Thanksgiving - British style!

I've always loved the idea of Thanksgiving... The opportunity to stop, take a break, spend time together  with friends and family and just count your blessings. It's like a stripped back Christmas... Without the hype, without the presents, without the stressful build up... Just pausing to be thankful.

Which is why we were thrilled to get an invite from lovely friends to spend the Thanksgiving weekend celebrating together, and being thankful for good friendships, good food and great fun...

Dave has been away in Germany this week, so I feel like I haven't stopped to take a breath. Looking after three children on my own has been stretching to say the least. I'm not going to pretend it's been a breeze... But starting the week off with friends gathered together was wonderful. The children loved all the attention they got, I was able to catch up with friends while they had fun and we all guzzled down the roast... Complete with cornbread!

It was delicious (there were greens too... Just not in this photo!)

This week has been a little different... And in many ways the differences have helped me see how much I have to be thankful for...

* Thankful for a husband who takes on a huge amount of the burden with three children

* Thankful for friendships - some from childhood, some more recent, but all precious!

* Thankful for antibiotics and hospitals... Both of which have got us through this past week!

* Thankful for creativity... And the joy of sharing that love with others

* Thankful for a warm home when it's been blustery cold outside

* Thankful for kind friends who have fed us this week!

* Thankful for family round the corner who help me out SO much... You are wonderful!

* Thankful for three little children who have actually been little stars this week!

* Thankful for Jesus who loves me utterly and completely every day despite my failures

* Thankful for grace and a fresh start when I have a bad day.

* Thankful for weekends!

* Thankful for return flights from Germany!

* And thankful for pumpkin pie... And lovely friends who polish it off...!

I have so much to be thankful for... And it's good to stop and remember that... Particularly in a season which is hectic and busy and cold and dark, and in which its all to easy to have a good old moan...

And to remember the lovely things about this time of year... Like cosying up under a blanket in front of a good movie!

Thank you Cheryl and AK for hosting us... We loved our first Thanksgiving!

Rainy Days and Bundled Up Babies...

"When life gives you a rainy day,

play in the puddles!"

-anon-

Autumn has well and truly set in round these parts. The school run has become an opportunity to gather leaves and hunt for acorns, sun-hats have been packed away for another year, and this week, the welly boots were donned.

On Wednesday it rained for the entire day. From the start of the school run, until after I had picked Ava up... it rained. At times it was a light drizzle, at other times a downpour, but it literally didn't stop.

But it didn't hinder one little man from having all his naps outside. Somehow the patter of the rain on the rain cover over him seems to send him into a deeper slumber. Three hours in that rain on Wednesday morning, and I had to wake him for his feed!

This little eskimo of mine is being kept super cosy and protected from the wind by this gorgeous sun/wind shade that my lovely friend Catrin made for him. When its down, he loves to watch the world go by, but as soon as I pull it up, I can pretty much guarantee he'll be asleep in five minutes. It seems to make him feel extra cosy... and it looks so pretty too! Somehow those little foxes fit perfectly in with outdoor autumn napping!

There's another little lady who loves the rain... she was so chuffed to be allowed to play outdoors in this week. She wandered up and down the garden with her brolly, dressed up in her rain trousers, cosy jacket and beloved Peppa Pig wellies, singing at the top of her lungs.

She's a giggle, and I love her to bits.

And yup... ask a two-and-a-half year old to put their thumbs up, and you'll get this ^^^. Makes me laugh every time!

So what suggestions do you have for outdoor rainy fun? I think we're in for the long haul now... !

Ava's 4th Birthday Fairytale Party

Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Ava who wished for a Fairytale Party for her birthday...

On Monday afternoon, her little wish came true...

It was such a fun afternoon... four year olds are just the best age. Enthusiastic and excitable! We were overrun by Princesses, with a few knights and dragons to boot, and the children just threw themselves into the party with full force. Ava loved it - fairytales, princesses and all her little friends around her. What more could a little four-year-old girl want?

So in case you're planning to throw a Fairytale bash anytime soon, here's what we did!

The Food

I maintain that you can always tie your food into the party theme with a little creativity, and a little help from Pinterest. In terms of party themes, I always try to keep them fairly broad (in the past we've had a Safari party, a Rainbow party and a Frozen party)... it just helps give you a wider spectrum of possibility! Here's what we had for the birthday tea...

