Seven Today ... OMG!

Today my first baby boy turns seven. I have very little to say about this without going into gushing detail about how blessed we are to have him in our family. So I'll keep this one short and sweet (also cause I've been in the car for 5.5hrs now and I'm to tired to blog much)

Happy birthday to one of the most quirky, thoughtful, beautiful souls ever put on this earth!! So glad your mine!!

(eating birthday pavlova thanks to the very thoughtful Trish)

Party Finale!

As usual with the whole birthday party thing I took very few photos as I was to busy talking and refilling drinks.

After most of the kids had already left I remembered the helium balloons AB had bought for kids to take home, and so we had a house filled with 25 beautiful balloons. So instead the stragglers and I wrote wishes on them and sent them into the sky.

Mostly the wishes were for puppies, blocks, kittens or dinosaurs but the idea was still sweet and the excitement as they watched them float away was priceless.

All birthday parties for this year are complete (yay). Now it's time for the mammoth clean up and to sit down and relax.

Party Planning (2)

Cake, Cake, Cake, Cake, Cake ..... That is all.

Party Planning (1)

It's Thursday, and Hamishs birthday party is Saturday arvo ... Let the freaking out begin. The undeniable truth is for this party I am trying to match the effort and planning that I gave Jacks fifth birthday party

I rarely do this, try and keep up with one or the other as far as effort. But for some reason this fifth birthday has hit my buttons. I think it has to do with starting school and developing relationships, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, time allowing there are two more days for me to freak out and blog about my freaking out and pontificate about why I'm freaking out. For now I just want to show off my amp piñata that goes with the electric guitar cake I am going to attempt tomorrow.

I have a feeling the cake might be an epic fail, but right now I want to bask in the glow of the best ever home made amp (in my humble opinion).

It's one of those pull the cord piñatas not the whack with stick sort (I've seen to many funniest home videos of people getting nutted by an over sugared kid suffering sugar come down and given a stick with the promise of the next high go be fooled).

So piñata (tick), cake decoration planning (tick), house spring cleaned (tick), everything else .... Hmmm maybe if I'm lucky it will be done before midday Saturday. If not hopefully everyone will be so enamored by my amp that they won't notice.

Happy 5th Birthday Hamish

Five years, it sounds like a long time but as I have watched my littlest grow it feels so fleeting. Five is how old he will be when he starts school, as he starts to move away from me and grow into the even more independent little person he will be.
It's been such a joyous, mad, rough, love filled five years and everyday he does something that makes me stop and want to pull him to me and tell him what an amazing unique and loved little boy he is .... And I do.
So much and so little has happened so far in his life and I can't wait to watch him as he grows and find himself and see what other adventures he takes me on.
I also can't believe it's been 5 years since I was pregnant and almost 2 years since I breastfed. It all feels like yesterday.
Happy birthday my littlest, most exuberant, tenacious and loving boy. You, who completed our family and helped me become a woman. You are so very loved.
Watching - Hamish open presents
Listening - To the clatter of the toys Hamish got for his birthday.
Reading - whatever Hamish wants it is his birthday after all.
State of mind - Reflective, proud and quite a bit older (seriously .... My baby is 5 !!)

Hamishs 4th Birthday Party - The Monkey Party

Its been a busy week and the last few days have been spent getting ready for our Hamishs 4th birthday party.  This year he wanted a 'Monkey Party'.  As I have mentioned before, my kids ask for a theme and then I try and make them invitations and cake in that theme.  I also print out pictures in keeping with the theme and stick them on paper bags for party bags.

This year everything felt very together and organised until people arrived.  Then we had a manic 4 hours of 18 kids and 10-12 adults running around in our house and backyard.  Thankfully the weather was fine and slightly warm and the kids were happy playing with the party bags and climbing in the tree house.

The problem with being the host of a party (and the only person in the family who takes photos) is that there are only a few photos of the day.  Thankfully I got a few photos of the cake before we actually brought it out to be cut and devoured.  But I got no photos of the party bags and very few of the birthday boy.

This year I also decided to relax my ideals about food and toys.  So we had the usual cut fruit, sausages, hummus and vege sticks and little dukkah pizzas.  But we also had fairy bread, crackles, crisps and a few extra lolly in the party bags.  Jack seemed to enjoy the food and I was pleasantly surprised at the choices both of my kids made, eating a few crisps and then a few pieces of fruit and so on.

