Jo's baby shower

This afternoon I threw a baby shower for my friend and business partner Jo (who is due in a week or so). She knew it was happening but didnt know who was coming. It was a beautiful day, infact in the morning I was worried it was going to be too hot as unfortunately at the moment we dont have an umbrella in the garden but it turned out just fine, warm with cloud cover and the sun poking through occassionally.

I used our vintage china from http://www.teacupsandtiaras.co.uk/ to decorate the table and we had a cream tea lunch with a selection of sandwichs and home made scones also home made cup cakes (althought slightly cheated with the decoratiosn as they were supplied by the lovely http://www.cupcakestogo.co.uk/).

It was a lovely chilled afternoon catching up with friends!

Tuesday 29th June - Daisy meets her teacher

It was an exciting day at school for Daisy as she met her teacher, Mr Tiltman. He will be her new teacher when she moves up to Year 2 in September. Apprantly he is very interesting and has lived in lots of places she has been too, they decided today that their class is going to be called 'Monkey's'.

A big THANK YOU to Nanny Maureen for coming over this afternoon, unfortunately I had a migraine which knocked me off my feet and the only way to cope was to get some sleep so Nanny Maureen came over to watch the little people whilst I slept. I woke up when Tim came in and Sam popped up to see me and asked if I was feeling better, when I replied 'yes' he said 'well you can get out of bed now then' such a man's response even at this age!!!

We have recently moved Daisy into Sam's room and a bookcase from the hall into our bedroom and made an office space in the hall but gees the amount of time and resources this takes... we have way too much stuff. I keep trying to get on top of sorting the house out but something always gets in the way at the moment, like organising Daisy's school fair on Saturday (which I forgot to post about), I have attached a pic of her doing a dance at the fair. Feeling poorly today, it goes on and on. Tomorrow I am throwing a little baby shower lunch for my friend and business partner so another day gone. One day I will have a tidy and organised house again!!

England 1 - Germany 4 : 2010 World Cup

It was a busy schedule today, after a little bit of relaxing at home we drove up to Susie's (Tim's twin sister) for lunch in the garden. After lunch it was a quick transformation into England fans as England were playing Germany at 3pm in the 2010 world cup. Daisy has St George's cross on her cheeks but Sam wont let you paint his face unless he can be a train driver, so we did him as a train driver with a St George's hat.

Uncle David was throwing his usual world cup party so we left at 2pm and arrived just in time for kick off. It was a packed house and whilst Tim grabbed a seat for the action I chilled out with Sam in the garden, well I wouldnt say chilled as it was so blinking hot.

Unfortunately England didnt perform well and after the disallowed goal the game went down here from there really!

The little people had a great time, Daisy followed her nieces and friends around all afternoon as they are big girls! Sam was just dashing in and out and on and off the tramplin. After a lovely cream tea we left and made our way back to Hove.

Teeth

She has lost the middle bottom two and the bigs ones have grown already, she has lost her middle top two and the right one has started to grow, she now has a wobbly one top left and one bottom right - they are coming out thick and fast!

I was explaining to Sam that if he eats too much chocolate then his teeth would fall out! His reply: 'Cool and then I will look like Daisy with no teeth in the middle' - not quite what I meant!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and we have lift off...

Fiona Parker and Jo Theobold are proud and excited to launch their new business:

http://www.teacupsandtiaras.co.uk/

Happy Father's Day...

to the best Daddy ever.

Changes

It has been a busy week in the Parker household, today we had a student arrive for a few weeks. She is staying in Daisy's room and Daisy has moved into Samuel's room as he has bunk beds. I thought the merging of two rooms into one would take a few hours but boy do those little people have alot of stuff, it has taken a few days and a few bin bags to the charity shop, a bag to sell and on ebay and two bags to friends children.

We have had students when Daisy was small but it is the first time we have had them with both Sam and Daisy and it is the first time they have shared a room, thankfully it is working out ok at the moment.

I have been desperate for an office space in the house, that is just mine! I am fed up of being moved off the dining table or the sofa with my lap top and papers so I have devised a plan... watch this space.

Partied out!

Wowza what a day... today was Ed and Flo's Super Hero party and as Jo (their mum) and I are collecting photos of our parties for our new business www.teacupsandtiaras.co.uk it has been a busy time for us putting various parties together.

