Philippa's 3rd Birthday

Unfortunately despite it being well into Spring Philippa's birthday was cold and wet, so plans of a relaxed afternoon in the garden fell to the wayside and I needed to work out how to occupy 11 children and their parents inside our not so big house.  Organised games are not so easy or fun for 3 year olds so I decided to make lots playdough, clear out the play room and let them go crazy.  While I think playdough is great I very rarely let the kids play with it indoors as it makes such a mess.  So for the first time ever I made playdough and boy was it fun and easy to make.  I made 5 batches in 4 different colours.  One batch and a little of the first 4 batches we packaged up into small plastic containers with a thank you note on top for the kids as a take home gift.

The playdough was a big hit.  I am very glad I spent the time cleaning out the playroom as it did get everywhere............

Little kids run out of fuel quickly so after a bit of playdough play we had some afternoon tea.  I have found fancy foods and too much choice do not impress kids so they feasted on fairy bread, popcorn, chips, pretzel sticks, fruit skewers, jelly and ice cream birthday cake, fresh apple juice and water.  For the adults we had flammkuechen and champagne.

After snacks we played our one and only game.  Philippa insisted on wanting to have pass the parcel.  I am not a big fan of this game as I find that almost all kids find it quite tedious and the single random present at the end just is not in the spirit of a party. So I changed it at bit.  Each layer had an animal card and the kids had to all pretend to be the animal on the card.  The idea was for the child that got the card to act it out alone but all the kids really got into it and all wanted to act each animal.

It was loads of fun for all.  Even the adults joined in.  The final present was a value pack of mini smarties boxes for all the kids to share.

Alligators

Elephants

Having loads of wet weather in the weeks before I even had a go making a piñata.  Something I have wanted to have a go at in the past and will definitely make again, it only took one afternoon to make using cardboard and cereal packets from the recycling and crepe paper.  I really enjoyed making it and the kids loved it,  particularly the older (4-5 year old) boys!  We were lucky enough to have the weather clear for about 30 minutes.  I am still not quite sure how we would have done the piñata indoors!  The piñata was a bit too strong so they all got 3 or 4 turns but the kids seemed to enjoy bashing it more than eating the lollies that dropped out, so it wasn't a bad thing.  I took a few photos as I was making it so will write up a how I made this pinata soon.

Hungry again after some fresh air the kids sat down to finish the afternoon tea snacks, plus some wackelpudding (jelly) and ice cream birthday cake.

So that was Philippa's 3rd birthday. 

We even tried a family shot, yep they're far from perfect, but so are we..............

we tried ...

a few times ...

but just couldn't get it right

kids!

Auntie Catherine Came to Visit

Finally spring has sprung here in Basel and just in time to welcome Auntie Catherine.  In Europe for work it was wonderful that she could extend her trip and spend 5 days with us.  We love living here in Switzerland but we really miss our family and friends down under.

I had plans for lots of great day trips, but lets face it tripping about the place with three young kids is not always that much fun.  I was so glad that Catherine was keen to just hang out and enjoy time with us.  We did pick Catherine up from the train station bright and early after an over night train trip and took her straight to our favourite restaurant in Germany for breakfast.  Followed by supermarket shopping, not a favourite for everyone but something my siblings and I all enjoy particularly a new supermarket in a new country.

The next day as it was a bit wet we visited the Natural History Museum in the city center and in between rain showers showed Catherine the highlights of Basel city center.

With the rest of the time we did lots of baking and cooking,

banoffee pie

Poached Chicken and Citrus Salad

walking our favourite local tracks,

watching some favourite movies

and when the sun shone hanging out in the garden.

Thanks so much Auntie Catherine for coming to visit, we all had a great time xxoo.

Cupido Cowl

Here in Basel and I guess across Europe, winter doesn't seem to want to leave which at the moment has very few pluses, but it has meant I have had lots and lots of wear out of my cowl!!

After knitting four honey cowls in rapid sucession I was keen to try something a little different for a cowl for me.  Still something quite easy as I am a beginner knitter, but a different pattern.  So I did some hunting on Ravelry and found the free Cupido Cowl pattern.

I loved knitting this, it required a little more concentration than the Honey Cowl to knit but because it had more of a pattern I could see more easily where I had lost count with rows and could correct mistakes, which I found difficult with the honey cowl.  I seem to knit tight (sorry I have no idea what the technical term for this is)  so I could have cast on a few more stitches to make it a little bigger as it is knitted in the round, but it is still comfy and cosy as it is.  I guess with more experience and practice I will work these things out. 

I used the same merino + wool  as the honey cowls, but in a musky pink.

I really like the pattern the stitches make and particularily like the cast off edge which is at the bottom of the photo above, the cast on is similar but shows up how I like on the inside not the outside, I really wish I knew more about knitting to work out how to swap that around, as I would love to make this again but have the start and finish edges the same.

For now I have put the knitting needles away.  I am desperate for some warmer even sunnier weather so feeling the need to be prepared by sewing some dresses and new sun hats for the girls for spring, if it ever comes..........

