goodbye to the parsons crew!

this morning some of our very favourite people in the whole world drove out of perth for the last time. it's hard to believe they were only here for two thirds of the last year, as it feels like we've known the parsons family forever.

sometimes there are people you meet and you just click with - and you know you'll always be friends. it's easy, you don't have to try - and the jokes and the laughter and the friendship just flows. it was like that for us from day one. yet, our time was limited - and off they go, back to the eastern states, where work is calling.

our kids flow in age, from 8 - 7 6 5 4 and got along 90% of the time during play date after play date... some planned, most not. then when baby alex arrived, as a very welcome addition to the kid crew (on alice's birthday i might add!!) there was much oohing and ahhing from the kids as well as fights over who got to hold him next haha.

thank goodness we finally got a good photo of the kids together, after all this time. how cute is it?!

we have loved every minute with you, and although it's not goodbye, just see you later - we miss you already. ♥

12 years down, eternity to go

on friday doug and i celebrated 12 years of marriage, at home on the couch... with a grumpy little boy who had been to the doctors for his needles that morning. sigh. i guess that's how life as a parent goes hey! but... saturday night, we got a babysitter (dougs sister, how convenient) and headed out to the mahogany creek inn, with our friends who live next door to dougs parents, and just happen to have their wedding anniversary the day after us! it was a great night, good food, good company (half her family showed up, she kept apologising, but it was great, they are good value!) and lots of fun.

we've been to the inn multiple times and would still highly recommend it to anyone. their service and food is excellent!

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 ♥

pindred spirits

today i met one of my good friends for the very first time. sounds like an odd thing to say doesn't it?! but as random as it is, it's true. there's an awesome story behind it though, so please bear with me.

a few years ago, i was pinning away on pinterest and noticed over a few weeks, then months that someone called tara was constantly pinning my pins, but not only that, but i seemed to be pinning all of hers as well. this went on for a while, until one day i received a friend request from this tara on facebook, along with a message that read something along the lines of "i don't usually do this and i know this is weird, but i have noticed that we have pinned a lot of each others pins on pinterest, it seems we have a lot in common and i think we could be friends." she also said that she knew it was safe as we are both (obviously from what we had been pinning) members of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. i accepted... we started messaging and emailing and became "penpals" of the technology age.

a few years passed and we became very good friends... messaging often and often joked about meeting, while wishing it would one day happen. sooooo when i booked my trip to texas and decided to add on a trip to utah, i started messaging with taras daughters and arranged to meet up with them and surprise her! today was the day and her sneaky daughters had made sure there was no way of her finding out (even to the point of blocking me on facebook so she couldn't see i was in america, even though i had been completely silent on there so that i could surprise lisa yesterday and her today) so it was a complete surprise.

claiborne picked me up from lisa's this morning, and drove us to city creek mall (collecting aspen on the way) where we wasted some time in the disney store while we waited for tara to arrive. then we went to the restaurant where we had arranged to meet her and waited. after a few minutes we saw her walking up, where she looked right at me as she walked up, that was the funniest bit, because she knew it couldn't possibly be me... only when she walked in the door, it was! 

it was such a wonderful moment. seeing her face as she saw me waiting there with her girls (oh how i wish i could upload the video on here... the first words out of her mouth were shut up! haha) and just finally getting to see each other and spend some time together. we always said we wanted to go to temple square together and just hang out... so we did. and it was amazing. i feel like we have known each other for so long and can't wait to spend some more time together this week. what a blessing the gospel is, i know this is no coincidence, we were meant to meet. we are kindred pindred spirits.

so... pinterest, i believe i owe you a big, fat, thank you! ♥

pineappeline is five

today we threw a pineapple party... yes you read that correctly. this year when i asked miss madeline what she wanted for her birthday, she responded very quickly, a pineapple party please mum! well. a pineapple party it was! it was a good challenge for me and i had lots of fun putting it together

we have been lucky until this year, it has never rained on her party day, even though it's in the middle of winter, but this year we were not so lucky. apart from the 10 or so minutes which we spent outside taking these pictures, it was raining, dark as and stormy outside!!

