Updates of the party kind

You know how sometimes there's so much going on in your mind and you want to talk about it all but you don't know where to start?

Me too!

So for the moment let's talk about the party since it's safe and relatively boring :)

I think we’ve settled on a good compromise for the party.

Guests

 

Cat said in the comments on the last party post that her boys each have a guest list and no-one is allowed to mess with the other’s list. I thought that was brilliant because all twins are obviously different and so they will have mostly different friends.

I then announced this to my two who stared at me with big eyes and then both wanted to renegotiate their lists again. So we're 90% there.

D and I also get to have a joint list (for family) :)

Now I need to actually get my act together and somehow make an invite and send it out first week of June.

I thought some of you might want to see the menu from Harrie's Pancakes?

Theme

I know the party theme but this year I'm not sure if I want to buy a party printable pack because I'm not sure anything beyond the banner, goodie bag tags and cupcake toppers will be used. Oh, and the thank-you card and invite.

I found a lady on etsy and she has packs which I need to customise (because of the girl/ boy twin element)... total comes to $15, which is fine IF you use it, but I'm loathe to pay money for things I won't use.

The free stuff I could find online is more blah...

Anyway, we've decided on a date and now we need to just do it.

This birthday during the school holidays business is going to be interesting....let's see once we send the actual invites out. I have a venue in mind and if half the kids can't come, I can't see the point of paying when I have a perfectly functional house.

Skipping the party

I threw out the idea of skipping the party and just going on holiday and all 3 (D and the kids) said a resounding NO! I guess that's not going to fly around here.

It's also going to be our busiest time at work (year-end), I really need to write an industry exam and and and...

Which brings me to MY party, which will be less than a month after theirs.

Every year I say I won't do anything for my birthday and every year I change my mind!

Last year was a big one so I had the big lunch at my house AND a birthday on the beach (which I recommend every time).

This year I'm sadly not going to the beach and I'm definitely not having a big lunch, but maybe a little something with a few close friends?

I don't know?

Over to you.

Have you thought about this year's birthday? Do you want to share your plans?

Oh boy, this party planning business

Happy birthday to my book. She's TWO today :)

 
Last year, K had 5 kids she wanted to invite from school. Connor had 2 of the same kids and 2 others.

We invited all those kids (7 unique) and 3 pitched. 1 didn't bother to RSVP (he won't get an invite this year), 1 was sick on the day (our party is traditionally on the coldest day of the year) but came to drop off a gift and 2 were on holiday so declined when they got the invite. Oh, our party is also during school holidays - fun times!

The only thing worse would be if we lived at the coast. Winter = rain!

I need to start making the party list and I did what I did last year:

• pulled up my spreadsheet from last year
• make a list of my friends and their kids
• see whose party we went to where we need to reciprocate the invite
• and then I made a rookie mistake:

I again asked the kids!

This time K rattled off a list with about 10 kids and C wasn't far behind.

They also each said they want to invite their twin (!), me and D (I should think so as we're paying), nanny S (she will be there), Granny and Aunty C.



A funny aside. Uncle C (SIL's hubby) is not very kid-friendly so he avoids family things as much as he can. I don't blame him, to be honest. However, the kids don't know him well and at a lunch last week, he was speaking so loud I could see K's terrified eyes.

So I hugged her and said to the table, "let's just move on please. K and I have already spoken about it and we have an understanding".

Granny and Aunty C "twigged" and carried on while he belaboured his point a bit more and K clung to me.

Afterwards I asked her how she felt and she said, "I really didn't like it when Uncle C spoke so loud. It made me feel shy".

BTW, this child beautifully expresses herself and I want to write everything down because she is an advert for an introvert! She'll say things like "I do want to be with you, Mummy, but I just feel like being alone now" - this type of thing. I LOVE IT!

this family photo by Cat

Anyway, we have problems with this humongous party list.

• You see, over the last year, we attended parties for 16 kids and turned down invites to 5 others.
• If we just reciprocated, that's 21 kids besides K & C, EXCLUDING some of my friends.
• It also excludes about 10 "new" kids they claim to have as friends.

I told them the other day, "Babies, this is getting out of hand". We're going to have to cut down.

