Will be short, but so sweet!!

I get to see my beautiful best friend LUSI tomorrow!! Woohoo!!! Who'da thunk huh!! She'll be up in Brissie for Lu's wedding (of which she will make a beautiful bridesmaid!) but its a rather short stay, esp with a wedding going on too.... but I just could NOT go without seeing her!! So we have arranged for me to pick her up from the airport and then we'll grab a bite to eat (probably Maccas!!) and then I'll take her out to Cass' place where I shall leave her!!

Even though we won't get much time (maybe an hour or two?) it will so great to still see her, and I'll make sure I take the camera for a quick piccie!!

Aaarrhhh... Pirate Party!!!

On Saturday we celebrated Jaidyn's 7th birthday by having 11 of his friends, and some family over for a pirate party!!

I spent AGES researching pirate parties on the net, narrowing down what I wanted and what was do-able for my time and budget (some of the Americans seem to go WAY overboard and these parties would no doubt cost hundreds of dollars!)... I wanted it to be fully pirate themed, so it was fun picking games, foods, decoration ideas etc.... You've already seen the invite (see a few posts back if you missed it). So I set myself some expectations by having that really cool already... had to live up to them!!

It was lots of work, but soooo much fun!! I didn't realise how full-on kids parties are too.. we've hosted more 'adult' parties before, where I can duck upstairs to prepare food etc, but I didn't really take into account I'd really need to be with the kids all the time, so I'm soooo thankful to my Mum and sisters for doing the food upstairs for me!!

When the kids arrived, they had name badges to put their pirate names on (most kids missed this point though and just wrote their names!)... and we set up some icing and lollies for them to decorate some pirate bikkies while waiting for everyone to arrive. There were also temp tattoos to apply... most of the boys were more interested in wsord-fighting though!! (and we only have one or two lots of tears, thankfully short-lived).

Once everyone was here, we started into the Treasure Hunt! Greg was Captain Gut-ripper Greg (nice name huh!) and he was in full costume (as was I too) and most of the time we were able to pull off the pirate-slang too! The kids loved the treasure hunt I think!! We broke it up at parts to play a couple of games. I want to record the actual clues here too, so sorry if you're not really interested in the finer details!

We started by reading the 'pirates code' to them (rules for the booty hunt):

1. Only th' Captain be t' read th' clues. He will read 'em once all sea dogs be havin' assembled.
2. Any gentleman o' fortunes caught runnin' will keel haul th' plank.
3. All ye scurvy dogs must nay be movin' till Gutripper Greg tells ya.
4. Any lowly pirates caught tryin' to pillage th' booty will be marooned on th' next island – bring th' treasure back t' th' ship before ye split it.
5. Any disputes an' ye be leavin' ya treasure t' davey jones!

Then Greg produced the first clue from his pocket:

Ahoy all ye pirates!
Ye booty has been stolen!
All th’ remains is this one clue:

A message in a bottle be th'
only way t' send mail.
Ye Seafarin' heartys these days
be havin' 't much easier now wi' these…

Which sent the kids to the letterbox... then....

Aarrgh, ye lily-livered land lubbers!
Can ye smell them doubloons?

Ye might find th' booty in a hut near th' cliffs…

The next clue was hidden in our playhouse next to our rock wall... took a bit for them to find this one! Some of them were looking right at but couldn't see it, lol! then:

By th’ Powers!
We be und’r attack!

Avast, man yer cannons!

Here we played 'Sink the Ship' where there were two teams in 'ships' Greg made of boxes... they had 2 'cannonballs' each (scrunched up newspaper balls) and the point of the game was to get as many of the balls behind the other teams ship in an allocated time. They LOVED this one, so we played it through twice. Then they got a chocolate coin for their booty collection, and this clue:

Ye be gettin' closer t' ya pieces o' eight!
After that swashbuckle
we need t' restock our cannonballs.
Ye clue be hidden amongst them.

There were black balloons blown up and hidden in our pop-up tent.... the kids had to tie one to their ankle and on GO they all popped each-others or their own balloon and one of them had the next clue in it (unfortunately the clue was actually in one of the spare ones, go figure!!):

The next clue was a coded message, and:

Shiver me timbers! Th' decoder be what ye need.
Ye may find 't near th' tree…

They found the decoder near a tree and then had to go about cracking the code... many of the boys ran off here coz I think they got a bit bored - it took about 5 mins to get the code out, which said: The treasure is buried beneath the cooker.

They had to think for a sec.. "The oven?" "No guys, its all outside. What might you cook on outside?" "A BBQ?" Yes, so Jaidyn led the way up the back stairs to the BBQ, where they found the booty hiden under the cover! I managed to follow them up there but the only pic I got was hands!! (quite humourous really, they'd obviously forgotten the rules, lol!)
With the booty was this message:

Wave ye jolly roger!
Th' booty be yaaaaaarrrrrrrrs!
Now alls t' do be celebrate wi' some grub,
an' a drink or three!

