Filling the void

Hello!!

Yeah, it's been a while...

This year has taken us by storm. Lots of things new and, mostly exciting, things have happened.

It took me a while to get into the swing of being a stay-at-home parent with no kids at home during the day.

Someone turned six!

Once I got used to that I found my feet and a number of job opportunities each as diverse as the next have, serendipitously, come my way.

I've become part of some really wonderful communities; at school, groups that are an extension from school and of course my gorgeous crafty friends and am enjoying some amazing friendships and experiences  from such.

We did the snow in style, with snow cones!

We've had road trips and holidays and play dates, seen stage shows and exhibitions, celebrated birthdays, had dress up days, taken up new hobbies and interests and welcomed a new fluffy member to our family, and these three fabulous people continue to make my heart sing and amaze me every single day.

Our new family member at the beach for the first time

And then of course there's been sewing - quite a bit of sewing, none of which is never enough, and most of which I don't have photos of.

Bright eyed and enthusiastic about the world and learning like never before

But I have missed this little space.
A place to share and to record my experiences and to offer advice or opinions or just have a little rant as the case may be.

I plan to be back here more often in the future.
I hope you might be too.

See how they grow...

It's that time of the year again, school's back!!

This year our littlest has donned a uniform and headed off to join her big sisters and she couldn't have been more delighted about it all.

Having all three children in one place - one drop-off and pick-up point will make life much easier for me, also the fact that there is now one fair, one concert, one art show, less committee involvement and also longer hours.

That said, I will greatly miss my chatty little buddy who has happily trailed along with me over the past few years to all the events.

I'm looking forward to her having things to call her own, and I know she is too.

I'll leave you with comparative pics taken over the last three years;

Prep, three year old kinder kid, Prep

Grade 1, four year old kinder kid, Grade 1

Grade 2, Prep, Grade 2

It's an exciting year for all of us, and we can't wait to sink our teeth into it!

Blink and you'll miss it...

That's how these holidays have felt...

They seem to have just begun, but now they are over...

This is but a brief snippet of what has been happening - so many days, parks, friends, play dates, family outings and fabulous cubby houses built that remain as memories, not images.

Blogtoberfest is on again - join in over here.

Wordless Wednesday

Playing along with Blogtoberfest.
It's not too late to join in...

A celebration of you...

Caution - Super pic-heavy post ahead!!

A year in pictures

Happy, happy 5th birthday to you our 'baby'....

We celebrate the lovely little girl you are and the joy you bring to our lives daily with a list, of only some of the things, we love so much about you.

Your constant willingness to join in and be part of whatever is going on, from dressing up to challenging yourself physically...

The unbridled joy you express...

Your willing smile and 'have a crack' attitude...

Your smiling big blue eyes...

Your constant gentle curiosity...

Your desire to always wear pretty dresses warms my heart...

Your mermaid tendencies!

Your kind and considerate disposition...

Your amazing ability to put on a show with your sisters and stand up in front of others to 'strut your stuff'!

That smile that makes us all melt...

Your sense of fun!

Let's not forget your cheekiness!

The fact that you have spent a large part of this year dressed as a cat...

Your 'beyond your years' sense of humour and quirkiness...

What a delight you are to have in our lives.
Our family was not complete until you came along and we all love you to bits Miss G.

Pet party - the details...

OK, I am one for details so here they are, in brief!!

Party bags

Plain white paper bags from Lombards.

Then I scanned and enlarged the image that Martha provided on this page, printed, cut and glued onto the party bags.

Added googly eyes - of course!

Added a coloured paper collar and used a paper punch to cut a circle onto which I wrote the name of each guest to look like a dog tag.

Each doggy bag had a variety of items in it including these dog bone-shaped treats that I put into plastic bags and created a label for in Pages (Mac program).

I printed them onto 200gsm card and stapled them onto the bags.

They came from Oriental Trading.

These are fun and colourful but oh so sweet!

Just to amuse myself I found a kitten on Google images and sized it in pages to fit onto a party-sized Kit Kat, thus making up my own Kitty-Kats.

A huge litter of Kitty-Kats

Each bag also had an animal pencil with eraser, a paw stamper and some pet stickers.

Something to keep all little animals amused!