(I can't invite 40 kids to a birthday party IN MY HOUSE and I refuse to have it at a venue)

There's obviously only one solution - decide on my comfort number, add some more to account for declines (about 30 - 35% decline), and go for it. Accept that this crazy is just one morning.

But help me out -

1. what are your criteria? when do you stop inviting your people and focus on the little ones' people? 
2. do you always reciprocate invites? (I'm thinking of that weird party and I already said NO WAY)

(thank goodness we don't have family with kids here in Jhb!)

PS does S & S party mean something "weird" - for some reason that post has a TON of hits.

Party planning (for 3 of us) is in full swing!

A few things first:

1. I'm answering questions in the comments these days... unless of a very personal nature. Some of you asked about the mother's day article - go have a look in the comments.

2.Please don't feel guilty about your food choices after yesterday's post! Please!!! I wrote the supper one already but now I feel like I shouldn't post it and instead just send it to Laura :)

3. I'm finally all on Outlook 2013 (transferred from Thunderbird which was extremely time-consuming). My work laptop had Outlook 2010 so I'm still finding my way around which is uncomfortable and SLOW. Thankfully, I worked VERY late last night and I now only have 49 again :( (it was at 28 this morning). I said that to say don't feel bad if you don't get an answer as things are going into the wrong folders (!) like I have some of these blog comments in my general email which is driving me mad. Right.

last year's Mother's Day tea at the school. The tea happens this Friday and I have to make a hat!

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So I'm in party planning mode over here.

This afternoon I was "Pinteresting" (like Googling) food ideas and tonight after Spanish dancing, I searched etsy (about 15 pages worth) for party printable ideas.

Such fun but so time-consuming it could be a full-time job. :)

(I actually only have the willpower for my own kids; I'd never want to make this a business or anything.)

Tomorrow I'll make a list of what I want, what I know/ have and will just look for very specific ideas or enlist the help of the Mandys, both of whom are very creative! (Mandys, be warned!)

I love autumn way too much!

Sorted:

1. theme
2. activities
3. clothes for kids
4. party bags

To do

1. Decide on a party printable pack
2. Tomorrow I'm hauling out all party cups/ plates/ dishes of a certain colour to see if I have enough. That will help me decide on the printables because my shortlist has two different coloured themes.
3. Invite!!!

 

I'm about 95% decided what I want for my birthday. It's going to cost money but what the heck - that's what savings are for, right?! 

How are you doing? Are you enjoying the weather?

PS At some point I should write about how I'm enjoying being at home because I am. Today the kids played school. Connor was the teacher (Mr Brownley) and Kendra was "Elizabeth". It's FAR too cute and I find myself very distracted listening to their goings-on.

Sunday Outtakes

Well, we had a very nice weekend.

The babies are at a really cute stage. I don't say this often so you should know it's true.

They're really just being lovely - very sweet to each other, good independent (bad independent was that "I do it myself" stage) and the language is amazing. They're thinking (mostly) logically and are using their words nicely.

Nanny S has the day off tomorrow to attend to personal things so she came in to babysit for a few hours yesterday afternoon while D and I went to see a movie.

I think it's only the second one I've seen this year! (First was the Silver Linings Playbook)

How often do you go to the movies?

Anyway we saw This is 40 which we both enjoyed very much. More drama than I generally like which is not saying much because I like happy, skippy movies, thankyouverymuch.

But more important, it really made us realise some things.

I'm being mysterious because I want you to go watch it and then we can chat. Have you seen it yet? What did you think?

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Speaking of sweets, the (new) church ladies gave my kids a lollipop each plus chips plus sweet biscuits so it was "fun" this afternoon with them not sleeping. The lady meant well and I had to assure her that it was "fine" (I arrived to collect them and saw these big lollipops in their mouths. Of course I said, "what is that in your mouths?!" in That Voice) but in future, my kids are Not Allowed any sweets unless I give it to them.

I left them all "sleeping" after lunch today and went to look at getting clothes for the party and pricing party bag stuff (I never give sweets; I have specific things in mind).

When I got back after an hour (nothing bought although I did get a nice new cover for my iphone), the babies were jumping around being naughty and D looked very tired.

So I said, "come! Let's go outside and take pics" -----> this is for the party invite (YESSS, I'm getting organised).

