to york to york

there is nothing my mother and i love more than a good opshop, even if it's a bit of a drive to get there. one of our favourites, which isn't too far from mums house, is the salvation army jumble sale in york. it is in a shed behind the salvation army church (meaning of course that it's hot in summer and freezing in winter) located in avon terrace, open from 9:30-12 noon monday and friday. we always get some awesome bargains and have a lot of fun.

and the kids love it too! there is a "cafe" inside the church hall during the jumble sale opening hours and they serve scones with jam and cream. yum yum yum. we love our york trips with nanna. ♥

a talk on repentance (and meaningful baptism gifts)

my littlest niece emma kate was baptised on sunday. it was such a lovely day, a beautiful service and awesome to be with our family on such a special occassion. we are so proud of her decision to be baptised and i took great care in choosing appropriate gifts for her day.

we bought her a gold journal, (which even had gold edging to the paper, from woolworths of all places!) a miniature leather bound hymn book to go with her new scriptures and an "always there for you" angel. i thought the angel was a perfect baptism gift, seeing as you receive the gift of the holy ghost after you are baptised and you are promised that he will always be there for you if you are true and faithful.

miss emma kate opening her presents

emma asked me to give a talk on repentance at her baptism, which i happily did... i found this amazing talk online here, which i adapted a little to suit. it was so fun and i think it's a wonderful way to teach the principle.

Hi everyone! I’m Emma’s Aunty Jade and I am here today to talk to you about a special thing called Repentance.

When we came to earth, we were pure and perfect - just like this egg. (Show a hard-boiled egg.) But all of us make mistakes. We do things that we aren’t supposed to and that makes us dirty. Maybe we disobey our parents. (Colour a scribble on the egg shell with a whiteboard marker.) Maybe we get into a fight with our brother or sister. (Colour another scribble on the shell.) We may even tell a lie (colour another scribble). All these things leave their mark. (Show them the egg) What do you think of the egg now? Would you want an ugly egg like this?

Heavenly Father wants us to live with Him again but we can’t if we are covered in sin. That is why He gave us the gift of baptism. (Using the spoon, carefully lower the egg into a jar of water with a large squirt of domestos [bleach] mixed into it.)

When we are baptized, Heavenly Father erases our sins. We come out of the water pure and perfectagain. (Wait until the marker dissolves completely then remove the egg, wipe away the water and show them the white shell again. [It’s a good idea to have baby wipes on hand in case all the maker doesn’t come off, you can remove what’s left with the baby wipe as you clean it off/dry it] Then show them the egg.) But after we are baptized, we still make mistakes, don’t we? We still do things we aren’t supposed to.

We may watch a movie we shouldn’t watch (scribble on the shell with the marker). We may say something mean or unkind to our brother or sister or maybe even to our parents (scribble on the shell again). All these things will make us dirty again.

So what can we do? We can’t get baptized again. That is so sacred and special we can only do that once. That’s why Heavenly Father also gave us the gift of repentance. He lets us repent so we can be clean again. Repentance means we stop what we are doing. (When you say the word ‘stop’, hit the hard-boiled egg on the table to crack the shell. Roll it around a few times to further crack the shell.)

Then we have to do something that is kind of hard. We have to change. We have to get rid of the bad things in our lives. (Start peeling the egg.) It takes work to remove those sins from our lives but we can do it. When we are willing to change who we are and get rid of the bad things in our lives, then we can be pure and white again. (Show them the clean and peeled egg.) That is what Heavenly Father wants. That is why He lets us repent and change. He knows repentance is good for us. He wants us to repent so we can be pure and live with Him again.

I am so thankful for the gift of repentance and being able to make myself clean again each time I do something wrong. I am so grateful you’ve chosen to be baptised Emma and that we’ve been able to share today with you.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

(side note, if you do choose to do this talk (even as a primary lesson?), it is probably best that you have a second egg that's already peeled and you know has come out clean and smooth. my egg didn't peel so well and i ended up having to hold it to show one small smooth spot. it would have been much easier and effective to reach down to "peel it into something" and quickly swapped them over)

it was a success! emma and all the other kids loved it! thank you internet!

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 ♥

school days

madeline has settled into school without any fuss at all and is loving her school life. other than the very occasional "i don't want to go today" she is raring to go. all her little friends shout hello as she arrives and she races in, talking a mile a minute. 

each day we write our name 3 times to practice (as you can see she's getting quite good at it) then tell what fruit we brought on the smart board graph... then play with the educational toys until the bell goes. 

madeline has a wonderful teacher and a super awesome teachers assistant and is always smiling at the end of the day. school seems to be suiting her just fine ♥

sunday's and snapchat

yesterdays sunday quote seems particularly appropriate... a rescue? i need to be rescued! my kiddies have discovered snapchat and maddie has even worked out how to open the app and get the filters going. and they are having a blast with it.

my flowerchildren in full force, looking very serious...

and joseph as a puppy. could he be any more adorable if he tried? ♥

lucky they are so cute, makes it hard to get angry with them...

when they were done with my phone, maddie decided to move on to "cooking" in the kitchen and made this amazing piece of bread, leaving a trail of honey and sugar and other things all over the kitchen bench... 

i love sundays... what more can i say? ♥

disney on ice: magical ice festival

disney on ice, we love you!! this year is the third time madeline and i have been to disney on ice at the perth arena and all i can say is wow! they just keep getting better. this year was no exception and we loved every minute of the show.

doug and i bought madeline an "elsa" dress a few weeks ago to surprise her with before the show. she was so excited and her little face lit up as she squealed "is that for me? did you buy it?" and ran to grab it from doug and put it on at lightning speed. (well my love, i certainly did not stay up for the last few weeks sewing it for you haha)

it added that much more fun to the night to be dressed up as a princess, especially when we referred to her as your royal highness all night. she was loving the attention!

she was so excited though, when she saw that i had dressed up too. i was about to put on jeans and a tshirt when i decided last minute that it would be fun to dress up too and pulled out my red skirt and minnie ears that i had stashed in our dress up box. it was a winning combination and madeline was very excited about it. oh mum! you're minnie!!

i love this girl so much it hurts

my minnie get up haha ♥

my favourite this year was tangled... if i could possibly pick a favourite disney movie, i think that would be mine. i love the lanterns, the songs and most of all the sarcasm. best disney prince ever!

mads was also super excited to see the frozen section. what little girl wouldn't be. especially when we saw the signs in the foyer saying that next years show is frozen on ice. wild horses couldn't keep my girl from that one!

elsa doing her thang... let it gooooooooooo

maddie kept asking where her friends were (we went in a group last year and she was missing her little mates) and as the most crazy thing ever, we ran into them across the road when we headed to the car.

it had been ages since they'd seen each other last and it was quite the reunion... i love how much they love each other!!

a photo with the chicks... what an awesome night!

we love you disney on ice!! see you next year! ♥