The Party Plug

I've had so much feedback from Charlie's party and it has all been wonderful. I'm so glad I have an outlet such as this to have shown you what we did to celebrate or it possibly would've just been enjoyed by us and that's it.  Thank you for all your kind words, I'm glad you all enjoyed it too.

I have been asked by several people where I got everything from and so I felt a post to give you the link would be the best way to show you.

Now I love Etsy. As in, I open the app on my iPhone at least... oh... maybe eight to nine times a day just to see what is new. Yep. After Facebook and Pinterest it is my next favourite thing.

Anywho.

Kelly's Cottage Shoppe on Etsy

That's it right there.

She has heaps of awesome themes etc. and the best part is they are all downloadable. Downside is that you need to have a fairly decent printer to actually make them look as good as the pictures are, and you have to be VERY willing to do plenty of cutting out (yep, if I wasn't on maternity leave I wouldn't have even bothered).

Watching it all come together actually got me thinking about the very possibility of me starting my own party-decor type... Would I say business? No. Probably more along the lines of hobby.

I love hand-made party stuff much more than the commercial bits and bobs.  The only thing about hand-made is that it takes ages to do it yourself and most of us just don't have the time/energy for it (usually because of those little people in our lives we want to have a party for). Or to achieve that hand-made look we pay WAY TOO MUCH for it to be made by somebody else.

Watch this space, I'm having a play with a few ideas - trying to work out if it is even something that could be a possible option for me to take up. Hand-made kids party decor at a price us normal mums/dads/carers can afford... That would be nice.

I've got my chocolate milk, electric blanket on and a new episode of Switched at Birth ready to go. I think it will be a lovely late night.

The Fireman Party

Well today was the day! We had a frantic start to the morning with one swimming lesson, a chase for a new TV around town (stupid decision to try and do that before the guests arrived I know), two cranky boys desperate for a sleep in the car and me who actually kind of wanted to get back into bed and have a nap myself...

Ahem. Anyway...

Parents, Parents-in-law, Sister + Boyfriend, Sister-in-law, Grandparents and Grandparents-in-law all started to arrive, we were still rushing around sorting out the decor and finally all of a sudden, the hard work from the week paid off to look something like this...

(Click on any of the pictures to see them better)

Now you may look at it and go 'meh' but I'm actually very proud of how it all came together in the end.  Balloons are particularly special because I was seconds away from getting a parking ticket whilst racing in to get them! We live our lives on the wild-side that's for sure.

We have Fire Hoses, Smouldering M&Ms and Fire Station Poles on the left and Firewood and Rocky Rubble on the right. Over the coming days I'm going to share the recipes for my Firewood and Rocky Rubble, in true 'me' style, they are ridiculously easy and taste so very, very good.

Here we have Toasty Marshmallows and Smokin' Popcorn on the left and Fiery Jelly on the right. The marshmallows were an idea from Pinterest and the jelly was an idea from my mum. Instead of just having straight layers of raspberry, orange and mango flavours, each one was tilted whilst it was setting in the fridge to give it a 'flame-like' effect. And as a bonus, they were YUM!

Very proud of my cupcakes here. In particular the toppers my mum helped me make. They were done using her Cricut Cutter (scrapbooking gadget) and I layered them together to make them look like they do.

Over on the buffet we had the drinks station, although I don't have the 'Fireman Fizz' we had on offer in the picture, it tasted sooo good (pretty much was just sparkling mineral water) and the Party Boxes each of our guests got to fill with lollies, and goodies before they went home.

A big thank-you goes out to my mum, mum-in-law and nan-in-law for helping out making the savouries for the day.  Home-made Quiches and Sausage Rolls (and yummy cheeses and dips too but the photo turned out blurry. Whoops).

And here it is. The House-On-Fire Cake. I worked for HOURS on this yesterday. I'll post the photos of it as a work in progress in the next few days. I can't do them justice right now. All you need to know is that when you're paying $300 for someone to make you an awesome cake... they're not over-charging you.

The thing that excited me most was how much Charlie loved it, he wanted to touch it and pull the 'Sam' off of it and kept pointing to the candles and saying "Oh fire on the house!" So I feel that although it was lop-sided and some of the roof fell of at one point, I have succeeded in the parenting department because he loved it so much.

WINNING.

And here he is - Station Officer Charlie (Or as he calls himself "Charlie Bobbit Mitt-more") he is just a little bit cute. Oh and as you can see there is a Thomas which was one of his gifts. I can actually hear him bashing it on his bedroom wall as I type this, should I go in there and take it off him? Nah, it's his day and to be honest I can't be bothered. I'll just get Simon to repaint that wall another day.

And where there is a Station Officer you will always find a Deputy Station Officer. In this case we have Deputy Station Officer Henry. Oh Henny is just such a button. I'm already planning ideas for his birthday too. Look out Henny!

My darling Fireman Charlie ripped his presents apart in true toddler-like fashion. Not interested in the cards in any way, shape or form, I was also mortified to watch him throw each gift aside before pointing to the next wrapped delight after he had finished with it.  I can only reassure myself that he wasn't being a spoilt brat and it was actually the joy of ripping the paper off that caused him to do this.

If I believe this it'll help me sleep better at night thinking I don't have a crazy child... Oh wait he broke our TV this week didn't he? Maybe he is a bit nutty. Uh well, he's my crazy kid if that's the case and I do love him so.

So thanks to all our family that came today, we had a lovely time celebrating with you all and Charlie has no clue exactly how loved he is. I'll make sure he gets to see these photos one day so he knows.

I'm so exhausted. I actually want to go to sleep but I have to wait for Charlie to crash-out first. This could be a long night of a sugar-rush battle of wills. Blerk. I think I'm going to be sick.