A Birthday with The Wiggles

Mini had a fab time opening his presents this morning.  This year is really the first year that he has understood what is happening and has been counting down his birthday since his cousins on May 31st!  He was almost too excited to get to sleep the night before!

The joy on his face for his presents was wonderful, we got him a scooter and an Uno game, but his best present so far has been his Star Wars the Clone Wars Clone Trooper Outfit from Gran.

Now the thing is my boy adores The Wiggles.  I have my mother in law to thank for it, as she was the one who introduced the boys to them and for some reason with Mini they really did just stick in his brain.

We took him to see the live last year and seen as they were live in York on his actually birthday this year, we really didn't have much of an option.

So this week we have made a bone for Wags the dog and also paper roses for Dorothy (a post on the roses to follow).  

We set off early Thursday morning and Mini and Maxi were very excited to see them. What can I say, they had a blast and because they had a blast, so did we.  We have Ernest staying with us at the moment and he enjoyed The Wiggles too.

Although I think that Ernest's Bad boy ways must be rubbing off on Mini, as he threw his drinks carton into the crowd, yes it was empty, but I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole.  I was mortified.  So if you were the mum of the little boy it hit - I am sorry and I hope the blackcurrant stains come out.

We then went to Pizza Express for a treat (thanks to Tesco Vouchers) and mini spent his birthday money on a wii game.

We also went to see one of MadDad's clients Shakeaholics and the boys had a wonderful Milkshake each.

Maxi chose a smarties one

Mini a fresh strawberry one.

It is such a cool shop, they can make a shake that tastes of anything, MadDad had a Reece's peanut cups one and it was just wonderful.

And yes, we did buy the boys a tour t shirt each!  York was such a wonderful day out.

Four

There are four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

There are four great elements, earth, water, wind and fire

A human heart has four chambers

The forth finger is also known as a ring finger

There are four basic states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.

There are four human bllod groups

Cancer is the 4th astrological sign of the Zodiac
Tetra the Greek word for 4

four is the only number with the same number of letters as its value  

common time is constructed of four beats

There are 4 movements in a symphony

Four rules: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.

Four parts of a day: night, morning, afternoon, evening.
Four cardinal directions: north, south, east, west.

Last night Mini went to bed as a three year old

Today he woke as a Four year old

I see much more of myself in you than in Maxi and I know that you are learning to control your temper and emotions and hope that it can continue to develop and you learn to harness the feelings inside.

Sometimes I am filled with the fear that you will always do things the hard way and wish you could learn from my experiences.

You couldn't be more loved.

You have developed my love of books and listening to you read is one of my favorite times of the day.

You are both a mummy's boy and a dads lad.  The perfect blend.
You are independent to a fault, but you love with out compare.

You make me swing with you and skip, hop and jump.

We watch the clouds and give them names.

We sign songs making up the words as we go along.

I am your kiss and cuddle express.

Who is Mini?

The baby of the family in years, but not in size

Larger than life, you fill a room with your deep laughter

A great force of energy

A body that has to succumb to his emotions

People adore mini, he has a way to endear himself to everyone

He is cheeky with a twinkle in his eyes

A boy with words from an early age

A ferocious reader

Affectionate to a fault with cuddles for all, but especially for me

He sings from his heart and has music in his soul

His imagination knows no bounds

A loyal brother

An observer

A wonderful son

Each day I am blessed to see you grow, develop and learn.  You will me with optimism and joy and have a way of making even the sternest person smile.  You have a gift of innocence.  I will hold you tight forever.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Party - Maxi's 5th Birthday

I am lucky, Maxi doesn't crave big expensive parties, he is happy with a few friends and family round and things to do and quality time with his fiends.  This makes me happy and I am more than happy to oblige whenever I can.

Last year this found me making, baking and decorating cakes one day after my discharge from hospital after my double mastectomy with my drains in.  So whatever we did this year it was bound to be easier!

Maxi asked for a Hungry Caterpillar Party, so I scoured the Internet for inspiration and I needn't have worried at all.  So with no further ado I give you Maxi's Birthday Party.

His Birthday Crown.  The idea is that I add an item each year to represent his birthday.

The cake, what can I say, maxi is chocolate cake obsessed so the head is a large  chocolate cake filled with chocolate butter cream icing and the cup cakes are both chocolate and vanilla with vanilla icing (all the spare ones are going to the school) 

Instead of little candles we loaded the cup cakes with sparklers and maxi had lots of fun blowing them out.

I drew images of all the food the hungry caterpillar liked to eat on the windows in the conservatory and let the children have lots of fun colouring in butterflies that I also drew.

Yes this is a butterfly doncha know!!

The children all made bookmarks, inspired by Ali at Domasticali.  They also coloured in images I downloaded from Eric Carles web site too.  I punched circles from green and red tissue paper and lots of gluing and sticking took place.

Lots of fun was had decorating cookies we had made in the shape of butterfly's too

Oh and of course there was food and lots of it, in fact we had everything the caterpillar ate except for the cherry pie (as I don't have a cherry stone remover)!

