I have survived...

a two hour 5th birthday party with 8 (including Charlie) 5 year olds. There was screaming, tantrums, laughter and lots of fun. There was also lots of junk food, then we sent them home to their parents. Only one child turned up unexpectedly (he was invited but hadn't RSVP'd). It took longer to clean up than it did to hold the party. It took almost as long to work out which bit of plastic went with which little thing that had to be assembled and have stickers stuck all over it. We didn't count on the almost two year old being so razzed up on sugar that she wouldn't go to sleep until 10.30pm when we went to bed and then only after threats from Daddy of being put in her own bed if she didn't stop kicking him.

I think I'd do it again. Maybe. We were worried what to do to keep them occupied, but I realised that hey, they're in kindergarten if all else fails we'll read them a book. Fortunately an Easter Egg hunt, a pinata, and a pit stop for drinks and scoffing food took care of all their needs. I had help, one lovely Mum stayed the whole two hours and apart from a short coffee break played with the kids all the time. A couple of other Mums stayed and were an extra pair of eyes which was great since I was still trying to make the icing for the dodgy Woolies sponge I was trying to turn into a birthday cake. The kids didn't care, half of them didn't have room for cake.

I'm so grateful that I'm at work today, Gemma is at daycare and Charlie is at school. I don't want to have to deal with the come down from all that sugar and excitement. I'm a coward.

and you thought Torbenspang Huntington-Smythe was bad

How about Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116" (pronounced "/ˈalˌbin/")

Freaks

My Tiny Astronomer

On the slide with the baby.

Baby points into distance.

"Ball!"

"Ball!"

"Where's the ball honey? I can't see any ball."

This goes on for twenty minutes.

As we're leaving the park I finally realise that the ball he's talking about is the Moon that's visible in the afternoon sky.

"No honey, I can't get that ball for you. That's the Moon."

"Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!"

"Sorry sweety, that's, like, a quarter of a million miles away (must Google that fact)."

"Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!"

Baby proceeds to bitch and cry about the fact that I can't get the ball for him.

He's still obsessing about the moon after his bath and dinner.

It's funny, though, to think that in our age there is at least a very remote possibility that my little boy will one day stand on the moon.

SCA frocks to a good home - size 1

I've got two quite nice frocks that neither of my girls can use. If anyone knows of a good home for them let me know. There are two frocks, 2 linen shifts and a cap suitable for size 0-1.

Modern Dilemma

We were sitting outside in a pub beer garden with the kids. With the new anti-smoking laws, the beer garden is now the only place people can smoke within the pub grounds. When we went out there we were the only ones, and we decided to sit outside and have a drink because it was a nice day, and the kids could run around without being a nuisance to anyone.

Then someone came and sat at an ajacent table, and lit up a cigarette. Immediately Charlie started announcing loudly that someone was making poor choices and that smoking made you sick. We were trying to get him to be quiet, because although we don't smoke and would prefer that the gentleman in question wasn't smoking in our vicinity, we could hardly ask him to stop when we were sitting in the designated smoking area. So we found ourselves in the strange position of defending, to our almost 5 year old, this man's right to smoke even though it's a bad choice and makes you sick. Mostly we were just trying to get him to stop talking about other people at the top of his lungs. Each time someone else came out and lit up he was off again.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Apart from moving away from the smoker, what did you do?

Squeaky shoes?

He doesn't get gardening

Crankmaster J and I did a bit of gardening this afternoon.

He loves dirt. Dirt is good. Can't eat enough of it. But he didn't like those annoying bits of green that were in his lovely pot of dirt. They got picked out.

Eventually I had to insist that the seedlings were supposed to be there.

Silly boy. When I do give him his own pot of dirt he only tips over himself.

Dirt, dirt, glorious dirt....

Clever babies

We all know our babies are the most beautiful and clever babies in the world, naturally, but did you know they were this clever?

I do so love Noni

Crappy kids TV is akin to 'child abuse'

hmm it made me laugh waaaay too much...lack of sleep will do that I suspect :)

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

In case it's escaped you so far...

Here's the litany we'll all share (slightly American slant but truths are universal in so many ways...)
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anSpBUxsgAU

(because I haven't worked out how to embed the videos in here as yet...)

Spare Parts for Babylove Car Seats

On the off chance that you might be able to get spare parts for Babylove seats I emailed them the other day and told them what the problem was with my car seat and asked if they sold spare parts. The good news is that they do. All I had to do was call their customer service line (1300 303 330) and give them the part number, which they looked up on their computer there and then confirmed that they had them in stock and took my credit card details. Two days later I had my replacement buckle for the second hand car seat we have. Since the car seat was made in 1998, I was pretty impressed. Their email is custserv@britax.com.au.

who needs the fort at festival...

... when you can make one of these??




out of cardboard boxes. I found it at this site.
bring on the children's parties, I say :-)

check out their gallery to see what other people have done, it's pretty cool. I cross-posted at ForBattle! because I couldn't resist whacking up a piccie of the armour.


carry on.

Pocoyo!

I've Torby has caught the Pocoyo bug. I blame Meg & Jamie.
It's too too cute and we now own one of the dvd's and a few of the books, one of which Torby lurves (it came to the supermarket with us.)

Just thought I should share :)

Farmstay...

Hi All

Keep this website in your favourites for a while - http://www.countryroads.com.au/. We have just spent a divine 4 days on the farm and I would really recommend it as a holiday option once your kids are about 5ish. Patting the animals, feeding the chooks, goats, alpacas, checking for eggs, pony rides, quad bike rides, tyre swing, cuddling the goats, lambs, rabbits, campfires, solar heated pool, decent size cabins... the list goes on.

We will be heading back up there again!
cheers

Gym membership, anybody?

Seeing as we're sodding off, does anyone want a Fernwood gym membership? I'll be using it until we go, but it would be great if I could transfer it over to someone.

Let me know if you're interested yet. We have no rock-solid timeframe, probably in Beijing by March. I've had the membership since August so there'll be at least sixish months left on it.

Kids books at Australia Post

A tip from one of my mother's group mums who is also a primary school teacher.

Australia Post is selling sets of kids books really cheap at the moment. 4 Mem Fox books for $10 (author of Possom Magic) and 4 Graeme Base books for $20 (Animalia) and a bunch of other sets.

I found them in the Burwood Plaza post office but not in the Westfield one.

It's something to do with literacy week and it happens every year for a short time.

Good value I think.

The new season tie-dye

Sometime in the near future, I'll be doing some dyeing. I've got some white singlets but I need to collect a few more bits and pieces before I'm ready. I figure I'll at least be doing a green. Other colours dependant on what I've got.

If you are interested in throwing a few things into the bucket (tied or not), then let me know and we can arrange a good time.

Book Party

We are having a book party to celebrate Dafydd's first novel- Eaglehawk
It will be held at Banjo Books Unit 4/ 2 Oxford St Epping 2121
Sunday the 14th of October from 2-4pm.
This is after the Star gazing event, we are trying not to clash.
If you are interested in coming or would like to get a copy of the book then leave an RSVP at eaglehawk_dafydd@hotmail.com before the 25th of September.

Hmmmm

So is it a sign that Toilet Training is iminent when she lifts the lid on the toilet, drops the phone in and flushes?