Away in a Manger/A busy few days

I love Thee Lord Jesus

Look down from the sky

And stay by my side

'Til morning is nigh

Be near me Lord Jesus

I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever

And love me I pray

Bless all the dear children

In Thy tender care

And take us to heaven

To live with Thee there.

Cake and Bubbles

The top was made of rice bubbles and melted marshmallows! Yum!

You can find a great tutorial for fabric cake bunting here.

Photo booth fun

Big boxes can give hours of entertainment for no money at all! For India's party we transformed a very large box into a photo booth simply by taping black fabric across the top (I gathered mine so it looked more like a studio). Add some silly dress ups, a tripod and photographer (this is our snappy looking one below) and you have hours of fun!

Circus colour

The stripey bags and straws were from Mon Tresor (and the leftover bags will look so cute in Elara's school lunchbox next year).

The circus canopy and take home gifts were homemade.

Costumes and characters

Before I start into this blog post you should know that I have a particularly well resourced family when it comes to costumes. My Mum has two rooms stocked front to back, top to bottom of costumes and fun dressing up clothes.

From day one India wanted to dress up as a clown, and we had a bright and silly costume all ready. Of course she changed her mind less than a week before the party (I'm grateful ...it could have been 5 minutes before...she is a girl after all), and wanted to come as a ballerina. So she got a pink tutu dress for her birthday (and she looked mighty cute in it)!

We all had a chuckle when Elara announced she wanted to dress as the ringmaster as she loves to organise and be the boss. But when I showed her some ideas for her costume, she realised that the ringmaster wasn't who she thought he/she was! What she had imagined was dressing as a marching girl. So I borrowed this box pleated skirt from my Mum's collection and made a uniform vest to match. She looked really grown up and was pretty good at baton twirling too!

My sister - a beautiful bareback rider, and my Dad - perfectly pulling off the ringmaster look.

We didn't think this one through... Tim was a bit scary for some of the children!

Justin wowed the kids with his stilt walking skills.

And my Mum helped out by 'selling' mini hotdogs.

More soon to come...

Roll up, Roll up!

Tomorrow is India's circus themed birthday party.

We're all excited as it's such a fun theme... loads of colour, silliness, and costumes!

I got the idea for the invitations from here, and spent a few nights in front of the tv cutting and pasting the mini bunting. I printed out some admission tickets to slip inside too!

Stay posted this week for more circus fun!