Caitlin's First Aussie Birthday

Caitlin had requested a penguin party at first (damn you Happy Feet) but after some subtle hint dropping, she managed to change her mind to the slightly less demanding, mermaid party. given that there was the usual summer (or winter depending on your hemisphere) birthday burn out we postponed the bash a week to allow frazzled parents to recover. and then some of the kiddie guests got laid low by the good ole winter vomiting virus so that held the do up by another week. so by the time it came to it, i was in full on 'can't be arsed' mode. however, i rallied to the cause....

On the friday evening (party was on saturday lunchtime), Zara and i had foolishly signed up for another night of raffle ticket selling (pre-school fundraiser) at the local Retired Services League. this may seem inocuous but bear in mind we had done it once before and ended up drinking till midnight there and doing stupid dancing to a local band (los garbos...think aussie...these guys drive the garbage trucks in the area...to be fair, they were a lotta fun) so it was with some trepidation that we returned to the RSL. our reputation has already been established from that one visit and preceded us...the 'wild girls' had returned. however, with much mutual support we managed to restrain ourselves (altho it was a close call) and were home by 8pm. soooooooooo, we started on the decs and thank god we did because, as with all these things, it took waaaaaay longer than anyone expected. we stuck blue cellophane over the windows, ran string from wall to wall and hung off streamers and paper, glittery fish and mermaids from the string and curtain poles. we hung streamers in doorways and along the arch into the kitchen. we were knackered and thank god Zara was staying over to help us!

we started again the next day when i got back from my gym work-out (yes, you heard it here first!) and just managed to get all the food ready and organised for the first kids arriving. typically, Zara's side of the family were as organised as ever with Zara's kids and her sister's rolling up about half an hour after the kick off time! to be fair to renae (zara's sister) she did have to cope with comforting a car full of kids who had just said goodbye to their big sis who is off on a jaunt to europe.

anyway, it all seemed to go well...we did all the usual stuff - pin the crown on the mermaid, pass the parcel and had a right hoot with the sack race in the garden, sacks courtesy of the pre-school. the kids all LOVED the underwater cavern our house had become and i was pretty proud of it too.

Caitlin was a very happy girl that day!











i include the picture of the sheep cos it bit matilda's finger (the sheep live across the road from us) for the 2nd time and we think it has got it in for us...it looks shifty anyway!