Lightening Online

Our little girl turned 9 today!

It amazes me how in the weeks leading up to their birthdays you can see a real difference in your kids.  Like you suddenly realise that they are more 9 than 8 and they look and act like it (or whatever numbers are pertinent at the time).

We had a quiet family celebration today.

Presents with us this morning:

I loved seeing her face as she opened this parcel.  The dress is identical to one her friend in Adelaide has so she was really excited to get one.  She also got a sports bag for taking her change of clothes to netball in (and for when she goes on camps or away etc), a pink purse and a bike carrier for her Baby Born doll.

Followed by decorating her own cake/s:

It’s a tradition in our family that the kids choose what cake design they would like from the birthday cake books I have.  When they have a party (which isn’t every year), I usually make a more elaborate one.  When we have a family party, they enjoy decorating their own cakes.  Singstar Princess is getting quite creative with hers.  It’s a great bonding time working together on the cake/s.  She chose a cupcake design this year.

Followed by a family lunch with Farmboy’s sister and her children and his parents:

Where we assembled the cake and sang happy birthday.

And she got to open a couple more presents. 

I think she had a nice day.

Wow, 9 years!  Time flies when you’re having fun!!!! 

We had a lovely weekend away, spending time with Farmboy’s sister and her children at the family shack.

On Saturday, we drove down to Port Lincoln to catch up with the rest of the family for our annual “cousins birthday party”.

It ended up being somewhat of a “progressive party” in the end.  One of the families had a sick child and the other a newborn so they didn’t want to mix the 2.  We visited the family with the newborn and then went on to finish the party where it was originally supposed to be.

It was disappointing that we couldn’t all be together but we did get to see everyone and the progressive part made it all the more interesting in a way.

Someone asked if Trailer Boy and his cousin ever get sick of being given the same gifts (they’re only 3 months apart in age).

The answer was a resounding no.  They LOVE it!!!!  :)   They were given matching Spiderman jackets from Granny (which they wore constantly for the rest of the weekend).  And the sweatbands and basketballs from Farmboys brother and his family.  The sweatbands were also worn all weekend!

The cousins birthday party works out so great for my kids as their birthdays are all so close to Christmas.  The gifts they get now are all the more precious because it’s all they get.

It’s so much fun all sharing together like this and enjoying the kids as they play together and explore their new things. 

Here’s a close up of the cake I made.  It wasn’t easy to get a decent photo as the laminated photograph kept reflecting the flash:

The actual cake is supposed to look like a lolly photo frame.  We didn’t have a photograph with all the cousins so I made this collage using Picasa.  It was surprisingly simple to do and the kids all loved it (and the adults - luckily I’d made extra copies of the photograph anticipating that they’d all like one).

And so, the cousins birthday party is over again for another year.  The city cousins headed home this morning after a few more days of getting to play with their “country cousins”.  They even had a night on the farm this time and left from here this morning (after we’d spent the weekend at the beach).

We haven’t made definite plans but I think next year might be another city one (I’d like to do something like all go to the zoo together) and then the year after we’re planning a “farm” one.  We want to wait a couple of years until more of the kids are old enough to enjoy a campfire and spotlighting on the farm.

Oh, and I didn’t get any more cuddles with the newborn. :(  But I did have lovely cuddles with the 9 month old.  He was the one who’s been sick so I wasn’t sure if he’d come to me.  He’s such a happy and placid little thing though so we had some lovely cuddle time.

It’s hard to think that we won’t see any of them now for around 4 months or more.  The babies are going to change so much in that time!!!!

Here we go, some photo’s from our pirate party on Monday.

Egg and Spoon Race

I bought these blow up egg and spoons from a toy catalogue a few years ago. It took a little while for the kids to get the hang of what to do but once they got into it, they had a lot of fun.

Water Relay

This was Trailer Boys favourite party game (according to him). After the pass the parcel and treasure hunt of course. The kids had to see who could get the most water from their bowl to their cup using a spoon.

