Yoga Party Decorations

Earlier this week I showed you the quick and inexpensive birthday invitations that I made earlier this month for my daughter's Yoga Party/ You can find the instructions here.  So today I'm going to show you the other things that I made for the party. For months I'd listened to Mackenna talk about what she wanted for her party and all she really wanted was the girls to come and fun with her while they did some yoga, played in the playground and eat some party food. So I tried to make the decorations, cake and favours reflect the playful, happy and chilled theme that she wanted.

I decided a minimalistic approach would work well for her party as it would allow her to spend time playing, laughing and eating which meant that I could also interact with the other parents. We had planned on doing a few different pink and purple decorations, however the park we used can get really busy so the few things I'd purchased from the discount store didn't get used due to it been really windy. 

When we arrived the first thing I did was cover two tables with coloured plastic table clothes because the tables never get cleaned. I also didn't want to have any of the kids get sick because they'd touched the dirty tables. Luckily I'd bought a roll of stick tape with me so when the wind started blowing the table clothes off, I was able to wrap the table like a present and this ensured that everything stayed in place. 

As you can see from the picture above I kept the food quite healthy to work in with the yoga theme. The first thing that I made for the girls to tie in with the birthday invitations were water bottle labels. I made the labels in PicMonkey and then I printed them off at the local copy shop. After cutting them to size (I used the same measurements as the water bottle labels) I used a felt pen to colour-in the yoga ladies outfit, I then used clear contact to cover each label before attaching it to the bottle.

Mackenna had requested cupcakes for her birthday so I made her red velvet ones with chocolate icing just for something different. I made the Too easy chocolate cake from my thermomix Everyday Cookbook with a few changes to suit our party. Mackenna had picked out some cute purple polka dot cupcake cases so I made some cute cupcake toppers that would tie the theme together with the yoga. I used the same elements I'd used for the party invitations and the drink bottle labels. Each child was given the coloured cupcake topper that matched their invitation and water bottle.

The last thing that I made were the gift bags that we gave to each girl when they were leaving. Usually these bags are filled with sugary treats and toys that don't last very long. I thought that because Mackenna had a Princess theme for her Yoga class, I decided to include lots of princess things as well as a few stationery items.

I'm glad that I put all my effort into making these few things for Mackenna's birthday party. At the end of the party every little girl came up to me and thanked me for their water bottles and gift bags. I'm so glad that I went with the colour theme mixed in with the princesses because I think that was something the girls weren't expecting. Overall, it was a great party and I got to talk to a few mums and put a mum to a child's name. I also kept costs down with all the decorations and food. This meant we could take Mackenna out for a special dinner on her birthday which is something we've never done before.

Megan

Yoga Birthday Invitations

Three months ago I decided to take the family to our local handmade market for a bit of DIY inspiration and to sneak in a bit of exercise as the kids had been spending too much time sitting down doing nothing. I discovered some really cute handmade clothing, nappy covers, soaps, toys and lots of lovely home baked goods. As the market was held on the grounds of a local school they had lots of stalls located near the playground.

Walking towards the playground Mackenna was stopped and asked if she would like to get involved in a Yoga class that was taking place. She jumped at the chance, so I sent the others off with daddy while I stood and watched her listening and participating in the class. While I was watching I was asked if I'd like to enter a competition to win a birthday party package valued at over two hundred dollars. We'd talked about having a party this year so I thought I might as well enter. The following week I received a message informing me that Mackenna had been the lucky winner.

Many of the parties we've been invited to this year the kids go and do an activity for two hours, mine eat too much sugar and then they come home with a lolly bag and the other children WANT something from the bag. As you can imagine this isn't going to work with a Yoga Party. I've had to rethink all the things Mackenna has wanted talked about all year, now I have to find a tranquil space to create a calm space, it also needs to feel like a birthday party and the food needs to be healthy so that the kids can be relaxed while participating in the Yoga.

After looking online I decided to make our own invitations as this allowed me to add the details that Mackenna wanted. To create the invitations Mackenna and I sat down together to choose the font, image and the size in PicMonkey. Caelan also helped with the wording which made my job even easier. I then took Mackenna off to Officeworks to print off the invitations.

After the printing was completed we walked across the road to a local scrapbooking shop to purchase some cardstock for the invitations. While we were designing the invitations Mackenna had already decided that she wanted to use purple, pink, yellow, blue and red as the colours for her invitations. So when we arrived at the scrapbooking store I had Mackenna choose her favourite colours in the cardstock and we purchased two sheets of each colour (leftovers to be used later). Each invitation ended up costing us twenty cents which is the least I've ever paid for an invitation.

