The Countdown is on.....

Every year after Christmas hubby and I vow to be better organised for the next Christmas....we won't leave the food preparation to the last minute, we will have all gifts wrapped well before December and we will have the house in a maintainable state of cleanliness so that we are not still cleaning on Christmas eve....

Then the next Christmas rolls around and everything is still a mad rush!!

This year is not looking to be any better either.  With November having been full of birthdays, parties, graduations, performances and recitals December is just around the corner and Christmas is fast approaching!!!

Yesterday hubby calculated that I had 4 weeks of preschool left and as Miss 5 attends 2 days a week he decided that I had 8 child-free days to get ready for Christmas...and our end of year holiday (leaving on Boxing Day seemed like a good idea a few months ago!!).  

Well I told him to take out the days where I have canteen duty, the days where I will be attending year 7, 8 and 10 end of year presentations, take out the day the girls have their dentist appointments...

Hubby's new calculation was that I have about 2 hours of child-free time to be ready for Christmas and holidays !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 5 gone.....no loss no gain!

Week 5 has been and gone....I had no weight loss and no weight gain....given the week that I had I am happy with that result.

I have been feeling sick and have had really bad headaches this week so have not exercised at all and have not focused on food either.

I'm happy to take it easy and get better, then continue on!

Til next week....

Week 4 gone.....but 500 grams came back!

Week four came along....and with it came the end of three weeks of planning two birthday parties....the mad rush to get everything done by the party deadline was now gone and the refrigerator was filled with party leftovers from top to bottom.

Three weeks of burning the candle at both ends meant one tired mummy who ate whatever she could find and did zero exercise.  Subsequently 500 grams returned......in all honesty I am lucky it was only 500 grams.

Hoping to get my act together again this week!

Weeks 2 & 3 gone.....and 1 kilo gone...!!

Well weeks 2 and 3 are just a blur!!  

This mum decided to hold her youngest daughters 5th birthday party and her eldest daughters 16th birthday party on the same day with a little over 3 weeks to organised it all!!

So days and nights were filled with cake decorating ideas,  jumping castle price comparisons, fancy dress costume enquiries and the list goes on.....an on and on....seriously !!

I was up until til late each night and racing around each day....so I found myself with little time to exercise and so shifted my focus to the food side of things.  Whilst my eating wasn't 100% perfect I managed to stay in a good place....in the past I would have just given up and grabbed myself a can of coke and a family block of chocolate (I have no idea why they call them a family block...surely you are not meant to share them with family members!)

So there you have it....not much to tell other than 400 grams was lost in week 2 and 600 grams lost in week 3.  I didn't quite make it to the 3 kilos before the girls parties but I did lose 1.9 kilos and am happy with that.

Next goal is to lose 4 kilos before our long awaited family beach holiday after Christmas !!

It's been a bit quiet of late.....

The last 2-3 weeks have been a bit quiet here on the blogging front...

The reason for that is because in some state of delirium I thought it would be a good idea to have Miss 5's birthday party and Miss 16's birthday party on the same day....and not only that but I only came to this decision about 3 and a half weeks ago....and the parties are this Saturday !!!!

So I have been burning the proverbial midnight oil with endless hours of  hall bookings, jumping castle price comparisons, jukebox hire research and I now even know a thing or two about chocolate fountains!

There has been the invitations to write and make, the costumes to organise....yeah I didn't mention that both parties had a theme did I....!!!!  There's been shopping for decorations, enquiries about helium tanks.....OMG !!!!!

Miss 5 is having a dozen friends come dressed in their favourite dress up clothes.  Miss 5 has changed her mind everyday where her dress ups is concerned....she was going as a care bear, then as Cinderella, a dozen mind changes later she is going as a princess....let's hope that doesn't change tomorrow.

There's the party food to plan, the games to organise and the cake to make....oh yeah somewhere along the way I have decided to make the cakes for each party as well....with fondant icing which I've never used before !!!!!!!

Miss 16 is having 20+ friends arrive 2 hours after Miss 5's party concludes.  So it' ll be a quick hall clean, change over of decorations and set up for the older kids to arrive.

Thankfully there is some overlap as Miss 16 has decided on a childhood theme and is going as Cinderella to her party so some party food and decorations will be the same.  

But since it is her 16th I am hoping to give it a bit more of an elegant feel...a bit like the ballroom at the palace that Cinderella goes to.....  So I have been researching curtain lights, making organza table decorations, choosing table cloths etc.... and accessories!

So now its all hands on deck....tonight I have to download music for 5 year olds, tomorrow I have to bake the cakes, make chocolate crackles, fill lolly bags, check every-bodies costumes. Friday I have to ice the cakes and bake some cupcakes, make some meringues, pack everything into tubs to take to the hall....

Then it'll be the big day...balloons to fill with helium, sandwiches to make, kids to dress....OMG whose idea was this !!!

I'll blog about it all if I survive !!!!

5 Minute Halloween....

Life is so hectic at the moment that this years Halloween was nothing like previous years where a whole host of Halloween treats have been lovingly baked and created.

Not wanting the girls to miss out on the fun entirely I opted for the 5 minute Halloween.....

Chuppa Chup ghosts....

Witches hats.....

Marshmallow ghosts....

And the piece de resistance.....

worms in mud.....

All whipped up in few minutes and it brought some smiles to the girls faces!  

So there's this busy mums my 5 minute Halloween treats.....and extremely short blog !!!