Little Pirates

Here are a few of the guests (and Trailer Boy) dressed up in the pirate outfits that came with the loot bags. I put them in the middle of the pass the parcel as the “prize” so that everybody got something. My kids favourite part of pass the parcel is getting to give something to all their friends when they open the middle section (yeah, we have a “rigged” pass the parcel - but nobody minds when they discover what we’re up to). If you decide to order any loot bags from lootbags.com.au, try this code at the checkout “free loot 125695″ and you might get a freebie. I didn’t but the code came in a flyer inside the bags - a bit of a promotional thing.

Aren’t they so cute? I was an instant celebrity with some of the kids when I went to the kindy break-up party the next day. One of the little boys just stood there and stared at me. Another came up and said “I know you”. It was very cute.

Getting Ready to Set Sail

Naturally, the highlight of the party! The PIRATE SHIP!!!!

Off we go to look for some treasure:

We’re looking for red “X’s” that indicate there’s treasure below!!!! The kids were all yelling out “X! X! X!”. It was hilarious.

The Pirate Cake

The cake that started all of this. Trailer Boy chose this for his cake and the pirate party theme evolved from there.

And Trailer Boy blowing out his candles:

He didn’t want me to cut into his ship. I think he liked it.

Anyway, the morning went really well. The weather was lovely and I think the mums had a lovely time catching up as well. The kids were really good and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Some of you have probably already seen the smiling moon that appeared earlier this week, either in the sky or on other blogs. When I saw it, I knew I had to take a photograph for my Smiley Saturday post this week.

It was caused by an alignment of Venus and Jupiter with the moon.

In other smiley news this week, Trailer Boy turned 5. I did well with his birthday gifts this year. He’s played avidly with each of them and all were things I’ve picked up over time for less than half price (one was 80% off). They’re so easy to buy for at that age though.

Here he is unwrapping one of his gifts:

And here he is helping to ice his birthday cake:

I kept the family cake fairly simple this year and decorated it with a dinosaur candle holder I found at the Dinosaur Museum and some lolly dinosaurs. His birthday party cake ( a pirate ship will be my turn at decorating).

He was so proud of himself.

Farmboy (DH) has finished harvest early this year and so he’s been enjoying having some time to help out with the pirate party we’re having on Monday. I asked him whether we could somehow make the shape of a pirate ship in the backyard. My SIL did that recently and has lent us the black fabric she used.

I never imagined that he’d actually come up with a MOVING pirate ship. I think the kids are going to love it.

Here’s a little sneak peak of Farmboy and Trailer Boy getting the pirate ship ready:

And here we are on our test run:

Instead of a traditional treasure hunt, we’re going to finish the party with a ride on the pirate ship in search of treasure. I’ve put the lolly bag treats into gold boxes and we’ll “hide” them around the trees in our outer yard with some red “Xs” to mark each spot. It should make a good finale to the party.

I think we’ll have lots of smiles come Monday. I’m so excited!!!!

Plenty to smile about around here right now. How about at your place? I hope you’ll join us in Smiley Saturday this week.

Image via WikipediaArrr…… me hearties!!!

My 5 year old is having a pirate party next week to celebrate turning 5 and I think I need to get organised!!!! This week is busy with school visits so we had to wait until next week to fit it in.

Here are my plans so far. If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.

CAKE

It all started with the cake. I have two children’s birthday cake books and my children spend hours pouring over them trying to decide which birthday cake they’d like. Trailer Boy chose a Pirate Ship and hence the idea of a Pirate Party was born.

LOOT BAGS

I had thought finding pirate party gear would be easy. It’s a pretty common theme at the moment. Turns out I was wrong. Perhaps it’s so popular that places had sold out? So, I turned to online sources and found this awesome site called Loot Bags. I thought for $3.25 each that these pirate loot bags were pretty good value. They’re like little mini showbags. Of course, I’ve bought some edible loot to add to them as well (I found a treasure dip, some gold coins and some edible jewellery as well as a few other bits and pieces - probably too many but I’m having fun!).

