A Starry Night 13th Birthday Party

Ahhhhh, the Starry Night birthday party for Miss Fab's 13th - what a great night it was. It's about time I shared this party with you, aye? I mean, it's only taken three months!
Turns out, this is most likely the very last party that will ever be hosted here, but more on that another time...
For now here is a magical, star-studded birthday celebration that a bunch of 13-year-old girls thought was super-fun, cool and cute. We hit the spot just right with decor. We had some ironic "throwback-to-our-childhood" activities, and we had some adventures up a hill. All in all a great time was had by all, and it was also very very pretty...

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A Tribute to my Daughter on the Eve of her 13th Birthday

My fabulous girl is turning thirteen on Friday. THIRTEEN.
She's nearly as tall as I am, wears the same size shoes and is, simply put, gorgeous.
It's always a super-busy week pre-party but I didn't want this occasion to pass by without me marking it with some kind of a written tribute, because that's what I do. I write stuff. I like to reflect on the passing of time, and plant a few marker stones along the way. I like to look back and say, wow, look how far we've come.
And we have come a really long way. When I started writing this blog nine years ago my girl was a feisty four-year-old.
I've got nine years of her life recorded here in case the details get a little fuzzy with my encroaching old age (haha).
Let the record show that my daughter is Brave. She is Strong. She is Hilarious.
As she gets older I see more and more clearly what an amazing person she is -  look out world, here she comes.
One of the bravest people I know.
One of the funniest people I know.

A girl with a big heart and an outsized sense of justice. Watch out if you get on the wrong side of her - bullies beware. She'll take you on whatever your size. She's been doing it for years.

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A Magical Woodland Campfire Party

You see them everywhere on Pinterest these days: gorgeous whimsical woodland-themed parties. I've been admiring them for a while now, and when Miss Fab was making noises earlier in the year about "not having a themed party" (gasp) I pulled up this theme on my Pinterest board and showed her the prettiness. It didn't take much to convince her to adopt this as the party theme for her 12th birthday. Throw in a campfire, good friends and toasting marshmallows on a winters evening, and what could be more magical? Just to make things more enjoyable, we decided to combine with the party with Fab's friend Em, who turns 12 a few days before her. They share many of the same friends, and her mum, Mel, is one of my besties, so this was a no brainer (plus I know Mel is a whizz at campfires).

Well ahead of time we started collecting things. We scoured Ali Express, we placed our order with Kiwicakes, we pinned and gathered and foraged months in advance. Which was just as well, because a tumultuous June/July meant that party-planning was the last thing on either of our minds and we came very close to cancelling the whole thing. But thankfully, after chatting with our buddies Mel and Em, we decided to go ahead. Maybe a magical woodland party was just the antidote we all needed?

Yes it was. A little bit of woodland magic on a cold winter's night, with good friends and plenty of laughter around a campfire - what could be better? Very reviving for the spirits.

So here it is, in all it's rustic glory: our home-made take on a woodland party (with a real campfire).

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We Did It! (We're off to Hawaii Tomorrow!)

It's hard to believe, but WE DID IT! Me and Miss fab raised the money necessary (around NZ$2,500) and we're GOING TO HAWAII tomorrow night!
Phew.
It seemed like an unattainable goal, in the beginning, but the two of us worked together to pull it off.
We used every skill and bright idea in our arsenal of tricks to raise money, without once asking for handouts from anyone.
And we did it!
We reached our goal to get our little cheerleader to Hawaii to compete in the Global Dance and Cheer Games with her team.
Only one more sleep.
Bags need to to be packed tonight; tickets and Passports stowed safely.
There's a Showcase at 3pm today for all the Auckland teams going to show off their routines to admiring family and friends. We can't wait.
But first, here's a recap of how we did it...

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How to Host a Pop-Up Cafe in Your Garden

This week we held a pop-up cafe in our garden - me, Miss Fab, a bunch of her lovely pals and Grandma. It was a raving success - and bloddy hard work - as well as super fun.
This was part of our fundraising efforts to get our young cheerleader to Hawaii for her competition in June,

Hubby and I are firm believers in getting the kids to work for what they want. We want them to put in an effort themselves rather than just expecting the Bank of Dad to hand over endless wads of cash for the exciting things they want to do. It's important, we reckon, to teach our kids how to work for their goals. I mean, that's real life, isn't it? They'll be out there for real one day with the trainer wheels off, doing life on their own. The more experience they've had working for what they want, putting in sweat and elbow grease toward their dreams, the more confidence they'll have facing their future.

