A day with Vegie Group

I love Vegie Group, but boy do I feel beat after hosting it.  All that preparation, then the day goes quickly - a flurry of eating, chatting, organising, child minding and gardening. It's a lot to coordinate. In return, I have a massive amount of work done in my garden, and I get to hang out with a group of amazing ladies and gorgeous kids.

Images from the night before - Mexican Wedding Cakes with macadamia and almonds, fruit ready to chop for platter, raspberry and chocolate muffins, and ingredients out for cheese and chive scones. The List - I was the first, and still am one of the only members of our vegie group - to write a list, this one's quite short by my standards, but the weeds were pretty bad.  I get laughed at about my list, I think it might be a hang up from my old Landcare Coordinator days.  I am also very forgetful, and I find it helps me not feel flustered about what we're doing when everyone heads outside to do some work.


My kids are all wearing halos today.  I think they have seen my panic as vegie group day approaches in the past, I can get a bit tense before an influx of guests arrive, suddenly I notice how grotty the house looks.  I keep a pretty messy house on the whole, and it takes a lot of work to get it to a moderately presentable state. On top of this, I have to pick up dog poo, clean up outside, and figure out what everyone is going to do. 

The kids, without being asked, decided that they'd help me out. Yesterday, after school, they were asking "how can I help mummy"? How ace is that? Middle one cleaned outdoor chairs and cared for little one.  Big one made biscuits and cleared the benches of dishes. Then this morning the big Bowerbird chick says, "I'll just put my uniform on, then come and give you a hand".  She chopped fruit, and put away dishes and headed off to school with a big smile, brother happily in tow. Bliss. As a result when my first guest arrived this morning there was little to do, I've never felt so organised.


The little one was also great for me, after clinging on to me when the first vegie patcher arrived this morning, she happily let let go when offered water paints, and I was free to chat and host.  She played joyfully all day with the other kids, she didn't have one down moment, awesome effort for a two year old in a crowd.


We got heaps done but I forgot to take pictures during the mayhem, way too much going on.  I have got some after pics but will put them in another post. Sleep is calling me!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, especially if you like birds.