I’m usually one to be cautious about the cost of loot bags getting away from me (because they can easily run into $$$ if you let them) but I think I’m using a bit of retail therapy to deal with the fact that my baby is turning 5 so we’ve splashed out a little.

The contents are going to double as games prizes though so I don’t have any other costs in that department. The dress-up sets are going inside the pass the parcel so that everyone gets a prize and can put them on (should make for great photo’s). Other loot will be used for a treasure hunt at the end of the party.

GAMES

So far we have:

* Pass the Parcel (at Trailer Boys request)

* Treasure Hunt (also at Trailer Boys request) - we haven’t decided yet whether we’ll do a standard treasure hunt or a “follow the clues” type treasure hunt. It’ll come down to whether Farmboy can pull off an idea he’s working on for a moving pirate ship.

* Ships Ahoy - you call out instructions and they each have their own action (eg. scrub the deck, pull the anchor, dig for treasure)

* Captain Says - same as Simon Says only with “Captain Says”

* Musical Islands - like musical chairs only with island maps to stand on instead of chairs to sit on

* Water Relay - team race where you use a spoon to move water from one end to another

* Pin the Flag on the Treasure Map (if I get organised enough as I need to make this)

Back Up Games:

* Egg & Spoon Race

* Red Rover

* Peg Chasey (need to try and get each others pegs)

FOOD

Party is for lunch (10.30-12.30) and this is something I’m still working on.

Ideas so far:

* Golden Nuggets (chicken munchies)

* Hot Dog Ships (small red sausages with a flag stuck in them)

Any other suggestions for piratey type food would be much appreciated. Otherwise I’ll just go with traditional party food fare.

DECORATIONS

I’m a bit slack in the decorating department. I do have a few pirate balloons and a pirate tablecloth as well as a pirate door banner to hang up somewhere. We’re going to attempt to make a makeshift boat using some black fabric from my SIL (which is where we got the idea of making a boat from). That way the kids can play in it as well as it adding to the effect of the party.

So that’s about where I’m up to with it all and typing it out like this has been very helpful in pulling all those floating ideas together. Photographs and an update on how it went will be posted next wee.

I have to admit I’m a bit of a party girl. Not the “go out, get drunk and dance all night” kind of party girl. More of the “fairy bread, pass the parcel and lolly bags” type party girl.

I love organising parties for my kids (with the exception of the past couple of years when I’ve been in a “less than capable” state of being). I love planning what cake they’ll have (or watching them pour over the cake books choosing something). I LOVE presents. I love buying presents and wrapping presents and giving presents (and getting presents ).

So naturally our trip away gave me LOTS of reasons to smile. I got to go shopping for TOYS (I LOVE shopping for toys). I got to wrap them up and tie lolly necklaces and watches to the outside just for fun (and of course to make me the BEST aunty!!! ). I got to help pack lolly bags and buy party food and enjoy watching my children and my niece and nephews have lots of fun together.

Best of all, I was actually well enough to enjoy it and participate (although next time I’ll have to remember the pass the parcel).

Now that the camera is unpacked, here are some photo’s of the fun:

Fun on the big slide at the indoor playground.

“Happy Birthday to the Cousins”. (I hope my in laws don’t disown me for publishing their photo online )

These 2 cousins were stoked to get the same toys. What we didn’t think about was them having the same frequency so they kept triggering one another’s vehicles with their controls. Not that it phased them any - they were having too much fun. Oh what torture for the dads not to wear out the batteries before the boys got a look in though.

When the presents were all unwrapped, the lounge room floor resembled Christmas morning.

This one has nothing to do with the birthday party. While we were in Adelaide, Farmboy took the opportunity to take the boys to a Crows game. Here is Leighton in all his gear, ready to go. The boys went to the football while the girls stayed at my SIL’s and ate chocolate. Singstar Princess finally got a copy of High School Musical 2 and she got to watch that after the younger cousins were in bed.

