clackline trip

i've just come home last night from staying at my parents house with the kids. doug was having a long work week and we had nothing planned, so a trip to the country it was. we opshopped our way up to clackline, stopping a few times and found some awesome stuff. what can i say? my mother taught me everything i know... and she is still my favourite person to go opshopping with. the best.

the kids always love going up to clackline, the space, the quiet, the trees and most of all, having their grandparents at their beckon call. maddie ran around non stop on the verandahs and in the yard, loving every minute. no wonder she slept so soundly at night.

on friday we went for a drive to york to check out the salvation army jumble sale and then stopped in at my friend keryn's house, a few kms out of york. we talk constantly, yet rarely see each other and the last time i saw her son (who is two) was as a fairly newborn, maybe just a few months old - and the same with her and joseph, so funny - both times we have just randomly run into each other in a shopping centre.

our kids got along pretty well though and played pretty nicely together, considering it was the first time they had met each other... the best bit though, was that they both have bright red hair, in exactly the same shade. too, too funny.

we had a nice little catch up and she even gave us brownies for the road!i am a complete and utter brownie snob/addict and i thought they were amazing! so if you haven't tried the adriano zumbo bake at home pack, go and get yourself one from the local supermarket and get baking. i tell you, they are worth it, no matter how much they cost!

and saturday? we had a nice old browse at the northam markets by the river... they are very much a trash and treasure style... with lots of vintage and secondhand items, as well as a few handmade. i liked it a lot and will definitely go again next time we are at mums, maddie had the time of her life there, playing in the water playground and having her pretty little face painted like a butterfly. 

it was all over too soon, when doug arrived to get us last night, but we were pleased to see him, of course and be sleeping in our own beds. there is nothing better in the world than grandparents and we are so glad to have been made so welcome! ♥

pink-all family home evening

on the first monday of every month, we have a special family home evening with our family friends, the pinkers. we've been doing it for over a year now and we love it - because it guarantees we see each other at least once a month. for anyone that's reading my little blog that's not a member of our church, you can read more about family home evening here...

they arrived this monday, with a gift for the newest one year old we know... and doug was stoked, a perth wildcats jersey! he loves them... and loves kids in sporting attire, so it was a win/win! plus look how happy he was to be wearing it! we always joke about "birthday week" in our family, although sometimes it ends up being more like birthday month as we catch up with people a little later on.

we love fhe and the pinker family and are so glad to count them as members of our (extended) family!

an evening in fremantle

after all these years, my heart is still in fremantle. i was born there many years ago and my family moved to clackline (you may have to look that up...) where my parents still live a few days before my fourth birthday. it's funny though, because visiting there, still feels like going home.

after having 3 family birthdays (jared, joseph and jared jnr) all in 8 days, we decided to get the whole family together and go off to good old cicerello's and have fish and chips together.

madeline had the time of her life, she loves to see her big cousins... and she was so proud to be walking around with dad and being treated like a big girl, stopping and looking at things and chatting away to anyone and everyone that walked past. she really is a social butterfly that kid.

i just love fremantle, all the little details... like the posts that line the streets surround the fishing boat harbour. where else would they have a little anchor imprint? ♥

we also took this photo for madeline's poppy (doug's dad). he is obsessed with acdc and bon scott... so we thought we would take a snap of "the two great loves of poppy's life". and as predicted, he loved it. it's nice that the internet has allowed people to be so close when they are far away. we are sure to send lots of photos to keep them updated.

and the best part of the night? my parents shouting us all to amazing icecream from la dolce vita afterwards. yummmm. even joseph loved it!

laura's baby shower

our sweet friend laura had her baby shower today... and my word did we have a good time! she's such a crack up and i was so thrilled to be invited to take part in the shenanigans. my friend pippa had a large part in the preparations which guaranteed good games and a lot of laughs.

there were three awesome games that we played which i have filed away for future reference...

1. "make a baby" each of us was given a chunk of playdough and 60 seconds to mould it into a baby shape. rather hilarious results...

2. name that 'stache: 15 famous moustaches enlarged and on a board - for us to guess who was who

and...

