1. April 2013 Updates: Hahgoot’s 7 th birthday party

2. Hahgoot (and Alma) were fully involved with the birthday party preparations. Here they are making cake pops.

3. We made one batch with a mould and one batch rolled by hand.

4. While the cakes baked they made a “pin-the- cloud-on-the-rainbow” game poster (Hahgoot’s idea and design) and a banner (thanks Ilan!)

5. The theme Hahgoot chose was rainbow colours, so I decided to make her a layered cake with as little food colouring as possible! I cooked the dyes and baked each layer individually, separating with butter cream. Green Spinach Orange Carrot Red Beetroot Purple Berries Yellow Egg

6. What was left of the batter was turned into cupcakes – look at those neon colours; no artificial colouring involved, only fruit and veggies! The cake was covered the next day with a layer of white fondant. I did the writing with special pens, containing food colouring.

7. Hahgoot designed her party game corner (the off-cuts sack was a cloud to climb and pin the paper cloud on the end of the rainbow). Instead of balloons, I decorated the living room with swirly streamers and the banner. The cake pops were ready for the guests to self decorate (bellow).

8. To keep with the rainbow theme, the food was multi coloured, but also party-healthy: fruit skewers with marshmallows, salad, raw and steamed veggies, and instead of the regular chips, they had rainbow cereal (non-artificial colours) and corn puff balls. We had tea, coffee and water.

9. OK, the house decorated, girls in colourful clothing, food organized... Where are the guests? Now that is the long story... A month before the party, which was supposed to be an intimate girls sleepover party (only Hahgoot and her BFFs Jasmin and Elijana), the girls started having friction between them. It culminated with an ugly letter and accusations all around. Two weeks before the party Jasmin declared she isn’t coming because of these issues. Then Hahgoot spontaneously invited Adrian, which wasn’t working well with the plan of a girls’ slumber party (Hahgoot really doesn’t get the social codes...). His mum felt awkward and said he can’t come, but as the girls- bonding was starting to dissolve, I tried to convince them to come. In addition, I invited Debbie and Menash to come. A day before the party Jasmin decided she is coming while Elijana couldn’t come as her sister was sick, so that fixed that problem. Then 3 hours before the party Hanna decided she will come with Adrian and 2 hours before the party Debbie called to say Menash was unwell... Very stressful!!!

10. We kept it as an afternoon party, with PJs but no sleepover. At the end only Jasmin and Adrian arrived. They enjoyed the silly “pass the parcel” and the very easy “pin-the-cloud” game.

11. We had a food break

12. The kids organized themselves into a role play game, about the pirate kidnapping the dancer and the princess saves her (my type of plot!)

13. They swapped their roles a few times

14. After enough tea, food and dress ups, Hanna led a game of Twister

15. And when they were all twisted and tired, we taught them the Lotti- Carotti game

16. Time for the cake! First, the kids helped decorate it, by drawing and writing on the fondant with the food colouring markers. Craft activity and cake eating in one! Needless to say, they all enjoyed this novel activity.

17. Now that the cake is ready, time for the next surprise: cutting the cake!

18. I was very proud of the result!

19. Adrian brought a Magic Science kit and Jasmin brought a Blingles kit (top right), and I bought her a new Captain Underpants book with zombie glasses (bellow). Each kid got a home made rainbow goodie bag. As the sleepover part was cancelled in the last minute, Hahgoot and Alma shared rainbow coloured popcorn while watching a “My little Pony” video after everyone left.