Book Week - How to Know You Are An Optimist

So today is a little tour through the stacks of books at my place.

When I started taking photos of these stacks I thought, only an optimist would think that they will be able to read all this and keep getting more books out of the library!

There are books under the computer - these are new and as yet unread (or just started)

some to review

some faith books

some crafty books

then there is the day I went to the library and every single book, (bar 2 - and of those 1 was for my son) on the hold shelf under our last name initial, was for me

and then there are a few others I grabbed just because they caught my eye

my current and the book we are currently reading aloud to the boys

plus there are a couple of different versions of the Bible I picked up the other day - just to mix things up

Despite all these piles I seldom read during the day unless it's while I am waiting for something - somehow reading during the day seems too indulgent.... or maybe it's a throw back from the first week of my maternity leave when I read 5 novels in 5 days and felt a bit booked-out,

 but I'm thinking if I want to make any progress on this pile I may need to allow myself some indulgent reading hours under the air-con.

How about you - are there books stashed around your house too??

I may have another book week when I make some progress into this mighty stack....

I'll be back in the weekend though to review some picture books that the boys are enjoying.

love you more than a whole day of reading in a cool spot xxxx

Today You Are 8

Today my big boy is eight.

Dear Flip,

I love that you are just yourself. You march to the beat of your own drum without consciously recognising it. You are a friend of anyone who'd care to be your friend. You have boy and girl friends and you just love having people over and spending time with people.

You are interested in facts and how things work and if vampires are real. You are desperate for a phone or an ipad or any kind of technology but you are also mature about the fact that we keep saying no. One day you might grow up to be a computer programmer and if you do I hope you will understand why we stuck to our principles on this.

You are smart and you are funny. You sat on my knee the other night while we watched Bear Grylls to protect me if I felt scared of any of the yucky stuff he eats.

You like harmony between people and you love it when we all hang out together and have fun.

You play like a champ with your brother - sometimes the 2 of you just disappear into your room and all I hear are the voices of your current make-believe-activity (punctuated by the odd disagreement, which is usually over before I need to intervene). You listen to audio books all the time and you love me reading to you.

We love you Flip. We love who you are and we hope as you grow up you continue to be firmly convinced that we are with you all the way cheering you on to the person you were made to be.

Happy 8th birthday.

xxx

Our Lego Party

Of course there are multitudes of people who have had Lego parties and done them exceptionally well. This is our one. Many of these games I found online and you have only to search pinterest for Lego parties to get a whole host of ideas.

I tended to hit the theme with the activities. We were going to do the chocolate game but Flip got a bit upset because it's too hard to cut the chocolate and I thought to myself - dude (yes I do talk to myself this way) it's his party why play a game he doesn't like?

 we did inside games:

- guess the Lego in the jar

- lego memory game - 20 pieces, 2 minutes to observe and then see how many you can remember (write or draw the pieces). They seemed to love this game.

- lego building collaboration - roll the dice and take the set number of lego from the box and add them to the group build in 30 seconds

- back to back Lego - all the children were given an identical bag of lego pieces and a theme like 'school', 'tall' or 'fast' and 45secs to 1.30 mins to make something using their pieces then show them to each other. The variety was awesome.

- mini figure madness - pick legs, then a body, then a head (the bowls went round in a circle), build your person and give them a crazy name.

and outside games:

- lego treasure hunt, find little lego 'faces' stuck around the courtyard.

- lego toss - lego shaped erasers thrown into little cups that each have a point value

and food

and cake - a number 8 made from cupcakes with icing and blue chocolate lego men that I made from my silicon moulds.

I also made crayons for the wee treaty bags :o) I did warn them twice not to eat those ones when they got home. I think they all had a good time.

and running about (which I don't usually leave time for - I'm working on being a little more chilled out instead of running them like a military operation).

I had other games as well but time started to run out - not that I want to do longer than 2 hours, as far as I feel it's plenty.

The food was very relaxed I did think about going all themey with the food like I did for Bounce's teddy party last year but in the end I wasn't convinced couldn't be bothered.

and now I have a child who will be 8 tomorrow! The years are fast. And when I had a little baby I thought 8 sounded quite grown up and big (and a little scary) but I'm pleased to report it's still pretty small really, and it likes cuddles and being read to. Actually I think 8 is pretty great!

love you more than a party that is over xxx

Week 20/ 52

It seems crazy to me that it's week 20 already!!

This little fellow with one of his favourite friends here.

They were going to a dress up party, he was happy with just the hat thank you mama!

This big boy had his party today.

