When you have a sick child, those every day things that other families take for granted sometimes become dreams and hopes that always seem just out of reach. Things like going for a walk to the park, cuddles in bed in the morning, sharing a big stack of homemade pancakes for breakfast and dancing around the living room in your pjs. And then there are birthdays.

Chronic illness meant little Ruby had already spent more than seven months of her young life in hospital when it came time to celebrate her second birthday, so mum Rebecca crossed her fingers (and everything else) that her daughter would be well enough to be home on the day and threw herself into the planning. It was as much to provide a distraction from the heartache of Ruby’s illness and ongoing hospital treatment for the entire family, including big brother Jack, as for the party itself.

Rebecca initially chose a rainbow theme for the celebration, but had no luck finding an invitation she liked. So, undaunted, she dumped the rainbow and went with rainbow-inspired bright colours instead, helped along by an entire collection of customised printables found over at Etsy’s Pretty Girl Designs, including those hot pink and chevron chocolate bar wrappers.

Tissue paper pompoms and polkadot lanterns that dangled over the lollipop and love hearts sweets table (pictured top) came from Specklefarm, while the chevron loot bags, bright paper straws and lollipop candle came from Hey Yo Yo. Those plastic drink bottles – more toddler-friendly than the ultra-popular mini glass bottles spotted at just about every party these days – were a Bon Bon Boutique find.

Now how’s this for dedication. Rebecca wanted little chocolate hearts as favours for the grown-ups, but rather than opting for ready-made hearts, she made them herself and handwrapped each one individually in foil paper found at Spotlight to match the colours of the party theme. Ah, a mum after my own party-mad heart!

Ruby’s illness means she can’t eat or drink normally and the plucky toddler instead is fed through a tube, making planning a party menu a rather bittersweet experience for Rebecca. She crammed it with all manner of party treats that she hopes her daughter will get to try for herself one day – chocolate crackles, marshmallow pops, jelly slice, coconut balls, honey joys and heart-shaped fairy bread.

While Ruby couldn’t eat the birthday cake, it sure provided a feast for her eyes! Resplendent on the outside with rows and rows of sugar hearts placed just so, it had bright rainbow layers inside and came from Bell’s Cakes in Geelong, as did the buttercream-topped cupcakes. The pretty plates and wooden cutlery, painstakingly handstamped to match by Rebecca, came from Sweet Style.

Now please join us in two great big cheers for the brave birthday girl and her equally brave mumma! Our birthday wish to your family, from the very bottom of our hearts, is that the doctors will soon be able to find a cure for Ruby’s illness so that you can get back to doing all those wonderfully mundane things that other families so often take for granted.

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

As far as birthdays go, it’s always been about the cake. Now, suddenly, it’s all about the candles.

These sweet-as-pie candle holders from The Small Object will turn any birthday cake into an eye-catching work of culinary art worthy of the biggest birthday cheers, even the wonkiest homemade one.

So whether you need to distract from a less-than-perfect coat of icing, or whether your baking skills are exemplary and these cuties just make you smile, we’re thinking they might make a rather distinctive addition to your party supplies drawer.

Made from wood and hand-painted with the cutest expressions, the holders fit standard birthday candles and have a sturdy pick on the bottom to make sure they don’t topple headfirst into your Swiss meringue buttercream.

Celebration candles cost £10.95 each for the cupcake cutie head versions (top) or £18.75 each for the kid-shaped variety (below) from Little Baby Company, plus shipping. A candle is kindly included with each holder. We say hip-hip-hooray to that!

Want to know what happens when colour blocking makes the leap from catwalk to cake? Something totally stupendous, as you’re about to find out!

Melbourne mum Beth tells us she was inspired by her twin boys’ wardrobes when settling on a theme for their first birthday party recently. As an easy way of telling the boys apart in the early days, Aidan became the “blue” twin and Ollie the “green” one, a dress code of sheer convenience that has since stuck. Add in the yellow walls of their shared nursery and there you have it – one spectacular party!

Beth, a digital art director, designed the rather lovely invites herself. We love the cute stylised images of her boys and how she incorporated the green, blue and yellow party palette into things. We also love how the sketches of the boys clasping oversized yellow balloons were an unexpected harbinger to invited guests of things to come.

Now have another look at the party table. Looks like a professional stylist went to town on it, yes? Not so. The eye-catching decorations – from the paper garland backdrops to the pompom-trimmed party hats to the yarn-wrapped letters spelling out ‘One’ – were all made by Beth, drawing inspiration from everyone’s favourite party-planning tool, Pinterest.

Beth so wanted to make the cake and macaroons herself too, but when disaster followed disaster with her test baking efforts, she finally admitted defeat and went to The Cake Company instead.

That’s how her boys ended up with the be-all and end-all of ruffled birthday cakes – a divine white chocolate and raspberry number. Now how about this for a sentimental touch. Aidan and Olie’s grandfather had special cake knives engraved for each boy that read “Make your wishes, dream your dreams… and may they all come true”. They were used, with much ceremony, to cut the cake and will be used, we’re sure, for many more birthdays to come.

While the birthday cake and macaroons, in all their passionfruit, jasmine and lime-flavoured loveliness, were outsourced, Beth and husband Michael did manage to make some very edible treats themselves, including cupcakes, cute fruit-topped custard tartlets and chocolate balls. Michael’s grapefruit punch was also a hit, served up in a fancy drinks dispenser shipped all the way over from Pottery Barn.

