after school hangs

yesterday we had our first after school play date with maddie's friend from school isabella. it makes me so happy seeing her with her little friends and knowing she is so happy with her life and loving her school. there was even an added bonus, that isabellas little brother and joseph are similar ages, so the party was on for young and old. 

of course the girls had to put on something matching which cracked me up to no end, i remember well the days of pretending to be twins with  my friends by wearing the same clothes. we had a lovely afternoon and i can't wait for my next catch up with isabellas mum - cause mums have fun too! 

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

a little big boy bed

we finally took the side of master josephs cot, after he managed to climb out of it every morning for about 2 weeks straight and he's not been too excited about it. until i discovered a lightning mcqueen pillow case in the cupboard and alllll of a sudden, he couldn't get in there quickly enough! haha.

then, gumtree saved the day, when doug discovered this gorgeous vintage style disney cars cot set and now it's on josephs bed, he is thrilled, he's sleeping in there without trying to run off and my little boy seems to have suddenly gotten a whole lot bigger :(

happy birthday aunty!

aunty niques is still on her mission, but it was her birthday on saturday and that didn't stop her mother, who bought her a cake for us to enjoy earlier today at family home evening. the kids were completely delighted and couldn't believe that aunty got a cake when she wasn't even here hahaha

joseph was very happy to pose with the cake for me

and madeline couldn't wait to cut it and make a wish...

we all miss aunty very much and can't wait until she gets home, 2 months to go! ♥

inflatable world

another party today for the kindy squad! gem had her birthday today (and was quite unobliging about having her photo taken hence the lack of her presence in these pics) at inflatable world in malaga. the girls had such a good time, i love listening to them laugh together

isabella charlotte and madeline, the 2016 esps kindy squad!

maddie at the bottom of one of the slides. inflatable world is set up in an indoor sports centre and runs in the off season, an awesome idea if you ask me!

i am loving the kindy parties, can't wait for the next one ♥

the frock exchange

we had the most incredible relief society additional meeting on the weekend, the frock exchange. our additional meetings coordinator like me, is an opshop lover and had a brainwave of having a frock exchange, to allow the ladies in our ward to bring along their awesome but unworn items and trade them with someone else. i was in opshop heaven... even more so because there was no money required :)

we did have a monetary system that consisted of one button per item checked in, which we then used to "purchase" other items at the end of the evening. 

and a fashion show covering the eras from 60s - now with these epic modest dresses loaned to us for the evening from omika australia worn by some awesome volunteers from our young women and young single adults. 

as you can see, our crew made an amazing amount of effort creating a store and a cafe and i was just blown away when i walked in and saw it all set up. i mean seriously, our activities coordinator even went to the effort of having vintage look signs painted up to place around the hall.

and it's no secret the we mormon ladies love to bake... and just look at the spread we busted out on the evening!!

it was such an incredible night, i can't even tell you how good it was. huge props to the ellenbrook ward additional meetings committe ♥

ice skating!

we had our first kindy birthday on saturday, for madeline's friend isabella and maddie thought all her christmases had come at once, because it was at the ice skating rink!! she is forever asking if we can go ice skating and was thrilled to bits to finally try it out. it has been about 17 years since my last ice skating adventure (back in young womens) and i am proud to say that i didn't fall over once. it certainly took effort to stay on my feet and not end up on my butt, but i managed it.

i forever hear about isabella and charlotte, "my best friends mum!" and today i saw the three of them hanging out together, laughing together and having the time of their lives, so i quickly snapped this pic of them. i love knowing that maddie has made friends at school!

we loved ice skating and can't wait to go again!