I know it would be much easier to have a party at home and NOT have to transport everything to the park, but it's the place our girl loves the most and so the effort in transporting everything including the table, was well worth it :)
Family. Friends. Lollies on tap. Cakes. Sweet food galore. Lovely presents and running around the park. The perfect morning for a girl turning 3.
Here's a few pics from our morning in the park!
My favourite birthday tradition is that Chad makes the cakes for our kids :) They get so excited over what he comes up with and I love that I don't have to make them ;) It was really cute watching Jazz and Chad browse the computer together until she found the 'perfect' ladybug cake for him to recreate!!
The look on her face in this picture pretty much sums up her day and her ladybug party in the park!!!
I'm sure it's true that at some stage in our lives we all think to ourselves (our young, child-free, single, somewhat 'unaware' possibly even ignorant selves) that we'll never be the parents at the shops with 'those' kids (you know, the kind of 'crusty' ones). The ones with dirty faces, texta stains on their arms and messy hair......(of course i'm not talking about chad here. He is happy to take the kids out despite what they're wearing, and how they look....crazy hair, dirty faces and mix matched pajamas at 12 o'clock in the middle of the day. I know this because one of my friends saw them, had a laugh and told me about it)
Me on the other hand would not take the kids out like that. Well that's what I used to think anyway!! I had a good laugh to myself on Friday when I realised that I was indeed the parent with the 'crusty', crazy haired, (at one point crying) kids out and about!
Of course it all started out with clean, happy, fresh faced children ready for the day, but these are some of the events that unfolded during our day that contributed to the appearance of me and my 'raggedy' kids.....
- Went to visit a friend and let Jasmin crawl around outside and pretty much play in the dirt (I couldn't just hold her on my lap for an hour while all the other kids were running around playing.....could I??) - mental note to self: bath her when I get home. Only, she fell asleep in the car and there was NO-WAY I was going to wake her to give her a bath.....plan: do it when she wakes up!!
- However Jazzy sleeps longer than usual. When she wakes up my sister Emma was at my place and was a bit shocked by her dirty feet (I think her words were something to the effect of...."come to Aunty, i'll take care of you"......(I really do have clean children.....really ;)
-due to oversleeping, give Jasmin a 'speed' feed lunch - again no time for bath......plan: pick up Rylan from school, go home and give her a quick bath before we head off to a birthday party for Rylan, and a date for Zahn and I.
-get to school and decide to play at the park and again let Jasmin have a bit of freedom on the ground. I mean what's the worse that could happen.....she'll get dirty????
OK. Not looking too raggedy here. But clothing and limbs are not shown.
can we stay here for ever mum???
everyone having fun and playing so nicely.......OK we can stay.........
Big brothers playing with Jazzy - I love it ........OK we can stay longer........
Getting carried away taking pictures (Rylan actually smiling at the camera instead of making faces) turn back to Jasmin and laugh when I see the food I haven't wiped off her face due to my distraction with the camera......her crazy wind swept, unclipped hair (I am a little obsessed with clips) and her dirty shirt and hands
this photo really doesn't do justice to her 'raggedy' condition.......
I figured by this stage, she was already beyond cleaning with the wipes so I let her 'go for it' (in the background you can see her having the best, most free day of her life so far)....
kids still having so much fun......ok - we'll stay just a little bit longer.......
a few more swings.......
Zahn having a great time on the monkey bars until he decides he should probably get some help.......
I race over with my camera strapped to me, but as I approach him, he starts crying because I wasn't quick enough (I know it seems cruel that i'm taking a picture of him crying, but he was hanging above the step and his feet were only about 1 foot away from it, so I was trying to encourage him to drop down by himself.......
gets down safely, but now having a little 'tanty'.Oh I love that little freckled face.......
this was by far the most dramatic moment of his little 'outburst'......I try not to laugh because it's just SO extreme
Zahn decides he doesn't want to have his picture taken anymore so he turns away, and sits down to calm himself a little, and relax for a moment......
and 2 seconds later he's back to happy Zahn, laughing about how funny he looked in the pictures I just showed him of his 'crying'.
ahhh peace restored to the park once again.
more raggedy pictures of my baby.....
Jasmin and her one track mind.....get that stick and eat it......
munching on one, with another in hand waiting to feast upon.....
If you look closely you can see just how dirty those little hands are.......Jasmin was truely in heaven!
So after we left the park it was again too late to go home and give Jasmin that bath she SO desperately needed, so we took off to the party only to realise that Rylans thongs wern't in the car like I thought......so he ends up wearing his black school shoes (without socks) with his boardies and a t-shirt to the party.
So there you have it. After having 3 kids there are days that I have indeed become 'one of those mothers' with raggedy, crazy haired, public tantrum throwing kids!! Bbut what can I say, on days like this I feel quite liberated that I am able to look past 'the raggedy', sweaty, dare I say again, crusty kids, that are mine and love them nonetheless!! We had such a fun afternoon!!
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