Birthday Boy

The image I took for Max's 9th birthday.

And one more because he let me!

Lego Party

Max recently turned 9 and decided this year to have a party after not wanting one for the past 3 years.  Lego is his number one thing to play with so we planned a lego party.  I searched the internet and came up with some great ideas which I adapted for us.
The following are some of the ideas and images from the party.

First up the goody bags.  These were made from plain paper bags (unfortunately only white was available at the time I went to buy them but you could use any bright lego colour).  I cut out whiter round shapes for the 'connector' lego bits and glued them to the front.  Then I made up name tags which said ' brickmaster ............... and had a minifig head image, which I also made up so they each had something different.  A few goodies were put in the bag and the rest of the goodies came from the pinata.

This was a game we organised.  Not the best image but it is a race track going down.  I taped one end of a long sheet of paper to a picnic table which only had the legs up on one end.  This made it into a ramp, and then taped the paper to the floor.  Max made up sets with wheels, minifigs, steering wheels, bases, aerials, and a few other accessories.  Each child got the same pieces with which to make a race car.  I gave them about 20 minutes to make and trial their cars and then did 10 races.  The person who won the most out of the 10 won a prize.  They all loved this and spent a lot of time racing and building cars after the race as well.

At the beginning of the party each child got to guess how many lego were in the jar and the closest number won a prize.  Note the little box for them to put their guesses in?  It's the only thing I was able to make - but I did need some help with the hinge lid!!

The pinata.  So very simple to make.  This was made from a beer carton (?) only because it was a perfect rectangle shape and nice and sturdy.  I did reinforce the sides with tape and cut a little hole in the top to put the goodies into.  I used aerosol can lids for the round lego connector bits and then spray pained the whole thing black.  It was an awesome pinata if I might say so and took quite some time for them to make a dent in it.

Little sister bashing the pinata.

Minifig cookies - boy did I have fun decorating these!!  I made my own template from card and used a basic cookie dough recipe.  Instead of icing them yellow and then having to ice again to put on the facial features I though I would cut a few corners and actually colour the cookie dough yellow before baking them.  This worked perfectly well and cut down on the sweetness that icing them would have had.  I did have trouble getting the icing black - well actually I couldn't get black and ended up with a kind of grey/purple colour!  Then I piped the features onto the biscuits.  I started off simple and then decided to spice it up with different looks.  These were a hit with the kids and very yummy.

Another game that was awesome was the lego bingo.  Now I got this from a website where it was available to print. lego bingo 
Thank you so much to the person who put this together!!

Lego cupcake toppers.  Ok so the icing of my cupcakes leaves a bit to be desired, I should have piped it on.  I think the heat may have something to do with it as well.  Anyway I made the lego cupcake toppers to go on them. 

The table.  You can't see it that well but we spelt out Happy Birthday Max with lego pieces.  Ok so Max had to help because I couldn't work out how to make them.

This had to be one of the easiest birthday cakes I've ever had to make.  It was a square chocolate cake and the round top pieces were cut off from the cupcakes.  The whole thing was then iced blue and tasted delicious.  Super simple.

We also played a couple of other games that I didn't get photos of.  The first being a lego straw game.  Each participant had a container of small lego pieces and a straw.  The aim of the game was to 'suck' the lego piece to the bottom of the straw and transfer it another bowl.  The first one finished was the winner.

The next game was using chopsticks.  Similar to the game above they had to use the chopsticks to transfer their lego pieces to a separate container.

I had so much fun organising this party it was a blast.  The kids all enjoyed themselves and had a great time.  Can't wait for next year!

THE END

Day 365 / 365



Well folks this is it - the end of project 365 and wow what a journey it's been.  I have learnt so much over the past 12 months and my perspective on the world, people, nature and things will never be the same.  I have learnt to see things from different angles, found beauty in small and seemingly insignificant things and challenged myself to find interesting things or turn the most boring thing into something interesting to photograph. I now notice the ladybug on the leaf, the way the sunlight comes through a window, the clouds in the sky, eyes (yes eyes which are the most important part of any portrait) and how each and every person has a beauty just waiting to be noticed.  

I have to say it will be a relief not to have the pressure of finding a photo a day but I am so glad I did it and persevered to the end. (even if I was a week later)  I now also have an album of the past year in images to look back on.  So thanks to everyone who has followed me on this journey, many from a distance and hopefully I can encourage someone else to do their own project 365.  You don't have to be a professional photographer or own an awesome camera you just need the desire and you can achieve it.

I may be tempted to continue with a project 52 so stay tuned if you have been following, you may not have seen the last of me yet....

GETTING ROUND TO IT

Day 364 / 365



Finally after years of having these old family photos sitting in a corner of our lounge I have hung them on a wall.  It is amazing how a few pictures on a wall can make a home seem more homely.

PIZZA

Day 363 / 365



Dinner tonight - homemade pizza.