Daisy and Sam had a fantastic time doing lots of Super Hero games and wearing their personalised capes. We left the party at 4pm and made our way down to Petersfield to my brother Carl's house as him and Gill were throwing a garden party to celebrate their 25th Wedding anniversary. All the family were there and there were lots of laughs looking through the wedding album not about Carl and Gill but myself as the lovely bridesmaid and how fashion forward I was! Not! A photo taken the day after the wedding of me sitting in the garden with ankle socks and black court shoes , wearing a t-shirt that said 'Hi I'm Fiona' - mum how could you do that to me?

Anyway even with the fashion faux it was a great day going to parties and seeing lots of friends and family.

The little lady's 6th birthday celebrations. Part two - with her family

We went from little lady party mode to family BBQ party mode. After all of Daisy's guests had left it was a bit of a clean and prepping of the BBQ food. Uncle Murphy and Andy arrived along with Kelly and her new fella Gary and a lovely visit from Jay and Kelly. It was a pretty relaxed afternoon with lots of eating and drinking.


Daisy was desperate to play a chocolate game at her party but unfortunately we ran out of time so played it with some of the adults (photos below).


We had present opening time, unfortunately we only got half way as Samuel was being a monkey and wanted to open presents and was just ruining it even though we gave him one to open. His behavouior hasnt been great the past three days which is such a shame as he is normally such a chilled out (if not enegetic fella).


Before everyone left they had their pic taken in the frame, great pics although Kelly and Jay do look naked in theirs!


Daisy had a fantastic day and her favourite part was dancing, blowing out her candles, sweet buffet and games.

The little lady's 6th birthday celebrations. Part one - her friends

Today we are celebrating Daisy's 6th birthday as we were away on holiday for her birthday. Eight of her friends arrived at 11am and the fun started.

We had set up lots of areas in the garden so when they arrived they had their photo taken with Daisy in the photo booth before decorating a frame. It was then on to bracelet making with Aunty Jo and nail painting by Cala. The sun had finally come out so the girls stopped for a drink before we played some old fashioned games, what is a party without 'pin the bow on... so as it was a pink hello kitty theme we had 'Pin the bow on Kitty', Aunty Angela needed help to judge as it was so close and it was decided that Flo had won.

We then played Pass the Parcel and after much excitement Libby G won. It was then straight into Bingo, it was the first time alot of the girls had played this game but within minutes they were shouting Bingo for a line of 4 pink items. I had made the bingo cards but unfortunately didnt managed to get a photo!

Musical statues was the next game, there was two prizes up for grabs 'Best overall dancer' and 'Winner', Grandad judged it and when the music played the girls danced and boy did we see some moves and then when the music stopped they had to stand very still like a Hello Kitty Cat! Those that moved were out, it was such a close call Grandad declared the birthday girl and Katy the winner.

The little ladies were then ready for some lunch so it was a conga into the lounge for party tea. Although the decor was pink it was low key, I made half tissue pom poms for name places which looked cool which were set on bright pink squared plates which were laid on a pale pink table cloth, the chairs were coverd in white linen and we had a centre piece of one very very very large pale pink balloon. I had also set up a sweet buffet with items that Daisy had picked.

After tea, they all stood very nicely and queued for the sweet buffet and filled their bags, they then enjoyed chilling out and eating their sweets. It was so nice to see them altogether. Whilst they were doing this Angela and Rachel were doing a fab job of printing out the photo booth photos and putting them in the frames they had decorated. These were then included in their Hello Kitty favour bags.

Daisy said it was the best party ever, lots of her friends said it was the best party they had been too and the mums were saying how great it all looked - so very pleased that I had pulled it off! I had hoped to have done some more decor but ran out of time!! Where does that time go?

I cannot take all the credit, some thank you's are due:

1. To my biz partner Jo for designing the invites and name place cards, taking photos and helping to tidy up
2. To our lovely Cala Wala Woo Woo for helping to entertain the girls with nail painting and just generally helping
3. To my great sister and Daisy's Aunty Jo for teaching the girls to make bracelets and entertaining them throughout!
4. To my best friend Angela for doing anything and everything to help run the party smoothly
5. To Rachel for helping to work out the photo printer and use of her camera to take the pics!

After Daisy's guests had left, it was time for a family BBQ.

Snow White turns in to an England Fan

This morning Daisy and I chilled watching tv in bed whilst the boys went to Grandad and Nanny's for breakfast. Daisy and I ran some errands for her party tomorrow. Sam was having such a great time with Grandad he stayed there until mid afternoon and came home on the train from Seaford on the train which he loved! Daisy went to her best friends party, Jelena -Daisy was desperate to wear her dress up heels so went as Snow White.

