Birthday parties - are they fun or a nightmare to arrange

Lucie the entertainer

I have 3 children which means a lot of parties and all of them except for 2 I have done at home, with a lot of stress and hard work. This year I am going to do it the hard way again in our house,  but I am going to get a lot of help, Lucie the entertainer, who sounds excellent  and my friend to do the catering.
It will not be the usual birthday party with the whole reception class,  as we are just moving back from france,  but hopefully lots of  friends will come and celebrate my daughter being well again and her 5th birthday.

In the past we have had treasure hunts for my son, that was a lot of organisation! Luckily we had a very sunny day and everyone enjoyed it. For my 2 girls we have had lots of princess parties with face painting, traditional party games and jewellery making - which is an excellent idea as they take the key rings and bracelets home in their party bags, I bought all the beads of ebay and they were stunning.

Sleeping beauty cake

Knights and princess party cake

My daughter waiting for the food to be served

My mother is very talented so she makes all these wonderful cakes. As you can see from the photos, my kids are always planning months ahead what they will have for their next birthday.

Luckily in my english house I have a big enough dining room for all the kids, thats my daughter waiting desperately for the food to be served.

All these parties at home have not been plain sailing at all, I think my stress levels have been OTT, but still I like to punish myself and have them at home.

Baby shower invitations

I am printing off lots of my cards for samples today and to be photographed by Helen Rae photography for my new website, so I was inspired to design a couple of baby shower invites, what do you think?

The script card has a spotty back and colours can be changed.

New beginnings

I have lived in France now for just under 2 years and it has been an absolute rollercoaster, I have loved so much of our life here, but now our French experience is coming to an end. We are moving back to the UK very very soon, why you may ask give up good weather, a relaxed life, beautiful surroundings, the food, the wonderful weekly markets, the skiing, the beaches.
The reason is our little daughter, the french health system has been amazing and she has had wonderful treatment, but it is time to be home with my friends and family. My mother lived with us in france for nearly 5 months while my daughter was in hospital, I will never ever be able to thank my parents enough for giving up their lives to support us through such a hard time, but if she goes into hospital again I need to be in england in a familiar environment.
Also she needs a lot of special care and I need to be there and hold her hand every step of the way, to do this I need to speak the native language, so england here we come.
It is not the end of our French journey, we now have 2 bilingual children and good friends here, so we will back.

Why I love etsy

In the past week I have bought 2 things off etsy, one for my new study and inspiration for designs and maybe just maybe the artist will agree to do some designs for coco, if they look good. The other purchase is just a bit of luxury for me, this woman is so talented. I can not wait to receive my bracelet and she is going to stamp JJM on the coin instead of Gypsy - initials of my kids.

I think etsy is so so amazing, all these mainly women talented women selling their wares form all over the world - get shopping or just window shopping now.

New blog

I have just moved my blog from wordpress to blogger and I have lost a lot of my posts and the formatting is off, but at least I will not have 54,000 comments advertising all kinds of wonder drugs linked to my blog.
I feel that is a good move for me along with google + links, my new interest in pinterest, which I love by the way, it is so easy to use and it is fun. Just need to tweet a bit more now and blog more than once every 6 months and I will be on my way to making a dint in my social media targets that I have been ignoring for the last year!!
Anyone else find it all so hard?

Have a good weekend, I am off to pack now for our holiday in the pyrenees.

My precious daughter and why I have been so quiet for so long

I was not sure whether to post this or not, but things are now hopefully looking up. My youngest girl was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in March 2011, she has spent 5 months in hospital and had a bone marrow transplant in July 2011, she has been at home since September recovering and is doing incredibly well. The photo shows you where she lived for 4 weeks, totally isolated in a bubble.

She will hopefully start school again after the easter holidays, which will be very hard for her as she is almost a year behind her peers in reception class. But I do not mind that struggle with special needs statements and so forth as long as she is happy and at school playing normally again.

CocoCards has helped me through it all, it was something to do on the very long days in  hospital, sometimes when clients phoned me I am sure they have wondered what on earth was going on, infusions beeping in the background, my little girl shouting I need a peepee now.

Your child being ill is one of the worst things that can ever happen to you, but luckily it is very rare. We have so many people looking out for us and praying for us.

My daughter inspires me every day to be strong and positive and I love her deeply.

The most beautiful bed time game

I was looking for a game for Jemima and came across this in france. It is called Bisous Dodo, French for bedtime kisses, you have to find the pillow, blanket and sheet to put your little friend to bed, but in the mean time you collect cards for eskimo kisses, kisses on the tummy, songs etc and at the end of the game, your child gets all the kisses, songs etc that they have collected, it is so gorgeous and my daughter just loves it.