Henry turns 1-The party part 3

When trying to work out a theme for TDS #2's party good old Pinterest helped out- a lot! I decided to go with The Very Hungry Caterpillar because it looked so easy to do! And it was.

I think I pinned and screen shot so many images, links and tutes I nearly drove The Driller mad showing him when he got home from shift what else I had found.

Somewhere in the planning process I got a bit off track with what I was wanting due to the crazy amount of stuff out there, in the end though I was pretty happy with what we went with.

I ordered some invitations from Vens Paperie on Etsy, and also a full party pack which had the banner, cupcake toppers and all sorts of bits and pieces. I printed these off at home to post off, and the other decorations I printed off and made up as the weeks led up to the party. I tried to base all the decorations around these.

The rest of the decorations were green and red link-a-loons shaped like a caterpillar on the drive way, a huge balloon at the mail box flying high for all to see as they approached out turn off from up and down the road, bunches of helium balloons on the tables in the garden with a few other things on the tables, red and green fans above the kitchen bench that looked like a caterpillar. I used a piece of fabric with multi colour dots all over it for the background to the cake table, a piece of artificial grass was on the cake table with a few other bits and the banners I made hung above it all.

I haven't got many photos of the decorations, I usually take photos of it all as I finish putting it all together but the morning was frantic and I really wasn't sure I was going to have anything ready hence no photos! So these few will have to do. Don't mind the mess in the background of the photo with the red and green fans- it was a practice run a week before so there was mess, mess, mess!

The last 2 photos are of the fondant icing decorations I made for the cake.

Henry turns 1-The party part 2

Last year when we had TDS #1s 6th birthday party I tried to come up with different things for the party bags/ favour bags/loot bags/goody bags whatever you like to call them!! I didn't want to have heaps and heaps of lollies in them and I also wanted some nicer quality toys/ gifts that would last instead of the cheap ones that break on the way home from the party.

This year I wanted to do the same with TDS #2s, however there was a bit of sugar overload at the party with little pots of lollies on the tables and big all day suckers and other lollies around.

We had 25 kids on the invite list and I broke them down into 3 groups. These being babies, toddlers and the big kids. Made it so much easier to buy the bits and pieces for. I started off with a budget but that went by the way side pretty early on, lucky I married a Driller ��

We had all sorts of bits and pieces in them, from worm balloons, to plasticine, pom pom craft in little resealable bags, whistles, yo-yos, crayons, bubbles, colouring pages, paper craft, bubble baths and maracas, and a few others. I forgot to take a photo of the toddler bags but have put up one of the big kids and babies bags.

For lollies I found some groovy little mini paint pails which I filled with massive smarties- I really didn't think they were going to be that big when I ordered them! I then made some labels of with Caterpillar Food printed on them. We also had long skinny resealable tubes filled with smarties with a little tag on the top.

Anyway, I have added a few photos of it all so you can see what I mean. Don't mind the photo quality, they are off my phone, emailed and saved to the iPad so they may not look right, and some were taken at a ridiculous hour of the night!!

Just a photo....

Today The Drillers Daughter and I had a mini photo "shoot". Here's one I took of her. Snapped and edited on my iPhone only.

Henry turns 1-The party part 1.

TDS #2 turned 1 in February. Due to living where the summers are 'stinking' we decided to have his birthday party and Christening service later in the year when it was 'a bit cooler'.

Last Saturday was the big day. Lots of crazy weeks led up to the big weekend, with school, trips away, sicks kids, sick me, The Driller coming and going and a list as long as my arm, I really didn't think we would get anything done! But we did, with list after list after list, there were a few scratchings and I can't be stuffed doing thats muttered and some things I didn't do but meh. Some of the food I had planned on the day didn't make it to the tables but that's ok, I think everyone had enough to eat, and a only a few knew there was stuff missing!