My children lead a charmed life. I hope one day they look back on their childhood with fond memories.

In other smiley news:

I received a lovely Tasmanian postcard from Ann (thank you Ann).

My parents eventually sent me a birthday card. No phone call but at least they didn’t forget.

I’ve had some wonderfully supportive emails and some lovely e-cards from friends recently. Thank you.

I’m part-way through another medication decrease and the effects seem to be a little less horrible than last time.

I enjoyed wandering through my garden and taking some photo’s when we got back from our time away.

Over To You:

Feel free to post your own Smiley thoughts, share your smiley moments or post something that makes others smile (a joke, a you tube video, a funny cartoon or photograph). If you’ve not participated in Smiley Saturday before, please read the Smiley Saturday page before adding your link below.

Happy Smiley Saturday everyone. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Our main reason for shooting off to the “big smoke” for a few days was to get together with Farmboy’s two sisters and their children for a “cousins birthday party”.

My sister-in-law mentioned the idea last year when we both encountered the issue of our children wanting each other to come to their birthday parties. Her eldest and our youngest are only a couple of months apart in age and living 500km apart causes them quite a bit of grief.

Travelling 500km in order to make it to a birthday party is not always practical (in both time and finance).

The idea had merits on a LOT of levels. We try to all get together over Christmas (whether it be Christmas Day or a time close to Christmas) so having something mid-year where we all got together really appealled to us.

Originally the idea was to simply get together for a bit of a celebration/party. However, with my children all celebrating their birthdays within a month of Christmas, I mentioned that I would LOVE to for them to wait and have gifts mid-year. This spreads things out for the kids but also spreads out the financial load of people buying them two gifts at the same time of year.

We don’t often get to see our nieces and nephews ON their birthday so it suited everyone to have a get together with a little gift exchange. Even better was the fact that both Kmart and Big W had toy sales that started right before the planned date.

It was a lovely day. We had a delicious BBQ lunch then the dads took the kids to an indoor playground for an hour or so while we cleaned up, finished wrapping presents, organised a party afternoon tea and grabbed an ice cream cake.

We sang “Happy Birthday to the cousins” and indulged in too much food (resulting in not needing to eat any tea). Then did presents with the kids. Each child received 2 gifts each (from the 2 other families). The day ended with party bags - because is it a real party without party bags???? Wish I was one of the “cousins” - wouldn’t have minded a party bag myself.

It all worked out so well that we’ve decided to make it a new family tradition to have a “cousins birthday party” on the first weekend of the mid-year school holidays each year.

10-pin bowling sounded to me like the perfect theme for a 10th Birthday Party. Even more so given how much Leighton enjoys it. One of the drawbacks of living out here in a rural area is access to these kind of things. It’s almost 2 hours drive from our home to the nearest Bowling Alley.

This meant that in order for him to have a 10-Pin Bowling party, we needed to transport the guests to and from our nearest town, turning what could be a very simple party (for those that live near a Bowling Alley) into quite a complicated one.

We gave Leighton a choice for his 10th Birthday Party. He could take 4 friends bowling (we have a 7 seater car) or we could have a larger party more locally. He chose the option of having just 4 friends and going bowling.

A couple of years ago I saw some Ten-Pin Bowling candles and grabbed them, thinking it would make a great theme for one of the kids birthday cakes. Perfect! It was great to have them in the cupboard when Leighton decided he would indeed have a 10-Pin Bowling Birthday Party. While you have to be careful not to end up with too much stuff that doesn’t ever get used, I’ve learnt living out here that I need to grab stuff like that when I see it. Chances are, when I wanted them, I would have had trouble finding them.

Farmboy ended up decorating the cake for me (bless him). He quite enjoys a bit of cake decorating. I didn’t notice until I was just downloading and resizing photo’s, just how well he did with using the red licorice (which was leftover from Singstar Princess’s cake).

