I'm just fluffing my garland

“No. “ I said “ I can’t get the play tunnel, I have to fluff my garland.”

My husband was sharing out the tasks involved in the preparations for our sons birthday party. He seemed to think my answer was too hilarious for words and got endless amusement for the rest of the day saying things like..

“My dear, will you be (raise of eyebrow and wink) fluffing your garland tonight?”

Or, shouting up the stairs,

“Sorry, can I disturb you? Or would you like to be left alone to fluff your garland?”

You see, I wanted to do this party design mom style. I mean, I know I can’t match the beauty and prettiness (and sunshine. Bloody Irish weather) of the parties on http://www.designmom.com/ http://inchmark.squarespace.com/  or http://ohhappyday.com/ but I still wanted to try to inject a bit of loveliness and, dare I say it, taste into the event. Not completely for myself (ok, almost completely for myself), but I knew my son would get a kick out of it all.

So, I started with the garland. The instructions on  http://ohhappyday.com/  were simple enough and I decided to use purple, yellow, orange and pale blue crepe paper to get a rainbowy effect. And it worked! I have to say, it’s true what they say, corny it may sound but there really is huge pleasure in making something yourself.

I realised the class teacher probably would not thank me for arriving at the school with twelve balloons with invitations inside them, so just texted the invitations (yes, there is a way to blow up a balloon with a scrolled invitation inside the balloon, see http://inchmark.squarespace.com/  for details and lovely pictures. Also how to get sweets inside a balloon. It looks amazing.) but thought we could still copy the balloon theme. Which is where the rocket balloons came in. Apparently, you blow them up and let go, and they fly off, making a funny noise. The link showed me that they are for sale on Amazon.com for $5.29, which wouldn’t work for me but when I checked Amazon.co.uk, there they were! However, once I got to the checkout I discovered that they WILL NOT POST TO IRELAND.

Then I start tearing my hair out and the whole idea of a themed party began to take its toll on the house.

While I sat at the computer, muttering in my dressing gown, unshowered and, at this stage, insanely bent on sourcing the balloons the debris was accumulating. Beside me the dishwasher lay unemptied, potatoes for dinner were unpeeled and on the kitchen table dirty breakfast bowels sat, in them Bran Flakes and Weetabix hardening to concrete.

Back to the drawing board. The theme had to be changed. And I had to wash. So after a shower and feeling better,  I chose rainbows, to go with the garland. In Bookstation I found rainbow erasers and pencils and added them to the old style rainbow coloured lollipops in the party bags.(Smug? Moi?)

And activities? I looked around the garden. We have two space hoppers and one play tunnel. Add one more tunnel and that makes an obstacle race. To ensure we had participants, instead of prizes I decided to say that only those who took part got a party bag on the way home. (Listen, it might sound mean but having hosted parties where guests refuse point blank to sit for pass the parcel or dance around for musical statues, I think they need an incentive.)

It was great. The garland was lovely and my son obligingly said, “Hey, it matches the pencils!” It didn’t rain, the kids loved the obstacle race (we added two hula hoops) and ate the cake. All went home uninjured and happy.

Leaving me to fluff my garland in peace.