Kids Party

Sweet Treat | Fairy Bread

Fairy Bread, that Down-Under-Come-Northward treat, seems to be all over our social media feeds these days; white bread, slathered with a thick layer of butter, covered in rainbow sprinkles...

But did  you know it's origins are nearly one hundred years old?!

No? Neither did I until my Googling fingers got itchy and I did a little internet sleuthing. From Wikipedia:

"The first known reference to this dish as Fairy Bread was in the Hobart Mercury in April 1929. Referring to a party for child inmates of the Consumptive Sanitorium, the article proclaimed that "The children will start their party with fairy bread and butter and 100s and 1,000s, and cakes, tarts, and home-made cakes..."

The origin of the term is not known, but it may come from the poem 'Fairy Bread' in Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses published in 1885, and had been used for a number of different food items before the current usage.”

Sprinkles have a culinary moniker some of us may remember from our childhood, nonpareils. (Look up that word and it's a little confusing as to why it's used for little candy bits.) I remember my mother’s baking cupboard had a container of shiny round silver candies labeled nonpareils - they were used sparingly and we were always warned not to eat them, because although “edible” they’d probably break a tooth! Rainbow sprinkles are a favorite with children, and a peak at any baking aisle shows they come in all kinds of shapes, flavors, and sizes. ( A lot like the people who enjoy them!)

Other countries have different terms for them. In Australia and New Zealand, where Fairy Bread hails, for  example, they're called "Hundreds & Thousands."  And in Holland, they're "Hagelslag" (hail storm).  In fact, the Dutch have their own version of Fairy Bread that also originated way back in the 1920's. It’s basically the same, a slice of bread — though a denser country bread is typically used — coated with butter, and liberally sprinkled with chocolate hagelslag.

My granddaughters demonstrating that half the fun is making it themselves!

My readings also tell me that hagelslag is a bit different than our American sprinkles. They are larger and the chocolate variety used in this tasty example, according to The Spruce Eats, must contain at least 32 percent cocoa. I don’t think you’ll find the same to be true here.

… and the rest of the fun comes from eating it!

Does any of this sound remotely yummy to you? Well, kids LOVE it! And because I know I'll get a lot of backlash if I were to ever recommend it as a super easy, novel, after-school-treat, I won't do that.

(But you know, what happens in your kitchen with your kiddos is between you and their dentist!)







Come up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy bread to eat.
Here in my retiring room,
Children, you may dine
On the golden smell of broom
And the shade of pine;
And when you have eaten well,
Fairy stories hear and tell.

~ RLS







Aquarium Birthday Party Splash!


One of my granddaughters wanted an Aquarium theme for her 5th birthday party and this grandma delivered!

I spent weeks painting sea creatures and cutting them out to fill an aquarium (mounted on the inside of a window) and then got started on party games.

  • I painted an aquarium scene on a sheet that, when draped over a curtain rod, made a perfect fishing booth. (A couple of dowels with string and an alligator clip at the end were poles for catching little sea creature stuffies… )

  • A corn hole board painted over with a shark’s gaping mouth, and bean bags I sewed together - again in the shape of sea creatures - saw a lot of tossing action.

  • And there was blindfold fun with Pin the Shell on the Otter game!

I also made several giant jelly fish out of paper lanterns, ribbon, netting and whatnots, cut and glued eyes onto red felt circles and toothpicks for crabby sandwiches (turkey and cheese on mini croissants) and brought blue table clothes, and shell table scatters for the final touch.

My daughter created a magical coral reef using pool noodles cut, shaped, and wired into place that set the stage for it all. Her party favors were sand buckets with sea themed crafts and sea creature face masks.

An inflatable pool/ slide /spray park was a giant hit! And a cake made by my sister was as tasty as it was creative.


The sun shone brightly, the kids went wild, and one little girl exclaimed "This is the best day of my whole ENTIRE life!" That’s saying quite a lot since she’s been here for five whole years!

Ok, Ok, I did go a little overboard, and I’m not recommending that every kid needs an over-the-top (or under-the-sea) blowout birthday party, but I loved having something to pour my creative energies into and loved seeing how happy it made her and the new group of friends she made in Pre-K this year.

Are you more “party” or “pooper”??? I hope you have some fun planned for the summer!