The children had a great time, we also had traditional party games, including pass the parcel, musical statues, musical chairs and sleeping lions.  I cooked a large ham roast and left most of the adults in the kitchen making their own sandwiches!

Getting Maxi - Part Three Coming Home

So the story continues....

We were allowed to bring Maxi home 3 days after I had given birth, my mum had gone back to North Yorkshire, so that we could spent some time on our own, just the three of us and the two cats.

So we popped Maxi in to his car seat and left, just like that.  No one came and checked if we were going to be suitable parents, if we knew how to look after him or any such thing.

The first thing we did was make a trip to Waitrose.  I was so sure I would breast feed that we didn't have any supplies, so we needed bottles, formula and a steriliser.  I was unable to breast feed due to the medication I had to take.  It was just so odd walking round the supermarket with the smallest baby, we were stopped all the time being asked about him.

We arrived home to a house filled with cards and flowers and also a nursery.  MadDad had managed to paint the nursery and put together all the furniture whilst I was in hospital.  We hadn't done anything as we were so sure that this pregnancy would end in tears like all the others.  We popped Maxi in to his pram by the window (as he had slight jaundice) and proceeded to spend the whole day just gazing at him with complete wonder.

MadDad had taken a couple of weeks as holiday and we kind of just pottered around, as I was recovering from my section and spent most of the time wondering how we managed to make something so beautiful.

7 days after Maxi was born I was feeding him and MadDad was getting his bottles ready when I sneezed and felt a little damp (TMI Alert - I thought I had wee'd myself), so I asked MadDad to come and finish feeding whilst I got changed. 

If only it had been a wee!  I had split my scar and had to be restitched after a 999 dash to the hospital.  Gosh this parenting lark was eventful.

I took things a lot easier after that, I guess that I was so ill during the pregnancy and I had stopped feeling sick and ill once I gave birth that I had been overdoing things.  We still look at Maxi and think "I made that" and stand in utter amazement at the complexities of a human and think "how it is all possible"?

I look at Maxi complete awe, he is no longer a baby, he turns 5 tomorrow and love him more now than the day he was born, I have been blessed with such a wonderful child and many people wonder how we would have go on to have Mini after such an experience with Maxi.  Well he turns four in June and in the lead up to his birthday, I will be posting a "Getting Mini" series, so you will have to wait for those answers.

But I would do it all again in a heartbeat, even now if it was physically possible.

Creative update and Nightmares in Children

Well with the laptop still not being well, I have been busy in the craft room.  MaxiMad's best friend is 5 tomorrow, so with money still being very tight, I have made some presents for him.

Firstly I made a birthday Crown.  The inspiration for this was taken from Amanda Soules Creative Family.  I now have two for the boys cut out.

I have also made him a pencil roll and popped some double ended pencils in it.

Finally inspired by Beki over at The rambling of an everyday mother, I have made him a monster, I even went to Argos and bought the same tea towels, although mine looks very different from "Moo".  I am hoping that helps S, as you see he has been having nightmares and waking thinking there is a monster behind his drawers.  So now he has his own monster to help out and scare the others away!

His mum also made some anti monster spray, basically a spray bottle filled with water and a drop of lavender oil and a homemade label.  She also got him a dream catcher to catch all those nasty dreams before they get into his head.  What wonderful ideas.

Oh and I almost forgot, I made my first tea cosy, it is so cold (I refuse to put the heating on during the day), that my tea in my little pot has been going cold too quick, so I have insulted it!!

Being the Birthday Girl

I have had a wonderful day with my family celebrating my 36th birthday

 

Homemade cards depicting me inside our home, fireworks and colourfulness.

I received a lovely bear from Muttingsfromthemoor from MadDad

Fantastic Cath Kidston Tea Towels

A perfect tiny white tree (I have wanted a white tree since we were married)

Wonderful bird decorations for it

Afternoon tea at Bettys and yes that is minimad tucking in to mince pies (his favorites)

MaxiMad enjoying mummys cup of tea

Walking back to the car through the museum gardens

How lucky am I to be able to visit my favorite place with my favorite people on my birthday.  I wasnt expecting anything as money is tight, but MadDad had been doing the overtime and saving.  A perfect day.

A homemade Girls Present - Bag and Purse with Beads

MaxiMad was off to a birthday party on Saturday and we only got the invite on Tuesday.  With me being in hospital I have not had the chance to go out and find anything suitable and I only have presents suitable for boys in our stash at the moment.

So I had a chat with Maxi Mad and we decided to make a small drawstring bag and a purse and fill it with lovely wooden beads and elastic for making bracelets and such.

We also stamped her name on with permanent fabric ink, for the personal touch.  He came in to the study and picked which fabric he liked for her and helped me stamp the name, so was involved in it all and here is the finished version.

I hope she likes it.  I am thinking of making the same for my nieces and the other girls we buy for at Christmas.