madeline's baptism

on saturday our little madeline was baptised as a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. in our church children are baptised when they reach the age of eight, which we recognise as the age of accountability, also giving the children the opportunity to chose for themselves whether or not they want to become a member. maddie decided she was ready, so her baptism was organised for the saturday immediately following her birthday.

she wore the same dress i did for my baptism, with a slight modification... it had to be run in! i was such a skinny child and it looks like she is even more so!

our friends at winter woodworking made her a beautiful coat hanger to put the dress on beforehand, with her name and the date on it. so cute!

madeline was baptised and confirmed a member of the church by her proud daddy, who although is a total toughie in real life, has the softest spot for his little girl, even though they argue all day everyday haha.

i just cannot believe she is 8! it feels like it wasn't that long ago they put that teeeny baby in my arms. she was so small, so perfect and all ours. and now? god gave her red hair because he knew she needed a warning label! 

jen was on hand as always to make this gorgeous decked out number 8 cake. it looked and tasted delicious!

i am kind of ticked because i raced into the hall once everything was over to quickly pop the last of the food out and was instantly mobbed by hungry children, so i didn't get to take a photo of it all set up... believe me though, i loved it and it was exactly what i wanted! the only pic i have is this one mum snapped on her phone. i wanted something easy that everyone could enjoy so i put together a dessert bar, with pink lemonade and hot chocolate with marshmallows - one each end, with cakes - brownies, carrot cake, banana cake, birthday cake... and then some cupcakes and donuts (which just appeared on the day thanks to some lovely friends, i was thrilled!) and icecream, complete with cones, sprinkles and 100s and 1000s. 

it was the most perfect day, surrounded by everyone we love. maddie even invited two of her friends from school, who both came and their parents loved it! and let's be honest, what better introduction to the church is there than an occasion like this?

i am so lucky to have such a beautiful little family and amazing friends around me. madeline we are so proud of you and the wonderful choices you've made to be here! ❤

maddie is eight!

"god gave me red hair because he knew i needed a warning label"

that quote was 100% written about my daughter.

i genuinely do not know how this day has arrived, but somehow my maddie is eight years old today. i always laugh when people say "oh it feels like just yesterday" but here i am thinking it wasn't all that long ago the midwife handed me a little girl all of my own to take home and love - and now look at her. she is witty, funny, inquisitive and the best person ever to hang out with. i feel like i am constantly arguing with a miniature version of myself, but she just gets me! i know she was sent to me for a reason, we were absolutely meant to be together.

this weekend we will celebrate again with family and friends as she is baptised a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. i am so proud that she wants to be part of the gospel and can't wait for her special day.

madeline we love you so much and i am so, so proud to be your mum 

madeline's high tea

today we celebrated miss madeline turning 8! a little early, as her birthday is this week, but seeing as we are having her baptism next weekend, it was just too hard to do it all at once. 

she was so, so excited for the day to come and being that their last day of school for two weeks was yesterday, she's even more so!

she looked so cute (and thrilled to bits!) as we snapped some pictures outside before her friends arrived, thankfully like a little girl still, i'm hoping she stays that way for just a little longer! i looove the oversize flower crown, so i am especially pleased that she agreed to wear it for the day. 

we had the house decorated to the nines, with this chalkboard sign in the entry hall. if you look closing you can see miss maddie waving in the reflection to the left.

i wanted it all to be matching and set up beautifully so i actually hired some tables and chairs from a place in midland, so that i could use my chair covers and have it all uniform (ocd much?) but i was so pleased with how it all came out. the only thing i ended up having to buy was the pink chair sashes, so that's a positive! between mum and i, we have everything you could possibly need for a tea party!

my best friend jen, who makes cookies over at baked on benrua, made these amazing cookies to be placecards for the girls. i love them so much, and the best bit was, she even threw in two extras, stamped with mine and mums names to enjoy during the party.

how cute are they?!

star of the show. what a day she had! every time we have organised a tea party for someone else, she has always asked when she can have one for her friends (definitely her mothers daughter!) so now that she's (nearly) eight and most of her friends are at a similar age, i figured we were probably safe using china for it... and thankfully nothing got broken!

i wanted to do a really vintage style cake, not one of these overdone cakes you see at every party these days, so i bought a two pack of round sponges from woolworths, along with some strawberries, jam and cream. i had planned to just do it into four layers, fill between each one, then top it with some rose buds and a dusting of icing sugar. but then mum turned up and it became a work of art. ladies and gentlemen, my mother is amazing! look what she did with some flowers she bought along from her garden. maddie and i were blown away by how cute it was and the first thing she wanted to show everyone that walked in the door was that gorgeous cake!

almost ready to receive guests... we took our table to pieces and stashed it in alexanders room during the party so we could have a gorgeous long table and chairs.