Miss Fab and I are both going to Hawaii and Daddy has agreed to pay half if we come up with the other half. We'd need to raise $2,500 towards the cost of this (very expensive) trip, so she and I put our thinking caps on and began to use what we're good at to raise the money. We are good at hosting. And decorating. And not bad at baking and making coffee. So we ran a garage sale, hosted a High Tea and did a bunch of jobs for people (including daddy). But by far the best (funnest) thing we've done was the Pop-Up Garden Cafe we ran this Tuesday gone, during the school holidays. It was amazing.

Here's how we did it (and how you could do it too).

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Paper Garlands and Getting to Hawaii

Did you know that I am no long the Glue Gun Queen? I have a SEWING MACHINE and I use it all the time. Most recently I used it to create a bunch of paper garlands to sell at our garage sale on the weekend.

Miss Fab and I are fundraising to get her (and me) to Hawaii in June for an international Cheerleading competition. How cool is that?
Me and Fab in Hawaii. Competing with the best cheerleading teams from around the world.
But first we have to get there.

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A Ubiquitous Post about Change, New Schools & Time Flying

Look at them.
There they are all dressed up in strange new uniforms on the first day of school.
New schools for both, and a new era for us all.
One of them is off to High School. He is very chilled.
One of them is off to Intermediate. She is overwhelmed and struggling, trying to be brave.

I look at this photograph and my heart is kind of bursting. With pride, with love, with the need to throw my arms around them and squeeze them tight.
They are my babies. They are growing up. Way too fast.

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Belonging

This weekend just gone, our church staged it's Christmas Production in the Civic Theatre and my daughter Miss Fab was part of it. The production was "Les Miserables" - our own take on Victor Hugo's story of redemption, forgiveness and grace, set in 1800's France, with modern songs and amazing amateur talent.

What an incredible weekend! Over 3300 people came to see the show over two incredible performances. The singing, the acting, the staging - everything. AMAZE.

Hard to believe how far we've come from the days when we ad-libbed last minute skits, to now when months of hard work go into making a performance good enough to grace the Civic Theatre stage. I can remember the old days and see how far we've come because I've been around for donkey's years. I've been part of Equippers Auckland for 25 years - the longest I've ever belonged anywhere.

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Cheer Up

Today I got sent a link to some photos taken of Miss Fab's cheerleading team at their competition last weekend, and as I clicked and saved them, I felt inspired.

I was inspired by the smiles, inspired by the teamwork, inspired by the sheer athleticism of these girls.

Miss Fab has been doing Cheer for nearly two years - and I wasn't always a fan.
The pageant-y makeup, the skimpy outfits, the glitter and bows - it all felt alien to me: un-Kiwi and overly-American.

There are plenty of misconceptions out there in the world about it as well. Many people are under the impression that it's like the Cheer teams on things like High School Musical and Glee: all pompoms and high ponies and backstabbing. But nothing could be further from the truth.

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Girls Weekend in Wellington

I'm an Auckland girl through and through, but I have to take my hat off to Wellington - the Windy City really did show us a good time this weekend.

Six of us "girls" (three mums, three cheerleading daughters) packed our bags and took off in a rainstorm, with a bit of trepidation (i.e. "if the weather's this bad in Auckland, how will we ever land in Wellington???") heading for the National cheerleading competition in our nation's capital.

Imagine our surprise when we touched down and - no wind. No rain. Eek, is that the sun??? Imagine!

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Three Kids, Three Codes (makes for a busy day)

Three kids, three codes. I thought that was a snappy title for the craziness that is Saturday Winter Sport.
There are three kids playing three sports, all on the same morning. And two parents.
We didn't plan ahead, obviously.
How can you be in three places at once, watching three gripping sports fixtures in one morning when there's only two of you?
Very carefully, that's how.

