Birdy Treats

Last week, Elly wanted to make treats for the birds....

I found this great recipe for Bird Seed Hearts and we got to work, mixing the ingredients and pressing it into various cookie cutters;

(with straws to make a hole, to thread some string through)

We popped them into the freezer...

....waited until they dried out and then hung them in the trees;

They have definitely been a hit with the birds! Elly and Livvie have loved to watch, as they come for a little nibble...

... and judging by all the broken ones on the ground, I think the possums like them too!

Life-size portrait of a 5 year old

As soon as she got home from school, Livvie wanted to make one too...

Hers looks more 'Pippi Longstocking', compared with Elly's 'Crazy Clown'!

Life-size portrait of a 4 year old

This morning, Elly had an idea. Her teachers at Preschool had traced her and she had painted her silhouette and she wanted to make another one at home today.

She was very good at lying still, while I traced her outline...

She then added some detail... like the face, little tiny toes and some buttons down her middle.

Then it was time to paint!

She painstakingly (I have never seen her so focussed!) applied different colours to each section of her body. And then painted the finer features ~ rosy cheeks, a scarf, a belt and different coloured fingernails;

We put it outside to dry in the sun;

And now it is on her bedroom door...

...waiting to scare Livvie when she comes home from school!

Fairs and Festivals

With Nick away fly fishing and camping for the weekend, the girls and I had a weekend to ourselves. So it was Nutella Pizza for dessert, while we watched Australia's Funniest Home Videos... our favourite thing to do on a Saturday night. Nick may have been roasting marshmallows over a campfire in the Hunter Valley, but personally, I think he missed out! 

As for today... Elly had filled in a questionnaire for Mothers Day at Preschool last week and one of the questions was, 'My favourite thing to do with Mum is....' She replied 'go to Fairs and Festivals!'. So that is what we did today. We went to St Ives Agricultural Show and enjoyed all the sights and sounds of the fairground;

The laughing clowns are always a hit.

What is not to love, when every child is a winner! Livvie won a miniature camera and Elly won a bubble blowing kit.

Next stop was the animals. There were chickens, goats and some lovely sheep that were raised by the kids of a local high school;

Before long, Elly spied something very tantalising in the distance....

Will we ever be able to attend a fair without succumbing to the face paint?

I think not.

Livvie chose a Princess mask (of course!);

Elly only ever chooses from the 'boys designs... so this time it was a tiger;

Tigers do like ice cream...

(Although she almost didn't eat it at first, because she said 'Mr Whippy doesn't look like the real Mr Whippy'. She was so suspicious of him! I'm not sure what he is supposed to look like, but I reassured her it was a bona-fide Mr Whippy ice cream van.... and 'Quick! It's going to melt!')

We watched some of the dog show, a bit of the horses in the arena, walked around the handicraft displays and then it was back to see the baby farm animals;

I think the fact we stayed for three hours is a testament to the fun that we had. 

Going to fairs and festivals is definitely my favourite thing to do with the girls too!

Hide and Seek

I don't know what has happened to my crafty side lately, it seems to be taking a backseat for now... 

However, I am enjoying watching my girls create side-by-side, or just by themselves whenever the urge hits. Earlier this week, Elly made some cotton-ball sheep and did some painting while Livvie was at school...

But my favourite creation of hers was a little squiggle she did... of herself and the baby (or as she spells it, 'Bady')... playing hide-and-seek!

 That little alien on the left is the baby ~ with curly hair, hiding behind a rock!

It is only very recently that Elly's people have bodies (I was never keen on pointing this out to her, as I loved her potato-people), but now they have feet, sometimes shoes and almost always eyebrows. But it's the hands over the eyes that I love most in this one. Little kid drawings are the best!

Gender Reveal

 Last weekend, we revealed to our family the gender of our baby....with cupcakes! Blue for a boy, pink for a girl. Nick and I, in the kitchen, before we covered up the cupcakes and asked for everyone's guesses;

(Black and white photo, so you can't see the colour!)

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

It was an even split between boy and girl guesses. However, we are very excited to announce....

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

First reactions...The girls both guessed it was a girl and seemed not so fussed about having a baby brother! They were more interested in getting their hands on a cupcake....

And then not impressed they had to wait another two seconds while we took a quick family photo;

But... a little boy! We are thrilled!! It's great to finally know and even better to be able to share the news with everyone. Although I still can't quite believe it...  I actually thought we were having another girl too! 

Livvie and Elly are a bit concerned we don't have many 'boys toys', apart from a train set and some blocks... Nick wonders if he will mind coming to live in the 'pink palace' as he calls our house. I am quite certain he won't mind all the female attention and mothering he will get from us. Other Mums keep telling me that boys are so different to girls so it will be fun to experience this for ourselves. Exciting times ahead, for sure

I must admit, on the day we found out it was a boy, my first reaction (and the phrase that keeps popping into my head) was, 'This is the icing on the cake!'. It's a boy!

Mothers Day

This photo was taken a few months ago, but it's a favourite. I love how it shows the girls snuggled in close. It's always the way. We have lots of seating in our living-room at home, but we are always squished together on the one couch!

