The party’s starting I mean it!

Unlike last year’s Doctor Who party this year Eli and Sabi wanted completely different party themes. They also wanted most of the same guests and asked to have their parties on the same day. Because their parents are mad we said yes. So on the same day, at exactly the same time Eli had a Princess Bride themed party and Sabi had a Peppa Pig one but I’m going to blog about them as if they were completely separate otherwise we’d be here all day.

Eli practically lives his life in dress up clothes. He feels most comfortable around other people when he’s taking on a character, I think it’s an Asperger thing. He had asked if everyone who came could be dressed up too but as a fair few of his friends also have varying degrees of autism or sensory integration disorder or anxiety we talking him round to accepting them in whatever they felt comfortable wearing on the day. He, of course, was The Dread Pirate Roberts the most coolest swashbuckling love struck hero of all time.

We put the movie on as soon as Eli’s pack arrived, we hardly ever go to the movies so at home movies with pop corn and fairy floss are still pretty exciting. also it allowed any kids new to the Princess Bride to catch up to speed. It was funny to see how many of them were as grossed out by the kissing parts as the sick Fred Savage was.

With the movie done we headed outside where the Dread Pirate Roberts scaled the Cliffs of Insanity (the kid has very strong arms)

Only to be faced with a magnificent duel to the death with the master swordsman Inigo Montoya.

hey kid, you seem a decent fellow…I hate to kill you.

‘”You are using Bonetti’s Defense against me, ah?”

”I thought it fitting considering the rocky grassy terrain.”

I know something you don’t know

And what is that?

We… are not left-handed!!

Random cute baby. I had to put her in, her father is Inigo Montoya, it says so on his shirt.

Where as the boys tore around the backyard pelting each other with their foam blades the girls formed a quiet triangle and gently tapped each others swords in a turn about the circle fashion. I was worried for a moment that we should’ve had a chair for the damsels in distress to wait upon but they loosened up soon enough and their inner action hero burst forth.

Now I had envisioned the party to be all about rescuing Princess Buttercup but Eli thought that was dumb as he wanted his little sister to dress up as Buttercup and she didn’t need rescuing. He also likes playing The Princess Bride computer game and for that you are awarded fragments of a red heart as you complete each level. To go with that idea I made a puzzle heart and as the kids took on each of Westley’s challenges they won more clues that would ultimately guide them to the pass the parcel.

When I thought that they had bashed each other up enough with the swords I announced that they had defeated Inigo and gave them a piece of the puzzle heart. I then asked them if they remembered the next challenge Westley took on.

“The giant, the giant!” they all screamed. Luckily I had prearranged to have a giant in the backyard. I called to the kids “Go for it, defeat the giant, bash up Fezzik and get the puzzle pieces off him!!”

I …hum…may have forgotten how literal this pack of kids can be at times and …um…sort of forgot to tell them to pull their punches, sorry Uncle Steven hope you didn’t cop it too badly.

The ecstatic girls, proud of themselves for being oh so clever and winning the puzzle piece.

The Man in Black trying to jump onto Fezzik and strangle him from behind, luckily our giant had slightly quicker wits than the original.

Eli when he was looking through the photos: ‘” See I was trying to jump on his back and choke him down but he didn’t let me, I almost did though.”

Next was a battle of the wits set up by the ultimate genius Vizzini. Who would be brave enough to take a drink of deadly Iocane powder infused red wine cordial? Actually everyone, the puzzle piece was taped to the bottom of the inside of the jug and all the deadly liquid had to be drunk before retrieving it. Luckily as we are all Australians and therefore of a criminal untrusting nature we had slowly been building up an immunity to iocane powder and didn’t die.

The kids didn’t die you say? Inconceivable!

The heart is starting to appear but more puzzle pieces are needed, onto the next challenge!

But Buttercup is not impressed and orders them all to die too for all she cares.

They respond with “As…You…Wish” and threw themselves down the steep embankment gently sloping lawn. To lay battered and bleeding giggling and gasping for breath at the bottom.

A few more steps and we’ll be safe in the fire swamp (which we simulated with a table covered in tea lights which was a slight down grade from Eli’s original idea of having all the kids run through an obstacle course made of stakes that were on fire)

the kids had to blow all the candles out before reaching across for the puzzle piece.

Singed a bit were you? Hope not your Mums would never forgive me.

What are the three terrors of the Fire Swamp? One, the flame spurts. No problem. There’s a popping sound preceding each, we can avoid that. Two, the Lightning Sand. Luckily the only thing buried alive in our sand was the next puzzle piece which was skilfully removed by a lot of frantic digging.

