Birthday Shenanigans......

I should just point out that it isn't Ebi-kuns birthday until the end of the month but many of the playgroup families are heading overseas for the summer so we bought the party forward so we could invite them too.
Ebi-kun wanted to do the same as last year and have a paddling/picnic in the park, the weather has been all over the place recently so we really had everything crossed that it wouldn't rain, it was hot, overcast and tried to rain a couple of times but held off until about 2pm at which point we had to pack up and call it a day.

Once most people had arrived, I think there were 22 kids in all, we did the cannon ball pinata, like the last two years we have used it like a football instead of hitting it. (if you want to make one, the tutorial is here) This year, I think I got the formula just right. We lined the kids up in height order, A-kun offered to be goalie and we did penalty kicks, that meant all the kids got at least a couple of kicks, then when it started to break we just let them loose with it..

The moms and dads were getting in on the action too and it took a good 5 minutes of good kicking before it actually fell apart, there was a lot of laughing and squealing, the only downside was that I had used powder paint to paint it which came off and everyone ended up black. I filled the cannon ball with coloured balls, water sponges balls, bouncing balls and squealing balloons,  (I gave one of the moms a bag of extra balls to drop near the little ones so that everyone would get something), so once all the goodies had been snatched up then it was...

into the wading pool to get clean, have fun. I had taken a few big inflatables too, I had wanted to put some of those mini water guns in the pinata but couldn't find any!

 Once they had worn themselves out a bit, it was time for lunch, we did pot luck so there was a good selection and everyone filled their boots and then it was CAKE time. I will do a separate post about the cake I was pretty chuffed on how it turned out, novelty cakes are not common here so there were lots of ohhhhs and ahhhhs.

 making a wish...

 The kids took themselves off to the sun rain tent to eat, A-chan's cheeky mush makes me laugh in this one! Soon the cake was demolished and it was time to play again,

this time they kids went off to catch zarigani (freshwater crayfish) more squeals and laughter. The park is just the right size for this kind of event, the parents are able to set up in one spot and still able to watch the kids when they are in the water, playing football, on the swings or catching beasties.

Sadly, the rain beat us into submission and we had to pack up early, we got home wet and exhausted, Ebi-kun said he had a great day and his best part was the pinata and the cake (phew).