2015 Catch Up

Its a long time between posts around here. Its also a long time between February and May!! Its amazing what you can fit in just a few months , and we have done our absolute best to fill our time completely. 

Time flies when you are having fun, but I have also had to farewell my beloved Canon camera (and it hasn't been replaced yet, I have to keep growing my money tree) and the ever important MacBook needed a trip to the doctors. These all contribute to not posting . But then again, so does trips away ( Coral Bay, Point Samson, Pardoo etc) , concerts in the big smoke (Stella and I flew to Perth with friends for the One Direction concert) and lots and lots of sporting and school commitments. 

The kids all helping Stella make her Poster for the concert

Stella  and I before the One Direction concert

Stella's favourite band member, Harry in the flesh (well on the big screen!!)

We all had THE BEST time in Coral Bay in April. We met my family there and enjoyed a sunny , glorious week at the best beach ever! 

Our caravan set up at Pardoo Station. Such a relaxing place, the kids are always asking to go back!

Playing tourist in Wickham

 Our new DOME cafe opened earlier this year!! What a treat and so exciting for us all! Now somewhere large enough to meet friends for meals/coffees, great for kids and convenient. Perfect !

Our girls enjoying a Dome breakfast!

I have added President of the school P & C to my repertoire and that has kept me well and truly busy. Lots of functions and fundraising events to organise and manage. 

The kids have taken up soccer and Auskick , as well as the usual dancing sessions. 

I've started a market stall business with a lovely girlfriend. We make a variety of jewellery (clay and wood ) and other home wares items. That has been a ton of fun, creating and playing!! 

My husband is still working a shift roster. Which seems to be working for us. The weekends he works aren't the best but the down time is amazing!

We survived another Pilbara summer!! Yay!! And our beautiful winter is upon us. These days are the ones we live for and make the terrible summer worth it!!  Lots of camping (glamping in our caravan more like it) to be done at this time of year. 

We have celebrated 4 out of our 6 family members birthdays already!! I turned 30 (oh dear) in March, Stella 7 at the start of April (while we were away) and Max and Lacey at the end of April (and they had a party this year , so a post on that is to come).

Heading out for a lovely meal and 30th Birthday celebration with my beautiful girlfriends, I like a bit of matchy matchy!

We have holidays planned for later in the year and hopefully family visiting soon enough so lots of things to look forward to! 

With lots of posts in mind, I have been taking snaps and trying to plan a few cool things for the blog, so lets see if I can make it all happen. Fingers crossed!! 

But for now, a catch up post and a ton of photos. Next up , a little DIY with instructions. Just cos ......

And just because they are cute! And I am loving being a proper 'soccer Mum'. Its so awesome seeing them run around, trying hard and enjoying themselves! 

Poor Max has been left for dust in the height department by his twin Lacey!  

Angus is THREE!

Tomorrow our baby boy turns THREE!! THREE!! We just can't believe it. Time flies when you are having fun ( or have 4 kids under 4!!) Angus was a 'surprise' addition to our family but was absolutely meant to be. He slotted in , was super loved instantly and perfectly finished off our family of 6.

He was stubborn and determined with his delivery and is fiercely so now. He loves dinosaurs and cars and his favourite treat when out with Mum is a chocolate milkshake. 

Even though Angus misses the kids while they are at school immeasurably , he also laps up and loves the one on one time and attention. He comes to Mummy's 'Exercising Park' and has a ball while I puff and pant. He loves our trips to the shops and to take long siestas while the house is quiet.

This little boy melts hearts, makes people laugh and shows compassion. All fantastic qualities in life.
People often think I have triplets when we are out and about. Angus is a big , tall boy, and will soon overtake his 'big' brother Max.

But regardless of how big he is in person, I have to remind myself he is still a wee little boy. He gets puffed out and  when he naps , he is my baby again.

Dearest Angus, 

We love you dearly, appreciate every one of your kisses and cuddles and wish you a very VERY Happy 3rd Birthday ! 

Love, your family x

Stella's 6th Birthday Party

Early last month our biggest girl turned 6. 

I swear it is 6 going on 16 , she is just growing up so fast. Her love of One Direction (Harry in particular) , High School Musical and all the things that I thought would be beyond her years. Alas, that is not the case, such a big girl now. 

Even though she acts like a big kid, she is still a little girl , so I wanted to throw her a pretty , girly party. Stella opted for a small party with just a few girl friends, over a big party with lots of kids. I can't say that I was disappointed ! 

So here is Stella's 6th Birthday party

Seeing as though there were only a few girls invited, I opted to make the invitations myself. It only took about 30mins all together and I used all the materials that I already had on hand. Actually the whole party was created and decorated using items from around our home and things I already had in my Party tubs. I think the only purchases were the pink roses on the table and the paper plates. If you want to throw a party with maximum impact but with little outlay, shop from around your home. Pick a theme or colour scheme that you love, because you are bound to have items laying around that you can use.

Anyhoo , this is the way the invitations turned out. 

I used a pretty floral backing paper, I wrote a cute poem to give all the information needed on the invitation and wrapped the invites in doilies and bakers twine. A few butterflies cut using the Martha Stewart butterfly punch and they were complete. Perfect!

