Yesterday after I got Caitlyn from daycare she said "since I'm going to have a monster birthday party, I must have a monster cake". I really love how excited she is about her next birthday even though it is still nearly 8 months away. And so of course I couldn't resist temptation and started looking on Google to see what sort of monster birthday party ideas there might be. I think it can be quite a cool and colourful theme, lots of fun things to incorporate it would seem.
But I won't be starting to actively plan anything just yet. Not only is it way too early, but she might very well change her mind closer to the time.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
P - I - S - T - O
It is hard to believe that the end of June is right around the corner. Scary how fast this year is flying. Not sure if it is just a sign of getting older, but I remember as a child how long time dragged - especially when I was excitedly waiting for something to happen. Even weekends felt fairly long. So either time is going just way too fast because I'm getting older or perhaps because so much of what we do takes up our time. Things like the internet...
Anyway, this past weekend we couldn't help laughing. Caitlyn was singing a song:
"There was a farmer who had a dog
and Bingo was his name-o
P
I
S
T
O
P
I
S
T
O
P
I
S
T
O
And Bingo was his name-o"
And it doesn't matter how many times we corrected her, this is the way she sings it :-)
Anyway, this past weekend we couldn't help laughing. Caitlyn was singing a song:
"There was a farmer who had a dog
and Bingo was his name-o
P
I
S
T
O
P
I
S
T
O
P
I
S
T
O
And Bingo was his name-o"
And it doesn't matter how many times we corrected her, this is the way she sings it :-)
Sunday, June 26, 2011
About friendships...
A true friend is somebody who when you tell them you are going through a particular distracted and busy period of time, will accept this. They might not fully understand, but they will accept that it is just life. And they will show an interest - a real interest in how you are going.
But instead a particular person seems to have taken offence that I have been incredibly busy. Busy with Bianca's birthday party arrangements, busy with urgent information I needed to gather and finally after a month and a half we are so nearly there (but I can't go into detail on here, except that it has taken hours and hours and hours and weeks and weeks and weeks - phone calls, and emails, and follow ups and letters and some more phone calls and emails), busy with our business planning and the usual kids' things every day - school and sport and homework and house cleaning, laundry, dishes and for me this time of the year is always a bit more of an anxious time when we reach the anniversary of Bianca's leukemia diagnosis. Where I feel a bit more anxious, more aware of the circumstances leading up to Bianca's diagnosis and the days following that.
And in the back of your mind you are so aware of the symptoms and the signs that you can't help looking for it in every situation. "Hmmm, Caitlyn has a bit of a temperature - could it be? Hmmm, Bianca has a few extra bruises...", and so on. It is almost like turning out the lights and the room is pitch black dark and in that moment you can't even really see your hand in front of your eyes, and you make your way to your bed and you keep waiting for that moment that you will bump your toes against the bedframe and then when you reach your bed without bumping your foot, you give this huge sigh of relief.
So along with dealing with the anniversary of Bianca's diagnosis and the other urgent tasks requiring my attention, I did not have an opportunity for a lot of visits. But tonight - tonight I decided to make contact with a friend on Facebook again. Okay granted, she's not a best or close friend and we have virtually nothing in common, but her little boy and Caitlyn sort of gets along (even when he sometimes ends up locking her in his room making Caitlyn cry and then refusing to apologise) but it is nice to sometimes catch up with her. So I haven't been spending too much time on Facebook and a while back we've actually decided to limit the time we spend on there, and so usually I briefly go in, have a quick look at the status updates in the newsfeed, reply where I feel I had something to offer and then I would leave Facebook again. Now this particular friend - I haven't seen any updates of hers in my newsfeed. She's certainly made no recent contact and for me time has just run away at an incredibly fast rate. Tonight I thought I would go and specifically check up on what she's been up to and look at invite them at some point for afternoon tea now that most of the urgent tasks are pretty much done and guess what?
