First Fancy Dress British Birthday Party

Addison got invited to her little friend Robyn's 3rd birthday party and this was her first real "British" fancy dress birthday party (other than Yi Xuen's when she was 10 months old). "Fancy dress" means you get to dress up in little costumes, kind of like a mini Halloween party I guess. Addison of course wanted to dress up as Snow White.

Since this was the first party we have really been too like this I made Kevin come along with us so that we could mingle with some of the other parents from the village. Well, it turns out that mostly mom's turned out and just a couple of dads, but it was great to visit with everyone who was there. I got to point out a few of the mom's from the toddler group that we get together with and show Kevin a bit what toddler play group was like because the party was in the Glinton Village Hall and they had a load of the toys and crafty stuff out.

After some play time we played a game call "Pass the Parcel" which was completely new to us. You pass around a package and when the music stops the child who has the parcel unwraps the first layer and they get a treat. Then the music starts up again and you continue to pass it around and around. Essentially their are enough layers to the package that each child should get a little sweetie by the end of the game and in the very center is a big prize that one lucky child gets at the end. It's very fun and something I think we'll adopt at our future birthday parties.

Next is party food. Now it is very interesting to see British birthday food because it is "uber" healthy for the most part. They have little cheese and butter sandwhiches, sausage rolls, plates of veggies like little tomatoes and cucumber, and little potato puff crisps in the shapes of little teddy bears. And to drink...orange and blackcurrent squash!!!! All the other little kids really enjoyed on their "regular" party food but Addison was much more interested in playing with the toys.

Another custom is that at the end of the party when you get your little treat bag you get a slice of the birthday cake wrapped up in little napkin to take home with you instead of cutting it up and eating it after they blow out the candles. Also they didn't open up any of the presents in front of the other kids....which in all honesty is pretty good so that they don't have any jealous outbursts from other kids. It was jolly good fun had by all!!!