Now remember those freckle-faced bubbas and oversized yellow balloons on the invitations? Here they are, come to life in the cutest possible way! Beth found the giant round balloons at one of my favourite online stores, Lark.

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

If the thought of your baby turning one and taking a sudden leap into toddlerhood has you feeling all blue, then this is definitely the party for you!

Mum Lyndall took the blue-for-boys theme to happy extremes when her little guy turned one recently, taking inspiration from Jaiken’s bluer-than-blue eyes to create a party where every little detail was spot on, starting with the invitation that was custom-designed by Pixels Plus Paper to match the blue ombre tone. We like the accompanying gift suggestion tag, a little bit of subtle help for guests who need a bit of prompting about what might be appropriate when it comes to toys for one-year-olds.

See all the blue? It’s unmissably there in the blue tableclothes and servingware, as well as in much of the edible offerings over at the sweets table, with its abundance of macarons in not one, but three pretty shades of blue. They came from Sydney patisserie Sugar Egg Flour. If you’re curious about the flavours, Lyndall tells us they were vanilla bean, salted caramel and choc hazelnut. Bucketloads of blue lollies from party shop Sweet Style, mini blueberry meringue parfaits, star-shaped brownies and butterscotch popcorn in blue spotted cups from Pink Lemonade party boutique sat side-by-side with healthier fruit wands.

Here’s an idea we totally love – the party table backdrop. Lyndall chose a selection of her very favourite photos from Jaiken’s first year and had them enlarged and printed to create a photo wall for guests to admire. Very simple, very personal and very, very eye-catching. Another personal touch was the sweet bib made just for Jaiken by Dainty Couture (pictured top). Of course, the piéce de résistance was the birthday cake, a marvellous blue ombre ruffled number from Simple Ingredients. A vanilla bean sponge layered with white chocolate ganache, Lyndall served it up to appreciative gifts with a scoop of honey macadamia ice cream.

Most of the child guests were babies like Jaiken so rather than lolly bags, they all received a blue bubble wand to take home, zhuzhed with a little matching baker’s twine and personalised gift tags. Grown-ups received a cute box of macarons, displayed to twin perfection in little clear favour boxes from Jenny Pong Studio on Etsy, and as many lollies as they could fit into the blue chevron paper bags, another Sweet Style find.

Now here’s the birthday boy enjoying the day with his doting parents – we can certainly see why people stop Lyndall in the street to comment on his eyes.

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

It won’t come as a surprise to any reader to hear that between us, the Babyology team has a LOT of experience with parties and cakes. So I knew I was in for something special when an email arrived from Mandi telling me she had just been to a party where “a lovely woman made amazing cakes and cupcakes – we need to do a review!” She was right.

Tortine Boutique Cakes is located in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and customers can either pick up their order directly or have it delivered within the Sydney metropolitan area. You can choose between full size decorated cakes, cupcakes or stunning decorated cookies. Large cakes come in three flavours (chocolate, chocolate mud and delicious white chocolate mud) and if you decide to go for cupcakes you also have the option of gluten-free.

You can get in touch with Tortine Boutique Cakes directly to discuss your ideas and get an exact quote for your cake order, but as a general rule, individual cupcakes begin at $2.50 each, and individual decorated cookies at $3 each.

The pictures speak for themselves, so click over to Tortine Boutique Cakes and have a look at their whole gallery.

Birthdays are a big deal to kids. And while some people seem to throw fabulous children’s parties without missing a beat, most of us are content to focus on the cake. But what if the cake has you feeling a bit overwhelmed?

Brisbane-based Cake 2 the Rescue has more than one hundred cake kits with everything needed to make, decorate and display the kind of cake that will have the masses eating out of your hand. With kits beginning at $29.95 (most are $39.95), for just a little effort you can have a knockout cake while still saving the small fortune it would cost to have it produced by a professional.

The cake kits include all the ingredients for your cake (except the milk, eggs and butter), as well as the tools you’ll need, complete instructions and even the cake board and candles. They have thought of everything. The disposable cake tins even arrive already greased. That is ease of cooking, my friends. Just mix the batter, pour it in and you’re halfway there.

They even have kits for twins and triplets! Postage costs for your kit are $9.95 within Australia, or slightly more if you’d like express post. Head over to Cake 2 the Rescue to see all the designs and get the lowdown on where to start. Our thanks to reader Kate for putting us on to this one!

Just in case the first part of our party roundup wasn’t quite enough eye-candy for you, we’re back with even more party-throwing ideas and inspiration!

Hudson’s Harry Potter party had to be seen to be believed – the book cake is positively magical! Jars of potions and all things Hogwarts brought the Harry Potter theme alive.

Our very own Managing Editor, Mandi, was thrown a high-tea style baby shower before Audrey’s arrival and not one thing was spared! Guests feasted on sweet morsels of chocolate cake and lemon meringue between cups of tea and ribbon finger sandwiches.

Now to the most party passionate person I know, Babyology’s Nikki crossed all the t’s and dotted the i’s with every detail thought of and beautifully executed when throwing daughter Isobel’s Wonderland birthday party. You really need to feast your eyes upon her table decorating – there are even mice peeking out of teapots!

What child doesn’t love a bit of construction action – it was churned out in spades for Marc’s Construction party. A DIY theme, guests could help themselves to awesome tool shaped biscuits plus ‘drive’ their very own cardboard bulldozer – amazing!

Remember if you want to share your own baby shower or birthday party with us, then just fill in this form on our Contact Us page. While we can’t reply to every email, we will be sure to let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait hear from you and look forward to seeing your beautiful parties!