It seems we are 10 again and on the school ground (figuratively speaking, we weren't actually in the same school and she's quite a bit older than me) - she's taken offence to the fact that I have been busy (despite me letting her know about being really really busy with the urgent deadlines and the anxious time of Bianca's diagnosis). She's now decided to "spite" me and blocked me from her Facebook wall. Not "defriend" me which is weird because if you don't want to be my Facebook friend anymore, why don't you just "defriend" me? Why block me from your wall only? Is it that she wants to keep having access to my info to check up on me? Or what? Who knows. But really, I thought we were both adults. Oh well!
One thing is for sure, the friends I feel most comfortable with are the ones who have the same interests as me, the ones who accept things, who are not so insecure (or perhaps so self-centred) that they will take offence when you are going through a particularly busy time, that they will assume it is all about them, when in fact it is not at all about them. When in fact it really has just been an incredibly busy time.
One thing I know is that I don't have the energy to play childish games. Either you are my friend or you are not - end of story.
Thankfully I have quite few really good friends in my life - I certainly am very very blessed!
But instead a particular person seems to have taken offence that I have been incredibly busy. Busy with Bianca's birthday party arrangements, busy with urgent information I needed to gather and finally after a month and a half we are so nearly there (but I can't go into detail on here, except that it has taken hours and hours and hours and weeks and weeks and weeks - phone calls, and emails, and follow ups and letters and some more phone calls and emails), busy with our business planning and the usual kids' things every day - school and sport and homework and house cleaning, laundry, dishes and for me this time of the year is always a bit more of an anxious time when we reach the anniversary of Bianca's leukemia diagnosis. Where I feel a bit more anxious, more aware of the circumstances leading up to Bianca's diagnosis and the days following that.
And in the back of your mind you are so aware of the symptoms and the signs that you can't help looking for it in every situation. "Hmmm, Caitlyn has a bit of a temperature - could it be? Hmmm, Bianca has a few extra bruises...", and so on. It is almost like turning out the lights and the room is pitch black dark and in that moment you can't even really see your hand in front of your eyes, and you make your way to your bed and you keep waiting for that moment that you will bump your toes against the bedframe and then when you reach your bed without bumping your foot, you give this huge sigh of relief.
So along with dealing with the anniversary of Bianca's diagnosis and the other urgent tasks requiring my attention, I did not have an opportunity for a lot of visits. But tonight - tonight I decided to make contact with a friend on Facebook again. Okay granted, she's not a best or close friend and we have virtually nothing in common, but her little boy and Caitlyn sort of gets along (even when he sometimes ends up locking her in his room making Caitlyn cry and then refusing to apologise) but it is nice to sometimes catch up with her. So I haven't been spending too much time on Facebook and a while back we've actually decided to limit the time we spend on there, and so usually I briefly go in, have a quick look at the status updates in the newsfeed, reply where I feel I had something to offer and then I would leave Facebook again. Now this particular friend - I haven't seen any updates of hers in my newsfeed. She's certainly made no recent contact and for me time has just run away at an incredibly fast rate. Tonight I thought I would go and specifically check up on what she's been up to and look at invite them at some point for afternoon tea now that most of the urgent tasks are pretty much done and guess what?
It seems we are 10 again and on the school ground (figuratively speaking, we weren't actually in the same school and she's quite a bit older than me) - she's taken offence to the fact that I have been busy (despite me letting her know about being really really busy with the urgent deadlines and the anxious time of Bianca's diagnosis). She's now decided to "spite" me and blocked me from her Facebook wall. Not "defriend" me which is weird because if you don't want to be my Facebook friend anymore, why don't you just "defriend" me? Why block me from your wall only? Is it that she wants to keep having access to my info to check up on me? Or what? Who knows. But really, I thought we were both adults. Oh well!
One thing is for sure, the friends I feel most comfortable with are the ones who have the same interests as me, the ones who accept things, who are not so insecure (or perhaps so self-centred) that they will take offence when you are going through a particularly busy time, that they will assume it is all about them, when in fact it is not at all about them. When in fact it really has just been an incredibly busy time.