I noticed in this photo that the alley have used red to border their lanes. Not that I expect anyone really noticed (other than me just now looking at the photo’s). If you click on any of the photo’s, it will take you to a larger copy which shows the red lines between lanes a little clearer.

We met in town at Farmboy’s brothers home and did the presents and cake before heading off for the day. I think some of the parents thought we were very brave taking 5 boys for the day. The kids were SO GOOD though. Very well behaved and polite. A real credit to their parents in my opinion.

I had quite a bag of snacks packed for them to munch on as well as some cans of drink I bought for 40c a can. We also took a couple of DVD’s and played them in the car DVD player. I expected them to be extremely noisy but they were quite quiet. The DVD on the way up there finished just as we were driving into town.

It was amazing how the day seemed to fall into place like that. One thing seemed to roll into the next quite naturally and without fuss. KFC for lunch followed by a trip to the park for the boys to kick the footy around (we couldn’t get into the Bowling Alley until 2pm due to Penant Bowls).

The Bowling Game took around an hour then Farmboy gave each of them a few gold coins to play on the games.

I had a couple of hours shopping after lunch while the boys did all of that. Then they picked me up on our way out of town. We were due back in town at 5pm and arrived with about 6 minutes to spare. Parents started arriving around 30 seconds after we got there and all the boys were gone by 5pm.

I just couldn’t believe how smoothly the whole day seemed to run!!!

I think it’s a party Leighton will look back on fondly (at least I hope he does ). Here’s a shot of him with the candles lit.

My heart just melts when I see him. My beautiful little baby on his way to becoming a man. He was such a GOOD host all day. I was SO proud of him. At lunch time he was making sure everyone had food (including me and Farmboy).

When we did the birthday cake in the morning, he insisted on cutting it and serving everyone with a piece. Then when his younger brother dropped his, he raced off inside to get him some more. I kind of expected he would be focused on his mates and not care about his younger brother and sister. So that little expressed of thought and caring really touched my heart.

We have our moments but all in all, he’s a GREAT kid!!!!

As much as I love birthday parties, I must admit I’m glad I don’t have to think about anymore for a while now. I’m a tad “partied out”.

If you are having a party, one thing you will need to purchase are party favors. There are many various types of party favors such as bridal shower favors, themed favors and wedding reception favors, all perfect for your next big bash!

As promised, here are some pics of the party. I was pretty flat out most of the time so didn’t get to take photo’s of many of the activities. I hope you enjoy the ones I have managed to take.

This is Singstar Princesses party cake. Her choice of cake AND decorations. I think she did quite a good job of visualising what would look good on the cake. It has taken a few years for the kids to understand that they can have a number cake that ISN’T decorated the same way as the cake decorating book has it. I have to admit I was quite pleased that she chose to have a number 7. Nice and simple!!!! These are Singstar Princesses decorated biscuits. I just HAD to take a photo of these to show you. The two at the bottom - are SINGING. She has no idea that I call her “Singstar Princess” but she sure is one!!!! Their mouths are open and she’s added a lolly in the middle which is their “tongue”. Here are some of the decorated biscuits made by a couple of the party guests. I have the most beautiful photo of the kids holding up their puppet biscuits but can’t (well won’t) put it up here because other people’s kids are in it. You’ll have to take my word for it how happy they all look with their creations. This one is of a couple of kids building their marshmallow constructions. It was really interesting seeing how different kids tackled this project. Some got right into it while others stuck to lollipops (single marshmallow on a toothpick) and weights (toothpick with marshmallow either end).The construction work in the foreground of this photo is quite a work of art. He has placed diagonal support beams into it to make it all stronger. Pretty impressive for a 7 year old I thought!!!

And that is all I have for you I’m afraid. It would have been nice to have a few more shots. But making the day enjoyable and a success had to take priority. Naturally the most important thing was the kids having a great time! Which they did!

