The big 6 is nothing to do with energy companies

What an absolute quagmire is trying to sort out a sixth birthday party! With a month ago I asked my daughter which six friends she would like to have to the party, she came up with the six so quickly that we put the numbers up to 8, then after delivering the invitations to her classmates she came home and asked if she could invite three more people, then another two. With one dropout it dawned on me that I had put myself up for having 12 children at my house, and not only that I HAD TO ENTERTAIN THEM!

My little one had decided on a craft party at home and that’s fairly simple to do if you’ve only got six people round but when is 12 it becomes a bit tricky. I went to the shop and found what I thought would be appropriate, there were little unicorn bags that they could colour and then take home, there were pom-poms to be made and a new version of pin the tail on the donkey, put the starfish next to the mermaid (yeah I didn’t understand that one either) all of these activities are fabulous for girls, but we had two boys coming, so I went to the shop to see what they had that wasn’t sparkly, pink or unicorny. Nope, there is nothing for the lads is the very simple answer, not even a ceramic Power Ranger to paint.

The day of the party and I was nervous, I was also full of neurofen just in case. Furniture had been moved around, crafts laid out in their little stations and we were ready to go. A friend and I welcomed 12 little darlings into my house and to be fair they were very good, coloured in their bags, made pom-poms and ate hotdogs, apart from the boys, I just put them near to the Lego for the whole two hours.

Everyone said I was mad to do it at home with so many children, but you know what I really enjoyed it and I felt like I had to do it, just once in my life time, a traditional party at home with pass the parcel, cute.

Would you do it at home or would you prefer that they made a mess somewhere else? I’d love to know about your experiences.

The day out in London

I really do try and get the best and the most out of life I think that it should be about experiences and new things and yesterday we had is just an amazing experience. We took the kids on the train to London I’ve researched it and try to work out where to be and what time and how to get the most out of it all, especially the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

I’ve been looking this up on various websites for about a month now trying to work out the timings and whether there is a band and the best place to stand on whether the kids will be able to see anything only to find when we got there on an earlier train that there was NO changing of the guard ceremony on the day that we were there, typical.

Actually it wasn’t a bad deal because it meant that there were massive crowds to get through and we can get right up to the railings and my little girl could wave a flag and sing the national anthem at the Queen in that window at the top right where we saw her 😉

Trying to have a break from the craziness we walked through the park up the mail, little did we know that we would come across the highlight of the day in some toilets. If we had known how entertained to 6-year-old girls would be by hand dryer and the noise that it makes ,we could’ve gone to anywhere.

We walked up the mall and saw the horse guards heading back to the stables, what an amazing thing to see, what a sight, wonderful memories right there. And 10 minutes in Trafalgar Square obviously getting hands wet in the fountains, then I helped them get up to the massive great Lions around Nelsons column where two 6-year-olds walked to the back of the lion looked at its bum and held their noses like it’s just done the biggest fart in their faces.

The Southbank was crazy busy with people trying to get on the London eye but we pushed through to Shrek’s adventures. I can honestly say this is fantastic if you’ve got children that have seen the film this is wonderful, it’s all interactive, like a walk through the film where you meet the characters and our children were chuffed to bits to be involved and loved every second of it and us grown-ups came out with big smiles on our faces too. You start the journey on the bus with a donkey driving and dragons and witches flying past day and it all goes downhill from there. We met Cindarella to help us on our way, a fortuneteller and a barmaid called Doris and it was fabulous!

And then the train journey home was a series of About 100 requests to go to the toilet, this of course is because the toilets on the train are all done by buttons and some little girls I know love pressing buttons, So much so I’m thinking of having a lock button put on my bathroom.

#goals

I’m not making New Years resolutions this year, I’m setting goals for the year, things to aim for but not unrealistic targets that I’ll fail at and feel bad about.

Goal 1: spend time

It doesn’t matter what it is, take your time. It might be seeing friends, shopping, or playing snakes and ladders with my girl, I promise to try to be in the moment and not be thinking about the next task or on my phone helping someone on Facebook who’s looking for toenail clippers recommendations.

Goal 2:

Be about experiences not things.

