Purple Passion

I have never been a football fanatic. Growing up with a Dad who lived and breathed the game I was happy to barrack along for his team but never had anywhere near his level of enthusiasm. Last Saturday night though, with Paul out in the city watching the preliminary final at a pub with mates, I told the girls we were watching a football game after tea and would be cheering for ‘Pop’s team’.

For a good part of the first half, we sat on the living room couch together, Sophie parroting back my ‘come on Freo!’ every time I uttered the phrase and pumping her little fist in the air. With every goal, the three of us would leap to our feet, hold hands and do our ‘happy dance’, chanting ‘Freo! Freo!’…the girls giggling away caught up in the fun of it all.

For the final quarter, with the girls tucked up in bed  (Grace joined me for the countdown after she crept out for a sip of water), I continued to watch on anxiously. I cheered just as much for my Dad as for The Dockers themselves...  And when that final siren sounded, my eyes welled with tears, firstly with happiness at Dad’s team having made the Grand Final but also for that exciting moment I knew he would have loved to have witnessed himself.

Over the past week, we have embraced the festivities and created purple decorations to hang in our living room. On Saturday, the girls are planning to dress in purple (albeit purple fairy dresses) and we will have a little party here at lunch time with friends so we can all watch the match together.

While Sophie is too young, I hope that some day, perhaps Grace will have a vague recollection of the time her Mummy embraced all things Fremantle, danced around with her in the living room and cheered with all her heart for ‘Pop’s team’…

Grace's 4th Birthday Party

Grace's birthday party on the weekend was a lovely, small celebration.  No stress and no fuss but fun-filled and happy nonetheless.

A few weeks back, I sat down with my big girl to discuss her cake.  Thinking she would choose a novelty one, I was surprised when her choice turned out to be a simply decorated cake, iced in her favourite colour... orange.  And so, orange became the focus for a simple birthday celebration. I designed an invitation for her while she sat with a handful of envelopes and painted bright blooms on all of them. Pearly orange balloons were bought, along with a bunch of beautiful deep peach-coloured roses and party favour bags were decorated by Grace with flowers drawn on the front.

Waking on Saturday, the air was chilly and the sky overcast.  Sipping my tea in front of our fireplace, glancing out the window, I feared our party would have to be an indoors one.  However, we decided to chance things and in the end, the clouds cleared up and we were welcomed by blue skies and sunshine... perfect morning tea weather and ideal for little ones to be able to run around our backyard.

Being a small celebration, we didn't organize any games.  Much fun was had instead playing 'What's The Time Mr Wolf?' and riding around on bikes and scooters.  When I asked Grace what the highlight of her party was, she told me it was being able to play with her cousins.

The birthday cake itself was an orange cake, decorated in Fruit Tingle buttercream.  Pastel-hued, crushed-up Fruit Tingles were dotted throughout the icing, giving it a scrumptious sherbet-kick.

On Saturday night, as I looked back over photos from Grace's party, I realised how often, it is the simple, good old- fashioned get-togethers that are the best... not too overwhelming for little ones, not too big to cater for food wise and not too much to have to organize... and from a child's perspective, so long as there is cake, good company and goodie bags, that's all that matters...

My Un-Birthday

Sweet banner above available from Tucke & Bonte on Etsy

Yesterday, we had a day of birthday celebrations for me, or more accurately, an 'un-birthday'.  Today is my actual birthday, but seeing as Grace has kindy on Tuesdays, I decided to pretend yesterday was my special day for her sake.  There was present opening in bed, a family breakfast at a cafe in East Fremantle and tea at the local pub for us four, complete with a 'happy birthday' serenade all the way home.

Today, has been an equally wonderful day.  Besides being my actual birthday, today is officially Paul's first day of over two months long service leave.  Knowing how eager I am to sort out our home office makeover, he suggested we take a trip to Ikea.  We headed there for a wander this morning, unfortunately returning home empty handed however, needing to do a bit more measuring before any purchases are made.

Anyway, after my post the other day reflecting on my decade between birthdays, I wanted to share with you a poem in one of the lovely birthday cards I received.  The words just seemed so fitting...