I can't show you the actuals but these were a few after we finished.

And can I just say, this white wall in my garden is So Darn Useful :)

pic by Connor

pic by Kendra

This week I first have a really boring few days - I'm doing a little work on another project, all excel-based which is the type of thing where I want to stab sharp objects into my eyes.

And then.... ta da da dum.... we have an MBTI workshop on Thurs and Fri. I can't wait for that - you know this, of course. We even have homework :) :)

I want to write more but I need to get to bed. However, I will leave you with this - I'm the only E in that whole team.....yes!

So what are you looking forward to this week?

It's that time of year again - birthdays!

I can hardly believe it - in less than two months my kids will turn three.

THREE.

Remember the half-birthday party?

Well, it's time to plan the proper birthday party!

Here's little bit from last year's party... the ladybug/ garden theme.

the kids look so young here!

So it won't surprise you to know that I've had a couple of ideas in mind since last year.

I liked one so much I bought the party printables soon after the last party - yes, crazy.

Some people who read the blog but don't comment will be invited so I don't want to mention the theme on here in case I spoil the surprise for them.

I have the raw materials for the party favours already... and I'm going to have such fun putting them together. They will be small but cute.

Hopefully the party theme colours will match a lot of the dishes I already have. I'm also really trying to use up paper cups, paper plates and serviettes where possible as it appears I went a bit mad with the previous parties and overbought. I still have serviettes from the kids' first birthday party!

I was so tempted to say "no presents" but for the first time, the kids are actually really into presents because they see me giving people gifts all the time. Connor even brings me little treasures from outside (a feather, a leaf, a flower, etc) and says, "here Mummy, a present for you". Yes, I melt!

So I can't take that away from them but we have an idea for the family to contribute towards to reduce stuff.

My friend, R, is turning 30 at the end of this month and had a FABULOUS idea on her party invite. If we want to give a gift, we should bring money to donate towards a cancer organisation. I LOVE THAT IDEA SO MUCH.

It got me thinking about my birthday and you won't be in the least surprised to hear what I'm going to ask for. But one birthday at a time.

I need to think about food, cake (if only my sister was here, I could get her to make the cake) and start working on the list and the invites.

I'm a little torn - not sure if I should have it here at home again or if I should have the party at the gym. My gym does parties at R85 per child and that includes people to watch the kids (YES - free babysitting), an activity and (healthy) food. And of course, that means no cleaning for me before or after! Thing is... it could get very expensive so maybe I should first send out a "save the date", wait for the RSVPs and then see how many I'm left with. Ha!

Decisions, decisions.

I've decided NOT to have a professional photographer this year unless I can find one really cheap. I can take pics of the decor and details (I love doing that anyway, esp now I've discovered the AV setting) beforehand. I do want to book someone to take some 3-year-old pics of the kids. Otherwise, my camera will be there and I'm going to tell everyone to grab it and take pics as they see fit!

Am I missing anything?


Would you have it at home or at the gym? Do you think that's good value for money?

Before I delete all the party blogs from my reader

let me showcase my favourites (also, so that I can start obsessively stalking them again in May next year).

A to Zebra celebrations

Bird's Party Blog

These are the last two left in my reader - I deleted tons once I knew what I wanted.

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By the way, what's your feeling on half-birthday celebrations?

I love, love, LOVE this post by MandyE on her girls' half birthdays.

And I loved Johanna's comment so much that I announced to D that we will henceforth (!) also be celebrating half birthdays.

Because they're twins and have to share everything (especially in my house), they might as well have two birthdays :)

He thinks I'm mad.

I'm not going to go all out but I will get cake, use the happy birthday placemats (what? you don't have birthday placemats?) and put up a birthday banner.

Have I told you how much I love birthday banners/ bunting?

I put up 4 for their birthday party, and (shhhh) I had another 2 stacked away, just in case the house didn't look decorated enough :)

The main banner is still up, by the way.

I even have a banner at work so I can "decorate" the person's desk when it's their birthday.

They're so cheap (I bought mine for about R15 each at a party shop) and instantly make me (and the birthday person) feel happy.

You can download a free birthday banner here. (you're very welcome)

So what do you think about half birthdays? Fun or overkill?


