The Farmyard Party

or maybe this post should be titled 40 reasons why I should think about going back to work!

Miss A has been invited to quite a few birthday parties this year, quite normal for the first year of school I am led to believe.  After about party #4 she started to ponder what she might do for her own birthday party, albeit @ 6 months away.  This discussion was normally one sided, I wasn't buying into anything that was either going to cost me a lot of time, stress or money.

I know I should know better, but that's what brings me to the conclusion that I perhaps need to go back to work, my mind kept churning with all the fun we could have in our own newly acquired backyard that had already been dubbed "the paddock", the logical conclusion was to have a farmyard party!!!   Miss nearly 6 had other ideas, Build a Bear, Glitz & Glam, Tiny Chef, all her suggestions were shot down by her Mother on a mission with the comeback that she could do any of them when she turned 7 or even 8 but a farm party would be too baby'ish at any other age.  So 2 months before her birthday I set off on my farmyard party mission with no turning back.  Two weeks before the party she hit me with "but what if I don't want a farm party", by that stage it was met with "farm party or no party - end of discussion!"  and no I do not need to be reminded where my kids might get their stubborn streak from!

All things farm related became a bit of an obsession for me for a little while there, but I had great fun coming up with ideas and bouncing them off of anyone who would listen.  The last thing I needed was someone to egg me on but I found a kindred spirit in a fellow prep Mum who inspired me and made me realise that doing things for our kids can be a whole world of fun for ourselves too - O Yeh!

I am so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends who always come to the party when I have a crazy idea that requires more hands than I have to execute. My beautiful Mum came to town and baked her butt off for the entire week, my wonderful brother made a special trip with my gorgeous niece, he was under strict instructions not to stand around and look pretty and so was allocated duties and my amazing girlfriends went all Masterchef in my kitchen and took over food service.

So the birthday girl and 40 of her little friends enjoyed a beautiful day in our paddock with the help of some hired farmyard friends. Now I must rest on my laurels and stick to my promise that one home party per child ever is enough!

Pretending to be Posh

Thought I'd sneak another Mum outing in here...  At face value it would appear that we are spending a lot of time frocked up out on the tear and not at home looking after our progeny but what do you do when there are so many birthdays to celebrate??
This time we graced the Windsor with our presence for high tea to celebrate the beautiful Antonella's birthday.  High Tea at the Windsor is one of those Melbourne institutional things to do that must be ticked off the bucket list of quite a few ladies that I know, including the birthday girl.  Although the partaking of high tea has become more common place and quite trendy, the Windsor has been serving it forever.  Once the bastion of ladies donned in twin sets and pearls, now it is a place you will see colourful people from all walks of life, including our good selves.
So cucumber sandwiches, cups of tea, petite cakes and pink champagne it was for lunch this day.  Our only problem was that we weren't ready to leave when our sitting was over, half full glasses of bubbles were whisked away and the table abruptly cleared from under our noses...  perhaps the rigidity of a set high tea service not our cup of tea after all!

Mini Entrepreneurs

Some times school holidays are hard work and then there are times when I am totally amazed at what little minds can do.
During the last school holidays my girls had some friends over for the day, not once did they ask to watch tv, nor whine about how bored they were.  Instead they badgered me into letting them make lemonade and letting them set up a stall out on the street to sell it and the friendship bracelets they had been busy making all morning.
My usual bah humbug approach was to keep putting them off until the novelty of the idea wore off (I didn't like the idea of them all being out on the street unsupervised and didn't fancy sitting out there all afternoon myself).  I was outnumbered well and truly and my laconic attitude no match for their enthusiasm.  I disappeared outside for maybe 5 minutes to hang out the washing and when I returned the lemons had all been squeeezed by the oldest and youngest and the 2 middle ones were upstairs making their signs.
I tried to counter every tactic with a lame excuse but was met at every turn with too well thought out responses and some pretty good business plans.  Every 5 minutes they kept coming back asking if I had made the sugar syrup yet.  They had Googled it and were losing patience with me and if I didn't come to the party they were about to attempt it themselves.  They had planned every detail from what they would use as a table to how much they would charge and how it would be executed.  There was no stopping them!
Now it was a battle of the wills, me not wanting to sit with them out on the street for the best part of the afternoon and them wanting to have a go and make some money.  I was determined to test their commitment and asked for one more delay so I could at least have a shower.  They promised not to sneak off outside whilst I did and when I finished there they all were waiting at the door with their pop up shop ready to take on the neighbourhood.
They were out there for 2 hours at least, they had a few customers and then when it all got quiet they made up their own jingle and sang it at the top of their voices.  It worked!!  even enticing the boy across the road out to purchase a bracelet.
I was very happily defeated and they were ecstatic with the $5 each they made on the day, now I just need to explain to them COGS and Creditors!

