All is calm, all is quiet

which is something of a novelty at my house so I’m enjoying the peace 🙂

We’ve had a lovely weekend, Kirsty & James arrived on Friday evening, Saturday morning was filled with making heart shaped sandwiches and transporting all the party stuff over to the hall. I spent a slightly hysterical hour in the hall surrounded by all the various stuff, an empty hall and no real idea of what I was going to do with it all. I faffed about for at least 15 minutes wandering between the kitchen and the hall before finally plugging in lots of fairy lights, arranging a table with chairs round it, turning a very handily available high backed chair into a throne for Princess Scarlett with lots of pink velvet and silver sticky stars, laying out the food and drink and folding napkins into goblets.

I created a cake table on the same tatty wooden table on wheels that held Davies’ cake(s) with lots of pink netting and drapery, put beads into bowls and secretly did some prancing around the place cos I do like to show off in big open private places, particularly ones with a stage that has real stage lights 😳 :).

Tarly arrived first with Ady, Kirsty and Alex

She did lots of present opening and meeting and greeting her princess guests, someone made the first round of tea (Julie I think) and when all but one princess had arrived I could hold them off the food no longer so they all sat down to feast – including a toast to the birthday girl using their jewelled goblets and pink fizz!

Food finished we did various things included Ali’s pefume making, Alison’s beaded braclet making, tiara making (with very carefully controlled glueing ;)) and a not as carefully planned as it might have been making a fairy to stick on a scene for Scarlett to keep forever (cos you know, she might end up being the sentimental type! 😉 ). It was all very civilized and gracious and Tarly really loved it 🙂

Ady and James arrived with Davies and Marcus in time for blowing out the candles

and demolishing!

The princesses were persuaded to line up for a photoshoot

before turning into loons with the addition of two boys and playing a very rowdy chasing game for the last hour! 🙂

Some of the party continued back to our house for xboxing, film watching, further running round like loons, cooking and eating several small pizzerias worth of pizzas and plenty of drinking and baby worship too. 🙂 Oh and some singing of course. A lovely, lovely day 🙂

Today was slightly quieter with a slightly later start. Kirsty and James stayed til just after lunch (cold pizza! :lol:). Davies and Scarlett get on so well with Marcus and Alex, it’s a really nice foursome of children to have around :). They left (with a doggy bag of pizza for the journey!) and we swung into Goddard Christmas Countdown With A Vengence TM. Ady went off to get some logs while me and the children moved sofas around to accomodate the tree and hoovered all the previously hidden by sofa floorspaces that were suddenly exposed :oops:, we got the tree up very quickly but spent ages trying to get some fairy lights working before giving up and swapping some of them for the ones on the kids’ trees. This year we’ve gone for an almost completely edible tree (Davies amused me lots by announcing it – I didn’t know he even knew the word edible!) with candy canes, chocolate baubles and once the tree was up I made some window biscuits with boiled sweets in them. Ady put all the hanging decs up, the children covered all available surfaces with tinsel and then Scarlett cut the ribbon, Davies threaded it, I knotted it and Ady hung the biscuits on the tree while watching Oliver! So very warm and fuzzy 🙂 Davies and I meant to set the camera up on a tripod and do shots at various points to make a youtube offering but we forgot.

Early night for the (very exhausted) children, lovely long bath, relaxed roast dinner infront of the fire and a couple of glasses of wine for us followed by a rather experimental dessert made with the bread and butter offcuts from the star and heart shaped sandwiches at Tarly’s party, two nearly had it but saved from the brink peeled and sliced cooking apples, a tin of custard all constructed lasagne style in a glass bowl with nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top. Really rather lovely. 🙂

A slightly quieter week coming up – Christmas parties at MM and Badgers tomorrow – I have pizza to bring as my food to share offering :lol:, I was going to a FP meet up in London on Tuesday but we’re all too exhausted from such a mad week and I can’t really afford the train so I’ve decided not to go after all so that should be a nice quiet day at home, regular get together with Julie and Lucy on Wednesday morning, work on Thursday and hopefully another quiet day on Friday.

Thanks to everyone who came for Tarly’s party and for all her lovely presents (yes Ali, even those bloody ponies 😉 ) – do you know, I reckon it completed her birthday for her. 🙂