Tales From the Box

We celebrated the Widg’s 2nd birthday recently, and we had an absolute ball.

(The deck all decked out. Check out the size of our bamboo in the background!)

We had a proper party this year, in that we actually invited friends (both the grown up kind and the little kind). The theme was “clouds”. Husband designed the invitations, and I made a lot of the decorations myself (thanks Pinterest) – tissue paper pom poms and felt circle garlands, using inspiration and tutorials from here, here, and here .

We couldn’t have asked for better weather on the day, considering it is the middle of winter. It was sunny and mild – great for allowing the kids to run around outside in the garden, rather than have them tearing up the house.

Our little man was completely spoiled with gifts (check out the loot!) and had a great time playing with his friends and family.

I think his favourite part was the cake. It was Mickey Mouse.

We also were very lucky to have the famous PassionCookie make us some custom cloud-shaped gingerbread cookies. Awesome. There were only 2 leftover, so I will have to order larger quantities next year (half the fun is stuffing my face with all the leftovers for the rest of the week).

For the party favour bags, I wanted to give the guests (the little ones) something to take home that was a) not full of sugar, and b) something they could use and enjoy for more than 2 minutes. I made some little envelope pouches and filled them with a little booklet and some crayons. Sort of a travel drawing kit.  The grown ups got to take home some more of the awesome cloud cookies. At least someone got to be full of sugar.

(Some smarty pants at the party joked that it looks like the sign invites people to take a kid home. I won't name any names *cough* husband *cough*)

In the days leading up to the party, we had several conversations with our little man about what a birthday party was, why we were having it, who would be there, etc. He enjoyed talking about what food he would get to eat (Sausage rolls! Chocolate! Cake!) and who would be coming over to play with him. My favourite version of the conversation went something like this:

Me: “Who is coming to your birthday party?”

Widg: “Gran and grandpa?”

Me: “Yes! Who else?”

Widg: “Mummy and daddy?”

Me: “Yes! Who else?”

Widg: “Angus?” (yes Jen, he wanted repeated reassurance that Angus would be coming).

Me: “Yes! Who else?”

(This went on for some time while we listed all the various family members and friends). Then…

Widg: “What about Jesus?”

Me: (after stifling giggles) “Of course Jesus will be there buddy. He loves you, and he’s everywhere.”

Genius child.

Our beautiful, sweet, hilarious little boy celebrated his first birthday last weekend. Unfortunately, he was a little under the weather for the festivities (stupid teeth) and slept through most of it. But he did manage to participate in the most important parts, and the grown-ups had fun.

I put up some decorations (which I was asked to leave up for the State of Origin match).

This is his sweet little face when he spied the cake coming out:

His lovely Gran made the cake. Yes, it is the Number 1 cake from the Woman’s Weekly birthday cake book. It was chocolate cake with an awesome bright blue/aqua icing, smarties and sprinkles. We are still eating it for dessert every night. (Thanks Gran!)

I should mention that we have been very intentional in teaching the Widg to eat neatly. He isn’t allowed to touch food with his own hands, unless we put it in his hands for him. Sounds very strict, I know, but otherwise he would stick his hands in his mouth with every mouthful, and then smear them all over anything within arms reach. We do, of course, let him eat certain less-messy foods with his own hands, so that he develops good dexterity. Don’t worry, the boy has mad fine motor skills.

So this is him, being very cautious when we gave him some birthday cake. It took him a while to believe us when we said it was ok for him to pick it up and eat it himself. He enjoyed himself quite thoroughly, and dropped only a few crumbs on the floor. Brilliant child.

One of the Widg’s favourite toys at the moment is a balloon on a stick that Grandma and Pop scored for him when out shopping one day. So you can imagine his joy when presented with a room full of balloons.

Yes, this is him rubbing his face on a balloon. Crazy kid.

Finally it was time to open all of his wonderful presents. Although he normally loves to rip paper (catalogues, napkins, tissues, mama’s fancy magazines), he had a touch of stage fright in front of all of his family, so we gave him some help with the wrapping paper.

He was very excited about the big green ball (he has been chasing it around the kitchen ever since).

He needed a little help learning how the trumpet worked. He kept trying to eat it. We’re still working on that one.

The tambourine, however, was a no brainer. Anything that makes noise is a hit.

He also got a great activity table (it’s been helping him learn to pull up to stand), a walker trolley, a very cool horse-on-a-stick (you know those old fashioned ones that you ride like a broomstick?), a tiny little basketball hoop (thanks Uncle Boo and Aunty Nat – he’s getting quite good!), some awesome stacking blocks (they are actually the same ones that Gran bought for her boys many moons ago), a lovely little outfit, and the most awesome Noah’s Ark toy set in the world (it’s so cute: he pulls each animal out, holds it up to show me, then when he gets to the little Noah, he just chews on him).

We had lots of yummy food (sausage rolls, party pies, lollies and chips), and the coolest cookies ever. Our lovely friend B made them and sent them to us in time for the big day. They are gingerbread, and yes, the photo is done in icing and is edible. It’s weird eating your son’s face, but very tasty. I’ll do another post about them soon, I promise.

All in all it was a lovely day, and we know each birthday is going to be better and better as the Widg becomes more aware of what’s going on, and is able to really get into it.

Last Christmas we decorated the Box with multi-coloured paper lanterns hung from the deck. I had bought the lanterns throughout the year from various places and just collected them as I found them.

Well, this photo was taken last week. Yep. They’re still up. They’re a bit rain soaked, the colour is running and fading, and they’ve become home to various spiders and bugs. But I haven’t had the time or the inclination to take them down yet. They still look kind of cool at night with the fairy lights on. And the Widg loves to stare at the giant “balls” blowing in the breeze.

Well I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! Here at the Box, we had a few days of food, family and friends, with lots of fairy lights, fresh hydrangeas and some colourful lanterns.

We did a Christmas tapas on Christmas Day, then a Greek-inspired lamb, flat breads and dips on Boxing Day, and then left-overs for the 2 days after that.

Friends and family came from far and wide (Armidale, Goonellabah, Melbourne, Canberra, Blacktown and Blaxland). The dogs even payed a visit.

And of course, the Widg thoroughly enjoyed his first Christmas.

Overall, a jolly yuletide fest!

After many years work – The Box was put to the test as the family journeyed up from Melbourne – hosting 25 people on the deck for Christmas lunch (albeit in Novmeber).

It was a lovely weekend – and The BOx worked a treat.

There were three reasons I wanted a house as opposed to an apartment.

to mow the lawn

to make a garden

to have a dog

So when we bought our abode in Warrimoo there was some lawn to be mowed, a garden to be tended, and definitely the yard for a dog to run wild and free. However the house on stilts didn’t offer us much protection in keeping said dog inside purchased land.

So we reveled in other people’s dogs – namely our parents. In January my parents bought this gorgeous little puppy Shaogo – who ran amock on our deck and generally caused a bucket full of mischief. The little slideshow is some pics of her looking sickeningly cute. (By the way if you hadn’t noticed – I have fallen in love with this google slideshow – damn you google and your irresistible goodies)