Miss J turned eight last week and we celebrated with a party at home. The birthday girl couldn’t decide if she wanted a craft party, or a movie party, so we decided to do both! Given we now only do parties once every second year (best decision ever) I figured we could double the fun! 15 girls (including her sisters) had a fabulous time crafting in the afternoon, and then watching a flick in the evening. It was a terrific success. 

In order to ease my load, and reduce the stress that inevitably comes with hosting a home party, I decided to outsource most of the catering. I’ve done my fair share of Fairy parties, Garden Parties and Rainbow parties and, whilst fun, they are A LOT of work. This year I had neither the time nor the will to spend hours in the kitchen preparing. So I bought a selection of tasty treats from Chantal’s Patisserie and I ordered sushi and sausage rolls for dinner. Easy. All I had to do was the cake. But what cake did the birthday girl request? A Mermaid Cake!! 

After being completely intimidated by the results from my Pinterest search, I settled for a “cheats version” of a Mermaid cake. Instead of mermaid scales and fondant, I opted for mermaid tails and buttercream. This made it much more achievable. The cake itself was three layers of white chocolate mud cake, iced with turquoise buttercream and decorated with fondant tails and white chocolate shells and sea creatures. Birthday girl LOVED it! 

The party went from 4.00p-8.00pm, which was the longest party I’ve ever had at home. I usually find that two hours is tops, but because of the movie component it really had to be this long. The party guests spent the first hour or so crafting with Oober Oonies by Moose Toys. This product has just landed in Australia so none of the guests had seen it before (one of the perks of working on the social media for Moose Craft!). It is also LOTS of fun with LITTLE mess (an absolute must if you’re going to host a craft party!). Then the girls ate dinner, got changed into their pyjamas and settled in front of the TV with popcorn to watch The Greatest Showman. 

Here are some photos from the party. If you have any questions, just pop them in the Comments section below and I’ll respond. And if you want to see some of the other parties I have hosted over the years, just type ‘Party” into the search bar or click on the links in this post.

Miss J’s Craft Party

Do you host parties at home or do you outsource? And do you give your kids parties every year? Tell me the truth, do you like them or loathe them? 🙂