Hang on to your party hats Babyologists, we’re taking you on a re-cap journey through the amazing parties seen here on Babyology!

Your birthday parties and baby showers never fail to inspire the Babyology team and our other readers too! So with that in mind, have your Pinterest fingers ready to pin your favourite ideas as we recap some of last year’s parties – just click on the link.

Remember Ivy’s  exquisite Marie Antoinette birthday party? Such awe-inspiring attention to every single detail was shown in this party to mark little Ivy’s first year – and the pink ruffle cake looks positively divine, and equally delicious, we’re sure!

Perhaps one of the most exciting parties of all is a baby shower – welcoming a baby (or two in Claire’s case!) into the world is great cause for celebration and Claire’s baby shower was brimming with elegant fare. What a fantastic touch the beverage dispensers made!

One of the cutest cakes I’ve seen, is this beauty from Archie’s bunny bunting birthday party with its darling sugar crafted bunny sitting proudly atop. Archie celebrated his first birthday with a fabulous blue, red and white colour scheme and beautiful bunting details.

Often a favourite book of littlies (and not so littlies) is the Eric Carle classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar so it’s only natural that it makes a perfect theme for a child’s party. Rowan’s Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday bash was filled with a plethora of Hungry Caterpillar-themed goodies for invitees to much their way through, including an amazingly decorated cake, cookies and cupcake treats!

Stay tuned for the second part of our party roundup!

Can a kids’ birthday party be astonishingly simple yet incredibly lavish at the same time? It most certainly can, and here’s the proof!

This beautiful Scandinavian fox party was created by party stylist (surprise, surprise!) Thetis Sardo, of Little Sooti fame, for her own daughter Zoe’s third birthday. Eye-catching to the nth degree, this is one very original celebration that we simply had to show you.

Each element of Zoe’s party is strikingly simple on its own – the black and white striped tablecloth, the classic white servingware holding their trio of treats and the selection of Zoe’s favourite toys (all with a Scandinavian connection, I might add) for a pop of colour.. But put it all together and, well, all I can say is wow!

I love Thetis’ matter-of-fact honesty in revealing that while she can sure style a mean party, she contracts out the trickier bits. Like the party baking. The sweet treats of macaroons, cupcakes (both above) and striped cookies (below) came from the talented hands of Helen at Kiss My Cakes, along with the rather impressive birthday cake.

I’m also digging the fox masks laid at each place setting, right near the plain cardboard lunch boxes used to hold each guests’ party food. Each box contained a sandwich, muesli bar, muffin, a handful of chips and a drink.

The invitations and other graphics came from Ham and Pea, as did that stunning bespoke backdrop, in all its mod art glory. Ham and Pea director Li-Ann, you may remember, is the creative brain behind the toy soldier and yum cha parties featured on Babyology previously.

The party itself was held at kids art and crafts studio Petit Atelier in the Melbourne suburb of Prahran. Thetis tells us guests painted their own foxes on canvases as part of the fun and then heard a telling of children’s book Hattie and the Fox.

When it was home-time, guests took away with them a petite muslin bag bearing a fox logo containing some small novelties, sweets and a stamp. Here it is, along with the paper geometric garlands made by Dandy and Darling used to decorate the party space.

Now here’s the happy-as-a-fox birthday girl with a smile that tells us one important thing – she had the time of her little life!

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

(images via Lee Bird Photography)

What’s big and loud and has a ferocious appetite? A bunch of preschoolers at a dinosaur party, that’s what! After being in the front row for his sister’s pretty-as-a-picture Alice in Wonderland party and his big brother’s bold and brash Lego bash in the weeks leading up to his own birthday, my youngest child Will had big plans for his special day. Dinosaur sized plans, in fact. And of course, I came to the party in a T-Rex sized way.

I wanted an earthy, Jurassic-like jungle feel for Will’s party, so searched high and low for wooden plates and platters to use on the sweets table, then raided my mum’s kitchen for lots of green 70s glassware. In the end, I was still short a platter or two, so just covered white tableware with brown paper. Problem solved! Hessian swathed over the sweets table lent just the right rustic air, and I made a party banner from hessian and dark green felt to decorate the front of the table too, threading it onto thick jute found at Spotlight.

I’ve never bothered with menu tags on the sweets table at any of my parties before, but this time I made an exception, even though most of the guests didn’t know how to read! I couldn’t help myself after finding these cute blackboard tags at Occasion By Design.  I tagged one “carnivore” for a platter of tiny meatballs and dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, one “herbivore” for little pots of hummus and vegie sticks (and in my party colours of green, orange and brown too) and one “sweetivore” for a platter of mint leaves, grubs and gummy worms.

Other goodies included a fruit platter, swamp jellies, bone-shaped meringues, caramel popcorn, two types of dinosaur cookies that my elder son proudly helped ice, and vanilla cupcakes topped with buttercream “grass” and little toy plastic dinosaurs.

I also included, for their perfect eco-rustic earthy vibe, two once-common party treats that seem to have fallen out of favour in recent years – chocolate crackles (I make mine with real chocolate rather than copha) and honey joys. I’m not sure who was more excited to see these – the kids or the parents!

