though storms may rage...

i love to go to the temple, it always feels like a place of refuge, somewhere safe from the outside world. as rosemary m. wixom said, "in the temple, all feelings of inadequacy and imperfection begin to fade."

tonight was an incredible experience, there was a storm absolutely raging outisde, so loudly in fact, that at certain parts of the session, we could hear the rain beating down on the roof above us. it was incredible, that the elements could do that, on a building that generally is soundproof. wow!

it just reminded me, that although storms may rage, peace will always be found within the walls of the temple. ♥

what an honour!

well the day has come, miss madeline received her first honour certificate today at their junior school assembly. it was adorable, they don't tell the kids beforehand, so she went up to get it with a look of absolute joy on her face, she was thrilled beyond words. of course i am a proud mum over here too... especially seeing as her teacher miss hannah said something so lovely about her "being a kind and caring classmate who is always striving to bring the best out of herself and those around her!" wow. lucky miss hannah has never seen her at home! hahahaha.

we celebrated (shhh there's no need for her to know that it was already planned) with the pinker girls this evening watching mamma mia 2 at the cinema. maddie and i love the first one and we have watched it over and over (and listened to the soundtrack in the car a million times) so it was a perfect movie to take her to. we loved it. i especially thought the younger cast were amazing, i feel like they got it so perfectly spot on when they chose the actors. it's just lovely. cheesy, but great. a definite must see if you like musicals!

aladdin the musical

last night was amaaaaaazing! i can honestly say that probably my all time favourite movie is the walt disney cartoon aladdin. i love it so much. the story, the songs, aladdin himself (i mean seriously, what little girl wasn't in love with him haha), the marketplace, the outfits... i just love it all so much. the first movie i can remember seeing at the cinema is actually aladdin, mum took isaac and i with our cousins renee and jaydon during the school holidays when i was a kid. so imagine if you will, my absolute delight when i opened a christmas gift from doug to find not only the aladdin musical soundtrack, but tickets to the musical for the week after it opened in perth! so chuffed. so i waited and waited and waited some more, for 7 whole months, until the time came for us to go and watch it.

and it was so worth the wait! the sets were amazing (i would expect nothing less from disney), the storyline wasn't ruined through stage adaption (always a plus) and the additional songs were gorgeous!

i just loved everything about it! i felt like the luckiest girl alive as i watched it all come to life before me.

disney, you have done it again. you are amazing!

♥

tax returns

oh my goodness, look who is getting a tax return, and i don't even have a job! yes i know it's random, but i own shares that i purchased pre-tax while working at invocare... which i receive dividends from every 6 months. these dividends are taxed at a rate which assumes i am working full time, which obviously i am not... so i get it all back... a whole $41 worth. i'll be off opshopping with that when it comes in for sure!

i used the mygov etax system, which i highly recommend. it is so easy to use, pre-fills most of the information for you and i had mine and dougs complete in probably 15 minutes. so much easier and cheaper than paying someone to do it. i'm stoked. plus it was only last week... and looks like they'll be in any day now. yay!

fresh hair

can i just take a moment here to show off this delicious child that i made? we've just been for a haircut, through which he sat as still as anything, didn't complain once and was as good as gold. he looks so cute and so grownup and i could just eat him up. i know being a mum, i'm biased, but i can never get over just how perfect his skin is and how blue his eyes are... i'm a little obsessed. let's hope the next one is just as cute!! ♥

we love babs! ❤️

if you don't know that my mum is amazing and my favourite person in the world, then you don't know me at all. she is seriously the best. she can cook, sew, do pretty much anything art wise (whereas i don't seem to have an artistic bone in my body) and seems to know everything. i believe that's a mum thing, but i'm still waiting for that to happen over here...

the thing i love the most though, is her endless patience with my kids. some days i feel like i absolutely want to strangle them, but she just keeps her cool and watches them play and plays with them for hours, never getting frustrated. what a winner.

for example, this cake. she decorated it with the kids and they all loved it. they could put anything they wanted, anywhere they wanted, she just laughed along with them and to be honest, it looked (and tasted!) amazing!

cutting the cake with nanna. my two favourite girls! ♥

happy birthday mum. we love you so much!

a gold class party for maddie

there have been many childrens parties that i have put a lot of effort into... we've had paris, milk and cookies, princesses, my little pony, pineapples and moana for madeline, we've had dinosaurs, cars and planes for joseph... and this year i just wanted something small and simple. i didn't want to be baking all day and night and setting up until the early hours of the morning... so i went with something easy, but fun! 

a "gold class" party!

we bought this house, complete with a lovely fully decked out theatre room... a screen that spans almost an entire wall, projector, surround sound... and recliners. so what could be more prefect?!

our guests arrived and collected their bottle of water, tub of popcorn (empty yoghurt containers with microwave popcorn), tube of mini m&ms and a small container of starburst lollies.

then we settled in after much giggling, to watch our feature film...

disney zombies! it's the newest disney channel original movie, complete with singing and dancing (because lets be honest, it wouldn't be disney without it!) the girls loved it and sang and danced their little hearts out. perfect!

after the movie, we moved into the dining room for pizza and lemonade... also easy

and cake! aunty jenny was given the year off this year... as we decided on a simple gold star theme - and this mini cake from woolworths was perfect! just $7 and cut beautifully in to 8 pieces for our 8 kids. plus, in the middle were more of the gold balls as a cool surprise. the kids loved it!

all set up and ready to go, gold star decs left over from isabels first birthday party... gold polka dot plates, cups, napkins also left overs, but available at red dot. so cute and just right for the theme!

our birthday girl! ♥

hanging with her mates from school and church... they are such a cute little bunch and had the best time. it was definitely a good choice for a party!

happy birthday miss maddie! ♥