With lots of overlapping, and driving and txting.
You leave home at 8.45am and you stagger in the door and zip off your (totally inappropriate) boots at 3.30pm.
You go through half a tank of gas. You cheer yourself hoarse.
And you enjoy every minute of it.

Welcome to Saturdays, with three sport-mad kids, playing three codes.

Scrag Plays Rugby
This is Scrag's first year giving rugby a go. It's the "rippa" version (non-tackle), and it's all about speed. Oh my goodness but I enjoyed watching this! Our tall lad is such a natural. the other parents on the sideline couldn't believe Scrag had never played before.
"Yep," I confirmed, "This is is first ever game..."
He scored three tries and came away with the Man of the Match award.
A mum from the opposing team said, "You might be mum to a future All Black!" (Haha - every Kiwi parent's dream?) We have been a soccer family since forever, so this is our first time being a rugby family. And we love it. Scrag loves it. And he's taken to it like a duck to water.

MATCH STATS: Scrag is playing for Eden Rugby Gold in the Under-7s Rippa grade, They played against another team from the same club so had to turn their shirts inside out to avoid confusion. The score was 8-7 to the other team, but a hard-fought match with three tries by Scrag. Woop!

LOGISTICS:  At 8.45am I take Scrag to his game, which kicks off at 9.15am. Mr G meets us there with Dash. He watches the first half then takes Dash to his training across town for 10am. When Scrag's game is over we get smoothies and head to Seddon Fields to watch the next match: Dash playing soccer. (Miss fab tags along with me; her game is not til later).

Dash Plays Soccer
Er, or should I say FOOTBALL? (the proper name for soccer).
Dash has played football since he was four years old, and he has always been a stand-out. This year circumstances forced us to try out for a new club, so  with a new team, a new coach and now playing on a full sized pitch, things are pretty exciting on the football front too.
Dash has always dreamed of being a professional footballer. He's pretty gosh darned good too, so you never know....

MATCH STATS: Dash plays 13th grade football for Western Springs Vespers (the club's second team). First game of the season, they played against a team from Manurewa, the score was 8-0 to us, including a great goal by Dash. Dash plays mostly in the midfield.

LOGISTICS: The game kicked off at 11am and I really should have planned ahead and got a ride for Miss fab to her pre-game training so I could watch all of Dash's game, but no. Instead I got to see the first half, then scurried off to brave the madness of Lincoln Rd traffic to get Miss Fab to her training on time. We were fifteen minutes late and it took me 25 minutes to find a carpark...

Miss Fab Plays Netball
Last year we had to give Netball a miss because the match day was Wednesday which clashed with Miss Fab's true passion, Cheerleading. This year my friend Justine took it upon herself to start a team playing in the Saturday league, so our two cheerleading girls could play netball as well. Justine is THE BEST coach ever. Gosh but she pulls awesomeness out of the girls in her team! The best kind of coach - encouraging, tough, firm and passionate about the game. We are super lucky to have her, and Miss Fab is loving being able to play netball again.

MATCH STATS: Our new team is called the Boston Bolts (and we have snazzy new uniforms and personalised hoodies sourced by the amazing Justine). Our first grading game happened to be against THE top team from THE top league, who won the whole thing in the highest grade last year, apparently. They were tough. But we took the game to them and made them work for their win. the score was 19-10 to them, which doesn't reflect how awesomely our girls played. Super proud netball mums all round.

LOGISTICS: After dropping Miss fab off at her training 15 minutes late at the madness that is (Ti Pai Netball courts) I drove around for 25 minutes before I found a carpark. The game started at 12.45 and we were done by 2pm, but decided to go shopping for winter clothes afterwards(what was I thinking?). So yeah.

At 3.30pm I limped in the front door, dropped the shopping bags on the floor and unzipped my boots. Six hours of standing and walking in wedge boots = not a great move. Next time I'll know better.
Cos next Saturday we'll do it all again (and we can't wait).


P.S. This post is for you Grandma, Aunty Irene, Uncle Allan, Nan and Grandad.

Bedroom DIY // A Room to Grow With

 For Christmas this year just gone, my girl asked for a bedroom makeover.

"Mum," she said, "I would really love to do up my room. My bedroom was cool when I was six, but I'm ten now and I really need a room I can grow with..."

