Birthday Banners

Well it's only taken seven years, but I've finally started my kids' birthday banners I've been planning since Fifi turned one.

I had this idea after watching an episode of Gilmore Girls (ha) where Lorelai pulls out all these weird and wonderful objects representing all or Rory's birthdays - gigantic stuffed unicorns and the like. I thought it was an adorable idea to have memorabilia from every birthday, except I didn't want to have anything quite so big. So I decided I'd make a banner, and use patches and appliques to represent each birthday.

For each birthday until they are 18, I wanted to have a separate triangle. For younger birthdays, there would be a patch that would represent what the theme of their party that year was. As they get older, it could be an achievement from that year, or a hobby, or something reminding us what we did for that birthday.

We did start making Fifi's around her fourth birthday, with my mother-in-law knitting the triangles, but it was just too hard to keep up with all the triangles for all three kids, and especially now that we are living in the US, it was too hard to keep up with that. So I decided I'd just get some canvas bunting for all the kids.

Last year, for Jaguar's first birthday, I bought the first package of triangles (5 in a pack) and started Jaguar's. One patch was easy enough to start with. So his has been up in his room from the time we moved in to this house.


His first birthday was a "little man" party with a mustache theme.


Six months later, it was Lolly's 5th birthday. Part of her present was getting her banner complete, with the exception of a few patches I had to order. It finally got put up about a month ago.


Lolly's birthdays have been the following themed parties:
1st - Rocking horse/Carousel party, where she got a rocking horse, a dress with a rocking horse on it and a Carousel cake and carousel-shaped cookies.
2nd - "Clicky Shoes" party, since she loved wearing my heels all around the house, which I apparently have no surviving images of. :(
3rd - Dora the Explorer Fifiesta - Catch the Stars party (which was a far cry from the well-thought-out Dora fiesta Fifi got years earlier)
4th - "Over the Rainbow" Wizard of Oz party, her last big bash before leaving Scotland
5th - Powerpuff Girls Superhero party

Super difficult Carousel Cake

Since I can't find any documentation whatsoever of my poor neglected
middle child's second birthday, this is what her cakes kind of looked like.
Her party this year was snowed out too, so only like two people came.

Dora Catching the Stars Cupcakes

Yellow Brick Road (and dead witch) cake

Creepy Powerpuff Girls cake

Last was Fifi, who now had seven years worth of patches to collect. I had the first four from her knitted banner, though, so all I needed was the final three and the triangles themselves. Fifinally, last week, I got them all ironed on and hung. Seven years after having the original idea!


Fifi's parties have been the following:
1st - Duckie party because she loved rubber duckies
2nd - Cupcake party, because we were decorating her room with cupcakes. She had the cutest cupcake bedspread.
3rd - Dora the Explorer Fifiesta, my favourite party ever thrown!
4th - Enchanted Forest Faerie party
5th - My Little Pony party
6th - Mad Hatter Tea Party at Teacups in Largs, her last big bash before leaving Scotland
7th - Fairy Princess party

Duckie Cake

Giant cupcake

Pinata cake - outside

Pinata cake - inside

Faerie Toadstool cake

MLP cake (made by Helen Ireland)

Mad Hatter's Tea Party Cake

Creepy Fairy Princess cake

Now that I am all caught up with parties, the only aim is to stay caught up. Jaguar's second birthday is coming up, and he's having a Carnival in the backyard. (However, if I hadn't already planned it all, he'd probably be having a Frozen party - or as Jaguar calls it, "Deep Deep Mo" (as in "Arandale's in deep deep deep deep snow") - since it's his FAVORITE movie.)

Hopefully these will be cherished as precious memories when they are older. I hope they'll want to keep these banners hung in their room even when they are teens - I know I'd have kept one up!