My first guest post!!!

A few months ago I was driving the Captain to a birthday party over in Killara.  Stopped at the lights I glanced at the car next to me and spotted a familiar face, a fellow blogger!  Will I?  Won't I? I was torn between saying hello and scared she would think I was a lunatic!  Gathering courage I wound down the window and called out "Carolyn?"  Yes, it was definitely her!  "I love your blog" I followed with!  Luckily, she laughed!  I don't think she thought I was a complete lunatic as soon after we met for a coffee and she even asked me to write a guest post!  Here it is over at Desire Empire!!!

Best Birthday Party Ever - The Busytown Birthday Party

We have all been super sick here at Pirate HQ.  Three visits to the GP, two at home visits from the after hours Doctor and one little Pirate with a fever so high he started hallucinating, kind of sick.  Possibly the real flu our GP thinks.  Nevertheless, by Thursday evening we were given the all clear and so decided to go ahead and have The Best Birthday Party Ever! 

Thursday and Friday were thus spent whipping up all sorts of brightly coloured party food.  Remarkably almost all of it was made with natural colours!

I couldn't bring myself to bake the ubiquitous rainbow cake though, he got a basic butter cake with 100s and 1000s on top instead!

Felt Lowly Worms from Scarry's  Best Make It Book Ever he did get though! He adored them and sat watching me make them fascinated by the process. (They are super easy if any one is scared of giving it a go!)

The cup cake toppers I made using a scrap booking hole punch thing from Spotlight, double sided sticky tape, toothpicks and a dog-eared, scribbled all over copy of an old Scarry Golden Book.

We set up a play Busytown using the Thomas train tracks turned over to the road side and various wooden cars and trucks.  Running down the centre of the table we had the fold out Busytown Lift the Flap Book.

Party games included the great Goldbug scavenger hunt.  I gathered all the kids together and showed them how in Cars and Trucks and Things that Go there is a Goldbug hidden on every page.  Then explained that they had to go and find all the Goldbugs hidden in the garden.  

There was also the great sack race.....

     
                                                                  ..... which did end in tears....

Happy Birthday Mr 4!

Parenting with the Berenstain Bears

Not sure about the rest of you but I own several parenting books, okay a lot of them.  I do have a few OCD/pefectionist type tendencies, (okay a lot of them as well) and so when it came to having children I went out and bought all the books.  You know, because I feel like I have to do it perfectly.  Then once Nicholas arrived I went and bought a whole bunch more, and then when he started getting night terrors at three I bought a whole bunch more again and so it goes on.  My most recent purchase is this book:

 Last night though, as I read the little one his bedtime story I had a bit of an "aha!" moment.  The book I was reading to him was sending me a message, forget Simplicity Parenting and The Over Scheduled Child.  No need to bother reading them.  I hereby introduce you all to:

Yes, parenting with the Berenstain Bears. 

In The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Pressure, Brother and Sister Bear have a hectic schedule with all sorts of extra-curricular activities.

Hmm... art class, check! Karate and Computer club, no but Science Club and Chess Club? Check!

Gymnastics and swimming, check!

No, ballet or horse riding classes (although The Captain has expressed interest in the latter as he knows Mummy is planning to take it back up), but we can also add:

 Tennis, Fencing and Music.

...and the Bear Family how do they cope with all this? Well Papa makes a big planner to hang on the wall:

KikkiK calendar in the kitchen, check!

Does it end in tears?

Check!

After a family meeting the Bear Family decide that two after school activities each are enough.  They each choose their two favourites.  They then go back to doing "the everyday things that most families do.  They worked and played, went to school, visited friends, enjoyed nature - and once in a while, they sat around doing absolutely nothing."  Fabulous advice for us all really!    

He's almost four... sob!

My littlest pirate is about to turn 4.  I kind of ignored him turning three, I really didn't want it to happen.  But four is hard to ignore, he is all talk about it and what he wants for his party.  He wants a Huckle and Lowly party.  He is obsessed with Richard Scarry books, not unlike his brother and Uncle at the same age.  