Royal Rolls  - bread rolls filled with jam, ham or cheese
Jack's Beanstalks - Cheese Straws
Straw, Sticks and Bricks - Mini chipsticks for straw, chipsticks for sticks & carrot & cucumber bricks
Neverland Fairy Clouds -  Mini Marshmallows
Goldilocks Porridge Cookies - Oat and Raisin cookies in Papa-size, Mama-size and Baby-size
Jack's Magic Beans - Jelly Beans
Cinderella's Carriages - satsumas
Non-poisoned Apples - self-explanatory!

The food went down a treat and the table was pretty cleared by the end (only a few Jam Royal Rolls and some non-poisoned apples remained!). The children loved sitting at the Royal Feast, and Ava was in her element surrounded by her little friends!

The Activities

The first half hour of the party was free play, but we'd set up a few themed activities around the edges of the room for the children to have a go at...

Grandma's Cottage: Our new fridge freezer box was transformed into the front of Red Riding Hood's Grandma's cottage... Inside was a role play area complete with kitchen! This was a real hit!

Build a Little Pig House: a basketful of art straws, lolly sticks and building bricks, and a few sticks of glue, meant this was a table with a constant flow of little builders!
Colouring Station: A variety of fairytale colouring pictures and this table was easy to set up. I find a colouring activity is always a success at little girls parties!

Decorate a Crown or Fairy: an opportunity for our little fairytale characters to get creative with stickers, pom-poms and googley eyes!

Face Painting: my incredibly talented friend Kirsty came along as the Fairy Godmother and a did a great job transforming the children (and some of the adults) into role! (If your local and looking for a face-painter, I have linked to Kirsty on my Facebook page)

The Costumes

We had a huge variety of Princesses... And amazingly only one was doubled... Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Anna and Belle were accompanied by knights in shining armour, Thor, Captain Hook, Dragons, Fairies and even a Dalmation! All the children looked fabulous and it just added to the fun!
 
The Games

Even your party games have to be themed, right?

What's the time Mr Wolf? Well, we had to get that Big Bad Wolf in somewhere, didn't we? This game is SUCH a hit with this age. They just love it!

Cinderella's Shoe: The children were split into two teams. All the children removed one show, and placed it into a big pile in the middle. The children then raced each other to hop to the pile,find their shoe, put it on and run bag to tag the next team member.

The Emperor's New Clothes: A fancy dress race... A hat, scarf and large jacket were laid out for each team. They raced each other to get dressed, run to the end of the room, come back, return the clothes and tag the next team member. Some of them looked hilarious!

Sleeping Beauty: That age old game of sleeping lions!

The Cake

The cake was inspired by Pinterest. I wanted to create a storybook cake with a castle on it. I made a large rectangular chocolate cake which rose in the middle. I then sliced the cake horizontally across the middle and filled it with chocolate icing. I then cut the top half of the cake in half, and turned the risen centres to face out the ways, so that it was shaped like a book. A bit of Regal icing later and voila!

Needless to say, our little lady loved it!

The Favours

The knapsacks (more details in a previous post) were a roaring success.the children loved swinging them over their shoulders and heading off on an adventure home. Cheap and cheerful, but so effective!

Our little lady had a wonderful time. She literally grinned from ear to ear the whole time she was there (except when I told her she had to finish her Royal Roll before eating any more sweets - mean Mama!) when I put her to bed that evening, she put her little arms round me and said "That was the best party in the world. Thankyou for making it for me Mama"

I tell you what, the hours of baking, gluing, cutting, drawing, printing, organising, shopping, sewing and building were worth it just for that comment.

And who am I kidding... I absolutely loved organising it too!

(All photos of children are used with parental permission)

To Market...

Sticky, hot children needed a little help on the entertainment front yesterday afternoon. After their quiet times (during which Heidi fell asleep as she played... Who can blame her in this weather?!) they were niggly and fidgety and just winding each other up. They're usually pretty good at letting their imaginations run wild and inventing all sorts of games, but yesterday, well in that heat, a little help was needed from Mama...

The two of them spent last week driving their wagon between their cabin and "the market" and so I thought a little market stall, right in the shady spot of the garden, would land a treat.

