Ninjago Birthday Party - The games

I decided to split the party posts up as not to over whelm, so we will kick off with the entertainment...

We started off with Kai's katana (sword) training. For this we used a wii game, from wii sport resort, where you have to chop various items in half. We did this as training and not competitive games because we had a mixed age and ability group of kids, so I was aiming just for fun. Oh yes, and the fella in the white is Sensei Wu - he is the Ninjago master.

Next was Zanes's target practice. Ebi-kun had made everyone 3 shuriken (ninja throwing stars) and I made a skeleton target, with his mouth open, you had to get the shuriken in his mouth, throw one run through and join the end of the line for your next turn, it was a fast moving game!

I used my teacher training and made sure we had a BIG game followed by a small game - big is for big movement, loud, get the wriggles out kind of game then to bring the level back down you slip in a quiet game. This keeps the day at a good energy level without kids getting over excited. I forgot to take a photo of Cole's Rock training, it was basically guess how many pieces of Lego are in the jar.

Then we had another BIG game, Jay's Spinjitsu Training, for this the training ninja sat in the spinning chair, Sensei Wu span the chair round 10 times and then the ninja had to walk down the line without falling off - rather amusing!

The next training was a stroke of genius on my behalf, Sensei Wu's Zen Training. We got the kids to sit cross legged and meditate for 5 minutes to calm them down before lunch! I can't imagine many kids go to a party and have to do meditation, worked a treat though.

After lunch we had a few rounds of bingo then the kids had free play and the parents had a good old gossip! For the bingo, I took photos of 30 Ninjago pieces, then set up a grid in Pages. dropped each piece into the grid at random, repeated with the next page. I was going to share the file but I am not sure of the legalities. 

We usually have a big party in the park but the weather has been all over the place this year so we decided on a small one at home instead, just as well since we had a massive thunderstorm in the afternoon.

Want more cool ideas, hop onto the fanzine, it's free!

A Big Day and A Trip to The Doctor!

Ebi-kun is 8 today, a whole 8 years old, how the heck did that happen? We had a party at the weekend, I will post about later. This morning we got up like a normal school day so that daddy could see him open his presents. We also had Nana and Papie on Skype - I love how we can include family who are the other side of the world!

The traditional I am '8' t-shirt, I started this when he was three, he gets a numbered shirt each year.

And of course lots and lots of books...

and Lego! You really can't go wrong with Ebi-kun if you get him books or Lego, maybe he hasn't realised he could have other things for his presents!

His gift from us was a new bike, he has been riding the same one he had when he was three so we thought it was about time he had a big boys bike. Sadly the weather was being mean but he still had to try it out. It also had a compass, watch, 7 gears and a speedometer - I'm not too sure about that bit! As if boys need any encouragement to ride dangerously hmmmm.

Giving his new wheels a spin....

After presents, daddy went to work and we had breakfast, Ebi-kun didn't each much. About an hour later he is complaining of a headache, I feel his head and he is burning up. take his temperature and it is getting higher by the minute. So I bundle him into his raincoat and we walk round to the doctor, luckily only 5 minutes away. Of course he didn't want to go because he said he shouldn't go to the doc on his birthday, pretty rubbish, poor kid. 

We came back with some fever reducing meds, I manage to get him to eat a bit of lunch then he crashes on the sofa and asks to watch a film, Lego partly built.

I think the meds have helped, he has perked up a bit now and built some more of his Lego, he has requested broccoli soup for dinner instead of birthday pizza. We will have that later in the week!

8 years ago I cuddled a tiny bundle for the first time, I got lots more today. Happy Birthday Ebi-kun you are a rock star and your jokes are rubbish (in a good way!). Here's to many more birthday and cuddles 💖

You are amazing! and your questions answered...

This last 24 hours have been such a high! THANK YOU!

From when the book was released I have had so many words of thanks and praise and shares, it has been such a ride!

There are another 24 hours to grab it!

I don't have a kindle!

No problemo! Click HERE, then click on the link for the device you are using, it is a free kindle app so you can read kindle books on whatever you have.

