Ten and a Half Months

Well, the birthday party is booked for 10th December.
We decided to get in early with that, what with the time of year we didn't want to leave it late and find that we had nowhere to hold it!
First things first, I've already made some big cake decisions - deal with the important things first! The problem I have is that I prefer sponge cake and Andy much prefers fruit cake. I have a solution in mind, watch this space and I will report on how my trial cake goes! The main thing I am worried about is that I have never used fondant icing before and I'm not totally sure on how it works when sticking it to a round cake. I will have a lot of fun finding out, of that I am sure!
We're going for an animal theme, it's a good excuse to get the littl'uns to have a go at dressing up. I'm thinking of dressing Joseph as a lion, I think he'll look cute with a main and a tail! The problem is that not everyone likes the idea of costumes and of the few costume parties I have been to, some people make a lot of effort and some people don't and each side thinks the other is silly. Still, perhaps as it's little kids people might be more prepared to have a go, I'm not expecting any of the adults to dress up!
You can get an awful lot of party equipment now. It would seem the days of just having a couple of balloons stuck to the wall and a few streamers are long gone. You can get whole packs of stuff that follow a theme: - banners, plates and cups, goody bags, big foil balloons with helium, specially themed music and the list goes on. The problem with all of this is the increasing cost, we're going to try and follow a theme as far as our budget will allow but there are limits. I've also heard stories about parents handing out goody bags that have contents far in excess of the piece of cake and a few sweeties that I remember as a child. Well, if people coming to Josephs party want more than cake in a bag then they'll just have to be disappointed.
Then, just as my plans were becoming settled we discovered that you can get lots of party themed stuff based on the Gruffalo, Andys favourite bedtime story. Well, plans are still being discussed and no doubt there will be a lot of cake being made in my kitchen as we trial a few ideas. Perhaps I'll share some of it, perhaps....
Joseph doesn't seem at all bothered, he's spent part of the morning trying to eat my hairbrush and is now attempting to play with my CD cleaning kit. Given the contents, I'd better go and rescue one from the other.