Still finding it hard to believe, but my little boy turned three a couple of weeks ago. He was adamant he wanted a monster party and being eight months pregnant I decided to outsource this year – the problem with toddler parties is that you’re not just catering for 15 children, but potentially 30 adults as well! So, I turned to Red Jelly Kids for help.
I’ve blogged about Tash’s fantastic art and messy play classes before and the party didn’t disappoint. Basically, Red Jelly provides the invites, venue, materials and adorable vintage-look gingham smocks, you provide the party food, cake and excitable children.
Proceedings started with a special Alfie’s birthday song, then the kids hit the paints, pens, glue, scissors and glitter. They could make their own monster puppets, splodge a mural, decorate (and hide in) the  cardboard monster cave or explore the messy trays.
After an hour of wibbly wobbly fun, we all moved to the hall upstairs for tea. My mum once again came up trumps with an amazing monster cake, loosely based on one by Makoodle I found on Pinterest, plus a gaggle (correct collective noun for monsters?) of mini monster cupcakes and cake pops.
Mini chefs Alfie and Flo had made green jelly pots and houmous ‘monsters’, complete with hair made of  crudites and googly eyes. The fab compostable dip cups (£1 for ten) were from Little Cherry, as was the biodegradable potato starch cutlery, £2.50 for ten, and cornstarch straws, £2.75 for 100. We had green kiwi, apple and lime smoothie to drink – a classic monster tipple.
Another Pinterest find was the watermelon monster, expertly carved by my dad, aka Tadcu (Welsh for grandpa). Super-scary, I’m sure you’ll agree, and a big hit with small and large people. I couldn’t find any monster tableware I liked, so opted for the gorgeous alphabet ones from Hunky Dory Home (£7.50 for 26 cups, £9.75 for 26 plates) – the little ones loved finding ‘their letter’ and luckily we didn’t have any children with the same initial.
Like Kat, I’m not a fan of  expensive or sweet-stuffed party bags. The understated Red Jelly brown paper version, tied with signature red gingham ribbon, contained a cool kaleidoscope-making kit with monster decorations and glitter glue (perfect for the following morning which was seriously rainy). I added a Monster Hands temporary tattoo, £3.95 for a pack of eight, and a retro creature pop-up, 40p each, to each bag, which were a huge hit, plus a box of raisins. Everyone loved the party and it has spawned a host of requests for monster cakes for upcoming celebrations. Happy Birthday Alfie!
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