Hamish was to busy opening present to eat much.  Seeing as I was relaxing about presents, we now have a few superheros, some gratuitously noisy toys (including a very cool electric guitar, and a voice changer that the kids love and mummy might accidentally drop in a puddle :).  We also got a few long time favourites like volcano making kit, dinosaur excavation, puzzles and books.

We had a few costumes.  This was the only one I managed to get a picture of but we also had two homemade monkeys and one phone call an hour before the party asking if a monkey costume was a requirement to come.  It made me realise that while my kids want these themed parties, I may need to add a little more detail to the invites so as to not freak parents out.

Hamish was also rocking his new haircut that my gorgeous friend gave him earlier in the week.  This is one of the only photos I got of him and its not the best to show off the hair (or the grin he had on his face for most of the day ... honest he had a really good day, this photos just doesn't show it)

I asked this pair of friends to stand together so I could take a photo.  It was hilarious, at first they went to do the usual kids cuddle and then decided to strike a pose.

Later in the evening we started a fire and had some sparklers.  Both of my kids are a little nervous of sparklers having both burnt their fingers at different times.

Notice the focus, he has only just burnt his thumb.  Bless him he decided to give it another go.

And ever the cautious one.  As soon as Jack saw the sparklers he backed away.  But then he worked up the courage to give them another go.

Finally the party boy fell asleep half hanging off the recliner.

20 minutes later the last of the revelers crashed out together on the couch.

It was a lovely day.  The weather was perfect, we had just the right amount of food, everyone arrived, and left.  Today we spent the morning digging up dinos, jamming on the guitar, fighting superheros, learning about flags of the world.  Then they spent the afternoon with the kids from our street, running from house to house skating on Hamishs new skateboard, jamming more with the new guitar and the keyboard from christmas and playing superheros.

Thank goodness its all over though, I'm exhausted.

Fountain of Youth

Last night two friends took me for a belated birthday night out. It was a seriously decadent night and was worth every moment of todays headache, sore feet and sleep deprivation. A quick rundown of the evening goes like this:

- Out for a quick dinner at our usual haunt

- Move onto Madam Fling Flong's for cocktails. Make mine a margarita :)

- Hop a cab to Hyde park and the Spiegeltent to watch Hermitude play a session and dance and dance and dance.

- Start to go home and see 6-10 people dancing in the fountain just outside the tent. Decided to join in, next thing you know its a dance-off between the Inner Westies and the Mountain Crew and 200 people are dancing in the fountain.

Standing in the gazebo in the Spiegeltent

Hermitude

The beginnings of the fountain dancing

Second wave of the fountain dancing

Final view of the fountain dancing which apparently went on until 4am (we left and the ripe old time of 2.30am)

Some nights are just golden! I can imagine that I could be thinking back over my life in another 40 years time and I will still remember it in detail.

Newtown Festival 09

Its been one of those fortnights. You know the sort, your so busy you can hardly catch your breath, and then you look back and can't figure out what the heck it was that was keeping you so busy.

This weekend we had a friends birthday party. For some crazy reason known only to them it was an 80s theme party. I spent a disproportionate amount of time looking up 80s fashion and seeing that I was in charge of bringing the music I also spent a fair amount of time researching the best of 80s music and sourcing it. Anyway more about the party once a friend uploads all of the photos she took.

Then yesterday it was Newtown festival. It took a while to get us motivated to leave the house. Instead of the stinking hot day it normally is on festival day it was raining in that fine misty rain that means that you have no real excuse not to leave the house but still can't be bothered getting wet.

We jumped on a bus, walked around with the 90,000 other people, met up with some friends and chatted for a little bit then walked around a bit more and went home. Some years its all about finding your spot and hanging all day ... this year it was all about having a laugh while you check out the grooviness of where you live and then going home while everyone is still in a good mood :)

The coolest part was that we saw Mr Incredibubbles the worst part was that it seems Mr Incredibubbles is actually not so incredible. Not only did the majority of his bubbles not work but he was so cranky he kept freaking out at the kids crossing the line and ended up saying in a very gruff voice 'thats it I need a break, you all have to get lost'

Not a bad turn out for a drizzly day, lots of great music including Hermitude and The Crooked Fiddle Band who we saw play at last years Global Carnival (they rocked)

As always the festival brings every sort of personality type out of the woodwork. This guy had "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel playing full blast and was dancing on the awning ... as you do.

Hamish 3rd Birthday Party

(Hamish 3 days old)

My head is spinning at how fast my little men are growing up. Tomorrow is Hamishs' 3rd birthday, and on the weekend we had his little birthday party.