I don't use amazon.com

No problemo! Here are the links for other amazon countries - I might have missed yours, if the is the case paste this  B00DSKDYES into the search box of the Amazon company you use and it should come up.

UK - http://bit.ly/MontessoriInspiredUK

JAPAN - http://bit.ly/montessoriInspiredJP

GERMANY - http://bit.ly/MontessoriInspiredDE

ITALY - http://bit.ly/MontessoriInspiredIT

CANADA - http://bit.ly/MontessoriInspiredCA

US - http://bit.ly/MontessoriInspired

I want to leave a review but I don't know how!

Why thank you! You are lovely, you know that right? Click through to the book page on Amazon, scroll down and you should come to the customer reviews section, looks like this...

Click on "write a customer review"

Then you will be taken to this page, pop in your pen name/nick name, star rating, a snappy title and write away. Click review and the OK.

Do you want to know much you ROCK? This much (nearly peed my pants with excitement!)

If you have just wandered over and wonder what all the excitement is about, go and check it out! And please do share with your tribe, friends, neighbours - anyone who has little ones :)

What a way to end the week, thank you so, so much, you are FAB!!

It has been killing me...

keeping this quiet!

I have gone and published a kindle book and 

you can grab it for FREE for the next 48 hours 

WHoo-hooo!

Montessori Inspired Activities For pre-schoolers is a collection of 50 activities to do at home using Montessori's theories but without the expensive equipment. All of the ideas have been tried, tested and blogged about. I pulled them all together and re-wrote some of them. Each activity has a photo, list of items needed and instructions of how to present it. Plus many have extension ideas too.

This is book one and includes activities Ebi-kun did from 2 - 4 years old but many of them he was still using until he was six.

PIN ME!

At a glance...

+ 50 quick & easy to prepare activities

+ All are aimed at helping the child’s development

+ Use Montessori’s theory without the cost of expensive equipment

+ Activities are engaging giving you some quiet time

+ Many activities have suggestions to make it more challenging

+ All have been tried and tested

+ Low cost to set up the activities, many of the items you will already own

+ Free set of high quality printables to go with the book

+ Includes photo, what you need & advice on setting up and demonstrating each activity

+ Suitable for children from 2 to 6 years old

I would love you to help me get this into the hands of as many mamas and papas as possible, so please share this post or this link http://bit.ly/MontessoriInspired.

You can also hit this to tweet it out...

And....(I know, I am so demanding!), if you find the book helpful please leave me a review on Amazon, that will really help me out!

What are you waiting for? Go and grab it whilst it is free and share, share, share!

Ohmmmmm

I have recently stated doing yoga again, I have done it on and off for years but I recently discovered Yogaglo. it is great because they have a big selection of instructors and types of yoga, plus you can find classes that suit your needs, say a 30 minutes class at beginner level for back relief. Anyway, after doing my session  the other day I finished with a short meditation and Ebi-kun joined me.

After he decided that 5 minutes wasn't long enough so he did some more by himself and then announced that we should do some meditation every day!

After a good bit of Ohmmmming we made pizza, this is one scary pizzaman face!

Aikido at the Budokan

Yesterday they had a national kids training day at the Budokan, which is a big hall in Tokyo where they hold major events. There were kids there from all over Japan, 2500 + of them!

Here are the representatives from our dojo...

The tatami was split into 5 squares, our kids were in the red, which was closest to where we were sitting but unless you were on the front row, you couldn't see the whole square, I had to keep sneaking to the front to take some photos! Ebi-kun and H-chan, his sparring partner behind him, she is super cute and always has a big grin on her face.

They started off with speeches & warm ups and then the kids were split into grades, it was all elementary and junior high school kids, so Ebi-kun was on first since he is only 2nd grade. They continued like that until they had all had their go and then there were some demonstrations by high school and university students. The afternoon, each dojo had 5 minutes to do a demo, there were 5 areas, so 5 dojo's were on at once. There were 32 changes, so quite a lot of dojo's all together! This part was really fun, it was cool to see what the other kids were doing. Some were all in sync, some used wooden swords and balls, lots of rolling and throwing. It wrapped up with some more demos and finally, the 5th generation grandson of the guy who founded aikido did a demo, finishing off with him being attacked by 3 blokes and he was just throwing them about like they were teddy's. I have video of it but it needs editing a bit first.

