disco disco disco

well. what a difference between two children. 

this week, we had our school discos. madeline was thrilled to pieces, got dressed up and raced out the door, danced away with her friends and loved her time there grooving away. i love that she's growing up and loving her blissed out life.

then there is joseph. what a clown. this face claims to be excited. this face claims that he's keen as beans. this is not an excited or keen child. 

here are his friends dancing and having a good time.

here he is. next to me on the floor, hating every single minute of it. i guess i have to accept that my joseph is a little homebody, a little introvert and a lot shy. he didn't care about being down there and was happy to watch, but the minute someone tried to get him to stand up or join in? no no no no hell no. oh well. we will get there. as much as he kills me, i still love him. 

100 years old - groovy grannies

madeline's class had a dress up day today, they have been learning about the olden days as part of their society and environment classes (what we used to call social studies) and as part of it they asked the kids to dress up as though they are 100 years old. it was so freaking funny!

we added talcum powder in her hair to make it look white and put it in a granny bun, and she insisted that she needed to wear a sleep mask on her head "so i can be ready for a nap at any time."oh i feel you maddie!

her outfit consisted of a checkered dress, fur coat, white stockings and slippers, a pearl necklace, big glasses, a walking stick and a handbag full of "old lady things", a cat and her knitting. hahahaha! and the finishing touch? lipstick on her teeth. she asked me why she needed that and i said, ""just trust me maddie! sure enough, we got to school and when she grinned at her teacher, she just lost it laughing and said, "oh maddie, that's the best! lipstick on your teeth!" to which maddie turned around and mouthed thank you to me.

there was so many amazing outfits, some of the mums had drawn wrinkles on, someone had their hair in rollers, someone had a beehive hairdo. it was classic. 

let's just hope she's still this cool when she reaches 100 years old! 

scitech!

dougs sister is off back to america tomorrow and today was our last day with her. so i did something that's completely against everything i stand for and took my kids out of school for the day so we could all go to scitech together. i haven't been to scitech since i was in school myself and barely remember anything about the place - but i do know from everything i have read online that the school holidays are absolutely not the time to go. apparently it's bedlam and you can barely move in there, so considering how many times the kids have asked me if we can go, i decided today was the day.

they have so many cool things to look at and do. so much to learn and so many activities to try. you could easily spend a whole day wandering around looking at everything. this one in particular was a air cannon, which created a push effect on the pieces of metal that make up the target, looking as though something was really banging into it!

this wall was part of the emergency services area and the kids loved having a go at getting up it.

and as i found on my way to the bathroom, they have a double mirrored hallway, creating an eternity effect... (kind of wondering if they ripped this off from our temples? haha!)

there was even a lookout area in the "cafeteria" to the far end of the building... which allowed some amazing views into perth city. you could look right up and into some buildings. they also have a live bee hive inside the building (all boxed in with clear acrylic caging so you can see everything), with an entry from one side, so you can watch how bees create their hive and honey. i loved looking at that!

i was a bit bummed that i couldn't go into the planetarium (formerly the omni theatre when i was young) to see the stars and planets show, but there is an age restriction. so baby alex and i checked out the gift shop then sat outside and had some snacks while the others checked it out. maddie made it even worse when she wouldn't stop telling me how amazing it was, but there is always next time. i love the stars, i'll definitely have to check it out sometime kid free.

we had a great day and are going to miss aunty so much! 

stake conference sept 2019

i love going along to stake conference. i always feel like there is something included in the talks just for me and i know that i am meant to be there listening. there is always amazing speakers chosen and so many important topics covered... plus it's lovely to catch up with so many friends afterwards that are there too.

 most of all we are so lucky to have our stake centre right beside the perth temple... i miss being able to take photos of our kids out front every sunday, so i absolutely take full advantage when we happen to be there. i love to see the temple... and even more so, see my family with it.

suda showcase

we've just made it through our first step up dance academy showcase! once a year madeline's dance school has an evening where all the students who are part of a troupe or do solos/ duos etc have the chance to dance in front of their family and friends in a relaxed atmosphere. so off we went so our girl could dance in her lyrical troupe.

it was a great night, there was games, raffles and tables set up like they would be at a quiz night to allow everyone to chat away between sets.

our little dancer was thrilled to be able to participate and loved having me and aunty dom and nannaleah along to watch.

my only complaint is that i'll probably be cleaning up glitter for the next month! fun times! 

book week

it is no secret that i am a giant book nerd. i looove books, so of course i automatically love bookweek. i am 100% not that mum that gets cranky and complains that it's bookweek and i have to find a costume... i am the mum that's excited to see what we can come up with. i would just like to point out though, that there is nothing that irriates me more than kids dressing up in costumes that aren't a book. no further comment. just know i am judging you if you do this in your home.

maddie has been super keen on harry potter lately so i nearly died of happiness and low key excitement when she told me she wanted to be ginny weasley (cause her hair is red of course!) but then got cranky with me because aunty had borrowed my straightener and ginny has straight hair, so now i can't be ginny and i'll have to be hermione! oh dear. she still looked cute! the tie is an old brisbane lions one of doug (that is burgandy and conveniently has lions on it - gryffindor yo!) one of joseph's church shirts, black skirt, shoes and stockings, a cape borrowed from a friend who has done harry potter before andddd a wand that my friend made for me (which just by the way is amazing and i love it, she did such a beautiful job and it even has a glow in the dark stone at the end!) 

