disney on ice!!!

today maddie and i went to the perth arena to see disney on ice!! we had such a good time and i am so glad for my spur of the moment online ticket purchase after seeing an ad on tv one night. my little girl is completely and utterly obsessed with all the disney princesses (and a lot of the other movies too!!) so i knew it would be well worth it. 

she was captivated from the opening scene, toy story - and loved alice in wonderland and peter pan that followed before the intermission... the lion king was afterwards and i was so impressed with what they did for it (please go and look up disney on ice treasure trove the lion king on youtube, if there's a good copy, it's well worth the watch!) all the costumes and effects were so good. maddie got so excited and was adorable calling. "hey! hey!" and waving at the characters. they then did snow white and aladdin, which was the end of the actual story blocks... but there was still plenty of time for a song and a piece from the little mermaid, tangled and the princess and the frog before a finale with 9 of the princesses and their princes singing one day my prince will come. i was beside myself when they did aladdin which has always been my favourite of the movies, but when tangled started both maddie and i were cheering, she lovvvvves tangled ('punzel as she calls it...) and it's certainly my favourite of the new animation style movies that disney have done. it was so great to watch, and i loved the way that the characters interacted with the audience waving and smiling as they ended their piece. disney certainly never scrimp on anything and it was all presented with absolute perfection.

after the show we bought a princess balloon which maddie was thrilled to bits with, we walked in right as the show began, so we passed the stalls with merchandise and just looked - and then did the same during intermission. amazingly enough maddie was happy just to look - wow that's crazy... my two year old didn't want everything for once? but the balloon was great! she happily took it and walked up the street with it to meet daddy and joseph at harbourtown, where she showed it to everyone we passed.

it was so nice to spend some time with just me and her, i think sometimes she feels a little neglected when joseph constantly has all my attention, so it was nice for us! she told doug over and over about disney ice and keeps asking when we can go skating (this will be interesting for sure...) so obviously she enjoyed herself. i also saw when googling later on this afternoon that they currently have frozen on ice in progress so i guess that will be next on the agenda! i'm sure we'll be lining up for that one!! ♥

happy birthday bro!

happy birthday to this ratbag brother of mine. the youngest of my older brothers, who i worshipped and followed around like a puppy as a child. he is one of the funniest, craziest and most laid back people i know, so fiercely loyal and ever caring. we have had our fair share of arguments and craziness over the years, but i love you isaac, like a fat kid loves cake and hope you had the best birthday ever!

bargain central...

anyone who knows me will know how much of a bargain hunter i am, and how i completely and honestly detest paying full price for anything. so much so that i live to op shop (that's thrifting for you peeps in the u.s. that may have stumbled upon my little blog) and always make a beeline for the sale rack when shopping. i don't see why people waste money when you can get good things that are cheaper - but of course every now and then there's that "must have" item, but to be honest, i still try to get them cheap too!

just last week i had some amazing luck getting two things that we've been needing for a while, on awesome sale... it was amazing, we had a capsule for baby joseph - but he was already starting to grow out of it rather quickly and we could tell he would be needing a seat in the very near future. maddie had a car seat that i picked up second hand from ebay which was nice but getting a little ratty. then we got our junk mail and instead of throwing the catalogues in the bin which i do when i am trying to save moolah, i flicked through the babies r us catalogue and found this great baby seat! suits 0-4 years, starts as a rear facing laying down seat, with baby inserts - then goes to the sitting up no insert seat suitable for a babe until they are into their booster seat. one hundred dollars off. i am not kidding. it was amazing!! we snapped up two of them quick smart and they go beautifully in our car. yay! if you need a new seat, these are great, i am super impressed with how nice and safe they are, so go go go while they are still on sale! you can find them here!

my other steal of the week was this baccarat knife set, with a rrp of $399... which we got for $80. legit. doug and i were walking through the shops and saw them for a $100. cool... let's go back and get them... we ran out of time and when we passed the store again it was shut. stink. thennnn we were at kambo's picking up tickets at their ticketek centre and i happened to spy them for $80! score!! the knives we bought from k-mart when we got married were really and truly starting to fall apart. so this was great. especially with the free chopping board. woohoo. you can get them here!

your personal shopper jade signing out... but if you need either of these, get on it peeps!

fix the bebe!

this poor monkey has had a long week... he's had an appointment with the eye specialist on thursday - which thankfully was all clear... he couldn't see anything wrong - yay! i am forever grateful for news like that, i don't even mind paying for an appointment like that if the results are good!