Aikido is non competitive so I like that they have these types of big meetings since they don't have competition meets. There were some kids who were amazing, a jr high school girl who was a black belt, looked like something out of the movies and there were a couple of lads with brown belts that were totally rocking it too.

practicing ushirokemi

 We left the house before 7am and we needed to take a bento too (OK, I didn't get up at 5am to make a bento, I did it the night before, I'm not totally barmy!), the whole thing kicked off at 11am and wrapped up around 4.30pm. Then we headed home, it was a long day but totally worth it!

And if you want to know what 2500+ kids doing warm up sounds like, watch this - it is only a few seconds long but pretty impressive. 10p to anyone who can spot Ebi-kun hahaha.

So, that was our weekend, how about you?

Inspiration Sunday - with Marcela Macías

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.... 

My name is Marcela Macías. I was born in Córdoba, Argentina, where I lived for 29 years, minus some globetrotting here and there. I currently live in Nicosia, Cyprus, with my husband (who is from Serbia) and our 4 year old twin children, Luka and Zoe. 

I am a blogger at The Celebration Girl, and I have recently started to work as a food and lifestyle photographer and stylist. I am completely in love with every single aspect of this profession and the magic of bringing food to life in one picture. 

I love the sound of my children’s laughter and their strong hugs. I love photography, cooking, card-making, entertaining and gardening. I love Cyprus’s beautiful sunny days that are ideal for taking pictures, the cool summer breeze that starts to blow after the sun sets, and the calm beauty of the first hours of the morning, when I practice yoga alone, and the house is in silence. I love the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, the perfume of magnolias, the sight of lavender fields. I love how the grass smells after the rain, the breeze of cool summer nights and the sound of autumn leaves crushed under my feet. I love jazz, and blues, and old French classics, Latin American literature, travelling and the movie Amélie.

2. Where do you get your inspiration from? 

Every day life and, mostly, my children. I had never been creative before them and I guess playing with them, and making things with no assigned purpose, just for the pleasure of having a fun time together, liberated something inside of me and freed me to start experimenting with arts and crafts. I started decorating with fondant, for example, inspired by the play-dough sculptures I was doing with my kids and I decided to try my luck at decorating cookies after playing with tempera with my daughter Zoe. I believe beauty is all around us and that every moment has the potential to provide inspiration, if we let it. 

When it comes to food photography, I am mostly inspired by the dish itself, its ingredients, preparation, and how it was created or shared. I like to create or convey moods with my pictures, to tell a story. 

3. Tell us about your business...

The Celebration Girl is a blog that celebrates life in the small things: food, easy crafts, and relaxed, everyday entertaining. It’s a blog for those who, like me, are not experts in any of these things but who enjoy creating something with their hands, and who want to make their daily lives prettier. I try to use simple ingredients that anyone can get, and affordable, easily found materials for my crafts and table settings. I want to provide doable inspiration and detailed step by step instructions, so that my readers can feel confident that they, too, can do anything I do. Paraphrasing Martha Stewart “If I can do it, anyone can do it”

4. What led you to start your business.... 

That’s a bit of a long story and one that has to do with a life crisis. 

I used to be a lawyer, specialized in Public International Law and Human Rights. I met my husband while working at UNOCI (United Nations Operation in Cote D’Ivoire-Ivory Coast) as a UNV (United Nations Volunteer), we got married shortly after we met and lived in Africa together for 2 more years. In 2007 my husband found a job here in Cyprus and we decided to move, because we wanted to start a family in a place that was not at war and where there wasn’t malaria (which I had had twice). Moving implied that I had to quit my job but I didn’t worry, because I thought I would eventually find something. 

I got pregnant pretty much as soon as we arrived, with twins (which was quite unexpected) and life circumstances made it clear, after a while, that it was not going to be possible for me to go back to work. And I didn’t know what else to do. 

