As Kealan turns 4 his constant obsession remains:- Transformers. He talks about them almost exclusively and is now regularly approaching complete strangers to demonstrate the transformation process of that days favourite. His TV preference is to watch grown men playing with and discussing transformer toys and now uses phrases such as “i like the paint job” complete with an American accent. So our party theme, whilst obvious, was a little tricky. How to entertain fifteen 0-4 year olds in one room for 3 hours and stay on theme. Of course…build a 13 feet long Optimus Prime truck. Yep.
From scratch, with no plans, no measurements, no decent tools, no training and no experience Hubbie and i managed to cobble together this. Complete with den in the trailer and a cab with dashboard to entertain.
In September id also spotted this crisp stand in my local Tesco. Another mad idea was formed and so after £50 of spray paint and much heartache my Bumblebee food table was created.
The desert table was in the front section of the car and contained the cake, made by my mum and various branded treats.
I wasnt keen on the typical transformer branded party table wear so i had autobot logo stickers printed and added them to plain plates and cup. I was pleased with the place settings complete with balloon centre pieces.
I set up some transformer colouring and playdoh as extra entertainment.
Another amazing find from Tesco was a Transformer branded stand. I used it to display Kealans 60 plus Transformers as another activity.
So after 3 months of prep we welcomed 17 children and 15 adults to celebrate Kealans 4th birthday. We began in the living room for costumes. Each child had an Optimus Prime or Bumblebee costume and the babies had baby vests with autobot logos.
An then everyone entered the party room. The kids were thrilled with the truck and i was actually surprised at how long it entertained them.
The girls went straight to the playdoh and Kealan enjoyed hiding in the trailer den with glo sticks.
Then we welcomed our guest star – Optimus Prime himself. Unfortunately, Kealan was petrified and got very upset. He had to leave the party and spent some time upstairs with Hubbie. All the kids were a little scared at first, including Elyse who refused to turn around to look at Optimus for the first 5 mins. However, brave Oscar reached out for a high five, Amelie and Darragh were also quick to warm to him and very soon all the kids (bar Kealan and Elyse) were keen to be close to our super hero.
After chatting with the kids Optimus moved up to the living room to have family pics in front of the background i had put up.
Thankfully Kealan calmed down enough to return to the party for food and to blow out his birthday candles.
Some more pics:-
So that was our Transformer themed party. Thank you:- to my amazing husband who despite being very unwell built a truly magnificent Optimus Prime Truck. To my Mum for her support throughout and baking a beautiful cake, again despite having been admitted to hospital only a week before. Also, to my Dad who lent many tools, bought many materials and offered lots of advice during construction. To Amy, who deals with my stress levels and helps prepare our home for parties. To my friends for their flattering compliments and wonderful birthday gifts for Kealan. And lastly to Tich Liddy, our photographer, who has a very challenging job with so many people in such a small space but managed to capture many treasured images.
Natasha
allbirdsareowls 