Good things come to those who wait

Our children have birthday parties every second year. This is an attempt to avoid party fatigue in the parents. Last year was Bethany and Jossie's party year but only Bethany actually had one. Jossie wasn't able to make up her mind about what sort of party she would like and time slipped away. We almost had the same situation this year, as family will realise that Jossie's birthday was over a month ago. At first she wanted to invite all her classmates and their families to a party at the adventure playground in the Botanic Gardens. Even if it was a sunny day, something that could have been banked on in past years but would be  very risky this year, it would still be perishingly cold in July. She then considered the indoor pool but finally chose Airborne Gymnastics.

It was indeed a cold, blustery, rainy day so we were very pleased to be indoors. When you have a party at Airborne you are allowed to invite 25 children so Jossie could have all the friends she wanted. As soon as we arrived , the children started playing. The blur on the left is Toby.

Jossie decided to invite only girls, so had a few spare invitations which were used to include a couple of Bethany's friends.

There is a lot of free play with huge trampolines, a foam pit and ropes and bars. I even had a swing from the rope into the foam pit myself. It hurt my back and it was very hard to get out of the foam. Jossie was embarrassed to have her mother playing. I didn't tell her how pleased I was that my pelvic floor held when I was on the trampoline.

The gym man also played lots of games with the kids.

This one was called Octopus.

Some children are so effortlessly graceful and strong.

Look how high off the ground she was!

The little ones enjoyed the swing.

I like how Bethany's body looks like it is twisting in three different directions.

The cake was a big success. I am rather thankful about that as I had to make it twice. This particular recipe makes a very large cake (just what you need for a party with more than 20 kids) and takes a couple of hours as you have to boil some ingredients and then wait for them to come back to room temperature. I finished it around 9.30 last night and was then rearranging the lounge room for the slumber (misnomer) party when we heard a clang in the kitchen. Milo had climbed up, stretched to the far side of the bench and commenced eating the cake. We were not amused. Thoughts of cutting it in half and using the (hopefully) untouched part were rejected and I started again at 10pm. It was done by midnight and I iced it this morning. Phew.

The two hours passed and the children all seemed to enjoy themselves and I didn't have to do a huge clean up. Now Jossie and three friends have taken over the lounge room, filling it with beds. They have eaten too many lollies (after rigatoni al forno and caramel slice with ice-cream!), watched Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang and are about to watch Starstruck. Sigh....I hope we all sleep tonight, I need it!