Our Morning At The Fishing Boat Harbour

Despite a chilly start, today was forecast for blue skies and sunshine and so mid-morning, the girls and I went for an outing to the Fremantle fishing boat harbour.  Our first stop was the iconic Cicerello's, a new favourite spot of Grace's due to their three enormous fishtanks surrounding the eating area.  Even Sophie seems to enjoy watching all the fish swimming around.  While we were there too early today for fish and chips, we did enjoy a cup of tea and a babycino to warm us up before investigating all the marine life surrounding us.  Much to Grace's delight, she found 'Nemo' and 'Dory' as well as a puffer fish hiding in the rocks.  However, the firm favourite with her was definitely the huge octopus.  She was intrigued by it and its suckers.  I have to admit, I was fascinated myself when it made a dash from one end of the tank to the other in lightning speed.  Who knew such a creature could move so fast?

Our outing provided lots of questions from my big girl.  "Where do jellyfish sleep?" she asked.  When I told her I assumed they just closed their eyes and continued floating around the ocean she seemed concerned.  "But what about a cushion?" she said.

Grace was even allowed to 'pat' a baby shark and a 'Daddy' shark and got to hold a star fish.  Such excitement for a three year old!

Afterwards, we walked around in the sunshine out on the board walk jetty, looking at the huge fishing boats and stopping to watch a cargo train as it passed by before heading home for lunch.

How have you spent your Wednesday?

Childhood 101 Guestpost

Morning everyone!  Hope you've all had a wonderful, relaxing weekend.  Mine was fantastic, the highlight being high tea with my two best friends at The Duxton in Perth on Saturday afternoon.  It was such a lovely belated birthday get together and and we are looking forward to trying another venue for high tea soon.

Today, I'm guest posting over at one of my favourite blogs and parenting resources, Childhood 101 while Christie is on maternity leave having just had her second child.  I was very humbled when Christie asked me to share a post with her readers as her blog is such an amazing resource for parents and educators and one which I gain many ideas from.  It covers topics like everyday parenting issues, organising tips, craft ideas and schooling / childcare.  Christie also has an ebook called 'Art Not Craft' which I highly recommend as well as an online magazine called 'Play Grow Learn' filled with activity ideas for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.

Pop on over to read what I've shared about 'playtime in our house' and how I try and balance things with my two girls...

May Flowers

In our garden at this time of year, there's one plant which is definitely the show stopper... our pink camellia.  The photo below shows what I see every time I look out our kitchen and living room windows.  I couldn't resist rushing outside to get a photo to share with you while I thought of it so you could picture my exact view right this minute.  While the individual blooms are nothing spectacular and definitely not as pretty as the double style camellia we have in our front garden, en masse these pink ones look lovely, especially as their pink petals carpet the ground.

And yes, that's Grace in her fairy costume yet again in the photo above.  She is still living in it lately, although this week has been a break through in that we've had her stay in her pyjamas in her bed every single night.  Her reward for doing so is me promising to sew her something new for her dress up basket.    

I'm off to a high tea in the city tomorrow afternoon with my two best friends as a belated 30th birthday celebration for me - one had just had her first baby and the other was in Europe back in March so we agreed to do a little celebration later in the year instead.  I can't wait!... I hope the weekend ahead is a lovely one for you all too.

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. 

All Over The Place

I feel all over the place today - lots has been happening recently and I have lots to do which has prevented me from spending much time online this week.  I had intended on sharing a post about Grace girl turning three, some recipes from our latest Cooking Club on the weekend just gone and a few projects I've been working on.  Then I got a blocked milk duct which prevented me from doing too much, I've been up every few hours most nights settling a very unhappy Sophie whose first two teeth have recently appeared and Grace came down with a head cold in the last few days.  On top of that, it's her birthday party this coming weekend and I feel as though I am way behind in housework and washing not to mention the many emails that I owe.  

So, I will share all these things with you eventually.... hopefully after the weekend - it may just take me a bit of time to get on top of things, to regain a bit more energy and to have a chance to take some photos of all that I want to show you.

Image above by Leslie Shewring at A Creative Mint