What an amazing day and what a very special surprise!!!!!!

Remember when I did this post?  Where I wrote a poem about the journey we've had with Bianca?  Remember that one? 

Today at the Funrazor Paul gave me the best and most special surprise ever.  He actually went and put music to my poem.  He performed it at the start of our event!  I absolutely love how it came out!  It is definitely one of my favourites.  Click here to listen to our song (my words, Paul's music and vocals).

Wow!  I was completely and totally blown away. Thank you Paul, it was an incredibly special thing you did!!!

I must admit that last night I felt really stressed.  As I sat there finishing the last few things I kept thinking "what was I thinking?  What do I know about putting together events like these..."

And this morning I kept hoping that there was nothing major I forgot about, but as it turned out, I didn't have to worry.  I had an amazing team on my side who all jumped in and helped.

I remember that recently I was so worried nobody would be there to watch it all happening and I didn't have to worry....

 Bianca did a speech and I was really impressed with the way she delivered it.

And then it was time for the big shave:

Don't you just love Catherine's expression?  Catherine is a fellow child cancer parent and we used to catch up in the corridors when both our kids were stuck in hospital.

One of the things I did was really effective.  I had 2 display boards and I put 4 kids' photos and stories on these boards.  And many people looked at the photos and read the stories.  For me it was important to show people what child cancer is all about.  Make it more real. 

Organising the Funrazor event was everything I thought and hoped it would be.  It was incredibly full on.  One of the biggest things I've ever done.  It didn't start off big, but it kept growing and growing.  It was also one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.  Knowing that I was able to do something and give a little bit back to say thank you to the Child Cancer Foundation for everything they have done for us.  When I started this I really wanted this to be a community event.  Not just my event.  And it was.  Way more than I ever imagined.  People who joined me today shaving their hair, people who sprayed their hair, people who turned up to watch and support, people who donated to CCF.  All the companies and people who helped me make today a success.  I am absolutely blown away by it all.  How will I ever be able to say thank you?

And now some more photos:

 

 

 

Friday Fun with Caitlyn

Firstly we supported Canteen and Caitlyn chose a beautiful pink bandanna.  I find the bandannas especially good for when we do baking.

Today Caitlyn and I did some baking.  It was one of the tasks I set for myself on my List of 35 - to have regular baking sessions with the kids.  I baked some banana bread (my grandmother's recipe) and Caitlyn made some chocolate cupcakes.  Here are some photos to share:

Caitlyn thought they tasted very yummy!

It's not perfect...

And it probably has lots of mistakes, but since it is simply going to help cover some ugly shipping container, I don't think it matters.  What matters is that I did my bit.  That I contributed something! 

When I did my List of 35 on my 35th, one of the tasks / goals I set for myself was to knit a square for Christchurch which I saw on this blog.  On the Facebook group it says:

The Christchurch earthquakes have really rocked the Port Hills. To protect us from more rock fall, massive shipping containers are now lining the Sumner and Redcliffs strreets. It is necessary however not a beautiful sight, but we can change it!

Container Love is about prettying up these metal giant boxes.
The idea is to turn the unpleasant look of the containers into a positive feature for people to enjoy and comment on.
The present project is a GIANT CONTAINER COSY made entirely out of knitted or crocheted squares

I WILL NEED: 30cm by 30cm KNITTED OR CROCHETED SQUARES
TYPE OF WOOL: DOES NOT MATTER, BUT BOLD AND COLOURFUL IS BEST
PATTERN: ANY WILL DO

WHERE TO SEND TO
email me (containerlove.christchurch@gmail.com) and I will give you my postal address, I can also pick up Christchurch and Lyttelton squares.

And here is my creation:

So tomorrow I will be sending this off.  So now I only have 34 more tasks / goals to go!

List of 35 on my 35th

Now this is where I wish I was turning 21.  So much easier thinking of 21 things than coming up with 35...

In my 35th year I will try and do as many of these as I can.  I might not get to do all of them, and that's okay.   It is a fun little project that I saw on Marcia and Julia's blogs. And I'm always up for a bit of fun.

