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

Button code on the right if you want it

Love you more than a 'resting teddy' cupcake xxx

B.M.W.B - Birthday Philosophy

At the end of this week we have a very, very special birthday.

When my children were less than 5 we always celebrated with cake and family but turning 5 marks a transition into 'drop off parties' where a set number of friends are invited over to celebrate.

I like celebrations and parties are no different. I'm not pin worthy certainly but I love the idea of a theme and changing up the games to suit the theme. To be honest I don't know that the kids notice much, but I do and it brings me pleasure to do it.

I don't think birthday parties are about extravagant amounts of spending and I feel very uncomfortable with the idea people might spend a lot on my child. My mantra to the boys is 'they might not bring a present and that doesn't matter because they are coming to celebrate with you because you are special to them.'

and when they go to parties, 'there might not be cake or games or something to take home and you are not to ask for these things. They invited you to celebrate with them and that's why you are going.' (I hope and pray my child is never the one to say - this is boring, when are we having games....)

All that said - I love my boys so much and I want them to know I want to celebrate them. I plan their birthday parties because I am anticipating creating a wonderful couple of hours for them to know they are worth the effort to me. They are worth celebrating and it is worth celebrating every wonderful year we share our lives together.

Families all do that in different ways but I think (and hope) for all the philosophy is the same - its not about being impressive, keeping up with others, proving what a wonderful parent you are or how many friends your children have - it's about celebrating the gift of each other.

and that is always worth the effort!

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

Button code on the right if you want it

love you more than the perfectly timed blowing the candles out photo xxxx

Happy Mystery Party Big 6 Year Old!

My wee man is 6 today!! So we had a mystery party. Being that all the invited guests were 6 or younger I didn't think we were quite ready for murder mystery (and neither am I!)

But we did do a great old mystery party - one sweet guest said to me, 'Mrs F********* (they call me this because I do parent help at school) this is the best party I've ever been too.' Bless him - it was a lovely bunch of friends he invited.

I had rather a tight schedule for the party we missed a couple of games entirely but we had FUN!

When the guest arrived they did a Mystery Person sheet - a self-portrait with some extra info afterwards. The intention was to use these to guest who was who at the end of party but we ran out of time.

All the guests received a pack with a magnifying glass, a clues notebook, a clues pencil, a name sticker, a little envelope with colour swatches in it and they added their prizes to it as they went

We played -

The Mystery box - feel it, shake it and write-up your guess in box 1 then I gave them 3 clues - I am metal, I am found in the kitchen and you use me to eat with. Then they wrote their second guess.

Guess the Guest - each guest rsvp'd by email with month of birth, no. of siblings, favourite - food, colour and animal. They put their name stickers on (so people could write their names without having to guess spelling etc) and I read out the information about each person and they wrote the names next to the spaces.

What's My Colour - time was ticking along so I did this instead of getting the kids up and giving them a go. Each child had 7 colour swatches and I gave them a clue and they had to be the first to hold up the colour e.g- I am the colour of grass.

What is My Number - 9 different number sentences and the children wrote which number they thought was the mystery number for each sentence. E.g - I am less than 10, I am even and I rhyme with 4

Then we had a mystery treasure hunt each clue was written on white paper with white crayon so they had to paint dye over each clue after they found it to expose its message

Food - we had mystery food bags. I showed them some very cute 'food pictures' then gave them a mystery bag filled with foodie bits which they had to make into a picture on a white serviette and then tell everyone what they made.

I also provided some extra bits, including plain bread which a few of them used and then ate!

Cake - a big question mark made from cupcakes - easy!!!

Mystery Box Punch - I saw this idea on pinterest a while ago and it was a neat way to give the kids a small prize to take home.I forgot to take a final before pic!!!

They picked a number out of a hat which determined their order. (Flip and I had already discussed he would go last) and then they punched through the tissue to get their prize.

The party was great fun the 1.5hours disappeared and we didn't get to the Mystery Bag - put your hand in a bag and guess the item before pulling it out, Reverse Hide and Seek, or finish the Mystery Person Pages. I probably could have done 2 hours but I always like to keep things short and sweet before there are tears and tantrums!!

A great day, a simple easy themed party, all good! What is your best birthday party tip??

The other thing that worked well was a list of jobs that needed to be done today so that everyone could help with the jobs to get the party ready and I didn't have to give jobs out constantly.

And because I love reading about other people's birthday parties I'm linking in with Simone's favourite blog posts

Super Easy, Super Cute Marshmallow Pops

Okay so just in case you really wanted a DIY here it is:
Last week Flip and I made these gorgeous marshmallow pops

To start with I gave some wooden kebab skewers a quick spray with cooking oil to help the marshmallows not to stick too much
Thread on a marshmallow and very quickly dip in water
Shake off excess water
Dip in jelly crystals (hey I never said they were healthy!) and pop in a jar or similar to allow them to dry
** You do need to shake off the excess water or it makes the jelly crystals wet and lumpy**

We used lemon and raspberry and they had a slightly sherbert/sour taste on the outside which complimented the marshmallow beautifully.
OR - thread the marshmallows and dip in melted chocolate and then in sprinkles (or not) which is one of my all time favourite combos chocolate and marshmallow - oh.so.good

It seems to be a peculiarly kiwi thing - pineapple lumps, pinky bars, perky nanas, marshmallow Easter eggs, mallowpuffs..... I missed them all in the UK.

I love these for a party or just to make an exciting-looking and easy treat.