He is truly a beautiful soul, every mad intense sweet little part of him. He endears himself to people in a way that is amazing to watch. Yesterday he started trying to write his name, working so hard on the letter 'H' his face screwed in total concentration, and while I watched him it really solidified the fact that my baby, is no longer a baby

As it stands today, his favourite things include;

Climbing

Running

Tormenting his brother

Reading

Dora

Dancing, singing and playing music

All in all he is an enigma, as I think all children should be, and everyday day/week/year is constantly full of surprises, with us often asking what will he do next.

In true Hamish style, he wanted a flower birthday cake, made of bananas and chocolate. In true mummy style I made it from scratch, but was unable to make it look anything like a flower, luckily he thought it looked and tasted great, so it was a success .... a very ugly success.

And so tomorrow, we wish him his real Happy Birthday, after the joy of his party I don't think he will even notice, but still I will spend the day remembering that this time 3 years ago we went to bed a family of 3 and by the next night we were a family of 4.

Pixies and Fairies

Jack has a special little friend, her name is Arieal.  It was her birthday party on the weekend, I saw them sitting together, and took the opportunity to grab a few photos of the birthday fairy and her pixie friend.

We have known Arieal since she was born and early on it was obvious that she and Jack had a special little connection and place in their hearts for one another. Now they are still kids and as kids do they terrorise each other sometime, but i often wonder if they do it to each other because they know it is safe, they know that they accept each other even when they are mean.

Jack told me the other day that he was going to make a ring out of paper and give it to Arieal and then they could be married.  We make sure we don't do the whole "Is she your girlfriend" thing people seem so fond of saying and I have never asked him about marriage but he had just connected the feelings as we watched a movie about a princes marrying a prince.

Its so lovely to watch Jack feel really safe with a friend, and as we watch them grow into amazing kids its fantastic to know that they have each other, and I'm pretty sure they will be friends for a long time to come.

The Doctor Who Party

The Tree House - It was a huge hit and got a full on party workout, at one time we counted 7 kids up the top.  There were a few kids that were scared to get up and a few that once they got up couldn't get down, but the only accident we had was Jack falling off the bottom stair and the only thing hurt was his little boy ego

The Cake - Notice the look on Jacks face, he had been burnt by a sparkler a few days previously and I realised after looking at these photos that putting them on his birthday cake could scar him for life.
The Table - Really this photo is for Treena, we had brought a book of Doctor Who cardboard models and I had the intention of making all 4 (the tardis above, a Dalek, K-9, and a Cyberman mask) unfortunately the Tardis alone took me the better part of 2 hours and so the others didn't get done in time.  I still have every intention of making them and putting them in Jacks room though.
The Cake - I had planned just to make a round orange cake and put Doctor Who figurines on top.  But I had underestimated how hard it was going to be to find them and so had to come to another solution the day before the party.  Dark indigo icing eluded me, as did anything else that would make it look realistic, in the end i settled for a cartoon version of the Tardis.  The upside was Jack saw it and said 'mummy that's the Tardis so the birthday boy gave it his seal of approval

The Lolly Bags - Or favour bags as Catriona called them in a comment that got deleted, there were 12 bags that had either K-9, an Ood, a Cyberman, the Tardis, a Dalek, and of course the latest Doctor on them.  They were filled with popcorn, a few lollys, a party blower, a balloon, and a little rubber frog/snake.  I would have loved to have put something more Doctor whoish inside but i really did leave all party planning till the last minute.

Happy Tears

It has been a while since I have updated.  I promise I will do a better and more thorough update after this crazy week has finished, but tonight I am feeling mellow and having a few happy tear

s to myself.

Tomorrow is Jacks 4th Birthday, I am feeling a little sad about the passing of time but mostly I am happy about the way our little man is growing. I can't believe how fast, wonderful, hard, happy, and joyous the last 4 years have been. 

Happy Birthday our sweet, funny and awesome little boy.  What a blessing in our lives you are

The Rug

As promised, here is a photo of the rug Catriona made me for my 30th birthday and that I had in time for my 31st. 

Its made of 3 strips of flannel material plated together and then wound in an oval shape and stitched together.  The stitches are hidden on the inside so that although there is a front and back you could really have it either way round.  Because there is so much material in it, its a beautiful soft rug to and I have spent many hours standing on it rocking my babies to sleep.

She has the prototype of the same sort of rug in her lounge, and as much as I originally wanted to put mine in our lounge and decided not to cause the kids/dogs would trash it. In the end I'm glad its in my bedroom. It gives it the warmest comfy homely feel.