With this in mind I decided to make my own envelope due to the size of our invitation. As the invitation is small (10 cm by 10 cm OR 4 by 4 inches) I needed to create an envelope that wasn't going to be to big. I had Mr Opoes print off an image from Google Images and then he reduced it in size to fit an A4 piece of paper. I traced out the first envelope I needed onto a piece of card (similar to what you would use to do a school project with) as you want something that'll bend easily. I then cut out the shape and folded the flaps inwards.

I then placed the invitation inside the envelope templet and using some double sided tape I marked on the inside of the templet were the tape should stop. You could also use glue for this part but I found the tape easier to work with. I also stuck a coloured jewel on the envelope with double sided tape so that the girls could open the envelope easily.

Mackenna was really happy with the invitation and as each invitation cost me fifty cents to make I was really happy. The girls enjoyed receiving them and they were small enough for the children to put on the fridge or noticeboard at home without it taking up too much room. I was also able to carry the colour scheme though to the rest of the party and each girl received additional items that matched their invitation. This also allowed me to do all the colouring in I needed to do in one go as I knew how many of each colour I needed. So tell me do you make your own invitations or do you buy them. Although this took time Mackenna was over the moon and that's all that mattered.

Megan

Thrifty Finds

As you know it was my birthday on Tuesday, so this year I decided I'd go and do something I wanted to do for a change instead of rushing home after school drop off. First off I went to Muffin Break which is my all time favourite coffee shop and I collected my free coffee (which I up sized) and my birthday muffin. Like all good mums I gave the muffin to the kids to share because hey I'm doing weight watchers and who needs to use all those points before lunch! We then headed off to a thrift shop I'd seen years ago but never visited.

In Australia we've had a few issues with our thrift (aka Op shops) stores so I was hoping that this store was large, not over priced and they had things I wanted to buy. In the past I've always gone with Mr Opoes because he helps control the children and this means the kids are better behaved. So today I set out a few ground rules with my four and two year old just so we got a good look around without them touching or breaking things. In the past I've always found Lifeline to be a little over priced and today was the same. Some of the items were the same price as the brand new equivalent and pieces in the furniture section were a bit on the pricey side considering they're second hand.

Now when I started I didn't really have a list of all the things I wanted, all I knew was that I wanted a novel so that I could turn the pages into flowers for a craft project I'd been thinking about and maybe a ramekin dish that was bigger than the ones I already own. As you can see I didn't want much as my expectations were low especially when I knew it was a Lifeline store so I was only expecting to spend ten dollars.After walking around for about forty minutes I was ready to pay for my items and that's when I found a coffee table with the most beautiful lines and I knew straight away it was coming home with me. I didn't even care about the price, it was love at first sight. Sorry Mr Opoes I've another man in my life and he's got curves, DIY potential and he was cheap ha ha.

I've only had the items for a couple of days but I've got plans for every item so I thought I'd share a picture of each item, a brief description of what I want to create with each item and how much I paid for them. I paid a total of fifty-two dollars and fifty cents for everything which I'm really happy about.

Each of these items were very cheap and they'll get used within the next month or so. A is a book that I'll be using to create paper flowers with and it cost me two dollars. B is the two ramekin dishes that I had on my list. The taller dish is just perfect for Caelan when I make cheese soufflés, it cost fifty cents and the smaller dish is a heap bigger so that'll come in handy when I'm making a soufflés for Mr Opoes dinner and it cost two dollars. C is a single pillowcase that Viveca fell in love with and I thought that it would be perfect to use to make a skirt with. She loved the flower with the smiley face and it only cost me a dollar and fifty cents.

The picture on the left is a wooden tray box that has six cubes and I'm thinking of either painting the inside of it or putting scrapbooking paper in there so that the children's pet rocks can be put on display. I'm not sure if I'd hang it on the wall or put it on the desk yet but at four dollars I was really happy with it. The item on the right is a pillow and at two dollars and fifty cents I'm really excited to find a cover or make one so that it can go into any of the bedrooms. I'm thinking I might use it in my room.