The birthday cake was a scrumptious  triple layered chocolate number filled with ganache and chocolate-flavoured Swiss meringue buttercream. Believe it or not, all those rocks on top are edible! They’re candy-coated chocolate. The kids couldn’t believe it! I hunted for months for a green cake stand to hold the birthday cake and almost gave up before finding this ruffle-edged one online at Amazon. It was perfect! The smaller green-footed cake stand used for the chocolate crackles came from The Wooden Crate and the large green glass cake stand used for the cupcakes from Bon Bon Boutique.

The fierce T-Rex atop the cake and most of the other dinosaurs used to adorn the party tables came from my favourite toy shop in all the world, Tree Top Toy Shop in the inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick.

I’m a big stickler for kids always sitting down to eat, and my parties are no exception, so I created a base tent for my little paleontologists to have their refreshments in. We filled it with lots of ferns and palm trees for a jungle feel, and hid big inflatable dinosaurs amongst the foliage. My mother-in-law helped me make ten metres of bunting from hessian and dino fabric to hang inside, while two bamboo torches framed the doorway for another ooh-we’re-lost-in-the-jungle touch. My mum pitched in too, decorating a stool especially for the birthday boy to sit on.

Inside, a kid-sized table was set with wooden eco ware from Occasion by Design, with hot foods served inside darling little bamboo boat-shaped plates. Each place was also set with a party hat (plain hats made more dinosaur-like with a bit of coloured card and a glue stick by yours truly) and a pair of binoculars. The kids used these after their feast for a dinosaur egg hunt. I grabbed several bags of pull-apart plastic eggs at Easter (yes, that’s how far back I’ve been planning this one!) and put a small dinosaur toy inside each one before hiding them in the garden. It was hilarious watching the little ones peering through their binoculars with total seriousness as they hunted around the garden for dinosaur eggs.

I also filled the sandpit with dinosaur toys found for $2 a piece at Big W, then gave each kid a shovel and a paint brush so that they could dig them up. They had so much fun.

Then there was Dinosaur, Dinosaur, T-Rex (a Jurassic take on duck, duck, goose), and Pin the Horn on the Stegasaurus, using a game found on eBay, while Spotify provided the perfect dinosaur-themed soundtrack. Here’s the cute invitation that kicked things off. It came from Etsy store Sweet Pea Shirts and they even kindly told me which font they’d used so that I could replicate it on my home-made party banners and goody bag tags.

I found the perfect party bags at Lark, filling them with dino-themed lollies, stamps and stickers. The guests also took home their binoculars and all the dinosaurs they found in the dino dig and egg hunt. Phew, now after three parties in almost as many weeks, you’ll excuse me if I go and lie down for a month or three…

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

There’s nothing like summer to put you in the mood for a beach party. And nothing says beach party quite like a Hawaiian luau.

One can almost hear the ukuleles, the lapping waves and the squawking seabirds when gazing upon the party gloriousness that Melbourne mum Pascal created for her daughter Lara’s fifth birthday recently. Come and feast your eyes with us.

Lara chose the fun tropical luau theme in excited anticipation of the family’s pending Hawaiian holiday, and then Pascal got to work. The end result sure sings ‘tropical beach escape’ to me.

Pascal’s plan for the party was to make it fun in a way that would capture the imaginations of both the birthday girl and her twenty-two guests. Didn’t she achieve that in spades? (You’ll have to pardon the bad pun).

The birthday cake, with its perfectly executed ruffles and sweet fondant hula dancer, is a decadent chocolate number with layers of coconut buttercream. And would you just look at those cupcakes? Pina colada perfection in a patty pan, is all, topped with a handmade edible sea shell. Perfect! Here’s a secret cake-making tip – Pascal tells us the sand on the cakes is actually crushed plain Marie biscuits. How clever!

Pascal also made sea-green jellies, delicate cloud meringues, hand-threaded popcorn leis and flamingo-shaped coconut ice treats to tickle the guests’ tastebuds. And they washed it all down with aptly named Tiki water, sipped through a pretty paper parasol straw that Pascal found online at Party Post.

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that Pascal is a cake maker with her own fledgling small business, Sweet Republic, on the side. Take another long, careful look at the impressive party table though, and you’ll notice all Pascal’s styling ideas are deceptively simple and – even for us mere mortals – totally doable.

There’s the brilliant layer of sand that sets the beach theme, the grass skirts to edge the table (another Party Post find), an oversized shell and the upturned paper-covered buckets as impromptu cake stands. See? So simple, anyone can do it!

Each guest took home a hula hoop (hula, get it?) and a Hawaiian themed lolly bag. Now here’s the birthday girl with a smile to rival any you might see in Hawaii.

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

My eldest son is a Lego fanatic so when it came time for his eighth birthday, I wasn’t at all surprised when he declared he really, really, really wanted a Lego party! So, less than a month after my daughter’s Wonderland soiree, it was time to put my party hat on again and throw the best damn Lego party I could muster!

Lego these days has all sorts of dimensions – Ninjago, City, Heroes – that easily lend themselves to party themes, but Jack and I decided to go back to basics and use traditional Lego colours of yellow and red as the basis for his celebration, with a bit of green and blue thrown in for good measure.

Here’s the invitation, inspired by an idea I came across on Etsy. Jack constructed his name out of Lego with much aplomb and creativity, then we simply photographed it and added in the detail. On a Limb can make one to order for you, if you’re not so computer savvy.

I didn’t want my son to think his party was any less special than his sister’s, so I went all out again. (Oh the crazy things us mothers do!). You know that old saying, like kids in a candy shop? That’s exactly how the boys reacted when they saw the sweets table. I was absolutely thrilled to see their excitement when they saw all the sweet treats laid out just for them.

