emily's bridal shower

this coming thursday is the big day... and today dom and i joined forces again (you can see our first joint effort here) to throw a bridal shower for her sister in law to be, emily! 

it's blossom season here in australia, so i did some branch collecting around the place and ended up with four vases of blossoms that not only looked amazing, but smelt like heaven! the bunting is a mix of lace, satin and calico triangles and is about ten metres long... made by my mum when she and dad were in samoa! it looks amazing all set up!

drinks were simple, with pink lemonade and water with strawberries and mint

the menu was a little more complicated as we catered for gf and df guests, but i think we got it right... there was barely any left over!

gf df brownie muffins (these have been my go to over the last few months - recipe here)

amazing flowers with our feast in the background

we had a few games 

- your earliest memory of emily

- he said, she said, with a video of therons responses... certainly got some giggles from the girls

- how many kisses for the future mrs (guess how many hershey's kisses were in a jar) 

we love you em! i can't wait to watch you become mrs. pinker next week! ♥

a mermaid cake!

i have a friend who has 7 children. i admire her so much and am constantly in awe of her ability to handle it all and still stay sane. her eldest is a beautiful red haired girl, full of smiles, but so quiet (around me anyway, i have no idea if she's like that all the time!) i absolutely love her and when i found out her birthday was coming up, i decided i was going to make her cake. she adores mermaids, so it was easy enough to think of a theme... especially after i found a mermaid tail chocolate mould and mini shell moulds on ebay. 

i totally cheated and used the greens white chocolate mud cake mix, then split each box to be five different colours, cooked into two cakes...

and some sort of a marbled rainbow. the tail and shells were simply melted and then reset white chocolate... and the shards had rainbow pearls from the coles bakery aisle sprinkled onto them before they set... and then cut into pieces with a knife. easy as pie!

i had reports of it tasting great, so i guess that's a success... i'm just proud it worked! yay for finally getting somewhere with this cake making thing haha.

blackout crafts

the weather here on friday was crazy! considering it is now spring, we were all shocked to say the least that the weather turned sour and it was blowing a gale and pouring most of the day... then most inconveniently, our power went out at lunchtime. of course when i picked madeline up from school she wanted to watch tv and listen to music - whilst i wanted to cook and vacuum and do multiple things that involved power... but today it wasn't an option.

so we improvised. joseph sat next to us and played with his cars... and we made a dreamcatcher together, from a kit she got as a birthday gift. (when i say together, i had to do most of it because the threading holes were teeny tiny) but she decorated it and supervised and generally had the time of her life. who knew a black out could produce so much fun? ♥

eternal friends

today this gorgeous girl made one of the best decisions of her life (other than becoming friends with me hahahaha) as she entered the temple and received her endowment. it was such a beautiful day, even though it was stormy outside, it was warm in our hearts... and i feel so lucky to have been there with her. 

there's not too much i can say about dom that hasn't been said, but this picture kind of sums it up... i love her - and she kind of just goes with it ♥

a night at the ballet!

the is the face of the luckiest girl in the world, who straight after her school disco this evening did another costume change and headed back out the door to her first taste of a proper ballet production at none other than his majesty's theatre in perth city! 

we have a friend who works at the west australian ballet and he managed to get 6 free tickets to tonights show of "the great gatsby." probably not the most family friendly show there ever was, but let's be honest, when it's told as a ballet, how bad could it really be?

off we went with the pinker girls and had a great night. the ballet was wonderful and looked amazing... 

but 

please remember i took a 6 year old. this six year old was asked about 4 times prior to entry if she needed to use the bathroom. she said no. halfway through the first act, she (of course) needed to go. a lock out period applies, so we were forced to go and sit in the back row of the very top tier of the theatre. we could still see everything, but of course then she was upset because she wanted to sit with the pinkers.

after intermission we were admitted back to our seats, only for her to ask me question after question so i had to move my head a lot, then i had the guy behind me tell me quite sternly to sit still and stop moving his head or he wouldn't be able to see a thing. maddie chose this moment to tell me that she'd had enough and wanted to go home (fine by me!) so out into the foyer we went... only to see the lovely mermaid jessica pearl (so of course then maddie wanted to stay) who chatted with us until the end of the show and our friends came out again.

in a nutshell. the ballet was lovely, (however without having read the book, or seen the movie... and having any provided dialogue) but really i had no idea what was going on, especially when i had to go in and out more than one. apparently though, maddie did chose a great point in the show to exit... as the ending especially is not child friendly.

i am sure if we go and see something a little more suited to her age group she would enjoy it a lot more... maybe we will try again next year.

another first done.

ballet? check!

school disco

the firsts continue, with madeline heading off this afternoon to her first school disco! as you can see, she was super excited, but i think it was all a bit too much for her. we were given tickets to the ballet just a few hours before the disco began (see my next post) and i think telling her before we went was my first mistake...

