Throwing a DIY Party.....

What is a recipe for disaster? Thinking that you can do a complete DIY party when you live in India.
But what  is also a recipe for success? A focussed mom intent on throwing an art DIY party in India!
Let's face it, in India when you ask for tissue paper, people shove a box of tissues in your face. So getting around all this is quite the task. But this year, I wanted to do an art party and how!

My daughter loves art. Colouring, painting, cutting, pasting, textures - everything. So for this birthday, I really needed something that she would remember forever. I have this out of the world friend , (no I dont mean para normal) who helped me a lot. And I am blessed enough to have 3 sisters in law who are all early childcare teachers! I mean talk about having a firm foundation.

So the plan was simple. Throw an Art party that the girls and boys will enjoy. Limitations: minimal paint work because I conducted the party in my club where painting wasn't allowed. Even though I offered to cover up the walls (which are mirrored) with thin plastic etc, they were firm about the fact that they wouldn't let us use paint on a large scale.

So solution:
Have an art party that's a mix of art and craft both. Considering that I had a nearly 50 / 50 ratio of boys and girls at the party, I needed to make sure that both enjoyed the activities given.

So here are the activities I kept.
1. Book mark making: some coloured ice cream sticks and glittery stickers later, the kids were a happy bunch!

2. Make and decorate a house. So when the kids entered each one got a bag with some crayon box in it. The kids then used these crayons to decorate and make a house. How? by using one paper cup and one cup cake liner! Talk about having a no mess party!

3. Decorate the bag. In the earlier part you read about how the kids entered and I gave them bags? Well they also had to decorate those bags. So I had kept a bunch of stickers, and laces and tapes and the crayons were all their friends to decorate these bags. They were also using these same bags to store the goodies they created.

4. Make a crown. I made shape cut outs of glitter foam paper and the kids then laced them up and wore them. I won't lie, I was really sceptical about this activity, since buys hardly ever wear crowns. Know what? The boys wore them throughout! They loved loved loved this. I can't believe that even in this age where we try not to gender stereotype, wearing a crown fascinated the boys a lot more since its not something they usually do.

5. Hand painting. To make this birthday memorable, I got a large large canvas. Taped off the edges approximately the width of a printed photograph and then used the interior to make hand impressions of all of my daughter's friends who attended the party. This was the only activity where in we involved paint and was managed by my sil and a very wonderful close friend who managed to get everyone clean before they (a) wiped the painted hand on their clothes; (b) wiped the painted hand on their mommies; or (c) hand painted by club which was a scarier possibility as well!

Finally to end it all, I had a ventriloquist because I figured that attending 150 parties with 150 magic shows was boring. My friend had done a bubble show just a few months back, so I didn't want to repeat that, a ventriloquist was something different and something that the mums would enjoy as well.

Now, here are my observations about the party.
1. Many moms didn't know what to do. Not their fault, I just wanted them to participate more. But soon everyone got into action and did participate after a bit of encouraging. usually birthdays are times when the moms just chill, but here I needed them to take their kids to the art stations and be with them while the activities were being conducted.

2. Though it sounds all lovely and sweet, a lot of time does go in the preps. Especially since it;s DIY, I did spend a lot of sleepless nights in making the basics of the party.

3. Prepare for chaos. Kids loved it and their energy was immense. Thankfully I had a lot of help and really sweet family to absorb the excited vibes of the kids around.

4. Keep extra stuff ready. Well in all honesty, I miscalculated the kids coming. And a few didn't come so I was left with extra stuff. But you won't believe the number of kids who wanted to make an extra card, or an extra bag for mommy. And the ones who wanted more crowns for daadi or daddy etc.

to sum it up, I loved the party, and my daughter enjoyed as well. it was tough no doubt, and would I have gone to a planner? Well, no. I love diy-ing things and also it's helping me teach A an important lesson. That not everything has to be out sourced or bought. It's great fun to use your own hands and creativity and that counts a lot. Most moms really appreciated the efforts that we had put in and they all loved the connect of making easy and non messy activities with their kids.

10 things I learned being a MOM

To round up my learnings as a mom, here are the top 10 that I have learned. No doubt there are many more, but these are the top ones in my book!

1. You are always a bad mother. ALWAYS. According to someone or the other you will always be a bad mother who doesn't feed the kid right, dress the kid right, discipline enough or disciplines too much. Blah blah. Being a mom lays you open for judgement at all times whether you like it or not. Just ignore and walk this path. The only person who needs to agree with you is your partner and the less I say about the rest is best!
   
2. You will become an amazing story teller. From bed time stories to making up wild stories about why we cannot fly like dragons - you will tell them all!
   