One thing I know is that I don't have the energy to play childish games. Either you are my friend or you are not - end of story.
Thankfully I have quite few really good friends in my life - I certainly am very very blessed!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
A birthday celebration
Bianca really wanted a Harry Potter birthday party. And for months this is what we've been thinking about and finally the big day arrived. We booked the school hall because Bianca has so many friends. Too many for our house and so the school hall was certainly a great option. It has lots of space, has a kitchen right there, tables and chairs and all that we had to bring were - food, decorations and kids.
We couldn't do the party on Bianca's actual birthday which was on Saturday 18th June because currently on Saturdays she has netball in the morning and cheerleading in the afternoon and so we planned to do the party on Saturday 19th June.
On the morning of the 18th we woke Bianca up with presents, singing (happy birthday) and breakfast in bed. That's sort of our tradition in our house.
Afterwards Bianca got ready for her netball match, but about 10 minutes later the netball teacher called to say the match was cancelled thanks to the rain, but it did give us a bit more of a relaxing morning. After lunch we left to set up the hall.
Terence and Bianca left to go to cheerleading, but unfortunately Bianca got a coughing fit when she ran to the bathrooms. And so Terence brought her back instead.
And then we went to Cobb 'n Co for dinner - another tradition in our house - when it is your birthday, you get to choose what we'll have for dinner, be it something special we make at home or somewhere special to go to and so Bianca decided she really wanted to go to Cobb 'n Co. At the restaurant Bianca opened some more presents from South African family.
And then the party day arrived! The day we've planned and worked towards for quite a while.
I made all the invitations to resemble Hogwarts acceptance letters. Some parents actually joined in the fun and one parent sent a letter letting us know that their child would come to the party and on the envelope she wrote (by owl post) and another parent sent a text and ended it with (... their muggle mother) :-).
I found this cool website to make these paper wands. They were so easy to make and I used 2 sheets of paper, 2 bamboo sticks (with the pointy bits cut off) because that made it easier to roll, a glue gun and some paint.
When the kids arrived, they each got to choose their special wand:
We then sorted the kids into their tables with the sorting hat. This was so much fun, I read out the names and Terence pre-recorded some suitable messages onto the ipad for when we put the hat on each child's head.
For lunch we simply had some sandwiches, sausage rolls and so on. Nothing major. And then it was time for candles and cake. Bianca's teacher also came to the party - she insisted on inviting him to the party and he was such good sport - he even dressed up. He brought his guitar and then we all sang happy birthday to Bianca.
I then chose some ordinary games with a Harry Potter spin on it.
For the quidditch game - I painted a bunch of polystyrene balls black (bludgers), brown (quaffles) and golden (a golden snitch). I put all the balls into a box with a hole cut into each side. The idea with this was that the kids would stand in 2 circles and pass a ball to each other until the music stops and then when the music stopped, the one with the ball in their hand would run to the box and choose a ball. The team that manages to find the golden snitch would then be the winning team.
The other game that we had in mind was a Tag you're it kind of game. We called it the defence against the dark arts game as in Harry Potter or "freeze you're it". Basically the kids would all stand in a designated area and then one child wearing a party hat is the wizard. The wizard then have to tap a child with his / her wand saying a special magic spell and then that would make the person "freeze". The person can only be unfrozen when one of the other kids crawl underneath the frozen kids' legs saying their magic spell.
Our friend Mike also came up with another fun game where the kids had to keep a balloon in the air using only their wands:
And some or the other game using a balloon:
Part of the entertainment was that the kids would watch Harry Potter 1 and for the movie I found this cool website and made these owl bags for the movie treats. It was simply a brown paper bag with some paper decorations making it look like owls.
Inside each bag I put some popcorn, some jelly beans, some jelly snakes and a chocolate frog.