GREEN

Day 362 / 365



Today was bought to you by the colour green.

A LITTLE RETRO

Day 361 / 365



I got both the children a lava lamp each for xmas.  I love them and love the different shapes they make.

HELLO 2012

Day 360 / 365



Well by rights I should be finished my 365 by now but clearly I've missed a few days so will continue until I get to 365.  Happy new year everyone.

FAREWELL 2011

Day 359 / 365



The last shoot for 2011, a gorgeous family with a speedy toddler and newborn.  This is the first time I've incorporated parents into newborn images and I love the results of this one.

DRESSES

Day 358 / 365

One of the dresses Miss A bought with her xmas money.  It reminds me of roses chocolates for some reason.....must have chocolate on the mind!!

SUMMER

Day 357 / 365



The sweet taste of summer.

I FINALLY CAVED

Day 356 / 365



Well after much deliberation I finally caved and we got the family a Wii for xmas.  It was a present for the whole family from santa and the kids got to open it when dad arrived home from work.  I don't particularly embrace the whole idea of electronic games for children and wonder what will happen to our society in the future and particularly our children as these games become more and more prevalent in a childs world instead of the world they actually live in.  There are too many studies showing, and having seen and heard first hand the effects arcade type games have on children to not think seriously about whether the decision to own one is a good one. I have managed thus far to not follow the trend and introduce electronic games to the household but upon reflection I could see some benefits to having a Wii in particular the wii sports and dance junior which is what we got.  With these programs they keep the kids active and thinking and will certainly give us plenty of entertaining times together as a family.  So now Max won't be "the only child in the class who doesn't have one" or so he used to tell me, however he also said he didn't care. 

CRAZINESS

Day 355 / 365



She's a crazy little thing but I love her to bits.  Always willing to pose for a photo and ever so keen to take her own photos these days.  Check out the different coloured painted nails.  She got nail polish for xmas and every nail was painted a different colour!

CARDS

Day 354 / 365

I personally was very slack with xmas cards this year.  The kids sent out cards to all their friends and classmates but unfortunately I didn't follow suit.  I appreciate people taking the time to write and send cards and even though we sometimes lose touch with people throughout our busy lives xmas allows us sometimes to send a little message to let people know they are in our thoughts so thank you to all those who sent cards our way.

INVENTIONS

Day 353 / 365



I am constantly amazed at what Max can do with his lego.  Since we have banned him from getting any more 'sets' he has made some amazing things with all the lego he has and the great thing is he in making them from scratch so he is having to work out how to do it without a manual etc.

This is a very strategic and fun lego game he has created.  I think he has based it on a lego game that is already on the market but as we aren't sure how that game works I don't know how alike it is.  Basically you get a base plate and put on a series of bricks to make walls kind of like a maze.  The beauty of this is that it can be changed every game so no game is the same.  Next he added some 'treasure' pieces and put them in hidden corners of the board.  The treasure pieces had different advantages.  There were 4 orange cone treasures which gave you the advantage of being able to use 1 to move a wall.  There is 1 green cone which means you can jump over a wall and the red cone gives you the advantage of not having to go back to start if you get caught by the monster.   The monster roams the board and if you throw a black on the dice you can move him 10 paces.  If in that 10 paces he touches a player they have to go back to the start.  The object of the game is to get from the start to finish via the maze however there are 6 sides on the dice.  The black means move the monster, brown = move 1 spot, blue = move 2 spaces, red = 3 spaces, yellow = 4 spaces and the last side had a computer sticker on it which means you can move a wall.  Moving a wall allows you to block in an opponent or unblock yourself.  This is where strategy plays a part.  I think I've remembered everything but basically we made up the rules as we played to start with and kept what worked.  A super fun game that I find personally quite addictive and challenging.  Hats off to the 8 yr old inventor!!

MERRY XMAS

Day 352 / 365



Wishing everyone a very merry xmas today.  We are in effect having 2 xmas days, one today and one on Wednesday when their dad comes home.

I'M CHECKING MY LIST..

Day 351 / 365



Reindeer food out - check, key on the front door - check, carrots for reindeer  - check, santas snack and note out - check, presents ready to go - check, kids asleep...................NOT YET!

I think we're all set to go.....Merry xmas everyone.

ALMOST DONE

Day 350 / 365



Well the advent calendar is almost finished.........just 1 day to go and a ho ho ho.  Preparations are underway and presents are wrapped ...it's nearly xmas!

SPOT WHAT!

Day 349 / 365



The playroom floor reminds me of those spot what books where you have to spot something obscure in a picture. Sometimes finding the right piece of lego is more like a treasure hunt in our house.

FLOATING POM POMS

Day 348 / 365



I made these tissue paper pom poms for our xmas party a few weeks ago.  They are still hanging but I guess after xmas they should come down.  I think I'll try and store them for next year as they make such a colourful decoration.