Thomas & Friends Big World! Big Adventures!

And just like that I am back in the game…!! Life just feels like it’s been so hectic and I haven’t been able to catch my breath for a minute…From sick kids, to sick me, Craig being away for work and then all the pressures of having too much month at the end of my money… Days roll into weeks, weeks into a month and just like that time feels like its flown past….But I missed this, I find I deal with my emotions and thoughts better when I write it down and so after putting it off for like forever and a day here I am again, did you miss me..??? ha ha ha ha Ok probably not I know it’s mainly my family that read these blogs so they are probably like “what we just spoke to you on wats app yesterday how can we miss you already..?” ha ha ha ha…

Ok but in case you did miss me let me fill you in on where we left off…I opened my mail box one morning like I always do expecting to see what the newest Take A Lot specials were but instead there was an invitation to the premier of “Thomas The Tank and Friends Big World! Big Adventures!” As always I double checked everything, as for me an invitation to an event is like winning on a scratch card it’s so rare ha ha ha ha ha…So this was my check list: does it have my name, are they sure they have the right Marcia, is it legit and not some Nigerian scam trying to get me to Sandton only to rob me ha ha ha ha ha…I was over the moon excited when I found out it was really for me, honestly it couldn’t have come at a better time I just needed a break from reality for a day… A little bit of fabulousity to kill that reality of everyday life… Obviously the first thing I did was phone my family and tell them, and obviously the first thing they did was tell me to not wear a ball gown to the event just cause it’s in Sandton….You see my family knows me too well, I have dreams of being famous, walking red carpets, people saying “oooh look its Marcia”… Author, UN Secretary General, Singer, Chef you name it I’ll take any of the above claims to fames ha ha ha…

Guys let me tell you I was trying to act cool when I arrived at the event, you know like I do this every week…But inside I was like ooohhhhh my gosh how awesome is this, ok ill come clean I think I was more excited than my kids ha ha ha ha… You know when you have to keep telling yourself be cool, just be cool, just act cool ha ha, but at the same time under my breathe was whispering “please don’t embarass me to the kids, just behave ha ha ha ha…..I should have told the kids this was a part of Disney land so that if one day they ask me to take them to Disney land, I could say remember when you were playing with Thomas I took you don’t you remember ha ha ha ha ha…..They had toys out for the kids to play with, we had entertainment from Bobby Van Jaarsveld performing live the new theme song for the movie , Sureshnie Rider from Five FM was the MC for the event ( I only have ever heard her on radio now I actually saw her), I caught a glimpse of Loyiso the singer with his kid…Guys I’ll say it again it was amazing, if it’s not a scam they are running and you get invited to a premier GO it’s so much fun ..!!!!

The movie took me back to my childhood… Back in my days when I was small every cartoon had like a moral, Captain Planet taught us to look after the environment, The Little’s taught us about kindness, sharing, even not to steal…Even at the end of She Ra there was the little wizard popping up to say “whatever the moral was for the day”….. Thomas took me right back there it’s such a heartwarming story about choosing your friends carefully, and how good friends can get you through tough spots and not so good friends can end up getting you into sticky sitautions… On the way home Cianna kept asking “mommy why Thomas was sad?” and when I told her it was because he wasn’t a kind friend and realized that it wasn’t the right thing to do and that’s why he was sad…This lead to a whole conversation with Maya who had been listening about good friends and not so good friends… Earlier in the year if you read our blog Incredible India you’ll remember Maya was in a situation at school where a kid told her they couldn’t play with her cause she was darker than them and she just accepted it and thought it was ok for people to do that…Since that time we have really been trying to encourage Maya to stand up for herself and for her to also be a kind friend towards others… This movie was such a good movie to reinforce that “good friend concept”… It’s a real feel good movie and for us the message was very special cause it was so close to home… The one small down downside was that for Cianna’s age it was a bit long to sit through as she soon moved from seat to seat, then needed the toilet, then shoes needed to be off, then wanted to move again… but for Mayas age it was perfect she enjoyed it till the end and loved it….

The movie actually inspired me to create a “Friendship Tree”, the thought behind this is that we hang art (plastic cup sculptures) on the tree and have a memory tree for the girls of time spent with all our special friends and family… The sculpture idea came from when we last went to Dubai there was an amazing chandelier by Dave Chihuly in one of the hotels, his work is breathe taking, the coloured glass hung in so many different organic shapes is so perfectly imperfect… So I took I leaf out of his book and introduced the kids to Dave Chihuly and they watched videos of how he creates his glass sculpture…Then we set on creating our own mini masterpieces to hang in the tree…. Each child was given two cups to decorate, one they could take home and the other one we could hand up in our tree… So I organized a play date but with everyone’s schedules there was cancellations, moved dates, sick kids, life etc… But eventually a small group of friends could come round… The plan is I keep a stash of plastic cups in the kitchen and as friends or family visit we will just keep adding sculptures to our friendship tree… If you feeling inspired here’s the how to guide:

For a plastic Chihuly sculptures for friendship tree you will need:

Plastic cups
Sharpie markers
Baking tray
Foil
Tongs

How to create the plastic sculptures:

Draw any patterns onto the cups using sharpie markers
Cover baking tray with foil
Place cups either facing up or down onto baking tray covered with foil
Place cups into oven at 180 degrees Celsius,
Watch cups melt and take them out using tongs when you are happy with the shape.
Be careful cups are hot when you take them out and take about 7-10 min to cool before you can handle them
The plastic tends to melt in different shapes but that’s what makes each piece unique… We got the kids to watch the melting process and decide when to take them out….

It was such a lovely afternoon with friends creating, spending time, laughing, the noise of the kids running around having fun…Hot dogs under the friendship tree, play dates that tuned into sleep overs, just the memories… Listen this is my advice make a friendship tree, cause it makes you take time out of life’s hectic schedule to make an appointment with friends who also have hectic schedules and you just get to hang and spend time… That night after we put the kids to bed Maita and I just stay up till past 11 just chatting and catching up, laughing and she helped me get my mind right again and see things in so much more of positive light… While it’s nice to have dreams of being famous, the reality is I am grateful for my less famous path cause on this path I have met friends who have helped me through life’s ups and downs… Its actually so funny cause people will say you have so many cousins but some of my friends are so close they are like family and so I call them cousins instead of friends cause that’s what they are family…

For my darling daughters I want you to know God choose you specially for each other to walk this journey of life together, to be each other’s best friends, and I also pray you meet good friends like I have who become your extended family….AND also that you all will be famous so I can be famous too, just putting it out there incase karma reads my blog ha ha ha ha… And yes yes yes I hear you I know this sounds like one crazy art project but if you don’t make a friendship tree then go watch this movie or make a friendship date, either way its time together and that’s what counts the most…