Ruby's Fairies in the Forest party

If there are three things that I really love doing, it’s spending time with my family, being outdoors in nature and organising my children’s birthday celebrations. So Ruby’s 8th birthday party was a stand out occasion for me because it encompassed all my passions and neatly wrapped them up into one beautifully happy, whimsical day.

I arranged a Fairies In The Forest party. As I’ve mentioned before in a previous blog post, when we lived in Fiji our home was around ten minutes away from a stunning forestry park, where a series of waterfalls cascade through the rainforest and plunge into gorgeous pools. A succession of wooden bridges and stepping stones lead visitors down through the trail, and it’s a really magical place to detach from everyday life and immerse yourself in nature.

I’d often imagined how wonderful it would be to hold a party in a such a stunning location, so with Ruby’s birthday approaching I decided it was time to put my daydreams into action!

I wanted to set the tone from the offset, with invitations that captured the essence of the party. A little poem revealed the details of the event, which I pasted onto the star of a glittery wand. Attached to this, with a floral ribbon, was a scroll describing all the different kinds of fairies that the children could expect to encounter in the forest, from Water Nymphs to Woodland Sprites.

At that time, Ivy was only 1 year old, and I remember my heart fluttering with love and pride when I dressed all four of my beautiful girls up in their fairy costumes. They looked so pretty and were beaming the kind of smiles that make mothers melt!

An animated flurry of giggles filled the air as we met Ruby’s friends in the car park at the entrance to the reserve. They were an excited mass of wings and taffeta, and they all looked wonderful. At this point, my husband, George, set off ahead of us on his mission. I’d made little signs on cardboard and wood, giving details about the fairies and instructions on what to do to please them, which George hung from tree branches at pre-planned locations. One sign asked the children to be careful not to step on water sprites as they traversed the stepping stones across the stream, while another advised them to blow bubbles to deter the troll as they crossed a rickety wooden bridge. There was a wonderful sense of childhood wonder in the air as the girls eagerly and carefully did what was asked of them.

At the start, the children were each given a fairy bag and their main task at the party was to find the bundles of treats left by the forest fairies along the waterfall trail and pop these gifts into their bags. Each pack of treasure contained a clue detailing where the next treat could be found. So George hung various glistening parcels of bubbles, fairy note books, pens and other delights in noticeable places amongst the foliage, to be discovered by our thrilled group of fairy girls.

Ruby loved reading the notes out to her friends and the sense of enchantment and intrigue amongst all the girls was truly delightful. I’ll never forget it. It was also visually stunning, watching a meandering line of pink emerge through the rich green foliage. It was such a unique set up and really made me appreciate how lucky we were to have such abundant beauty on our doorstep.

Along the trail, the children were encouraged to collect leaves and flowers, so that we could make fairy crowns to wear. A third of the way through our walk, we stopped at a picnic table where I gave each of the girls a wire to thread their carefully compiled flora onto. I’d bought a pair of pliers to twist the wires and complete the crowns, which perfectly complemented their gorgeous fairy attire. The girls looked amazing!

After continuing our treasure hunting trek in the forest, we finally sat down for a well deserved birthday feast.

We had a cool box containing the cake and cartons full of supplies for the birthday lunch, which a group of local boys very kindly offered to carry to our chosen picnic table for us, so it was all ready and waiting by the time our fairies had traipsed down.

After Ruby had blown out the candles on her fairy cake, the girls, and parents, cooled off with a splash in the adjacent natural pool, and some of them wallowed in the stone seat of a little waterfall that trickled into the shallow depths. It was the perfect spot to relax and have some fun.

We eventually continued on our way, and stopped at the end of the walking track, where there’s a larger, deep pool with a long rope swing hanging from a sturdy branch above the elevated pathway. The girls grouped around the pool, blowing bubbles, and watched whilst George and some of the other parents swung out and plunged into the water, entertaining us all! At the end, I grabbed hold of the rope and jumped in too…the cold water was wonderfully invigorating and the perfect way to cool down after our long walk.

It was truly a magical day, and one which is indelibly etched into my memory. Most importantly, Ruby was in her element and loved every moment. To her, this birthday in particular epitomised the beauty of her home country and the enchantment of her childhood there.

In about ten weeks time, my gorgeous eldest daughter will be turning sixteen years old, and as I watch with immense pride as she evolves into a beautiful young woman, these happy recollections of her carefree girlhood become even more precious and will be forever encased in my hopelessly sentimental old heart!