Isabella's 5th Birthday party

The courtyard cleared for party action after the rain cleared.

Today was Isabella's 5th birthday party and we had 7 little people coming over to help celebrate. They were: Amelia, Meg, Jess, Annabelle, Bridget, Kaitlyn and Cooper. I decided to organise a fairy to entertain them and to let me have a chance to touch base with the mums that I usually only get to see in passing. Eg on the way to or from preschool.

I got hold of 'We came here to party' and organised a fairy through the lady in charge 'Kylie'. We were amazingly lucky with the weather today. The forecast was for rain and so I had set up the entire party inside, moving furniture in my craft room to the edge of the room so that there was enough room for them to move. The fairy arrived and the skies cleared and it ended up getting really quite hot! So out we moved them. The party finished while it was dry, but about half an hour later the rain was pouring down and we were thanking our lucky stars that we'd had a dry morning!!

The Great Stuff

Fairy Laura was pretty and her costume was gorgeous. She really could've passed as a fairy! The cupcakes, balloons and party bags were exactly as described. Fairy Laura was on time to the minute! Her punctuality was fantastic and let me relax! She got herself organised quickly as far as set up, chairs, music, costumes etc. The children (all the girls) were engaged the whole time!

The Good Stuff

Fairy Laura arrived 15 minutes early to set up and was stunning in her purple fairy ensemble. She unpacked her car quickly and had Isabella help her. She thought helping Fairy Laura was wonderful! The set up included pink chairs (although the website says they have pink cushions as well - there weren't any), a little white tree with butterflies on it for decoration, a white basket with pink ribbon on it for the prizes, another container full of the fairy costumes, cupcakes for the children(fairy topped ones for the girls and a pirate one for Cooper, the only boy), lolly bags and helium balloons (I had to pay extra for those). She was very polite and friendly and she greeted the children as they arrived. She had the kids engaged the whole time and there was very little noise coming from them. They played some cute games outside and were all very happy. The prizes were good quality and the kids loved them so much that many of them came inside to show 'mum' what they had won. Very cute.

The not so good Stuff

So the issues I had with Fairy Laura were her arrival in my house chewing on gum. It kind of ruined the wholesome fairy goodness that my five year old needed. She did get rid of this before any of the kids arrived though. Although Fairy Laura greeted the kids as they arrived it seemed that she had nothing for them to do in this time other than sit on their little pink seats. I think I would've liked to see some story-telling on a special 'story mat' or her putting on their dresses while waiting for the others to arrive. The children arrived between 10 and perhaps 10:15. So I feel that 15 minutes of that time could've been better spent. The Fairy party didn't really cater for boys, although they said that they did. I asked if they could supply something for the little boy that was coming to wear and they said 'no' in a round about way. I ended up going out and buying a little pirate costume which I'm sure will come in handy in the dress-up box for when we have boys over to play dress-ups or for when Hamish is old enough to play. I'm not sure if quiet always equals good fun! But it did mean that the parents had a chance to drink a hot cuppa! Supposedly the party says 2 hours, but in reality they don't stay for the 2 hours. Fairy Laura arrived 15 minutes before the party and then packed up at 11:30, half an hour before the end of the party. I thought she was going to stay for the cake, but to be honest I spoke with so many party places that they may not have said this. I really should write down what exactly is on offer shouldn't I! The only other thing that worried me was that Fairy Laura took off all her fairy stuff before she finished packing up which I thought broke the illusion of 'magic' that she had created. I would have liked to see her disappear in her fairy outfit.

So I was happy to pay the money in the end and had a fantastic time at Isabella's birthday party. She had an awesome time too and really that is the main thing. I think the little things that I nit-picked wouldn't even have been noticed by most people, but I'm very fussy!

The thank you I sent to all the mums.

Josh playing Lego with Cooper to keep him happy.

Sammy being Cooper for a minute!

Bella having her hair sprayed with glitter.

At the end of the party. I made it!

All the gorgeous girls and a handsome young man.

15 sleeps and getting ready for a party

A sad face because it was too sunny for her eyes.

A forced smile in the car! Very over-tired!!

The finished skirt under the tree.

Haamish loves his 'cage' and so do I!!

A close up of the skirt in action!

