Funnest Party Games

Princess Mia had her 8th birthday party on the weekend.

It would have to be one of the best and FUNNEST (if that's not a word it should be) we've had - maybe even topping last year's bash.

Mia had her heart set on a sleepover - so with 6 little friends to amuse for 20 hours I made sure I had PLENTY of games and activities up my sleeve.

Here's a mere snippet of what we did (and not a Passing Parcel or Musical Chair in sight!):

DRESS UP RELAY

 2 even teams...

2 similar piles of dress-up items (the sillier the better)...

Put on all the items, run to the end, take off all the items...

Next team mate gets dressed, runs, etc, etc....

Even the boys got a kick out of this one....(what is it with boys and dresses???)

FRUIT SALAD

So simple yet this was the one they played over and over...even the big brothers and sisters joined in.

Place markers in a circle - one less than the number of children

(we used the circular mats from Twister Scram)....

Divide group into fruits (we had just 2: Strawberries and Kiwifruit - more types are recommended for a larger group)....

One person stands in the middle of the circle and shouts out a fruit....

Everyone belonging to that fruit must move off their marker and dash to another - including the person in the middle....

Someone will miss out - they then become the person in the middle who calls out the fruit for the next round.

If "Fruit Salad" is called, EVERYBODY has to run to a new marker....

So much giggling....

So much chaos.....

So much fun!

THREAD THE NEEDLE

2 teams....

2 hoops....

Team members hold hands and must pass a hula hoop along the line WITHOUT letting go hands....

Teamwork and concentration required!

CATERPILLAR RACE

2 teams....

Members of the team stand close behind each another with a blown up balloon pressed between their bodies.....

Must run to the finish line as one unit....

Without bursting or losing any balloons!

Pretty hilarious (in all the excitement I forgot to take pics).

LOO ROLL UNRAVEL
Non-stop hysterical laughter alert!

Thread 2 toilet rolls on a broom handle....

First person to unravel their roll wins!

Even the clean-up was fun!

(Activity not recommended for a windy day, however....!)

SUNSET ACTIVITIES

We turned up the music LOUD....

Broke out the glow sticks....

And the sparklers....

And let the mob run wild.....

Before coming inside.

DINNER & BEDTIME

Pyjamas were apparently the appropriate attire to dine in - by the time I had unplugged the stereo and lugged everything into the house they were all enthusiasically comparing characters on their flanelettes.

SO CUTE!

Party pies, sausage rolls, spring rolls, mini hotdogs, potato gems and salad for dinner...

Birthday cake for dessert....

Then a DVD ("Baby's Day Out" - a classic fave and guaranteed giggle-fest) on wall-to-wall mattresses.....before lights out.

Quite a few of our little guests had never had sleepovers before

so you can imagine their excitement (and my slight trepidation.....)

After a fair amount of wiggling and squirming and whispering and shushing......

they slept.

No tears, no I-want-my-mummy dramas.....

they were a complete joy!

THE MORNING AFTER

A lovely early start (.....groan....) at 6.30 - with a crunchy frost still on the ground.

Pancakes, yogurt and fresh strawberries all round.

Big sisters sent out to hide the Treasure Hunt goodies around the garden.....

while I kept the children occupied by helping them roll up their sleeping bags and pack up their things.

Treasure Hunt conducted....and to make sure nobody got more than their share, the winner was the first back with 6 different items.

A few games of What's The Time Mr Wolf.

Quiet time before the mum's arrived for pick up -

involving a fun little drawing game I remembered from my childhood, I'm calling....

CRAZY CHARACTERS

Everyone sits at the table with some coloured markers and a sheet of paper each....

Everyone is instructed to write a name at the top and draw a head on a neck....

The top of the page folded back, hiding the head but revealing the neck, and the drawings are passed along to the left....

The body is then drawn, connected to the neck that was drawn by the previous artist....

Fold back the paper once again, leaving the end of the body - or hips - showing....

Pass the drawings to the left....

Next the legs and feet are drawn....

The completed drawings are passed to the left one more time then opened out to reveal some very unique characters!

A final group photo on the trampoline....

A pick from the Pick-A-Box
(gotta love the $1 toy section at BigW)....
then home time.

Apparently all too soon for Mia: "Why does my party have to end?"
When a two-day-long party is still not enough - I reckon it must have been pretty darn good!

Easy (yet impressive!) Birthday Cake

TAKE one chocolate cake (I used my fave recipe but trusty packet mix works too).......
HEAT family block of Cadbury Dream white chocolate and some cream in a saucepan until smooth and creamy then leave to cool.......
POUR said ganache generously over cake.........
WHACK in freezer for few minutes to set the drippy bits...........
PILE on some Maltesers (Lindt Chocolate balls if feeling extra decadent) - press them on a bit - they will stick...............
SIFT over some icing sugar (ooooh, fancy!)............
STAB with candles (I picked up these awesome "sparkler" numbers from Woolworths)..........
IMPRESS the socks off everyone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my sweet Bessie Mae
xxxxxxxxxx

The Rainbow Party

Mia's RAINBOW party was a huge success!

THE CAKE

I made a marble cake.....divided the batter into 5 and coloured it very brightly before blobbing alternate colours randomly in a ring tin (no need to swirl before baking). When cooked and cooled, I cut it in half, iced with white butter icing and decorated with M&M's. It looked fab and was a huge hit with the kids.

THE PRESENTS

Wrapped in stripey rainbow paper - of course!

Mia got her longed-for pink Razor scooter plus heaps more.