So what caught their eyes? How about jellies in Lego colours of green, blue, red and yellow. (Don’t you just love the spoon holder, easily made by Blu Tacking a minifigure onto a red Rice cup from Lark). Or soft drinks in the same bright primary Lego colours, with blue paper straws from Invite Me. Vanilla cupcakes and chocolate puddings were dressed with cute edible Lego fondant toppers found online, while m&m’s made for perfect Lego nubs on the sugar cookies. And they woofed down the chocolate Lego minifigures and sour Lego gummies that I made using silicone moulds found on eBay.

I even tried my hand at Lego head cake pops made from TimTams – something I will never, ever, ever try again after just about losing my mind! (Here’s my tip to you – don’t waste your money on a write-on edible ink pen. It won’t work! I ended up handpainting each face at two in the morning with a fine brush and a little royal icing!). Take a close look, you’ll see all the dodgy ones I hid at the back! Before I set the boys loose on the sweets, they feasted on little hotdogs, ‘Lego’ pizzas, fairy bread and homemade sausage rolls. Delish!

The birthday cake was a white chocolate mud number, layered with lemon curd and white chocolate ganache, all made into the shape of  Lego head using a recipe from my new birthday cake bible, Cake Decorating at Home. I coated it with Swiss meringue buttercream and cut out the eyes, brows and mouth details from licorice. Here is it on one of the natty and rather Lego-like Jansen & Co cake stands I found at The Wooden Crate. It disappeared faster than you can say “happy birthday”!

Now on to the decorations. I spent ages and ages making paper bunting in Lego shades of blue, green, red and yellow to festoon around the backyard marquee, but it was so shockingly windy on the party day that we pulled it all down shortly into the festivities and moved the party to the verandah and indoors instead. Isn’t that always the way? As guests arrived, we had them design their own minifigures, then used those drawings as decorations as well. I used this Lego minifigure printable found online.

We also had a guess-how-many-Legos-in-the-jar game, a Lego block tossing game (above) and a build-your-own invention game (below), which kept them nicely occupied while I set up the sweets table. If you look in the top corner of the next photo, you’ll see two giant bags full of yellow balloons – eighty-five balloons, to be precise. Twenty balloons contained a little Lego minifigure head, and one a little Lego man hat. The guests had to pop the balloons by sitting on them and those who collected the most minifigure heads won a prize, with a special prize for the cap finder. It was a riot!

The other game that proved a hit was a Lego relay – the boys were divided into two teams and had to race to fill a cup with tiny Lego pieces. They played this one over again.

I figured eight-year-old were too old for party hats, but I still wanted something that said “party”. So I was thrilled to find these free printable Lego masks online. I had them printed at my local Officeworks, then cut them out and secured them with hat elastic. The boys – and my gate-crashing daughter – loved them. That’s my birthday boy, right of centre in his cool Lego-like Amigos tee by Little Horn, found at Cradle Rock.

Here’s the low-down on the other small details. My mum made the Lego-yellow tablecloths and bright spotted table runners used to such perfect effect on both the sweets table and the kids’ table, while I made the happy birthday banner and the Lego-like name tags. It’s amazing what you can do with a free Lego font and a husband who knows his way around Photoshop! The red square plastic plates came from The Reject Shop (a last resort when the square paper plates I really wanted proved impossible to find, but here’s the thing – the boys didn’t care a hoot about the plates!) and the red and yellow serving bowls from a local party shop. The birthday boy made the serving dishes used to hold the cake pops and lollipops from Megabloks and Duplo bricks we already had at home.

When all the fun was over, the guests took home a mini Lego container found at Bloomsbury that we filled with Skittles, m&m’s and other small treats. They also scored a giant lollipop (pictured with individual name tags on the sweets table) and various prizes, including Lego minifigures, Lego pens, Lego sharpeners, water bottles, notebooks and other Lego licensed items found in the stationery aisles at Big W and Target. My son’s giant Lego head sorter came in very handy for holding all the prizes.

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

What kind of party do you give a little boy who’s mad on trucks and diggers? A construction party, of course.

That’s exactly what  Sydney mum Tanya did when her truck-mad son Marc turned three recently. And just like at a real construction site, Tanya did much of the grunt work herself. Come ogle with us at all her DIY cleverness.

Tanya set the scene for the party with a stack of hand-drawn diggers and other mechanical giants that she stuck here and there around the back yard, along with various road signs.

And would you just look at the fun wearable bulldozers she made from cardboard boxes for the kids to play in – we can certainly see why they were the hit of the day.

We’re in all sorts of love too with the tool belts that Tanya made for each guest, filling the pockets with plastic tools for the mini-workers to don on arrival, along with their very own hard hat. The guests were allowed to take these home after the party, tools and all – a great alternative to lolly bags.

Being a true DIY-er, Tanya even made the bunting, the menu cards and all the other party paperie on her home computer, using  printables from My Grafico.

When it came time for food, Tanya says she tried hard to strike just the right balance between sugary treats (it is a party, after all) and food that wouldn’t have the preschooler guests really trying to tear walls down.

My heart’s all aflutter over the adorable lolly tractors and I can’t help but be impressed by the gingerbread tools. Guests also munched their way through popcorn cups, cupcakes from the local bakery and a veritable truckload of lollies, along with the savoury fare. Now it’s time for a closer look at the birthday cake, pictured below in all its fondant glory with a concrete mixer perched jauntily on top. Yummo!

