Jubilee tea party.... the day is finally here!

I wake up early, I don't know if I am excited or stressed by it all!! After getting everyone up, washed, dressed and breakfast in mouths the first thing I do is pop to Argos to pick up Connect4 for Chester birthday, it was on sale for £3.99! (Yes I know a little off topic but it was an important money saving part of my day lol). I then quickly make the Jam tarts and tidy the kitchen down.

Next because of the downpour of rain we decide not to even bother putting up the gazebo up and decide that squeezing everyone into our front room is best!! So I set about working out how many garden/any old chairs I need to bring in from garden/garage to seat everyone. I dry all the needed chairs and move round the front room, poor Millie had to sacrifice her Jumperoo, playmat and bumbo to fit them all in!

Then I had to work out how I was going to squeeze extra tables in to use for the games I had planned. This was tricky and I had to compromise a bit. I put the decorate your own bunting and decorate your cookie crown on the same table. I then attached the pin the crown on the queen game to the wall (its a good job we are just about to decorate!) and made sure my quiz questions, pens etc were at the ready!

My parents and my Nan turned up early because I think my mum had sensed how stressed I was when talking to me over the phone the night before! I am actually really pleased they turned up early because they helped me lay out the table with the food and prep the sandwiches! Everyone else arrived at 1pm, everyone had made and brought with them the food they had promised and it was all very yummy!

Everyone settled in nicely and we all tucked into the food. Well I say we all, Chester made sure he was first and to be honest after spending so much time cooking it I was happy to sit and watch everyone else enjoy it.

Then I explained to everyone that they would each be decorating a bunting flag in any design they wanted. I then would hang them all the wall, take a photo and upload it to facebook to ask my friends to tell me which they thought was the best! I thought this was the fairest way to judge (as I would obviously always pick Chesters wonderful attempt!).

This went down really well, everyone joined in and had a laugh. My father in law drew a guardsman and his was voted the winner! His prize was a jubilee limited edition tin of Golden Syrup! My sister came second (although I mistook this for my mums so later gave out an extra prize) she got some cookie cutters and Chester came 3rd and won a Ben10 flannel (Ben10 being his obsession of the week!)

I had also organised a raffle so gave everyone some raffle ticket to store away for later and showed them the prizes (which included a £5 jubilee edition Asda gift card, the cupcake bouquet I had made, a Union Jack document wallet, red,white and blue M&Ms, some books for Chester and Millie and a few other little bits) all just a bit of themed fun I felt!

Next as it was what everyone had been talking about since they arrived we did the quiz! My Sister had announced that she had been up since past midnight revising for it! Personally I thought everyone was taking it all too seriously but it was funny to hear what they were brushing up on as most were not questions I had included. I had really researched my questions and had got royal questions for past and present royals! Some of them were obvious questions such as what year did Queen Victoria die (1901) and others were a bit harder and fun such as William IV reigned 1830-1837 but what was he more commonly know as? (Silly Billy!) Chester was very good at keeping everyone entertained and helped me repeat the questions, he also tried to steer people off the answers. For instance when I asked the question What year did Queen Victoria die? He shouted out 3 months ago!!!

I really thought my Nan would have this in the bag as she knows far more than she gives herself credit for, but to my surprise (and my Dads annoyance) my mum won! She was very pleased with her prize of a Jubilee limited edition Ma'amite! Craig, with the awful score of 3 and half got the last place prize of a pink whisk (I had no wooden spoon to give away!)

We then played pin the crown on the queen, Chester was very proud of this game as he helped me draw a picture of the Queen! All I drew was the neck and curly hair, Chester drew the rest. He went first and loved it, we then let Millie, who up until now had been happily sleeping have the next go. We didn't put the blind fold on her as we thought this was a bit cruel! She was happy just to wave her crown around to be honest but I did give her a prize for her efforts!

There ended up with a draw between, my sister, my father in law and my sister in laws partner. So they all had another go and although it was close my Sister just about won! She was pleased with her prize of Jubilee Haribo starmix!

(Its unfortunate that you cant see Chester's drawing in this picture I will try and get a better one up soon)

I then drew the raffle, Craig was especially pleased as he had managed to win the Asda gift card! Chester and Millie both got prizes and my Mum won the cupcake bouquet. The other prizes were won and everyone was happy.

The last game of the day was the decorate the cookie crown. Again everyone was very happy to have a go and it was a success! I did the same as the bunting game and uploaded the photo of them all to facebook and asked my friends to judge. The winner turned out to be Craig but because the prize was cookie cutters or a Jubilee tea cup (that he would not of wanted) and I already had some cookie cutters I made him decline his prize and pass it on to the next (he was very annoyed about this!) So my Dad was the winner and he gave the Jubilee cup and saucer to my Nan who was very pleased! My Sister in Laws partner won the cookie cutters (which pleased my Sister in Law!)

Everyone was happily chatting away for another hour or so and then it was time for everyone to go home! I was very happy that it went very well, I was also a little relieved it was over as I was exhausted! But overall it was totally worth it, my kids had fun and all of my family were together having a laugh and having fun. That was the best part for me.