In my mind it was only recently I'd done up her room in her then-favourite colours of green, pink and aqua, painting a magnet wall that was a mural of rolling hills... but actually it was over four years ago. And there is a huge difference between a little girl of six and a big girl of ten.

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Groundhog Day (At the Emergency Room Again)

Another day goes by without me writing my Hunger Games Party post. Today was going to be the day, but gravity intervened - SOMEBODY needed to visit the A&E* to get their big toe x-rayed.
Any guesses as to WHO might have required medical attention this time? Anyone? Anyone???

OK, no prizes for guessing. It is - of course - Miss Fab. The girl who lives her life in a whirlwind, who regularly tangles with gravity; the girl who has her very own cast collection and a stack of ACC letters that could keep a bonfire burning for days.

Yeah I'm exaggerating, but only a little. There have in fact been THREE (count 'em) White Cross A&E visits in the past month. A week and a half on crutches with a pinched nerve in her ankle. An infected bug bite and now, the icing on a the cake: an actual broken bone.

But wait there's more. Along with the usual inconvenience of hours lost in waiting rooms and the chance to catch up on celebrity gossip in old doctor's office mags, this injury also comes with a helping of mummy guilt too.

Because this injury occurred yesterday, people.
The school called (yesterday), and said the Fab had injured her toe but "no need to come get her, she's fine."
Problem: she was not fine.
She was in fact hobbling around on a badly broken toe.
This morning, still unable to walk on it, she begged me to take her for yet-another-xray (and I resisted with all my might, thinking of my to-do list), so she turned to her daddy for backup. Daddy examined the (swollen) appendage and pronounced, "It looks bad. You need to take her."

He was right. I DID need to take her. But if he hadn't insisted, guess what? I probably WOULDN'T have taken her.

See, I have spent far too many hours of my life this year already in that gosh darned waiting room.
I have stood by as x-ray after x-ray turned out to be "just a sprain".

I cringe when I walk in that A&E door. I worry that somebody is going to flag the number of ACC injuries this ONE CHILD has against her name. More than fifteen in the last five years, FIVE of them just THIS YEAR.

I admit it, I was embarrassed and I was busy so I was reluctant. And I left a girl with a SEPARATED GROWTH PLATE in her toe to hobble around, undoctored, for 24 hours.

Like I said, a nice helping of mummy guilt with this injury!

Luckily my girl is very forgiving. She has happily put aside her crossness at my resistance as soon as she got the verdict: A broken toe.
A nice helping of I-told-you-so is all it took: "I can't believe I have a broken toe! And you didn't believe me! Well, you DID believe me, you just didn't want to go to A&E..."

There's a splint, some strapping, a borrowed moon boot and a return appointment to the fracture clinic next Thursday. Three weeks in the splint. But then the kicker: NO SPORT FOR 2-3 MONTHS.

There were real tears shed right then, as she realised what this means.

The Fab has just been selected for the Elite level Cheerleading team at our club. She was so excited at starting training with her new team ("I'm an ELITE cheerleader!") on Monday.
Then there's the fact she's meant to be starring in a solo dance in the finale of our church kids Christmas production.

"No Sport" means no Cheerleading, NO DANCING. No cartwheels, no biking, no swimming, no trampolining... all the things my whirlwind loves to do, because she just hates to sit still.

Poor girlie. What a suckie time of year for a broken toe.

Ahhhh so there you have it. Another day in the life of a whirlwind. Ouch.

Anybody else out there have a kid like mine???

MORE FAB ACCIDENT STORIES:
The Life and Times of Action Girl (a recap of all Miss fab's White cross adventures)

Garden Fairy Party *Just Because*

I really thought my fairy party days were behind me. After all my daughter is ten, and most ten-year-old girls have left fairies and wing-wearing far behind. But driving along in the car last week, my tall gorgeous tween said to me, "Mum remember how we sometimes do those garden parties in the school holidays? It would be so cool to have a fairy party with my friends these holidays. Like when we were little, for a laugh. It would be so CUTE!"

And then came the brainwave. She said, "We could invite some little girls! Like J! Oh my gosh, that would be so cute! Me and my friends could be the big fairies..." And off she went imagining and envisioning a nostalgic fairy party, starring her.