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

Here’s a pretty party that’s close to my heart. It’s my own daughter’s Alice in Wonderland celebration, so cue the rabbit hole and come take a look!

It hardly seems a year ago that I took you inside Isobel’s fairy garden party, and here we are again with a wonderfully whimsical Wonderland soiree for her fifth birthday that had everything except a Mad Hatter! And that’s only because I couldn’t convince my husband to put on a  top hat! I’m not sure who had more fun – me putting the party together or my daughter and the nine friends she invited to share her special day.

First up, I called once again on the awesomely talented Simone at Invite Me to help with an invitation and here’s what she came up with. Perfect! I prettied up the envelopes with some pink crochet lace tape – you can find similar fabric tapes locally at Chibi Run.

For the celebration itself, I wanted something terribly chintzy and over-the-top eclectic with an old-fashioned garden party feel – much like I’ve always imagined the tea party scene from Lewis Carroll’s classic book. So, party tragic that I am, I spent months and months tracking down vintage demitasse cups and cake plates from op shops and markets all over the place, and then sourced teeny-tiny teapots (used to hold pink lemonade) all the way from the States to go with them.The girls loved pouring their own ’tea’ and using real china!

That same whimsical, shabby chic vintage vibe was in the oversized ‘this way, that way’ signs from Etsy’s Ian and Lola that set the scene as guests arrived.

Ian and Lola customised an entire set of Wonderland printables for Isobel’s party, including a darling welcome sign for the gate (below) as well as Drink Me, Eat Me and Take Me tags. Other decorations included paper lanterns and tissue paper fans in the party colours of turquoise blue and hot pink, delicate butterflies, white rabbits galore and oversized playing cards from The Reject Shop that I threaded onto red ribbon to make bunting for the side path leading to our back garden. I hung it low enough so the guests would have to stoop in spots to get underneath – just like crawling through a rabbit hole!

More cards lined the pathway – I simply taped them onto thick wooden skewers and pressed them into the garden beds, while old-fashioned keys found on eBay dangled from trees alongside the card bunting.  My lovely mother-in-law sewed metres and metres of fabric bunting to decorate the party marquee and even made matching cushions for the chairs.

I made the Queen of Hearts party hats using a free printable from Mr Printables, then simply zhuzhed them up with some turquoise organza ribbon for the guests and some ostrich feathers and fancy red tulle roses found at Spotlight for the birthday girl.

Now on to the sweets table, decorated ever-so-prettily with a ruffled tablecloth and pink spotted table runner sewn by my mum and a happy birthday banner from Ian and Lola.

I went a little silly, with all sorts of treats from jellies, caramel popcorn and teapot-shaped sugar cookies to lemon curd cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes topped with strawberries or fondant roses, and heart-shaped jam shortbreads. Apart from the fairy floss, I’m proud to say I made it all myself. (Yep, there were a LOT of late nights in the lead-up to this party).

I also made teapot and teacup shaped white chocolates using a mould found online at Amazon. And I have always wanted to make those little retro teacup treats – you know, the ones made from Tic Toc biscuits, marshmallows, Freckles and Lifesaver lollies. Well, here they are!

Boiled sugar sweets and strawberry rock candy took pride of place in those two completely kitschy rabbit-shaped jars I found at the Reject Shop back at Easter (and in my party colours too!). Another glass jar from Invite Me was filed to the brim with watch lollies, and of course we needed musk sticks, marshmallow wands, pastel M&Ms and red heart chocolates as well.

It wasn’t all sugar. The girls also nibbled turkey and cucumber sandwiches – crusts removed, of course – and home-made chicken sausage rolls before attacking the sweets table. They also enjoyed pink milk, sipping it through cute heart paper straws that were another Invite Me find.

The pretty tiered cake stand used to hold the fairy floss and popcorn came from Lark, as did the sweet little paper boxes holding the popcorn, the bowls holding the strawberries and meringues and the small botanical cake stand used for the dainty white chocolate teapots. I found the other metal stand used for the jellies and the stunning blue glass stand at Bon Bon Boutique. Many of the other cake stands were already in my collection (sheesh, at last count I own nineteen!) but let me know if there’s one here that catches your eye and I might be able to tell you where I got it!

The ruffled birthday cake was a white chocolate number, layered with white chocolate ganache and lemon curd, then topped with Sweetapolita’s Swiss meringue buttercream. The cake recipe came from Zoe Clark’s fabulous book, Cake Decorating at Home. I so wanted to try a teapot shaped cake but my Miss fell in love with the ruffled cake from another reader’s Marie Antoinette party, and so pink ruffles it was! I have to tell you, it’s easier than it looks! The cute little teapot and teacup on top came from Big W and I found those perfectly Alicey flamingo candles (below) at my local IGA supermarket.

With all that food to prepare, I wisely decided to call on outside help to keep the party guests entertained and Siana from Zing Kidz in Melbourne came to my rescue. The most down-to-earth Alice ever, she had all the kids in stitches with her magic show and won them over completely with some glittery face painting. With dancing, balloon art and a real-life rabbit to pat, the guests didn’t have even a nano-second to be bored. She even threw in a few Wonderland-esque games, like this round-the-teapots roses relay and a sugar cube tossing game, much to their delight.

I also made flamingo croquet mallets, with a little hedgehog ball to boot, but by the time the girls got around to playing it, my husband went on a photography strike, claiming I had enough photos already. So you’ll have to make do with one I took as I was making them.

To finish, each guest took home their own little teacup, wrapped in a cute Martha Stewart gift bag, topped with a ‘Take Me’ tag and filled with miniature boiled lollies.