This is a brass bowl that I saw from a distance and when I picked it up I was happy with its weight and the fact that it wasn't dented. At two dollars and fifty cents it was the bargain of the century. I'm going to clean it up a little on the inside and then spray paint it silver, it'll then go into the study to fill in some of the vacant space in the bookcase. I'm looking forward to completing this small project.

I'm going to paint the coffee table so that it can go into our lounge room. I'm in the process of picking things for the lounge room so I'm going to have to wait a while before I decide what colour to paint it. My first thought was white but I'm thinking of picking one of the colours from my entry. It might work better as the gallery wall can be seen from the lounge room. I may have to live with the table as it is for a while as I don't want to get it wrong and then have to redo it. I paid thirty dollars for it and it was the cheapest coffee table they had in the store. I'm really happy I saw this on my way to the checkout, so much so that I did a happy dance when I paid for it.

The last thing I found is for Caelan and as soon as I saw it I knew he'd love it. It wasn't until I got it home that I realised that Star Wars storm troopers had been mixed up with Batman and Robin. When I gave it to Caelan that was the first thing he saw but after a bit of thought he decided that he loves it. One thing he's asked me to do is to change the colour of the background but I'm going to use it when we get around to decorating his bedroom especially when he wants a space, Star Wars inspired bedroom. The artwork cost me seven dollars and fifty cents and I'm now kicking myself that I didn't buy the other Star Wars inspired piece. I'm thinking of framing it as the edges are a little rough.

I'm thinking that I might need to frequent thrift shops more often because I was really happy with what I found today and if I play my cards right I'll be able to find things at a good price and then I'll finally be able to decorate this house sooner than later. So what do you think of my treasures? I'd love to hear about things you've found or even see pictures so if you've got something on your blog or Facebook page leave me a link and I'll check it out. If you just want to share the picture with me contact me via my Facebook page (One Plus One Equals Six) as I'd love to see what you've found.

Megan

Getting closer to 40

It's my thirty-ninth birthday today. I can't believe it where have my thirties gone? When night clubbing was all the rage I'd continually get asked for identification, even when I was ordering a soft drink because I'd be the designated driver again (lack of money meant I couldn't party with alcohol). I remember being told over and over again wait until your thirty and things will change. Holy Moly have they ever. Sometime I feel like I've slept through the last nine years of my life especially now as time seems to be fly by at the speed of light.

Don't get me wrong I've enjoyed the last nine years of my life even when it's filled with loud, crying and naughty children I wouldn't swap it with anyone WELL NOT FOR A LONG TIME ANYWAY. I've birthed four children who I love to bits and everyday they do or say something that makes me love them just that little bit more. We've sold our house, moved three times within eleven months before our house was built and I've done most of that while I was pregnant. We've changed schools, picked kindergartens, had a few holidays, caught up with family, celebrated a few weddings, planned Christenings, birthday parties and generally lived life one day at a time.

So today I thought I'd share ten things you mightn't know about me.

1. I was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, started school over there but I was made to wait four months before I could officially start school in Australia.

2. When I was young we were going to travel around Australia, we never made it out of Queensland.

3. Growing up I loved athletics and I won a few age champion things at school.

4. I ran against Cathy Freeman (Australian Olympic Gold Medallist) when I was in primary school. She won.

5. I'm the eldest of four children.

6. When I was twelve I wanted to be a nun and we weren't even Catholic.

7. A month before my eighteenth birthday I was told I was a type 1 diabetic.

8. I got pregnant on my honeymoon, we found out while in Hamilton New Zealand which we thought was unusual.

9. I studied to become a Primary School teacher but never finished and I only had one more semester to complete.

10. I always support New Zealand in sporting events especially the rugby. I also love yelling loudly so the neighbours can hear if New Zealand beats Australia in the Bledlisloe Cup.

So there you have it a few little bits of information about me, think about it as my present to you. I'm off to have fun with the kids and wait for Mr Opoes to come home from his business trip. The kids have been talking for the last three days about the great gift they have (daddy) gotten me and there's been times when they've nearly spilled the beans. Hope you have an enjoyable day and have a piece of cake for me.

Megan

5 Minute Ribbon Necklace

We're five weeks into the new school year and my little Prep girl has just received her first birthday party invitation. To say she is excited is an understatement and she's been talking non-stop about what she'll do when she arrives, the games, the music and the PRESENT. Every time we get a party invitation I get a little stressed because I'm never really sure whether I should buy or make a gift for the birthday boy or girl. This year I'm a little luckier because my eldest is going to be nine and nine years old boys don't want handmade gifts so I'll just have to brave the toys aisles to see what we can find.

