Millie's Birthday Party

Over the weekend we had a celebration at the Macqueen's house to celebrate the sweetest three year old I know, miss Amelia! She is the most adorable child and I just love her so much. It was a lovely afternoon full of pastel rainbows and cookies and milk and a great time was had by all - except her.

The poor darling was so sick that she didn't even get to enjoy her day and spent most of it between the couch sleeping and cuddling her parents. Poor little love. That cookie in her hand was basically a prop as I don't think she ate it or enjoyed it.

She did put on a brave face when it was cake time though and let Aunty Jade snap some pics for her mummy.

❤

3 candles, all blown out. Sweet girl.

And a cuddle from mummy to keep her going.

One quick shot with the fam and then back to the couch she went.

❤

Look at miss Sophie! She is getting so big. I love her sweet, smiley little face!

These crazy kids made up for Millie's lack of enthusiasm and smashed the pinata, giggling the whole time and loving their afternoon.

Yet another cake masterpiece from Jen - a cookies and cream edition. She wasn't that happy with it, but I thought it looked great and it was certainly delicious!

Last but not least, a photo of my little nugget. Sometimes he's cute!

Whiteman Park with the Niupalau's

School holidays are not complete until we've had our date with the Niupalaus. This time round was a trip to Whiteman Park for a ride on the Bennett Brook Railway.

It really is a fun time, a nice long ride through the bush of Whiteman Park in big open carriages.

You can easily move around and enjoy yourself.

The best bit is, once you have paid for your ticket, you can ride as many times as you like during the day!

This guy loved it!

When we were done, we went over to Pia's place on the other side of Whiteman Park, which is the most amazing playground! Gated around all sides, it's safe, but still huge. I am obsessed with the lighthouse in the middle. I love that playgrounds have gone back to nature and have so much wood and natural play areas now. It's the best! If the kids can't play in the bush like we did... we bring the bush to them. I'm so grateful for these wonderful playgrounds near us. 

 

Hillarys boat harbour with the Niupalaus.

Without a doubt, the kids favourite part of every school holidays is our standard date with the Niupalau's. We always have the very best time with them. This time we hit up Hillary's Boat Harbour and had a swim at the beach.

Joseph loved it! He was so happy because the water was nice and warm. I even came and stood in the water with the kids so he was thrilled.

Alex was in his element. He is such a water baby!

Maddie will find absolutely any excuse to wear a bikini, so today was definitely one of her favourites haha. I love that nearly every photo of her I manage to get is her sitting by Alex watching, which is what she does day in day out. It's very rare, but every now and then she tells me "MUM! You need to watch Alex, it's not my job!" Um well yes I know that, but considering you've made it your job and always tell me to go away...

We ended our day with a trip to Cold Rock for some icecream for everyone. $63 later, but worth every single cent. Look at those happy faces!

Just wouldn't be a real holiday without our party. ❤

an ornament for willow

i went to drop some christmas goodies at mel's house today...and i felt the urge to make something beautiful for her, a christmas ornament, in memory of their angel baby. 

i bought these clear glass balls some years ago and have put a few things in them for our own christmas tree - (for instance the ball tickets from our first date are in one of them.) but for baby willow, i bought a bag of feathers from spotlight and carefully put some white ones inside. it was simple, but beautiful and mel loved it. i think next christmas i will make two for our tree, in memory of my wonderful in-laws.

 

alex's farm party

sometimes things just work out and we had the stars align perfectly to be able to give alexander the best third birthday. our house is currently a mess with the ensuite reno in full swing (which extended out to the theatre due to the water damage) so a party at our house was out of the question. but somehow we made it work.

mum and dad have been building a bonfire at their house for quite some time - and i had this great idea to light it up for alex's birthday, we could invite a few friends out to clackline... but then the fire restrictions got in the way, because the date we wanted was outside of the free burning period. the amount of boxes that had to be ticked before we could make it happen was ridiculous so we put that idea to bed.

until jen got a message from the shire of northam saying that the unrestricted burn period had been extended by 2 weeks because of how wet this season has been. wheeeeeeeee. game on! with just a few days notice, we called everyone and got it organised.

everyone turned up, and it was seriously the best party. mums only condition was that people bring something to share for dinner, which worked perfectly. we provided the fun party food and everyone else shared dinner.

alex was thrilled with the cute gifts he git. he was spoiled and loved and loved every minute of it.

my brother isaac brought his quad bike and took the kids for train rides in the hand made carriages and they loved every minute. best party entertainment out!

i even got to have a turn driving (then stalled it in the paddock but shhhh)

fun times fun times.

i even managed to pull off another decent cake which we drove up there. this time i did banana and it was so yum. it worked perfectly to be made into a stack cake.

and as you can see, once the minions were on, alex was so so so happy. he couldn't stop looking at it and smiling.

cutest almost 3 year old i know!

banana cake

ingredients:

125g butter

1 cup white sugar

3 ripe bananas

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp milk

1 1/2 cup self raising flour

2 eggs

directions:

preheat oven to 180 deg celcius

cream butter and sugar

add eggs and mix well

add mashed bananas and vanilla essence

mix baking soda and milk, then add to main mixture

add sifted flour

pour into lined cake tin and bake for 45 minutes

ice with cream cheese icing

icing: 

2 tbls softened butter

55g softened cream cheese 

dash vanilla essence

1 cup icing sugar

by the time we had finished dinner and then cake, it was time to light the fire and in true goodlet style up she went! i love a good bonfire and this one was no exception. there's something so magical about watching the flames.

we even had special cookies from aunty jenny, shaped like minions for all our guests to enjoy.

so cute. i have the best best friend.

so lucky that things worked out the way they did. we had the best time and most importantly, alex loved it. farm parties for the win!

tie dye gang

this little squad had a party day today at our house. planned completely on the fly, i just happened to have tye die and pot painting kits for an upcoming primary activity... which worked perfectly.

first up we tie dyed in the backyard. i've actually never done it before and it was really fun coming up with ways to tie them and patterns before the kids took over squirting dye everywhere.

they were all a bit hesitant at first, but loved it as time went on.

maddie got the most into it of course and made herself an amazing t-shirt that she plans to wear to her roller skating birthday party next week.

and it looked pretty good!

the boys made pillow cases

and we left them out to dry for a bit while the kids painted cardboard pots ready to plant woolworths seeds in and then had lunch.

i truly love this little gang... it won't be long before we have another baby to add either! jen is expecting number 4!

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tie dye results to follow;

maddie's pillow case

jacob's pillow case in rabbitohs colours

isabel's effort 

and joseph's

and madeline's tshirt which i love! she did a great job.