dion is 50

i have been so blessed to have the most wonderful older cousin. dion was already 12 when i was born and i have always looked up to her. she seemed to have it all worked out, found her lifelong love when she was still in high school (they are still very happily married!) and was good at everything, always impeccably dressed, with perfect hair and nails and to top it off, is one hell of a mum! plus, she is just as ocd as me, so that makes her even better in my books. i just love her!

i felt so very special to be invited to celebrate with her on saturday night as she and her husband had their joint 50th. even more so that i was allowed to help by bringing along some desserts (brownies and lemon slice) for this amazing dessert table!

i was introduced to all her friends as "my favourite cousin" which made me feel even more special. she has always had a special bond with my mother, having spent a lot of time with her growing up and she was all smiles chatting with the two of us even though it had been quite some time since we had last seen her.

but in all honesty, my favourite part of the night was taking selfies with her and my other cousins that were there - her two sisters. family over everything right? it was a wonderful night and so so good to catch up after far too long apart. ❤

 

isabel is 2: a moana birthday party

this adorable little girl had her second birthday party yesterday, a moana birthday party thrown by her very clever mum, my best friend jennifer.

everything looked very island-ish and thanks to our good friends at woolworths, we had an almost life size moana cut out for behind the food table. thank you recent disney tile promotion!

fun fact: you cannot buy brown balloons from party stores. it's just not a colour they make. so, you have to make them yourself, by popping a black balloon inside a burgundy one and blowing them up together. ta-dah!

heart of te fiti cookies ♥

and a hand made tropical number two. she's a clever girl our jen.

but, her specialty is the amazing cakes she churns out! this one was no exception. although she used a edible paper wrap for the bottom layer, the top was completely hand painted! jen, you are amazing!

the birthday girl with her gift from me, a singing heart of te fiti necklace ♥

jen & mat enjoying the party, mat must have been enjoying himself, that shirt says it all!

isabel with her mummy and daddy

and having a laugh with her dad.

happy birthday miss isabel. what a pleasure it was to share your day with you! 

♥

emily's bridal shower

this coming thursday is the big day... and today dom and i joined forces again (you can see our first joint effort here) to throw a bridal shower for her sister in law to be, emily! 

it's blossom season here in australia, so i did some branch collecting around the place and ended up with four vases of blossoms that not only looked amazing, but smelt like heaven! the bunting is a mix of lace, satin and calico triangles and is about ten metres long... made by my mum when she and dad were in samoa! it looks amazing all set up!

drinks were simple, with pink lemonade and water with strawberries and mint

the menu was a little more complicated as we catered for gf and df guests, but i think we got it right... there was barely any left over!

gf df brownie muffins (these have been my go to over the last few months - recipe here)

amazing flowers with our feast in the background

we had a few games 

- your earliest memory of emily

- he said, she said, with a video of therons responses... certainly got some giggles from the girls

- how many kisses for the future mrs (guess how many hershey's kisses were in a jar) 

we love you em! i can't wait to watch you become mrs. pinker next week! ♥

moana party prep

sometimes i think i enjoy the party prep more than the party! i have so much thinking of ideas and seeing them come to life. madeline decided that this year she'd like a moana party for her birthday, so my mind went into overload thinking what i could do to make the party that little bit cooler.

my very awesome best friend jen got to work making chocolate wraps that i could print to cover the aldi 40g chocolates ($2.99 for 5), you simply remove their paper (very carefully) and then add your own print (a standard size 4x6 photo wrapped fits perfectly) and hold in place with a small piece of tape.

these were to go inside these awesome coconut cups i ordered from ebay here ($2.95 each with flat rate postage for $7.95 no matter how many you order) along with some allens pineapples and a white lollipop (which totally looks like a coconut on a stick)

i decided to make jelly slice (because it's a crowd pleaser and would totally look like ocean slice with the blue white and sandy colour... only this was a huge fail. i am reporting back so no one else has to go through this... i bought the awesome looking new aeroplane glitter jelly (because who doesn't like glitter) but after being in the fridge on top of the slice all day long it still wasn't set!!!! it seems as though the glitter jelly uses a different setting agent than the regular gelatine in most jellies and adding the additional gelatine required to get it solid enough to hold on the slice had caused it to react and not set. long story short, i'll be heading off to coles in the morning on an emergency non-glitter jelly run after i tip this lot off.

i desperately wanted to make heart of te fiti cookies. for those of you that have seen moana, the movie centres on a small green stone called the heart of te fiti and i wanted to give it a go! i used the recipe i used last year to make the pineapple cookies last year and got to work. i was in the middle of rolling out the dough when madeline came into the kitchen and said, "mum, what are you doing?" i replied, "i'm making heart of te fiti cookies" "oh. why aren't they green?" oh my gosh. why weren't they green?! my darling girl with all the innocence of a child had saved me hours of icing the cookies with common sense. back in the mixer with some green food colouring, then back onto the bench to roll again.

i used a pumpkin cookie cutter that i picked up at coles in a 4 pack for a few dollars after halloween last year then used the knife i was lifting the cookies with to cut off the stem. easy!

into the oven they went... then once they were cool i iced them (same icing recipe from the pineapple cookie post mentioned above) with a simple swirl. they aren't perfect, that's for sure, but i love them!

i also made some "tamatoa's shiny treasure" by using caramel popcorn with some cute shiny gold stars and pearls to make it extra shiiiiiiiny!!

and some "beach sand slice" aka lemon pie bars, which my friend lisa used to make allll the time when she lived in australia. they are excellent and i strongly suggest you give them a try while lemons are in season. 

stay tuned... party is tomorrow and we are super excited at makeshift motonui. i can't wait to show off pictures!

renays bridal shower

on saturday, i got to help out when my friend dom was asked to throw a bridal shower, for her friend renay. i was so stoked, because there's nothing i love more than helping to throw a good party!

we decked out the house with all kinds of goodies from both of our houses... 

made pink lemonade with sliced lemons and

water with strawberries and mint

set up the backyard for high tea with vintage trios

and gleefully displayed the goodies that we had spent the last two days baking! ♥

♥

♥

we played a few games that we'd found on pinterest:

how well do you know the bride?

he said/ she said

and kiss the groom (this was definitely everyones favourite, dom had printed off a giant picture of the groom to be, with her brother, plus a whole pile of lips to pin to the picture. top prize was for getting the lips on the groom, with a booby prize for her brother. it was hysterical!)

add a little signage...

and our beautiful bride to be... 

it was a great afternoon!

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! ♥