I was an avid reader of lifestyle and food blogs by then (I used to browse them in the long sleepless night of breastfeeding, to prevent me from falling asleep with the children in my arms). One day, I don’t really know why or how, I decided to start trying my luck at some of the pretty DIYs and recipes I kept looking at, just to keep my mind occupied. Then I tried some more. Then I tried different techniques. Then I started photographing what I was doing to show my creations to my family, and my friends started asking for instructions. I was writing so many emails with recipes and instructions by then, that I decided to start a blog. To my surprise and delight the community of readers grew and I now have over 800 followers on facebook! I am deeply grateful for that.

5. What does an average day look like for you?

My children are not in school nowadays, so no day is like the previous one, but in general I wake up early (4:30/50), I meditate and practice yoga and then I write for one hour. Luka and Zoe wake up at around 7, we have breakfast, and then we go to the park. We come back before lunch, I take some pictures if I need to, cook while they play, and then we eat together. After lunch we read stories or do some arts and crafts, and I test recipes (they are keen helpers!). Twice a week they have some other activities in the afternoon, but when they don’t, we go to the park again or bike around the neighborhood after my husband comes back from work. After that, it’s dinner and bedtime at 8 and my time to work. As soon as they fall asleep I turn on my computer, edit pictures and work on the blog and in my book, This is the time when I also prepare any craft projects to be photographed the following day. Once a week, we have a date and movie night at home with my husband (well, it’s mostly series, not really a movie, but we love it ).

6. What is the one thing about your job that makes your heart sing?

I love everything about the creative process: coming up with an idea, polishing it, bringing it to life. This is particularly so when it comes to food photography, because I get to be a part of every aspect: choosing beautiful ingredients, cooking them with care, planning the set, selecting the right props, playing with the light and the camera settings and then doing the final editing and posting it in my blog. Everything about photography makes my heart sing with joy. And when my readers make what I share and they love it, oh that makes it all 10 times better!

7. Share a secret with us that has never been shared online before ...

Ok, here are a few fun facts: 

• I couldn’t find how to adjust the aperture in my camera for two years and it drove me CRAZY! (The manual didn’t say anything) 
• When I started photographing I had no idea what white balance was so all my pictures had a bluish hue (the white balance was set to tungsten!) 
• I don’t drive 
• I had nightmares for months after watching the movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose, especially if I happened to wake up at 3 am. 
• I’m very goofy. 
• I’m crazy about fantasy literature and my cat’s name is Galadriel because of LOTR. 
• I love the Harry Potter’s books. I wish I had gotten a letter from Hogwarts when I turned 11. 
• I’m still surprised when I am called creative because I always saw myself as a nerd with no artistic skills whatsoever.

About Marcela:

Marcela Macías is a food and lifestyle photographer currently living in Cyprus. She writes at The Celebration Girl, a blog about finding joy in the small things and is a regular contributor of Spanish online magazine Petit-On. Her work has been featured on Martha Stewart’s dreamers into doers, Whole Kitchen Magazine and Catch my Party. She licenses her photographs both privately and through Getty Images.

Find Marcela....

Website : http://thecelebrationgirl.com
Facebook : http://facebook.com/thecelebrationgirl
Twitter : @celebr_girl
Pinterest :http://pinterest.com/marcelatcg
Google+: https://plus.google.com/102930950007655882175/posts?hl=en&partnerid=gplp0
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thecelebrationgirl

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malche/

All images property of Marcela Macías except for Inspiration Sunday Banner

Let The Holidays Begin....

It is no secret that I love muffin tin meals but during school term I don't really get a chance to make them. Ebi-kun was on half days yesterday and today so I thought we should kick of the holidays in style!

At the back we have cream cheese rolls, the clockwise a boiled egg, ham, string cheese, pineapple and crisps in the middle.

MTD are perfect for the holidays, you can stock up with lots of bits and bobs then just slap it in a muffin tin and call it dinner! If you have kids that like different things or are picky eaters,  perfect - just give them what they will eat, no faffing around making different lunches. Plus the kids love them.

I have collected the ones I have made in the past and made a pinterest board for them, just in case you are looking for some inspiration. We might even do some themed ones again this summer!