Alannahs 7th Birthday Party

So I was a little nervous about this birthday party.  Don't get me wrong 7 year olds are lovely and extremely easy to entertain, but when those 7 year olds are Swiss and don't speak English and my Swiss German is terrible, entertaining 10 of them for 3hrs is a tad scary!  I decided I need props or a craft, something that would keep the kids entertained but not require an awful lot of communication or explanation.  I remembered a great birthday post from LiEr (Ikat bag) about an archery themed party and thought that would be great especially as Alannah is currently and has been for sometime obsessed with the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe book and the movie Brave.  Both of which feature strong girls with a passion for archery.  

PREPARATION

So with only 4 days (due to me being sick and very unmotivated) before the party we set to work making bows, arrows and quivers. When we started planning we had 15 kids coming to the party.  Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of our 15 bows, 36 arrows and 15 quivers.  But this is what we have left.

The bows were made almost exactly to the tutorial, using at close as we could find materials, conveniently our pipe came in 2m lengths so only one cut, and the chord was nice and silky but a large gauge so we only used one length not doubled.

The arrows were also made exactly to the tutorial, well at least half were.  But Scott insisted that with the paper towel they were not weatherproof enough so improved the design by using closed cell foam and contact adhesive to fill the insulation tube and fix it to the stick.

The quivers were a little patched together as I had trouble sourcing the bits I needed.  Ten had adjustable buckles the other 5 were fixed length straps.  The straps were of all varying widths as to fit the buckles and webbing I could find, but the all did the job.  I also had trouble finding vinyl, so had no choice but to go with hot pink, orange and black. The hot pink and orange all had black straps and the black quivers had blue green and hot pink straps.  I also attached the side strap in the seam rather than on the outside of the bag, this seemed to have no effect on the functionality of the bag but made them a little quicker to sew.

THE PARTY

Excited by the fact the kids finally understand and enjoy party games, we started the party with the chocolate game, a favourite from when I was a kid.   Large chocolate block, costume, knife,  fork and dice.  The kids sit around the chocolate block and roll the dice in turn.  When a 6 is rolled the child dresses up and cuts one piece of chocolate off the block with the knife and eats it with the fork.

Then we moved outside to the hands free doughnut eating race.  Doughnuts were hung from the clothesline the kids all lined up and and had to eat a doughnut as fast as possible without using their hands.

Next off to find their bows, arrows and quivers.  As hoped the kids were delighted and very excited that they got to keep them and take them home.  Some of the boys asked several times if they REALLY got to take the bow and arrows home.

Even though we were lucky enough to have the nicest day for weeks, it was still only 3 deg C so back inside we went to personalise their bows, arrows and quivers. Not knowing where to find fun things like washi tape and only deciding this theme 4 days before, they used electrical tapes (which come in great colours) and permanent markers.

After a very simple afternoon tea of potato chips, fruit kebabs, jelly and fairy bread it was off outside to try out the bows and play in the back garden.

Then the archery games began.

We finished the party with an "Aslan" birthday cake (decoration guide from an old Australian Womans Weekly Birthday Cake Cookbook) and opening the presents, as it was really a bit chilly to be out for to long.

Scott took the afternoon off work to help with the party (he can speak German and some Swiss) all the kids had a great time, and it wasn't so scary after all!

Messenger Bags

I made Oliver + S Messenger Bags from Liesl Gibson's book Little Things to Sew for Xanthe and Alannah's Christmas presents.  As with all Oliver + S patterns I found it to be a great pattern, very straight forward to sew together with loads of tips and a detailed pattern.  There are lots of pieces but it came together quickly once the fiddly bits like the bias binding is made!  I used webbing tape for the straps to save time, but the pattern details how to make your own from fabric.

I made Xanthe's bag first.  As I was not really sure what to expect I made it exactly to pattern.  Using a very cute hedgehog linen fabric from a local fabric shop for the exterior and a mushroom print in her favourite colour for the lining.

For Alannah's bag I didn't want to alter the overall bag but did want to add a closure of some sort.  After looking around at other messenger bags, I decided on a simple plastic buckle and clip.  I made some extra slightly wider binding in blue and hid the joins in the binding.  It is the perfect closure nice and lightweight and easy to open for little fingers. I decided magnet closures would not work well with the front pockets which I didn't want to change, and Velcro would not have such a neat finish.

The outer fabric for Alannah's bag was a light weight striped denim I found at Ikea and the lining was also a mushroom print but in blue, Alannah's favourite colour.  The hearts were free drawn and machine appliqued on, all the spotty fabric was from Sarah Jane's, "Children at Play" line of fabric.  I used a plain black webbing for the strap but tarted it up a bit by sewing some red spotty ribbon around the center.

The girls love their bags and especially Alannah uses it all the time.  They also happen to be very similar in size to the little messenger bags that are used to take snack to Kindergarten here in our part of Switzerland.  So sometime before August I will try and make another one for Xanthe in a more Kindy friendly fabric and with a buckle.