A Very Yellow Birthday Party

And this year, the theme was The Minions.

I started writing this blog around this time last year when I was preparing for The Little One's first birthday party. At the time she loved Elmo and so I ended up making an Elmo garland, Elmo masks, Elmo place names and an Elmo cake. I loved making everything, and I think they looked pretty good.

Life is a bit busier these days and so the internet has helped out quite a bit with the decorating. Also, there's a great deal of Minions stuff online, whereas Elmo was a bit rare...or expensive.

This year, I ordered a tonne of stuff from the website Puffin Party - all very reasonable and it all arrived very quickly. I bought so much stuff (don't tell the Other Half!). Plates, tablecloth, straws, invites etc. but I also bought some plain yellow decorations, just so that I could do some crafting, and feel like I've contributed something.

This year, the to-do list was shorter, which meant a less stressed out Mummy. Yay! 

So, I decorated a few cups with some Minion-style glasses, as well as decorating the jug filled with orange squash, with larger versions of the same glasses. I forgot to take close-up photos, but you can just about see them here:

I also decorated the main cake as well as a gazillion fairy cakes in (sickly sweet!) yellow icing, to vaguely resemble the Minions. The Little One knew where I was going with this, so that's all that matters:

And here are a few more photos from the weekend. It was a lot of fun, and I loved seeing the Little One's face this year - she gets it now and it made it so much better. She was able to open her presents and appreciate the balloons and decorations a bit more. Her favourite part though...bursting the balloons! What a nutter.

Happy second birthday my lovely girl, I hope you had the best day! xx

This made me smile...

I was doing my Christmas shopping in M&S the other day and this made me smile...

Definitely feeling this at the moment. 

Motherhood

Unmumsy Mum. Selfish Mother. Mother of Daughters.

I honestly think I have a girl crush on all of them. They're honest. And real. And don't have pinterest perfect lives. They struggle. They cry. They lose their temper. And occasionally swear in front of their kids.

And they're fine. Their kids are fine. They are all bloody brilliant.

Butter wouldn't melt

I'm aware that they do get a lot of stick in the media for not being the perfect mummy, but I honestly couldn't have survived these last two years without their blogs/social media. They make me feel normal. I have no idea what I'm doing and am well and truly winging this whole motherhood thing. But to see that everyone else is also struggling and having a few bad days, well, that makes me feel brilliant.

Some days I paint my daughter's hands and feet and don't care about the mess on the kitchen floor. Some days we go for a stroll in the park and spend hours (ahem, 20 minutes...) playing with the leaves and stones. Some days she's a knobhead.

And that's ok.

I love My Little One more than I ever thought I could, and some days are well and truly perfect. But, honestly? They're rare. Most days are full of tantrums, tears, shouting, bogies, poo poos, wee wees, soggy crisps, Teletubbies, Bing (don't get me started on that tiny little idiot...), bribes, promises and wine. Lots and lots of wine.

But even in this day and age, it's not always acceptable to talk like this.

I have maybe 3 other mums I can talk openly to about this stuff. But, as for the other mums...I, shall we say, bend the truth...

"Oh I absolutely love reading to The Little One at bedtime."

"I made fresh homemade gluten free pizza with no added salt over the weekend and The Little One ate it all." 

Bull. Shit.

I know some mums are born to be mums, and fair play to them. Those mums who have their pinterest perfect lives, and who are honest about it - go ahead. But don't lie. No one cares if you gave your Little One fish fingers every night last week. They're still alive. Doing fine. And love you for it!

I love talking to my 3 honest mum friends. Two are colleagues of mine. I'd never even spoken to them until we'd all had our Little Ones, and now that's all we talk about. But, to begin with, we were all a bit shy about it all. Until, one day, I blurted out that My Little One had been a right twat on my day off, that I was knackered, and was planning a day of annual leave and sending The Little One to nursery. Gasp. Horror...nope. They looked at me and smiled. They were both struggling. They both needed a day off. And so they both had one. With all the Little Ones happily playing at their respective nurseries. 

And as for my third Mum Friend. Well, she's simply the best. I met her at my very first baby group, roughly two months after giving birth. It was a baby sensory class on the other end of town at 11:00. Boy, was I proud of even showing up! We bumped into each other in the church hall lobby and panic rose in us as we saw a baby class mid-way through. Had we missed it? But we're here, on time, clean (ish) and the babies are quiet (ish).

Fortunately, we hadn't missed our class as it was an earlier one for the older kids. But this moment of panic cemented our friendship. We hit it off straight away and have been inseparable for the last two years. We're brutally honest with each other and that's how we like it. That's how we survived the last two years.

Let's be honest ladies. Our Little Ones are well and truly awesome, until they're not. And then they're little knobheads.

Let's be honest. Let's tell it how it is. Let's do more than survive and try to enjoy this motherhood malarkey together.

Now, pass me the wine. And chocolate. Oh, and those doritos. Yum.

Cross stitch

I've always been pretty rubbish at sitting and doing nothing. But sometimes, I have zero energy and happily collapse on the sofa after a day at work. But then, I fidget and get bored.

So now I happily watch telly with the other half, but am also either doodling or doing some cross stitch.

I always thought of cross stitch as a bit old fashioned, but with everyone jumping on the knitting/crocheting band wagon in recent years, I thought I'd give this a go.

I bought a kit online and am happily working my way through the pattern. The intention was to display this, once finished, in my daughter's nursery. She is now almost 2. Hmmm...

However, slowly but surely I'm getting there, and enjoying the process.

UPDATE: I've finished it! It's not quite hanging on the wall...but it is in a frame. In the nursery.