In which Turi is a gobbledok and we take a train to the land of birthdays...

 

You may have guessed from my last post that there has been a bit of a Faraway Tree obsession brewing about these parts lately.  This weekend we went to a very special Faraway Tree themed birthday party centred around a journey on Puffing Billy (an old restored steam train).  There are quite a few steam trains throughout the books and the forest around Puffing Billy is very reminiscent of Enid Blyton's enchanted wood, so it really was a perfect setting.

All the children were invited to dress as their favourite character from the book.  Minty decided to dress as Bessie.  For those of you not intimately acquainted with the books, when Bessie visits the Land of Birthdays at the top of the Faraway Tree she wishes for fairy wings that could really fly.  I made Minty's wings in chiffon in a simple gathered Waldorf inspired design.  The skirt was a very quick freehand overlocked number.  It was only about 9 degrees so Minty had to add her coat for extra warmth!  Turi dressed up as one of the three bears (the children visit the three bears to help rescue Jo from the polar bears in the land of ice and snow).  We borrowed a generic animal suit from a friend and paired it with his bear mask recycled from here.  Turi was so excited to be wearing his costume.  He kept whispering to me proudly, 'people will see me'.  They really did look particularly adorable, and lots of random tourists stopped to take their picture while they were waiting for the train!

This post was getting a bit long so I've had to split it into two.  Come back tomorrow for part two.