16 sleeps

Car got a new wheel bearing today. Dave went to the dentist. Bella, Hamish and I went to Sammy's year 6 presentation assembly. She didn't get anything, but we got to share a morning tea with her which was special. Josh didn't do dance class today. I didn't do tutoring today. We took the kids to their dad early today which meant that it was still daylight when we got there and a decent time when we got home. Usually we leave about 6:15pm and only drop them at 8:30 or 9:00pm. We usually get home just before 10:00pm. Not fun!! Christmas activity today was to eat dessert first. We didn't actually do this as Isabella was the only one that felt like eating something sweet first. Oh well. We'll have to make up for this on another day. Finished cutting all the threads off my skirt!! Yay!!

17 days until Christmas, a finished skirt and a Christmas menu

A sneak peak of my beautiful Christmas skirt.

Sleeping peacefully in his new sleep suit.

So today I finally finished that Christmas tree skirt that I've been making. Well finished the sewing part that is! I've still got to cut off all the little bits of thread all over the skirt and that's going to take quite a bit longer than 5 minutes. So at the moment the skirt is keeping our lovely rocking horse warm and I'll try and get around to it tomorrow. Hamish was a good little boy today and slept for nearly four hours. I was sorry that I didn't take the opportunity to have a sleep myself, but lately he's only been sleeping for an hour or an hour and a half at the longest. Not enough for me to have a sleep! So instead of a sleep, Isabella and I watched 'The Story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer' snuggled up together on the couch. It was lovely. We were so cosy together and I almost fell asleep. Isabella had spent the night at Granny and Pa's house last night and arrived home around lunchtime. She then played 'Barbie' so nicely while I sewed. I could hear her making Barbie and Ken have lots of conversations that sounded strangely familiar. Kind of like someone had been recording our conversations. We must be very careful of what we say infront of her! She's just at the age of taking everything in. Very funny too though! Do we really sound like that?! Once the Christmas skirt was finished we played Barbie for a bit. Then we played 'shops'. I wasn't such a fan of that game as most of the stuff that had made it into her shop were things that I didn't want to go missing like my car and house keys. We had to have a little conversation about what things she can sell in her shop!

Tonight was the task of making a menu for Christmas Eve brunch. The older two kids and Dave were at their last Scout evening of the year. They went to laser tag as an end of year celebration and so I was left to my own devices this evening. I decided to go to Pinterest and see if I could find some nice ideas for brunch and also for Isabella's fairy party that we're having on Sunday. Once I started looking around Pinterest I couldn't get off. There were so many different things to look at. I love Pinterest!! If you haven't had a look around then you need to check it out. What a great way of organising pictures of things you like the look of. Here's my boards.

Here is the menu so far:

Muesli

Greek yoghurt/Vanilla cream yoghurt

Mixed berries

Orange segments

Fresh fruit platter

Nutella dip

Ricotta dip

Pancakes

Crepes

Croissants

Ham off the bone

Shaved cheese

Mini omelettes

Zucchini, tomato and gorgonzola puff pastry tarts

Tomato and basil quiche

Bacon and Zucchini quiche

Oven dried tomatoes

Asparagus spears

Salad

Fresh baguettes

Orange Juice

Champagne

Mineral Water

Tea

Coffee

You can go here and see my pinterest brunch board.

18 sleeps and a movie night

Today Isabella was at preschool and she was going to be picked up by granny and pa and go toy shopping for her birthday. She was given the choice before her birthday of getting a present on her birthday or going shopping with granny. She chose the shopping trip! I think all the cousins have chosen this option. I think it's exciting to do the choosing with a budget. So cute!

Our movie 'The Rep' and lollies and popcorn.

My trusty Janome!

So today in between housework and playing with Hamish I did some sewing of both the Christmas tree skirt and Dave's Christmas stocking. I managed to finish the stocking today. Yay. Another step closer to Christmas. Dave's stocking has a little Christmas 'emblem' for each year we've been married. It's taken me 7 years to decide to do this for him. I have a stocking that my mum made me and Dave didn't have one at all. I kept saying that the stockings were just for the kids but he really needed one. So I finally caved and made him one. You know how much I love you honey!! Today our activity was a DVD and popcorn. Since Bella was at Granny and Pa's for a sleep over we decided to watch a favorite of Dave's and mine. It's called 'The Rep' and is very funny and filled with way too much swearing. We had a chat to the kids about the swearing before watching it and said that we expected never to hear them use the words they hear in the movie, but we know they've heard them before and if they ever use them they better never use them around us!! We made microwave popcorn (we usually just make air popped popcorn which is very healthy, but we needed the buttery salty stuff tonight) and got out a selection of left over lollies from Bella's afternoon tea yesterday. I don't think the kids enjoyed the movie at all! I think we'll just watch the regular sweet stuff with them next year. We always watch 'The Santa Claus' one, two and three and are looking for something sweet to add to our Christmas DVD collection. Any suggestions?