So been the first party of the year I decided that I'd contact the birthday girl's mum, ask her what she'd like me to get for her daughter and then go from there. I found out she loves Barbie, dressing up and jewellery. Now I took my daughter to the shops to LOOK for ideas and if she'd had her way we would have been walking away with hundreds of dollars worth of Barbie dolls and accessories.

After sitting down with a drink together we came up with a plan to create a few special, one of a kind necklaces that worked in with the Barbie theme while also adding a few other accessories so that they could be used during dress up time. This meant our gifts would tick off all three of the birthday girl's favourite things list and we'd be guaranteed to get a smile. First up I went looking for a few small pieces of jewellery that would be ideal for dressing up and I also found a small quilted case to hold them in. While in Kmart my daughter found a Barbie make up kit and we also found some really pretty silver bangles that would go perfectly with dressing up.

The only thing left was to make a couple of ribbon necklaces and the gift would be ready to wrap. While visiting my local scrapbooking shop one week earlier I'd found a few antique gold jewellery bits and I knew that they'd be perfect for the job. The great thing about this project was that I already had most of the items on hand and each necklace cost me under two dollars. I also personalised one of the necklaces because I wanted it to be special for the birthday girl. I drew the Barbie logo with a black pen on a piece of pink paper and I added the year that she was born as there wasn't much room to write her birth date.

Overall I'm really happy with the entire gift. Mackenna and I really like the necklaces the most and that they're handmade, makes them extra special. I have chosen colours that relate back to Barbie and that will work easily when the birthday girl is playing dress ups. Although the gift might be small in size there's been a lot of thought, effort and care put into the entire gift. 

These necklaces are easy to make and the fact that you can personalise them makes it even better. I think I'll buy a few more pieces for future birthday parties so that Mackenna or Viveca can give them as personalised presents. If I knew making a necklace like this was so easy I would have made some of them ages ago. My birthday's next week and as a treat I'm going to make myself a few of these necklaces so that I can add something personal next time I go out somewhere special. Kidding! I'll just make one pretty one and wear it when I go to school and grocery shopping.

With the success of this project I'm now thinking I'd like to try making some more jewellery but I want to try making something more decorative and something with a chain. In the last few days I've taken more of an interest in the jewellery section when I'm out at the shops. Might have to take my time with the next project as my craft area is getting crowded with all the stuff I've already got. Glad Mr Opoes leaves me to my own devices when it comes to crafting but I think I might need to narrow it down to two crafts and focus my attention on them.

Megan

Test Tube Birthday Treats

Last weekend we celebrated Viveca's 4th birthday and although we weren't having a birthday party I wanted her to give little thank you gifts to her sibling and that's when Test Tube Treats were created. I'd been walking the aisles of my local dollar store when I came across these test tubes in the birthday section, so I grabbed a few boxes and off I skipped home. Like every birthday we have at home I make a specific birthday cake, we have birthday presents and generally do what were the birthday person wants to do. So as you can see it's a very low key affair.

This year Viveca wanted a Peppa Pig birthday cake and as I was purchasing it from my local Woolworth's store I felt the need to do something a little extra for her on the day. Now the hardest part of this project was designing a little gift tag as I'd never done it before and printing out the gift tag. All this was difficult because I had know idea what I was doing and our printer ran out of coloured ink, so off to our local print shop I went to get three tags printed. Now for all of you out there who know how to use a computer I'm sure you'd have this done and dusted in less than five minutes. Next time I do something like this I might reduce the size of the tag because when I printed it out it was a little large.

The next thing I did was to divided my Jelly Beans into different colours just to give a more scientific look to each test tube and then I filled each tube with the jelly beans before screwing the lid on. I then attached a small piece of twine to the gift tag and I wrapped it around the top of the tube, tiring it off to secure it to the top of the test tube.

There you have it. If you're talented you can have these made within fifteen minutes but if you're not so great it could take you that long just to design something simple. Viveca thought they were a great idea and as her Barbie bike wasn't ready to be delivered I was able to still make her feel special. I love the size of these test tubes because you don't have to fill them to the top and they would be great for a science themed party.

So what do you think? I'm really pleased because each test tube treat come in at under $2 but it would have been a bit more expensive if I hadn't used lollies we already had on hand. Viveca thought it was a great. To save on any future dental bills I shared the two tubes between the four children and they were happy with that. If I was going to use these at a birthday party I think I'd fill the tubes with a mixture of small and large jelly beans, overall I was happy with this project.