Then it was time to eat! The kids were only semi-interested in the food, but moreso in playing sword-fighting and on our swings again!! The pirate food consisted of:

* 'Scavenger Dogs' - mini hotdogs with sails!

* 'Cannonballs dipped in blood' - meatballs and tomato sauce of course!

* 'Shark's Blood' to drink - red cordial ice-cubes dropped into lemonade and swirled around so it looks like blood (didn't really though but cool though!)

* 'Rum' or 'Grog' - coke! A couple of the girls asked a couple of times - 'can we please have some more rum?' lol...

* Fruit skewers - so pirates don't get scurvy!

Plus some lolly snakes and chips, and bickies and dip for the adults...... the hot stuff was snuffed up pretty fast!!

After some grub and abit more playing, I brought down the cake. I was SO relieved that my cake actually worked and didn't fall apart - it was perfect... the key is freezing the cake overnight, then again after 'gluing' the bits together..... I did a pirate ship, and had a bit left-over so made a little deserted island too, which was supposed to have another little lego pirate on it, but not sure what happened to him (maybe he was eaten by a shark, or had to walk the plank instead?).

The kids ate cake and played a bit more, then we opened the presents and gave them their 'booty' to take home... Oh my word, Jai now has soooo many new toys!! We are really struggling to find places for them to go - I think his room will need a clean-out and to put away some of the older toys maybe!! His room is only pretty small!

The kids all had a BALL, and we were soooo exhausted afterwards!! Of course we had to snap a couple of family pics while we were all dressed up though...

It was so much fun! But I don't think I'll be doing anything so in depth for a little while!! Phew!! Here's some more pics from the day - hopefully you can see them ok!

7 years ago today...

I was 18 years old and holding my new baby. I was in wonder of new life but a bit scared at how this would change my life. Well, Jaidyn changed my life immensely but not once have I ever wanted to take it back. God has given me so many wonderful opportunities out of this experience. Being a young mum is cool. I love it. Sure, its hard, but its so 'me' and its what God has for me for my life right now.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful young man Jaidyn. He has been through lots of changes in life so far - living with just me, his father visiting on weekends. Then his father deciding to waver his role as a dad (4 years ago now?) and Jai having to adjust to having a new Dad. Its a lot for a little guy to deal with really (but happens so much in todays society), and I'm sure as he gets older, Jai will have a lot more questions and possibly want to see his biological father again. But he is such a sweet kid. He's so smart, so social, so sensitive, so loving. He's also a bit stubborn and messy and forgetful like his Mumma, but I love him with every ounce of my being!!

Happy Birthday sweetie!!

Pirate party review and pics to come, but for now I have to go and make some ganache icing for my special boy's birthday cake for tonight!

A full-on weekend!

Hey hey, I'm trying to keep on top of updating here or else none of this will ever make it on here. I have so much to do, so many things to go to in November that I'll have too much to update if I don't do it now!!

This last week and weekend have been FULL-ON!! Had quite a social weekend really. My sister came over to babysit Friday night for me so I could go to an Engagement party, but I ended up being so tired that I didn't want to drive into the city on my own (Greg works weeknights), so I didn't go. Sorry again Hails!! Was nice to have a bit of a chat with my sis though, as we usually only see each other at family lunches these days.

Friday saw me tired as I spent most of the day making cupcakes! lol... I made 2 double-batches, which gave me about 65 cupcakes in total!! Thanks to a yummy recipe and thread from the Nappycino forums I just had to try! So Friday night after my sister left, I iced about 30 cupcakes... now I've never done piped icing before and it took me a bit to get the hang of it, but by my second lot of icing on Sunday morning, I think I had it pretty good. I took 24 along to the SOF Charity Crop on Saturday, about 20 along to my sisters baby shower on Sunday, and well the other, however-many got polished off pretty easily around here. I iced half in pink with little lolly butterflies sprinkled over the top, and the other half blue with stars sprinkled over - as my sister doesn't know the sex of her baby, I though I'd better do both colours! I was pretty happy with how they turned out actually - and they taste DIVINE!! Good recipe!

And Eli thought so too! Yummy!!

Saturday I went along to the Scrap of Faith Charity Crop at Caboolture. What a fantastic day and just what I needed!! I get a little stressed with two bubbas at home sometimes, so a day out with friends was just what the doctor ordered as the saying goes. Was great to catch up with my girls again - Sal, Amy, Chrissy, Rozzie (been too long) Karen, Sarah and Kat... and great to meet some more IRL finally - Gennie, Donna, Ange & Katie... and even make some new friends - Leanne, Sarah and Naomi. I did absolutely NOTHING scrap-wise, which I know is terribly pathetic for 12 hours!! But I'm sure I made up for it in chatting! Lol, and I had to mother Lani too... but its ok. Sure, I would have *liked* to have done something - even if just to prove to myself that I can actually crop at a crop - but oh well, I can scrap at home, its catching up with these beautiful girls that is the important part!

