Think of a Wonderful Thing...

...Or rather, think of three wonderful things.  Things 1, 4 and 5, to be precise.

The reason I have been so quiet recently (or one of the reasons) is because we have been celebrating the birthdays of Drummerboy, Sunboy and Starbaby.  Their birthdays are all within three weeks of each other so it made sense to combine the celebrations and we had the most wonderful picnic at the Diana Memorial Playground  in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park.

Did you know that Kensington Gardens is where the story of Peter Pan begins?  When he was a baby he lived nearby, but when he heard his mother talking of his future he decided he didn't want to grow up, so he ran away.  The fairies found him in Kensington Gardens and he stayed with them too long - When he decided to return home his mother had another baby boy to love, so he left forever, never to grow up.


Now if you knew my Sunboy at all, you'd know that he loves Peter Pan and pirates.  He could happily watch Disney's Peter Pan every day and never get bored.  So where better to have a Piratey Peter Pan Picnic?

The Diana Memorial Gardens have the most wonderful playground.  In fact, it's a collection of playgrounds.  Captain Hook's ship sits beached in the middle of a huge sand pit, surrounded by smaller boats that bob about when you climb on them, treasure chests, rocks for climbing on and one with a mermaid's tail carved in.  There are treasure chests to be found and water that can be pumped in to the sand, where dozens of children were working together to build as elaborate a castle as they could manage.  And an enormous crocodile - of course!

You can fly!

Turn away from the glorious ship for a moment and explore a little - you may see teepees peeping over the trees - yes, the indian emcampment is there!

I think I'll be an indian brave

Three big teepees to hide and make believe in - fabulous!  We didn't get rain on the day, but my backup plan was to hide in these!

Look around some more and you'll find Wendy houses, a Lost Boys' adventure playground and things to climb on in one section.  Go explore in the trees and bushes and you might find toys to sit on, or instruments that only play when you stand, walk or dance on them - the tinkling noise they make gives the feel of fairies flying all over the playground.

In another section there's a more traditional play area with swings and slides, one for bigger children and one for smaller kids.

Even if I tell you about the cafeteria, convenient and clean toilets, and pixie tree I've still not covered it all.  Best of all, it's a fenced in play area with only one gate that you need to buzz to get through.  There's a security guard at the gate and monitors patroling the playground.  So we really did feel able to let our children live as Peter and the Lost Boys would - wild and fun and free!

When there's a smile in your heart...

I had made enough maps of Neverland to go around our party.  I wish this picture would show it better.  I sketched one out from a map I found online and photocopied it, then tore the edges and went over them all with wet tea bags to give a genuine distressed look.  These went down very well!  Robin and his friends were using them to 'find treasure' in the playground.
Along with this Frazer and Scarett made some very basic telescopes using tissue/kitchen roll tubes with black card around the edge.  Let me tell you, I could have made fancy telescopes, but honestly 4 year old imaginations don't need them!

I made Peter Pan's hat the night before using green felt for the main and red for the feather.  

Any merry little thought

All stitched by hand and I thought it came out great!  But unfortunately I don't have a single good picture of it, as my Sunboy left it inside the ship and apparently another little pirate couldn't resist swiping this booty.

We provided our guests with pirate hats, masks, mini foam swords, eye patches and temporary tattoos.  We do love to dress up in this family!  (expect more of that at Disney to be sure)

Up you go with a heigh and ho

Starbaby was pirate for the day.  He was lucky enough to get skull and crossbone baby legwarmers, and a fab pirate ship hoody, both of which matched his stripy pirate suit perfectly, how's that for luck?
He had a great time, with lots of attention from everybody, lots of children to make laugh at his antics, and while he isn't keen on cake at all(!?!), he did have fun attacking a pot of hummus when no one was looking!

WHY do you not like cake child, why?!

Frazer turned 12, and you might think that's getting a bit big for playing such games, but no!  He appointed himself the director of the sand castle structure I mentioned earlier.  And in this family you're never too old to dress up!  You'll see more of that at Disney I'm sure.
I can remember eight years ago when my Drummerboy had a Peter Pan party for his fourth birthday, complete with Captain Hook costume and a crocodile cake that I made.  Now he's more interested in  Minecraft lands than Neverland, so I did my best to accommodate.

I made him a creeper t-shirt with a sharpie and green top.  His friends bought him the pixel sunglasses which went down *very* well with Frazer, and suited his theme perfectly.  I also made him a minecraft pig t-shirt, which he let our Emokid wear on the day:

Sssss. - that sure is a nice birthday you have there...

I made a Mincraft picnic:

Note the bacon.  It's unsigned, but very important to minecrafters!

Complete with Creeper Juice:

Ssssssss....

And I even made him an AWESOME (their words, not mine) Minecraft cake!

Yes, I do understand just how crap this will look
to you if you don't know about minecraft.

Yup, that's blue jelly (jello to my US friends) 'water', crispy marshmallow treat 'sand blocks', and chocolate cake 'dirt blocks' with green icing and coconut 'grass' on top.  It was a weird cake to make, but SO well appreciated that I'm glad I did.










So three birthdays means three cakes, right?

Well here's Jasper's.  It's actually a mini version of his smash cake, but the weather has been so poor here that we've not had the chance for the outdoor shoot I wanted.  I'm now having second thoughts anyway, as he really doesn't like cake!

That's a gluten and dairy free chocolate cake made in a mug.




















Robin's was my favourite.  He wanted a pirate ship cake.  I googled some home made ones - but they weren't good enough!  They looked difficult enough to me, but he did not approve and instead his eyes landed on a stunning masterpiece.  Erk.  Not gonna happen mate.

So I suggested this cake to him and he agreed, on the provision that I make sure the ship is included.  I've seen a few similar looking cakes online, but the inside was a lemon sponge that I adapted to be dairy free.  Glad I did - it was delicious!

I did waves around this side at the base of the cake, and clouds around the back.  It has lemon curd and five layers of lemon sponge.  Noms.

So there we go, three big reasons and one big picnic to celebrate my boys growing yet bigger and stronger.  Having fun being Neverlanders and eating yummy things.

12, 4 and 1.  I Love those boys.