Dominique's 12th Party

It was Dom's 12th birthday party at the weekend - and Bernie ran it brilliantly. They got off to a great start with a silly name game, as not everyone knew everyone else. That involved throwing coloured bean bags (little ones!) at each other whilst calling out names etc. Structured at first and rapidly descending to hilarious chaos.

Then Bernie had them running around the village on a treasure hunt - she'd planted cryptic clues all around the place, which after 30 minutes of manic charging around finally led them to a packet of chocolate coins as the treasure.

After that, she got them making sculpture out of food - biscuits, marshmallows, cocktail sticks, smarties, and so on.

Then a series of games, from pictionary to hide-and-seek. And finally birthday tea and cake.

All in all a great success. I was delighted, as there's a tendency towards competitive party-giving (swimming parties, laser-quest parties etc) that seem a bit focused on each being more extravagant than the last. But this low-tech, low-cost party was thoroughly enjoyed by all: a number said on leaving it was the best party they'd been to.

And it was great for Bernie, too...