Megan

Time flies when you're having FUN

 

Today I've been reminded of the old saying 'Time flies when you're having fun' and I have to say although we weren't always having fun the time has flown by. Last Friday was Quinlan's second birthday and I have to say I don't really know were the times gone. I know we've moved three times, built a house, dealt with a couple of trips to the hospital and we've taken a trip away for the weekend but it seems to have flown by.  I must admit that we've packed a heap into the last twenty four months, however I just didn't seem to really notice that my baby was growing up and before I knew it he's two years old.

Quinlan has bought a heap of laughter, joy and happiness into our family and I thank God every day for having him in our lives. My favourite moments with Quinlan are when I make him giggle just by simply placing my hand up under his t-shirt and putting a finger near his armpit. The sound of him giggling fills the house and the smile on his face is priceless. Of all the children Quinlan has a very close and special bond with his daddy. He's more of a daddy's boy and to see the excitement when Mr Opoes walks through the door after work is enough to melt any ones heart. In saying all that I don't have a heap of photo's of Quinlan on his own or of Quinlan and his daddy together. So in the coming months I'm going to try and take more individual pictures of the children instead of group pictures.

I thought today I'd share a few of my favourite pictures with you to celebrate my baby turning two because before I know it he'll be standing in front of me getting ready for his first day of school. I sometimes wish that if I had a super power I'd slow time down as the years seem to be flying by and before you know it another year has gone by.

 

We had a fun weekend celebrating Quinlan's birthday and I would have to say that the highlight had to be watching all four of the children Ten Pin Bowling. Unfortunately, I didn't get the greatest photo's because I forgot to turn the flash on. I really need to enrol in a photography course and then I'd be brilliant.

 

Megan

May The Force Be With You

Yesterday I mentioned that I've been busy working on organising and preparing for Caelan's eighth birthday party at the end of the month. Now there are a few things you'd learn about Caelan within minutes of meeting him. One is that he is madly in LOVE with anything 'Star Wars' and he'll talk your ear's off if you let him. The other fun facts you'll learn is that he loves LEGO, he's made about technology and if he's not reading he'll be search YouTube for new video's take feature anything Star Wars or Lego related.

So I knew straight away that if we asked if he'd want a birthday party he'd immediately want a Star Wars themed party. So once I had the go ahead, I started searching Pinterest to see what ideas I could steal borrow for his upcoming birthday party. It was during my search that I came across the fabulous party printables made by the lovely Simone she runs an online party business called Simone Made It. The first thing I did was to make sure that I'd use the majority of the printables that are included in the pdf file especially as I'd have to wait another eight years for Quinlan to hopefully want to use the same theme.

I'm using the invitation in the top left hand corner.

All the text on these particular invitations was changeable so this allowed me to enter all of our party details and make up individual invitations for each child. I printed out each invitation using our printer and I set them aside for twenty-four hours so that the ink would set before cutting them. Now in my part of Brisbane we've been dealing with a heap of rain so I quickly came to the realisation that handing out printed invitations wouldn't be ideal.

To make the invitations a bit stronger I framed the invitation with two layers of card stock. I decided to use three different coloured card stock just because that's what I had on hand in my stash, now I went with silver glitter card, purple glitter card and a blue shimmering card stock. Now as I've been listening intently to Caelan during the last two weeks I knew that I had to add some shimmer and/or glitter to the invitation so that it resembled the starry galaxy that goes hand and hand with a Star Wars theme.

So I cut out the paper image, placed double sided tape on the back and stuck it onto the glitter card stock. I wanted some of the glitter to show through so I allowed 0.5 centimetres to create a boarder around the printed image. I then struck the glitter card stock onto black card stock so that the entire invitation was more solid. Again I created a 0.5 centimetre perimeter around the glitter card just to tie it all together. After all that I placed the invitations under some heavy telephone books just to make sure that everything stuck together properly. So after hours of cutting, measuring and gluing both Caelan and I were extremely happy with the way his invitations turned out.

The invitation at the front has a purple
 glitter boarder BUT it photographs blue.

So tell me what do you think? Do you think that the glitter worked? I'm very happy with the way the invitations turned out my only disappointment is that the blue shimmer card stock (invitation that has Luke on it) isn't the wasn't the correct colour but it was the closest I could get at the time. Caelan was really, really happy with the way the invitation looked and he couldn't wait for school to start today so that he could hand them out to all his Star Wars made friends.