Now, no Alice party can really be complete without a resident dormouse, and here’s ours. The girls got a thrill to find him peeking from his own little teapot on their table. Then here I am, Babyology’s resident party tragic, with my beautiful birthday girl.

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

Here’s a birthday party to sort your muggles from your wizards. It’s Hudson’s most marvellous Harry Potter party, so grab your wand and let the magic begin!

Mum Kasey tells us her entire brood are huge Harry fans, so when her son suggested Hogwarts as the setting for his seventh birthday, they all put their heads together – and this is what they came up with.

The creativity and cleverness is rather phenomenal. Take this mesmerising display of glass jars that Kasey used to set the scene. She found all the jars at The Reject Shop, then took the kids on a supermarket excursion to see what Potter-esque goodies they could find to fit the Hogwarts theme. So pickled onions became hippogriff eyes,  candy teeth became muggles teeth, tinned spaghetti masqueraded as blood worms and white asparagus spears did double duty as dementor’s fingers.

I also love the way guests were ushered into the party through a brick “wall”to reach platform nine-and-three-quarters, where Hogwarts students catch their ride to school. Kasey found it at a local party shop in Sydney.

Many of the other props – the spiders, webs and even the owl – were things that Kasey already had lying about the house, commandeering them for Hudson’s special day. She also made all the tags, labels, signs and other printables herself.

Other bits and pieces, including the test tubes used to hold the drinks, the calico take-home goody bags and many of the treats stashed inside, came from US-based The Party Works. Goodies included fart bombs (blech!), popping candy, Deathly Hallow necklaces, toy cockroaches and spiders, lolly snakes, black cats and plenty more. Guests also took home ‘mandrake seeds’ – that’s pumpkin seeds to us muggles – in cute terracotta pots for planting.

Now take another look at the cake. Kasey made it herself and we’re certainly impressed. Made in the shape of Tom Riddle’s diary, it’s a rather yum-sounding red velvet cake with white chocolate ganache. Now see the sorting hat just behind the diary? It’s also a cake! White chocolate mud, to be precise. Kasey tells us there’s no magic at work here, just lots of patience and all the expert advice she could soak up from a cake-making course at Planet Cake.

The gingerbread cookies made in the shape of witches, flying broomsticks and owls (pictured below) came from Cookie Couture. We also dig the sorting hat piñata, custom-made by Paper Mache Sculptures on Etsy. And isn’t the Gringott’s Bank set-up fun? Kasey had plenty of more Potterish decorations scatered about, including giant spiders and snakes to represent other elements of the J.K. Rowling tale.

Now here’s the super-creative party wizard herself, all dressed up as Professor Minerva McGonagall to her son’s Harry Potter. Kasey, we’re super-impressed with your efforts!

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

Who says flopsy-tailed bunnies are just for girls? Here’s how to do a cute bunny-themed birthday, boy style.

Totally different, but just as sweet as the Hunny Bunny birthday we featured last year, Archie’s boyish bunny birthday is as cute as, well, as cute as a bunny! Throw in some cheery bunting, and you have a recipe for a perfect first birthday bash. Now here’s how mum Sally did it.

Sally sought inspiration from everyone’s favourite friend at party time – Etsy – to find the birthday invitation and all the party decorations, including the delicate confetti-like bunting and the happy birthday banner that adorn the sweets table. You’ll find them at Yellow Bird & Yellow Beard. The matching menu printables and thank-you tags pegged to the simple brown paper favour bags were another swell Etsy find, this time from Almost Sunday. Other bits and pieces came from Red Elephant Creative.

Sally wrapped plain cardboard boxes in some pale blue paper, a clever trick to give some height to the sweets table, which featured goodies including vanilla cake pops, giant lollipops, speckled bird’s eggs chocies and all sorts of lollies in eye-catching glass jars. The adorable bunting and heart biscuits came from Polka Dot Cookies.

Hello Naomi made the simply delightful cake, with its fondant bunting and jaunty bunny on top. Cute, cute, cute! Sally admits she was momentarily mortified at having to spoil such a lovely cake by running a knife through it. One bite though, and she soon got over it!

Now let’s all give a big cheer to the birthday boy, pictured here with his parents as they get down to business on the cake .

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

History can’t tell us for sure whether Marie Antoinette ever uttered those four famous words – let them eat cake. But we’re certain they were shouted with much gusto at this particular party.

So put on your frilliest frock, pick up a parasol and sashay with us over to Ivy Addison’s most magnifique first birthday! One of the most creatively-themed parties we’ve featured yet, Francophile mum Roslyn looked to Marie Antoinette for inspiration because she wanted a party fit for a (la petite) queen. Job done, we say!

Over-the-top and indulgent the Antoinette-era court at Versailles may have been, but it was spot-on perfect for this happy occasion. Reaching the milestone of Ivy’s first birthday was, Roslyn tells us, the ultimate blessing after a tenderhooks pregnancy preceded by four years of heartbreak, when miscarriage after miscarriage seemed certain to shatter her and husband Danny’s hopes of becoming parents again.

So if anyone deserves to go “completely overboard” (to steal Roslyn’s own words) at the joy of it all, we’re certain it’s this loving family. Roslyn found the perfect party invite and matching printables at Cutie Putti Paperie, adopting their girlish tints of pink, aqua, lavender and yellow as her daughter’s party colour scheme. Now, on to the party table.

