parties

On Sunday we had the chance to go and spend the morning in Hamleys were the Cabbage Patch Kids were throwing a party for their 30th Birthday! Lots of bloggers and some competition winners and their children came together to help them celebrate.

Being a child of the 80s myself I remember Cabbage Patch Kids although I never had one myself (poor me – I know I would have liked one!!). It’s lovely to think of the same toys still going strong for the past 30 years so that children can end up playing with the same things as their parents did during their childhood.

Despite living in London, my boys had never been to Hamleys before! I knew they would find it really exciting and it’s even better having the chance to look around before the shop opens and all of the other customers are allowed in!

When we arrived at 9.30 there were loads of families already there eagerly waiting to get inside. The traditional Hamley’s man was stood outside with us chatting to people and his look just gives a reminder of Hamley’s long standing history, having been around for over 250 years as the “Finest toy shop in the world!” – Pretty impressive 😉 I remember having a visit to Hamley’s as a child when we were taken for a day into London. There is something quite exciting about 5 floors of toys whatever your age is 😀

When we got inside we saw the 2 giant cabbage patch dolls there to greet us and the place had been decorated ready for the party

  

The children were soon split into groups with the Hamley’s party entertainers and they got started on some traditional party games. The entertainers were all so friendly to the children and very lively and full of energy! They did a great job.

My 5 year old loves party games, as he has been doing them in all his friends parties so he has got to know most of them now and he joined in with them all. My 3 year old is not quite at that stage yet in terms of his attention skills so he did half a game then moved on to looking at all the toys instead, which was okay as they always had some toys nearby for him to explore without having to go too far from the rest of the group

In the party games, loads of cabbage patch dolls were given out as prizes. My boys did not win one but they did not mind. We saw lots of very happy children going home with their new cabbage patch dolls!

After the party games, a party tea had been prepared for all of us. This was retro 80s themed party food and was great, they had loads of food and my boys enjoyed it all. I would have eaten more myself if I was not busy keeping an eye on the kids!

The children all gathered round the cake with the cabbage patch kids for a group photo. You can see my oldest there bottom right, navy shirt, looking very excited!

After the food there were arts and crafts available, and a magic show downstairs. Face painting was also available and that is where we headed.

The face painting happened to be next to the Thomas and Chuggington section so we did not manage to see anything else after that as my boys are mad about trains and were so excited and over the moon with this area so they really kept themselves busy looking at all these toys. They have laid the area out very nicely with a giant Thomas, Percy and Wilson to house the toys so they really liked it and of course being a very large store, their range is quite impressive so loads to look out.

At 12pm the shop opened to the public so we quickly paid for the toys the boys had chosen then were given our goodie bags from Cabbage Patch Kids and went on our way. My 3 year old was so tired out by his busy morning he went straight to sleep in the car.

It was a lovely morning – Happy birthday to the Cabbage Patch Kids and hopefully many more years to come! 🙂