PS can you see I'm on a bit of a high? I just had a FABULOUS meeting with new clients. I LOVE working with good people.

Control freak tendencies

doughnut muffins

Oh gosh, I just realised I have 3 weeks to try and shift some of this very stubborn weight before my babies' party.

You see, Jeanette is coming to take pics of the party.

Normally I would think this OTT but I regretted having a designated photographer last year because you can't be and document at the same time.

Also I liked the idea of having a professional as I like pics of details and non-posed shots and nobody else takes those kinds of pics except professionals. Of course I'm generalising like crazy...

And reason 3 - it's a "kill two birds with one stone" thing. Party gets documented properly and we get some family pics.

So I guess it'll be gym 3 times a week for the next 3 weeks.

Especially since I haven't been once this week. I think I'll have to drag myself on Sat morning.

Please will someone hold me accountable. I better tell my coach.

Also, I've just checked the gym's website and I think I'm going to a dance class on Sat morning.

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Today is Youth Day in South Africa. We took it really easy today which was so good.

The babies and D went for a nap at 11:30 and after they all woke and we had lunch, I got dressed (yes, after 1!) and we went to our local mall where we did some shopping.

Something that is driving me up the wall is this - V doesn't tell me or write on the shopping list when something is running low.

Now remember I am usually at work so my time to do organising/ cleaning-type stuff is limited to very short periods of time on weekends.

Today I was sorting the laundry ready to run a load (with my little helper - she is so cute!) and found ............ the washing powder container empty. I can't let the laundry pile up because the thought of piles and piles of dirty washing makes me twitch, so this was the main reason for us going shopping.

As an aside, pre-babies I was TOTALLY on top of the house. I did a proper menu plan every week, shopping list according to that, emptied out freezer at least once a month (I don't like "old food") by getting resourceful and creative with cooking, I organised different sections of my home every week and knew exactly how much of anything there was in my house.

Of course afterwards, that was just not possible. There is another person here more than I am, and a cleaning lady one day a week and my time at home is spent with the babies while they're awake.

But I had to let go otherwise I would have gone crazy frantically trying to keep control of it all.

And mostly it works.

I'm mostly unfrazzled and the house is clean and organised enough, runs reasonably well according to my standards and very well according to some other people's standards.

If only people would put things back in their places and write on the shopping list I'd be so much happier.

Of course we came home with lots of food and some goodies from Clicks (they had a make-up sale and how can I pass by their nail polishes - I have some weird tendencies that if I find a colour I like, I buy 3!).

Another aside - I am also looking for a Kindle cover. I have a boring black one but I want a fun, funky material one and since our customs duty is so much on fabric imports, I'm looking for suitable bags/ pouches at local stores. Tell me if you see something I might like. Remember I don't sew but I do accept gifts :)

So today's been good - lots of pottering around the house (LOVE this), lots of family time with fairly well-behaved toddlers, had two coaching appts and now some computer time.

And guess what? I've crossed off 3 of the 15 things from yesterday.

One of those was updating my 36 things list. I only have 13 to go, and some of them are not going to happen but I'm okay with that. It actually felt really good to go update that list and see how far I've come. I may just have to do this type of thing forever. A post for another day.

How was your Youth Day? Otherwise, tell me, how much of a control freak/ perfectionist are you about your home? :)

PS I need to do the blogger thing. Okay, who wants to meet up with me? I'm good after 9 July but let's schedule... Cat, Louisa, Hayley?

Weekend wrap-up

Yesterday morning I determined that I would go to weigh-in no matter what, and I did.

And guess what? I lost a kilo!

I'm not getting too excited though as my knee seems to be messed up (yes, from Tuesday's exercise) and I'm on Voltaren...so I'm taking it easy with exercise if I even get there.

I spoke to the lady about my C problem and she upped my fruit to 3 a day, checked that I was still drinking all my water (I am) and suggested prunes as that 3rd fruit.

She said to me that she hoped I wasn't offended by her text. As if! I told her I LOVED that she called me out on it.

So off I went to Pick and Pay to get a ginormous packet of prunes and when I saw this, I decided that I deserved a (non-food) gift for losing a kilo :)

Isn't it pretty?

D and I had our date - a shopping one for party stuff/ kids' presents, etc. We bought them 6 things each - mostly things they need - but we're hiding most of it away til their birthday.