although maddie appears very outgoing, she can be awfully shy and get overwhelmed easily... she spent two thirds of the time crying and leaning on me, telling me that the music was too loud, there was too many people and that she didn't want to dance "in front of an audience!" haha. but then after their dinner (a slice of pizza and a juice box) she jumped up and started to groove when they put on a song she knew.

from then until the end she was all smiles and energy... especially with her kindy squad when mummy insisted on taking some pictures. it made me so happy to see them all together, especially when i told them to squish in and the four of them immediately grabbed each others hands. they are too cute for words!

oh well, disco? check!

stake conference

today was our stake conference and we did something smart! instead of driving to the stake centre, we drove to northam and watched the broadcast with my parents, then joined them for lunch afterwards. no fighting for a parking spot... and speakers in a small room, turned up loud, so we didn't miss a thing. woop!

we got a new stake president today, and our bishop was made one of his counsellors, so i guess there are a lot of changes coming in our ward! it will be interesting, that's for sure!

a few notes i'd love to remember:

-stay on the lords side of the line. it is either wrong or it is right. there is no grey area.

-follow the counsel of a living prophet and those who serve with him

- we are here on the earth to prepare for the second coming of the saviour. prepare yourselves, your children, your grandchildren.

-we offer our service to the savior, of a broken heart and a contrite spirit

***********************

-do not judge the actions or motives of others. the judgement you give, will be the judgement your receive. judge righteous judgements.

- there is no evidence that the prophet joseph smith ever spoke from a prepared text. "it shall be given you in the very moment what you shall speak and what you shall write"

 

fairy birthday party!

madeline's friend ella from her class at school turned six this week and had a fairy party at the fairy shop in joondalup to celebrate...

cutest thing ever! they must be raking in the parties... they start with a fairy dance class, then do fairy crafts, then dance some more, then have their fairy lunch with cake, then back to play some games. i was well impressed... all of the girls got up and danced and got right into it. 

i love girly parties... i swear my dream is still to dress up as a fairy every day haha.

♥

baby zoe is one

miss zoe is one... and our second party for the day (too popular! haha) was her little birthday bash! 

what a cutie!

her mummy bianca had gone all out and prepared a woodland fiesta with all kinds of all natural (organic, gf, df and vegan) treats. what a machine!

happy birthday miss zoe sage ♥

fremantle for the day

i was born and bred in fremantle western australia - and even though i have never lived there as an adult, in fact my family moved away just days before my fourth birthday, my heart still lies in the old streets. to this day, a day in fremantle feels like coming home. it seemed only appropriate that i should show cara while she is touristing around perth, so today we took a drive with joseph while madeline was at school.

after the prison tour we headed in to the markets. i remember my grandfather (mums dad) having a honey stand, just out the side between the main markets and the food yard, perusing the 2 inch squares of stickers on rolls in one of the stalls up the raised side and most of all, mum sometimes relenting and getting me a marbled helium balloon which was tied to a washer to weigh it down. those were the good old days. sadly none of those things are there any more,but there is still plenty to look at

and to sample as you pass through

my all time favourite store is still "the pickled fairy and other myths" located not far from the markets in downtown fremantle. i can't wait to take maddie there some day soon... i love it! i remember spending hours there as a kid looking at every single little thing over and over. (bless my mum, she has way more patience that i do)

there is this gorgeous fountain in the courtyard which used to be full of coins... but seems to not be a wishing fountain these days. it's still super cute though!

cara and me! ♥

our second to last stop for the day was the roundhouse and the whalers tunnel, where doug and i took our wedding pictures so many years ago...

where i got to hang out with a new man... haha. lucky he loves me too!

last stop... i took joseph to see joseph. our family will always have our hearts in fremantle, seeing as all four of my grandparents were laid to rest in the fremantle cemetery.

fremantle i love you! i'll come one day, when i win the lottery! 

doing time at fremantle prison

one of the coolest tourist attractions that i think perth holds is the fremantle prison. home to prisoners until 1991, it is a true piece of history of our state and i love to go on the tours and learn more about it. so today, while i dragged cara around the place, we began our day right here - at fremantle prison.

tours are worth every cent and i highly recommend you go and check it out one day, whether you are a tourist, or a local. it is so interesting! and if you can't, read up online via the above link!

we had to take this little monkey with us today... i'd like to say he was well behaved, but he was really intent on giving himself a tour!

inside the main cell block

and in the day yards...

and my favourite part - the chapel. such a cool place to sit for a few minutes. you can even get married here if you so desire!

i must admit, it's so hard to think of this being a fully occupied and working prison when there is silence in here, but knowing that it was so recently blows my mind, especially seeing as the main reason they finally closed it down was because of it not having toilets in the cells.

this place certainly has a lot of stories to tell! make sure you take a listen some day. night torchlight tours are my favourite, but they are all brilliant.