Bianca got to open her presents:
And then right at the end the kids each got a little bag and a balloon. Each little bag contained a little thank you note from Bianca, some star glitter and a stone I painted using red paint a glitter - a philosopher / sorcerer stone :-)
All in all, it was such an incredibly fun party. And now I'm leaving you with this photos of my beautiful girls:
We couldn't do the party on Bianca's actual birthday which was on Saturday 18th June because currently on Saturdays she has netball in the morning and cheerleading in the afternoon and so we planned to do the party on Saturday 19th June.
On the morning of the 18th we woke Bianca up with presents, singing (happy birthday) and breakfast in bed. That's sort of our tradition in our house.
Afterwards Bianca got ready for her netball match, but about 10 minutes later the netball teacher called to say the match was cancelled thanks to the rain, but it did give us a bit more of a relaxing morning. After lunch we left to set up the hall.
Terence and Bianca left to go to cheerleading, but unfortunately Bianca got a coughing fit when she ran to the bathrooms. And so Terence brought her back instead.
And then we went to Cobb 'n Co for dinner - another tradition in our house - when it is your birthday, you get to choose what we'll have for dinner, be it something special we make at home or somewhere special to go to and so Bianca decided she really wanted to go to Cobb 'n Co. At the restaurant Bianca opened some more presents from South African family.
And then the party day arrived! The day we've planned and worked towards for quite a while.
I made all the invitations to resemble Hogwarts acceptance letters. Some parents actually joined in the fun and one parent sent a letter letting us know that their child would come to the party and on the envelope she wrote (by owl post) and another parent sent a text and ended it with (... their muggle mother) :-).
I found this cool website to make these paper wands. They were so easy to make and I used 2 sheets of paper, 2 bamboo sticks (with the pointy bits cut off) because that made it easier to roll, a glue gun and some paint.
When the kids arrived, they each got to choose their special wand:
We then sorted the kids into their tables with the sorting hat. This was so much fun, I read out the names and Terence pre-recorded some suitable messages onto the ipad for when we put the hat on each child's head.
For lunch we simply had some sandwiches, sausage rolls and so on. Nothing major. And then it was time for candles and cake. Bianca's teacher also came to the party - she insisted on inviting him to the party and he was such good sport - he even dressed up. He brought his guitar and then we all sang happy birthday to Bianca.
I then chose some ordinary games with a Harry Potter spin on it.
For the quidditch game - I painted a bunch of polystyrene balls black (bludgers), brown (quaffles) and golden (a golden snitch). I put all the balls into a box with a hole cut into each side. The idea with this was that the kids would stand in 2 circles and pass a ball to each other until the music stops and then when the music stopped, the one with the ball in their hand would run to the box and choose a ball. The team that manages to find the golden snitch would then be the winning team.
The other game that we had in mind was a Tag you're it kind of game. We called it the defence against the dark arts game as in Harry Potter or "freeze you're it". Basically the kids would all stand in a designated area and then one child wearing a party hat is the wizard. The wizard then have to tap a child with his / her wand saying a special magic spell and then that would make the person "freeze". The person can only be unfrozen when one of the other kids crawl underneath the frozen kids' legs saying their magic spell.
Our friend Mike also came up with another fun game where the kids had to keep a balloon in the air using only their wands:
And some or the other game using a balloon:
Part of the entertainment was that the kids would watch Harry Potter 1 and for the movie I found this cool website and made these owl bags for the movie treats. It was simply a brown paper bag with some paper decorations making it look like owls.
Inside each bag I put some popcorn, some jelly beans, some jelly snakes and a chocolate frog.
Bianca got to open her presents:
And then right at the end the kids each got a little bag and a balloon. Each little bag contained a little thank you note from Bianca, some star glitter and a stone I painted using red paint a glitter - a philosopher / sorcerer stone :-)
All in all, it was such an incredibly fun party. And now I'm leaving you with this photos of my beautiful girls:
Monday, June 20, 2011
Just a quick post...
because it is late, but Bianca's party was so much fun. She had the best time ever, she got loads of presents, the theme was perfect and hopefully tomorrow I can actually upload some photos onto the blog.
Will update soon!
Will update soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)