When you find beauty in the world around you

And satisfaction in the place you've earned,

When you prevail, though challenges surround you,

And take the best from each hard lesson learned,

When you reach out to share the joys of living

And look with hope upon each new day's start,

When you remain both trustful and forgiving

And keep your cherished friendships close in heart,

When you still feel the proud anticipation

Of precious dreams and goals worth striving toward,

Then every birthday is a celebration

And every coming year its own reward.

Point And Shoot: Party Time

The weekend just gone was uncharacteristically busy for us, a rather jam-packed one with two birthday parties for two special little cousins to attend.  Saturdays and Sundays are usually fairly low key in our home, made up of an early morning bike ride for Paul, a few errands and jobs, a simple family outing such as a picnic breakfast by the river and some relaxed pottering around the house and garden.  However, while we were all fairly tired when the end of the weekend rolled around, we had fun and loved every minute celebrating with family and friends.

On Saturday, we celebrated a first birthday party which was the perfect combination of a casual backyard atmosphere, pretty decorations and a beautifully decorated cake.  A shade shelter was set up with a sandpit and water table underneath to keep the little ones happy while the adults enjoyed delicious morning tea treats.

 

Sunday we headed to the Stirling Miniature Railway for a sixth birthday party.  It was a fantastic family venue with a fully shaded picnic area situated in the middle of the train track circuits. The adults took turns doing a loop with the little ones who all had a ball riding on the steam engines over bridges and through the tunnel as the engine chuffed its way along.

Sophie was just as infatuated with the trains as she was with her baby cousin... seeing these two playing peek-a-boo with each other was truly adorable.

After our weekend of parties and our typical quiet Monday at home, it will be a day of rest and recuperation for us today.  Grace is tucked up in bed congested with a cold and I think Sophie has a touch of the sniffles too... time to put on my nurse's hat...


Linking up with Lou's Point And Shoot

Sophie's 1st Birthday Party

Sophie's first birthday party last weekend was by far my favourite party I've put together.  I'm not sure if it's because blue and white is my favourite colour combination or if because by now, after hosting several children's birthday parties I know what works for me and how I best organize things with as little stress as possible.  Either way, it was a wonderful morning celebrating the first birthday of our little girl with close family and friends.

Decorations consisted of a simple photo board, fabric bunting which I had sewn, jars of daisies wrapped in gingham ribbon, washi tape cupcake flags and checked tablecloths.  I also designed some bag toppers for the party favours which coordinated with the invites I had made.

We had some smaller tables set up under our patio but with the morning becoming quite hot, most guests congregated under the shady corner of our backyard where we had picnic blankets spread out, a picnic basket filled with baby toys and our sand pit close by for the little ones to play in.  The good old slippery dip was brought out at the end of the party too.

As for the cake and all of those fondant daisies I made, I'm not sure my photos do it justice.  I really wish I had a better shot that showed more detail as it looks smaller here than in real life and the icing was a pale lemon and not so yellow. I baked two simple butter cakes (I wasn't sure if one would be enough for all our guests) and smothered them in frosting before adding the daisies on at the last minute.

 

And as exhausted as we all were that afternoon (and the following day) we had a wonderful time celebrating.  Our mix of guests really made for a fantastic party, we had blue sunny skies (lucky considering it rained on Monday) and there was enough delicious food to go around... a perfect party combination in my books...

Grace's 3rd Birthday Party

Well, with Grace's birthday party finally over for another year, I feel as though I can now relax a little.  I'm still not on top of housework and our sleep has continued to be very disrupted thanks to both girls having had head colds this past week and Sophie teething badly, but not having the pressure of a party (albeit a simple one) to put together, means this week will be much less stressful.

I kept Grace's birthday celebration as simple as I could and decided that my focus should be on the birthday cake.  After all, when I think back to my own birthday parties as a little girl, it's the cakes that I remember.  My Mum and mother-in-law also made a few dishes to help me out with the food.

The good old rainbow cake really was a bit of an experiment and I had all my fingers crossed that it would turn out in the end.  On Saturday evening as I was icing it, I honestly thought it hadn't turned out as well as I'd hoped.  I had already decided to just stick to four coloured layers to make things simpler (four was fiddly enough as it was) and so I bought yellow, green, pink and purple food colouring paste.  I also bought packet butter cake mix to make things easier still.  However, as I mixed in the purple, I suddenly wished I'd gone for blue instead as the purple looked shocking.  It was a real grey, sick looking shade and I hoped that perhaps once it had cooked, the colour might change and brighten up.  No such luck and so the purple layer found its way to the bin.  In the end though, my three layers was plenty high enough and I actually think any more would have been a bit too much.