I got a few stationery items as I normally do (this is my vice).

But best of all, we went for a baked cheesecake slice and coffee to talk and we are finally in agreement on the party theme. My two boring ideas are out and we're going with something more fun but still easy (I think).

I'm not telling you because some of the people reading this blog will be invited and I don't want to spoil the surprise.

And so I've bought stuff already - paper bowls and plates, muffin cups, some balloons, and some things from my beloved etsy (I know it's a sickness :)).

Things are moving and I'm happy.

Let me just take a moment here and say this: it is near impossible to find non-character party themes these days.

For someone like me, that's terrible.

But Ben 10, Hello Kitty, and a whole host of other characters I don't even know (would you believe I have still not seen the famous Barney on TV and neither have my kids?!) or care to know.

Anyway, moving on...

Today we had church in the morning and then a few errands on the way home.

We've just finished a new section of the church building and it's looking stunning - I am SO proud because it is seriously gorgeous.

We took the kids to the family room with us today because we were late and Connor was making friends with bigger boys, other families, etc. The boy has no problems with shyness!

He even sat next to another lady eventually and wrote all over her notebook!!!

Kendra did the same in my notebook with my purple pen. I think she loves that I have a lot of coloured pens so she can choose a fun colour.

MandyE, I don't give her my Pilot 0.7 gel pens. Those are sacred. I know you understand :)

Yesterday my kids slept for 2 hours (yes!) but today they slept on the way home from church and that, it seems, was that.

I let them run free out in the garden so I could clean the kitchen. They love being outside so much and we are SOOOOOOOOOO blessed in Jhb to have absolutely the best winter weather in the world.

In my unbiased opinion, of course.

So they were out like a light tonight.

I tidied my study on Friday but there are lists everywhere, yesterday's shopping "hiding out" here and I need to restore some order.

Remind me to talk about scrapbooking paper sometime - maybe it's a good thing I only found out about its goodness this year :)

My vices are paper, notebooks, pens (all stationery actually), mugs and handbags.

What are yours?

And how was your weekend?

Five on Friday

1. I guest posted over at Dolli-Mama yesterday on I got my mojo back. Go read and please comment :) - everyone else that has guest posted has tons of comments. Eeeek.

2. You know how we all have good intentions about keeping track of our babies' likes/ dislikes/ milestones/ favourites, etc? And then how 90% of us don't actually do it (I am very firmly entrenched in that group)?

Well, here is the answer. One Rad Mother is a genius. Seriously. I'm in awe.

3. Men are not designed for party planning. Or maybe it's just my man. Do you know we had a 30-minute discussion last night addressing just two areas - theme and venue - and we are still undecided?

Do you also know how frustrating this is for me? I make decisions very quickly and then take action, and this is just about driving me batty.

We now have a party planning date for tomorrow afternoon. I can't believe I'm writing this. As Rebecca would say, kill me now!

4. The babies got put in time-out about 3 times in 30 minutes this morning. They got into the bin in my bathroom and emptied out all the stuff ALL over my bedroom. D was awake but in the shower; I was asleep.

When I woke and saw the stuff on the floor, I went, "Kendra!" because I know she's the instigator and wherever she was in the house, she got such a fright she started crying. And D and I both laughed.

5. As you know, Connor is VERY attached to his bear, Friday. Wherever you see Connor, there you'll find Friday. It's safe to say that it is his most treasured possession. So this morning (this is why you have to write down these things; they happen all the time) he hands Friday to me and then told me he wanted my phone. It was sweet of him but the phone is still off-limits :)

And for me?

I cancelled my personal training session for this afternoon. I consider this taking care of myself because I have not been able to walk properly for 3 days now. I'm still walking on my tippy-toes to relieve the pressure on my calves. Sigh.

I came home with a headache last night and instead of rushing around cooking, I did sweet NOTHING and just lay on the bed for an hour, reading. Bliss. I've now finished another book :)

And then I did no business work for 2 days besides client stuff due to (3) above.

Can you believe I can't WAIT to get home to tidy my study? I just function best in an ordered environment (don't laugh, Jayme) and it's going to make me happy!!!

What kind of home environment do you function best in?