love love love. i was so happy with how it turned out.

i made crockpot hot chocolate for the girls to have in their teacups and for any of the mums that decided to stay (recipe can be found at the end of this post, we have used it on many occasions, it's delicious and always works perfectly!) 

we also had water and pink lemonade with fresh lemons added

i baked most of the things we had to eat:

-mini blueberry muffins

-brownies

-chocolate truffles

-chocolate chip cookies

-jelly slice

-mini sausage rolls 

(easiest recipe ever, 8 pack of sausages, 2 sheets of puff pastry cut into 4... wrap each sausage and cut to the size you want, then brush with a beaten egg and bake in a 180 degree celcius oven for 30 or so minutes - until brown)

-mini corn fritters

-spinach & ricotta puffs

-egg sandwiches

-macarons (from coles! $8 for 10 and they are delicious, so there is no way i would try and make them for that price... i value my sanity)

the girls all oohed and aahed over the setup when they arrives, loved looking for their place and i absolutely heard one of them exclaim to another whilst drinking out of her teacup, "i just feel so fancy!"

such little ladies

after they finished their afternoon tea, we took some photos with props, which involved a lot of giggling and noise, then played pass the parcel, musical bobs and musical statues. oh i love watching them get competitive, it's the best bit. we had a lovely afternoon with them all and madeline was so sad when it was over, one of the girls even cried because she didn't want to leave. 

maddie with her cake! so cliche but i honestly cannot believe that she will be 8 this week. how on earth did that happen?!

loving her life 

happy almost birthday miss madeline. we love you so much!

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

crock pot hot chocolate

ingredients:
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 x cans sweetened condensed milk 

(just buy the coles/woolworths brand ones- they are exactly the same!)
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
marshmallows to serve

directions:
1.) in crock-pot combine milk, water and vanilla.
2.) add dry cocoa and salt, stir until smooth.
3.) cover and cook on high 2 hours or on low for 4 hrs
4.) top each serving with marshmallows

madeline's baptism photoshoot

our not-so-little girl is about to turn eight... which in our church means she will soon be baptised! we don't do baptisms when children are infants, which i think is wonderful as it allows the children to make a choice whether they want to be a part of the church or not. 

maddie is pretty excited about it, which is awesome. i'm hoping she remembers her day as well as i remember mine and loves looking back on it and the promises she will make.

we needed photos for the invitation and the program, so a week or so ago, we went down to the old railway clearing near mum and dads to take some pictures. we had so much fun there and i love the shots we got. we've done well getting to use her flowergirl dress from niques wedding again seeing as it was two years ago now... thank goodness mum made it so long!

i especially love this amazing old chair of mums that she let us use for the shots. it is so cool!

maddie girl... i can't wait to see you go places! ♥

♥

she spun and danced around in the clearing and they were by far the best shots...

this is the one we are going to use for the invite. i love it!

♥

emma's baptism

that little girl who just turned eight got baptised today! i can barely believe it, it feels like just yesterday she was a baby and here she is eight years old!

before her baptism my mum gave her a gift to open, which had a heart shaped silver locket inside. she had given both emmas older sisters, laura and grace one on their baptism day too... and as a surprise for emma, the girls had both worn them. it made mum and i all teary (i got one for my baptism too!) and so grateful for family and for tradition. 

my three beautiful nieces ♥

emma kate and her proud as punch date, my oldest brother

and with her mum

♥

and the goodlet family... amazingly the best pic of them we have had in years and unlike the times we have tried, it was completely unplanned... more of an "everyone get in and hurry up" photo

emma kate, i think you are great and we are so so proud of you! 

♥

emma kate i think you're great is eight!

our littlest niece emma kate turned 8 today and had a "enchanted woods" party for her friends... so of course madeline was invited too!

donna did an amazing job setting up the place into different lands, including winterland (full of white bunting, lanterns, sticks etc),take what you want land (outside with a treasure hunt and a game to eat donuts from strings) and lastly, birthday land, where we ate treats and this gorgeous cake!

i love homemade, cute, fun cakes and this was adorable!

emma had requested that aunty jade bring her props for a photobooth, so i took photo after photo of her and her little friends posing away and i laughed and laughed at their serious little faces digging for more things to put in their pictures, before they all started laughing again. i just love this picture of emma, i feel like it has captured her perfectly

and miss madeline, always the life of the party ♥

of course there were games, lots of squealing and dancing

and donuts on strings

it was so much fun, so relaxed and awesome to watch all the kids enjoying themselves

as per goodlet tradition jared tried to get a decent fire going, but didn't have much success as it had been so wet... i love this picture of him trying desperately to get it going

and last but not least, the birthday girl with her cake. she is such a little doll. it is such a pleasure to be her aunty and to share all the good times with her ♥