And the overall party table 

With only 4 little ladies (plus Stella and Lacey , the boys went out with their Dad for the afternoon) , I didn't go too overboard with the food spread. Some apple and sultana muffins are displayed in the cupcake stands (from Target a few years ago ) 

The gift bags were purchased from Woolworths , and were a perfect match to the party table. They had a few pens, notebooks, and a killer python. Easy on the lollies, bigger on the girly stuff. Win win really! 

And a rare photo of Stella and Mum , in front of her party table. She was so excited and had a great time.

And our 4 little cherubs, its hard to master a photo with all 4 looking good :)

As part of the girly afternoon, each little lady got their nails painted at our express nail salon. Boy did they think they were special!! So sweet! 

We also sat around the table and made pretty bracelets and necklaces , I bought this cheap bead kit from Kmart and added a few we already had. 

They all had such a great time creating their bracelets together. 

We also popped some popcorn and sat down and watched a girly Tinkerbell movie, on a mattress I had layed out with rugs and pillows (sorry the only photo I have , has the girls all together.) It was like a mini slumber party, an insight of the years to come! 

And this year , after Stella went through the Australian Womens Weekly kids cake book, she picked the pool!! The picture in the book is quite dated and I knew I wanted it to look more girly so this is how it turned out! 

Who knew you could get bright blue jelly? The jelly was actually placed on a small blue Tupperware lid, so that when I cut the cake, I could lift the lid off and just a yummy chocolate cake was left. 

The little Lego ladies and sun lounges were a perfect addiction. 

And the princess and her cake at candle time!! 

It was a lovely afternoon , with gorgeous little ladies , having a great time together. It was lovely to have a small , all girls party. We were able to do the activities at ease and even though the house was noisy , it was filled with giggles, playing and sweet conversations. 

If you are thinking of throwing a small, girly party, I would recommend it to anyone!! 

Our baby is Two!

I can not say it enough, but kids grow up too quick! Especially my cherubs. You just want to bottle up their littleness and stop the clock. But then again, growing up means new adventures, a whole lot of excitement and more independence. 

Thats what I'm afraid of!!

We no longer have any babies in our home :( 

Our little Angus Frankie turned TWO on the 31st of October, a Halloween babe was he.

It was an exciting day for all, none more so than his big brother and sister who shower him with love , every second of every day. ( Well maybe not every second! They all like to fight like cat and dog too!)

They were excited about the cake, about his little party and about his presents!

So here it is, a birthday for a beautiful little boy. Our little boy. 

And it only feels like yesterday that I wrote this;

It has become tradition in our home to decorate the kids doors for their birthday morning. It makes them feel special and builds the excitement for whats to come!

                                    

                                              Which is lots of presents!! 

                       

I just love capturing the look on their face when they first see their presents!! Priceless. And the party that are waiting in the flanks to help the unwrapping!

                        

And he got a bike from his Grandma and Poppy!! Excitement plus (but jealousy from Max and Lacey as they don't have one yet , bad I know, but are getting one from the big man at Christmas!)

                       

                       

He was chauffeured around the house by his big sister for most of the morning and loved every second!

We decided to throw him a little party with a few friends and their kids, seeing as though we aren't near family anymore and wouldn't be doing the birthday dinner and cake with cousins.

And with his birthday being Halloween too, we had a Halloween party to attend that night so cake and candles in the morning it was!

Someone was so tempted but very patient as I was setting the food out for the party. I was mean and made him wait until people arrived to eat. So he sat here for about half and hour. Watching, waiting ......

I kept the party and decos very basic!! Shock , horror and surprise for me I know! But it was a busy week leading up to the day and he had a ball regardless!

                          

                         

Some simple Goodie bags from Woolworths with bubbles, a lolly pop and a few lollies, nothing too major!

                         

I presented Angus with the Womens Weekly cake book with a few days to go , and despite all the attempts from his siblings to try and convince him to have a certain cake, he chose this!! Good boy!! Nice and easy for Mum!

                         

It was a simple , 2 tiered butter cake with chocolate fingers and Curly Wurly chocolate for the front gate!

                          

                          

                          

And then it was over. And now we have a big 2 year old, that is toilet training (and nearly mastered it), doesn't sleep with a bed rail on his bed anymore and is just one of the kids!

He is loving, affectionate and by golly is he active and mischievous. But we wouldn't have him any other way! 

Where did the time go?

Thats right .... too quick!

The Icecream Party - Details.....

Ohhh I'm here!! Just!!

Finally... I have some details about the cute little Ice cream Party that we held to celebrate Max and Lacey's 3rd birthdays.

As I have previously mentioned, this party was thrown together at short notice but I still had time to organise a few cute touches.