It did.

There was fresh fruit and veg, ice cold lemonade and even warm milk straight from the cow (which doubles up as the horse they use to pull their wagon to get to market!!)

Everything we bought was weighed up on the scales and priced up. Two tomatoes cost £1, a glass of lemonade was £11... I guess Ava's already got the business concept of pricing up when there's high demand!

The girls travelled too and fro on that wagon of theirs, taking trip after trip to "market", taking it in turns to serve and be served. And it was so much fun just to enter into the imagination of it all. So often, I let them get on with it... I'm a big believer in them learning to play without adult intervention or stimulation, and they're pretty good at it, but now and again... Well, now and again its just nice to play the games I loved as a child with them...

Even if my lemonade does cost me £11!!!

There's a worm at the bottom of the garden...

" A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement"

- Rachel Carson -

This past couple of weeks we have been pretty house-bound. Newborns force you to withdraw, pull back, take a breather... the school run has been the extent of our adventuring out the door... but the sunshine and the garden have drawn these two little ladies outdoors while their baby brother sleeps and sleeps (how is it possible that they sleep SO MUCH at the beginning!??)

The garden draws out the imaginations of these little ladies. I love the insights you get when your  two year old marches past on a mission, laden with shopping bags and pushing her dolls buggy...

"Where are you going, Heidi?"

"Babyland" she answers straight-faced, as though its the most natural thing in the world.

There have been tea-parties, paddling pool splash-times, trips to "market"and plenty of games of "Little House on the Prairie"...

... and there's discovery... spring flowers, creepy crawlies, sunflowers and herb gardens... questions about how things grow and where they come from and what they do...

... and then we found the worm...

Little hands eager to prod and poke... a hundred questions... 

and after they were all asked, these little girls returned to their favourite game... loaded up their wagon and headed to market.

One little lady steering that wagon so carefully...

While our youngest resembles more of a Calamity Jane!

Oh! To have the vivid, wild and precious imaginations of these girls of ours!

Funny Phrases and Silly Sayings...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that kids say the funniest things... they do. They say what they think, they have no concept of what is socially acceptable or politically correct. They will say the very thing that pops into their head and those of us listening get a rare insight into the mind of a toddler/preschooler.

And with two little ladies now fully fluent in three languages, we certainly get our fair share of funny phrases and silly sayings...
 Heidi while humming a tune to herself... "Lovely singing, Heidi!"

"Goodness MEEEE.... I'm a little rascal!" (Heidi!)

Ava, while helping Heidi out of her cot... "I find that I am just the best little helper in the world, don't you think so Schnucki?"

...and sometimes, just downright cute!

"OH! THANKyou Ava my best friend"

These little sayings keep us chuckling away to ourselves anyway... though it looks like both girls could do with a healthy dose of humility!!

My Springtime Surprise!

A couple of weeks ago, I parcelled up some little goodies and sent them off to the lovely Emma at TheMiniMesAndMe as part of Lucy's #springtimesurpriseproject

The idea was that bloggers and instagramers across the country (and abroad!) would send up a little package of springtime loveliness to bring a little joy and sunshine at the end of a grey winter.

And last week, my parcel arrived!

Full of little treats and surprises...

One of the things I loved most about it (aside from all the pinkness!) was that Emma had also thought about my little people... there were scrapbook cards, stickers, teabags, baking goodies, a pen, ribbon and a gorgeous little pocket mirror for me... but there was also a little something for each of the children... including the yet to appear baby!

Needless to say there were some quite excitable little ones when naptime was over... (hence groggy faced Heidi!). Chocolate Easter chicks for the girls, and a sweet little wooden rattle for the baby.

Thank you lovely Emma... we are all thrilled to bits with our #Springtimesurpriseproject parcel... and thankyou again to the fabulous Lucy for running such a lovely little project! 

You can join up for the #summertimesurpriseproject here... you don't have to be a blogger/instagramer to take part!

Heidi's Frozen 2nd Birthday Party!

On Saturday we celebrated Heidi's much anticipated Frozen Party... I say much anticipated because for the week running up to it, I had a flurry of little high-pitched voices persistently asking me "How many more sleeps 'til the Elsa party?" Needless to say, we were more than ready for it when the big day finally arrived!

