Alice in Wonderland birthday party

This week is a busy week of birthdays in my house as today is my big day (I am half way to 70) and 6 days ago was my daughters birthday. It has been a long time since I have had a proper party so I thought I would post the highlights from the Alice in Wonderland party that she had at the weekend.

Kyra was 12 last week and she always likes to have a party to celebrate her birthday, she actually starts planning the next party within weeks of the last one finishing! I loved the idea of having a tea party with sandwiches and cakes on stands and little teacups so we thought we would make it a bit like a mad hatters tea party.

I used Amazon to find lots of little props for the party, I especially love the tiny milk bottles that we filled with milkshake and the plastic jars full of sweets (not sure if the mad hatter had pick'n'mix but we wanted it anyway!) complete with paper bags and weighing scales.

We didn't have as many decorations as I wanted but we did cover the table with playing cards and cups and saucers. The inflatable flamingos were meant to go in the garden along with the game of croquet, only it was pouring with rain! The girls were not worried though as they were busy gossipping, some of Kyra's friends are from primary school and she hasn't actually seen them for 6 months so it was lovely for them to be able to catch up.

The party bags matched the sweet bags but as they were quite plain we put out a craft table for the girls to decorate their own bag before filling it. This didn't actually happen as they were too busy taking part in a talent contest and all I could hear coming from the kitchen were the lyrics to 'Do you want to build a snowman?' Yes, I should of known it would turn into a Frozen party eventually!

Kyra really loved the day and it was great to see so many of the girls dressing up as characters from Alice in wonderland.
 I hope she doesn't have anything too extravagant planned for next year as I also have a sweet 16th and a big 18th to contend with!!

Blog Birthday Bodyshop Bonanza

There's nothing like a bit of alliteration to get us all excited...okay that would just be me then! But hopefully what will get you excited is the chance to win this bunch of Body shop goodies...

Last week I celebrated my first year as a blogger... I would love to tell you how exciting and life changing its been but frankly, most of the time it just felt like I've been talking to myself on the computer! Dont get me wrong I have really enjoyed it, which is why I have carried on! And I have loved having chats with other #lbloggers #bbloggers #mbloggers and the rest of the alphabet bloggers on twitter and reading and joining in with some Linkys on other blogs.

I wanted to put this giveaway up earlier in the week but if you read my last post you would know that it was pretty full on already!

So here is what I am giving away..

• Indian night Jasmine shower gel
• Vitamin E gentle facial wash
• Cocoa butter body scrub
• Vitamin C energising face spritz
• Pink refining bath Lily
• Mango soap

So for your chance to win just enter via the rafflecopter below and be sure to check terms and conditions. This giveaway is open to UK residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Another sleepover?

You have children and they take over your life, it's all part of parenthood. Sleepless nights, dirty nappies, cold dinners after spending ages spoon feeding the baby. Then they get bigger, becoming more independent, able to make their own breakfast in the morning and bath themselves at night and lead you to believe you are finally going to get some 'me' time, that is until they make friends!

Don't get me wrong it's very important that your children do have friends, you wouldn't want them to be loners or outcasts and I'm very grateful that all my children have lovely social groups with parents that I'm able to get on with.

This weekend was like many, the daughter had 2 of her friends over for a sleepover and if it's not at my house they will arrange it at one of the other friends house. Both the mums of her friends work in the same school as me (which is the school they attend) and the girls plot with each other in the playground arranging to play after school or sleepover on the weekends and then they put us on the spot!
Now maybe if it was just 1 child it wouldn't be too bad but when there is 4 of them all plotting their social lives it means that I kinda don't have a social life of my own.

It's not just sleepovers but birthday parties! Now these can be even worse. I remember at one point there was a party like EVERY weekend and what type of bad parent would you be if you said 'no you can't go' and everybody else was. Now it's nice to have popular kids that get invited to parties but sometimes they are quite a distance away, sometimes they are fancy dress (which means going to buy a specific outfit for the occasion because I wouldn't know where to start to make one!) And it always means buying a gift. Being as organised as I am this means running around an hour before the party trying to find something appropriate.

Now I've just got to prepare myself to cope with what's coming next, when the children turn into young adults and want to attend house parties or clubs and drink alcohol with the opposite sex... hmmm maybe I don't really mind sleepovers after all!