3. the pooey nappy game: a stack of disposable nappies with a different mushed up chocolate bar in each one. watching all the girls sniff (and even sneakily have a taste of) the contents was hysterical... even funnier as poor laura had specified that the only game she really didn't want was that one. i've never laughed so hard.

pippa made this amazing cake, which i think i probably could have eaten half of, if i'd made the effort... haha. it was a double layer of banana with white chocolate chunks and walnuts... with cream cheese icing. yummm.

and she had even set up a mini impromptu photo booth near the front door, fun times!

i loved watching laura open her baby gifts... especially this picture. she looks like someone has stashed some lollies or the likes in the bottom of the bag. haha.

was a great afternoon and i cannot wait to meet baby t!

what madeline has been up to

last week i came to put miss madeline to bed and discovered this. her little people castle full to the brim of all her small animals and dolls. i asked her what on earth was going on and she calmly responded with "they are ready for their dance party!" i could not stop laughing. seriously. some of the things she comes out with. she makes all the toys talk to me and to her and to each other and the pitch she gets her voice to sometimes is incredible! haha. she is fiercely independent and loves to "help" with everything i do, she's practically fearless and i hear a million times a day (only a slight exaggeration) "i can do it! no! don't help me!" hahaha. hopefully she will be this willing to help when she is a teenager, although i don't like my chances.

madeline is an absolute crack up. i swear she makes me laugh at least 20 times a day. from the moment she wakes up she's go go go and it's all i can do to keep up with her. she is a beautiful and affectionate little girl. loves to be close to her mama and "sneak" me (she loves my smell and refers to cuddling and breathing in as sneaking haha) and to sit in my lap at any opportunity. she loves joseph too and always chats away to him as he crawls about the place. come on joseph, keep up joseph... she loves to ask questions about everything and must  know the name of everyone she meets. especially anyone that serves us at the supermarket. luckily she is still at the age where it is cute. she is also very girly and insists on wearing a dress every single day. never pants (except on the very odd occasion and sometimes leggings under pants) and heaven forbid you argue with her over it.

and my word is she smart. i don't like to sound like i am bragging because she is my child, but she really is. she can count and say her alphabet like any kid can, but she has an amazing memory! she already knows most of the primary songs even though she has only gone into primary this year... she walks around the house singing them and blew one of the leaders away last week when she sang one from start to finish without even flinching. her current favourite songs though are nursery rhymes and i hear "the three little kittens" and "mary had a little lamb" all the verses. lucky she's cute. she also loves to play the memory game with the cards that match, watching carefully... and truly gives us a run for our money.

she has been saying prayers on the food for about a year now, but for long prayers, doug and i would normally feed her what to say... much to our surprise the other night, she says "no i don't want your help" and proceeded to say a prayer that was like 2-3 minutes long, blessing all her grandparents, parents, aunties, cousins and friends, as well as thanking heavenly father for this and the other. we were dumbfounded. go maddie! that's our crazy, clever girl and we are proud as punch!

  prayers/ memory game/ 

joseph's dinosaur party

yesterday we had a little dinosaur birthday party for our big one year old! it was a lovely afternoon, thankfully not too hot and we all had a really good time.

this year i decided to make the goody bags (jars in fact) and used jars that we had at home, with a plastic dinosaur glued to the top (bargain alert... i got a shopping bag full of dinosaur figurines in all different sizes from gumtree, about 10 minutes from home for just $5) and then spray painted a funky colour and filled with some cute knick knacks:

dinosaur stamp (6 in a pack, available here on ebay)

3 mini dinosaurs (from abovementioned bag)

rubber bouncy ball (6 in a pack from kmart for $2)

mini dinosaur drawing pad (6 in a pack, also from ebay, look here)

a few crayons (i bought a big pack from kmart for $3(ish))

dinosaur tattoos (another awesome ebay find - here)

green polka dot balloons (kmart - 12 for a few dollars)

and half a dozen natural confectionery company dinosaur lollies (from your local supermarket)

all in the dinosaur theme and looked really cute when they were finished

thankfully i had set to work a few days before... because here is what i learned:

you need plastic/ laminate kind of glue to make the dinosaurs stick to the lids... and to let them set for quite some time. spraypaint does not dry on plastic. not at all. the paint was still tacky two days after i sprayed the lids, so i called my husbands friend who is a spray painter. please not for future reference, if you want to make them... you need to glue down the figurine and then start with a coat of spray plastic primer. once that is dry, then you can spray paint as usual. problem was of course, i didn't know about it and had just sprayed straight onto them. solution? thanks to my smart mum... we doused each one in talcum powder, which dried the paint and created a base for the next coat of paint to stick to. they were dry by the end of the day. boom. thanks ma.