Megan

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to...

Today's my thirty-eighth birthday and I'm not really feeling it. Ask the children my age they'll tell you I'm really old, hundred's of years ago I would have been considered 'old' but today 38 is just a number. I'm reminded everyday that there's women just starting their families at my age, some people are travelling for the first time, others are starting new careers and some are watching there children move onto adulthood. If you'd asked me when I was in my 20's what I'd be doing at this age, being at home full-time with children wouldn't have been my only answer.

I always wanted children and I wanted to raise them but I also wanted to have the ability to work from home while I raised the children. I've come to realise in the last few years that I probably should have planned my life out a little more, planned more holidays, taken more trips with the children just so we could explore things, learnt to dance, taken up knitting, done a short course, searched out beautiful antiques and started doing more crafty hobbies. One thing I've come to realise is that I'm my happiest when I'm helping others, so coming up with an endless list of things to cross off a bucket list before my next birthday won't make me any happier.

My focus is my children, our family and as a twenty-five year old I wasn't mature enough to know what I'd need to be doing as a mother or a wife. I now know that I need to focus on showing my children how I love them, playing games with them, making them laugh or smile but most importantly doing things with them or for them to show them that I'm here. I want to be present in their lives, I want to share things with them and enjoy their joy, their loves and their sorrow. I want to more than just their mum I want their love, understanding and respect. This year I'm going to try and make them smile more, laugh more and I'm going to cuddle them more.

Speaking of children I'm in the process of planning my son's eighth birthday party. This year we are inviting a few children over to the house for a STAR WARS party and I can tell you that Caelan is beyond excited. He can't wait. The best part so far has been listening to him talk endlessly about all the characters he likes, he's helped me name the food we'll be having, he's helping think up things to do while the kid's are here and he's counting down the day's until the invitations get handed out.

I'm not showing him everything, I want to have a few surprises on the day so that he has to smile even wider. Tomorrow I'll show you the finished birthday invitations, were I found all my supplies and what other things I need to cross off my list.

May the force be with you....

Megan 

Happy Birthday to you..

 

As a stay at home mother I've come to the realisation that I haven't noticed how my children have changed while they're growing up. I was talking to a school mum last week and she commented on how tall Quinlan was for a 10 month old. I corrected her about his ages, as he's nearly 16 months old but I also didn't think he was tall. So over the weekend I pulled out various photography's of Viveca and I was reminded of what she looked like as a baby. Being my third baby I remember being a little surprised that she was my biggest baby, she weighed in at just under 8 pounds 1oz (3650 grams) and she was 49 centimetres long which also means that she was the shortest. Yet when I see new babies now I can't remember my babies ever been that small so it's not surprising that I don't notice things about them as easily as other people do. So I thought I'd write a letter to you for your birthday.

Ready for her first night in hospital.

 

Dear Viveca,

Today is your birthday and it's hard to believe that our baby girl is turning three. In the short time you've been with us you've experienced a few changes to your environment, your routine and you're family. At no stage have you complained, you've been a good sleeper and because of your lovely nature you haven't made it difficult for mummy to do all the day-to-day things that I needed to do. As a little sister you adore Caelan and Mackenna, following them around and wanting to be involved in everything that they do. As Quinlan's big sister, you're always there to help him, grab him and to protect him. At times Quinlan gets frustrated when you pick him up under the arm's but I can always count on you to have him laughing by the time he's back in front of mummy.  So Viveca, I thought I'd write down a few things that I wanted to share with you, so that you knew how loved you are.

1. You had lived in four different house by the time you were 2 and a half.

2. You love to say 'hello' to people when we're out and if they don't respond you'll just say 'hello' to another person .

3. When you're tired you twist your hair while either sucking a dummy or your finger.

4. You are the only one who as used a dummy and a bottle and this makes you special.

5. You are scared of animals e.g. cats, dogs, ants, spiders

6. When eating you have to have the same as Mackenna and you will often get upset if she has something you don't.

7. You love having peanut butter and strawberry jam on Raisin Toast.

8. You enjoy sharing the bath with Quinlan and Mackenna BUT if you're offered a shower you think all your Christmas's have come at once.

9. You don't enjoy having your hair washed and at times you can get quiet upset.

10. You're not afraid to tell me when you're scared and at times you'll miss doing things because they are scary.

6 months old and ready to be baptised.

