emma's gold class party

today my little niece turned 9... and we celebrated in style with a "gold class" party at our place in our theatre room. it was so easy to do, but looked amazing and made the girls feel so, so chic.

decorations were simple, this e (for emma!) that i found at big w and gave to emma as part of her birthday present...

a 3 pack of confetti balloons from our local "cheap shop" for $3, and my kmart light box with a birthday wish for miss emma

on arrival, the girls got to collect their lemonade spider ([for those of you who have never heard of these... are you living under a rock?] which is a scoop of vanilla icecream, then fill to the top with lemonade... gives a kind of tangy milkshake) a bag of popcorn and a little dish of lollies.

half way through our feature, the waiters arrived with spring rolls and wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce...

and at the end, we enjoyed this gorgeous (and delicious!) woolworths mini cake in red velvet. these are in my opinion, one of the greatest things woolworths has ever started stocking. one cake cuts into 4 cupcake size servings and they are so good! ($7 for the fancy ones and $3.50 for the less designer options like orange and poppyseed or chocolate) emma was so chuffed to have such a fancy cake, and really it was at zero effort to her mother and i.

maddie and cousin emma

birthday girl enjoying her lit up cake

and making a wish! ♥

i love being an aunty... and especially being able to help with birthday parties. it's so much fun. happy birthday miss emma kate!

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 ♥