we also had a little impromptu photo shoot with our favourite little man before his guests arrived... in his cot filled with balloons. he is just such a happy little thing and was very obliging, smiling away, once we had given him a cookie to munch on.

i just love this face!

and most of all, that dimple!

we also managed to find this funky t-rex skeleton at the guildford markets a few weeks ago... and we snapped it up for a nice little table display. so cute!

and these adorable dinosaur serviettes from coles... just $2 for the packet.

i had the best time making these little "fossil" cookies... with the easiest recipe i could find online... and then stomping each one with the foot of a toy dinosaur, which is now living in my utensils drawer. clearly it will be required for future use haha.

dinosaur sprinkles on the chocolate crackles? we don't do things by halves around here...

and adorable green bunting from kmart (yes, i really love that place!) for just $2

joseph loved the attention and was happy to go to all our friends and have a cuddle, whilst eating away... thank heavens for socialable children!

and as per usual (her 4th for my children so far...) my best friend jennifer delivered with this adorable fat dinosaur on top of a cake for the birthday boy. she is so clever and i am so lucky to have her. 

having a play with nanna. it makes me so happy to know how loved out babies are, by both sets of grandparents...♥

finally it was cake time and daddy helped joseph blow out the candle. he was so excited by the dinosaur and kept wanting to touch it...

so we finally let him have a pat. sweet boy, he just wants to touch everything. no cake smashing here though... i must admit, it is one of my pet peeves... what a waste of good cake! we eat our cake here, not smash it!

we are just too lucky. this boy is all ours :)

bye bye! we'll see you later!

joseph is one!

this bright eyed, smiley, gorgeous boy turned one today! how blessed we are to be his parents. every single day. he is still saying just one word, mama (fine by me!) but not even on command, just when he wants to, but he is learning and and growing every day. 

i am so in love with his sweet little face and just want to plant kisses on it all day long... i mean seriously, look at those cheeks! and that dimple... he is just so, so cute, i adore seeing his face light up when he catches sight of us and then his little noises as he tries to gabble away to us. we are hoping we get some more words out of him soon, but he definitely knows what's going on. he listens, then acts when we speak to him - and even follows little requests. :)

he is walking around holding the furniture and i am sure before too long, he will take his first steps... he's even taken a couple of quick steps behind madeline's doll pram, before he put too much weight on the edge and down he went... he also had a go pushing a stool along the ground the day as he walked along. he loves to make growling noises while he plays or sits with us, then giggles when we laugh or talk to him. sometimes changin his nappy is a little dramatic, but we have discovered recently that a small bear we have that chants to haka is a welcome distraction. he absolutely loves and babbles away at it as it chants. in fact, if i don't press the bears tummy quickly enough, he will start to grab for it and start yelling at it, waiting for the haka to begin. what a crack up. 

he also loves melon and stone fruit and would gladly eat nothing but. i am going through a lot of napisan, as he's been quite successful in covering himself in the juice as he munches away. and banana bread! i let him have a taste of mine one day and had the whole piece whipped out of my hand, and gobbled up. i think we can safely assume he's into bananas - as he can eat a whole one of those in a sitting too, as well as many sultanas as you're willing to give him.

we got him some sweet little gifts for his birthday, including these adorable sunglasses and some toy dinosaurs... and with some of the money doug's parents sent, we bought him his first pair of proper baby chucks which i can't wait to put him in. oh how i love sweet baby clothes. what a sweet boy he is. i am so glad we were blessed to have him join our family, he's just darling. can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with him.

i couldn't resist showing off this picture... it's almost as if he knew last night that tomorrow was special and gave me this big cheesy picture opportunity when i put him in bed. it made me so sad knowing that he wouldn't be my "baby" any more, but i'll still love him just as much, maybe even more. ♥