For anyone on Pinterest or who blogs, a rainbow-style cake is a bit 'yesterday'.  But to my family who had never seen such a design, they were very impressed.  To make one like I did I used two packets of Green's Golden Butter Cake mix which I divided into four 8 inch round cake tins.  I doubled my recipe for buttercream frosting and so used 250g softened butter, 3 cups icing sugar and 4 tablespoons of milk and beat it for a very long time to get it nice and fluffy and smooth.  A palette knife helped ice the cake neatly.  This was exactly the right amount of icing for what I needed.  I layered the cake and iced it the night before, and kept it in an air tight container overnight.  To decorate the cake I just sprinkled hundreds and thousands on top and put Jaffas around the bottom edge.  If you like buttercream frosting, you will love this cake.  I'd like to try one with different shades of the same colour next.

Sitting down after the party yesterday afternoon, I was so happy with how it all went.  And while a lot of things I had planned didn't eventuate (rainbow tags for the favour bags, a 'rainbow' of helium balloons and a rainbow skirt for the birthday girl), it really was a perfect, simple, good old-fashioned birthday party.  The weather was gloriously sunny and warm, we had a good number of guests where I felt like I had the chance to speak to everyone, the cake was a hit and Grace enjoyed herself. 

Planning Grace’s 3rd Birthday Party

Here in our little household, I'm in full party planning mode as Grace’s birthday is midway through this month.  Not that I’m planning anything over the top, it’s just that I want to be organised.  With her party set to be on the weekend following her actual big day, that gives me pretty much a fortnight to sort things out in amongst the usual day to day running of our household and looking after our girls 24/7. 

So far, I’ve made a little birthday countdown calendar based on a Christmas Advent one I’d seen on the Mondocherry blog.  Each morning after breakfast, Grace carefully removes a link and we count how many sleeps are left until her big day.  It’s a great way for her to understand the concept of passing time. 

I’ve been thinking of ideas for Grace’s party pretty much since the start of the year but in the end decided to let Grace choose which cake she would like, seeing as it is her birthday and not mine.  I saved a few images in a file and let her flick through them to see what she liked.  Each time, she kept coming back to the layered rainbow cake.  Nothing could sway her decision towards a ‘simpler to make cake.’  However, I’ve decided to keep things as easy as possible and will limit the cake to four different coloured layers instead of the traditional seven, make some simple decorations and lolly bags and if time permits, a rainbow skirt for the birthday girl to wear. 

Yesterday, using a file of digital images I purchased from ‘hello love too’ on Etsy, I designed and printed Grace’s invites which you can see above.  Paul suggested I just email everyone to make things easier but I really enjoy designing invites for our parties and I still think there is something special about receiving one in the mail.  Grace helped attach the stamps and we posted them this morning.  My next job is to sort out the food and perhaps even make some things to freeze ahead of time. 

Also, thank you all for your advice on my last post.  I appreciated all of your suggestions in my comments.  Grace woke up yesterday still in her pyjamas.  I jumped around in excitement and told her how happy she’d made her Mummy.  However, when I checked on her last night, she had done a change into her summer pyjamas!!  I’ll keep you posted on our progress…

A Night Out And An Anniversary

Today is our seventh wedding anniversary, seven years of being blessed by having such a wonderful husband.  When I think back to our wedding day, I think about how young we both were back then and about how much has happened since...  about how we've grown as individuals and as a couple and how I am so thankful to have had someone as supportive as Paul by by my side through the good and bad times we have both faced.  I am so happy we get to share this life of ours together.  

We don't have any special plans tonight but hopefully in a few weeks, we can go out to a nice restaurant together and celebrate.  Normally Monday is our hectic night when Paul heads to the gym and I battle with the full-on 'tea, bath, bed routine' myself.  However, tonight he's going to stay home and help out with the girls and we'll get takeaway - a perfect present in my eyes.  I'm going to make us a yummy dessert as a special treat. 