Today is the day of DD’s making party. That’s why I’m sitting here typing away at the computer and sucking on one of the Chupa-Chups Marita sent for my kids. Do you remember chocolate flavoured chupa-chups???? Well, DS just asked me to unwrap a lollipop for him and it was a CHOCOLATE one. So I went rummaging in the box to see if there was another. And there was!!! So now I’m sitting here with a lollipop stick hanging out my mouth feeling like a big kid. It’s great fun!!!!

And of course, procrastinating on getting the rest of the stuff ready for DD’s party.

I spent most of yesterday getting stuff prepared. In fact, I’m not sure who’s doing all of the “making” for this party - me or the kids! I have to admit that this kind of party has taken a lot more preparation than I would normally put in for a party. In fact, DD’s last 2 party’s were “throw a snag on the barbie and the kids play on the playground” type parties. All I really needed to do was make a birthday cake and a pass the parcel.

But when Leighton turned 7, he had a football themed birthday party. So it seems we’ve begun a tradition of 7 being a “themed” party of some description.

So, what are we going to be making? Well, I’m so glad you asked because I just feel like talking to somebody about it. Guess that’s why I have a blog.

Firstly I made a heap of brown paper bags for the kids to decorate. Now that I’ve spent the last week making these 15 bags, I guess you’ll all give me an easier way I could have done this!!! I couldn’t find any plain gift bags in the shops other than some white glossy ones which I wasn’t sure texta would work on. Plus at $1.50 per bag that’s over $20 just for empty bags.

Instead I used a $3 roll of brown paper and made them myself. I’d show you a photo but I haven’t taken one. How did I do it? Basically I wrapped up a weet-bix box leaving the top part open. Voila! One paper bag about the size of a weet-bix box (a 1.2kg I think it was). Then I cut up the box (well, 2 boxes) to make a cardboard insert for the bottom.

We’ve got textas and stickers and glitter glue for the kids to decorate their bags with. Oh, and we’ll add some curling ribbon handles (providing I remember to get it out of the top cupboard).

Once that is done we have a list of edible treats for the kids to make:

1. Lolly bugs - 2 jaffas for eyes, 1 boiled lolly for the body and 2 bananas for the back end (tail or whatever you want to pretend it is). Wrap them in cellophane then add pipecleaner legs by wrapping the pipecleaners around the body. (I’ll try and put a photo up later)

2. Biscuit Puppets. The original idea for this came from some lollipop puppets I saw. Only problem was, the only lollipops I could find suitable were HUGE and $2 each. Instead, I pinched an idea from those kids packet mixes (Fairy Wands or something). Made up a plain batch of biscuits, rolled and cut out circles and inserted a popstick into each one. The kids can ice them and use lollies to turn them into whatever creature they want.

3. Icecream Biscuits. With the leftover dough I cut out some ice cream shaped biscuits for the kids to ice and decorate as well.

4. Fruit Loop necklaces. This one has very little preparation. The kids just thread fruit loops onto some string and tie the ends together.

Hmmmm……we lost our power so this post didn’t get finished. I’ve just iced DD’s birthday cake (phew! Another job down). Now where was I???

Oh….

5. Cheese Things Carrots. Just cheese things in a bag sticky-taped into a piping bag shape and tied with green curling ribbon.

6. Marshmallow Construction. BIG bowl of marshmallows and hundreds of toothpicks and let their creativity go nuts.

7. Chocolate Making. Now you can’t have a making party without making chocolates!!!! And since I have a box full of chocolate moulds, it was a logical activity to do.

Then to keep them occupied if they finish all that earlier than expected - butchers paper tablecloth and an ice cream bucket of crayons so they can decorate the tablecloth.

Only 3 non replies out of 12 invitations so I guess that’s not too bad.

Photo’s to come in the next day or so (I hope). If I disappear for a few days…. I’m probably in bed recovering!

P.S.  Don’t forget to check out Lightening’s Blogworld today.  My first “real” article was published and it’s all “official” like now.  Just need some visitors and comments to keep me smiling.