Thursday, July 18, 2013

watch madeline grow!

well - here we have it folks. project #watchmadelinegrow (yes - that's right - you can check it out on instagram) is complete!! i saw this amazing idea on pinterest here - when madeline was 4 months old and decided to do my own take on it and i am in love, love, love with the results. one chair, 21 photos and the cutest baby ever. so much fun! i can't wait to have it printed up for the wall. so without further ado - please, 
watch madeline grow!!
4months
5months
6months
7months
8months
9months
10months
11months
12months - 1 year
13months
14months
15months
16months
17months
18months
19months
20months
21months
22months
23months
24months - 2 years

Monday, July 15, 2013

maddie's second birthday party


on saturday we had maddie's second birthday party with a milk and cookies theme... i got the idea from this gorgeous blog that i read all the time - erinlovesearl, who is the creator of candykirbydesigns. i thought it was so cute that i did my own take and it worked beautifully.


we had milk in a drink dispenser, along with milk bottles and paper straws for everyone to drink from, and nesquik in all different flavours. yummm!!!




plus... a cookie decorating station so the kids had something to keep them entertained. it's hard when all the kids are such different ages. so, we got some icing bags with plain white icing so they could get decorating. so cool! my eldest niece laura went to town and a had a great time.


i made a whole buttload of cookies for the party after looking on pinterest for all the best possible recipes i could find, including the sugar cookies we decorated (obviously didn't use their icing recipe...), oreo cheesecake cookies, sour cream sugar cookies, brownie cookies and rolo cookies. the only bad bit is that after making all that... i didn't want to eat any of them! :( but my, did they look good!

the oreo cheesecake cookies

miss maddie and i unwrapping her birthday gifts, she got some absolutely lovely gifts!! we are so blessed to have such beautiful friends who love madeline so very much.


maddie showing off her beautiful new dress and cardigan from her grandparents in brisbane. 


and opening some more gifts! can't ever have enough clothing when you're a girl!! espcecially clothes from cotton on kids... ♥


madeline and her cousin emma love each other so much, and had a wonderful time together, having cuddles, eating cookies and riding her little bike around the back yard. i am sure they have many years of fun ahead of them...



my best friend jennifer made madeline's birthday cake again this year and made her this beautiful 4 piece high pink ombre cake covered in buttercream icing and then with white chocolate buttons. it looked amazing - and was delicious!!!


and here is the prettiest girl in the world blowing out her candles! i just love her far too much!



our little family with maddie's cake ♥


and... the inside of the cake! how flipping cool is it?!
i still can't believe my little munchkin is two, what a wonderful time we had with our friends and family at her little party. ♥

Thursday, July 11, 2013

maddie turns two!



holy freak. she's two years old and i swear yesterday i was snuggling her new born tiny self in the hospital and now she's crazy big. how did it happen and how do i make it stop? luckily she is super cute and way fun, so i guess i can handle her getting bigger... plus i guess i could always have another one...
so here is the last picture of miss maddie on her chair... i am planning on putting all of them together on a single page and framing it - so stayed tuned for the final product. i am way excited to see it done! it's a pretty good final shot though, i crack up every time i see it.

she is so big and she is so smart and i love her more every day. she is 83cm tall, she wears size 0 and 1, and talks non stop. she answers all our questions and tries to tell us things all the time that we don't get, but she keeps going regardless... her hair is long enough for a beautiful little ponytail, she still loves crackers, and strawberries (which she will steal from the fridge), juice, yoghurt (which i have also caught her carrying around the house on numerous occasions), polony (which she jumps up and down for in front of the deli at coles for) and just food in general. she's definitely a little polynesian our maddie. she also loves to hear the car horn honking and constantly yells beepbeep from the back seat while we are driving  and pushes her hand in the air while she does it. she also loves loves loves nursery rhymes and sings them along with us as best as she can, as well as demanding them one by one when someone puts her to bed.


being two is obviously hard work, because after a hard night of trying to stay awake, she was still fast asleep sucking her hand in our bed at 9:00am on her birthday. lucky she is so cute, otherwise i would have had to kick her out.


when daddy got home from his training we went for lunch together at innaloo at the coffee club... toasted ham and cheese for miss maddie and of course a babycino.


but before that, we went to the pet shop and bought maddie her birthday present - two siamese fighting fish! she loves them and spent the afternoon standing on her little chair peering through the glass at them. mummy even named them herself, much to daddys amusement after method man and red man from the wu tang clan - they are now to be officially known as meth and red (clearly the red one is red...)


we unwrapped presents in the afternoon and as per usual maddie had the time of her life ripping into them...



i love watching kids open presents, i swear there is nothing cuter than that wide, bright, excited look in their eyes when they are still at that age where they have no way of guessing what's inside and whatever it is is a complete and utter surprise.


her favourite though, was of course the jumping peppa pig that daddy bought her, it jumps on the spot (for my friends reading here... please think back to the very late nineties to a bouncing tigger - kind of the same concept) and says things like "i love jumping in muddy puddles...splish splash splosh splish-splish". she is obsessed already, i can tell.


and dessert... custom cupcakes from the local shopping centre, one for each of us and candles in miss maddies! she totally has the hang of them now too thank goodness, there was no repeat of last year, when she tried to grab them while they were burning. she made us all laugh though, by yelling hip hip hooray along with us. so smart. i can tell she's going to be running circles around us soon.


she is so freaking beautiful, and every single day i thank heavenly father for giving her to us. i can't think of any thing that i am more proud to have.

happy second birthday miss madeline, we love you for always!

Saturday, July 6, 2013

mason is one!


today we had the pleasure of going to little mason's first birthday party! and what a party it was! my gorgeous friend bianca has spent hours and hours perfecting every last detail and it was was incredible - down to the absolute last detail.


here is some of the food all set out on the table, she had everything in red, white and blue with a little red car theme. m shaped cookies, little racing car biscuits and a red white and blue lolly buffet,. plus... the talented girl even hand made the bunting behind the table. super cool!


i am obsessed with this incredibly cool drink dispensers i bought off ebay, i am sure you'll see them again shortly in the photos from maddie's birthday which is next saturday. being that our babies have such close birthdays, bianca and i made sure to have their parties on different days. :) she came around last week to borrow all my party supplies... i really need to start hiring them out for real, might be a nice side project!


these little beauties came from my collection too - little milk bottles with paper straws... i love the vintage feel.


bianca made this absolutely incredible cake, which i can only assume took forever - i can't even imagine attempting something like that (and i can guarantee it wouldn't look that good either...)

  
plus... there was a ball pit - maddie loved it!!! and kept racing over and diving in there. had the time of her life. little cutie.





as you can see mason was extremely co-operative when we wanted to take photos of him... haha. but here he is with rob's dad. 


those sugar cookies were amazing - see recipe here -


and i am totally jealous of this amazing idea - a collage of pictures from masons first year in a number one shape. too cool.
  

cutest little family there ever was - i am so in love with them! mason looked a little overwhelmed with all the attention, but i am positive he was having the time of his life. 




maddie and her daddy. i am positive there is no one she loves more in the world. look at that grin!


and a pic with aunty bianca... oh happy day! i love how much love this little girl has crammed into her little body. 


and just before we go...? a shot of me with the cake! there's nothing in this world like a good piece of cake! such a good party bianca, i see a future in party planning for you!!