Love this post? Want more, sign up for the MOC fanzine - it's free. Spam not included!

What is cooler than Pocky?

Star Wars Giant Pocky of course!

Yes, another of those, only in Japan things - they are pretty cool but I wasn't fussed on the flavours to be honest.

Ebi-kun finished for the summer holiday tomorrow, so I have been beavering away, trying to get as much done as possible before the holidays kick in, hence the slow down on posts here. I have some fun ideas planned for the holidays and we have been asked to test out some online courses so there will be news about that too. Right now though, it is back to the grindstone...

Officially The Best Weekend Ever!

It was a three day holiday last weekend so we went camping. We went to a site we have been to before, Nagurkankou near Hanno. it is in a lovely spot and has a beautiful river running through it. This is the view from  the tent...

At the site there is the 'free camp' which mean you can pitch your tent anywhere in the designated area, this is where we went, there was only one other group the first night and we had the whole place to ourselves the second night. There are also cabins which usually get booked out and the auto camp where you park next to your tent, and yes it is convenient but it is like camping in the car park! The downside to the free camp is that you have to cart all your gear over a dodgy bridge and up some steps, that said, it is worth it.

We had friends come out for Saturday and they left late Sunday, Ebi-kun loved having his mates there, there were lots of water fights...

Making 'onsens' and exploring, Saturday night they all slept out under the stars, by dinner time Sunday, Ebi-kun was exhausted and just kept begging to go to bed!

Most of the river is paddling depth but there are a few deeper spots which is where the kids practice swimming, there are also fish and tadpoles to be caught - yes, we have more pets now!

The water is sparkling clear, it also works perfectly for me, I burn very easily and get sunstroke but here I can stay in the shade and keep an eye on the kids, there is always part of the river which is shady.

We came to this spot 2 years ago, Ebi-kun wouldn't jump off the rock without holding daddy's hand then, this time he was all for it. I was using Ebi-kun camera because it is waterproof but I haven't figured out all the settings yet, this was the best water jump pic I got.

Saturday the place was pretty quiet but Sunday, we were invaded by day trippers, that said, there was still plenty of space to play and it tended to the other part of the river, near the auto-camp which was really busy. Lot of drunken 'young folk' but by 5 o'clock the day trippers had all gone home and we had the run of the place again.

One of the things that I love about this site is that there is NO entertainment for the kids other than nature, they have to find their own entertainment, the kids were totally happy to spend all day messing around in the river. It was great to see kids just being kids, no ipads, DS or any other gadgets, the only one I saw was a grumpy looking mom with a smartphone watching a show or film, completely ignoring her kids, so very sad.

Perfect spot for practicing a bit of yoga....

Other than lugging all the camp equipment to the top of the campsite, the only other downside is that the supermarket is miles away, so you have to be super organised (good job that is my super-power!) Ebi-kun declared that it was The Best Weekend EVER. 

Great weekend, great company, can't wait to do it all again.

The coin challenge..

I am sure you must have done this yourself at some stage. A quick and fun experiment to set up. You just need a glass, water and coins, we used ¥1.

Fill the glass right to the top with water, so that it is almost over-flowing. The challenge is to see how many coins you get in the glass without the water spilling over. Ebi-kun tried this several times, I think his best score was 14. Fun bit of kitchen science, perfect to kill some time!

How To Run A Successful Party....

click me to grab the party planning pack

July is birthday month for Secret Agent 008 so I am already in full planning mode - I love planning parties! But, I know many people hate it and get stressed out about it all. So, yesterday I was writing my weekly MOC blog post about party planning and well, it ended up more like an ebook!

If you want to read the full post, pop over to MOC, if you just want to get your hands on the ebook, which is chock full of planners, check lists and a countdown guide, just click HERE.

I am giving it away, for free until the end of the birthday month, after that I will pop it in the shop (so even if you don't have a birthday this month, grab it now for when you do!)

Those peeps that get my fanzine, you have been sent a copy! Check you inbox.

Final wee request, if you use pinterest, would you mind pinning this....