Our magical creature, Miss Astrid Élodie is now 7!  My goodness she grown in the last year, losing the last of the little girl looks and looking very grown up with her new adult teeth.  The hair still gets longer and the smile is just as cheeky and the tantrums just as ferocious, so some things never change!

For her 7th birthday we had promised a party, and in true Astrid style she decided it was going to be epic.  She is currently a lover of all things mystical and magical and decided on a ‘magical creatures’ party, featuring unicorns, mermaids, fairies and the odd dragon!  Nothing like a challenge for her poor parents…..  Luckily we made one very happy 7-year-old, read-on for all the details about how to turn 7, Astrid style!

The birthday morning started bright and early with presents from Mum, Dad and Soren.  Miss Astrid was in heaven with her haul of fairy, unicorn and mermaid bits and pieces along with plenty of science and craft projects for the upcoming school holidays……….

As is traditional, the birthday girl got to pick her own breakfast.  This year it was panettone French toast, with caramelised banana and whipped cream………..

After all that sugar, and full of birthday excitement, Astrid was off to school and Soren preschool for the day.  Apparently when you are 7, getting to go to school on your birthday is a highlight, especially when Mum and Dad have prepared caramel popcorn cups to share with your whole grade!

Being a Winter Solstice baby, it’s always a cold and short day on her birthday but Astrid spent the afternoon playing with some of her new loot and having a bit of a dance outside in the Winter sunshine.  She is definitely growing up too quickly………… As is also tradition on a birthday, Miss Astrid got to pick what she’d like for dinner.  This year she opted for Indian, at ‘Ramas‘ a  local restaurant that she was keen to return to.  Granny, her uncles, Aunt Alison and her cousin Bob also made it to dinner (the other grandparents are on overseas adventures currently). Of course there were more presents, and more than enough delicious Indian food to keep us all warm on a very cold Friday night!

With the official birthday over, the weekend was upon us and it was full tilt into ‘magical creature party mode’.  Every year I swear I’m never going to do this again, and those kids convince me!  Luckily they are pretty good at helping out these days and while the ideas and requests don’t get any easier, I do make them assist with their crazy requests.

This year Astrid diligently made all the party bags and wrote on all the labels. It may have taken her several afternoons after school, and I’ve pretended not to notice how many lollies she ate in the mean time, but she had fun doing it.  On party day she helped set up the drinks table, complete with unicorn straws and masks, and helped decorate the house with unicorn, mermaid and fairy paraphernalia………

The finished party table did look rather impressive adorned by some colourful helium balloons purchased by Granny. The birthday cake entirely fulfilled the very detailed request Astrid had given me.  In order to up the ‘cake challenge’ to a new level, she requested a cake with a pond with a mermaid in it, toadstools with fairies and a unicorn.  I even managed to include a fairy riding a unicorn and Anto did a fabulous job helping me create edible cake toadstools.  Astrid was delighted, and her parents were impressed that we’d finished the cake by 8:30pm the night before the party, rather than the usual midnight!

Not only was the cake done early, but we managed to get all the food and party set-up done in record time.  This was definitely assisted by Uncle Mikl and Aunt Triona helping with the last-minute food prep and Granny, who despite breaking her ankle a week earlier, did a mountain of baking and food preparation both before the party and on the day.

In keeping with the party theme Astrid dressed as a fairy (in her favourite velvet dress) and Soren was a ‘Icelandic puffin in a fairy skirt’.  I made my seven-year-old forever grateful by wearing a giant unicorn onesie, the things you do for your kids!

We had plenty of fun preparing the magical feast for the magical creatures party.  On the menu was:

• Unicorn popcorn
• Mermaid cupcakes
• Fruit fairy wands
• Mermaid and sea creature jellies
• Unicorn and caticorn sugar cookies
• Fairy crackles
• Mermaid tail fairy bread
• Mermaid shells
• Apple and marshmallow toadstools
• Unicorn pizzas
• Spinach magic garden dip
• Hot cheesey cob loaf
• Home made sausage rolls, cheese & bacon and mushroom & brie quiches

The party table was both colourful and delicious and the kids did not take long to get into the sugar-fest.  The adults did a pretty good job too! No one ever goes home hungry after a Camelid Castle birthday party!

Astrid loves to colour so she had set up a colouring station with unicorns and rainbows.  It was a hit with plenty of the kids and there was some fantastic colouring during the afternoon,

Many of the kids took the challenge of dressing as a ‘magical creature’. There was no shortage of onesies  either, perfect attire for a Winter’s afternoon! 

The girls were regularly found gathered around the table (or under the stairs) stuffing their faces with sugar. The big girls, sipped wine and wore unicorn heabands!  

Just because it was 8 degrees outside didn’t mean the kids didn’t want to be out in the sunshine.  There was some bubble fun, followed by a chance to smack a giant unicorn head filled with lollies. Seven and eight year old girls are a little bit terrifying. They hit just as hard as the boys and when the head finally split open the girls were first down onto the ground in a massive lolly scrum, elbowing the poor unsuspecting boys and 2 & 3 year olds out of the way!

Somehow we survived the pinata experience with no injuries, and with bags full of sugar the kids were happy to head inside and help Astrid cut her cake.

With the ‘seven sparkler’ and candles alight there was a hearty round of ‘happy birthday’ sung and Astrid dug into her magical creatures cake, which was pretty delicious………
The kids (and adults alike) all seemed to have a wonderful time, and all bounced out the door full of sugar and energy not long before dark.  Astrid finished off the party weekend by opening the presents from party goers, helped by Soren and her cousin Bob.  She again scored a wonderful array of gifts, lots of fantastic new chapter books, craft and science activities and some great jewellery and headbands.

She was thoroughly spoilt and is loving playing and creating with her new items.   School holiday activities are sorted! I  am currently trying to ignore the number of times I busted her reading one of her new books at 5.30am……

Some thoroughly exhausted kids made it to bed at the end of party weekend and the adults spent quite a long time cleaning icing, sprinkles and glitter off every surface in the house.   Before we collapsed, exhausted ,after another birthday extravaganza, wishing we’d had more wine and less sugar!  A big thank you to Mikl and Di for their help with food, set-up and cleaning up and not murdering the over-excited, sugar-fueled children.

Seventh birthday celebrations are now done and dusted and it’s hard to believe what a big year it’s been for Astrid.  She has travelled to a host of new countries, revisited some of her favourite countries again, shot up in height, lost teeth, grown teeth, become a very good bike rider and of course argued with us until she is blue in the face!  Her 7th year was full of fun and adventure, and I have no doubt the 8th will be the same.  Happy 7th birthday Miss Astrid, it was certainly magical…………