I have to admit I wasn't overly excited at the prospect of another Frozen party. It's the biggest fad right now amongst almost anyone under the age of seven, and so the last few parties we have been to have had, for the most part, a decidedly Frozen theme.

But of course, with a little help of Pinterest, a few ideas were born, and soon enough I was possibly just as excited about the party as the girls were!

So in case you ever find yourself needing to throw a "Frozen" party, here's what we did!

The Food
The food is always the fun challenge for parties... tying it into the theme gives you the opportunity to get very creative without actually having to put much work in. I mean, who ever heard of whole mini carrots at a birthday party? But name them "Sven's Reindeer Snacks" and suddenly you have a posse of two-year-olds devouring more fruit and veg than you've ever seen in your life before. I can't take credit for any of the food ideas though... they were all straight from Pinterest, and I tried to find something fun to eat for each of the main characters...

Prince Hans' Sandwiches
Sven's Reindeer Snacks (a platter of grapes, raisins, mini carrots and chip-sticks)
Queen Elsa's Coronation Cupcakes
Olaf's Noses (Wotsits)
Anna's Snowballs (Popcorn)
Kristoff's Melted Icicles (flavoured water in little bottles)

As I said, minimal effort (with the exception of the cupcakes) and yet lots of happy little eaters!

The Costumes
We had encouraged people on Heidi's invitations to come dressed in white or blue, so there were a flurry of little snowy bodies running round the room, and there were no shortage of characters from the movie either! (Children's photographs are posted with parental permission)

 
It was pretty cool to have a snow monster at the party!

The Cake
A simple Victoria Sandwich with butter icing (except that I dyed the butter icing blue!) made this one a pretty easy make (close-up at the top). I cheated on the Regal Icing and bought it ready to roll in Tesco for around £2. I kneaded a bit of blue food colouring through a bit of it to cut out the snowflakes, and Olaf was a simple marshmallow/cocktail stick job. It took me a couple of hours start to finish and there was one happy little lady by the end of it. I'm still very much a novice when it comes to cake decorating (I don't know how people make these incredible creations you see on the web) but we were pretty happy with our humble attempt!

The Activities
This one was good fun as I found there were lots of ideas on Pinterest, but none that were really suitable for two-year-olds... I always think 2nd birthday parties are a bit of a challenge. The children are old enough to get involved in some activities, but there's still not a lot they can do completely independently. I was also conscious we had a good few boys coming, so didn't want everything to feel too  girly... so here's what we did!

* Ice block tower building - a whole stack of white boxes and white foam blocks (the kind you get in packaging) and we were good to go. This kept loads of the kids amused for ages, and they enjoyed both the building and the knocking down. Ava's school class had been doing a topic on "Ice and Magic" the previous half term and had kindly donated me their supplies, so we had no shortage of ice blocks!
* Colouring Corner - a few "Frozen" colouring pages led to happy little artists!
* Hunt Olaf's Noses - This is the only one that I had to prep in advance. I hid eight different coloured carrot noses around the room, and the children had to find them and tick them off when they had each nose. At the end, we talked about which nose was the right nose for Olaf! The children enjoyed hunting them down, and, with a bit of help from Mums and Dads, every child was able to get involved!

The Favours
This was a total Pinterest steal! I had seen these cute little "Do you wanna build a snowman" packs and knew it would be a sweet little gift for Heidi to give her friends to thank them for coming! A few marshmallows, twiglets and raisins and an orange jelly bean was all it took!

We had a fabulous time... Heidi was pretty grumpy for the firs half hour - lets just say no-one ever likes to be woken from their nap... not even for their birthday party! But pretty soon, she was running round with the other children having a whale of a time. It makes all the effort and preparation worthwhile when you see their happy little faces...

... and I still can't believe my baby girl is two!!!

Favourite Game...

This little lady has a favourite game at the moment...

It goes something like this...

It has led to a number of nasty bumps and bruises and run-ins with tables, chairs and general objects on the floor - but it seems she will not learn her lesson...

...because walking round with clothes over your head is just SO much fun!!!

She's even got her big sister involved!

These are the things I know I'll forget; the memories I'll let slip away with the passing of time. And that's why I'm so glad to be boxing them all away on this little blog!