the lion, the witch and the birthday girl

This afternoon was Flora's long-awaited birthday party and, as she'd requested, our home was transformed into the Kingdom of Narnia for the afternoon. We hung up lengths of icicle bunting and paper snowflakes around the house...

and the girls and I had made a life-sized lamp post from scrap wood and papier maché to complete the Narnian look...

Flora had asked to be Lucy so I had been busy making her costume and she was really delighted with the result...

The body of the dress was a sleeveless satin party dress that I picked up for next to nothing in Oxfam. I sewed on some big red velvet sleeves, gold leafy rickrack on the cuffs and a plastic 'ruby' embellishment on the bodice to make it more regal.

I put little plaits in her hair and tied a bit more of the leafy rickrack round her head for a pretty crown.

At her waist I sewed on a little pouch for her 'juice of Fire-Flowers' (which was just a little lip gloss with shiny stars stuck on)...

The dagger I'd bought her had pirate patterns all over the handle, so I covered it with some gold ribbon, stitching it in place. I popped on some shiny star stickers for added detail and tied on some ribbon so that it would attach to her costume.

Pearl was Aslan and I made her costume from a charity shop-bought furry gilet, a lion mask, fur sewn into a giant elastic 'scrunchie' for the mane and a tassely curtain cord for the tail. She had a great time prowling round roaring at the other children, trying to scare them!

Steve was Mr Tumnus with silicone horns and ear-tips, a scarf, umbrella and a furry tail. His costume made me laugh so much- it looked so good with his beard!

I dressed as the Jadis the White Witch, in a sliver dress that I picked up on ebay (I felt like a turkey in bacofoil, hence the head and shoulders only shot!), a furry collar I'd bought in the sales, a foam crown and white and silver face paint on my eyes to make them look frosty.

The children had some completely fabulous costumes too- it was so wonderful to see them all dressed up and having fun zooming around acting out battles! We mainly left the children to their own games as it was a lovely day and they were enjoying haring about in the yard with the bubble-machine...

but we did do a few activities with them- I'd pre-made some shields from craft foam for the children to decorate with their own coat of arms...

and we also did 'sleeping Aslans' (lions) and 'pass Mr Tumnus's parcel'- I'd wrapped every layer in brown paper and string, with a chocolate coin and forfeit in each layer, so it kept them busy for quite a while!

At tea time we laid out very basic party fodder and let the children help themsleves...

For her cake, my dad had baked the most marvelous chocolate sandwich cake, which tasted divine.

I decorated it with a little lamp post and trees that I bought from ebay (originally purposed for accessorising model train sets) and a small plastic toy lion, finishing with a dusting of icing sugar 'snow'. I was really pleased with how it turned out- a proper mini Narnia...

For the party bags we had more Mr Tumnus's parcels (I cheated and just used brown A5 self-sealing envelopes wrapped with string, as I was sick of the sight of brown paper after wrapping the pass-the parcel!) which contained some bubbles, obligatory sweets, more chocolate coins, a packet of sunflower seeds and a temporary tattoo (crowns for the girls and roaring lions for the boys). I packed their piece of cake separately in a freezer bag and they had their shields to take home too.

We all had such a fantastic time, although I was completely shattered by the end of it all, despite all the wonderful family helpers we had! Part of me is hoping that Flora just wants to take a couple of friends to the cinema next year, but I'm sure I will have changed my mind by then and will be up for another creative challenge!

Good times x

ps hello to all my new followers and thank you so much for helping me make it to over 100! I must organise a little giveaway soon to say thanks.