Mothers Day started for me with two little voices in the dark, waking me with a sweet song of 'Happy Mothers Day, Mummy'. Then they rushed to recover the presents for me that they had hidden around the house. I was given four presents... the girls gave me a set of socks each (the story behind this requires it's own blog post), Nick gave me some new winter Pyjamas and the baby gave me a new red leather handbag! Nick went out to pick up a hot breakfast for us and then it was time to prepare for the Mothers Day lunch we hosted at our place... 

Nick's Mum & Dad were the first to arrive and the girls were very happy to see Nanny for her special day; 

One day after school last week, the girls did paintings of both their grandma's, Mimi and Nanny;

Nanny, on opening her framed portrait;

Lunch was informal. I used a roll of craft paper as a tablecloth;

I popped some flowers in ikea vases and the little nests were simple centrepieces;

The nests were found at The Cooks Garden where Nick and I had lunch on Friday. I had grand plans to make some nests using twigs and sticks from our garden, but Nick was the voice of reason (and perhaps knew it would never happen!) and we bought some instead;

The eggs were bought at the $2 shop... they looked so real, my four year old nephew asked to eat one for lunch!

The aim of our Mothers Day lunch is always to keep it as simple as possible, so us Mums - who usually do all the work in the kitchen, get a break. My only contribution was this starter... 

...a cob loaf with spinach dip which I only started making 5 minutes prior to our guests arrival. 

Nick bought some roast chickens and with a few homemade salads...

...we had ourselves a lovely, delicious lunch!

The highlight of the day for the girls was watching Nanny pedal her little legs as fast as she could, on their Smart Cycle bike! 

It was given to us last week, by a friend's Mum down the street. It plugs into the TV and as you ride through various scenery, you score points for number games, alphabet recognition, pattern sequencing and various other things. It has been a hit for the girls (and they have never slept so well, after their marathon rides!) and obviously a hit for their grandmother too;

Elly had to hold her tummy she was laughing so much!

Jan, sorry to put up so many pictures of you on the bike, but Elly's face is priceless.... I'm sure her long-lasting memories of you will include all these funny things you did with your grandchildren. Livvie still talks about you doing the dancing competition on the Wii two Christmasses ago!

Saving the best for last, we had this beautiful White Chocolate Mudcake that Nanny made;

...and the chocolate Guylian seashells were a nice touch, Thanks Nick... (I think I ate half of them!)

After our long lunch, Nick and I had an announcement to make - a little Mothers Day surprise for our girls and our family...we revealed the gender of our baby!

This was taken last week, and no it's not twins!

My brother-in-law thought that was the surprise! 

I am always curious to know if others have found out their baby's gender before the birth... did you? Would you? We were both curious at the last scan, so we asked our doctor and I must say, it has been wonderful knowing! It really does help with daydreaming about our baby and imagining life after the arrival. It's been hard to keep it a secret! Would you like to know? I am wondering if I should put it on the blog, or if you can you wait until October to find out...

Celebrating Mum

Happy Mothers Day to all Mums!

We celebrated Mothers Day over two days.... We visited my Mum (Mimi) on Saturday, but I forgot to take any photos! So I thought I would share pics from her 60th Birthday lunch last month....

I made up a photo collage which we put at each place setting and a big poster of it went on the wall. 

The table-cloth and napkins were Kath Kidson inspired florals...

Here are some favourite photos that made up the collage...

My Mum (left) with her sisters Maureen (middle) and Margaret (right)

Mum showing off her HUGE diamond engagement ring! 

Mum (age 21) and Dad on their Wedding Day...

Mum with me as a baby;

Mum at the house we grew up in... love those mustard-coloured walls!

If there a symbol of Mum, something that we remember most about our Mum from when we were kids (apart from her Superman Suit {seriously}, but that's another story), it would have to be her glasses. She usually took them off for photos, but otherwise she wore them every waking moment. The LARGER the glasses, the better in her opinion.

There are pretty on-trend these days... however she wore big glasses for about three decades!

Well, of course we had to celebrate 'the glasses' at her birthday lunch, so we had the appropriate props;

The girls thought it was hilarious! Here we are in our 'Mum glasses';

I also collected favourite memories from all her family members, which we read aloud. My favourite was Donna's; 'My favourite Memory of Mum is when she actually thought we were having 59 Cadillacs turn up on our wedding day!' . (They were '59 Cadillacs, except there were only 3 of them!).

The birthday lunch was lots of fun, but unfortunately there were quite a few mishaps. First of all, Mum came down with a tummy bug that day, so only made a brief appearance.... in her nightie (thus no photos). 

And then my younger brother Greg set fire to the (gas) BBQ .. which was very scary!  So my Dad, in his quick thinking, threw a bucket of water from the pool over it...and understandably, no one was very keen to have chlorine-marinated steaks for lunch! It was very funny.

We ended up ordering pizzas and afterwards, enjoyed Chocolate Mudcake for dessert;

I thought it might be fun to re-post the birthday speech I made for Mum's 55th birthday, five years ago.

It certainly sums her up - what a great and funny Mum she is.... although please be warned, it is very long!