Roslyn made the pretty ombre layered ruffle cake herself, carefully following instructions she found over at My Sweet and Saucy, with an apparently foolproof Swiss meringue buttercream recipe from Sweetapolita. Roslyn, who says she’s no cake baker, modestly assures us the whole thing was easier than the stunning end results would have you believe. We applaud her talent – getting buttercream right in the northern Queensland heat is no mean feat!

But Roslyn didn’t stop there. She made another cake too, topping it with a stunning handpainted piece of Marie Antoinette sugar art found at Etsy’s Alla Prima Designs, which arrived safely all the way from Texas, along with smaller fanciful toppers for Roslyn’s homemade cupcakes. She also kept herself busy making pretty pink chocolate-covered marshmallow pops and even prettier white chocolate and berry puddings, perfectly presented in mini glass pots with personalised spoons from Sweet Style.

Spotted paper straws and glass milk bottles, which Roslyn fancied up with lace paper doilies, came from The Little Big Company, while the fancy fan and cameo cookies came from Melbourne-based Dessert Menu Please. Roslyn’s sister-in-law Kristy (who perhaps should be in the cookie business herself!) kindly made the delish-sounding salted caramel macarons.

Ivy’s equally doting grandmother, Sue, whipped up the pretty ruffled tablecloth herself the day before the party, after flying in from her NSW home for the occasion. Those delightful ribbon and flower wand party favours below came from Pinwheels and Pearls, while Mrs Pom Pom can take credit for those decadent yet delicate balls of tissue floating atop the dessert table.

Here’s the birthday girl with her understandably besotted parents, all photographed most beautifully by Candice Van Moolenbroek. Yep, la petite queen, ma cherie, most definitely!

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

We know how much you love a good party roundup, so here are the amazing parties from the second quarter of the year!

The Show us your party section has proven to be one of our most popular additions to date and we recently invited you to not only show us your children’s birthday parties, but also your baby showers. Here’s what you shared with us in April, May and June. Just click on the links to get to the full editorial for each party.

India-Sophia’s dollhouse party thrilled you all senseless! The attention to detail was quite simply amazing.

Conversely, people adored the simplicity of Indi’s back-to-nature party.

Everybody loves a hands-on experience and cupcakes. The two were melded perfectly in Hayley’s cupcake baking party at Sparkle Cupcakery.

Warm yourself with the summer vision that is Charles’ beach birthday.

The work of Roald Dahl continues to spark the imaginations of people everywhere and Laila’s Willy Wonka birthday was no exception.

The news that there was a baby girl on the way prompted Ashiya’s pretty-in-pink baby shower.

Pink was also favoured at Leila’s polkadots & pinstripes in the park birthday.

Stay tuned for many more parties!

Birthday girl? Check. Birthday cake? Check. Good friends? Check. Well then, looks like we’ve got the makings of a very special birthday party indeed.

Mum Alana wasn’t sure her daughter’s back-to-nature birthday would pass our party muster when she sent in some snaps recently. Well, we say `who needs a super-swish dessert table when Mother Nature provides such a glorious backdrop?’.

The theme of this party, to celebrate Indi’s second birthday, was simple and relaxed. It’s the complete antithesis of life as we know it with a toddler in tow, but that just makes it all the more fitting, don’t you think?

Alana invited a bunch of their closest friends to bring their bathers for a picnic by a local creek near their home in Far North Queensland. The beautiful natural setting certainly didn’t need any embellishment, but we’re loving the nectar bottles with purple, white and yellow blooms that Alana hung from the trees to frame their picnic spot. A simple idea, yes, but simply stunning too. And when the party was over, each guest got their own little bottle bouquet to take home.

A small bunch of balloons in matching colours also added to the festive air as guests tucked into an organic spread of popcorn, crudites, homemade lemonade and even some organic lollies for a sweet birthday treat! We adore the popcorn bags – plain white paper versions from Spotlight that Alana decorated with a colourful splash of paint and a darling hand-drawn portrait of the birthday girl.  Again with the simple but stunning!

Alana skipped the usual icing-heavy birthday cake, opting instead to anchor the birthday candles into healthier zucchini and almond muffins she made herself. The kids didn’t mind a bit, and we hear there were no leftovers to take home.

Between all that feasting and lazing about on comfortable picnic rugs, the children (and grown-ups too) paddled and splashed the afternoon away in the charming surrounds of the creek. Alana says she considered playing music but quickly decided the sounds of the trickling water and the children laughing as they played were just too magical to drown out with amplified song.

Here’s another photo of the adorable (and ultra-happy) birthday girl, also pictured up top in her sweet fairy wings from Eeni Meeni Mini Moh, as she tucks into her birthday tea. How absolutely and utterly pinchable are those little cheeks!

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy party with us? Then just fill in the Show us your party form on our contacts page. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

I love organising a present for people on behalf of a group. The thing is, I often end up spending hours doing it and out of pocket or chasing people up for payment. Not fun! These sorts of things have been known to come between a friendship or two so why not take the stress off one person by using Group Prezzie.

I wish I had thought of this – it’s brilliant! It’s a service that allows people to set up a group gift with each person making their own payment. The service even sends a message from each person so no having to do the rounds with a card and several hours out of your day gone forever.

Simply set up an account, send email invites and watch the present evolve all on its own. Group Prezzie even sends your friends reminders about payment. There is a small charge of $2.49 per contributor upon payment so the convenience cost is shared amongst all group members.

Have a look at the video below to see how it works and get to it by setting up your account at Group Prezzie!