Elmo LOVES Parties!

My baby asked for an Elmo party this year.

At a time when COVID19 wasn’t a meaningful word. Just gibberish.

Sadly by the time her actual day rolled around, we were in the thick of it all.

As the day drew closer, I was close to having a panic attack.

See. Her last two birthday parties. I went all out. I knew starting this year she will probably have some preferences and those were MY celebrations where I did make sure she had her fun stuff set up REALLY well but for the most part they were grown ups getting together to celebrate this little munchkin.

However by the time her first consensual party came around we couldn’t possibly HAVE a proper party.

Third birthday is BIG for a child. It’s around the time opinions start to make their way out. Friendships at play dates begin to emerge. The little doodle that was once a blip on a monitor now has a social life.

Most of her enthusiasm was pointless.

So I decided to go for a virtual party during lockdown. What’s better than a quarantine party just with the parentals? An online party with the loved ones FROM AROUND THE GLOBE.

We used Houseparty, Skype and Google Hangouts simultaneously and it was a HOOT!

She wanted an Elmo party and I baked her an Elmo cake.

The fantastic Maham Alavi’s Malt Cake tot he te sure. Secretly. I was dying to try this cake for a while. This just gave me an opportunity to do just that.

Although. I forgot the face! I FORGOT TO MAKE THE CAKE’s MOUTH! It was a mouth less Elmo.

Thankfully Sass didn’t disapprove at all.

As a gift she only asked for a Hula Hoop (insert melting of heart). We ended up getting two of them! Fantastic friends to the rescue. Delivered it to the doorstep.

I also remote- shopped for a 12 colour pack of Poster Paints and 6 mini canvases (that are about to finish now and it hasn’t even been a week). Brushes and a butterfly shaped palette.

Also 2 reams of A4 size printer paper. But that one is for me. Because I would keep running out since a little monkey kept stealing paper form the printer all day long to make a “drawing”

Recycled some gifts from last year that she had forgotten and/ or not seen.

Made me realise. Children are so easy to please if we don’t bombard them with OUR standards of expectations You let them be and they’ll be happy painting their arms and half face green every night. Or mixing five colours to form a dirty grey inching into black, calling it a “Cimena” (cinema / theatre) because that’s all she can remember from the place. That it was dark! That’s a very perceptive child right there. Me likey.

Sure she has her good days and bad days and I will write about those separately.

For now, her fantastic birthday party was the bomb. With three cake cuttings and the number of times everyone sang the birthday song. Well. We lost count.

Now we are living on that Malt Cake for breakfast. Every single day. Clearly it was too big for us but it is birthday week and who’s complaining.