19 sleeps to go, Sammy's new uniform and Bellas birthday

Cutting the cake. What a big knife you have!

Today is a day of photos. Too tired to type much. Isabella turned five!! Big day!!
Activity today was a hot chocolate with whipped cream(from a can!!)marshmallows and sprinkled with shaved chocolate (Cadbury flake). Yummo!!

My baby is five!

Bella, Sammy and the cousins.

The cake is in the shape of the number '5'.

Sammy's new high school uniform

The cousins in their viking hats.

She looks so old! I can't believe she'll be in high school next year.

Enjoying our hot chocolates.

Cream from a can. Yum!

Melting yumminess!

20 sleeps to go and in overdrive

The day started at 6:15am this morning when Hamish woke me for his morning feed. I grabbed him, unzipped him from his sleep sack and hurried back to the warmth of our bed. His little hands and feet were cold and I tried to warm them on me while I fed him. It made me cold, but also a little less guilty about him sleeping through and not being warm enough. That silly thing they call 'mother guilt'! Hamish feeds very quickly now and so I lay in bed listening to Dave breath and waiting for the alarm to go off before I ventured out of the warm bed. I was very reluctant to get up, but today was a special day for Sammy and so I asked Dave to look after Hamish while I had a shower, washed my hair and blow dried it. I'm pretty quick at my hair now, so I probably only took half an hour and then it was time to wake everyone up, have breakfast, get everyone else fed, dressed, hair done and out the door by 8am. We couldn't have done it without everyone's help and the house was upside down when we left!! I dropped Josh near school and then the four of us drove to Sammy's new high school, parked and unpacked what felt like the whole house to take Hamish and Bella into the high school and keep them quiet while we bought uniforms, book packs, checked bus timetables and paid school fees. The kids were all beautifully behaved and Sammy was so excited to get all her school uniform bits and pieces, find out what house group she is in and watch the high school students perform for us. My baby is growing up! She was very nervous about sitting the placement test and had asked Josh about it. In the end she did well and said that the test was very easy. I think it gives the school a chance to stream students from the word go instead of waiting for their results at the beginning of the school year. It was great to see her dad make the effort to come along to the high school orientation. It took him two hours to get to the school what with peak hour and school traffic. Sammy was pleased she got to spend some quality time with him without Josh or her dad's partner and baby around. I know I try and make the effort for Sammy to spend time with just me, but it is hard to find the time to do that. I hope they had a really nice time.
After orientation it was off to Top Ryde City to catch up with two lovely ladies, Sim and Kez and their four treasures. We gave them donuts and milkshakes and got a caffeine hit while the kids played imaginary games that involved moving chairs around, using the equipment on the activity wall (specifically a plastic phone) and even lying on the floor at one stage. It didn't really matter what they were doing as long as they weren't hurting each other or any passing strangers. It gave us a chance to catch up 'adult' like which is always so good at recharging the batteries!! I'm looking forward to our dinner out without the kids! That will be even better!! AND I'll be able to leave Hamish at home and have a glass of wine!! OMG!!
Dave had a meeting today and was dressed in a suit for a nice change. I asked him if he wanted to have lunch up with me at Top Ryde and he didn't need asking twice! Almost like a date!! We went to a place in the Piazza called 'Grill' something. The food was okay, nothing to write home about. It was the company that was delightful. Yes you honey! You looked great in your suit by the way! I love you!! XXOOXX
Dave left me after a quick lunch to get back home and do some more work before the end of year Scout party and dinner this evening. The weather went from bad to worse and I was sure that they would cancel, but they didn't. Dave suggested that I stay at home because it was so cold. I took him up on his offer straight away. No arguments from me. I'm sitting here with thick socks and slippers on and am still a little cold. What strange weather for December. It's supposed to be our summer!

Our 2011 Christmas decoration. A glass church.

Silver ornament ties to replace the red ones.

