Nativity Meltdown

LM had an interesting role in the Nativity this year.  It was quite a challenge coming up with a costume as there was just no hopping onto Ebay & buying one.  Google & Mumsnet came up with some solutions but not ones that were very practical in a church of limited size, in a role that involved "bouncing round some robins".

Yes, you've guessed it.  LM was a hailstone (& whilst some might argue that the Christmas story is usually light on such meteorological phenomena, I would like to point out that this particular version also included fir trees, snowmen & the aforementioned robins).  As for the costume, well I made some rather fetching (albeit a tad see-through) satiny white trousers & teamed with thermal underwear & silver tinsel. Ta-dah! one hailstone.

The big performance day came and for a time it looked like all my efforts were going to waste as LM had stage fright.  He stood up to sing the first song with all the other children but instead of a lovely rendition of 'Mary's Baby' his face crumpled & he started howling (not too loudly).  That was the last I saw of him as he spent the rest of the show sat on the floor behind everyone else, resolutely refusing to join in.

The afternoon performance having been a washout, I didn't hold out much hope of an appearance in the evening version, especially as he became hysterical when I picked him up, adamant that he didn't want to go back.  I assured him that he didn't have to (no one would notice a missing hailstone after all) but once he'd calmed down we had a chat (& a bribe) & LM valiantly said he would perform (even singing me the hailstone song) as long as Mummy & Daddy weren't there.  It was a little gutting to be the cause of his earlier terror but as the show must go on I reluctantly agreed.

Driving him down to school for the second, & last, performance I managed to persuade LM to let me come into the church out of the cold, so long as I stayed at the back where I couldn't see or hear him.

Well, I hid behind a pillar but managed to see him sing & dance & 'bounce round some robins' and I couldn't have been prouder.

And would you believe he spent the whole performance craning his neck to see if I was there!

Birthday Bashed

A few days ago LM turned 5.  My grown-up not so little man.

Sadly it was a school day so after just one present LM went off in his uniform demanding of everyone "How old do you think I am?" and taking great delight in informing them.  He handed out gingerbread stars to his class at home time (remarkably patiently given that he had presents to get back to) then it was off home to the aforementioned presents (recurring themes of Lego & Star Wars - always a hit) & his birthday tea request of Chinese.  I'm not so naive as to think I could pull off a party on a Friday night with tired terrors children.

So Saturday was the big birthday bash (or bashed if you are Daddy trying to organise a bit of handwashing).  We went with a space theme & consequently were invaded by a fair few Buzz Lightyears.  My own Buzz was enhanced with a homemade jetpack which survives intact only because it stayed on for 10 minutes max.

 

We played various space variations of the usual party games - Pass the Parcel became Save Planet Earth from the Asteroid (good excuse for my rubbish wrapping - it was meant to look like that!), Simon Says became Commander D says and we had airbeds to replicate the Moon's surface for Toss the beanbag (I mean, moon rock) into the crater (bin).  Oh & a beautiful Pin the Spaceman courtesy of clever Daddy.

The cake was meant to be a UFO with stretchy alien passengers but it may have resembled more of a crashed UFO.  Luckily the kids were either too polite to say or too busy eating it.

Not the cake but gingerbread Spaceman & Flying Saucers

We finished off with fireworks which whilst they didn't keep the space cadets quiet, at least had the advantage of keeping them in one place (briefly).

All in all I think it went well but lessons I have learnt are:

•  how ever long you think a game will last, halve it
• how ever many games you think you need, double it 
• it doesn't really matter as long as they can run around & make lots of noise (Musical Aliens anyone?)