3. You will never have enough clothes. Well this goes for all women whether they have kids or not. But especially after becoming a mom you will have 3 kinds of clothes. Clean ones, dirty ones, and 'I will fit into these someday' ones. And amongst all these, will be those 10 clothes that you will wear on rotation until they literally fall off! (Ok I might be exaggerating because if hubby reads this he will be like NO WAY!!)
   
4. You will suffer from memory loss. I don;t know why this is such a mom thing. I really do suffer from memory loss and guess what - it's normal. Right from ordering extra diapers and wipes everyday in a row for 3 days - to forgetting you have groceries and buying them again - I am guilty of it all. Don't know why but I have a feeling that 'bheje mein bhusa bhara hain' comes from a very honest mom!
   
5. You will NEVER have hot tea or coffee again. Or cold, cold drinks. Just never. You can sneak into the corners of the universe but hot or cold drinks will always lose their temperature before you have them. It's universal.
   
6. You will lose track of time all the time. It's actually like you glance at the clock its 8 am. Next you look up and it's 11! And you have no clue where you were in that time. Look at point number 4 for further details.
   
7. This one is for all the moms with potty trained kids. Whenever there are good clean toilets in sight, your kids will not go. They never feel like. The moment you are stuck in traffic with nothing else in sight - their little bladders are full.
   
8. Your kid will repeat the darndest things. So be careful about what you say. They won't repeat the spellings that you were teaching them. No Sir! Instead, they will surely repeat that mamma told daddy that aunty looked really fat and had cakey makeup on! This - yes they will.
   
9. The moment you want to eat - they want to go potty. Without fail. You can try varying your timings to suit their potty schedule, but it's pegged to our lunch and dinner times. Even if you eat your lunch at 4 in the evening - that particular day, they will go at 4!
   
10. You will still love it all. All these notwithstanding being a mom totally rocks my boat and I love it. Yes even though I have forgotten what cold coke and hot tea tastes like.

Mommy Dress Up

How many of us just wake up and throw on some old clothes and tie our hair in a bun? Well, if you are not one of them, then kudos to you, but 80% mommies do this. We need to wake up, change diapers (of the baby's obviously) and start on breakfast. If you are a nursing mommy, you NEED to eat. Like absolutely need to, want to.

And then there's coffee. Which for me personally is tea! I need to have my cup pf tea in the morning, just sitting for those 5 minutes without a toddler or actually anyone in my presence. You know those ads where they show people sitting together and having tea? yeah! Well, not my cup of tea. I hate to talk early in the morning before having tea.

And while I do try to get in a small workout, let's face it - it almost never happens. I am working out running between the bedroom and bathroom and kitchen. Now that my little one is in school, I need to prepare her tiffin box (a post for later) and I really cannot think straight during this personal rush hour.

To top this off, has anyone realized that kids are the s-l-o-w-e-s-t in the mornings? At 10 PM , they will run and scream and jump all over you, the bed, the sofa and the walls (gravity permitting!) But at 7 AM, s-l-o-w. Like deadly slow. The moment I hand a cup of milk over to my daughter, I swear I can waltz around and come back but the straw hasn't reached her mouth yet!!!

Well where am I getting? The fact that we all go through this. As a mom without any experience, i felt the worst in the mornings. i thought other mothers have their shit so well put together and here I am trying to comb Miss A's hair with one hand and make her wear socks with the other. But no sir, that's not the case. We all are living this now, and seriously we need a hug.

But on these very days, I think I have found what helps me. A well planned schedule and a lovely outfit. I prep for the tiffin the previous night and lay out my clothes for the morning. Never mind that it's just to drop off Miss A to school. But it really makes a difference when I don't wear yoga pants and actually wear better clothes. My outfit really makes me feel put together. Because when I look good, it's like half the battle won!

Here we go again!

Ok so contrary to what that sounds like, here we go again means I AM BLOGGING AGAIN..... and not I am pregnant again. Just to clear that bit!

Most of the last few years were spent with my lil Miss A who is now a super cute and sassy girl. And after putting off writing many many times in the past, I want to be back now. I always put this on the back burner, waiting for a milestone, but now I am back, and for good!

So many times, we put things off like this, waiting for a particular thing, a milestone, a divine intervention and what not. But recent events (I lost my beloved aunt) have taught me that it's now that we need to live in. I know it's not something new, but self realization is what hits you the most.

I am a compulsive planner, a list maker, and I have a book of lists of all my lists. Sounds silly much? But that's how I am and how I roll. I wasn't this organised, but parenting turned my brain into a mush puddle and now if I don't write it down, I might forget my own name as well. I love to plan the future with the same zeal as a General might plan his war time troops. I have my diary all written down (and seriously I need it) but really at times I feel the need to just relax. Stop and pause and have fun. And vent. Which is why this blog.

So I hope everyone enjoys a bit here (all of my 100 readers that is) and see you soon :)