this little monkey wanted to be where's wally, which was also a breeze... big w sell the costumes, but even better, someone on marketplace had one - super cheap! winning! all we had to add was jeans and boots of our own and a walking stick that nanna kindly provided.

it rained for part of the parade and then was so cold that all us mums seriously thought we were dying, but you do these things for love... the kids were happy and so was i. another excellent bookweek done and dusted.

foil temple pics with the young women

for our young womens activity recently we made these foil prints of the temple for the girls to take home and put in their rooms. as president spencer w. kimball said, “it seems to me it would be a fine thing if every set of parents would have in every bedroom in their house a picture of the temple so the child from the time he is an infant could look at the picture every day and it becomes a part of his life. when he reaches the age that he needs to make this very important decision, it will already have been made.” i love this quote so much and while i think it's really important to have temple pictures on display, i think it's even better when it's something that the girls have made themselves and put effort into so they have pride in displaying it.

i have made these prints many times since the first ones i did (you can find a tutorial here!) including at a ward relief society activity and i love that they are so effective and look amazing, but they are so, so easy to do! the girls seemed super keen to do them and got to work quickly... then were thrilled when i brought out frames for them. I find personally that if the girls make something and have to buy anything for themselves to complete it, it just doesn't happen, so we are very careful to provide e v e r y t h i n g. that way they go home and get used! 

i love our girls and love that they are finally starting to chat with me. yay! 

twas a good night. 

fremantle with the fam

we don't have much time left before dougs sister leaves us and goes back to america, so we decided to spend the day in fremantle as a family. i was blown away with how quiet it was, we had no issues getting parking right by the markets and then again by the fishing boat harbour... score! 

maddie loves walking baby alex in his pram - even more so now he's in his big boy seat... and gleefully pushed him up to the markets, chatting with him all the way.

before we walked around at the markets for a while... stopping for cupcakes - and to buy bird callers for aunty to take back to america with her.

afterwards we went down to the fishing boat harbour for fish and chips and icecream. yum. there is nothing like a good feed on the harbour - and the views are the best

there was even built-in entertainment in the form of the "bananaman" who was singing and dancing, including information about everyone within eyesight and even taking audience suggestions for things to include in his songs. he was hysterical! i must give fremantle that... it's never boring here.

my babes

being insanely cute together. oh do i love them!

♥

crazy hair day

today was our crazy hair day at school. not going to lie, i have been living for this day. i saw this idea for madeline's hair on the internet when she was maybe 3 years old and have been waiting for their school to do it. well, today was the day.

i thought it would be much harder than it actually was, but in the end i just got a neutral coloured plastic headband and hot glued the cup on one side for her hair to pour into and cut a hole in the back of the bottle (before gluing that on too) to allow room for her hair to go in. no spray, nothing required other than a pipe cleaner to wrap around her hair to make it easier to thread it through. easiest hair ever. she said everyone loved it so that made me feel good haha.

joseph's was a little trickier. i had hot glued some of his cars ooshies to hairclips to pop in his hair after spraying his hair black (well that was the plan until the cans of hairspray was rubbish and barely worked for one decent spray ugh) with white passing lane strips. 

thankfully they worked just enough for it to be noticeable and he was happy with his do for the day. yay for that.

there were so many cool hairdos around the school... some people were so amazingly creative! but even though ours were pretty basic, the kids were happy and that's all that matters to this mum!

crazy hair day one - done and dusted. 

alex is eleven months!

what the heck is going on? how is time going so fast? this time next month i will have a one year old and i don't think i am okay with that!

this month alex has:

-crawled around gotten into absolutely everything

-pulled out all the dvds over and over and over

-been kicked out of his capsule and into a rear facing seat so that aunty jenny's new baby millie can have his capsule

-put anything and everything into his mouth

-pulled out the cereal at any possible opportunity and when it's the froot loops tips throws the box onto the ground and tries to eat them off the floor like i don't feed him

-walked along on his hands and feet rather than crawling, kind of like he doesn't like to use his knees... it's so funny!

-for the last month or two he has been threading his necklace over his thumb when he sucks it. he just likes to have it there to feel. it's super cute, but very annoying when he tries to do it with my necklace and almost chokes me!

baby alex, you are so, so loved! ♥

baby macqueen number three maternity shoot

can we just take a few minutes here to appreciate this baby bump and how incredibly photogenic my best friend is? 

jen is due to have her third baby soon (she's currently 37 weeks along) and her bump is so so adorable so taking photos of her all glammed up made for a wonderful afternoon.

we went to lilac hill park on west swan road in guildford (where we did mine too) and got some great shots under the bridge and by the rivers edge. i am obsessed with this one above, she just looks amazing!

mat and his "babies"

this little boy was being a little difficult but lost it laughing after a while making for some great shots.

cutest little family out - about to get a little bit bigger next week... i am sure these two will wreak havoc, but i know they will make excellent big siblings.

♥

mat and his little girl

i love this one too, mat can be such a pain when we take photos (like any guy can...) but even though he was messing about, this came out perfectly.

and so did this. this is perfect!

obsesssssed. this is soooo cute!

i love all of them so much, it was hard to pick which ones to edit, but we got there - and hopefully she is happy with them! 

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

plus, there are some brilliant outtakes! this family are classic. love them all so much! 

and i can't wait to meet baby macqueen!