I couldn't not do it; I've always wanted to do a fairy party in our garden, after all (her birthday is in Winter, so her little girl fairy birthday was indoors). So we sent out a text to some friends with daughters, big and little. "Come to our garden fairy party - wear your wings!" And hoped like heck for good weather.

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A Fabulous Girly Sleepover Party

I now have a ten year old daughter, and this is how we celebrated - with a Fabulous Girly Sleepover.

All my girl wanted was "a sleepover with my friends from school and a chocolate fountain..." so I did my best to make it special. Ten is, after all, a pretty big milestone. Double digits and all that.

With daddy and big brother out of town for the weekend, we arranged a sleepover for little brother too, so it could be "just the girls". I also arranged for my brave friend Linda to join me/help me, which she was more than willing to do (once I bribed her with the promise of a chocolate fountain).

The birthday girl wanted the decor simple "just bunting, mum", so I ditched the elaborate schemes for chalkboard murals and  silver star strands that I had tortured myself with.

I made everything pretty, soft and on-theme with bedding. Flannelette sheets, vintage pillowcases, woollen blankets and lots of pillows. Everything was pastel and pretty and made you think of SLEEP (girly sleepovers should really be called wakeovers, but one can always hope??!)

After I made a giant cosy bed on the floor with dragged-in mattresses, the couches were swathed in sheets, the vintage-sheet bunting (made by the lovely Deb) was strung and every pillow in the house was called into service, along with my Typo lanterns, old teddies and a brand new photo board...

It's a sleepover party. It could be as plain or as pretty as you want (I choose pretty;  no surprises there).

Our guests started arriving at 3pm and that's when the squealing started. Horrors - I could see my friend Linda looking at me thinking, "What have I got myself in for?" and I must admit, I was wondering the same. (A bunch of excited tween girls can be ear-shatteringly loud and I was just grateful we'd trimmed the guest list from ten down to six). I made coffee and hung out with my mummy friends while the birthday girl squealed and bounced around with hers...

We had afternoon tea, to kick things off properly.

My take on Red Velvet Cupcakes (Miss Fab's fave) and strawberry milk. The icing roses are made by me, oh yes they are. Aren't they pretty? Deceptively easy too.

Miss Fab, her friend Yaz and I made the roses after school one day, just for fun.

One of the best things about sleepover parties is the chance to simply hang out with your friends for a nice satisfying chunk of time. 

Really, all girls of this age want to do is hang out - bash each other with pillows from time to time, sure - but mostly just hang out.

I had a bunch of games up my sleeve, games we play around the fire like "truth or dare" "circles and triangles" plus "indoor spotlight", just in case the girls got bored. They didn't. We didn't play one single game.

But there was A LOT of Looming... (thank heavens for looms, I say. Once the looms came out the noise level went from fever-pitch to blissful, which reassured poor Linda that she wasn't completely mad for agreeing to help me).

I provided a gazillion loom bands and had asked the girls to come with their looms. I had a few cheap $2 looms lurking too just in case someone forgot theirs (which some did). The room was a hive of industry. 

I'd labelled paper bags with each girl's name for them to collect their creations in. Inside was also a "friendship" loom band made by Miss fab for each of her friends, along with a little handwritten note...

While the girls "loomed" me and Linda drank endless cups of tea and hung out; I made the pizza dough in a very relaxed fashion. It was all so positively civilised that it gave me hope that maybe - just maybe - I might actually get some sleep tonight.

Dinner was homemade individual pizzas, with my favourite pizza dough recipe as the base. After the dough had risen, I cut it into eight lumps for each of the girls (plus me and Linda) to shape into our own pizza base.

The mini-pizzas were laid out four-to-a-tray lined with baking paper, with each person's name written beside it, so there'd be minimal mix-ups.

The girls came into the kitchen two-at-a-time and created their personal pizza with their choice of toppings. (We had shaved ham, pineapple, salami, chorizo, olives, anchovies, spinach and basil with tomato puree spread on the base and grated mozzarella cheese sprinkled on top.)

After dinner, while the girls prepared a "show" to dazzle us with, Linda and I prepared Miss fab's Dessert Bar - complete with chocolate fountain...!