On Saturday night however, Paul and I did go out.  We had our first night out without the girls since last September, back before Sophie was born.  It was my '30th Birthday Package' Paul had organised for me.  We started with an early dinner at The Olive Tree and then headed to the Burswood Theatre where Paul had bought tickets to Mary Poppins.  The thing I appreciated most about this gift of Paul's was that he didn't mind taking me to see a show which was something he wasn't all that keen to see himself.  However, we both loved the show.  Our seats were so good - three rows from the front- I could see every expression on every actor's face!  It was an amazing production - great actors, wonderful music and fantastic sets and props.  We left humming songs all the way home in the car.

Anyway, I'm off to prepare a chocolate self-saucing pudding... see you back here Wednesday for a few little giveaways I have planned.  Thanks also for all your kind comments on my post about Grace's bedroom - I appreciated each and every one of them!

Paul's Birthday

Today is my husband Paul’s birthday. Being a work day, we got up bright and early to give him his gifts which included a card Grace made for him and a ‘birthday bag’ she had decorated containing his gifts.  Inside the card, we included a little interview which I found on Bianca’s blog. It was a great way for Grace to put into words her thoughts on her Daddy.

Tonight we are going out for an early meal and will then come home to sing ‘happy birthday’ and enjoy a piece of the chocolate cake Grace and I made earlier in the day.  It's got lashings of chocolate buttercream on top and has been carefully sprinkled with hundreds and thousands by my little helper. 

We've also been working on some Easter gifts today.  Grace has been colouring in Easter eggs (the free printable you can see below is available from Style Me Gorgeous) and we packaged up the rocky road we made yesterday with some cute bunny bag toppers which you can download from Skip To My Lou.



All that's left to do now is wait for the Easter bunny to arrive!

28 Sleeps Until My Birthday

In almost exactly one month’s time, it will be my birthday… my 30th birthday. To be honest, I’m really looking forward to being 30.  While I know no one’s life is ever perfectly rosy, I think I’ve had my fair share of difficult times over the past decade including watching my grandfather deteriorate from lung cancer, having my parents’ divorce, experiencing someone close to me go through a breakdown, my father-in-law’s passing after a six month battle with pancreatic cancer, going through IVF twice after a long period trying to fall pregnant and losing my dear Dad to a sudden heart attack. Of course, my happiest times have also occurred in my 20’s with memorable occasions like my wedding day, buying our first home and the birth of my two beautiful girls just some of the major highlights in a long list of wonderful times.

So, what do I have planned for this next chapter? I look forward to watching my gorgeous girls grow into young ladies, to spending time together as a family having adventures and fun, to continually making changes to our home and to nourishing my hobbies and passions. I did contemplate making a list of goals for the next ten years, but with my current New Year’s resolution to ‘live in the moment’, I’ve decided to do just that instead… to take each day as it comes and to welcome new experiences and opportunities with open arms… while of course, sharing every special step with you all along the way…

Image above from Pinterest

Grace’s Birthday Party

For Grace’s birthday on Sunday, we had a small family morning tea to celebrate. Just a simple party with a few sweet dishes, a few savoury dishes and my attempts to make Grace a ladybird cake.

The cake was a success although the red and black icing were not fun to work with at all, especially the red which left stains on my white tablecloth which is still soaking in my laundry trough. I used the same cake recipe that I did for Grace’s First Birthday Party and once again, I made it a few days ahead, carefully wrapped it and froze it until the day of the party when it was defrosted and iced.

Grace had a ball running around the backyard with her cousins and received some great presents. Here are a few photos from the morning…

Mother's Day

Photo above by Holly Becker of Haus Maus

I hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Day yesterday. Mine was a wonderful one beginning with breakfast in bed snuggled up next to my Gracie girl with a cute card (complete with Grace's illustrations inside), a pretty bunch of flowers and a lovely gift from Kikki K to enjoy. We celebrated with Paul's Mum at morning tea and lunch was spent with my Mum.

However, the best part of my weekend was Grace coming up to me all the time saying 'lush you Mummy' (love you Mummy) all by herself and giving me endless kisses and cuddles. While she has parroted 'love you' back to me for a while now when I've said it to her, it has only really been this weekend she has started saying it by herself voluntarily and it was the best present I could have asked for.

