Erica's Third Birthday

Erica before the party, and just before we went to get her Dora haircut. And yes, it is a Pumpkinn Patch dress! We held the party on Sunday, the day before her birthday. It was a Dora-themed party, only the Dora party set didn't arrive until Tuesday. Oh well, next year's party will also be Dora-themed then!

Amy took charge of the decorations, including crepe paper flowers, and print-outs of Erica's favorite cartoon characters on the doors and walls. Guests arrived from about 1pm: Kevin from work, with his baby Sara; Kristin all the way from Fukuoka with her three; the Haradas of course, with birthday boy Yuuki; the Leons of Tropicoco; Maia and her mum Harumi, and Mayumi and Hana.

Simple party - we fed them then left them to it! They played hard, inside and out, upstairs and down, then we gathered them all together again at 3pm for cake and ice cream.

Amy and Lena went out on their own to Youme Town to buy a present for Erica on Saturday morning. They were gone far too long, and called me from Daddy's Shop, where I picked them up on the way to work. They got her an Anpanman bath set - bucket, soap dispenser and water pistol. They took so long because they had to run back to get the wrapping paper. They also got Yuuki a present, a Kamen Rider figurine. It matched the fancy belt he's wearing.




Party Food! Below, the Dora the Explorer cakes, with a simple centrepiece for candle-blowing, and because Yuuki has no idea who Dora is, and would probably not be interested in a girl face. He wasn't - he kept pointing to the candy-covered cake in the centre! From the top: fairy bread, crackers with onion-flavoured cottage cheese spread, mini pizzas, apollo chocolate (strawberry and chocolate, shaped like the Apollo module), sour cream and onion Frito lays from the US that just turned up in Fadies the day before, caramel slice that I made, shaped sandwiches (ham, cheese or jam, shaped as tulips, birds, hearts or flowers), a jam tart Amy made, chippolatas (sausages wrapped in pastry) made by Amy and Lena with salsa and plain tomato sauce, ginger crunch made by me, real bonafide genuine NZ Twisties!!, Marbles (like smarties), cheese pastry twists made by me, and real actual Tim-Tams from Australia, a gift from Maia's Australian exchange students.

Kristin also took some close-ups of the food, check out the bottom of the post here

Left: when I asked Erica what she wanted to eat, she pointed to the Apollos, so I gave her three, since she is three. She looks disappointed, but she was actually quite happy with that! I think she did go back and eat more food. Right: that's Erica's foot in her new gumboot. That strange blond man behind her is her father.


Getting her present from Daddy. It's the Dora sticker set and underpants you can see on the right at front. There were also Dora pyjamas. She wore the top for half the day, until I convinced her (read struggled and fought) to take it off. She also got a different Anpanman bath set, an Anpanman drum set and food set from Raoul and Ana and Max and Maguno, the boots from Maia and her Mum, stickers and a sticker book from Kristin and Hiro and Sasha and Tommy, who all chose the stickers themselves. A Donald Duck, a Kitty and a Disney Princess sticker book from the Haradas, and ice cream set from Kevin and Misako and Sara, and a Kitty towel from Hana and Mayumi, plus balloons and bubbles and spring toys from me. And I'm going out now to get her an Anpanman tricycle!