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31 October 2010

Our Bright Light Party


Best Party Ever last night.
We called it a Bright Light Night and invited friends and neighbours to come dressed as something brave or beautiful, bringing glass jars for making lanterns, and fireworks. The purpose - fun of course! And also because we are not keen on Halloween's ugliness, but we don't want to be killjoys and stop our kids having fun. So lets have a party but celebrate Light instead of Darkness.


Between us there were about twenty adults and thirty kids aged from 0-10 years. From little princesses to Superheroes they came and played.

Its on nights like this that I am so grateful for our wonderful backyard. On a warm spring evening it's perfect to spread out in, like a great big outdoor party room.



There's space for bouncing and climbing trees, racing bikes on the driveway, playing foozeball and bullrush and holding lolly scrambles. The grown ups can relax and chat while the kids race round having fun together.



In true Kiwi BBQ fashion we all brought meat to share plus a salad or dessert and drinkies. Everyone pitches in to help bring out food and tidy things away. I made my world-famous Sangria and a kids punch... which Scrag... er... loved a little too much.



{He stood at the punch bowl dipping in his cup, taking a few sips and then "recycling" the rest. Luckily most of the parents weren't drinking punch and the kids didn't care.}



Being a Bright Light Night, we strung up our Christmas lights, hung homemade coloured lanterns in the trees...


...lit the brazier and handed out glow sticks; waved sparklers and let off fireworks...

As the sun set, our backyard turned into a magical place.



I stood on the lawn looking back at the house and felt a wave of happiness? joy? All those lovely people enjoying themselves. Our friends. All those laughing kids with shining eyes. Our kids.

And all those pretty pretty lights!



It was well worth the effort.
Sigh.
I just love a good party. And this was one of the best.


P.S. After the party was over and our lovely guests had trundled off to tuck their kidlets in bed, our lovely friends Meg & B lingered long enough to sit around the brazier and toast marshmallows together. Meg took the coolest ones of these photos. She is a very clever photographer. Thankyou Meg!


P.P.S. Can you spot some Kiwi Mummy Bloggers and their kids in these pics??

24 comments:

  1. Love, love, love this! I am so doing this next year! Wish I was there! I am so not into Halloween - after all it is Spring! Samhain in spring - eh? Bring on the Beltane celebrations of love and light! This is awesome! Brought a big smile to my face reading - off to retweet :)

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  2. What an amazing looking night! Great idea - loving those photos too.

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  3. wow simoney! so cool!!!
    you guys absolutely ROCK!
    love it

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  4. amazing! looks like an awesome night!
    And those lanterns -too cute!

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  5. awesome photos and thanks sooooo much for such a FUN night!!

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  6. looks like such a fun place to be :)

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  7. WOW! This looks like such a fun, successful party. I can't imagine having THIRTY(!) kids at my house though, you crazy gal! ;)

    Happy Halloween! :)

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  8. What an amazing idea! You captured all of it with such lovely photos. Thanks so much for sharing. Have a great day=

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  9. Lovely - great pics. Made me remember last year's party! Fab! xxxx

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  10. You amaze me. What a fun idea. Thanks for sharing them with us. Your collages are great too.

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  11. What a wonderful idea! And the photos are super--almost made me feel like I attended along with you! Great post!

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  12. What a great time you guys had!
    I am glad to know you found balance between blog/real life, and you are having more fun now.
    Today we will have Trick or Treat in our neighborhood, but the weather is not as warm as in Australia! Something around 10C.
    Take care!

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  13. That party looks like a lot of fun! The pictures are great.

    Stopping by from SITS.

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  14. What a fab idea! I remember your dilemma post from last year and am glad you have found such a fantastic way to have fun at this time of year! Am loving those lanterns too! Well done!

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  15. This was so fun!! Our family had a great time. Great company, food (choc brownie - yumm ;)), drinks and fab hosts!! Tree lanterns are very cool and all jam jars will now be kept and reused. Thank you Simone and family xx

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  16. LOVE!!! seriously fab in every way.
    our church hosts a light party every year but this looks way more fun :)

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  17. Wonderful! i really dislike Halloween and for the first time my girls noticed that others were dressing up as witches etc. I am thinking that next year i will be needing to do something like this to off set the desire to go trick or treating.

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  18. Wow what a fab night! Great photo's and I especially love the one of the little boy caught picking his nose hehe and the lantern pictures are so pretty!

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  19. What a lovely happy family night you all had. Lots of lovely smiley faces. I know 2 little boys very excited about going and obviously the night didn't disappoint. I remember another lovely night at your place on New Year's Eve. You are such good friends to our kids.
    Big hugs xx

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  20. That's Amazing! What a clever idea an I just love it. I don't have that many friends with little kids though. The pictures are amazing and I wish I could have been there. I totally loved the whole idea...thanks so much for sharing. I am now following.
    Come check out my craftiness over at:
    http://spottedsmiles.blogspot.com

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  21. Yep. Totally awesome idea and the joy and happiness so obvious on every single face there :-)

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  22. what a great night :)
    one Im sure your friends will remember for a long time
    much better than the alternative

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  23. Great idea! Looks like it was an awesome night!

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  24. Simone!!! I love this!! I love that you celebrated light instead of darkness... brilliant. It look beautiful and so much fun. I want to do this next year. Thank you so much for sharing.

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