The Easter Bunny was here!!!

"Mum!!!  The Easter Bunny was here!!!  He was in my ROOM!!!  And he's left footprints everywhere!!!"

And that's how the day began :-)

Like I said the other day, I love that the small things make my son's day.  Last night's minuscule effort of making a cut-out rabbit footprint and sifting flour around the house was absolutely worth it.  Even cleaning it all up today, after the Little Big Fella had spread it everywhere, was worth it :-)

 

Lucky we made Easter baskets at playgroup this week!

 

 

Thank you, my lovely son, for walking in Easter Bunny's footprints... and spreading them all over the house!!!

Well, even though the Little Big Fella searched the house when he woke up, it turned out that he hadn't found all the eggs the Bunny had left behind!  It turns out he'd left some downstairs as well!  So another search was had (when Daddy woke up).

This time Daddy got to be the egg basket - the other one was full!

Chocolate all over his face = a happy Little Big Fella.  And some nice, clean water to wash it all down ;-)

Turning 4

A couple of days ago my Little Big Fella turned 4.

It's official.

He's now a "big boy" (according to him at the very least).

And because I'm blogging, I get to be the soppy mum for a minute and say I'm so proud of who he's turning out to be.

He's smart and funny and entertaining and fun to be around.  He can be generous and exceptionally loving.  He loves playing with his friends, but is also happy to play alone (lucky really, given that he's an only child!).

He's just as anal as me about things being done "right".  He's very good at demanding to be heard (especially if I'm on the phone or talking to someone else) and he generally knows what he wants.

I'm enjoying watching him change and grow and discover, and I wonder what kind of a "big boy" he'll be, and what kind of man.

Anyway, enough of the self-gratifying reflections, let's get on to the good stuff!

The night before his birthday, the Big Fella and I blew up a few balloons and hung them in the living area, and I put the present from us and from one set of grandparents on the table.

When he woke up and came to the living area he was stoked by the balloons! Amazing how something so small can be so exciting when you're that young :-)

Then, of course, he saw the presents and was into it!!!  We started with the one from the Big Fella's parents.

Now, the Little Big Fella hasn't made paper planes before, so didn't really understand what his new (BIG) book was about.  The Big Fella just happened to have picked up a foam plane the day before but hadn't put it together or shown the Little Big Fella.  So to give him an idea of what you can do with paper planes, he made up the foam one.

 
Obviously the Little Big Fella had to have a go too :-D  And he LOVED it!  No doubt that book will be regularly referenced in the future!

Well, as much fun as planes are, there was another present to open so we dragged the Little Big Fella back to the table to see what was there.

Insert side story here:
The Little Big Fella has been thoroughly enjoying the few dress-ups that he has over the past few months, so I'd considered buying him another one for his birthday.  But I hadn't gotten around to it.

So last week I was looking at super hero costumes online.  You know, Iron Man, the Green Lantern, Spiderman...  I couldn't decide which one I thought my son would like best, so I decided to get him involved.

I sat him on my lap and we looked through a few pages of boys costumes.  He was quite taken with the Green Lantern... until he saw...

 

Yep, it is!  Darth Vader!  Not a Jedi costume, but Darth Vader.  This is what he chose out of all the superheroes we looked at!!!

Of course, he had to try it on and show himself in the mirror straight away :-D

 

That costume stayed on him almost literally all day!  And most of the next day too!

He wore it when we went to playgroup (and unfortunately accidentally hit one of the kids with his light saber).

He wore it when we got home and for the afternoon.

And he wore it when we went to the park for an Easter event held by our local Lions club.

Suffice to say, he's happy with his birthday present :-)

When we got home from playgroup, the Big Fella had been to the post office and discovered another present for the birthday boy.  This one was from my parents.

It was an Iron Man 3 figure with car and guns and it got an absolute workout! It almost got taken to the park in the afternoon, but thankfully I was able to talk the Little Big Fella out of that one.

The Easter event at the park that afternoon was great fun too.  Funnily enough, the Little Big Fella thought it was his party in the park!  He got to play with his best friend, and plenty of his other friends.  They had sno cones (crushed ice with incredibly sweet coloured syrup) and fairy floss and a little jumping castle!!!  And the Little Big Fella won a prize for the Easter hat he'd made in playgroup that morning!

Talk about a massive day!

Originally I'd planned to have a couple of the Little Big Fella's friends over for a small party, then have a cake at the park for everyone.  But because of playgroup and then the Lions event, I'd decided not to.

But the Little Big Fella kept talking about having his friends at his house for a birthday party, so I decided to go ahead and have one.

Unlike previous parties, I didn't want to spend weeks (months) preparing for it and wanted to make it pretty simple.  So I made a superhero cape for each of the boys, got some cardboard masks, a Spiderman pez dispenser and a bag of teddy biscuits and made that the party bag, intending to give it to each of the boys as they arrived.