We had a great day, well weekend really, the first of our visitors arrived on Thursday this being my sister and my super c-uuute niece who's birthday was on the party day so we had 2 cakes much to the delight of the 18 kids!! Another lot of visitors arrived Friday arvo this being my dad, both sets of grand parents and 2 family friends, oh and the man officiating Saturdays main event- The Padre all the way from Cobar. All the rest arrived Saturday morning and the last left around 11pm Saturday night- thanks Ed!!

I won't bore you with more words, so I will just add a few photos my Mother in law took on the day for me- i think i took like maybe 4 photos on my phone all day! with 50 or 60 odd adults and kids to feed and socialise with, photos were not a happening thing. I will do another couple of posts about the party etc over the next few days.

Happy Saturday! This Wife is about to head off into the veggie patch- more on that later too!

Oh, I'm not sure what quality some of the photos will be, I'm only screen shotting some and emailing etc from iPhone to iPad?!?

Party food-Mini ham quiches.

Good morning everyone. Hope you have all had an awesome weekend. How does Monday come around so bloody quick?

We had a pretty good weekend, just the usual housework, gardening, cooking and getting ready for another week in the school room, and thank gawd its a short week in the school room this week!

We have TDS #2's 1st birthday and christening coming up next month, he was 1 on February 12th but we are doing the party in April to avoid the heat and so its during the school holidays. So, I've been busy organising everything for it and started cooking this weekend and stacking it away in the freezer in between all the other jobs.

I thought I would share a party food recipe I make ALL the time. We love them, I quite often make them to have in the freezer for smoko or lunches for the kids-and us too!! They are quite easy to make and always go quickly.

Mini ham quiches

2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cream
2 eggs
2 slices of ham ( I use bacon if I have no ham, and quite often just use the diced bacon or ham you get in Coles)
Dried parsley flakes

Using a scone cutter, cut pastry rounds to fit greased mini muffin tins or patty cake tins.
Divide ham and cheese mix between the tins.
Mix eggs, milk and parsley, season with salt and pepper. Spoon mixture over the ham and cheese,
Bake at 220 degrees Celsius for 15 mins or until pastry is puffed and golden.

Enjoy!

Boating Fun.

A couple of weeks ago The Driller decided we would head down to Deniliquin for the fishing classic competition.

We didn't go fishing, that wasn't the plan, the plan was to hang out with his boss and his family at their amazing house on the river and hop in the Swanky and go for a cruise. The Swanky is a "party boat". Then head out for tea etc on the Saturday night.

We had an awesome weekend away and on the way home he did have another plan up his sleeve. Boat "shopping" for us. His mate was selling his speed boat so we checked it over and decided why not, let's buy it.

The Kids were super excited about the thought of getting a boat and when he eventually arrived home with it last week there were lots of squeals and running around it in circles.

This weekend we headed over to our friends and neighbours station where they still have a lake of water for a bit of boating fun.

Kids had a ball on the biscuit and watching the boys get up on the skis and wake boards. Some of their school friends came over too with knee boards and kayaks!

Was great catching up and having a few drinks over dinner both nights. Perfect way to spend a weekend. Fingers crossed for many more weekends over the years to come too!!

Hello...

Good morning everyone. Sorry for the lack of bloggage, I haven't been able to get into it at all since before Christmas but I'm hoping to get back into it more from now on.

Last week Vicki over at Knocked Up and Abroad asked the question on her Facebook page...what do you do for time out from parenting?

A lot of mothers replied they didn't know we were allowed time off from parenting and did that actually happen. It got me thinking what was one thing I did for me, just me? Not The Kids, The Driller, house stuff or garden stuff. Just me! There's not a lot really as most stuff I do links back to the house or The Kids or the business or something. So I thought maybe I could try and get back into blogging because while I write about The Kids etc its for me to vent, diarise and just have time sitting at my desk doing it for me.

So here's hoping I can stick to my little plan! The plan being just 30 minutes a day on my blog to start with, I may not blog every day, maybe it will only be once a week I will post a blog, maybe i will only post a photo blog of what we've been up to, but I'm hoping to just be able to sit down for 30 minutes and write or plan at least one post a week!

Fingers crossed!!

TDWxx