Weekend treats and party planning joy.

It was a challenging week! I am finally feeling well again but the challenge of keeping the balls in the air is trying at the best of times. There has been a lot of reflection this week and I am feeling brighter as a result. Of course that is Sunday afternoon Melissa speaking...Monday morning Melissa may have a different outlook ;)

Things certainly took a turn in the right direction with my lovely mum spoiling me the way she does. After another great appointment with Joe and the play therapist in the morning, Mum booked us in for a lovely hair and pedi/mani appointment together - the head and neck massage that came with it may have been key to my mood lift.  I am so grateful for the sweet things she does to make me take some time out for myself and getting to enjoy it with her is a bonus. She decided that Eric and I needed a date night to make the most of my tidy hair and nails- spoilt, spoilt, spoilt!!
We headed for our close and easy option at Lakeside and ate beyond our fill. We loved our shared entree but neither of us enjoyed our mains much. Crispy skinned duck should be crispy!!!! Tried, tested, failed. Plenty of other restaurants to try out and with such infrequent visits we won't run out of options any time soon :)
Mum even let us borrow 'The Hunger Games' on DVD- woohooo! I have read all of the books and seen the movie but Eric hadn't done either. I knew he would love it and now he is all set to start reading tonight. It was a completely lovely day from beginning to end.

Then today mother nature turned on the sunshine and everything felt cheerful! The original plan was to use the movie tickets that Eric won for his Luigi costume, but there was nothing exciting and family friendly to see.

Eric as Luigi and Campbell as Dr Upton (from 'Doctor in the House' BBC comedy). You may have noticed that Campbell is a bit into obscure BBC comedy at the moment ;)

We will hold onto the tickets and wait for the holidays. So we had a fun Mexican lunch in sunshine at Rouse Hill and we finally convinced Campbell that a 'Steptoe and Son' (BBC comedy) party for his 14th Birthday may not appeal to any other 14 year olds (or any age for that matter). Over lunch we nutted out some ideas, the conversation kept coming back to Steptoe and Son until Campbell set to charming the waitress and asked her if she was Daphne from Scooby Doo. He has a 'thing' for Daphne since she joined us at lunch when we were at movie world. He has decided that she is the one for him!!!  Hurray, hurrah Campbell had a brainwave. He could have a Scooby Doo party and invite Daphne...hmmmm we have agreed to run with the theme but not sure about how we will get the Scooby Doo gang to join us. I am confident that I could pass as a quite reasonable Velma but that's not going to cut it. I am delighted :) I have pinned like crazy and created the invitations this afternoon. I do so love a party to plan. 

Joe having a go at his first word search- he did so well.

"So we can dress up at Steptoe and son- you can be Albert and I will be Harold"

Here's something I know for sure.

I am not cut out for being a single parent of 3 boys and 2 baby lambs!!! Not my cup of tea thank you very much.

With Eric out for a meeting last night I had too many people to feed at once and too few hands. Of course the dog had to add to the chaos- he is more than a little bit jealous of the lambs!! 

Lambs and lemon juice.

This is NOT a recipe blog post- no lambs will be consumed with lemon in my household!!

There is nothing more annoying than wasting a weekend being sick. There is also nothing better than the sound advice of my Mum. Despite missing out on the glorious sunshine today I am grateful for time to rest my aching limbs and vocal chords. I am well aware that constantly rushing to make the most of every minute of my precious time, nearly always back fires on me eventually. I have not been able to shake this cold/ flu/ virus, whatever it is, since the end of the holidays. I have given in- overdosing on lemon juice is giving me an ulcer on my tongue!

The visiting newborn lamb has been cheerful indeed and it has since invited a sibling to visit too. So now we have two little cuties to dote over. Wednesday's little sister has the unfortunate name 'pooey' after coming home from appointments and soccer on Saturday morning to find the little escapees in the family room and a trail of lamb poo all over the tiles. The cheeky little mites had broken down the barrier from the laundry and went exploring. At least they limited their exploits to the tiled areas. Pooey (awww how dreadful to call it that!!) needed some supplement feeds and her poor Mummy Sheep needed some recovery time too- wouldn't we all after giving birth to triplets!

