madeline's baptism

on saturday our little madeline was baptised as a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. in our church children are baptised when they reach the age of eight, which we recognise as the age of accountability, also giving the children the opportunity to chose for themselves whether or not they want to become a member. maddie decided she was ready, so her baptism was organised for the saturday immediately following her birthday.

she wore the same dress i did for my baptism, with a slight modification... it had to be run in! i was such a skinny child and it looks like she is even more so!

our friends at winter woodworking made her a beautiful coat hanger to put the dress on beforehand, with her name and the date on it. so cute!

madeline was baptised and confirmed a member of the church by her proud daddy, who although is a total toughie in real life, has the softest spot for his little girl, even though they argue all day everyday haha.

i just cannot believe she is 8! it feels like it wasn't that long ago they put that teeeny baby in my arms. she was so small, so perfect and all ours. and now? god gave her red hair because he knew she needed a warning label! 

jen was on hand as always to make this gorgeous decked out number 8 cake. it looked and tasted delicious!

i am kind of ticked because i raced into the hall once everything was over to quickly pop the last of the food out and was instantly mobbed by hungry children, so i didn't get to take a photo of it all set up... believe me though, i loved it and it was exactly what i wanted! the only pic i have is this one mum snapped on her phone. i wanted something easy that everyone could enjoy so i put together a dessert bar, with pink lemonade and hot chocolate with marshmallows - one each end, with cakes - brownies, carrot cake, banana cake, birthday cake... and then some cupcakes and donuts (which just appeared on the day thanks to some lovely friends, i was thrilled!) and icecream, complete with cones, sprinkles and 100s and 1000s. 

it was the most perfect day, surrounded by everyone we love. maddie even invited two of her friends from school, who both came and their parents loved it! and let's be honest, what better introduction to the church is there than an occasion like this?

i am so lucky to have such a beautiful little family and amazing friends around me. madeline we are so proud of you and the wonderful choices you've made to be here! ❤

baby alex is nine months old

baby alexander is now nine months old and cuter than ever. seeing as his month day fell on madeline's birthday, we let her have all the glory and are coming to you two days late.

during the past month he:

-sat up by himself the day he was 8 months old!

-started rocking back and forth on his hands and knees

-started to cut another tooth (the top right hand side front incisor), then decided to cut all hour top teeth at once! he was a mess and had a high temperature which we thought was related to the teeth, only to have him get sicker and sicker coughing and breathing awfully until we had to take him to the emergency department and found out he had bronchiolitis!

-he started to crawl, just a few movements at a time, until he moved more and more, and then started slowly crawling about to look at things and get closer to people.

-to madeline's delight he has been doing the 'downward dog' yoga pose.

i can't believe that before too long i will have a one year old! this is insanity.

baby alex you are the cutest and we just love you so much! 

maddie is eight!

"god gave me red hair because he knew i needed a warning label"

that quote was 100% written about my daughter.

i genuinely do not know how this day has arrived, but somehow my maddie is eight years old today. i always laugh when people say "oh it feels like just yesterday" but here i am thinking it wasn't all that long ago the midwife handed me a little girl all of my own to take home and love - and now look at her. she is witty, funny, inquisitive and the best person ever to hang out with. i feel like i am constantly arguing with a miniature version of myself, but she just gets me! i know she was sent to me for a reason, we were absolutely meant to be together.

this weekend we will celebrate again with family and friends as she is baptised a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. i am so proud that she wants to be part of the gospel and can't wait for her special day.

madeline we love you so much and i am so, so proud to be your mum 

back to the future

when the kids were sick last week i decided to find them something to watch that we hadn't seen before (well, that they hadn't seen before) that would keep them entertained with lots of little easy jokes. to my delight, back to the future is now on netflix! all i had to tell joseph was that there was a cool car in it for him to agree... maddie was a little more hesitant, but loved it just as much.

i haven't seen it for years and years and i was surprised at just how funny it is and how well the three link together. other than a few choice words, it's very family friendly and is something i dn't mind them watching over and over, which as kids, is something i know they'll do.

joseph is now obsessed with needing a delorean hot wheels toy and has already watched the movies about 3 times each... he's talking about marty and doc non-stop... and it's going to be a looong set of school holidays.

madeline's high tea

today we celebrated miss madeline turning 8! a little early, as her birthday is this week, but seeing as we are having her baptism next weekend, it was just too hard to do it all at once. 

she was so, so excited for the day to come and being that their last day of school for two weeks was yesterday, she's even more so!

she looked so cute (and thrilled to bits!) as we snapped some pictures outside before her friends arrived, thankfully like a little girl still, i'm hoping she stays that way for just a little longer! i looove the oversize flower crown, so i am especially pleased that she agreed to wear it for the day. 

we had the house decorated to the nines, with this chalkboard sign in the entry hall. if you look closing you can see miss maddie waving in the reflection to the left.

