surprisingly enough this didn't take place at 5am or even 6am; not until after the clock struck seven did life emerge and we settled down to the very important business of making pancakes for a succession of hungry customers. And then we made some more. And then I went shopping because we'd run out of ingredients! Talk about a production line!

We love Nutella

Once well-fuelled the mob made for the garden and busied themselves once again with their shelters, bouncing on the trampoline and engaging in a form of hand-to-hand combat with improvised firearms. Probably a typical day if you have fourteen kids! Still everyone seemed to have a great time, the only damage was some nail varnish on the carpet and no-one was especially eager to leave when their parent's arrived. All in all Lenore came up with the goods again - although we couldn't have done it without an army of eager helpers. Thank you everyone!

Next year though - I think that we'll hire a clown!