And now in no particular order, here is my list:

1. Organise and do a Christmas present delivery to kids in hospital over Christmas with the help of Sarah.
2. Bake something and visit Winara House again.  If I plan it for the October school holidays Bianca and Caitlyn might come along.
3. Bake some biscuits for Christmas and deliver it to the Sevenoaks Dementia Unit.  We did it last year and it was extremely rewarding.
4. Plan with the kids and make something for Christmas for the residents of Winara House retirement village.
5. Plant a good variety of veggies in the new garden boxes Terence is busy building for me.
6. Reach my goal weight.
7. Do regular walk / run sessions.
8. Find and enter (and actually participate) in a 5km event (hopefully a run, but otherwise a walk).
9. Learn to play some or the other music instrument (other than the recorder which I have been trying to learn).
10. Learn a new language (or at least make a start of it). I've always loved languages and I seem to have a fairly good memory when I think of the few Sesotho phrases I learned all those many years ago at school.
11.  Make new little boxes for the kids' advent calendars.
12. Look for fun activities we can do together for the little advent calendar boxes.
13. Make at least one handmade Christmas present for Bianca and Caitlyn each.
14. Shave my hair for the Child Cancer Foundation.
15. Declutter!  Loads of things to sort out and many things to get rid of.
16. Visit the huge book sale here in Waikanae end of October and stock up on some great second hand books.
17. Go and see Roxette in Auckland in Feb 2012.  (Can't wait!)
18. Make a new Youtube video clip of Bianca.
19. Start Bianca's treatment photo collage which I really wanted to do in 2009.
20. My mum's immigration.
21. Bake / cook something with Bianca and Caitlyn once a month so that Bianca can add recipes to her recipe book.
22. Go away to either Taupo or Hawkes Bay as soon as Terence has annual leave he can take.  I would say go on holiday to Australia (I've never been there), but am still waiting for the "wonderful" South African home affairs to send my new passport (sigh!).  We do love Hawkes Bay and Taupo though. 
23. Organise a fun professional photo shoot with Bianca and Caitlyn.
24. Go and visit Bianca's tree (click here to see) when we are back in Auckland in November for Bianca's cheerleading competition. 
25. Knit a square for Christchurch (see details here).  Done!  (See here)
26. Do a special craft activity with the kids once a month.  Bianca asked me yesterday to show her how I made their treasure chests in December (see here)
27. Have a regular family games evening (the non electronic kind).  We enjoy games like Dominion, Puerto Rico and Bang.
28. Sift through thousands of digital photos and make a photo book for Bianca and Caitlyn.
29. Sit down and go through our budget again to make sure we stay on track.
30. Our business website.
31. Business product launch.
32. With daylight savings time just around the corner do more things outdoors like picnics on the beach.
33. Look at study options.  I started a degree a number of years ago, but then Bianca became sick and I had to put it on hold.
34. Do a gratitude blog post on a regular basis.  It is easy to take things for granted and to forget we have lots to be thankful for!
35. Do something nice for somebody else when they don't expect it.

What are some of the goals you are hoping to achieve?

Making a list

2 Fellow bloggers (Julia and Marcia) have both recently suggested I consider doing a list seeing as my birthday is next week.  This will be a list of things that I will attempt to achieve in my 35th (cough, splutter, splutter, cough, cough) year.  Sigh!  35 sounds so old! 

So until my birthday next week I'll have to give it a bit of a think.  It is a great idea, but right now my list mostly consists of doing dishes, and laundry and tidying the kids' rooms yet again (am I the only parent whose kids can't keep their rooms tidy?) - this week was pretty good fun though as I tried my hand at some basic website design (and a welcome distraction to the usual chores at home), but now that I've done it I can't really add this to my list of 35.  I can't exactly put chores on this list either, but certainly my Christmas Project I would think.  I was going to put a 5km run on the list, but now I'm not so sure if that's going to work.  So far my knee is still sensitive.  So maybe I must change it to a 5km walk and do the 5km walk part of the 5km run / walk event.  Hmmm, I wonder how long they give you to walk 5km in one of these fun run events???  I would hate to be dead last!

So I'll need to give it a bit of a think. 

And apart from that tomorrow we are catching up with good friends for lunch, Bianca has her cheerleading practice and on Sunday Terence has a tenpin bowling match with work buddies.  I'm hoping to do some more work maybe also on my garden setup, but we'll see.

So what are your weekend plans?