and then yesterday joseph had his first appointment with the osteopath... as you may have seen in previous posts he has been suffering with terrible colic, and after hours of constant fussing for the past few weeks i decided to give something else a try as the medicines aren't working... i have been going to one for the past few years and he has an associate who specialises in babies issues - so off we went.

she was absolutely lovely and spent a lot of time with us, asking me so many questions about my pregnancy, delivery and his general wellbeing. she is certain that the issues he is suffering from, stem from his extremely quick delivery and is hopeful that within a few appointments she will be able to resolve them. the treatment was cranial massage which bothered him only slightly for a brief time before he fell asleep for the rest. he then slept on and off for the rest of the day before sleeping through the entire night. yay! his eyes looked different too, they always looked like he was slightly uncomfortable - and now seem to have relief in them. i am so pleased with what has been done so far - and look forward to our next appointment next week! 

three months old!

this huge baby boy is three months old as of yesterday! he is just lovely, smiles a lot and does little gurgling giggles when you talk to him. he is still growing steadily and is very close to busting out of his 000 clothes that he's still just wearing. he has loved having boy time with poppy and daddy this week!

the only drama we have had with him is his terrible colic! sometimes he will scream for hours on end because of his sore tummy and it makes me feel absolutely helpless. we have made an appointment with an osteopath that specialises in babies, so fingers crossed that she can help him. poor love!

his eyes are still very bright blue and i don't think there is any chance of them changing, regardless of how many people think they will... guess i won that one! he has started to sleep very well and can sometimes sleep from 7pm (ish) until 6-7am once he has had his dreamfeed in the night, he has done it a few times now, and this mama is loving having a good sleep! what a legend. i can only assume it is because he so much bigger than madeline was.

we love our little man and can't imagine what life would be like without him.

aqwa with the fam!

today we went for a family outing to aqwa at hillarys boat harbour... having doug's dad here we thought we'd do something fun - and being that i haven't been since i was in primary school, i really couldn't remember anything about it! back in the day it was called underwater world - and it really is just that. a huge tank with a circular tunnel running underneath it, with a rotating walkway, as well as the option of walking at your own pace. it's super fun, with heaps to see and do.

we started in the shark tank - and did a few laps, my favourite thing to look at was the stingrays, they always make me laugh, the way they look like they have a smiley face underneath! maddie was a bit unsure at first but ended up loving it and pointing things out to doug and i as we went along... joseph loved every second of sleeping in his pram as it rolled along the moving path. (he didn't wake up until we were in the gift shop about to leave)

outside of the tank there are various other exhibits (mini tanks) and then a huge one outside where in summer there is the option of participating in something called "reefwalking" where members of the public can get into a suit and go into the second largest tank and have a walk around and a squiz under the water! way cool. there was a youngish staff member in there cleaning when we stopped to look and maddie at the suggestion of her poppy started calling him "scuba steve". she was thrilled when he stopped to wave to her as she gazed through the glass and told everyone that would listen for the rest of the day all about scubasteeeeeeve.

and me? i could not resist taking a shark selfie. top that selfie queens! i'm pretty damn proud of it!

this little girl had a great time running around and pointing out anything and everything to us... look mum! look at the fiiiiiish! mum! mum! poppy and her had a great time together, i am sure she is going to miss him terribly when he goes home.

there is a touch pool in the outside area, where you can get up close and personal with a whole pile of different sea creatures. was the biggest highlight in quite some time for me, to be able to hold this starfish! as you all know (unless you're a complete random visiting my blog for the very first time) i am obsessed with stars and would very much like my own starfish to take home and cuddle whenever i want!

of course, no trip to hillarys with visitors is complete without a pizza from little caesars. their gourmet pizzas are all kinds of amazing, and the three of us and little miss madeline had no problems polishing these off  (clockwise from top left in picture below: tri-beca, janes addiction and vegetarian)

poppy is here!

poppy is here! doug's dad steve arrived last night from queensland to spend the next week with us and needless to say madeline is completely thrilled! she has told me at least twice a day for the last week that her poppy is coming and now he's here the party can start!

doug's parents only have two grandchildren (ours! maddie & joe) so they love to spoil them, he's also obviously the first grandson and poppy is as proud as punch and couldn't take his eyes off him! this picture is his first hold and wasn't even staged, i just caught this sweet moment as they got to know each other. 

steve's birthday was earlier this month and we had some gifts waiting including a rugby jersey from his favourite local team back in new zealand - he was very pleased with that! he, doug and niques are also going to a rugby game this weekend as part of his gift - it's going to be a great week. we are so excited to have him here with us.