Sunnie's Ballerina Party


Its August and in our family we are lucky to have 3 birthdays to celebrate. That means lots of cake! To start off the month our gorgeous daughter Sunnie turned 6 and she wanted a ballerina-themed party.

I started off scouring the internet for ballerina party ideas (see the collection we collated at our Pinterest link here). Our goal was to find ideas that we liked and suited our home and where possible make them eco friendly. As the Mum of the ballerina girl I went to op shops and searched the house for material and trinkets.

I found some pretty pink curtains from the local second-hand store and lots of old pink sheets in her cupboard (I was saving them to make bunting) which I used to section the storage boxes off in our small backyard shed to create a little ballet studio complete with tutu hanging from the ceiling and dance costumes for the girls to dress up in. All borrowed of course.

We invited 25 children and with siblings we had 30 little ones running around. A party with this many children isn't difficult it just takes a lot of forward planning and good organising.

As we had beautiful children with a vegan appetite coming to the party we kept the food simple, healthy and wholesome. Bliss balls, popcorn, fruit salad, coconut balls (not vegan), dried figs, corn chips, guacamole dip and pizza. I made vegan pizza as well. We had two drinking dispensers which contained water in one and homemade lemonade in the other. Plus we had apple juice and flavoured mineral water in the fridge.

Sunnie's brave Dad lead the 30 children to some fun activities which included "Ballerina Says" (like Simon Says), Musical Statues, Ballerina/Fairy Quiz and a Treasure Hunt around the garden.

A Groovy Green Fair


We were recently asked by the team at dirtgirlworld to donate a prize to a school, kindy or child care centre judged the winner of "the littlest ever world environment day eco-Carnivale" held on World Environment Day - June 5.

The winner was the Alstonville Public School in New South Wales who held a Groovy Green Fair, exceededing all expectations for the dirtgirlworld crew. Here are some details: 

"Starting when the clouds lifted flooding the school with sunshine, it was a blessed beginning to our World Environment Day event. As the gates opened, enthusiastic visitors were greeted by colourful stalls selling a variety of wares from fresh produce, plants, local gourmet delights, handmade jewellery and pottery too, cakes and slices, a monster garage sale and the list goes on and on. 

Eco Ocean Party


Last Saturday we celebrated our second son's fourth birthday with an "Ocean Party". The theme transpired when our son wanted a 'shark' birthday cake.



 
We made it as eco friendly as possible decorating the home with felt and material bunting, ecoGarlands and tissue balls. We re-used as much as we could using material we already owned. So it was very much a hand-made party.


 
We decked out the back shed with blue tarpaulins and bed sheets to create an "aquarium" where the little ones could enjoy some chilled out play. We hung green material from the beams for seaweed (which grandma wants back so she can make a fairy dress for our daughter) and cut out a shark's head from cardboard for fun photos. 

Weeks before the party Mum and the birthday boy kept busy making fish and jelly fish out of eco party plates and up-cycled material. 

Donating to Sea Shepherd Australia

Sea Shepherd Australia recently got in touch asking us if we could donate some biodegradable plates, cutlery and napkins for a brunch fundraising event on the 19th of May, in which they catered for approximately 150 people.

One of our organic cotton finger puppets became a stowaway.
We miss you Tommy Turtle. Have a safe adventure!
Helping support the great work of worthy environmental organisations like Sea Shepherd is one of our goals - and considering the great work the Sea Shepherd crew do in protecting whales from illegal Japanese whaling fleets in Antarctica, all while operating as a not-for-profit group run solely on donations to run their kitchen, deck and entire ship - we were happy to help.

Currently all three of their ships are docked at a Melbourne pier while undergoing repairs from their confrontations at sea.

Their last campaign (ninth in total) Operation Zero Tolerance saw them save the lives of 932 threatened, endangered and protected whales.