The childrens party

In the glorious sunshine today, the eldest son and I attended the birthday party of the third daughter of Newly Single. Now to me this was a big event, as Newly Single and I attended each others birthday parties in the 70's. Now we are the big 40 and our children have taken over the mantle. The great thing was, nothing had really changed. The same things I remember with fondness were repeated today much to the delight of the boys and girls. Pass the Parcel and Musical Chairs were the order of the day and food was cocktail suasages, sandwiches, crisps, homemade
buns ( plain, iced and rice crispie )and cake....just lovely. Back in our day BMM used to bring us over to Newly Singles Mamas ( who will from now on be known as the Duracell Bunny (DB) !) and they had an extra game.....the tasting game. I think this particular game began my foodie personality.DB would blindfold us and then get us to taste 4 items of food on a teaspoon and we had to guess what it was. Now, in case you have visions of those posh Japanese hors doeuvres spoons with a lobster claw on a bed of steamed noodles topped with a tiny edible flower, think Weetabix, Mustard, Tomato Ketchup and sugar !Repulsive !The only reason I did not bear a grudge against the DB forever was that she followed this game by serving up the same homemade buns and cake as we had to today, which gently and beautifully washed away the hideous taste in my mouth.
Now BMM was also a great woman for parties, making everything fromm scratch. She made incredible birthday cakes in the shape of pirate ships, bunnies in bed, horses and stables...you name it she tried it ....and succeeded !No one wanted to cut the bunnies in bed cake with it's little bedside tables with lamps on !Now the funny thing about our very priviliged birtday party history is that, as a result of always having amazing home made buns, cakes, chocolate peppermint squares, marshmallow treats and rice crispie buns, we craved butter iced shop bought cake !Yes, while our mothers slaved in the kitchen for some days before our parties, spent the night before icing our cakes, and hand decorated every bun, we looked forward to the parties with the big fat bright yellow Spicers cake.......kids !
By the way the fabulous cup cake stand and cake decorations are from Sage and Stone !