#SilentSunday

Octonauts! To your stations!

Last week my baby turned three! I have no idea where that time has gone but this is not a post about those cliches, this is post about the P.A.R.T.Y.!

Wiss adores the 'Octonauts' and it was the first thing he said/shouted when we asked what he wanted for his birthday. Even though the guest list was very small (4 other children) this was the first year that we had the space to have a party at home and we were keen to have lots of homemade touches. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and as always, there was tons of inspiration, and we added a few touches of our own.

I wanted to involve Wiss as much as possible and the decorations seemed like a good place to start. We spent one very cold and wet afternoon making Paper Plate Fish, and some underwater scenes with potato prints, sponges and finger painting. He was really proud when we put them up for the party and I definitely want to do more crafting with him in the future.

Wiss loves helping out in the kitchen and these fish biscuits (cheesy pastry) were perfect for a budding toddler chef. The rest of the food was pretty simple - tuna or ham rolls, sausage rolls, carrot sticks (with a nod to Tweak!) and hummus, but we had a trump card to play. I had seen this Shark Fruit Salad on Pinterest and wasn't sure if we'd be able to find a watermelon in January, let alone make it look convincing but I think that the husband did a fantastic job with a scalpel...

I made some card Octonauts hats with logos that could be coloured in and some felt collars with velcro fastenings for all the kids to wear. We planned some simple party games that fitted with the theme - 'Musical Starfish' (basically Musical Statues but you make a frozen star shape instead), magnetic fishing rods, Find the Octonauts (which was the same as this game but with the added extra of having an 'Octo-Alert' to hit when one was found), and 'What's the Time Professor Inkling?'. This re-working of What's the Time Mr Wolf? obviously needed a costume, and so I made this in a hurry using an old shirt collar and some felt! The kids loved it, the husband did not!

The hat was not meant to be part of the costume but  he became rather attached to it!

The party bags were Peso's Medical Bags (see Knitty Mummy for a pdf of the logo) and along with some sea life blowers and stickers, I included some crayons and colouring sheets from the Octonauts CBeebies Page as well as these crocheted beauties from @catgopur...

@catgopur on twitter is making crocheted & knitted toys to raise money for
The National Autistic Society. Contact her if there's anything you'd like yourself.

Can you believe that I forgot to take a picture of the cake? There was cake, honest! A real jam-filled victoria sponge with blue icing, the octonauts logo and neon blue sugar crystals. It was a far cry from the dairy-free, no refined sugar blueberry muffins I made for Wiss to take into nursery...there's just no photographic evidence of it so you'll have to take my word for it!

While I was on Pinterest looking for party ideas I stumbled upon a pattern for a crocheted Captain Barnacles: he looked fantastic, and I thought that he would make a great present for the birthday boy. I commissioned Emma from Lemons for Lemonade to make the Captain as I knew she would do him justice! (Check out her Mr Tickle from last year.)

And talking of birthday presents, we decided to buy Wiss an Octopod from ebay - there are loads on there in perfect condition, with extra figures and vehicles included too; especially at this age, it made good sense. We set it all up for him while he was sleeping and he was so excited when he opened his eyes!

Raoul the Giant Catfish meets the Octonauts!

I think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed the celebrations, some guests were more excitable than others but we all went to bed happy...and exhausted! Happy Birthday little man, we love you!

Super Super Heroes!

Last weekend saw the 5th birthday of one of my favourite little people, my friend's son Albert. I'm not even going to go into how he can possibly be turning five already when I remember him being just a bump so clearly, because that will just make me feel even older!

His mum is super talented (remember her from here?) but when it comes to themed kids parties she is the best, and she makes everything herself. In the past there has been a Cardboard Box party, Brave Knights, an Ice Cream Sunday party and this year it was Super Heroes! There were brilliant games such as 'Pass the Kryptonite' (a glow stick!), tie up a villain (with loo roll) and jumping over 'skyscrapers'...

We were really unlucky with the weather but the kids didn't seem to mind the wind and rain. The garden shed was transformed into a Super Heroes dining room, complete with bunting made from comics, balloons, the Batmobile and 'kapow!' and 'thwap!' signs...

Wiss said he wanted to go as Batman so I duly whipped up an old-school Batman costume (mainly so I could get him to wear leggings with pants over the top!). He must have known any photos of him wearing said leggings/pants would only come back to haunt him because on the day he refused point blank to wear them. Or the cape. So in fact, my little Batman wore just the t-shirt with brown cords and his anorak instead. Damn him!!!

I wanted to make Albert something for his birthday following the Super Hero theme and I came up with...Secret Albertman! Ssssssshhhhhh, it's a secret! All super heroes have an everyday alias, so I thought Albert should be able to become Albertman easily, you know, when the time is right.

I cut two 'A's' from orange and black jersey, layered them with the black on top and sewed them both onto a black t-shirt 10mm from the edge. I love the way jersey rolls itself up in time, and thought that gradually the 'A' would become a little more prominent, but still not too obvious. I made a cape from the same black and orange jersey fabric and sewed my first ever button holes at each top corner. The cape attaches to the t-shirt using fab orange striped buttons (from Ray-Stitch) so it can be worn or removed as the situation dictates!

Every Super Hero needs a way of communicating so I made a double-sided watch from felt - grey and cream felt for the normal everyday watch which turns over to reveal a flash 'telecommunicator'. Secret Albertman laughs in the face of an iPhone! I wrapped these up along with a secret notebook and a card, 'Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept it...'

Luckily for me Albert chose to accept his mission so maybe one day, if you have a problem, and no one else can help, maybe you could hire 'Secret Albertman'. But keep it under your hat! ;)