Feast: Baby 'bella's 9th birthday party

An ice cream party. Our Baby 'bella wanted an ice cream party to celebrate her ninth party. Fifteen flavours were on the wish list.

Hmmm...my ice cream maker has been disconcertingly silent during the past few months...and I do have two inserts taking up room in my freezer. A quick glance at the list and we divvied up the flavours, combined a few and two weeks of churning and we came up with a dozen flavours between the two of us. Thank goodness I now have a deep freezer to store my five flavours.

Nine little girls in total.

Nine squealing little girls.

Were we ever that squealy when we were that age? I'm sure we carried ourselves with grace and decorum...always walking from one place to the other, never raising our voices and never, ever jumping up and down like jackhammers riding on pistons. Hmmm...maybe age has fuzzed the little grey cells a wee bit.

Being one of the "official adults" on site I was to help keep things going and spot for any troublesome issues. But I received an invitation...which meant I was allowed to be a squealing little girl. I decided to be a squealing adult. Okay. I was squealing on the inside...those girls could squeal for Canada. Really.

Six hours.

Six hours of frenetic kitten cavorting, chinchilla chasing, snake spying and budgie bugging interspersed with games, food and foodish games. Heck. I was the "world famous food expert" who judged the cupcake decorating contest.

As a non-parent it was very interesting watching the dynamics and the personalities within a group of people this age. There was the nurturer, the forty year-old disguised as a nine year old, and...of course, the ever-so-precious-in-only-her-parents'-minds child.

The cake itself was Dorie's Perfect Party Cake (March '08's DB challenge) and I think my friend did a lovely job with the cake. Yes...the blessed thing did not rise but no matter. It's still a delicious cake. Loved the mauve daisies that set off the primrose of the buttercream.

And the ice creams? We had French Vanilla, Lemon, Butterscotch, Chocolate, Strawberry, Coconut-Mango, Ginger-Lime, Chocolate Chip, Banana Cream, Coconut Custard, Pink Peppermint-Oreo and Orange Sherbet. The young guests weren't too enamoured with the more...exotic flavours and left them for the grown ups (and Baby 'bella), and stuck to chocolate chip, chocolate and the Oreo-mint (hmm...all chocolate-based...who knew?)

Umm...yeah. The grown ups had a little extra help to get through the day (in case you were wondering, the wine glass was not part of the place setting...and the grown ups were not walking around the house with glasses of reisling during the party....AFTER the party was a different story).

Okay: yes, I know I should stop referring to her as "Baby 'bella" but I just can't. She'll always be "Baby 'bella" to me.

cheers!
jasmine