Last year Little Hiccups envisioned a slightly more sophisticated Family Fun Day for the children as they are unable to attend the Hiccups Event of the Year – our Fundraising Ball (November 24th this year – you can book online here: http://www.littlehiccups.co.uk/charityball/). Our wondering thoughts led us to an Afternoon Tea Party (because who can turn down cake) and when Iveridge Hall offered us their gardens to use for a Hiccups event we jumped at the opportunity to put our plans into action. Last year was a huge success and we had wonderful food in wonderful surroundings. We had many requests to repeat it this year and were happy to oblige.
The owners of Iveridge Hall, Graham and Linda, were generous enough to lend us their gardens and facilities again which were very gratefully received. We also thought the food was so delicious last year that we approached the same caterers. Since last August, they have moved from their Caravan, Rosie, that travelled to events to their very own cafe – Hart Coffee House and Deli in Boston Spa. They were still happy to help us out though and the food and crockery was all thanks to them. The cakes were particularly beautiful with masses of creamy icing on top of delicious, moist sponge. (My mouth is actually watering thinking about them again! If you are ever in Boston Spa, I recommend paying them a visit and sampling one (or two!) of the cakes! There was so much food left over unfortunately that we need to remember to ask people to bring some tupperwear with them next year so that they can take some home with them. This year, our Chairperson Sarah, nipped into the Leeds General Infirmary Children’s Ward and St Georges Crypt after the event and made sure that no food went to waste.
As sophisticated as Afternoon Tea is, we decided that the children required entertainment and possibly to burn off all the sugar that we had just supplied them with. With this in mind we hired a bouncy castle and a Soft Play area complete with bouncy unicorns (which my toddler was particularly fond of!) from Bounce and Wobble. Got to say – not sure if it burnt energy off or just gave them boundless more but they certainly seemed to enjoy themselves.
This year it was also through that it would be nice to have a calmer sensory corner for those either less mobile or that wanted to escape the noise and inevitable giddiness that comes with a bouncy castle. After some home crafting and raiding of the Hiccups storage unit, I think the Trustees managed to put together quite a nice and magical little area of the garden to escape into.
And of course, no ‘posh’ event is complete without horses so of course we had to see if we could hire some. We were lucky enough to be able to hire KL Therapy Ponies last minute and they brought with them two of the most adorable miniature horses that I, and everyone else, fell in love with straight away. They were the most docile creatures and loved sampling the grass at Iveridge Hall. The children enjoyed stroking, brushing, plaiting manes and holding the reins. I think the ponies quite enjoyed all the attention too!
All in all, it was a lovely day, with lovely company and great food and entertainment. Even the weather behaved and it was certainly hit and miss leading up to the event. I’d been watching the forecast all week and it was a complete tease with showers changing to rain changing to storms, back to clear then showers, etc. In the end it behaved itself. We had a very light drizzle but then it was cloudy and just warm enough. Which in my mind is the perfect summer day but then I am ginger and hide from any sun so some may disagree with me on this!
Thank you to everyone that came and helped make it such a special day.