 

11. You don't like eating pea's or corn.

12. You love going to Kindy with Mackenna and being part of the class even though you're not quiet old enough.

13. You tend to fall over or walk into things when you get really tired.

14. Your favourite colour is PINK but you sometimes get it confused with purple.

15. You love changing your clothes two or three times a day.

16. It's extremely difficult to get you to put your clothes in the wash or away in your drawers.

17. You often tell everyone that you love them BUT at bedtime you'll give me a big cuddle and you're also let me know how much you love me.

18. You love watching Peppa Pig on television at 5pm every night.

19. When Mackenna gets up and dances you will copy her and the two of you will put on a show.

20. I sometime think that you and Mackenna were twins, you just decided to stay an additional 18 months because you enjoyed being in my womb.

Look who's 1.

21. You are still having at least a 90 minute daytime sleep every day.

22. You have asked to wear underpants to bed and we are going to start that tonight.

23. You would much prefer to sleep on the floor than in your bed BUT you also love sleeping in mummy and daddy's bed. So if you had to list your sleeping preferences they would be:

 

* on the floor with your head out in the hallway.

* in mummy and daddy's bedroom on either the floor or on our bed.

* on your bed

 

24. You are loved by Caelan, Mackenna, Quinlan, Daddy and Mummy and we are happy to have you with us in our family.

Enjoying her 2nd birthday dinner.

 

As a family we're so blessed to have you in our lives and I thank God every day for giving you to us. I cherish the relationship I have with you as it can be challenging, fun, loud while also been rewarding. I love how you let me tickle you and you'll laugh so hard and long even after I've finished tickling you. People have asked me if our family is finished and I think it is because I already have the most fabulous children and they bring such joy, happiness and delight into our lives.

 

So Viveca I hope you enjoy your 3rd birthday and that you enjoy your star birthday cake. I'm looking forward to watching you grow, starting school, making friends but most of all I'm going to enjoy the time I have with you as time has passed so quickly.

Happy 3rd Birthday Beautiful Girl.

Lots of hugs and kisses to my beautiful girl from your brothers, sister, Daddy and Mummy we all hope that you have a great birthday with us.

 

Megan

A Cake Smash for my ONE Year Old.





My little man turned one back on the 18th October and as we didn't do the big family birthday party I thought I'd have some special photo's taken of him eating his cake so that we had something special to remember the day by. My camera doesn't take great pictures so I knew straight away I had to call my talented and lovely friend Fiona from Dream Art Photography to come capture all the fun of Quinlan eating the birthday cake his mummy made him.

 

I'd read a few photography blogs to get some idea's about what I should and shouldn't be doing. I discovered a few interesting things that I'm glad I read before we got ready for our photo shoot. This is what I learnt:

▪ you won't want to use red icing because when mixed with dribble it'll look like your baby is bleeding.

▪ if thinking of using green icing go with a very pale colour especially as it's likely to go up their nose and this may give the effect of having a snotty nose.

Quinlan's Home Made Birthday Cake.

▪ when making your cake make a vanilla butter cake, plain sponge cake or a pound cake because if you make a chocolate cake it could look like your child is eating pooh.

▪ keep it simple because you want your baby to eat the cake and having lots of pretty things on top may slow proceedings down.

▪ if you are going to an outdoor location or a photographer's studio bring a towel, nappy wipes, change of clothes and a bag to put all the dirty things in with you.

 



 

 

I really enjoyed watching Fiona while she was working with Quinlan. The funniest thing to happen on the day was when we placed Quinlan down in front of the cake. The grass was a little rough and Quinlan didn't have shoes on so he wasn't to confident sitting down at first but this soon changed. As we had the photo's taken near the local lake, there were a heap of people going for their early morning walking around the lake. A couple stopped by with their pet dog and they asked if they could get a photo of their dog with Quinlan, only problem was the dog licked Quinlan's hand and this upset him.

Before the dog tried to eat the cake on Quinlan's hand.

 

He recovered quickly, we dried his eyes and he went back to eating his cake. Fiona was impressed with his concentration because generally young children don't have a very long attention span but  Quinlan worked on his cake for 20 minutes. We started taking these photo's around 7.45am because the light was good and it was cool enough for the cake to survive the elements. Quinlan had over slept and we had to wake him for the photo shoot, therefore he hadn't had his breakfast so when it came time to eat the cake he was up for the challenge.