It totally deserves a post all to itself, its the most beautiful present I have ever received ......... I mean can you even imagine the amount of work that went into it and all while Catriona was doing her PhD.

Its divine, as is she, thank you my beautiful friend.

The Toy from Hell

Thanks to my usually wonderful neighbour this toy entered our home on Hamishs birthday.  Our boys love cars so when I saw it I thought nothing of it UNTIL I saw the buttons on top.  I pressed the first and it made the car drive, cool, I pushed the second and this strong American accent shouts loudly 'I just can't get to much power' hmmm this is not exactly what I want to teach my boys about cars driving or life.

Unfortunately they love it ...... I guess its my version of a Barbie doll

Photo Update

Its been a while since I added some random photos just to show you how beautiful my wonderful boys are so here you go :)

Birthday boy eating Trishs wonderful birthday brownie

Thoughtful

Jack and Scarlett and Hamishs party

The wonder of sparklers

My three men watching

Its a Grand Day for a Party

If only I had have chosen to have Hamishs party in the morning!
Firstly I would not have thought that having Trish and Antony over the night before was a good idea, but because it was in the afternoon I did think it was a good idea, which meant that I was to busy having a wonderful time laughing and drinking to remember that the reason we had had the catch up at our house was so I could cook the gigantic birthday cake and snickerdoodles. 

Secondly it was a beautiful sunny morning that turned into a rainy cold afternoon.

And most importantly the afternoon was when poor little Hamish spent his first ever party in the throes of a gastro bug (excuse the pun) which reared its head about 20 minutes after the guests arrived.  The
song its my party (and I'll cry if I want to) would have been so very apt if the words had been its my party (and I'll throw up if I want to).

To add insult to injury 20 seconds before I got the 'honey QUICK, vomit' call I had just dropped the entire plate of bugs on logs down my front, luckily saving most of them in the crook of my arm.  So while my mother in law (MIL) cleaned up celery, cream cheese and sultanas I rushed through the house with a vomit covered child screaming 'out of my way' to the 13 adults and 11 children that were in our two room house.

On the up side (I know I'm shocked there is one as well)
-the cake was pretty tasty if I do say so myself
-my MIL made some white christmas which I had never tried before and was surprised at how yum it was
-Trish made these great little savory muffins and super scrumptious Hommous and Beetroot dips, the leftovers of which became my dinner
-the kids all seemed to have a great time even Hamish in between bouts of vomiting
- the lolly bags were a hit and they only had two lollys in them
-my beautiful neighbours let the dogs hang out at their place so we could used both the front and back yard
- everyone came in spite of the weather
- everyone had gone and the house was clean again by 8pm so we got to have an early night, and god did we need one

All in all a great party vomit and all (photos to come)

PS. To all the parents that came if your kids come down with gastro I'm terribly sorry I truly had no idea, he didn't vomit until you came ....... Actually I reckon one of you brought it with you 'grin'

Where o where is Dora

Who's idea was it to have a Dora the Explorer party? Oh yeah it was mine.  Well not completely when I asked Jack what sort of party Hamish would like he said a Dinosaur party, when I mentioned to Jack that I think he was the one into dinosaurs and I wanted him to pick what Hamish liked he then said fairies.  Now I have no problem with Hamish having a fairy party, if I had ever seen Hamish show any interest in anything about fairies.

After a bit more prodding Jack mentioned that Hamish had liked it when Dora dressed up as a fairy.  It was then that it came to me Dora the Explorer, of course, it was Hamishs favourite and his best.

Now in my mind what I needed was simple, print out pictures of Dora to stick onto paper bags for lolly bags, and a few more larger pictures to be part of his happy birthday sign, and lastly grab a Dora and Boots (Doras sidekick) figure to pop on top of his cake, easy peasy (yeah right)

The problem is the Dora figure that I thought I would be able to grab anywhere took me 10 different stops at shop after shop to find, and then all I could get was 'cowgirl Dora'

I thought that I would be able to find Dora everything, it seemed to me that Dora is everywhere, but for this last week Dora has been missing in action.

In the end the cowgirl Dora meant that once again I made a green cake, apparently it was tasty I haven't brought myself to eat it yet.

Happy Birthday Hamish

2 days old

1 year old


Taken today

Today my littlest boy turned two. It feels like forever that he has been with us and yet it feels like only yesterday that we met him, and two sounds so grown up. I know that most of you have read this already but here is the link to the story of Hamishs birth

Hamish my darling, the day you were born was the most wonderful sacred day of our families lives, happy birthday little man, love you so much xx