Invitations have been made and guests have been invited. Food and decorations I feel pretty confident about... but party games for 5 four year olds (and 5 six year olds) at a Richard Scarry Busytown Party leaves me quite perplexed.  A quick google search and I have come up with a "Find the Goldbug" game and not much else.  Anyone have any ideas of games that might work with this theme and this age group?  Have a lovely weekend all! 

Pantry organising....

I had an email from a lovely reader asking about our pantry and how I organise it!  Ah, if only you knew... I don't really.  R does most of the cooking Chez Pirate.  Yes, I have been blessed with a husband that is an amazing cook.  I know, very lucky.  Nevertheless, despite the fact that he is the cook, I am the chief shopper and cleaner, so I guess the pantry organisation does come down to me.  Pantry design though was all husband.

Anyway, for Kirsten (and anyone else that might be interested),  here is how the pantry is organised:

On the left hand side we put in floor to ceiling shelves.  It is hard to take a photo of them without a special lens but they are big and deep.  On the top shelves, which you can only access with the kitchen stool steps, I keep this sort of stuff:

I am sure you all understand why the paints et al are treated in the same manner as other dangerous good items like First Aid Kits and Chemicals.

Below the Dangerous Good items are mostly shelves full of dry goods and other miscellaneous kitchen items. The glad wrap, alfoil and plastic baggies live in an Ikea basket together.  

Shelves look mostly like this (a pretty shelf):

Or like this (not so pretty shelf):

On the other side of the pantry is my favourite bit, the appliance shelf , all the appliances used regularly are stored here:

In the drawers/cupboards below are:

R's coffee supplies.

Lunchbox bits and pieces.

More appliances!

So there you have it, that is how the pantry is organised and please don't think it always looks this.  I did a big tidy up before I took the photos!  Now, someone ask me about garage or wardrobe organisation or something to motivate me to tidy up elsewhere!  

The Joys of Boys - The Sequel

Parenting the Y chromosome...

They like mud...  a lot.

The little one will be very sad when the new garden beds are finished.  

I will not be.

Cardboard tubes provide hours of entertainment... (as do sand and mud).

You find surprise additions to the shopping list, (considering how well he reads his spelling is atrocious!)

They can entertain themselves anywhere.

(Me: "darling, what are you doing?

Boy: "I am spying on the people downstairs")

Got to love the excuse to be able to decorate with vintage cowboy prints though!

And... yes little pirate Prince, I forgive you for the mud! (Lucky you are as cute as you are though!).

The school dilemma

My little pirate is a June baby.  In terms of school enrolments this is not such a great date of birth.  In NSW children are supposed to start school if they turn 5, on or before the 31 of July of the year they would start school.  If everybody followed this guideline then Baby Pirate would be one of the youngest in his class but there would be no more than a years gap between the children.  However, what is more common is that children that turn 5 from January on are held back to start the following year, yes so already 6 or almost 6 when they start kindergarten.  

The Captain, born at the end of October is the third youngest in his class.... 

So the dilemma is if I send Baby Pirate to school next year he could be up to 18 months younger than some of the kids.  In his pre-school group there are kids that have already turned 5 in January/February.  He doesn't turn 4 till the end of the month.  Are you following?  I barely can make sense of all of this!  He is fine in Pre-School and academically he is so far ahead of some of these kids that I know he would be more than fine at School.  Physically however, these kids are huge compared to him and they are probably more emotionally confident.

When I have discussed with friends and family the situation we are in almost universally people have said, "send him next year."  I have decided not to though and not because of noble thoughts about an extra year at home of play based learning or because I don't think he would cope or because I have read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.   In fact I know he would be totally fine and would settle very happily into school next year, but I am holding him back (and yes I really feel like I am holding him back) because I think that it is absurd that he will be in a class room with kids up to 18 months older than him.  In primary school this won't be such a big deal but when it comes to high school it will be and so another year of Pre-school it must be little Pirate!  Anyone else out there with thoughts on this?