 Setting up shop

 Discussing tactics

 Marketing strategy #1

 Marketing strategy #2 - the advertising jingle - gets them every time.

Smoko!

Netball's Night of Nights

Miss I started playing netball at the beginning of this year, she's been keen for the last 2 years to do so, but I'm starting to feel like one of those Hot Housing parents with all the activities she currently does and so I held off.
She is loving playing the game and doing the training and has a great time with her team mates and is starting to really improve and Mummy actually understands it unlike the ballet or piano options.
Part of our initiation into the world of netball clubs was the mid year celebration that comes with it's annual presentation night.  It's a very fancy affair held at one of the local reception venues - you turn up in your finery, find your name on the seating chart at the door, partake of a set 3 course menu and clap every recipient of a team award, all very mini Brownlow'ish - well at least for about 100 young girls aged between 8 and 17.
I think I spied some fake tanning amongst the older teenage girls who had also gone to a lot of effort with their outfits and hair.  The little girls were just rapped that they were all sitting at a table together away from their parents and the waitress was continually topping up their glass with whatever softdrink they chose, and in our little girl's case it was coke - she felt very privileged as we don't normally let her drink it.
Food and presentations were intertwined for the first 2 hours or so and then it was the guest speaker's turn.  Sarah Wall, from the Melbourne Vixens, must have felt like a rock star with around 100 little faces beaming up at her from the floor.  She gave a wonderful presentation and then spent the rest of the night signing autographs and posing for photos with her fans - she was extremely obliging and always with a smile on her face.
Miss I was in her element, in her own words it was "The best night ever!"

 

Miss I with the lovely Sarah Wall

 Netball Mums aka taxi drivers

 

Very proud receiving their awards on the stage

 

Team Gold Stars all dressed up

 

 

and the coach too

Let's Try That Again

After the demise of Dr Evil and the subsequent hassling from the girls, we have again taken on the responsibility of domestic pet ownership.
Meet Titanic (the black one - as named by Miss A) and Pearl (Miss I's), they have so far survived for about 8 weeks and seem very happy cohabitating.

Breaking the Rules

In the lead up to the girls' end of year dance concert, the dance school has an official photo day.  It doubles as a costume dress rehearsal and a chance for parents to get a portrait of their little ballerina all tissied up.
If you have ever spoken to or been around me on this day you will have experienced the very dark side of my personality.  Makeup and hair have never been my forte and getting little girls to sit still whilst you slick back every last strand of their hair and apply more makeup to their little face than I would ever wear myself turns me inside out.  On the upside their beautiful complexion makes it very easy to apply and one day I will get better with the mascara and red lipstick.
The makeup thing appears rather unnecesary to an outsider but once you see the girls on stage with their face all brightened up it really makes the dance quite theatrical. The girls love it though, its like a very over the top dress up.
One of the rules around the dance school is "no photos".  Due to my lack of listening skills and impatience I always try and sneak the girls outside and quickly take a photo before I get caught and told off - again!  Due to the delay in me writing this blog entry the official photos have since turned up, a much better outcome than my covert phone photos.  Check out the results for yourself below. 