Firstly, I found a free printable pack on the wonderful world wide web, and the colour scheme was just what I was looking for. Being a unisex party, I wanted to keep the colours light but still related to the theme. Best of all? Its a free printable!! You can find more details HERE

Seeing as though pack contained some cute flags for making a bunting , I got my lovely husband to cute 2 pieces of pipe (that stood inside the holes of bricks) and strung the 2 'YUM' buntings above the table. Quick and easy but effective all the same. (And it was free as we already had the pipe)

The printable pack contains lots of tags for the toppings, cupcake toppers, signs etc, and as fate would have it, I had started to collect little bits and pieces and they all fit the colour scheme well.
The ice cream bowls (front left of photo below) are from a local discount store for $2.50 and come with little ice cream sticks. The Serviettes are from IKEA and the plates were bought for Angus' party and didn't arrive in time so I re purposed them.

The cute hanging 'Icecream cones' were made using cheap pom poms (Red Dot are now stocking a pack for $3 for 2) and some brown card stock rolled into a cone and secured with double sided tape.

The gorgeous stands on either side of the table displayed the different toppings available for ice-cream. These are actually Herb planters from Bunnings that I bought on sale for $13 (they came with 4 little wooden pots too) They are foldable, are easy to store and perfect for what I wanted.
The little aqua bowls (my favourite colour at the moment) I bought at the Reject shop a while ago and held crushed oreos, but the other toppings were- Raspberry lollies, chopped nuts, chocolate sprinkles, sprinkles and then strawberry and chocolate topping ( seen in the pics wrapped with some yellow patterned paper to conceal an ugly label)

I attempted to bake cupcakes in Ice cream cones for the first time and it was a success (thanks to all who gave advice on my facebook page).
I simply filled the cones to the top of the small base section and baked for the appropriate amount of time. Iced to look like Sundaes, there were a real hit and super cute too!!
In hindsight, the cones did go a tad soft for my liking , these would definitely be better baked fresh the day you are going to use them, but time is never on my side for Parties so they were just fine the way they were!

The cute Ice cream bowls and spoons on the bottom shelf of the Toppings stands came in a 2 pack of pink and blue, and I bought them from Red Dot also (got to love a cheap shop!). I have received a lot of queries regarding those, and to be honest , I don't think too much when organising a party. I knew last year that I wanted to do an Ice cream theme this year , so I just start to keep a look out for things I like and these were one of those purchases.

The lolly bags were simple white bags from Spotlight for just a few dollars (seen above) but I ran a strip of Washi Tape through the middle and it tizzied them up enough to look cute.


The food was kept simple, as the guest list was too. Immediate family and the twins Godmother and her children, but we had : cupcakes, Oreo Pops, Fruit kebabs, dip tray with vegetables, vanilla custard in small cups , sausage rolls, party pies and of course, ice cream sundaes!!

I LOVED throwing and decorating this party. It was simple, Super duper CHEAP and the kids had an absolute ball creating their own sundaes with toppings that were a bit special (considering our kids don't have ice cream at home ever!)

Lately I have been receiving emails asking advice on throwing childrens parties, and I am definitely NO expert, but I do have one main piece of advice that helps me no end!

Set your theme in advance, and I am talking WELL WELL in advance. 

Like I said, I knew last year that I wanted to do an Ice cream party, so as I saw things in the shops, I bought them. As I was looking on Pinterest etc, I would store that idea to my memory bank. It makes the whole organising experience easier, less stressful not to mention cheaper. When you are buying a few things every few weeks for just $3, it doesn't hurt the bank balance too much. I am not one to get on a website and make an order of a few hundred dollars. To be honest, I couldn't think of anything worse. Plus, making decorations yourself, scouting the net for free things to use, its all part of the fun!!

I am sorry this took so long to write, I have just not had the headspace for much at the moment. 

BIG changes are happening here!! I'll keep you posted x

Ice Cream Party

Last weekend we held a wee little party for Max and Lacey's 3rd Birthday!!

It was quite a rushed party really, with the time and date/day only sent with 5 days to go , but seeing as though I had already picked the theme some months back and started to collect bits and pieces, the prep wasn't too hard!!

We kept the guests to a bare minimum, my sister and her family (4 kids) and my cousin and her 3 kids and my parents (in laws were away). Having a small number of guests was fantastic, as I have held quite a few parties in the past that have got well out of hand in the guest department and it makes the party less enjoyable for everyone. As far as Max and Lacey were concerned, their were kids, lolly bags and cake. That makes for a pretty good party in a 3 year old eyes!

But obviously in my opinion, with more time, I probably could have pulled together a few things a bit better, but I happy with the way the party looked/ran with minimal effort involved.

Anyway, I thought I could share with you some pics, them them speak for themselves and then do an info post to follow tomorrow. So if you have anything in particular you would like to know about, just shoot me an email or message of Facebook or comment on this post.

So without further ado, Max and Lacey's Ice cream Party.

(Please excuse the lighting in the table pics, the party was held under our patio. Very practical but it doesn't make for the best backdrop and certainly doesn't do the camera and lens any favours. But you have to choose practicality over looks sometimes, just sometimes.

There is always one child that doesn't like tot play the game and join in on the group photo. (and a 5 year old that likes to smile with her 'fake' smile!

The kids all LOVED creating their own ice cream sundaes, choosing the sauces and toppings is a real novelty (especially for our kids who don't get ice cream very often, if ever)

Stay tuned for more info x