One of the best things about the day was that we raised over $800 for the organisation Mercy Ministries, who have a residential program for girls in crisis. I was so blessed to hear about this ministry and I really pray that I can sow into this ministry in the coming months (Sal and I hope to be able to do some scrapbooking with the girls one weekend - or more regularly even).

Here's some piccies - unfortunately, I didn't really get a lot.... but the wonderful Karen is going to put everyone's pics together on a CD and post them all out to us, yay!

All the SOF girls - (back L-R) Ange & Lucas, Katie, me (Lani was asleep!), Katrina, Karen, Rozzie, Sal... (front L-R) Amy, Chrissy, Gennie, Donna (and Benjamin).

The beautiful Gennie and I.. LOVED meeting you girl!

Rozzie 'busy' scrapping...
On Sunday, I skipped church to ice another batch (which I froze to keep fresh) of yummy cupcakes to take to my sister Alissa's baby shower - half pink and half blue. We then headed over to my parent's house for a lovely 'Baby Shower BBQ' with Liss & Drew's friends... played fun baby games, opened lots of baby gifts and ate lots of yummy food. I made her a gift-set of 2 fitted cloth nappies and a fleece cover - and I hope to make her a lot more in the coming weeks/months. It was soooo cute making the teeny weeny newborn nappies, makes Lani's nappies look huge!! These ones were 'gender-neutral' - but I'll be sure to make some more pink or blue after she has bubby!And here's just some other pics to share:
Me and my beautiful Mumsy -

Lani in her beautiful party dress that Donna gave us on Saturday... she looked soooo cute in this thanks Donna - and everyone else thought so too...

Me and my gorgeous girl!!

And this one cracked me up!! I came out to the lounge and here she was with her headband over here eyes... but coz its lace, she can see through it, so she was still happy playing! I think I almost wet my pants laughing so much! How funny and how cuuuuuuute is she!!!!

Well, somehow it got to be 11pm already!! I better get to bed! Night :)

Busy Beaver....

Whoah!! My life is a crazy blur of creativity and projects at the moment. And they aren't really even Christmas related!! I've been sewing up a storm lately, loving making the MCNs but really I need more time!!

On Sunday we went to the baptism of my friend Bec's gorgeous twins, Evie May and Jett Christian. Bec is also another MCN lover so I thought I would try my hand at applique to make the twins a special nappy cover each. They took a while (especially as I'm such a newbie to it all) but it was fun and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out - and Bec LOVED them.

Now, I'll just have to have a go at making some for my little Miss. Thinking hearts... and flowers... and a Christmas tree .. hmmm or an angel... for Christmas!! Yay!!

Here's what the twins covers look like (and I couldn't resist Lani modelling them coz the cute effect is definitely better with a bum to fill them out):

I've also been busy organising Jaidyn's 7th birthday party which we will have on the 17th. We're having a Pirate Party - Aaarrrgh!! Lots of fun, I can't wait!! Yes, lots of work too (and I'll probably kick myself later) but I couldn't resist! Jai love pirates and I know they'll just have the best time!! Here's the ultra authentic invitations I made the other night (and my thumb is finally feeling better after being a tad sore from lighting a lighter for 30 mins straight!):

The invitation reads:

Ahoy Matey!
Stop yer pillaging: lend me yer ear,
I have a message fer ye to hear!
The Treasure's been stolen,
it must be found,
So tighten ye sashes
Buccaneer Bay bound!
Shiver me timbers,
thar's a pirate on board,
Drinkin shark's blood
and flailin his sword!
I'm Captain Jaidyn,
and will lead the way,
On Saturday, November 17th,
I turn 7 that day!
Chart ye course fer
(address).
We be settin sail at 2pm
fer some swashbucklin fun, grub and kiddie spirits.
Wave yer flag if ye be attending
or hav yer Mum send message by yer phone
to deck hand Natalie at (ph number).
Sees ye there.
Aarrgh!!!

P.S. All pirates need come with yer swashbucklin pirate names

and dressed in yer best attire, or yel walk the plank!

Cute huh! (no, I didn't make it up - the Internet is a wealth of information!)

I've got some fun pirate games planned, have roped my Mum into doing a pirate ship cake (yes!) and lots of loot to find in a treasure hunt of course!! Just to source some more pirate stuff, and costumes for Greg and myself!!

And... darn it, I was going to write lots more, but both of the baby's have just woken - they were supposed to BOTH sleep longer, ggrrrr.... so I gotta get back to that whole Mum thing... oh a little more time in the day would be a good thing!!

Lotsa love to you all, and thanks for stopping by :)