Halloween Party 2016

Ohhh my favourite time of year, not because I love zombies and the such like, (this is the person who hasn't yet made it through more than 3 minutes of the walking dead!) No, it's the artistic side that I love, the creating and trying to make things look realistic in a gruesome sort of way. Does that make me weird?

Probably!

This year we all dressed as Japanese ghosts/monsters. Ebi-kun went for Sakado from the Japanese horror film, The Ring - and NOOOOO he hasn't watched it but he knows who she is!

I went for kuchi no ona - the woman with a ripped mouth. I had so much fun doing this, I need more practice with liquid latex though, I did have flappy latex syndrome and I'm not sure why. I will have to brush up my skills for next year!

And daddy made his own costume and was the One Eyed monster, her is was caught eating giant ants.

I'll be sharing some food tutorials with you, as always, here is a sneak peep... Jason tucking in, it's hungry work being a serial killer!

We didn't have so many families this year but everyone came dressed up which is fun and now a lot of places in the neighbourhood do the trick or treating, so much fun for the kids!

The local cake shop goes all out and all the staff dress up too, I loved Porko Rosso this year!

I'm not entirely sure what this fella was up to, he wasn't giving anything else just pretending to sprinkle something on the kids, which was actually which un-nerving, certainly made me laugh though.

Possibly the scariest costume... Donald Trump!

The two older lads in the group decided that they are too big to trick n tear now so they were handing out the goodies instead.

Ebi-kuns game this year, of course included eating! He has 6 bowls with mystery foods in each one. The kids had to roll a dice then pick something from the matching bowl number. The challenge was to eat the mystery food without pulling their face. If they did it, they got a treat and if not a trick. The tick meant putting their hand in a pack of cooked spaghetti to find a treat. 

It was revolting but they kept coming back for more!

Where's Wally (Waldo) 'enjoying' the BBQ lamb caramel that Ebi-kun tried for one of his taste tests.

Jennifer had baked mini cup cakes and got the kids to decorate themselves - smart move there! Needless to say they all got demolished!

All in all another great Halloween party wrapped!
I'll be back later with tutorials for some suitably revolting food, so that you can start planning for next year!

I'm having a party and you're invited...

It has been one heck of a week, I've been battling gremlins - computer gremlins and they tried to wreck my party!!

Not to be beaten by any ugly wee beastie with terrible dress sense I have organized a new party and it's going to ROCK!

Coming?

This is the My Organized Chaos Launch party, I'll be announcing the winner of the scholarship, giving out random prizes, answering your questions and sharing tips and tricks!

Sounds great right, it will be at 9am so I will refrain from slamming tequila and dancing on the table...maybe!

Are you in? Just pop over HERE to sign up and I will see you there!

PS - If it is past you partying bedtime there will be a replay but you still need to sign up to get it!

Visiting Friends and Party Hard!

We had a fun day Saturday, catching up with friends. Two families were over from the US, so the kids and dads went to footpal in the morning then we all met up for lunch.

It's great that even when the kids don't see each other for months they just still get down and start playing like it was yesterday they last met up! And now that the kids are older, us adults can let our hair down a bit (or a lot in some cases - this jug had some dodgy cocktail in it!)

The kids set up a shop upstairs and we had to keep taking it in turns to go and buy toys , books and massages. 

The kids! And yes, they are all footie fans…

And a rare photo of all the adults! Included some comedy moments, and now my iPhone has about 500 blurred pictures of us on it, thanks Ebi-kun!

All in all it was a great day and some much needed downtime.

Blog posts are likely to be short and sweet for the next couple of weeks as I am busy preparing to get everything ready and set up for when we head to the UK (trying to cut down on my work load whilst we are there, so I can kick back and enjoy myself!)

I do have a BIG (almost $5000 worth of prizes) giveaway coming up this week so do pop back to check that out or hop on the mailing list so you don't miss it….

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....

Catching up with old friends...

So, Sunday was equally busy for us. Off to aikido first thing, it finishes at 11.30am so we stopped for some lunch, nipped home so the boys could change, pick up the food and drinks then headed to a friends for a wee party.

One of the playgroup families have moved back to Canada and this is their first time back in 2 years, so good to see them all again, although it didn't really feel like they had been away.

The kids went out to play in the little park and came back BLACK, I have no idea what they were doing but they were filthy and had to take a shower, according to Ebi-kun he had washed his face at this point! 

 All together again! It was good fun and now the kids are older and don't need someone constantly watching over them, us adults can kick back and relax a bit.

 I think M-chan was really happy to have the other girls around, often she is stuck with all the boys, the group does seem to be boy heavy at the moment!

I did see this article over the weekend about oldies in Japan complaining that kids make too much noise!  Ridiculous stuff, whatever next?

A Star Wars Party For A Seven Year Old..

Well, an almost seven year old, Ebi-kun will be 7 next Sunday but we had his party early because some of our friends leave this week for the summer. This will be a photo heavy post and I will do another post with the explanations of what I made and how...

Saturday was wet and miserable so we were praying that the weather would clear up for Sunday, it did thankfully so we started off with lunch (we didn't want the food sitting out so it would spoil). We did it as pot luck and had some great dishes such as The Dark Side Pizza, Wookie Cookies, Han (and cheese) Solo Butties all washed down with Yoda Soda - Refresh you, it will.

Now, normally I make a cake but because it is hot we have to leave it at home and my husband has to do a run home and pick it up when we are ready to eat. This year I decided on something different... watermelon! and In Japan they have a tradition called suicawari, which is basically, beat a watermelon with a big stick until it breaks. In the morning I carved it into the Death Star, we sang happy birthday and they beat it up! It was good to see kids tucking into a whole load of watermelon instead of cake.

Next up was Padawan Training, the young Padawan were split into 3 groups and had a Jedi master to guide them. First they had a treasure hunt, I had taken close up photos of things around the park so they had to find what it was and write it down.

Next up, they had to capture of of the strange creatures (crayfish) and bring it back to Jedi Jo

Finally, they had to climb through the wall without setting off the bells and then they were awarded a lightsaber

And led me to shout one of the strangest things I have ever told a bunch of kids to do...

" Now go over there and fight!"

Fight they did, the dads of course had to get involved, the girls were getting into it too. Now, you would have thought that was enough violence for one party but no, there was more...

The Death Star piñata that I had worked on all week.

So, yes more swinging of bats, misses and giggling. Sadly it fell off the string so they ended up kicking it around, which is what we usually do.

Once it split the usual chaos ensued, the bottom picture the big kids are sharing with M-chan who didn't get anything, they were all trying to palm off the pink candies onto her!

The battles then continued into the pool, it wasn't so hot but warm enough to paddle and splash around in, in fact we all agreed it was better that it being a roasting hot day.

Ebi-kun got a Bear Grylls book from the group - we decided a few years ago that it was better for the parents of the birthday child to buy a book and present it as if it is from the playgroup rather than exchanging gifts. I prefer it this way, there is no expectation of piles of presents and it is less stress for the parents too.

Here are the Jedi graduates, ready for another battle no doubt! It was great fun, the kids were all exhausted (me too) and we got to hang out with old friends before they leave again. It was boy heavy, most of the older girls have left so poor N-chan gets a bit fed up with having to put up with all the boys. 

So, I will do another post with my resources and how-to's, I will make a cake for Ebi-kun's actual  birthday on Sunday so I think I will wait until I have done that then put it all together for you. If you have an questions pop them in the comments section and I will make sure to answer them in the how-to post.