Whilst she was at the party Tim and I hung out at home and did party prep and then we all watched England draw 1 all against the USA in the 2010 World Cup. Daisy and Sam were wearing their England shirts, unfortunately Sam got sent to bed at half time for making too much noise as after Tim had explained about the football to him, everytime somebody in a white shirt touched the ball he ran around shouting which was alot!

Party planning

Daisy's 6th Birthday party is on Sunday morning. She is having ten friends at home for a 'Pink Hello Kitty' Party. As I am in the process of setting up a Children's Party Company that stays away from the commercial decorations I have had to be a bit creative with the Hello Kitty theme, the party is mainly a pink theme with elements of Hello Kitty.

First was the invitations, my business partyner Jo designed the invites and I did the envelopes. I stuck little glitter circles in the middle of Kitty's hair bow to add the sparkly touch.














Next up was the party bags, I didnt want to buy plastic ones so I decided to make my own, once I figured out what I was doing they were pretty simple to make.










1. I drew a Hello Kitty head shape free hand on card, I also did the same with the bow.
2. I then cut out the shapes in felt (white for the head, pink for the bow)
3. I cut the whiskers, nose and eyes free hand
4. I stuck the face to the bag along with the bow, eyes, whiskers and nose with fabric glue
5. Jo then designed a personalised label and I tied it to the bag with ribbon
6. A custom Hello Kitty Bag

This was my first attempt and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

Nothing exciting to report this week after our holiday. Daisy went back to school, Sam to playgroup, Daddy to work and Mummy to housework, washing, setting up new business, etc!!

Sam did go to Bluebell railway with Nanny and Grandad and had a fantastic time, he was so pleased to see his beloved Grandad and steam trains.

Daisy was pleased to be back at school with her friends and had her class photo taken.

Favourites

We are back home after a great holiday. Our favourite parts were:


Samuel: Going on the train, EuroDisney, Disney steam train, ice cream and posh hotel


Daisy: Swimming, Dancing, EuroDisney, lunch in Cafe Le Marley Paris and lunch in Cafe Mickey


Daddy: Being with the little people, Paris and hotel in Paris and the Cart we hired to ride round the camp site


Mummy: swimming, 5* accommodation in Paris, lunch in Cafe Le Marley and lunch in Cafe Mickey

Last day of our hols

This morning I woke up another year older and my Daisy pops had drawnme lots of lovely pictures and arranged things so it was nice for when I woke up. The little people served me breakfast in bed - cup of tea and chocolate spread on toast (holiday treat) with verses of Happy Birthday to you.

We had to check out of our hotel by midday day so we chilled for a bit and then packed up all our stuff. I headed to the store to pick up supplys for our journey home and found a local bakery which was beautiful, it was so popular the que was round the corner but I stopped buy and picked up some delicious bread and cakes. Daddy had mean while taken the little people for a swim in both the out door and in door pool. I did have some nice pics but unfortunately deleted them by accident in the panic that our camera was full when we were in Cafe Mickey.

We left the hotel just after midday and headed down to Disney Village where we had lunch in Cafe Mickey witht he characters. It was a fantastic way to end a lovely holiday, we had good food and the little people got to spend time with the characters without queing and other people pushing you out of the way. I must say Disney have done this well, there were lots of little extras like the take away cups, the masks, sweet buffet, etc. The characters come up to you at the table and spend time with your children on their own, Daisy and Sam were in their element and had a great time.

Daddy had arranged a little birthday surprise... the birthday music played and then Mickey, Chip and Dale came over with a birthday cake for me with the whole restaurant clapping and the music playing load. It was fantastic but I was red as a beetroot, they got Daisy and I up dancing!

Unfortuntely we had a boat to catch so couldnt stay as long as we wanted so it was a quick dash back to the car and Daddy drove super quick to Dieppe just making it back in time for our boat back to Newhaven.

The plan was to have the lovely cakes I brought at the bakery but unfortunately the six little cakes I had got had turned into one large mush mount by the time we opened the box mind you Daisy and Daddy didnt seem to care. The boat journey went very quickly although it took ages to go through customs as they were on the look out for something and then on the journey back to Hove there was a big police operation on Brighton beach and we got stopped there but were soon let on our way. We finally arrived home at 10.30am after a great holiday and the little people fast asleep.