The invitations, no name but they are Tardis blue (If you look closely at the stamps we have two from the moon landing, one from the Queen, one from a time long gone, one signed by the Doctor himself and one barcodey thing from the US that says LUNBERJACK which to my knowledge has nothing to do with Doctor Who but looked a little like one on the Doctors invites so we stuck it on anyway)

Eli, the boy in braces, and Sabi, the girl with the box on her head, chose to celebrate their 8th and 3rd birthday in Whovian style. Being Children of the Eleventh Doctor the event began with the requisite tasting of fish fingers and custard, which was, not surprisingly, a first for everyone.

(sorry for the icky grainy photo. My poor old flash that chews through batteries and was originally friends with a camera born in the age before digital and has never really bonded with my new one, simply refused to participate in the reaction shot)

The verdict: ” I like it”

When asked what it tasted like: “Custard and then fish fingers”

While the kids were turning up and munching out on fish fingers and custard, bad bad beans and bread and butter (menu picked by Eli) we played a line up of YouTube videos, to entertain and to educate as, being in Australia most of the kids had no idea what was going on. A lot of the clips were Trock songs from Chameleon Circuit (a band that plays real proper music, just it’s all about The Doctor. Because really, why would you bother singing about anything else?) All four of our kids are hooked on one of their songs called An Awful Lot of Running and sing it constantly. We also used these two dudes to give a run down of the series in its entirety and the kids’ other constantly sung favourite, Tik Tok Trock.

Some really cool friends turned up with a home made Fez which was hugely exciting because Eli had been asking for one but I ran out of time ( bit ironic at a party about time travel)

And they let him keep it because they’re that nice. And even though the evidence looks kinda contradictory Eli was surprised, completely ecstatic and totally thrilled, only that’s the face you get with Eli when too many unexpected emotions happen.

When they looked full I just happened to find a letter the Doctor had left behind.

Which led the children down the garden path….um….literally, till they found the Tardis which we all know (or in this case 20% of us knew) stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.

The Tardis is The Doctor’s time travel machine and, although it looks just like a cupboard painted like a 1950’s British police box leaning against the wall of our shed it is actually a doorway into an interior that exists in another dimension or as others have said before “It’s bigger on the inside!”

and on the inside we defeated the Dalek shaped party bags and got to keep one as our own personal prisoner. We then made our own sonic screwdriver, The Doctors fix it tool for just about anything unless it’s made of wood… which ours were… again with the irony.

Dalek party bags complete with their own eye stork, shootey whisk and plunger for fixing your bathroom

As well as lollies the party bags had these Peg Dolls the kids asked me to make to be like the Tick Tock creepy dolls from the Night Terrors episode.

other important party bag fillers.

and just in case we weren’t feeling cool enough we made our own bow ties because bow ties are cool.

All soniced up and ready to go.

I know there are so many cool home made sonic tutes, but as a quick party craft for 27 kids we kept it simple. Glenn cut a length of dowel to pieces. I glued a blue glass decorative pebble on the end and on the day the kids wrapped them with electrical tape, some kids taped in tooth picks as well. It was very simple but all the kids had a blast making them and loved it, I would definitely say it was a successful craft. Even the non Who kids knew instantly what to do with a funky stick like that, you point it at things, make a noise and stuff happens, right? Some kids asked if it was magic and I got to answer ‘No….it’s science (for some reason I made jazz hands at this point, I’m weird like that) and explained sound waves to them, which went down well with the 7-11 bracket but only drew blank looks on most of Sabi’s three and under year old friends.

some didn’t feel inclined to attempt the craft at all and spent that time pulling stars off the roof, but they were very cute about it so we still like them and they did bring a fez, which is cool and covers up a whole mess of destruction I think.

We then sat in a massive circle for pass the parcel. Each layer had a tiny Tardis Badge I painted on tiny bits of wood we had lying around and a chocolate frog and a sheet of star stickers that I kept calling a “stick of char sheeters”, which sounds rude when you yell it across a room full of children and their parents.

Cake Time! only this year it got off to a bad start hence the weird photo. Just as Glenn Was bringing the cake out Sabi was enveloped by a wave of excited children clambering to get a spot around the table. She panicked and started screaming and just as it happened I pressed the button on the camera capturing this odd collection of expressions, some were oblivious, some laughed some are horrified. Then Grandma dove in and rescued her which was nice because she could care less how we reacted she just wanted someone to get her out. What was I talking about…

…oh yes the cake, you can tell it’s the cake because both Grandma and Lilly are pointing to it. It’s a Dalek, ahhh Run!!! and it’s on fire Ahhh more Run!!!

The worst blowing out candles shot I’ve ever take due to the afore mentioned squishing incident, oh well if they don’t care I don’t care.

Then we all watched the brave if not shorter than normal Doctor do battle with the Dalek, kitchen whisk against tooth pick screwdriver who will win?

The Daleks armoured shell has been destroyed!!!

Quick kids kill the one eyed squidgy tentacled monster (is it wrong to promote murderous violence at a 8 and 3 year olds birthday?) Speaking of the three year old, where was she while all this madness was going on?

Why safe in her Grandmas arms having a ball…see, ball…the pink ball, I know lame.

And that was it, the end of our travels through time and space. All that was left to do was sit around the table with uncle Chris and watch tiny iPad sharks nibble chunks off our fingers and laugh in that odd grossed out way as a trail of our own blood drifts off into the tiny flat ocean. That’s how all parties end right?