Oct
17

Miss Livly

by Sofia   -   in DIY projects  Good things for kids

This year when the pumpkins started to arrive at florists and grocery stores the girls nagged me to get a really big one. So I did get the biggest I could carry (with one hand as my left middle finger was in a splint after an accident at work).  I´m not against pumpkins so why not. We bought the pumpkin for 8 € and then we painted it pink with the girls with some craft paint we already had. I let it dry until the next day and then added a bow on it´s head and drew a face with a marker per Bubble Gum´s instruction ( she basically told me to draw it “a girl´s face, not a scary face”). I borrowed her facial expression from the cute Livly face they use on their hats, dresses and robes so we named the pumpkin head miss Livly. On a separate note, I visited Livly´s store in New York and it was so pretty ( and I saw the robes there that I really loved!)! Kudos for them!

But back to the pumpkin. It´s an easy and inexpensive way to turn a pumpkin in to something cute and for us the pink colour looks a lot better in the girls room than orange would. Now it sits on their dresser and sleeps ( Bubble Gum again ” but mamma, why did you draw it like that, now it´s sleeping all the time.”). But they still loved sleepy miss Livly!

Oct
14

Happy Birthday Bubbalino

by Sofia   -   in Good things for kids  Party planning

Tänään meidän suloinen pikku Purkkamme täyttää viisi vuotta! Olen aina syntymäpäivien tienoilla erityisen sentimentaalinen. Mutta toisaalta niin iloinen ja onnellinen!

Little baby Bubble Gum is 5! Hurray! ( … and a little sentimental sniff too)

Oct
12

Birthday girl, birthday boy

by Sofia   -   in Party planning

This Friday is Bubble Gum´s 5th birthday. Our sweet girl obviously gets breakfast in bed with her presents * as it is customary in our home. Her big sister suggested teddy bear pancakes which we might do for our teddy lover. We have invited the grandparents for birthday cake after school too but all the godparents, uncles , aunts and cousins will get their own party a little later on ( when we celebrate both girls at the same time). Bubble Gum is hosting a small birthday party for a few of her friends too. 5 guests at the party like her age. From pre-school onwards the girls invite all the girls in their group as then there are not so many more and it would feel strange and unkind and unnecessary to leave just a few out. But for under 6 year olds I think having a smaller party is great as they can concentrate better on the few special friends they have. 5 is still so small. 

*( one from her sister, one from us as we are not big believers in giving too many things)

There has been talk in the Finnish media about the costs of birthday parties for children and about the presents given out at them. Apparently some children from not so well of families feel they can not participate as they can´t afford to buy expensive gifts or arrange parties in return. I love arranging parties but I have also always been a believer of making a little go a long way ( I admit I don´t always necessarily follow my own rule when I get over excited but it can absolutely be done) . Things don´t have to be terribly expensive to be lovely. And when it comes to presents I have said it on the blog many times I find it strange that some feel the need to spend a lot of money on expensive gifts for school friends. I always believed that a friends gift should not be something extravagant but rather a small token to pass on at the party to make the party girl or boy feel special. It would also be a great teaching opportunity for us parents, to teach our children to be gracious hosts and appreciative and thankful for all the presents they received no matter what they thought of them. I´ve had a little friend of one of my girls over for a playdate who told me that her mom gave our birthday present away because she thought it was so ugly (they are at the age where they may just come up with this I guess?!). I´m not always over the moon about all the gifts my girls receive but surely dismissing them is not something I would want to teach them.

Marie Chantal wrote a little piece about party etiquette on her blog if you´d like to read. And here is a good collection of small gifts I would not mind my children finding from their friend´s birthday parcels eg. this one. We have also given our little friends gifts with old school toys like the Chinese jump rope ( in Finnish it´s called twist) with some street chalk etc. I like to give something to get the kids outside and moving instead of being huddled up inside. And crafty things like colouring books and some ( cool scented) crayons are always a lovely gift in my opinion.

When I think about parties on a budget I´m always thinking of a story my colleague told me. Her kids are already in their twenties but they still talked about the best birthday party they attended. One of their class mates came from a family that struggled a little but they still wanted to organise a birthday party for their child´s friends. They bought some juice and a box of cookies from the grocery store and took all the kids to a little forest close to their house to explore and have a snack. It´s absolutely genius and all a party really needs to be. Kids just want to be together and the birthday child wants to feel special. That´s really all there needs to be. Nothing fancy or extravagant. And again if I would find my child dismissing a party for not being ” fancy enough” or ” special enough” I would rather have a long look in the mirror to see if I have not quite succeeded in my upbringing.

Here are a few other ideas to make a party on a budget…

I´ve always thought serving ice creams or milkshakes is so easy, everyone loves them and they are fairly inexpensive to make too. ( photo)