Angel Party

"An angel party " she said, when we discussed her upcoming seventh birthday.

"Fine, that's no problem" I replied.

Then I started thinking about it. How should an angel party be, how would an angel treasure hunt work, what treasure would angel treasure be?

I wandered the shops in search of any little trinket with an angel motif. Nothing. The angels had been knocked out of the running by those pervasive, persuasive fairies. The fairies had taken over the sparkles and shoved the angels into storage, whence they'll emerge triumphantly singing Halleluja, only at Christmas time, which we all know doesn't start till October.

Inspiration was also lacking on the treasure hunt clue front. The fairies of the previous year had had flowers as clues, but I needed angelic inspiration to come up with anything that would pass muster with a group of seven year olds.

I returned to the shops, a bigger centre this time. But forgot my glasses. Eventually tracked down in a craft shop a bag of small charms that could possibly be angels, though without my glasses I wasn't quite sure. Held them at arms length to try and focus better but in the end resorted to accosting another shopper to ask what she thought. She hadn't her glasses either, so passed them to her daughter.

"They're angels and they say Season's Greetings", she replied in a patient tone.

I hadn't been aware of any writing at all. I ditched them, thought laterally and blew the treasure budget on pink and silver chocolate coins, some mini rainbow pens, big shiny marbles and star stickers.

The day before the party arrived and I still hadn't worked out the treasure hunt. I'd decorated some white duck festhers with gold pen to go in the treasure boxes, made origami star boxes to hold the goodies and it all looked pretty, but what would lead them to the treasure? Pirate parties have long stories of buried treasure, army parties have special missions, what do angel parties have?

Eventually my own guardian angel took pity on me and sent inspiration my way. Feathers as clues, each with a gold letter on. The Class 1 children are learning a rhyme for each letter, that they all know, so the rhyme could be the clue. So simple! T is tall, tall tree, D dirty door, G golden goose, R racing rabbit etc. Treasure Hunt sorted.

We watched the Diana concert the night before the Birthday and I cut up paper and gold doilies for the little angels to make their own angel books as a craft activity. I usually just rely on the children to play and have the treasure hunt as the only organised activity, but this time there were a few children who didn't really know each other, so making the angel book was to be an ice-breaker.

The birthday girl herself came up with the Smartie design on her cake, arranging them in the colours of the rainbow, on her actual birthday morning, as I left the baking to the last minute, after having over-faced myself on the treasure and book preparations the day before!

The party went beautifullly, the angels took care of us all and the sun shone, the birthday girl had a wonderful day, with not a tear shed.