Party Planning

Little Miss 4 is about to tick over another year and come out the other side as Little Miss 5!

Okay, so her birthday isn't until June! But I love birthdays and also love planning and organising so I have started planning her celebration now, in March. I know, I must be crazy talking to a 4 year old about their birthday when it isn't for 3 months!

For her 5th birthday she wants a Halloween themed party with her preschool friends. 

I have started the obligatory research and spreadsheet.

Since starting my planning and subsequent research, I have broken it down into decorations, games, food, supplies, and treat bags. 

Decorations

The decorations will of course be Halloween themed, so far we have planned on making friendly spiders, mummy candy holders and a witch out of a pumpkin. I also found stencils that we can use to make witches, cats, skeletons, and bats to hang around the place too.

Games

I asked Little Miss 4 what games she would like, of which the answer was pinata, pass the parcel, pin the nose on "something" and musical statues. The research begins! 

I have found a witch for the pinata and we will be pinning the nose on a pumpkin. 

For pass the parcel I have glow sticks, Halloween slide puzzles and bubbles - you simply can't go wrong with bubbles at this age.

I also found a game called Boo Bowling, which we will make out of kitchen towel rolls and a foam ball.

Food

At this stage the food will consist of spider cupcakes, candy filled witches hats, popcorn pops, pretzel wands and oreo bats. And of course fairy bread and fruit.

The cake, which each year is made by sis-in-law B, will be a witch.

Treat Bags

The treat bags will have bendy skeletons, monster finger puppets, Halloween erasers and bat rings. The lollies the kids collect from the pinata can be added to their treat bag!

Hopefully I will be able to pull this off!

Stay tuned to find out.

Do you do theme parties for your kids?

Makin' microwave playdough

Sick of the teeny tiny hard bits of playdough that always find themselves under the table and on the carpet, I decided it was time to make some new stuff.

However, I didn't want to be standing over a pot on the stove stirring - then I came across microwave playdough in "The New Useful Book".

Ingredients

3 cups plain flour
1/2 cup salt
3 tablespoons oil
6 teaspoons cream of tartar
3 cups water
colouring

Method

Mix all the ingredients in a microwave dish. Cover and microwave on high for about seven minutes, stirring half way through. Knead when cool.

And whalah new playdough! (until this lot goes hard and teeny tiny bits break off)

Do you make your own playdough?

Making our own ice-blocks...

Little Miss 4 and I recently made Raspberry and Yoghurt Ice blocks - it was great fun! She loves anything at all to do with making things,  cooking and arts and crafts.

We already had the ice block moulds - Tuppercare Lolli Tups, which are AU$25 from Tupperware. (My secret addiction is Tupperware.)



We mixed and matched two recipes for our ice blocks, one from Diabetic Living Magazine (Raspberry and Cherry iceblocks) and the other from the Tupperware website (Raspberry & Vanilla Yoghurt Icy Poles)....so our recipe ended up being....

• 250g raspberries (or 2 punnets) -we used frozen raspberries as they are a little cheaper 
• 24 extra raspberries (also frozen)
• 120ml vanilla yoghurt
• 1/3 cup (60g) CSR LoGiCane Low GI Soft Icing Mixture, sifted
• 1/2 cup (125ml) water

1. Place 4 raspberries into the base of each ice block mould, cover with yoghurt and place in the freezer to set. The setting takes approximately 2 hours. Note: The raspberries need a little push into the mould to get all the way to the end.	Placing the raspberries in the moulds
2. Meanwhile, place icing sugar, water, 250g raspberries into a food processor or mixer, and process to a very fine puree.	Creating the puree
3. When the yoghurt has set, pour raspberry puree over the top to finish. Note: We had some leftover raspberry mixture so made Raspberry Milkshakes.	Adding the raspberry mixture
4. Insert the sticks (or in our case the the lids with sticks), and freeze for 3-4 hours.	Ready for the freezer

What is your favourite ice block recipe?

Rainy Days...

Rainy days for our preschooler, Little Miss 4, stuck inside with a newborn baby brother are HARD times! Not too mention for Hubby and myself.

Poor Little Miss 4 is bored to tears and trying to occupy her time when I have to feed, settle, feed, settle Little Mr 0 is tough.

But we have come up with some solutions....

• Bake a cake - we did cheat and use a packet mix (thank you Mrs Crocker) where all you add is some vegetable oil, water and eggs because you never know when Little Mr 0 is going to wake up.