I’ve tried to do this one for pretty much as long as my 5 year old daughter has been around and we have had lots of experiences and made fantastic memories, but we still have a whole room of plastic crap that is played with approximately every 8 months. Going to the park and singing greatest showman on the swings is always going to be preferable to the latest LOL doll, in my eyes anyway.

Goal 3:

Read more.

This is quite an easy one, but I figured that it would be setting a good example if I had my nose in a book every now and again. Plus I still need to finish the novel that’s been on 4 holidays with me, this is the year to do it.

I’d love to hear if you have any or what you think of mine…..

LOL surprise, I’d be Lolling if I was you too

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat…….and my bank balance is going down, my five year old has asked for one thing over and over again, an LOL big surprise! I try and tempt her with other things but that little bleeder keeps coming up.

It’s a big plastic box with 3 dolls no bigger than your hand and an array of clothes and accessories for them. What are you thinking, tenner, twenty at most? Nope the thing my little darling wants most is £85! Oh my goodness, Is this really what people were talking about when they said kids were expensive? £85 is a weekend away, not a couple of plastic girls that will get lost in the toy box in minutes (am I doing a good job of talking myself out of this?) but what about Christmas Day, when I get the sad face cos there was no ‘big surprise’ under the tree?

Ok, I’ll make a deal, if it’s under a fiver after Christmas she can have it for her birthday.

Dinosaur troubles

My darling five year olds homework this week was to write a poem about a dinosaur, IN THE SHAPE OF A DINOSAUR! What? You have got to be kidding me? That sounds like parents home work to me and I have no jeffing idea where to start with it, when I draw a stick man it looks more like a stick than a man and my interpretation of a horse looks like fireworks!

I’ve been trying to get my girl to write on the line from left to right for the last two years and now you want her to write a rhyme down a diplodocus’ neck?

I need to stop saying yes!

Do you ever say yes to something and then get the fear because you don’t quite know what you’ve said yes to?

That’s what I did yesterday at the end of a school volunteers meeting, they have these to run through health and safety, confidentiality and safeguarding, that kind of stuff, but at the end they asked how often I could volunteer, to which year group and what skills I could bring?

I think I’ve signed up to do baton twirling, nine till six, Monday to Thursday! It may not go down so well with my boss.

Pumpkin pain

Hats off to parents that have been carving and hollowing pumpkins for years, that is a tough gig man! It took me an hour per pumpkin, I’ve got rivets in my fingers and cuts on my hands and both orange fruity things look like they were done by a 2 year old!

I remember when I was little and had a birthday party close to Halloween, my dad did 30 of the scary faces, each one an original, for the kids to take home. But it turned out they were all petrified of them and no one was brave enough to take one home, so we were left with a very freaky looking garage, everywhere you turned little orange pumpkin heads laughing and looking at you.

Upstairs, downstairs

I just wanted to share a thought with you this week, are you the same as me, do you find parenting is mostly taking things upstairs and bringing things downstairs…..a lot? 😂😂😂

Fussy eating, no problem

My 5 year old daughter is a fussy eater some days. Those days are when she’s with me! I’m by no means the worlds best cook, but she turns her nose up at my culinary delights on a daily basis. But if she has a dinner put in front of her by nanny, she wolfs it down.

So this happened, i made a “nanny dinner” otherwise known as a roast chicken on Sunday, I have to call it that, she won’t eat it if she thinks I made it and sure as eggs is eggs she ate the lot!

We all need a break don’t we?

The rush of love I felt when I saw my little girl yesterday was amazing. I did wonder how she’d be with me after I haven’t seen her for five days when I went off on a girls break away to Majorca.

She has a problem with me leaving her for an hour, let alone a day or five days, I was very lucky that my parents said that they would take care of her and that meant that I could properly relax while I was away.

But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel massive pangs of guilt as I stepped onto the aeroplane, as I sipped a cocktail by the pool and as I enjoyed not having to put anybody to bed.

I don’t really know if I’m trying to justify it to you or to myself but I manage to slip away for five days a year that’s it, my five day break and I love it, more than that, I need it.