Yes okay it was a few days ago... my excuse was Internet kept crashing!! Well what a day - well actually more like two weeks... Basically spent the whole two weeks of the school holidays preparing for the day!! Cleaning up & out the games room, making decorations for the verandah, buying all the goodies for the day, making up goodies bags from scratch, cooking food, organising helpers, cleaning up the backyard.... all for 4 hours of fun... And it was with altogether 45 bodies (well I think... I haven't done an official head count but man there was a lot of voices & bodies everywhere - do know that 25 kids came so with our 4 & the 4 teens who turned up - long story - approx 33 kids) Then you add on the 11 or 12 adults in attendance (actually thinking about it there was 15 adults all up at feeding time at the zoo) gosh no wonder I was frazzled and had a major headache by the end of the day... That's not 45 that's 48!!
Max got home really late Friday night after being sent back for a 5th trip on Thursday night so was a very early start Saturday to wash the truck & be out of the house to do his jobs on the list by 9am. Twins got up about 7.30am so did the big open present thing and they loved their new bikes & helmets (tho I did trick them into thinking they were getting two from Kmart that we'd looked at after these two from Target)... First thing they opened tho was their cards from Nanni in Donnybrook... were rapt in the money they got & started making plans on what they were spending it on (put a stop to it tho by saying it was going in the bank - well half of it!!) Finished unwrapping the rest of their stuff and had a quick ride on their bikes, then off to prepare for 11am when everyone was meant to be arriving.
I threw myself through the shower while I had some cake mix on to make 3 dozen mini patty cake things. While they were cooking did my hair and face and got the kids onto fairy bread, etc. Max finished the truck and moved it into the driveway, threw himself in the shower and took off to pick up the meat, etc I had ordered from the butchers & do a couple of other things for his work week. Got back just as I finished off the dip & potato salad I was making so I took off with Josh to pick up the bread & rolls for the bbq. Girl had forgotten what time I was coming in so I had to wait for her to count out the 40 bread rolls we ordered then we jumped back in the car to arrive back home at 10.30am so I could get changed out of my grots into some nice clothes (was warming up so had to re-think what I wanted to wear!!)....While I was gone the bouncy castle people arrived so they were just setting up when I got back, so made for an interesting manouvere into the carport... Michelle arrived just in the nick of time so greeted her at the door with a bread knife and she was onto roll cutting duty. Nanna & Grandad arrived just after so Nanna was given the job of running up and down the damn stairs ferrying food out to the table while I finished off cutting up the onions for the bbq & organising Max with oil/paper towels, tongs, knife, trays, etc.
Michelle and Nanna got all the food into the downstairs oven and the saveloy's on the boil & not a moment too soon as the kids started arriving and instantly wanted food.... I have never seen so much disappear so quickly!! Sausage rolls, saveloy's, rice crackle things, patty cakes, chips, dip with vegie crudites (sp?) & 16ltrs of fruit punch... Then at about 12ish they hoed into the sausages in buns (handled wonderfully by Rhyll & Ronelle who directed traffic so well after I alerted the darlings by whistling to them all - always knew living on the hill on Frenchman Bay Road and learning to whistle with my fingers in my mouth to get my siblings attention when they were at the front of the block, would come in handy eventually - 30yrs down the track it has!!)... Lined up down the backyard and we had the production line thing happening!! Let them play for about another 40mins while I collapsed in a chair with Ronelle & Michelle, then I ran upstairs for the ice cream cakes & candles.... Lined them all up around the table and did the Happy Birthday thing, trying to light candles and take photo's at the same time (not happening so hoping Michelle got some decent ones), served it all up in our funky coloured plates with neon green spoons, then back to playing again til parents arrived 15mins later.... someone discovered we had water balloons so had a line of kids at the tap filling them up and then running up onto the deck to bomb an unsuspecting victim below. I do hope they all had a ball coz at the end of the day I was knackered but I couldn't have done it without all the other mum's help - worst bit was we didn't even have time to stop and have a coffee at the end of the day!! All the goodies bags went bar one which was in my room for an absentee child but that has disappeared from my table & I'm pretty sure I found the empty bag in a bedroom but I am not going to accuse anyone at this stage as I am just over yelling at them all the time...
So that was our big day - lots of presents & money, lots of kids & fun, bouncy castle was a huge hit and they all had a ball.
Oh... kids had their bi-monthly hair cut the day before and my lovely hairdresser gave Meleiha a present - having the apprentice straighten her hair for the party... In her beautiful dress, new shoes and her sparkly crown she looked like a princess.. I always worry about her haircuts with her curly hair but having it straightened made me realise what a brilliant job Pam does on her hair - it looked fantastic!! And of course she spiked up Tyler's hair but he didn't want to do the fancy dress thing like all the other kids so just had jeans & t-shirt on (boring!!)
Big day, big two weeks!!
No comments:
Post a Comment