Vili's birthday party - part 2

Vili's party was a barnyard/animal theme.  I really rattled my brain thinking of themed food and decorations, without being over the top and ridiculous.  So our barnyard food consisted of corn, porcorn balls, oatmeal cookies, chocolate and strawberry milk, carrots and hummas, sheep meringues that were a disaster and only my big brother who was starving ate, and apples, all in someway keeping with the farmy theme. I also made some cow flag banners 







The kids had so much fun in their little costumes. We had a cat, a mouse, a dog, a cow, a tiger, a bear, a frog, and an animal fairy.









First we played a few games.

Pin the tail on the donkey.  It was so funny how sneaky the kids were. "Oh I don't need that blindfold aunty sarah.....but I can't see....wait, let me just take it off to see where to put the tail.....I need to do it again coz I didn't win...." They were funny.





Then they ate donuts on a string.  I've only ever seen this done, never actualy participated, but it seemed like a good idea.  Well. After 10 seconds Nathan ran away crying because he couldn't do it, Malachi ripped his donut off and downed it, and the other kids just struggled in vain.  Funny to watch though.











Pass the parcel.  I thought I was all PC and had the exact right ammount of layers for one per child and so they'd all get a chocolate.  Well. Some kids didn't come, some didn't want to play, so some got more then others, making for some sad kiddies.  The older girls who knew what the game was about took a really loooooooooooooooooooong time to pass the parcel on.





Last the pinata.  I'm quite proud of my homemade "chicky pinana" (as Malachi would say), made under the careful direction of Leeyen, who made Malachi's pinata at his first birthday.  It was strong enough that it lasted through all the kids having a go at it, and some of those girls REALLY had a go at it.  They moved so fast my camera couldn't pick them up.  It was funny seeing Vili go at it - cow verses chicken....













And then in comes Uncle Matt and smashes the poor chick into shreds.  Lollies go flying, kids start cheering, it was awesome.











The cake was a replica of Vili the little piggy.  Poor porky underwent major ear reattachment surgery twice during the course of the day.  But he put on a brave face in the end.  Vili either thought everyone's singing was horrible or he was ready for a nap, because he bawled his eyes out when they sang Happy Birthday to him (reminded me of my late friend Amanda's daughter Ansley, she bawled during happy birthday on multiple occasions when she turned 1).







Then Vili opened his presents, of which I didn't get any photos of because I was busy hugging Dani and Joseph and their munchkins who came down to visit from Auckland.  He got some books, these cute dinosaur decals for his room, some instruments, this dump truck lunchbox that his brother is so jealous of, some clothes.  It was a fun afternoon, although like most 1st birthdays, the birthday boy didn't know what was happening.  And I was so busy running the show (coz I'm a control freak) that I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted to (I know what you're thinking, hello, you took a million pictures! But just imagine how many I could have taken if it wasn't so busy....), but hopefully Vili will look back on the pictures and feel that he was loved and special and totally worth all Mummy's grey hairs.  Coz you're worth it little man. Oxo

Hamilton Museum Visit

So we've lived in Hamilton for almost 6 months and have most definately NOT taken advantage of the things to do here.  We've been to lots and lots of their playgrounds, which are AWESOME btw (not generic clones like the ones in hawaii), but thats about it. So this week we made a start. We went to the Waikato Museum.  Theres a part there for the kids where its all learning games, figuring out puzzles etc.  It was amazing. 

They had a knitted garden and the kids picked all the vegies. The carrots etc were in the ground, the tomatoes were on a vine, it was very clever. The kids played there for like an hour, and we only left because a school group was waiting for a turn.









They got to sit in full sized racing cars and play wii marrio carts.  Malachi was in car heaven, but his brother was even more obsessed! If i turned my back for a second, Vili was gone and off to those cars.









This one was fun, the lights would flash and you had to run and slap them and see how many you could slap in a minute.







There was a huge waka, Malachi wanted to get inside.  Wasn't sure how the local iwi would feel about my son singing row row your boat in their historical canoe, so we just looked at it and sat in this little boat instead.





Malachi had a go at their climbing wall.  He did really well.  But once he realised he was off the ground he didn't think it was so great.



There was also an earthquake house, that mimiced the power of different earthquakes in NZ history, like Taupo exploding.  My sister sat in it with the kids, as soon as it started, Malachi and Katherine freaked out and jumped out.  Vili however thought it was awesome and wanted to do it again and again.

It was such a fun day.  I'm considering getting anual passes.  Because I've found that for most places, if you go twice in a year, you might as well get an anual pass.  And during the winter, this would be a great place to go on a rainy day for a couple of hours.

Here's to discovering more Hamilton treasures!

Vili's birthday - part 1

So on Vili's actual factual birthday, to which he was completely oblivious, we started with the traditional pancakes.








Malachi was at school for the day and Joseph didn't come coz he's sick so it was just me and the boy for the day.  It was so nice! Kind of reminded me of when it was just me and Malachi, and I could give him 100% of my time and attention.  We rolled on the floor, laughed, and went to the playground.















Then later that night we had some cupcakes for the birthday boy.  He was excited to eat the M & M's, but once he got the icing on his hands, he was done, he did not want any part of it.  I kinda tried to make him eat the cake, but nah.  So no cake covered photo like when Malachi turned 1.