THE FOOD & DECORATIONS

All garishly coloured (and sugar-loaded!)......gum balls, fairy bread, swirly lollipops, sherbet sticks, blue clouds, homemade M&M fudge.....

Not all bad.....my rainbow fruit platter kept the health-conscious Mum's happy....

I used a white plastic tablecloth and served the food in mainly white or glass containers to make the colours pop. Colourful plastic party trays from Crazy Clarks held chips and fairy bread. The girls went crazy with textas on white sticky labels to attach to white plastic cups for each guest. Decorations easy - colourful party hats and balloons tied to every available spot. And the guests were asked to wear rainbow colours.....

GAMES

I found the perfect pinata at our local party shop.....

....was stuffed with Chuppa Chups, mini boxes of Smarties, gold coin chocolates and party favours the kids collected up and placed in their take-home lolly bags.

We played Pin-the-Nose-on-the-Clown, Musical Colours (Twister Scram circles scattered on the floor, danced around to music, when music stops choose a circle to stand on, spin the spinner, everyone on that colour is out, repeat until one person left!), had a fashion designer team challenge using streamers.....

.....I let the kids colour-in my chimney with chalk.....

......and had face painting and rainbow manicures.....

.....and the trampoline is always a fave....

Mimi announced it was the "best party ever".....and you can't do much better than that!

Weekend crafting + a mini break

A quick little project I whipped up for Beth & Mia's bedroom....

.....if banners look cute on a scrapbook page, I figure they're gonna be super duper cute to brighten up a plain white blind!

Their new room is starting to come together....just the fun decorating part to do!  I want my next project to be little patchwork runners for the end of their beds.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a really easy and basic design for my first ever quilting attempt?

I can't believe I'm crocheting!

Not*very*wonderful flowers on a big chunky kid's crochet hook....but I'm doing it!  You have to promise you won't laugh at my efforts....

Last week we took a few days to visit the fam on the coast.

A rather big event to be celebrated.....

....Tim's birthday - and yes, that is a big old 40 on top of the cake!

More photos of various family members pigging out on cake and things....

Yum yum!

It's so cool the way the kids fall back into a close and easy friendship with their cousins even after months of being apart. They raided Grandma's closet and gave us an impromptu fashion show....totally hamming it up for the camera.....makes me laugh!

The 4 remaining puppies came along with us for the 7 hour trip as well....we decided their feeding regime was too much for the neighbour, plus Poppy had to be delivered to Mum....they were SO GOOD!

We managed to find a lovely new family for Sky while we were there....so Sky is now Pebbles and lives with Wilma the Kelpie over the ranges....good bye Sky/Pebbles you cutie pie you!

Tim's Mum made him a scrapbook for his birthday....I love it so much....a gift not only for Tim but to our kids and future generations....oh what a beautiful baaaaaby!!! (And you gotta love BrylCream on a 3 year old...hehehe)

....and all this by a person who does NOT scrapbook! In fact, I think the exact words were "I HATE scrapbooking!" Thank you so much Grace, we are sure glad you endured the torture....the photos and memories inside will be treasured always.

A couple of pics of this weekend....Mia's little friend was here for her first ever sleepover (a little nervewracking, but thankfully no midnight dashes home to mum)....we piled everyone on the trailer to collect firewood....

...and check for new calves...this handsome little man is our first baby for 2010...

Kids back to school the day after tomorrow....then I guess it'll be a quick downhill slide toward Christmas! Yikes!

Our week in pictures

A busy, yet fun week for the Hackneys...but first a layout share...

Love this photo of Kate concentrating intently on playing her clarinet.  She only started learning at the start of the year and is reading music fluently, mastering the difficult fingering and even wrote her own little tune...she performs in the Eistedfodd in a couple of weeks time.  A shout out to Leeann Pearce and her gorgeous blooms that appear on this layout!

First of all, a certain someone turned TEN - double digits...another big milestone for my dearest first born princess.  We have a big party for her every year and this year, as she is getting so grown up and all...we decided, instead of having a party at home with the regular old pass-the-parcel, etc, that we would take 3 special friends to the movies to see "Coraline"...

then to the park afterwards for fish and chips and a juicy big choc-overload cake...

...here she is, my beautiful Kate, happy and relaxed, enjoying the glorious sunshine and writing in the cool "All About Me" scrapbook she was given by Lilly for her birthday...

Mid-week there was big excitement...Book Week...one of our fave annual school activities.  Costumes this year were nice and simple...only a bit of sewing involved (Dora's backpack, Miss Muffet's skirt and Mousie's tail) everything else was recycled out of the dress up box...the most time consuming part was putting Kate's hair in rags the night before to create ringlets...but well worth it I think!

Introducing....Dora the Explorer....the mouse from the Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat nursery rhyme....and Little Miss Muffet...

We had the final soccer match of the season on Saturday...a fun day with a couple of short games then a presentation.  Martha (the name my girl's give my Mum) is here visiting from the coast so was lucky enough to get to watch Bessie in action.  A very proud girl with her trophy...

We had the funnest time last night with a little celebration for Kate and Mum (their birthdays are 5 days apart)...our good friends the Rolfes came over...I cooked Stuffed Chicken Wings - a very time consuming and complicated dish I learnt this week at Thai cooking class...the kids played the Wii...and entertainment was provided by Tim, my little brother who is an absolute genius on the electric guitar.  Finally another yummy cake and Happy Birthday song for the birthday girls...

That was our week!  Hope yours was just as fabulous...

XXX