• Dress up - so far she has been a witch and a hoola girl.


• Face painting - sticking with the witch theme....we use Snazaroo face paints and they are excellent. They come with guides which is very helpful for non-artistic types like myself.





• Painting finger nails and toe nails.





• Play games on the tablet/laptop - currently we are playing noughts & crosses, building a reef for Nemo, and a find the object type game (similar to finding Where's Wally).


• Watch a movie - we watch Annie or Mary Poppins for the millionth time.

Do you have any ideas for rainy days with a preschooler and a newborn?

The end of year preschool concert

Even though Little Miss 4 isn't graduating from preschool to big school until the end of next year, because she is in the "preschool room" she participated in the end of year concert.

We, Hubby and I, were so proud of her.

The kids sang several songs; Bubbles everywhere, You can stamp your feet, Dinosaur stomp (with costumes), If all the world were paper (with props), Rock-a-bye your bear, Moon Moon, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (with backing triangles and glitter stars), and the Wombat Womble (participation was mandatory from all in attendance).

The preschool graduates dressed in their cap and gowns and received their graduation certificates. Little Miss 4 sat in the audience with us happily clapping her friends as they were introduced.

When it ended, we headed to her favourite local restaurant for her favourite meal.

Does your preschool have a graduation?

A day out to the house

A trip to the city is always enjoyable. There is lots to see and do for kids of any age.

Today we went to  Circular Quay to the Opera House to see Charlie and Lola's Extremely New Play, which is part of Kids at the house. 

The main things that Little Miss 4 enjoys when visiting Circular Quay are watching the ferries come and go in the harbour and making up stories about the Opera House and Harbour Bridge (which are seriously funny). 

The actual play was fabulous! There were five puppeteers working Charlie, Lola, Marv, Lotta, and Sizzles. It was very well choreographed with people, puppets and props. I would definitely recommend taking your preschooler to see it if you have the chance.

Whenever Little Miss 4 and I attend something like this I let her pick one piece of the merchandise to buy so she can remember the day. This time she picked a story book, My first ever and best story collection, which has five Charlie and Lola stories.

The Kids at the house program runs throughout the year mainly coinciding with the school holidays. For more information, go to http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/About/Program_Kids_At_The_House.aspx

Have you ever been to Kids at the house?

Kid's Christmas Party

Yesterday was Little Miss 4's daycare Christmas Party.

Each year the parents on the social committee (there are four of us) get together the month before Christmas to start organising. We split up the list of tasks between us including invites/posters for the centre, food/supply shopping, activity organisation, activity cards, kids decorations and lolly bags.

Then the big day arrives.....

This year we held it in a community centre, previous years were in a local park. The community centre was a big hit - the kids were contained (always important when there are so many of them), the air con was ON and there were plenty of tables and chairs for lunch and for parents to meet and chat.

Each year we give the kids an activity card. Once they complete each activity they receive a stamp. At the end of the party they hand in their card to receive a little lolly bag.

The first activity is to "Paint your face with your mum, dad or carer". We set up one of the tables with lots of different face paints, brushes, glitters, water, and sponges.

The kids always love this one, there are lots of giggles if dad is the one face painting too!

The next activity is to "Find your Christmas decorations to take home". Each year the kids make a decoration at daycare. We collect them the week before the party and on party day hang them in various locations for the kids to find.

Little Miss 4 now has five of these decorations from daycare that she hangs in the Christmas tree every year.

The next activity is to "Have lunch and put your plate in the rubbish bin". Each year we have a BBQ - sausage on a roll lunch. The dads love to get involved with the cooking of the BBQ each year.

We also provide fruit for dessert. Each member on the social committee brings a particular fruit already cut up - this year I had to bring watermelon.

The next activity is to "Participate in one of the activities". This year we had space hoppers and balloons, which proved extremely popular with the kids, who spent a lot of time jumping trying to catch them.

The final activity is to "Get your present from Santa". One of the dads kindly dresses up as Santa each year and the kids LOVE IT! The daycare centre provides the gifts to the kids that attend the centre.

This year Little Miss 4 received a painted pencil case with a notepad, multicoloured pencil, elephant pencil sharper and multicoloured pen. She was totally thrilled.

All of sudden it is all over for another year and the kids are exhausted.

Do you have Christmas parties with your kids?