Joe's appointment with the play therapist went well on Saturday morning and he is happy to go back next week to check out the giant playdough tub that he spied on the shelf. We are hoping that our shy boy soon starts to open up.

I enjoyed taking Campbell to Rouse Hill on Saturday afternoon too. While the younger boys had friends over to play I promised Cams a trip to the ABC Shop. As tired and as reluctant I felt to hit the shops, Campbell was the loveliest company and we had a wonderful afternoon together. He was thrilled with his BBC DVD find and showed it to everyone we saw in Rouse Hill (nobody we knew but solid pals now). He is such a charmer when he is in a chirpy mood. The young man working in Target wished Campbell well for his holiday to Spain too!!! I am not sure where his recent interest in Spain came from, but he is quite determined to go there. I would be more than happy to accompany him too...perhaps one day we will have the budget and inclination. My big boy always makes me laugh and I can't take the smile off my face now thinking about his commentary around the shops- "Mum, why is that girl staring at me. Look at her she is just looking right at me. What's HER problem." This girl was actually standing right next to us, and was indeed staring, and continued to stare despite Campbell's audible comment. Campbell certainly makes up for Joe's lack of conversation.

Feeling like I needed time for my beautiful middle boy we snuggled up to watch 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' (again) and enjoyed listening to him play his bass. Our Friday night also consisted of Drew's playing and a frolicking lamb- not quick enough to get some footage while we were laughing.

Took some time to read on our comfy day bed on our awesome deck too this morning. Still need to get some photos of the finished masterpiece but Eric is still pottering around with some roll away storage crates to go underneath the deck. I will wait until all is complete and polished for the pics.

So having said all of that I realise now that nothing was wasted to being sick!! I have spent lots of time sleeping but looking back I did manage to fit in lots of lovely stuff too. 

Circus Party!!

Wooohooooo!! Joe loved his Circus party! He had the best fun and was a happy, happy boy.  I am a bit sad that it is all over- the planning was ever such fun. In fact I still haven't taken down most of the decorations...and I am not sure that I ever will :) Having that festive feeling every time we step out the back door can only ever be a good thing.

All set up and waiting for the kids to arrive....but before we could set the table...

The party preparation chaos...but what fun it was :)

The photo booth, goodie bags, the amazing cake, food, decorations and games.

Ohhh and the cake pops :)

The photo booth ready to go.

The Circus Challenge!!

Balloon art

 Juggling

 Joke or skit (anything silly will do)

The clown car- this was fun until someone got stuck :)

Big Bubbles

Walk the tight rope!

The food...

The cake created by my a gorgeous friend who went above and beyond to make Joe's day perfect- thankyou Deb xx

Popcorn

Fairy bread scrolls

Cake pops in gum balls.

Lemonade and giant pretzels. Mini gingerbread men with red icing noses (clowns) , jaffas (clown noses), 100's and 1000's biscuits.

Fairy floss in boxes, milk with flavoured straws.

Mini hot dogs with french fries (packet variety nestled at the bottom of each cup) 

Pink lemonade to the right.

 The photo booth in action

The Ring Master at work!

 The Lion Tamer at work!

How gorgeous is my friend Ruanne to go to all this trouble 

and she also shared awesome costumes for Eric and I. Big love to you Ru!!

Fun and silliness because that's what it's all about!

Put the nose on the clown.

Time for the cake...and I DID let him cut it (although it broke my heart)

The gang!

The decorations

Birthday bunting ordered online 

Lanterns & balloons ordered from our local 'ronnies' poms poms made with tissue paper. Bunting both homemade and bought. Circus top only $15 from IKEA.

Party bags and cake boxes to see everyone off with EXTRA sugar!!

 The sugar downer aftermath 

The day was easy and totally kid driven. I asked Joe what games he wanted it we planned for it but we just did what they wanted when they wanted. We also played musical chairs, musical statues and pass the parcel. He chose such lovely little people to join the birthday fun. All of the kids he invited were polite and considerate. They were so incredibly grateful and I was thanked repeatedly throughout the day for every little thing. I am so proud of my 6 year old boy xx