Footballs and fairies: the fun stuff in life :-)

I posted back in April that I had been asked by someone to do a birthday party for their child and had decided to start up my own party business. Well I did a website and a few flyers and actually got a few phone calls and a couple of emails and did some quotes for people, but it never went anywhere. The only party I ever got paid to do was the original one I was asked to do by a friend and after all the expenses I put into it I only made about $70 for doing all that work. I have discovered that people don't want to pay you for your time, I had a couple of comments of 'I could do it cheaper myself', yes you could but you would be doing the work, if you want me to make your cake and fill your party bags and run the party then you need to pay me for my time. So my career as 'the party mum' was very short lived but I actually don't mind cause I much prefer doing parties for the kids I love anyway and quite frankly I would rather spend my time and energy in my career as a mum. I did however do 2 parties in the last couple of months for the other 2 kids I love as much as my own, my nephew and niece so I thought I would share some pics of those.

Josh turned 8 and decided he wanted a football party. It was all Broncos themed because that's his team and I did the cake, the games and prizes and the lolly bags, my mum was in charge of the decorations (although I helped find them cause I found Broncos balloons and birthday banners on ebay which was very exciting) and my sister did the food.

This was the cake. It took me ages to get the icing the right colour and I was frustrated with the silly bronocs for not having normal primary colours but I eventually got it to work. I bought a badge to do the emblem cause I have no skills to make that with icing (not yet anyway, I have a goal to do some cake decorating classes).

I made a football pinata, the shape wasn't exactly right for a football but you could tell what it was.

I found some cool stuff for the lolly bags. My local coles had bags of NRL chocolates, I found an outlet store selling off cheap NRL merchandise so I got tattoos in everyone's teams, and I got a whole box of last year's footbal cards really cheap from a facebook garage sale site.

Coles also had chocolate footballs cause it was footy finals season so I got these for the prizes.

The kids did pin the football on the goal post, pass the footy (like pass the parcel but with a football and the one holding it when the music stopped was out) and the pinata.

This is the happy birthday boy :-)

Josh's party was on a Sat and then on the Monday my brother in law had his accident and life went all topsy turvy, which is why this never got blogged about before. Drew is recovering but has constant appointments with physio, drs etc and it's been a busy and stressful time for my sis so when my niece's birthday was coming up I took charge and did the whole thing so my sis just had to turn up and not worry about it.

Abi wanted a fairy party and I really enjoyed organising it as my first really girly party. It was small and simple with my girls, my niece and 3 little friends and we had it in my backyard near the fairy garden.

 

I had planned to do a fairy toadstool cake but Abi decided she wanted a butterfly (I did a butterfly cake for my sister back in July and Abi liked it). She requested lots of colours so I made a rainbow butterfly and my mum found the cute tinkerbell figurine with the number 5, she also found 5 little butterfly candles in the same colours as the cake.

I made butterfly fairy bread, also honey joys, fruit kebab sticks and some butterfly shaped shortbread with pink and purple glitter icing.

I made our gazebo into a magical fairy tent with material, balloons and some hanging fairies.

And on top of the normal party gear such as hats and blowers I bought a butterfly fairy wand for each girl and they loved these!

My cute Bethy fairy.

A little Elora fairy.

The beautiful birthday girl :-)

There was a pinata with pulling strings, we also played pass the parcel, musical chairs and dancing fairies (musical statues). Since there were only 6 kids I was able to get some really nice prizes, the main ones were fairy colouring in packs but each game had little prizes for everyone too which I wrapped up in pink and purple tissue paper and put in a pretty box.

There was also plaster magnet painting. Mum found the kits in a cheap shop so I made up the moulds during the week and got them ready for painting.

yummy party food.

prizes, party goods and a painted plaster magnet :-)

All the lolly bag goodies, fairy bubble bath and stickers, butterfly lip gloss, tattoos, bubbles etc, plus butterfly cake pops, butterly lollipop and chocolate, can you tell I got excited by all the girl stuff I found?

The girls ate their cake in the fairy garden, and the weather was absolutely perfect for some lovely outdoor time.

So that's some fun family stuff that's happened in the last couple of months. I may not have a job or business as 'the party mum', but I have a lot of fun just being 'the mum' and 'the aunty'. :-)

Natural Learning.

Things have been going much better here lately because we have embarked on a journey of natural learning taking a much more relaxed approach to schoolwork and not just trying to replicate school at home. Rather than spending hours on content so we can tick off that something was 'done', we are spending time on building skills. From an outsiders perspective it may not look like much is happening, but from my perspective I can see so much growth in important things. Yes Jaden is 'behind' in maths, still working through a year 5 programme when he is supposed to be in year 6, but we are spending lots of time and using many different ways to get the times tables into his head which are his biggest stumbling block in his maths work. I can see him getting better and quicker at it and it's helping him do better in his maths lessons, so I know that time spent on this skill will set him up a good foundation to then move forward with his maths. I dont see the point of pushing him onto work he can't do if he doesn't have the skills he needs to do it properly.