After researching the cost to hire one of these gadgets (horrific), I spotted one on super-special in Stevens (for $30), and figured it would get plenty of use. The question was, would it work?

Linda and I melted the chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water (750g - 3 blocks - of Whittakers milk chocolate plus 3/4 cup of canola oil). Nervously we turned on the chocolate fountain and poured in the melted chocolate... would it work? IT DID!!!! Eek. (Now it was my turn to shriek just a little bit).

There was more shrieking when the girls saw the chocolate fountain. The birthday girl, hugged me and declared that this was THE BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER.

Then we sent ourselves into a sugar coma.

Two kinds of icecream, homemade berry coulis, squirty cream, lollies, oreos, grapes, berries and cherries... topped off with that decadent flowing chocolate. It was dessert heaven.

I cut them off when their eyes started to glaze over and declared the dessert bar "CLOSED".

Off they staggered to get into their PJ's.

(At some point they did put on their show for us - a dance starring my birthday girl and her cheerleading pal, Yaz, with the other girls all filling roles as DJ's, MC's, lighting and security. Miss fab was in her element).

Time to snuggle down into sleeping bags and watch the movie ("Johnny English" as requested by Miss fab, a suitably silly film) and Linda headed home. She's not silly. Six giggly girls and chocolate fountain does not bode well for shut-eye.

I cleared up the kitchen while the girls watched the movie; it took awhile. I've never disassembled a chocolate fountain before (it was easier than I thought).

After the movie the girls were still wide awake... surprise surprise. I figured they wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon and our best bet for calm and peace was another movie...

This time an inspirational true story, "Soul Surfer" about Bethany Hamilton whose arm was bitten off by a shark while surfing; she made a comeback and ended up becoming a professional surfer. It's a wonderful inspiring  movie, and it put the still-not-sleepy girls into a reflective mood so after the credits rolled I turned off the lanterns and made the girls promise to "only whisper" and if I had to knock on the wall too many times (my bed being right through the wall) I'd hate to have to separate them...

Would you believe it if I told you that by 11.15pm there was not a peep? Everyone was sound asleep, despite the sugar rush. Horror stories about girls having pillow fights all night and girls up talking til 3am and parents getting NO SLEEP... did not happen here. Woop!

They woke up gosh-darned early though. 6.15am (I checked my alarm clock). It was still dark outside.

I tried to ignore the noise and stay asleep-ish, but in the end, gave up and went to make breakfast...

Waffles (the toaster kind), juice, hot chocolate in a jug. Maple syrup, berry coulis, squirty cream. Marshmallows. What can I say, they loved it.

I'd asked the parents to pick their girls up by 9am, because I had to pick up Mr G and Dash from the airport at 10am so we had to get moving after breakfast, quick smart, don't dally. Then I got a call from hubby saying he'd messed up the times and it was 10PM not A.M.

Panic over. Relax. Txt the parents and say, "No need to rush and pick up your daughter because we are all having such a wonderful time". Truly.

Who'd have thought?

Finally I couldn't put it off any longer. It was time for the birthday cake. (I really didn't want to destroy my work of art but it had to be done).

[Note the addition of a "throw rug" on the end of the bed disguising a hole.
Scrag got curious and poked his finger in. Grrrr]

We lit the candles and I snapped a pic of the girls, in the order they appear on the cake...

We enthusiastically sang the song. Happy birthday, Miss Fab, Happy birthday to you! and after the wish was made and the candles blown out, we began to destroy enjoy the birthday cake bed. Using a long spatula I was able to slide the whole brownie "bed" off the top of the cake, remove it to a platter and give each girl "themselves" - which tickled them immensely.

We hung out, looming and looking at old photos, until the mums arrived one by one. 

Miss fab pronounced it her best party ever, and I have to say - I rather enjoyed it myself!

Happy Birthday Fabulous Miss Fab. I had such fun making this party to celebrate your ten fabulous years on the planet.

(P.S. We had a family dinner with our "boys" and Nan and Grandad last night on her actual birthday; a repeat of homemade pizzas and a dessert bar with all the party leftovers. Special.)

• How to make the Sleepover Birthday Cake
• My Favourite Pizza Dough Recipe
• My Party Index Page
• Miss Fab's version of events on her blog