the glass menagerie

this evening i had the absolute joy of watching my eldest niece laura in the role of laura (perfect much?) in the play "the glass menagerie" at a the garrick theatre in guildford. i am so proud to be her aunt, she has grown into a beautiful woman, talented and kind. she was absolutely amazing in the role and has received wonderful reviews. i can't wait to see where she goes in life, she truly is one to watch.

aunty love. so blessed to have you laura!

eighteen!!!!!

eighteen years ago, my life changed for the better, when my niece laura was born, my first niece. the years have absolutely flown by and here we are, celebrating her 18th birthday today as i wonder how on earth she (or i for that matter) got so old. i am so proud to be laura's aunt, she is focused, funny and certainly going places in life. i can't wait to see what she does in the years to come ♥

happy birthday beautiful! we love you x

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 ♥

grace's birthday

today another one of my nieces became a teenager (oh heck that makes me feel old...) miss grace goodlet! her parents (my brother and sister-in-law) invited us all over for dinner and dessert. mmmm cake! grace makes me laugh all the time, she is always on hand with a ridiculous you tube video, a smile and some funny remark. it is a constant joy to be her aunty! happy birthday grace!! ♥

we bought grace a waffle maker, which i had heard her wanting loudly at christmas time, but she hadn't actually been given one. this photo wasn't even staged, she was genuinely that excited by the waffle maker! haha

graces lucky number is 3 and conveniently she ended up with 3 cakes. what a birthday! lucky there was plenty of us to help eat them. donna made a flourless chocolate cake (on the left), mum made a apricot, almond and white chocolate cake (middle) and i made a vegan pumpkin pie. it wasn't bad, but i must admit that i prefer the milk version! (full review and recipe to come sometime in the future...)

grace and i

my brother aaron who is still here visiting from queensland, it's so good to have him here!

and my little boy whose selfie game is already strong at a young age. look at him working the camera ♥

laura is seventeen!

this babe is 17 today. 17 years ago she entered the world courtesy of my sister in law and made me an aunty for the first time. and what can i say, i love her to death. she can sing, dance and act and will definitely be going places in the years to come... (i feel it necessary to point this out seeing as she is dressed ready for her school play, shes a moon by the way)

and she is funny, smart, a little crazy (like me) and completely sassy... and i think she's amazing. i'm proud that she's not only my niece, but that she's my friend. 

grace's high tea

yesterday my darling niece grace turned 12 - so on saturday mum and i gave her a fancy high tea party to celebrate with her friends. we had the best time and hope she did too.

grace's other grandmother kindly offered up her outdoor area for us to use for the party and we spent a few hours decorating beforehand... making it look just so.

pastel pompoms available in a range of colours and sizes here on ebay

patchwork bunting made by my lovely mum for maddie's room a few years ago

we hauled crates full of things up the driveway for setup, including white teapots, to fill with roses from mums friends garden (we have contacts all over the place haha) a trio set for each guest, white tablecloths and a pile of multi-tiered plates for serving.

i managed to score these cute fans from a friend that was married last month, so that each of the girls could take a gift as they left. seriously, you go to a party and get a present? win/win!

all set up before the girls arrived... we had so much fun... and it was all worth it when grace walked in and saw it all ready - all for her.

♥

very girly and cute for the girl of the day

looking good!

♥

we also set up a little area for the girls to strut their stuff with a stack of props we provided, to make a photobooth. as i predicted, the girls loved it and proceeded to ham it up and take a whole pile of photos. i loved watching them... kind of made me wish i was 12 again. i especially love this one of my gorgeous nieces emma and grace. they look so sweet together.

miss emma kate ♥

grace and her cousin lily

the hall girls love to put on a good show and once they saw the photo props, they were in there posing away... i think there us almost as many photos of them as there is of the girls. goodness me they were funny!

grace opening her presents from us. glad to see she liked them!

and this amazing cake that mum put together... not only did it look incredible, but it was so yum! it took a great deal of effort to only eat a teeny piece. 

happy birthday sweet grace, my world got a little brighter the day you were born! xx