Here are some of the beautiful pictures Fiona took of Quinlan during his cake smash session, I wish I'd done this with all my babies as it would have been lovely to have compared how each child reacted to their birthday cake. All that's left is for me to do now is to pick the one photography that I'll be hanging on our future gallery wall.

So please stop on over to Fiona's beautiful photography blog Dream Art Photography and fall in love with the adorable newborn pictures, get idea's for your next family photo or just have a look at all the lovely mummy to be pictures that she has taken. I know that I'll be using some of the pictures that Fiona has taken of the kid's recently to update the look of my blog's header especially as the photo's are 11 months old and the children have all changed since then.

Fiona came back to our house and even captured the clean up. It was the perfect finish to a great photo shoot.

If you live in Brisbane and you are wanting a photographer to take beautiful pictures of you during  your pregnancy, your new born or if you just want some great family photo's taken Fiona will do a great job. She is easy to work with, the children will love her (she's also a mum to 4 cherubs) and the photography's will be breathtaking. I'm off to start planning my gallery wall.
 

Megan

'Can you tell me how to get, How to get to Sesame Street'

A very happy Cookie Monster.

This one is my favourite.

I found these cupcakes while looking at Pinterest, I thought that they'd be really simple and the kids would love eating Cookie Monster cupcakes at the conclusion of my 5 DAYS OF CUPCAKES. And secondly I've decided to start collecting ideas for Quinlan's 1st Birthday cake and I thought that I'd do something totally different and have cupcakes instead of a large cake that we end up still eating two weeks after the event. So after many late nights, trips to Sugarland and endless Google searches. I found a site that gave me the most confidence. After reading Jessie's post on 'How to make Cookie Monster Cupcakes' over at The girl ain't right I decided on trying out two different techniques to see which one worked best.

The first option is to cut a slit in the cupcake for the biscuit to sit in Cookie Monster's mouth. Option 2 is to ice the entire cupcake, cut the biscuit in half and press the biscuit into place. Both options are easy, neither takes too much time to complete. I'll show you the completed cupcakes that way you can decide if you really need to lose that section of yummy cupcake.

Due to the technical problems I experienced this week I used Green's Vanilla Cake mix instead of making my own cake. I changed the cooking time and added grated chocolate to the cake batter. You can use any flavoured cupcakes you like for this recipe so choose your favourite and get cooking. I cooked mine for 20 - 25 minutes.

OPTION ONE

Start with said cupcakes.

Using a sharp knife cut out a small section so your biscuit will fit.

I bought a tube of Wilton royal blue decorating icing. I attached my star nozzle and I started piping. I now know why you pay so much for decorative cakes, its so time consuming. Insert half the biscuit into the hole.

Use some stiff butter icing, stick your small chocolate chips onto your white chocolate buttons.

Place these into the cake and you have now finished your first Cookie Monster Cupcakes.

OPTION TWO

Start with said cupcakes.

Using the tube of Royal Blue decorating Icing by Wilton pipe the icing onto the cupcake in a star pattern, making sure you go close to the blue paper wrapper and that each star is close together. As stated above this is a time consuming process and depending on the number of guests I'd allow for a few hours just to complete this task alone. Insert half a chocolate chip biscuit in the icing.

Stick a chocolate chip onto a white chocolate button using some white icing and then place this just above the biscuit. Cookie Monster's eyes don't have to be perfect because he does go crazy when the cookies are around.

Either method will require you to do a heap more. Although the piping is wrong on these guys they look really good and it wasn't too difficult to do. If you are making these the night before a birthday party I'd insert the biscuit just before you bring out the cake otherwise the biscuits become soft. I'd also say that I thought option 2 looked better but when you put them side by side its difficult to tell which is which and believe me the kids aren't going to care.

My finished Cookie Monsters.

You know you've done well when the kids are willing to pose for a photo before they have even eaten them. This picture was taken just after their first bit and from the looks on their faces they are happy to be going to Sesame Street.

I think I'll make a few of the Sesame Street characters for Quinlan's first birthday. I've learnt that I'll need to get organised so that I have enough time to decorate each one and I'll need to find a cheaper alternative to the icing I used today. Although it was the perfect colour it worked out to be $1.75 each just for the icing, no wonder cupcakes are expensive.

Hope you have fun looking at my cupcakes and I hope you have more success than what I did.

Megan