i fell in love with this dress from flamingo tease kids when it was released a few months ago and after watching it for ages, it went on sale and i snapped it up for the party (and a million wears afterwards i hope) we also gave madeline a pineapple necklace to wear with it, she got these cute as boots from her grandma... and we made her a sweet little crown out of green paper to wear for the day, totally appropriate seeing as the invites said: be a pineapple, stand tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside

i spent hours cooking and icing these pineapple cookies this week (and i may just be a little proud of them) you can check out the process and the recipe here. (pineapple cookie jar was picked up at target on clearance earlier this year for $5)

drinks were easy... 5l drink dispensers, the one on the left had water with lemon and pineapple pieces... and the one on the right had 4 x 1.25l bottles of the coles brand fizzy pineapple drink. excellent choice at 75c each, the whole thing cost me just $3! (straws from ebay here)

decorations were easy, the tablecloth is one of my doona covers, 3 honeycomb balls from kmart (80c a piece) with a piece of green paper cut to make a crown, bunting from the local cheap store (the green one is left over from joseph's first birthday!) then helium balloons done this morning with the assistance of a helium tank from spotlight, an awesome purchase!

pineapple serving dishes also from target ($3.50 each) i made my usual brownies and glued a pineapple lolly to the top of each one with a dob of icing and a few other yellow and pineappley looking options...

and as usual, my best friend delivered with this gorgeous pineapple cake! madeline was so excited about it and the topper was such a good idea, simply the top cut off a pineapple with a mini gold glitter hooray sign from kmart. forever grateful that i've never had to make a cake yet, love you jen!

i was so pleased with the lolly jars... they were so simple, but looked awesome. empty glass jars saved up for the last few months, with a photo print in each... with a piece of chinese pineapple cake (looked awesome, had a pineapple printed on the packet) allens pineapple lollies, a balloon, bouncy ball, mini slinky, a fruit eraser, coconut lollies (with palm trees on the packaging) and a teeny gold pineapple ring from ebay (14 of them for just $12, can't go wrong!)

  

because of the weather i had to be inventive and ended up having just two games, a colouring contest with a gorgeous pineapple colouring page i found here (i was clever and told the kids it had to be a rainbow pineapple) and pass the parcel. prizes found on ebay here, pineapples of course!

we had such a wonderful day with family and friends and madeline was just beside herself with excitement the whole day

i mean seriously, doesn't this face say it all?

i can't believe that just two days from now our little girl will be five!

happy party day pineappeline! 

making a wish... i wish every day could be as fun as today was little one! ♥

the end of a long day

i was driving home from york this evening and pulled over on the side of the road to take a picture because the colours made by the setting sun were just so beautiful. of course an iphone picture can't capture that. 

it was a lonnnnnng day for my friend keryn and her family as they farewelled her father kevin after many years of a long illness that finally took his life last sunday morning. keryn was amazing, cared for him as much as she was able and even remained with him at the hospital that last night to make sure he wasn't alone when his time came. 

his funeral today was incredible, being the postmaster of a small country town, it seemed that most of the town had arrived to pay their respects and as the eulogy and other tributes were read, i felt like he became more to me than just keryns dad. he had a cracking sense of humour and it was certainly recalled. 

farewell kev, may you rest now, in peace ♥

dannii's having a baby!!

our dannii is glowing,

her bump is now showing,

a person she's growing,

to her shower you're going!

you could not, would not, 

want to miss...

a celebration such as this!

today i had the absolute pleasure of throwing a baby shower for my beautiful friend dannielle. i feel so blessed to have her in my life and i am so excited for her little boy to arrive... it was such a fun day and i was thrilled to be a part of it.