i wanted it all to be matching and set up beautifully so i actually hired some tables and chairs from a place in midland, so that i could use my chair covers and have it all uniform (ocd much?) but i was so pleased with how it all came out. the only thing i ended up having to buy was the pink chair sashes, so that's a positive! between mum and i, we have everything you could possibly need for a tea party!

my best friend jen, who makes cookies over at baked on benrua, made these amazing cookies to be placecards for the girls. i love them so much, and the best bit was, she even threw in two extras, stamped with mine and mums names to enjoy during the party.

how cute are they?!

star of the show. what a day she had! every time we have organised a tea party for someone else, she has always asked when she can have one for her friends (definitely her mothers daughter!) so now that she's (nearly) eight and most of her friends are at a similar age, i figured we were probably safe using china for it... and thankfully nothing got broken!

i wanted to do a really vintage style cake, not one of these overdone cakes you see at every party these days, so i bought a two pack of round sponges from woolworths, along with some strawberries, jam and cream. i had planned to just do it into four layers, fill between each one, then top it with some rose buds and a dusting of icing sugar. but then mum turned up and it became a work of art. ladies and gentlemen, my mother is amazing! look what she did with some flowers she bought along from her garden. maddie and i were blown away by how cute it was and the first thing she wanted to show everyone that walked in the door was that gorgeous cake!

almost ready to receive guests... we took our table to pieces and stashed it in alexanders room during the party so we could have a gorgeous long table and chairs.

love love love. i was so happy with how it turned out.

i made crockpot hot chocolate for the girls to have in their teacups and for any of the mums that decided to stay (recipe can be found at the end of this post, we have used it on many occasions, it's delicious and always works perfectly!) 

we also had water and pink lemonade with fresh lemons added

i baked most of the things we had to eat:

-mini blueberry muffins

-brownies

-chocolate truffles

-chocolate chip cookies

-jelly slice

-mini sausage rolls 

(easiest recipe ever, 8 pack of sausages, 2 sheets of puff pastry cut into 4... wrap each sausage and cut to the size you want, then brush with a beaten egg and bake in a 180 degree celcius oven for 30 or so minutes - until brown)

-mini corn fritters

-spinach & ricotta puffs

-egg sandwiches

-macarons (from coles! $8 for 10 and they are delicious, so there is no way i would try and make them for that price... i value my sanity)

the girls all oohed and aahed over the setup when they arrives, loved looking for their place and i absolutely heard one of them exclaim to another whilst drinking out of her teacup, "i just feel so fancy!"

such little ladies

after they finished their afternoon tea, we took some photos with props, which involved a lot of giggling and noise, then played pass the parcel, musical bobs and musical statues. oh i love watching them get competitive, it's the best bit. we had a lovely afternoon with them all and madeline was so sad when it was over, one of the girls even cried because she didn't want to leave. 

maddie with her cake! so cliche but i honestly cannot believe that she will be 8 this week. how on earth did that happen?!

loving her life 

happy almost birthday miss madeline. we love you so much!

*******************************************

crock pot hot chocolate

ingredients:
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 x cans sweetened condensed milk 

(just buy the coles/woolworths brand ones- they are exactly the same!)
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
marshmallows to serve

directions:
1.) in crock-pot combine milk, water and vanilla.
2.) add dry cocoa and salt, stir until smooth.
3.) cover and cook on high 2 hours or on low for 4 hrs
4.) top each serving with marshmallows

sickness reigns supreme

sickness has well and truly torn through our house. the week before last i had joseph home for 3 days and maddie for one, then both of them off the following monday (thankkfully they went back the next day and haven't been off since) and doug, then we had to take alex to the emergency department of perth childrens hospital because he was wheezing so badly, only to discover he had bronchiolitis... and by the end of that week - i was down with something too. as a mum, you are always end of the line for being looked after, so by the time i got to the dr, i was told i had a severe (drs words, not mine!) sinus and chest infection. no wonder i couldn't flipping breathe! it was terrible, every time i would lay down to try and sleep, i would actually be able to hear the wheezing of my chest and i'd start coughing again. being sick is the worst, especially with a baby who keeps waking up because he is sick too! :(

here is hoping that we are all on the mend, because i am well and truly over it. this being sick and having to be a mum sucks so bad.

kombucha

doug and madeline loooove kombucha. i think it's great they want to drink it as i know it is super beneficial for gut health and tastes good too. 9i don't mind the taste, the smell is something i need to get used to though.) it is soooooo expensive to buy though, so that was a big fat no from me... and i also wasn't keen as i know it's generally made from black tea. no thanks.

so i got the surprise of a lifetime when vistiting my sister in law donna and she offered me some. turns out she makes her own, with rooibis tea, so the black tea issue is over and done with. she gave me a scoby (the brewing piece) and i decided to give it a go. happy days... my first batch worked and both madeline and doug gave it the thumbs up of approval. hooray!

it's an ongoing mix as long as you "feed" it once a week, so looks like we will have plenty in the future. i got my instructions from here, which even had an instructional video (and you can even try your hand at growing your own scoby if you follow the instructions here.) and they worked great. thank goodness for the internet.