Lego Loopy!

Apologies for the late blog for Jude’s birthday…with school hols and a great visit to Norfolk (blog to follow) It has been pretty hectic.  As promised here are all the Technicolor details (sun glasses are advisable for safe viewing!)

When Jude decided he wanted a Lego themed party it meant I had so much scope to work with and man did I go Lego loopy!  I started by ordering some great printables through etsy.com and using a theme of primary colours Red, Blue and yellow (with a bit of green thrown in for good measure!) I created, banners, bunting, signage, treat toppers even water bottle labels which were particularly impressive!

I managed to find some great Caroline Gardner (love her) red and white spotty gift paper which was reduced in John Lewis! This worked really well as a contrasting backdrop for the display table. Ebay came to my rescue with various lego paraphernalia including some great Lego moulds which I used to make coloured chocolate mini-figures for the treat bags and cupcakes and fondant icing Lego bricks (used on the main cake)

I made Lego head cake pops by attaching a smartie to the top of the cylinder shape pop before dipping them in the yellow candy melts.  I found a great Perspex bathroom set from IKEA (in the bargain corner…so proud of myself!) which I filled with small Lego bricks and used to display the cake pops. 

I used the larger containers to display matching ‘candy’ of strawberry pencils and M&M’s (thank you Caroline for the M&M donation!) I painstakingly picked out the themed colours, which has consequently left me with a mountain of brown and orange M&M’s! (Hmmm what to do with those?)

The cake:  I used a large Lego board (eBay bargain) as the cake board. This was great as it allowed me to use mini-figures which could be attached to the cake board.  The main cake was a rich chocolate sponge covered in yellow fondant with 3 large vanilla sponge bricks which I built on top of the cake ensuring that there was a four stud brick for the four candles to sit on! 

I managed to have Lego bricks personalised to display ‘Happy birthday Jude’ as the centre piece (also EBay) The kids were delighted when they realised all the small bricks were made out of fondant icing and as soon as Jude had blown out his candles we allowed them to dive in and eat the Lego bricks (blink and they were gone!)

To complete the Lego theme I had a T-shirt made for Jude from stardust kids.   Fantastic quality 

Games:

We are normally lucky with the weather on Jude’s birthday and a 10ft inflatable slide has kept the kids entertained in the past.  This year the weather was not in our favour so it was down to me to entertain 13 kids for two hours (the joy!) as well as the usual pass the parcels I managed to theme a lot of the games.  Pin the mini-figure, build and race a Lego car and my favourite the Lego brick race game…the children had to get into pairs and each pair were given a cup of small Lego bricks and an empty cup.  They then had to race against time to pass the bricks through the hose to their partner at the other end.  The quickest pair was the winner.  This was a big hit and you could use smaller tubing for older children but for 4 year olds this kept them very occupied!

I made my own party bags using a 2inch round cutter and some foam sticky pads to make studs to stick on yellow rectangular bags.  Voila Lego brick party bags (Blue Peter eat your heart out!) I got a great Lego party box kit from the Lego store website half price (very pleased with my bargain hunting!) which included these great mini-figure birthday builder packs.  Here is what I put inside the bags:

That’s all folks! I must confess it was great fun to bring it all together but wouldn’t want to do it all again in a hurry!    

London 2012 is nearly upon us and I’m feeling quite unpatriotic.  All the build up has kinda passed me by.  I guess I wasn’t overly keen to stand in the rain at some ungodly hour to watch the torch go by.  I am sure I will tune in for the opening ceremony and hopefully I will get into the spirit of things; some sunshine might help!

In the meantime this is my contribution..

Another successful charity event ran by my students.  It was an ‘olympithon’ we set up the Wii on the big screen in the hotel lobby and for a £1.50 donation we challenged guests to take part in the Wii Olympics 100m sprint.  It was quite a sight to watch the guests take part, some took it very seriously! I was asked by one guest which was the best way to hold the Wii remote and which wrist action would get the best result! Followed by is it like a ‘shaking the bottle’ motion.  You can imagine the fits of laughter that were trying to be contained by two of the 16 year old boys! I have to admit as a tutor it was hard to hold professional decorum and once the guest had gone I burst out laughing, to the point of tears (how unprofessional, good job it was the end of term!)  How ever unorthodox his technique, it worked; he got the fastest time!