 

 

Showing off

We took the girls to the Royal Show recently, something we have done since Miss I was 4 years old, except for last year when we were distracted by our American trip.  Strange but it's not such a big deal amongst their friends but it's something they love to do nonetheless.
D usually takes half a day off work and we head off after lunch, this year we figured the girls were old enough to stay up late and watch the fireworks so had planned a big day out.
The day got off to a great start, D planned to drop us at the gate, go and find a park and meet us afterwards.  No sooner had he dropped us off than someone pulled out of park across the road.  Like lightening he slammed the doors shut and burned some rubber in order to get the close (and free) park.
The sun was shining so we headed straight for the rides, get that over and done with before the forecasted rain came.  The girls are tall enough to ride on their own mostly and they have no fear so we plodded our way through ride after ride (except the log ride as Mummy said no water rides!)
Something we have never experienced before and that there were no crowds, no queues for anything so we breezed through everything rather quickly.  It felt strange not bumping into people every which way you turned.
Miss I wanted to go on the roller coaster but Miss A wasn't keen so I volunteered my services, I couldn't see for my eyes watering by the time I got off.  I think it was all part of Miss A's cunning plan though to get Daddy to go with her on the dodgem cars to even up the ride count.  I love the look on her face as she was crashing into anything and everything.
We checked out the animal pavillion and the girls milked a cow and when we went outside it had got a bit dark and quite cold...  Mummy gets grumpy when it's cold so we headed to the showbag pavillion for the girls to spend the money that they had got from lots of generous rellos.  We wandered around and around and around and they still couldn't find something they wanted, reading between the lines - it was all crap and so the obligatory chocolate bags were purchased along with a  light up headband.
Fireworks kick off was still an hour away and we were finished checking out anything worth checking out so we decided that a nice warm pub meal would be more enticing than hanging around in the cold (well D and I did anyway and we still pull rank) so we pulled up stumps and headed there.

Sometimes Footy Fans

It's hard to be an excited footy fan when you're the only one in the mix that barracks for the same team... but they have no choice, they know if they choose to barrack for another team then they have to find somewhere else to live - no excuses!
So for the first time in the girls' footy barracking lives the Crows made it to the second biggest game of the year.  The excitement built as talk circulated of our SA family coming over to see the big game.  Rumours were rife that there was about to be a family showdown - yes we have an infiltrator in our midst - a Hawthorn supporter in the family!
The big game drew nearer and the house guests were confirmed, air mattresses pumped up and sleeping bags laid out.
The girls got into the spirit of the day as the boys were preparing for the game but they weren't too fussed that they weren't actually going with them.
We took the photo whilst everyone was still smiling as we were pessimistically confident that only one would return so at the end of the day.
and so later on that night they all returned after a very exciting match, closer than anyone predicted and apparently the amount of beer consumed was necessary to counter the yelling they all did!

Sometimes Mummy's Get Time Off...

... and when we do we do it in style!

Trying to get a large group of Mum's to find one weekend that we could all "take off" is a bit of a task, lots of kids, lots of activities and husbands that are not around reliably make it near impossible.  At the end of a long and dreary winter, motivation in the form of a birthday was all that was required and being the super organisers we are eight of us made it happen recently.
With three car loads of more food and alcohol than is humanly possbile to consume in an overnight stay and one change of clothes, we made our way to the infamously relaxing town of Daylesford about an hour and a half away.
Maximising our time off we despatched the kids to their activities and hit the road by 9.30am.  Made our first coffee/cake stop by 10.45 and then rolled onto lunch at midday.
With full bellies we despatched the birthday girl to the day spa and headed to our lodgings to set up for dinner - birthday girl believing we were eating take away pizza that night so she didn't have to re-do her hair after day spa treatments.
Mission accomplished! birthday girl suitably surprised with the beautiful dining room we had created, cocktail lounge open and 5 star 4 course dinner in progress.
The night rolled on from one cocktail to another and one course to another with a bit of singing and dancing in between until we all fell into bed somewhere around 2am.
Breakfast the next morning was an equally luxurious and relaxing affair and after we'd cleaned up the mess we headed into town for some exploring (ok shopping).
Getting a bit weary by lunch time so we found a little cafe and spent a few more hours sitting on our butts eating, drinking and chatting.  Thoughts of the following day being a school day started to creep in and we all decided we had better make tracks so we were home in time to get ready for the week - conscientious bunch we are!
Well it doesn't happen very often but when it does it sure is a hell of a lot of fun...  worth waiting for even!