Lily's party Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

Week 11 – Monday Round-up

March 16, 2015 by Bel 1 Comment

Another quickie round-up this week as I’m watching The Walking Dead and apparently it’s a good one! After the girls had a late night last weekend, this week has felt very tiring generally. Megan was okay for the most part but Lily suffered pretty badly with tiredness and that was a headache in itself. They both had school Monday to Friday as normal, Singing Stars on Monday, at their Dad’s on Tuesday and Red Nose Day on Friday. Otherwise everything was fairly standard. Monday we were supposed to be having curry and beer for dinner but when the girls requested croissants and pain au chocolat, Chris and I were swung by that too. Instead Chris and I had curry and beer on Tuesday night, when the girls were out with their dad. Wednesday after school, Lily decided to grow her own prince. it was pretty funny as we’d had this frog thing for about 3 years and never done it and she randomly came downstairs wanting to do it. The frog disintegrated and left a tiny prince, who we were assured would grow full size (full in the sense of the full size it was meant to, not life size) within 72 hours. Sure enough it did and by Saturday she had a not so handsome prince.

On Wednesday I made a skirt for Amy, in the space of about 3 hours. I was pretty pleased with it too! I did learn a few things and next time I will be making it both longer and gathered, but she seemed fairly happy with it and that’s what mattered. That same day I started on Amy’s cake and sadly it all went a bit wrong but I didn’t have time to do anything about it. On Thursday I carried on with the cake but I also had cleaning and tidying of the house to do. Finally it was Friday and I had so much to do. A huge shop and leaving my bank card at home wasn’t the best start to the day but it turned out okay. I came home and started to cook – lasagne, macaroni cheese and profiteroles stuffed with butterscotch instant whip. After lunch, Amy and Olivia arrived and I sat down with them for a while before we all headed out to get the girls from school. When we got back, I had more cooking to do, including butterscotch creme brulee. Lily then helped me sort out the dining room and set the table as it was her murder mystery party that night. Everyone got ready and then people filtered in from 7pm onwards. We got started around 8pm and I served dinner and then dessert. The murder mystery was pretty basic but it was meant for kids – Lily seemed to enjoy it and that’s what matters. Afterwards the girls went to bed and everyone stayed for a cup of tea/coffee. My mum, brother and his girlfriend ended up going home after a little while but Amy was staying here and Tom/Nat stayed a little longer too. Once everyone was gone, we all stayed up to try and see Amy’s birthday in but gave up at 11.30pm. As it happens I was still awake at midnight so I text her and then went to sleep!

In the morning I was up and got Amy’s present, cake and balloons ready for when she came downstairs. We didn’t really do an awful lot that day to be honest, but it was nice and relaxed just sitting around. We headed out around 2.30pm as we had a dinner reservation over in Lincoln at 3pm. We all ate out at Damons and it was a really lovely meal. There was me and Chris, plus our girls, Amy and Olivia, Nat and her son Harry and our mutual friend Jon. It was nearly 6pm by the time we left though and that meant that once we got home, the girls went pretty much straight to bed. At around 7.30-8pm, Nat came back over to us and as Jon was still here, the five of us spent the evening playing Cards Against Humanity. It was a fun evening and after everyone was gone we managed to stick it out till just gone midnight and see Amy’s birthday out before heading to bed.

Sunday was Mother’s Day and the girls and Chris brought me breakfast in bed and some beautiful cards and a gift. I then got up and tidied up the house, before taking Amy to catch her train and popping to the shop for some food. I came home and cooked lunch for my mum who stayed for a few hours over lunch and left around 4pm. The girls got their homework done and then somehow it was pretty much time for them to go to bed. I was incredibly tired and just spent the evening monging out on my computer and blogging. It was a crazy sort of a week but I imagine the next two will be as well!

Lily’s Party and Birthday

March 17, 2014 by Bel 1 Comment

So this post is a little overdue, as Lily’s party was March 1st and her birthday was March 5th. However I figured that sometimes it really is a case of better late than never.

On Saturday March 1st, we had Lily’s 6th birthday party at The Showroom in Lincoln. For anyone who hasn’t been there before, I would highly recommend it. In fact, now I’ve discovered it I will be considering it for a multitude of events in the future!

At £8.50 per child, the whole party is completely taken care of for you, with nothing to do yourself. Lily’s particular party was a Fancy Dress disco and it was held in a safe and secure room, where the kids were fully looked after the whole time. In fact, I spent majority of the party in the cafe area, drinking a latte. The kids had a great time and so did I. All I had to bring was a cake (which I’ve previously posted about) and prizes for the games. We also provided gift bags for all the kids on leaving. Otherwise though, everything was done for us.

Though I still went home completely knackered, it was definitely far less stressful than anything else we’ve done in the past. From village hall disco parties, to Pizza Hut, to ten-pin bowling.

When we got home that day, Lily opened all her party guests’ presents. She got some lovely things, including lots of new Lego.