I am so pleased to have broken up for the summer and can’t believe I have completed my first year of my PGDE already.  I am looking forward to a nice long summer break, come on sun put your hat on!  

Dorset Tales

During the children’s half term holiday we decided to search for sunshine down south and headed to Dorset.  Whilst we did not exactly find the sunshine we were hoping for, what we did find were beautiful ‘chocolate box’ villages, sandy beaches and quaint thatch cottages in abundance.  We stayed at Greenwood Grange in Higher Bockhampton next door to Thomas Hardy’s birthplace.  The cottage was perfect, set in a courtyard with shared outdoor space with access to a fruit and vegetable garden; where the kids loved picking their own fruit, vegetables and herbs.  As well as an indoor swimming pool, games room and outdoor playground we enjoyed fresh eggs courtesy of the resident chickens!

Weymouth, urprisingly better than expected......

We fell in love with nearby Abbotsbury with a great farm, swannery and subtropical gardens.  The village was idyllic with a beautiful café and a great butchers shop! The beach (pebble) was secluded with beautiful blue water and we met a lovely family from County Durham who showed Tamsin and Jude how to fish! Jude has now added a fishing rod to his ever growing birthday list!

Goat Walking!

A little further a field, Lyme Regis was one of the nicest seaside towns we have ever been to with its quirky shops and cafes and a great sandcastle making beach! A comment from Graham ‘I didn’t realise beaches like this existed in the UK’ (result, England scores a point!)  A truly relaxing and enjoyable break, just what we all needed. 

We stopped off for a night at the Poole Hotel Du Vin and were spoilt (as usual) I love the way they always welcome the kids..love the towel characters! 

On the way home, after visiting friends in Horsham we joined Corey for his 6^th Birthday party ‘Pond dipping at Kingsbury WaterPark’ The kids had a great time searching for pond life, a superb venue and a great party idea!

Happy 40th Bro

On 7^th May 2012 my big Bro turned 40.  We had a fabulous family get together at Peebles Hydro on the Scottish Boarders.  Let’s face it any hotel that is happy to take the kids off your hands while you can sit and enjoy a ‘grown up’ meal in peace gets my vote! (and the kids vote for that matter; couldn’t prise them away from the kids club!)  Thank you Farah for organising everything especially the gift bags, how did I not know that Nige shared my passion for Caramac, must be in the blood!

Now…my Bro is a big fan of the wires! Any latest gadget on the market has to be tried and tested and more often than not collects dust in the garage when the newer model is launched! Whatever happened to that Tassimo?

Nigel’s passion for gadgets over the years has meant that his childhood thriftiness has been put to the test.  Growing up, my brother Howard and I would be counting up our Easter eggs whilst Nigel dusted off his intact Christmas Selection Box! 

In my case pocket money was meant to be spent on 10p mix ups (in the days when you could get mo jos and black jacks for ½ pence each) Howard’s would be spent on a polystyrene aeroplane and be over the fence in 5 minutes and Nigel’s would be saved in his tray wallet purse and transferred to a pound coin dispenser before converting into a five pound note!

You can imagine how difficult it was for him to contain himself when he was showered with money and Apple vouchers for his 40^th. Politely thanking everyone at the table and conveniently nipping to the loo to no doubt count up his good fortune, pity you didn’t dust off the tray purse for the occasion!             

I am glad that your 40^th allowed you to achieve the ultimate gadget of champions the new iPad and would have loved to have accompanied you on your detour home via the Apple Shop!  Happy 40^th Nige hope you are in gadget heaven cheers Bro, love you x           

Oh……I made the cake (of course!) here it is:

 Some of my favourite pics of the weekend:

My Nephew Hadyn, stunt man in the making!

  Happy 40th Gadget Man!