Dan - Superman Party (superheroes) Age 4

Wow! I worked so hard on this party and it was so worth it - Danny really enjoyed himself and I have heard great reports from parents that their children had a great time. After going to a couple of parties with Danny with loud entertainers I think this was a breath of fresh air for the children. I even told the parents they should feel free to leave their children and go - It is easier without parents,and parents were more than happy to do this.

Weather wise, it was perfect and we actually did the whole party outdoors.
I made bottles with Superman logos, capes, cut out masks and madea couple of banners, cupcake toppers and the cake. I had loads of potential activities planned but this is what happened -
1) Arrive (most were dressed up) and pose for photos with the birthday boy, play with the phone box and make superhero masks
2) Get their capes and run around
3) Yoav and Dalia took the children - girls with Dalia, boys with Yoav and they were amazing. Not sure what they were doing with them but they had them all listening intently and repeating superhero chants
4) Superhero Musical statues
5) a quick game of dead lions
6) a few parachute games (but it was a bit mad with so many children although they seemed happy enough)
7) Pizza supper

8) Cake - Danny smashed the cake and we gave out cupcakes
9) We gave everyone little flashlights (the plan had been to find angry birds hidden around the garden but we ran out of time) and ready packed treat bags.

The planning ideas:
So I have started planning well in advance and hope that he will still like Superman as much by Nov 16th!

So the current ideas are: (hoping to reuse the town boxes and telephone box for Yoav's spy party!)

games - photos in front of boxes wearing pre-made capes

find the kryptonite - in the garden - need to 'make' kryptonite!

superhero training - throwing kryptonite bean bags thru hoop to knock over superman toy

learn how to fly - jump off something...

catch - 'it' - telephone box - safe

musical statues

dead lions

http://www.buzzfeed.com/twopoodles/superhero-party

http://www.karaspartyideas.com/2012/07/girly-superhero-5th-birthday-party.html

​town out of boxes - black duct tape and white

big blue bedding backdrop

fridge red phonebox

red capeshttp://www.slideshare.net/jollymom/superhero-cape-template

superman logo on

superman logo cake

superman logo to stick in fairy cakes

Sleep training babies

Always an interesting one and not easy to accomplish!

Without dummies, and for 3/5 children even without comfort toys sleeping could have been a challenge, but as soon as we worked it out with number one, Dalia the same methods seem to work for all of our consecutive babies.

It is, to the horror of many 'crying it out'. All it takes is oneor two nights with crying and both parents and child are happier. The way i trained the children meant i had to watch my clock carefully which distracted me from the heart wrenching cries. It is not easy but once you have made the decision to do it, both you and your hubbie have to be totally in for it and you have to keep up the same method for any night time waking (unless of course the baby has woken up for a reason or is unwell).

It also works best if your children are already in a nice routine, with regular bed time schedules so that they know that after bath, and teeth brushing, it is time to go to sleep.

After saying good night, close the door and stay nearby. After one minute, go in, pat, say good night and then leave. NO eye contact. Then stay outside another minute and repeat. Then wait two minutes before just going in, maybe a pat or a stroke (no speaking) and leave again. Then wait another two minutes - or more if you are strong enough. Then wait five minutes before going in and out the baby's room. Then ten, then 15. By the time you have waited outside 20 minutes most times the baby will have fallen asleep. If not keep going in at intervals you are comfortable with if it is helping. You should notice times when the baby cries less or more intermittently - in which case he is soothing himself and it is probably better not to go in at all. Play with these rules and intervals - something will work. and the next wake up - even if in the middle of the night you must repeat the process in the same way. After two or three nights you will have your sleep back and wonder why you let the baby take control for so long!

One thing that just worked for Ella this week (20 mths) - I had lots of eye to eye heart to heart chats to her about going to sleep nicely - with no crying...and it worked (well for three nights so far!).

By the way - I think you can try CIO method from as soon as you feel ok with it - even as little as three months. The earlier you do some form of it, the quicker you get to sleep! x

Dalia 9! Top Model party

Well, Dalia is about to turn 10 and I can't believe I haven't written up abut your 9th birthday. It was such a success!
Top model is quite the in thing - basically it's a grown-up colouring book, with outlines of models and you design and colour in clothes and hair and accessories. The girls spend hours on this and there are even by versions with cars to design and stickers etc.