In writing it takes Jaden a while to get his thoughts together and onto the page, but again I am not after quantity, I don't want pages of drible, I would rather he takes his time and asks about spelling, grammar etc. He is writing an adventure/exploration story inspired by reading we've been doing about explorers of Australia and he is starting to write some really good stuff. He is also doing great editing on his own work and I can see him buidling up fabulous writing skills. He has been working on his letter writing too as he has a pen pal from Vic that we hooked up with through a home schooling forum. He is learning that he needs to answer questions and acknowledge what his friend has written, share some of what he has been doing and ask questions to learn more about his friend. I know some adults that would be hard pressed to write a decent letter so I am pleased to see Jaden's progress.

He is loving scouts and has learnt lots of new skills there, and also made some new friends. He went on 2 camps on 2 consecutive weekends recently and is showing a lot more independence in packing, unpacking etc. He has also started having private swimming lessons with the special needs teacher and is starting to actually look like he is swimming instead of struggling. He is helping out around the house more without complaining because it is just part of what we do in a family, he is showing plenty of creativity with his daily lego creations and he is learning lots about Australian history by reading through a bunch of novels I bought really cheap at an ex-library sale, his current book is 'The Man from Snowy River' (adaptation of the movie, not the poem).

Today after his maths work I pulled out a box of knex I had bought second hand and gave him the task of putting it together. It seemed a simple task for him until we realised that a lot of pieces were missing. At first he got upset and I was bracing myself for a meltdown but instead he decided to look in the other boxes for pieces that would fit (I bought 3 sets at the same time from the same person) and despite a few stressful moments he managed to find pieces between all 3 sets to finish the ferris wheel and there was no meltdown!! I was so proud of him and told him so!! The skills I witnessed here today of problem solving, improvisation, and managing frustration were amazing and show how far my boy has come, he actually handled it better than I did cause I got very upset about being sold stuff that wasn't all there and he was quite calm considering. So that is how school is looking here at the moment, there will be more bookwork style learning over the next few weeks as well, but it is not our main style of learning as we all do life together. This mummy is learning lots too as God takes me on my own journey of learning as a mum, a wife and as a daughter of God, to let go of my own unrealistic expectations and continually ask for God's direction in all things!!

Unplanned

I bought this book from Koorong ages ago. It was one of those ones that jump out at me and say you have to read this even though you know it's gonna be hard to read, but it has sat on my shelf for a long time waiting for me to be brave enough to read a book that I knew would stir me up. This week I decided it was time after a facebook discussion with someone I care about who is pro-choice. She said she was passionate about it and that disturbed me, I could not grasp how any sane person could be passionate about a practice that ends the life of babies and so I wanted to hear what the author of 'Unplanned' had to say, afterall she used to be the director of an abortion clinic. I have to say the first chapter was heart wrenching, it describes the day that everything changed for her and she knew she couldn't be part of that place anymore. I wont go into detail in case I spoil it for anyone who wants to read it themselves, but I finished that chaper and sat on my bed sobbing for ages, I actually felt physically sick. It was 2 days before I picked the book up again but once I did I found it very hard to put down.

The book describes the journey of Abby Johnson who was once a director of a planned parenthood clinic and quit to join the pro-life movment. I was fascinated by the insight into how her brain ticked and watching a life story unfold knowing God was weaving things together to show this woman the truth. I was also very challenged by this book because it showed how easy it is to do the wrong thing for the right reasons beause you believe what everyone else tells you rather than seeking God for yourself. I found it interesting that this woman had views very similar to the friend I was conversing with on facebook. That late term abortion is wrong because it's a baby, but early on it's not viable outside the womb and just a fetus, that the fetus feels no pain, that abortion actually helps women and children because it prevents babies being born who would not be loved and wanted... the same stuff i've heard many times from many people. I'm not going to argue the pro-life case here, it's my blog, I don't need to, I can just say straight out that I think everything in that sentence that the lady in this book believed is wrong, what really interested me though was that it took her 8 years to see it. She was so blinded by society's lies that she couldn't see the truth right in front of her face and it made me squirm because I realised there are areas where I am guilty of that too.

I have had some things on my heart for a while about my future and my family that seemed to go against what was sensible and normal and to be honest just more than I thought I wanted to deal with and so some decisions were made that I was comfortable with as long as I didn't sit still with God for very long, that is a sure sign that you're not listening I would think, but I didn't want to see it! So this morning I was awake very early because Elora was stirring but she went back to sleep before I even went in there, I however could not go back to sleep, God was right there in the dark, quiet, moment with me and  it was time for a chat. I decided to say yes to God for what He was asking but said if this is your plan then you better get the husband on board too, which He did, because when we talked about it today Brett was on the same page. I wont tell you what i'm talking about yet, just to keep you all in suspense, but I find it quite funny that God's plans for my life are so different to what I pictured and i'm totally ok with it.

So aside from my own personal challenge when reading this book I was also really enlightened as to how the tactics of many pro-lifers actually make things worse and that there is a fine line between having passion for a cause and judging those on the other side. I am not sure if I have crossed that line and hurt people in the past, but I know a much gentler approach is needed in the future, many people who are pro-choice really belive they are doing a good thing, it is their information that is wrong not their intentions and I never saw that perspective before.

So if abortion is a topic that stirs you at all or even if it isn't I would recommend getting hold of 'Unplanned' and seeing for yourself the journey God took Abby Johnson on, it's a really good read!!