With his cake

and a lovely little friend that was one of his guests

love you more than a party over and a Sunday night chilling out xxx

In My Mind

This week I am focussed on a very special event we will celebrate this weekend. Yes, I am impressed with my wonderful design skills! Thank you for noticing. The birthday boy wrote all the details on the back for his friends.

Looking forward to having some fun making prizes and goodies with these that just arrived in the mail.

love you more than all the party games planned xxxx

B.M.W.B - Teddy Party and Doing It My Way

This post is about a teddy party. A little party for a boy who is turning 5 and right into teddies.

This is also a story about a mama whose happy to be doing things her way. This party is the kind of party I want to put on. The 3,4 and 5 year old boys who came are probably not in the least impressed by the themed games or food but I have loved putting it together. So you might read this post and feel comparison one of 2 ways: looking down 'really she think this is that wonderful??', or up 'another person to make me feel stink about packets of chips and a dvd'. This is neither, this is about me owning the way I enjoy doing a party. Me happy that there are others on either side of the spectrum and me hoping that you might find some fun ideas here or you might just be encouraged to do parties your way.

So we had games - hoola-hoop teddy toss, teddies on the tramp, the teddy coconut shy, teddy drawing, pin the banana on the monkey, musical teddies, we're going on a bear hunt (with little hand made bears to find) and general fun.

Big brother wrote down teddy points for each game (rather than having winners and prizes for each) and at the end each child got to pick an op-shopped teddy to take home.

We had teddy food including:
crunchy snacks - carrot sticks, hummus, chippies
teddy popcorn
teddy fruities (fruit kebabs)
swimming bears - tiny teddies in jelly rings, in blue jelly
racing bears - mini moros, tiny teddies and pebbles for wheels
tired teddies - tiny teddies 'sleeping' under umbrellas, on sand - crushed biscuits and sea - blue icing
teddy tonic - fizzy (a big compromise for me!)
two tone teddies - 2 colour biscuits/pandas (made with special cutters which I borrowed)

and when they arrived they decorated their own cupcake to take home at the end (look out later this week for a cool giveaway of these markers!).

a rabbit cake was requested from the very old-school, no fondant in sight, women's weekly cake book.(And I bought the sponge cakes because I don't like sponge and I didn't have time to make 2 cakes this week, especially when it was a cake I didn't even like!)

It was a lovely relaxed party and just the right length of time - which for me is 1.5 hours - enough time for games and food and to be kept busy until parents come to collect them.

The invitations, flag stickers, thank you cards, drink labels, food labels, place cards.... all the stuff that looks super professional is from Stuck on You - you can order your own unique combos here.

Becoming the Mama I want to be is about taking time to enjoy the journey of parenting, to honour it's value and to hopefully inspire and encourage each other. 

Simple. Achievable. Intentional: becoming the mama I want to be

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Love you more than a 'resting teddy' cupcake xxx

B.M.W.B - Today You are 7

Today you are 7 - how quickly you have become 7, how small you still are. We are so delighted by you. So entertained by your way of viewing the world and the things that fascinate you.

You tell the randomest jokes. You take a joke you know and then make up your own completely unrelated punchline and think it's even funnier.

You are so much more confident at football this year - you don't just hang back in defence you get in and have a go. We love that we can see your confidence growing.

You still love to make people happy. You have such a generous heart. Another mama said to me the other day that her son said you are the most compassionate in the class and you'll always volunteer to go for the less fun game if someone needs to. What an amazing heart you have.

You play so beautifully with your little brother. You laugh together so much and I pray it will always be so.

You are interested in things and how they work. You ask great questions and often you ask the same question over and over until I have exhausted all my knowledge. I hope you will always have such a thirst for knowledge and truth.

I'm pleased you still love snuggles. You want me to tell you stories of when you were small, describe the things I love about you, and tell you what a great hugger you are.

I have loved these 7 years together, and if these years are indeed an indication of the man you will become it will be a joy to us to launch you into a world that will be so blessed to have such a beautiful and compassionate man with a clever and interested mind. We love you little man - every night we talk together and say we can't believe what a wonderful thing it has been to be given you.

Happy 7th birthday.

Becoming the Mama I want to be is about taking time to enjoy the journey of parenting, to honour it's value and to hopefully inspire and encourage each other.

Simple. Achievable. Intentional: becoming the mama I want to be

(In terms of B.M.W.B - I think we can never celebrate the gift of our little ones too much. We all -still- thirst to be valued and honoured and appreciated. Let's do that every chance we get.)

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