Lightening Online

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.

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.