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Nature Kids 10th Birthday Party: She Planned and Catered Herself

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A simple birthday celebration surrounded by nature, a few great friends and super good food was my daughter’s perfect way to celebrate turning ten years old.

My daughter, my eldest, just turned 10 and she asked for a sleepover with a small group of friends. She wanted to rock-hop at the river, make crafts, play in the garden and take a walk around the ecovillage. It was so much fun, and so relaxing as a parent to help her organise this. We all had a great time – sharing with her friends the sorts of things she often does on her weekends.

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Maia’s 10th birthday party included a walk around the ecovillage, rock-hopping, a sleepover, and a great menu she planned and prepared.
Maia planned her own party menu. I helped her prepare the food, but she actually did most of it herself. 
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Maia’s sleepover menu ideas.
After a bit of refining, here’s what we ended up creating:
 

AFTERNOON TEA

We swapped the fruit on Maia’s list for mandarins and bananas because we have so many of them coming ripe in our garden right now.
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Monty is super happy with this bounty.

DINNER

Dinner soup was made from a pumpkin harvested 5 minutes before cooking it with a load of fresh herbs and greens. The organic sourdough wood-fired pumpkin bread was cooked that morning in the village. Delicious. It all disappeared completely!

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The pumpkin bread was definitely the favourite at the party – warmed a little on the hotplate.
Maia wanted her ‘cake’ to be a raw vegan cheesecake made from cashews, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, coconut milk, with a date and almond base. She made it in mini-cupcake versions and popped them in the freezer (they couldn’t wait for me to prise them all out, so they were served straight from the muffin tray!)  I love how adventurous she is in her tastes and cooking. A few of the girls thought this one was a bit odd – perhaps a bit too rich maybe.
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Maia’s raw vegan mini-cheescake creations.

BREAKFAST

The pancakes were made from wholegrain organic spelt flour, our eggs and local raw milk from the share herd we are part of. We decided not to have soy ice-cream after reading the ingredients. Instead, local cream with maple syrup and our bananas was so yummy.

MORNING TEA

A stack of mandarins, homemade spelt seedy crackers and hummus dip, raw bliss balls, spelt shortbreads, nuts.

There were no left-overs (except for more mandarins and bananas) for our next group of visitors (an hour later) who’d just arrived from Singapore. They’d come to talk with us to explore ideas for developing ecovillages in China…but that’s another story.

 

7 Responses

  1. Australian Gardening Granny
    Australian Gardening Granny at |

    Sounds like a very happy day for Maia's 10th birthday.
    Belated Happy Birthday Maia.

  2. Morag Gamble
    Morag Gamble at |

    Thanks Jean for the birthday wishes. Se had a lovely day.

  3. Fiona Chain
    Fiona Chain at |

    How wonderful, happy belated birthday to Maia. I love that there was plenty of delicious food and not a fairy bread or white sugar to be found. Have a great weekend.
    Fi

  4. Nicole Morton
    Nicole Morton at |

    Happy Birthday Maia!! Great party organising, and yes very creative and adventurous culinary choices!

  5. yellowbrick road
    yellowbrick road at |

    What a beautiful setting. Where is that river and the ecovillage? ��

  6. Judith Sanderson
    Judith Sanderson at |

    Wonderful, now this is living 🙂

  7. stevenjared0853
    stevenjared0853 at |

    Such an amazing birthday party admits nature. Kids are having great time here. Planning my son’s birthday party at one of LA event venues and want to have best party arrangements. Going to have some handmade cards for the invitees.