This year, for Katies Second (!!) birthday, we celebrated Matariki with some little friends!
Katies party fell one day after the New Moon during Matariki, and right now Camilla and Katie are obsessed with stars and the moon, so it seemed a perfect time to decorate and celebrate the Maori New Year with them!
Matariki is a formation of 7 stars that appear for a few weeks in Winter in New Zealand, which marks the Maori New Year - a time for clearing the land, planting new crops, remembering the dead and celebrating new life.
If you're interested, you can read more about it here.
We decorated our lounge with a dark blue sheet that had the stars pinned to it in the Matariki formation. From the roof hung strings of silver shiney stars that glimmered and danced the light of the fairy lights around the room.
It was truly magical to be in there with all the lights going. Camilla was so excited about it, and has been dancing under the stars ever since.
All of this was so easy to do for such a great effect!
Katie had a little gaggle of Tamariki who came to celebrate her birthday with her!
Together they coloured in little pottle's and planted tulip bulbs in them which will come out bright pink in Spring.
Don't all kids love colouring and gardening? It was a success in terms of entertaining kids so the Mums could have a cup of tea in peace!
The kids loved it, and as we buried their bulbs we got to talk about how God makes things new and grows things, and how beautiful this earth is. The tulips were to then be planted at home, with another opportunity to talk about growing things if they wanted.
The blue cupcake time was hilarious. I over did it on the food colouring, and some of the kids ended up with blue poos in the days following! Hee!
Katie LOVED being sung to, all that attention and a cake being placed in front of her was just so exciting!! She spent the following weeks requesting renditions of "Happy Birthday" and "Ra whanau", to which Milla happily obliged.
Celebrating Matariki and Katies birthday combined his year was simple, achievable, and spot on for child understand and stage. Next year we will venture into more detail and try some new things out, including flying kites and marae visit.
I've always wanted to have a mid year celebration become a tradition in our family, and I think this one will be it! Next year, we will also throw a Matariki celebration for the Adults too!
Happy Birthday Katie!!
Nga mihi x