After Dave left Isabella and I went looking for a Christmas decoration to buy for this year. I've been looking all over and haven't seen anything I like until today. Today I saw a shiny, sparkly, cute, little church and so bought it straight away. It was from 'Bed, bath and Table'. Love that store. Also bought some new silver ties to replace the red ones on my white and silver Christmas tree.

Bad lighting. It was 8pm when I took the photo. These are at my front door.

I then raced home and put Hamish straight to bed. I needed the break more than him I think! While he was asleep I changed the ribbons on the ornaments on the silver and white tree (the red ribbons were very obvious and although I know many of you are probably rolling your eyes right about now I needed to fix it for me), put up our new church decoration after writing on the bottom of it in permanent marker "Top Ryde 2011". I then finally planted the succulents that I'd been given by my girlfriend Jo from a couple of weeks ago. They look amazing! Thank you.

I have two of these inside now.

 Finally the 'activity' or 'task' for today was to make a treat. Well Isabella is turning 5 tomorrow and for breakfast she would like to have pancakes. Well I cheated slightly and made them tonight already. It meant that the task for tonight was completed even though the older two were out and Isabella was too busy playing school to help. It also means that in the morning when I get up feeling exhausted I can appear to be organised with breakfast when all I'm actually doing is heating up the pancakes. We're going to have them with either banana, blueberries or chocolate chips or chocolate Hershey kisses and maple syrup. I don't eat pancakes so I will be having a cup of coffee and WATCHING everyone else eat the pancakes. No I'm NOT on a diet, but I forgot to buy gluten free pancake mix and I can't be bothered trying to make some just for me. It seems such a waste!!
What a day!! I'm sitting here with Hamish and Isabella in bed, Dave at Scouts and the older two out with their dad. It's 8:54pm and I'm exhausted. I had every intention of doing some more of my Christmas tree skirt, but I think I will finish Dave's stocking while watching tele and then go to bed. But of course not before wrapping Isabella's presents that are hiding in my cupboard.

21 sleeps to go and a bit of something sweet.

Overcast and ready to head to Granny and Pa's house for lunch after our gelato.

Today is Sunday and we were going to get up early to go and watch the cousins doing 'Nippers' at Mona Vale Beach. Unfortunately dear Uncle Howard cut his little finger on a wine glass and managed to sever an artery. Who even knew that you had an artery in your little finger, let alone two! So they weren't going to take the kiddies to Nippers since poor Uncle Howard needed to catch up on his sleep after staying at the hospital overnight waiting to get five stitches. Since we were up so early on a Sunday morning which for us is very unusual we decided to go and visit Palm beach instead. We found it all a bit too lah de dah and not very family friendly at all and so decided to find a nicer beach to take the kids out to for morning tea. In the meantime some massive clouds had gathered and the wind had picked up and so we ended up stopping at Newport beach for a gelato and coffee and some sanctuary from the weather.
After Newport we headed to Terry Hills to grab some baguettes, a hot chicken and a head of lettuce to take along to my parents for lunch. We had a lovely time catching up with them and then decided to head home so that we could get ourselves set up for school and for Sammy's High School orientation day which are both tomorrow being Monday. The kids were also very excited about eating our Ginger Bread house that we had decorated yesterday.
So on activity day four we absolutely demolished the Ginger Bread house! Yum!! I forgot to take photos of it so you'll just have to believe me when I said we made an enormouse mess and they absolutely enjoyed the lollies and icing and didn't mind the ginger biscuit. What did I eat while they were doing this you ask? Well I had a cup of tea and waited for the kids to go to bed and then I opened the enormous bag of 'Hershey Kisses' that we bought the other day from Costco. I couldn't help myself. It's not really my sort of chocolate, but when there's no other chocolate in the house, it will do. No offence to any Hershey lovers out there, but I am a Cadbury chocolate lover through and through and if not Cadbury then Nutella on a spoon will also quiet the late night chocolate cravings!
Not sure what our 'task'(as Sammy calls them)for Christmas is tomorrow yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out. Yes I know that I was the one that wrote out the activities and put them in our advent calendar, but I'm still excited about reading it in the morning. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!

Twenty-two days, a sneak peak and a house

My rolling hem foot did all the hard work.

All the cut strips.

The strips with a rolled hem on one side.