Everyone also left with a puppy cake pop and yes they took ages to make but they were really cute.
They were all individually bagged with a ribbon tied around them.
Bakerella is the clever lady behind these - find out how to make them here.

Red velvet cake and white chocolate with milk chocolate ears and a red Lifesaver

The guests were 'led' in via a series of paw prints that directed them down the path to their destination.

The kids stuck these down with the help of Mr Rat  - it's good to give the kids jobs to do on the day!

Food
I like silly little labels on the food - the kids invariably don't get them but again, it amuses me!

Pup corn - though I did enjoy it when one guest referred to it as 'poop corn'.
In little cupcake cups for ease of serving.

Bunny bread - simple fairy bread cut with a small bunny cutter that I picked up at Daiso.

These ones required more actual baking!
Sugar cookies using Martha's recipe and covered with Royal icing and assorted sprinkles.

Also made them with a cat cutter - but they were odd looking cats I have to say!!!

Go, Dogs, Go - the old teddies in racing cars but we used Spotty Dog biscuits.

There were also Hot dogs which were just mini ones that we served in two brand new shiny silver dog bowls and a few other things too.

And just to give you perspective on the size of Miss G's special kitty - here she is holding it up.

It doubled as her birthday card too.

So that's a wrap I think - for another two years anyway!

What about you, are you a sucker for a good party??

Party animals

I've been a little party preoccupied this last week.

This little lady is nearly five and to celebrate we had a 'Pet Party' on the weekend.

My little kitten with the doggy balloons (idea courtesy of Martha)

We spent the morning setting up and getting ready for our 15 small guests to arrive, here my gang are before it all began: a small black and white birthday kitten, Mr purple-tailed rat, a pink and white frilly rabbit and a long and slinky black cat.

The door bell rang before we could get a family shot!!

Once the guests arrived and ventured through the personalised cardboard kennel Miss G's dad created, we played some musical animal statues where we galloped like horses (and unicorns), flapped like chickens, waddled like ducks, pounced like kittens, flew like parrots, bounced like bunnies and barked like dogs.

Testing the entry kennel out before the big day!

Then it was onto parachute games with soft toy dogs on top that we put into the wash cycle, and some cat and mouse.

'Washing' the puppies proved a big success

We played pin the bow on the kitty using an amazing personalised cat poster made by wonderful Wendy.

A cat, green parrot and unicorn waiting for their turn.

We also played 'Doggy Bingo' using game sheets I made up and laminated.
Believe it or not I found 18 'famous' dogs, largely from kids literature!
How many can you name??

Apart from doing the fabulous painted cat, Wendy made this amazing costume for Master O - definitely the costume of the day, it was incredible.
Even better, he loved it and wore it all day and was warm and snug, as it was a cold afternoon.

Feathers of various shades sewn very cleverly onto a hoodie to make this fabulous green parrot

Wendy shows some of the construction method on her blog if you wanted to have a go at making one for your small person.

In full flight

This little kitten is much better at having Happy Birthday sung to her than she used to be and embraced being the centre of attention with joy this time!

A pet cake of course!

She wanted a very simple cake this time around - so I decided to let the surprise lie within.
I know, I know, the old rainbow layered cake is hardly new or original, hundreds of versions having been rendered on Pinterest and on blogs the world over.

But the thing I hadn't considered is while they are 'old hat' to me - the girls hadn't really seen one.
There were exclaims of delight when watching Masterchef not long ago when the girls saw the inside of a rainbow layer cake and so my mind was made up to make one.

A rainbow of colour on the inside.

It's a very simple cake to make - there is just a little time and planning to get the layers made, and of course assembled in the correct order, which I knew Miss A would be checking!!

Not much was left as you can see!!

Her actual birthday is still to come so I will save my birthday post to her until then.

And I will give you the rundown on the party bags and the like in another post.

28/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013"

I have sort of missed the boat on this one since, well, April..

Still, here are portraits for this week...

Two visits from the tooth fairy in the same number of days for this Miss.

All three fresh faced and a bit windswept...

Always pretty in pink

We'd been to a show and were walking through Birrarung Marr on a cool afternoon up to Federation Square listening to the Federation Bells chime...

No trace of my baby now. Looking more grown up every day

I love our city adventures.

A chance to walk and talk together, explore and be amazed by all we see and hear as we ramble around.

Back to school tomorrow after a two week break and I am both happy and sad.