Now you kids were clever enough to discover what the lightning sand looks like, so in the future we can avoid that too.

What about the R.O.U.S.’s?

Rodents of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist…

…..except for this one my four kids made during the week, their first attempt at papier-mâché

Our ROUS got a little disorientated though and attached a girl in black, who was subsequently nearly trampled to death by an over enthusiastic man in black and his pack of excited children.

I wish these pictures would let your hear the squeals of excitement. This was a totally manic moment made slightly more surreal by my two daughter’s demonic chant ‘”Stab it with your swords, stab it with your swords”

Foam swords actually do little damage against the ferocious ROUS so we put that idea aside for the more direct Rip IT’s Head Off and Spill It’s Guts approach. which was quite effective and very f un to watch, guts lollies flew everywhere and crazy children went scampering after.

However it wasn’t all fun and games, Count Rugen appeared and dragged us off to his dungeon school room (we homeschool, did I mention we were crazy) where he killed us with his machine. (in case you can’t tell we played a game of Dead Westley which was a spin on Dead ants/Sleeping Lions)

A few of the straggling parents stuck their heads through the school room door at this point and on seeing the previously manic children flat out on the floor inquired;

”Um???”

“It’s alright” I reassured them “I’ve just killed all the children, but they’re only mostly dead.”

“Carry on then”

My poor Dead Westley, he didn’t move a muscle and in the end we had four winners because I needed to get on with things.

So it was off to Miracle Max’s to mix up a potion pill to keep us alive for the rest of the party, which I assure you is a noble cause because its a real downer if all the kids are still dead when the cake comes out.

Eli had informed me that this was his friend Izzy’s part of the party “as she is the best cook of us” and he was right, she lit up at the sight of food, funny what makes each kid come alive.

I used the recipe from here and it came together really quickly with all the ingredients pre-prepared. It was a hit with the kids who loved the gross labels like Sweetened Condensed Slime and Dust From a Cold Desert Storm. One kid told me it was the best potion he’d ever had, not sure how high that praise is though I don’t see many potion shops around this area anymore.

The chocolate coating makes it go down easier

Now that all the kids had been well and truly brought back to life I gave them a puzzle piece and told them that they would fine the next one when they stormed the castle. It was a bit funny to hear a few of them declare that it was impossible because I didn’t have a castle in my backyard. I assured them that Eli could help them find the castle and that they should follow the man in black.

Eli had built up his Imaginext castle early in the morning and I had taped the last puzzle piece inside. The kids very enthusiastically demolished the castle. It was pretty easy to do, no need for a flame covered holocaust cloak or dramatic voice effects ours was only guarded by two men and one of them had crutches.

Finally with all the pieces won or found they could put Westley’s broken heart back together…

…and follow the message to find the pass the parcel in the bottom draw.

Eli wanted chocolates and tattoos in the layers, only the shops either had very boyish ones or very girlish ones……

….so we ended up with some odd moments were boys got love hearts and butterflies and girls got Jolly Rodger flags but thankfully the kids just swapped them with each other and everyone ended up happy.

As we were getting a huge fancy pants cake for Sabi’s Peppa Pig party I didn’t think we would need another one for Eli’s then I had an idea to make a chocolate mud fire swamp cake type thing.

I didn’t even have to make it, Eli and his sister asked if they could. It’s mostly chocolate Yogo with choc covered Crunchy pieces as scattered pebbles, piles of Milo for lightning sand, mini Twix and Flake bars for fallen logs and buried strawberries to represent the plant life in the swamp. we stuck a small plastic animal in there too so our swamp had it’s own ROUS. We decided against the traditional birthday candles as they stood too tall and instead used tea lights so that the flames looked like they were spurting out of the swamp.

Eli was thrilled with the end product which is what it’s all about.

swirling mists of the fire swamp.

The devastation after twenty or so kids passed through.

instead of party bags this year I bought white bowls and wrote a quote from the movie around the outside in red ceramic pen. we then filled them with lollies. Some of the things we put in the kids party bowls were Inigo’s sword which was a biscuit the kids and I made after my Dad suddenly decided he could fashion his own cookie cutters a few days before the party. I think it’s brilliant I love having a sword shaped cutter. And a bag of Iocane power made from blended candy canes.

It was such a special day for Eli, he had a blast and all the kids got on beautifully. you really are a lovely bunch thanks for coming and helping my boy feel like he could take on a world of Humpadinks and win his princess every time (only we’re not about winning princesses at this age, that’s just gross, it’s all about Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Revenge. Giants. Monsters. Chases. Escapes…oh ok maybe we can stretch to brotherly love but that’s it)