Last night I decided to do something with my calico. And just like a good book once I started sewing I couldn't stop!! I measured, I cut, I even rolled hems!! Not much to see yet but it will be beautiful when it's finished.
This morning was an early start!! I had to take Bella to dance class. The usually good thing is that I get almost one hour of child free time!! I get to drink a coffee while it's hot all the way from start to finish and nurture my inner paparazzi by reading Who or Woman's Weekly and catch up on uninterrupted gossip. Just like bubble-gum for the brain. Delicious!! Only this morning I got to get my coffee take-away and watch her dance class. It happens once a year and today was the day. There was an audible sigh from all the parents who suddenly realised that their little bit of respite from their dancing queen was gone for the week. We all looked at each other and one of the mums said,"oh I guess you'll only need us in half an hour won't you." and before Miss Ellie had a chance to say anything we all chimed in with, "Yes. In half an hour we'll be back" before she could clarify that we could stay for the whole class. We all needed caffeine and that was the end of that!!

Bella wearing her jazz shoes and a little tutu.

Showing me how she can touch her toes.

Here are some adorable "dance class" photos.
Straight after that was a visit to Macquarie Centre where Sammy had an ice-skating party to attend. That left us three hours to search for outdoor furniture. We had lunch and afternoon tea and bought bits and pieces we probably don't need and then picked up Sammy. Off to Parramatta Rd for a look at more outdoor furniture and then a quick Costco shop before heading home.

The box and the goodies shared out into bowls.

Josh's lolly and icing mess.

Sammy's smile matches her gingerbread man.

A bowl of baked beans awaits finishing.

The house ready to decorate.

The finished house. The kids had to wait a day to eat this!

The usual feed, bath and dress Hamish before putting him to bed and then Dave made dinner for us and after we did advent activity number three. Make a gingerbread house. When I say 'make' I really mean 'construct' a gingerbread house because all our stuff came in a cardboard box. Here they are enjoying themselves.
They did a great job!! I added some little swirls to use up the last of the icing. They have to wait until tomorrow to eat it. The only reason I get away with this is that they get to eat the little biscuit they decorate after they finish with the house. Good all around!

Twenty three days to go...

Today I had a lovely catch up with a wonderful woman. We decided to do fun activities and so cleaned her house together. Of course my tongue is planted firmly in cheek. She made a delicious lunch and the kids played so well that I almost forgot I had Bella with me. Her little golden locked boy entertained my Bella so well. He had her in stitches. So cute! I hope she doesn't mind me posting a photo of him.

Bella with her lunch and a silly smile.

Another cute smile!

Cutting the just printed activities.

The bits all ready to put together.

The finished product.

Slipped in to make sure it fits.

All the activities in their special place.

Josh's dance trophy.

Last night I ended staying up late to finish the advent activity calendar. (Staying up late seems to be a recurring theme with me lately unfortunately!!) I had to make sure the little pieces of cardboard would fit in our advent calendar. I can't take credit for the hanging Santa though. I bought it quite a few years ago but it really needed an update. So after lots of fiddling with paper, cutting, hole punching and ribbon cutting I ended up with something I'm very happy with. Our activity last night was to finish decorating the house and tree. Tonight was to go out for a treat. We had to take the kids to the golden arches tonight (McDonalds) because Josh had his dance class end of year presentations and it only finished at 6. So a rush back home to pick up the kids after the presentation finished meant a trip to a place that would feed us quickly. Anyway to make this long story shorter our activity for tonight was to visit the video store (is that showing my age?) and get the kids an ice-cream. Here are some pics to see what the calendar looks like and also Josh's trophy.

Christmas count down - 24 sleeps to go

A gorgeous silver bird from a student last year.

A bell wreath I made.

A wreath I bought a couple of years ago.

Today I exchanged the lights and finished our 2nd and 3rd tree (don't judge me it truly is a sickness I have) and persuaded the eldest and strongest child to put the empty boxes under the house. The only problem I see is that our house doesn't have enough decorations around now that we've moved into more spacious digs. This is the only downside mind you and easily rectified by getting or making more Christmas decorations. So today I also visited my local Hobbysew and bought material for a new tree skirt and some felt for some new tree ornaments. When I showed the ladies at Hobbysew what I wanted to make with the calico they were very excited and said they might make one too. So perhaps you'll see a new Christmas skirt there and you'll know it came from me. Here are some sneak peaks of the decorating so far.