As well as the balloons we'd put up the day before, I stuck some streamers around the place and that was it for decoration.

For food I just did a plate of fruit, a bowl of chips (crisps), and some party pies and sausage rolls with sauce.

Well, unfortunately the party with a few friends didn't quite turn out as expected.

The Little Big Fella's best friend went camping first thing on the day of the party.

Another friend woke up with a tummy bug that morning so couldn't come.

The third friend's mum had booked an appointment with the hairdresser so couldn't get to the party.

So only one friend (and his sister) ended up coming.  And they had a great time and the Little Big Fella thought it was awesome!  He even took off his Darth Vader costume and let his friend try it on!!!

It was definitely the most laid back party I've done so far, but apparently it was still a success!  Hip, hip... hooray!!!!!

Easter Saturday

Reading the free local paper turns out to have been a good move this week!  I saw that there was a mini fair kind of thing going on and that Bugs Bunny would be there giving out choccies, and they were planning egg and spoon races and sack races and what have you.


So I bundled the Little Big Fella on to the back of my bike and we rode up there and had a good couple of hours of fun and entertainment.  There were people everywhere!!!  I've seen busy along there but today was crazy busy!  It reminded me of going to the show in larger towns and cities really.


We got there just before the bunny arrived and locked the bike up.  We ran into one of our friends from Mother's Group (we all met when the kids were a month or so old), had a little chat and then Bugs came across the road right in front of us.  The Little Big Fella was shy so I got a lolly for him then we moved out of the on-coming crush.


We wandered a little until The Little Big Fella saw the sno cone stand and I decided to get one for him.  He really enjoyed it :-).  I had a taste and it was exceptionally sweet so he got to enjoy that one on his own.


We ran into friends from daycare too and had a little chat.


Then the Little Big Fella wanted to have a ride on the teacup ride, which he's never been on before.  I was obviously in the right mood and we went on it together.  I had to employ my old ballet pirouetting skills because I was getting SO dizzy!  He loved it though!  By the end of the ride he was starting to feel dizzy too.

Then I let him go on the carousel as well.  He had the option of going on two huge jumping castles and/or the carousel but he spent the whole time on the horses.


We had a little sit in the shade and ate the snacks I'd brought with me then headed back toward home, stopping at the park for a bit of a play.


We haven't really done much leading up to Easter to make it seem special.  We haven't really talked about it or done any special activities (other than what the Little Big Fella has done at daycare).  But I feel like the hot cross buns yesterday and the mini fair today have made it at least a bit out-of-the-ordinary.  The landlord dropped by this afternoon too and they're having an Easter egg hunt tomorrow morning in the caravan park behind us, which he invited us to.


Oh!  And the Little Big Fella painted some plaster Easter bunnies too - he loves painting at the moment and it's so fun watching him try to hold the paintbrush in a pencil grip and paint so intently.  (Note to grandparents: there is a video, which should be on it's way to you this coming week.)


I got the bookshelf and most of the dining room buffet packed today as well.  And I'm copying all the CDs to the computer as I pack them too.  I'm not getting huge amounts of stuff done each day, but I am getting a little bit done and it's keeping the stress levels down.  I also know (hope?) I'll get a fair bit done on daycare days too.


Anyway, I'm going to attempt to keep my reasonable sleep hour rule and head off to make my bed and lay in it.  Good night all!  And Happy Easter for the morning :-)

Good Friday

I actually read the free local paper the other day and came across a hot cross bun recipe.  Hot cross buns feel like quite a tradition to me.  Having them after church on Good Friday, toasted with butter or maybe jam too.  Mmmmm!  I toyed with the idea of making them, then decided it would be WAY easier to just buy some.  


But I forgot.  (Funny thing how big moving news does that)


So this morning I woke up early and the Little Big Fella was still sleeping so I decided to have a go at them.  And they looked awesome and tasted delicious!

Unfortunately, the Little Big Fella didn't want to eat any!  So I ate a couple and separated the rest and froze them for later enjoyment.


I was really happy with the result.  I've never had very successful bread, but this was pretty easy and came out so light and fluffy and tasty!  Yay!


The Little Big Fella and I have been for a big bike ride today (and ended up getting ice-cream too).  We went up a fairly steep hill just near our place and my quads tried to cramp up on me.  Guess I haven't been to the gym enough lately :-D


On the moving front, I've been through the toy room and now have several items on the local Facebook page to sell.  Everything else is in an appropriately sized box and grouped in a way that makes sense to our way of playing.  I've also packed half of the bookshelf, and I've just realised I can probably pack almost all the cookbooks too!  (There's a whole, large shelf of them.)  And I've emptied and taped up a set of drawers, and will probably do another 1 or 2 this evening.


I'm tired this evening though.  I've been burning the candle at both ends and really need to try to get to bed at a reasonable time as much as possible until we move.


Hope you all had a great Good Friday!