I did hunt for some recent photos of Grace and I or my Mum and I to post, but I've discovered that I am often the one behind the camera and such photos are few and far between. This weekend is Grace's birthday so I'm going to put Paul in charge of photos and then hopefully, I'll have one to share with you all.

Proud To Be Australian

Happy Australia Day to all my fellow Aussie bloggers! It's days like today that make me reflect on how blessed I am to live in 'the lucky country' and how proud I am to be Australian. I am grateful for living in a country where...


...there is relatively little pollution in comparison to many other parts of the world. We can swim at our rivers or beaches, breathe clean air and drink water straight from our taps.

...we have a health system which provides us the luxury of taking Grace to a doctor and knowing that most times, we will not have to pay for our visit.

...space is abundant. I love that I live in a home where it doesn't feel like our neighbours are 'on top of us' and where we have a big backyard. We have many national parks and in the wild, there are big expanses of land left untouched.

...we have breathtaking natural features. From our beaches with clean white sand to our lush forests, there is much beauty to be seen.


Watching Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventure on television this week really brought home to me the values and lifestyle we Australians have that many other cultures find so appealing - our friendliness, our 'work to live' ethic (as opposed to 'live to work') and the spirit of mateship are all aspects of our culture I hope remain for many more years to come.

Father's Day

Father's Day in our household is never without a slight hint of saddness as Paul's Dad passed away five years ago and my Dad last year. So for us, we now focus on Paul and the wonderful Daddy he is to our little Grace. It is always such a joy to watch the two of them together and especially to see Grace's excitement when Paul gets home from work.

This morning, after giving Paul his gift, the three of us enjoyed a delicious breakfast at C15 Cafe and then went for a walk along the river. For the rest of the day, we've been outdoors gardening in the lovely Spring sunshine.

I hope you have all had lovely weekends celebrating and remembering the Dads in your lives.

Grace's 1st Birthday Party

Everything went perfectly for Grace’s 1st birthday celebration on Saturday. In the week leading up to it, the weather report had forecast nothing but rainclouds and I was worried that our plans may have had to change to having the party indoors. However despite a chilly start to the day, we had bright blue skies and lots of sunshine.

Following the advice many of you gave me, I tried to organize most details in the week before the party so I had as little to do as possible on the morning itself. All of the decorations were done with little expense and as I enjoy crafty projects, I had great fun making them.





Having seen numerous beautiful dessert tables on the many party blogs I had been browsing recently, I was inspired to put a bit of thought into this part of Grace’s party. I made some polka dot paper garlands to string along the front of the table using details I came across here. This was super easy using a circular punch I borrowed at the local scrapbooking store and then I stitched the shapes together on my sewing machine.

The three pink rice paper lanterns were bought cheaply off eBay from here. They added a nice burst of colour above the food table.





The children’s party favour bags contained a little cellophane packet of chocolates (Freckles) and some bubble mixture. I made the tags on the front and the cute mini pegs were from kikki.K (I had been looking for an excuse to buy these!!)

The ‘vases’ were old jars covered in decorative paper and the flowers were either from my Mother’s Day bunch or our garden.









For the cake table, I made simple polka dot bunting using some left over paper I had in my stash, alphabet stickers and red and white string.

The cake itself was a traditional #1 cake smothered in buttercream frosting and decorated with Smarties. I made the cake a few days before and froze it and then took it out and iced it on the morning of the party. I used the CWA Hi Lite Cake recipe (recommended by both Paul’s aunty and my friend Kylie) and the mixture was perfect. I also made cupcakes (thanks for your tips Karyn – they were delicious) and I made polka dot cake toppers from paper I found at our local craft store.



As a photo display, I used Poladroid to ‘age’ a photo of Grace from each month of her first year which I then re-sized, printed out and hung up. I also had a digital photo frame displaying photos of Grace inside next to the tea and coffee making station I set up.



Grace’s polka dot dress is one I actually bought from Little Styles last year (it is still currently available). I had bought it in a larger size hoping it would be suitable for Christmas this year, but when I settled on the polka dot theme, I decided it would be perfect to use for Grace's birthday instead.

All in all, we had a great morning with a nice number of guests, beautiful weather and yummy treats. Thanks you to everyone who helped us on the day either with food, taking photos or cleaning up and thank you to all my fellow bloggers for all the tips and advice you gave me.