So the invitation told everyone to come all dressed up and once they arrived, they did some top model designs.
Then once everyone had arrived we got out the props and I took loads of great photos of the girls who had the best time posing for the camera. While they ate I printed off sheets of all their pictures and we handed them around. Each girl received a photo frame and made their own photo collages and decorated their frames. I gave them cellophane bags to wrap them in to take home. Was such a success. They were so chuffed with it all! Even the grandparents had fun!

SUPERHERO Party - Yoav 7

Great fun and I just love seeing 7 year olds (and some 6, 8 yr olds) being little boys - having the best time, dressing up and having fun. Some mums told me their son enjoyed this party way more than entertainers - makes me so happy to know the hard work in these parties paid off!

So the theme was superheroes as Yoav is particularly into the Avengers at the moment.
Kids dressed up as Captain America, Iron Man, Spiderman, Ninjago, Ninja Turtle, Batman, and others and i love that many outfits were homemade and the parents got into it as well!

Lucky me the weather was dry just for the duration of the party (rained before and after) - it was this that made the party. The boys arrived and went straight outside where they compared outfits and got into character with playful fights and running around and mingling. Once everyone arrived we went down to the basement to decorate capes and masks which was particularly good for the two boys who decided not to dress up but soon regretted it...A few boys didn't do this but amused themselves somehow without too much annoyance! I had printed out avengers colouring sheets but in the end these weren't needed.

Once the capes were finished i put some back in their packets and others wore them and we went back to the garden as it was now dark...this was the fun part!

It was pitch black out there and everyone received a cool (1 shekel) rocket torch and they played hide and seek - they could only light the torch if they were finding or had been caught. They played this for ages and really enjoyed the run around.

Then it was dinner time and they had pizza and drinks downstairs..and then we did the cake - the captain america shield (which the boys were very impressed with) and ended with a calming episode of avengers to finish off. I cut the cake up upstairs and put on plates with star biscuits on a necklace for them to take home with them together with the capes and masks.

The party was an hour and a half which I think is just right for a party at home and there were only 14 kids altogether which was perfect for this kind of thing.

Yoav has slept in his Captain America outfit for three nights since the party..;) def a success!

Dan 3 - Fireman Party

Dan is 3!!

The happy birthday Boy!

Well this is the original plan..I will update on what actually happened!

Food – peanut butter/choc spread sandwiches

Bamba/crsips/pretzels

Veg platter

Fairy cakes

Food

Fairy cakes/number 3 biscuits (and biscuits with Dan in Hebrew)

Water bottles with labels on (replaced with a jug of squash!)

Making crowns

Activities:

Fireman sam colouring and fireman crowns 

 Fireman scavenger hunt – find the flames scattered around garden -  (cut up crepe paper in red yellow and orange) - Changed this to dolls around the garden that they had to 'save'

 Pass the parcel with torch gifts

Ready to race!

 FIRE ENGINE races - firetrucks - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/box/firetruck/ These were great and the kids loved them and took them home!

The firetrucks!

Fire engine visit?! - they wouldn't come!

The cake

CAKE - fire engine cake http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1161474/Recipe-Fire-engine-birthday-cake.html

Blowing out the candles

Why write a blog?

I am so incredibly blessed. I am also constantly aware that at any point it might be our turn to deal with difficult or even tragic news and I want you to always know me, know me and your daddy and know how much we love you all and just do our very best for you in every possible way.

I aim to include in this blog all my thoughts on child rearing while I am in the midst of bringing up my babies and watching you grow into toddlers and tweenies...and then please God onto teenagers and young adults! 

I want you to see that our way of bringing you up is to get on with what is right for us as a family unit - to ignore a lot of the crazy theories out there which may have some worth but are unrealistic in following. Our policy is to go with things...to follow your leads...and to importanly not judge too much the way others do it, to not follow others like sheep...to be our own people and do what feels right for us always. At the same time we want you to grow into kind and generous people, constantly learning from others and doing chessed. I hope you feel that we have got it right on the whole and that it has given you strength to decide right from wrong and do what your heart tells you and not just what everyone else seems to do. 

Stay yourselves, stick with what you actually believe...and always do your best!

Love you so much

Your proud mummy (and daddy...on his behalf!)

Ella is 1!

My baby girl turned 1!
Well, to be honest, now that all our friends have so many older children I couldn't invite just babies, and it seemed a little unnecessary. But there was no way I was going to have Ella miss out. So we invited the neighbours on a Friday afternoon before Shabbat for some cake, treats and bubbles. Ella had such a fun time and it was the perfect way to celebrate (an alternative to doing a family party...which being without close family here,friends have to take their place!)
Here are a few pics!Had great fun with my new letter stamp for the biscuits and icing!