BP#1 High Tea in the Park

This is what we did for Ben's first birthday. We held it at Roma St parklands (on the grass between the lake and the ringroad - for Brisbane people), and had people bring their own picnic rugs/chairs to sit on. As with most first birthday parties, it was a mainly adult gathering, with a group of one year olds, as well as a group of toddlers.

Details of the party plan are a bit sketchy as it was a while ago now and I didn't record my plan like I do now. But this is what I do have:

Invitations: We think it was a photo print with text on it. It asked guests to bring a plate of food to contribute to the 'High Tea'.

Decorations: We strung a few balloons in the trees we were sitting under, mainly to help people locate exactly where we were in the park.

Food: As I said we asked the guests to bring a plate of food, so I didn't actually make anything. I did get my mum to make some smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches.

Drink: There was hot water in a thermos for the adults to make tea (a selection of fancy flavours), as well as juice for those wanting a cold drink.

Cake: It was a Noah's ark cake. I got the directions from here. Instead of baking the cake myself, I ordered slab cakes from Woolworths and cut to the appropriate shape (I used 2 layers of cake for the ark). It was a pretty ambitious cake to make, the royal icing animals were a fair bit of work - lots of different colours and detail.

Activity: For the older kids we had crayons for them to draw/decorate their party bags and then filled them with a small ball and a small box of dried fruit.

Party thank-you: As I said, each child got a small ball and box of dried fruit.