she decided she wanted a dr. suess theme which was so fun to decorate for... lots of pale blue, white and red poms (which we fluffed last time we visited bunbury whilst watching old episodes of friends - a typical hang out activity for us...) and really cute bits and pieces i managed to pick up around the place. i was obsessed with the serviettes with little clouds on them seeing as her favourite dr suess book is "oh the places you'll go" and they fitted the theme perfectly. i also made cupcakes with blue fairy floss on top in the hopes of them looking like thing 1 and thing 2... i thought they looked awesome, but warning if you try this at home, the fairy floss does not last long... it melts!

some of baby w's present stash along with the cat in the hat that dannii's step mum made for her classroom (yep she was a teacher up until baby w decided to join them)

and some more of our decs!

drinks were cherry and fruit punch koolaid kindly supplied by a friend that was back over christmas from the u.s. don't let those violent colours fool you, they were surprisingly good and fitted our theme perfectly.

a few simple games to top it off, guess how many clouds were in the jars with a lovely poem written up by cody the night before, easy done...

and "my water broke" which is also easy as... freeze jelly babies in ice cube trays... give everyone one in their drink and the first person to have their "baby" break free from the ice (without putting it in their mouth) yells my water broke and is the winner. so fun. 

dannii was so thrilled with all her gifts and i was blown away at the generosity of her friends and family, baby williams is certainly going to be very loved. 

it was a lovely afternoon and i was so thrilled at how many people were there for her

checking out the haul afterwards! :)

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i was especially lucky because dannielle knows how obsessed i am with snapping pictures and let me get some of her once the party was over... i especially love this one of her with the book that inspired the party!

she is looking so beautiful and i love her bump ♥

i can hardly wait to see that little person she is growing, im so excited!

♥♥♥

bowlarama

this morning we went off to have some fun at the bunbury bowling alley with dannii and cody and the kidlets. we had the best time, with lots of fun and laughs and some excellent bowling from our preggo friend dannielle, who put us all to shame and beat the lot of us! what a legend.

i have to say, this girl has got sass, she loved every minute of it and leapt up when it was her turn, eager to push the ball with daddy's help.

considering maddie is four years old... she did pretty well, even if we did leave the bumpers up and had the ramp ready for her to push little yellow ball off of. we will definitely have to make this a more regular occurrence as she got so into it.

with her little yellow ball," it looks like a dinosaur egg mummy!"

and the cutest part of our day, young master joseph, who sat in his highchair next to the chairs on one side of our lane, simply observing and keeping an eye on things. he is the cutest. that sweet little face makes me so happy... ♥ thank goodness he was happy to be there too.

beaching in bunbury

as a kid, i always remember fondly holidaying in bunbury and staying with my aunt and uncle and cousins... and most of all, endless trips to the beach... that will be funny to anyone that knows me well, as in my adult years, i've not been the biggest fan as i am so super sensitive to the sun and burn at the drop of a hat (haha i am funny aren't i. look at that awesome pun!)

it makes me happy to know that my kids can now have the bunbury experience too, as our friends cody and dannielle have moved to eaton (just the other side to where we would stay) and we can visit any time we please! yay! they were in karratha until a few weeks ago and we are beyond thrilled to have them back in driving distance. this will definitely be a regular thing! hello long weekends :)

this morning before church we took the kids (and their dogs) to the beach for a bit of a run around. madeline loved every second of it and i loved to watch her! i really need to take my white skin to the beach more often... it makes every one so happy!

maddie and her new friend millie, she has learned to love dogs in recent months, which is so nice to see, she was bowled over by an excited dog when she was smaller and was petrified of them for years. she explained to me this morning though, "oh i am okay now mummy, i like dogs now, just not the excited ones!" hahaha

the boys and marley, just watching the waves come in

and doug and baby j. he wasn't so sure about the beach, but he loved holding daddys hand tightly as he walked around taking it all in. most observant our boy!

i am loving bunbury! can't wait for the next visit ♥

reunited!

best. day. ever!

our besties the williamses were down from karratha this week and we were finally reunited after months of not seeing each other. we had such a great time together, even though it's never long enough, gas bagging, eating and cherishing every moment.

we love them, but it's always bittersweet... to see them and have them leave again...

can't wait until we all live close again!

♥