Engagement BBQ

I'm at Ian and Jo's engagement party.  Everyone is having a fantastic time, small groups of people mingling, smoking cigarettes and laughing.  Maybe I will help with cooking the barbie, show off my multi tasking skills, in fact I can cook a BBQ better than any of those men over there, who are sculling down bears by the dozen.

I clicked on the ignition button to light the barbie, in fact two BBQs.  I piled on beautiful fat sausages, marinated shaslicks with chicken, mushrooms and capsicum about thirty of those and some beef ones too, big t-bone steaks, and burgers by the dozen. There was so much meat piled up on each plate, easy.

Turning everything, geez I'm so clever.  This is going to be absolutely delicious and I'm helping my friends at this very important engagement party. 

OMG the BBQ has exploded into flames, everything is on fire, its to hot, black BBQ meat, shaslicks, sausages, steaks all on fire.  OMG how embarrassing.  I could see all those faces staring at me. 

Parting ways with my son at child care

Tears welled up in my eyes.  I couldn't believe that I would feel this intense feeling of guilt and abandonment when leaving my little boy at childcare. 

Friends had talked about their own experience leaving their child in care with strangers for the day so they could go to work but I never really understood how they felt.  It just didn't connect with me until I was put in the same position.

So Charlie's first day was harder for me then him but at the same time I felt so sad and he knew something was going on.  He grabbed my leg and kept hiding behind me from the ladies and children.  Such a little sensitive soul my little boy. 

We encouraged him to sit with the other children around a small table to have breakfast and then when he wasn't looking I sneaked out through a door into another room and left him.   I couldn't bear to see him upset that I had gone. 

In the car I cried.  I felts so bad. 

It's been more than a year since I first parted with him and he still cries and I cry a bit inside too.  They tell me he is okay about five minutes after I leave playing with the other children.  He is fine.  I'm not completely fine but he's in good hands. 

Parting ways with my my little boy is hard sometimes.

Charlie's 3rd Birthday Party 2010

Caleb, Charlie and Mia

Personally I think having a birthday in between Christmas and New Years celebration is one of the cruelest things you can do to a child.  All they want is to have a party with their friends, but when you have a birthday then people are usually away on their annual camping holiday or have something else on. Something like that anyway.   So this year we celebrated Charlie's birthday six weeks early on Sunday 14 November at the park at the MV rail mini trains at Morphett Vale. 

It was such a fabulous place to have a kids party.  We managed to get a spot under a big gum tree with some shade, and there was a big wooden table we used for the food.  So it was a massive park, with a creek, playground, RC track nearby, public toilet and about 50 metres away the mini steam trains. 

 Everyone was really generous by giving Charlie really beautiful gifts.  Most of the gifts were trucks, trains, cars, a harmonica, art and craft stuff, to tum tennis, and a Thomas DVD (and more).  We put all of them under a big gum tree and opened most of them when we got home.  He loved his new toys.

The food was devine.  Diana made 160 sausage rolls, Auntie Helen curried eggs, Dad 50 cream horns with cherry's on top, Tania yummy chocolate crackles, Renae a sweet twist, and Chris the amazing Thomas the Train Cake.  There were sandwiches, fairy bread, dips and meats too.

You should have seen this cake.  It was incredible.  Everyone was in aw of the cake.  Chris never does things in halves.  He is totally intelligent and a perfectionist.  He made the most amazing cake I have ever seen.  It was a Thomas Cake (of course) with the most incredible detail.  All of the kids gathered around the cake and were all very polite too.  None of them touched it or anything. They all waited quietly until we sang Happy Birthday and started cutting it.  Most of the kids came back for seconds and thirds. 



The Amazing Thomas the Train Cake





So after lunch and cake we all had rides on the mini steam and diesel trains.  Those are actually scaled down versions of the big trains.  They use coal and diesel to fuel them.  The track they run on is about 1.2 kilometres, and you can have as many rides as you want.  The kids and adults loved them.

So we had an awesome day.  Charlie enjoyed getting spoilt with presents and playing with his friends too.  So a big thank you to everyone for those beautiful gifts and helping out, and just coming along.  Love you all.  xx

By the way, if you ever want to go ride cool trains the details are on the MV rail website http://www.mvrail.org.au/

Also, my girlfriend Renae who runs her own card design business did the invitations.  They looked really awesome too.  If you want to check out her card design website "Cherry Bliss Designs" see http://www.cherrybliss.com.au/

I want to be Laura Ingalls-Wilder (Little Prairie on the House)

The Ingalls Family

Growing up did you ever have an idol or wish to be just like someone on TV. 

At the age of three years, every night on television at 7.30pm Fat Cat would wish all the children a good night with a kiss. I would be tucked into bed by mother and she would always read me a children’s story. “Good night my dear.” she said as she gave me a kiss on the cheek.

Looking back I clearly remember that night. Unbeknown to me my parents had been devising the most scandalous plan to put me to bed without having watch my favourite program “Little House on the Prairie”. They had failed to tell me about my program and had turned down the volume on the television.

Despite this, I could still hear the familiar music coming down the hallway from the lounge room. Oh my goodness, how could they do this to me. How could they not let me watch LHOTP my favourite program and my favourite little girl Laura Ingalls-Wilder. HOW DARE THEY!

My little footprints could be heard coming down the hallway. My parents looking at me as the tears streamed down my cheeks and I was so sad I could hardly speak. With my bottom lip quivering “I I I I want want want to to to watch watch Little Prairie on the House.” (actually my parents insist I was screaming). My parents both having found this amusing and also feeling a little bad allowed me to stay.

Little House on the Prairie followed the lives of the Ingalls family who lived in a quaint little house on the banks of Plum Creek in Minnesota during the 1890s. It always started with the same music as Ingalls children ran down a steep hill through long golden grassy plains that surrounded their home.

Often narrated by Laura who at the time was a little girl just like me, the story showed her daily life and she often pondered on her future and the lessons learned.

I loved Laura. I wanted to be just like her. She was my idol and I loved those 19th century outfits. Those dresses that covered your entire body from neck, down the arms to your wrist, in tight at the waist and a long flowing skirt down the ground. They were usually a plain brown or blue colour and the girls wore little white pinafores over the top. Often having won breaking the chicken wishbone I would secretly wish for an entire wardrobe of LHOTP clothes. Bring them on!

I was obsessed and I was a little girl just like Laura.