Ladies Lunch and Princess Party

My neighbour commented a few weeks ago that we had not had an Eid party this year and they were usually so much fun.  We'll it doesn't take much to convince me.  I messaged my family and neighbours, they happened to have the following weekend free and I invited them to a Ladies Lunch and Princess Party, with a dress code of princess dresses, pastels and pearls (tiara's optional).

Unfortunately in the intervening week my husband found some damp in the kitchen and pulled some of the flooring back to do some repairs.  He seemed to think we would be able to do the repair and put everything back in good time for the party.  Next thing I knew, he had ripped out the whole kitchen, moved everything into the garden, living room and front room and got builders in to replace the entire floor.  In the end I had to cancel the party and reschedule for a week later, hoping I would have a kitchen and most things back in their place.  Thankfully he got it all done in time alhamdulillah.

In preparation, I designed a banner and got Little Lady to assemble for me with the colour scheme:

I bought a princess castle piñata and barely got it home before Baby managed to punch the front in.  I had to find another and ended up with the unicorn one from Poundland of all places (although it was not £1, but £5, but still cheaper than the castle).

Little Lady and Harlequin Sister helped with setting out the decor, which included the banners, unicorn napkins, pink sweets and table diamonds which I found at Poundland too and which I thought were a bit big and blingy, but I knew the little girls would love them.

As always, FashionistaSister made us co-ordinating cupcakes.  They always taste amazing and the little kids pounce on them and love licking the icing off.  I don't know who filled a whole plate off them...wait that might have been me stashing them for later...

On the menu was chicken yakhni pilau rice, roast chicken, lamb curry, chicken sandwiches, chickpea and potato chat, sausage rolls (made by Harlequin), pakora's made by my neighbour and this colourful and filling salad from my sister-in-law.

Shutterbug Sister made up plates of fruit which got absolutely scoffed.

The gaggle of little girls in our family had a great time dressing up and my mum, mum-in-law and sister-in-law’s mum all dressed in pastels in keeping with the theme.

The boys stayed away from the party for most of the time, going to the masjid with their dad and then hanging out in their room with my laptop, but they insisted on coming down for the piñata, if only to beat the heck out of it with a stick whilst I held it.  In the end I ripped it open and pour it over the little girls.  As always there was a frantic grab and noisy mayhem.  In the past Darling complained that the big kids grabbed the sweets and the little ones don't get any, so this time, only the little girls took part and we managed to avoid tears.

The unicorn worst for wear:

We managed to keep the gang of princesses occupied on the trampoline, it was great fun watching them hold onto tiaras with pony tails flying and net skirts floating.

We save the favours till the end, pink for the little girls and lilac and silver for the ladies.  The bags were 10 for £1 from Poundland again and filled with multipack items from Primark, B&M and Barking market.

In all it was a lovely day, the food got eaten, the boys didn't mutiny at being left out as we had expected and everyone looked lovely masha'Allah.  My girls have fulfilled their dream at being princesses for the day and I am still finding princess stickers and bit of that unicorn in strange places.