Our eldest's 6th birthday party

On Saturday we celebrated our eldest's 6th birthday. We kept it eco and nature-themed ... sending out our Earth Greeting's turtle invites and making a Spider Cake on little one's request.

Fortunately I have a copy of Additive Free Kid's Parties at home which has an organic chocolate and pumpkin spider's cake recipe in it. Licorice is used for the legs. There was also a receipe for mini spiders made from homemade marzipan too.

I added some cupcakes with little raspberry worms.

Organic nuts, chocolate covered fruit, chips and homemade dips were purchased locally from our farmer's market and organic store and my family added some fruit platters.

Jonathan transformed six small cardboard boxes into monster trucks complete with logos on the side and stuck colourful numbers on the front, placing holes in each side of the boxes so string could be used to place over our racer's shoulders.

A large drawn spider's web was pasted on a large flattened cardboard box with paper spiders used for "pin the spider on the web".

We were ready for the day ...

Despite predictions of rain only the day before it was a gorgeous day with soft early spring sunlight brightening our afternoon.

We chose the local park and playground, just in case the weather did turn sour and we had to get back to our home. The park can get very popular on a Saturday afternoon and so we made sure we were there early to set up and get one of the picnic tables.

When 60 or more pensioner's got off a bus and descended on the barbeque area with an hour before the party was to begin we feared the atmosphere may be subdued. But fortunately swings and seasaws were not what they were interested in.

Buntings were placed around a small gazebo we had set up with a fold out table holding up our organic cotton tablecloth and yummy organic party food and tableware. The park's wooden picnic table was a great place to put a gas camping stove to boil water for teas and coffees.

The park was an excellent venue, it felt wonderfully warm and a natural environment, with grandparents well needed to keep an eye on the children who ran off to explore as Mums and Dads chatted around the food.

The first annual monster truck race was held and all 6 racers were excited to don a cardboard creation. The race was from the purple ribbon up and around the small tree and back past the ribbon.

"On your marks, get set, GOAT ... ". A restart was organised as they were only allowed to start on "GO".

The birthday boy is a fierce competitor and so as he approached the tree he tried to get into a better position and got knocked down. As he sprawled across the grass, tears streaming he was heard to say "its my birthday I want to win".


Ten minutes later and he was ready to race again and this time he was the easy winner. Thanks to all the racers who allowed the birthday boy that little gift.

Next was Doggy Doggy Who's Got Your Bone? A lovely game where a child sits in the middle of a circle and has to guess who took the bone from his back. (In this case we actually used a hammer and not a real bone, you can also use a stick, a peg etc).

What's The Time Mr Wolf was next. A very popular game. And finally Pin The Spider on The Web.

Prizes were handed out for all competitors and included some lovely character finger puppets.

As a party favour our Grow Your Own Garden Party Favour Pack (Click HERE for more info) was popular. We cut circles from the brown paper we use for our packaging, placed them around the small pots, tied them with string and wrote each child's name in crayon on them. A small sunflower seed was placed in each pot.

Clean up was easy! We placed all the compostable tableware and left over food into our biodegradable bags and took them home to help grow our own garden.

All ready for our next blog ... how to compost your tableware after the party.