On Tuesday night, Lily and I made up cupcakes for her to take to school. Then after she’d gone to bed that night, we all spent the evening wrapping her presents and getting her new computer all set up and ready. As we headed to bed, I left her a note, attached to a piece of string, running down the stairs to her new computer!

On Wednesday morning, I was surprised to make it all the way to 7am without being woken by an excited Lily. However when I headed downstairs, I found both her and Megan on the new computer – first present, a success! After that, the girls came and climbed into bed with Chris and I and Lily opened all her other gifts from us all.

The computer had been a join gift, from Chris and I, my mum, my sister and my brother. On top of that we also bought Lily a 2DS and Animal Crossing, three “read yourself” Frozen books, Rapunzel Lego and a £10 iTunes voucher. Megan bought Frozen: Olaf’s Quest on DS. The girls then got dressed and we headed downstairs to get breakfast. It was a school day so we were working to a tight schedule!

After we were all ready, Lily also opened gifts from other family and friends who had sent them over. She got Ariel Lego, Merida Lego, Mario Party Island Tour for DS and a few other bits.

We all headed off to work and school, which was a bit of a shame but also life I guess. I headed straight back home after work but my mum picked up the girls from school and headed over this way. At just after 4pm we all headed out for dinner at Gainsborough Prezzo in Marshalls Yard.

Our meal at Prezzo was lovely. The girls had garlic bread for a starter and myself, mum and Chris all shared two bread sharing platters.

The adults all shared a bottle of wine, while the girls drank lemonade.

For mains, Megan had pasta which she unfortunately didn’t like, while Lily had pepperoni pizza which she of course, loved. I had a pasta with gorgonzola, chicken and bacon. Mum had pizza and so did Chris.

We didn’t stop for desserts, but they looked great. We knew we were all heading home for birthday cake and a cup of coffee, so we headed off again as soon as the bill was paid (my treat!).

When we got home, we got out the cake and lit the candles, singing happy birthday to Lily for what felt like the hundredth time. Instead of making a second cake for her, she’d asked for a Princess Tray Bake which we’d seen in Tesco – but sadly it wasn’t really that nice and left me wishing I had just made her one! We all had a cup of coffee and a slice of cake though and this saw the end of Lily’s 6th birthday celebrations!

Week 9 – Monday Round-up

March 3, 2014 by Bel 2 Comments

So another quickie update this week, as we’re going to watch The Walking Dead in half an hour or so!

It’s been a very busy week, but mostly because I’ve been making Lily’s cake every night after work. Monday was probably the quietest day of the week. I went to work but otherwise, the evening was spent chilling out with my friend Nat. Tuesday was work again and then I started on the first layer of Lily’s cake. More excitedly, I received my latest addition to my t-shirt collection.

Wednesday I continued with Lily’s cake in the evening, but I also made a chocolate caramel sandwich cake for someone I work with. It was their 30th birthday Thursday, so aside from 2 minutes of celebrating that at work, there wasn’t much else exciting happening then. I worked both daytime and evening on Thursday, so that felt like an especially long day.

By Friday I knew I had to get Lily’s cake finished as her party was Saturday. However mum had the kids and my brother was out for the evening, so Chris and I had somewhat of a date night. I got the cake finished (as you can see in my post here) and then took a bath. I used a hair stripper to finally get rid of all the black and I’m glad to say this actually worked!

Afterwards we treated ourselves to a M&S meal, where we had amazing steak followed by salted caramel cheesecake. We drank a bottle of wine and watched House at the end of the Street (it was awful!), snuggled up on the sofa.

Saturday I got up and made a few alterations to Lily’s cake, before taking Chris to work and then heading over to get the girls from mum’s house. We headed off to Lily’s party and I’m not going to lie, it was great. The venue was perfect and the organisers even better. I would highly recommend it to anyone. Lily dressed as Anna from Frozen and while I forgot to take a proper photo of her, she looked beautiful.

When we got home from the party, Lily opened all of her gifts and we wrote a list so that we could write thank you cards. We then spent the rest of the afternoon just chilling out and relaxing. I finished my February book “Love You More” and then we watched Ever After High and My Little Pony: Equestrian Girls on Netflix.

Sunday was busy but through choice and strangely that felt nice. After a bit of a lie-in, Chris headed to work and I blitzed the front room. It took me about 2 hours in total, but I hoovered and dusted thoroughly. It felt very satisfying! After lunch the girls and I headed upstairs to do their room. This was more tidying than cleaning but we blitzed their whole room too and that took about 3 hours in total. My mum called around briefly and at about 4pm we headed out to pick Chris up from work and grab a cheeky KFC again!

Sunday evening was perfect. We had a lovely dinner with the girls, laughed and giggled lots, before finally changing the bed covers on their bunk beds and then heading to bed. Chris and I sat and watched TV all evening, while I blogged a little and he rubbed my feet. Finally I started planning my next cake masterpiece, but unfortunately I can’t blog about that here!

I’m looking forward to a much calmer and quieter week this week. Lily’s birthday is on Wednesday but I’m all organised for that and so otherwise, it should be a fairly boring week!