Happy Halloween

Four

Someone had a birthday last week. Who knew that turning 4 could reduce her mum to tears (yes, I was completely sentimental and shed a tear because she is growing so quickly). Someone told me to pull myself together. Since I am not a fan of the huge 'invite-40-of-your-closest-friends' parties for kids we kept it simple with a family (+ 1 bestie) celebration.

Great weather (until the storm set in), lots of sugar and one very epic rainbow cake that put the biggest smile on my little girl's face. 

Am I mad?

Seriously epic rainbow cake for Little Miss's 4th birthday tomorrow that still needs a massive layer of lemony swiss meringue icing. And, in case you're wondering - yes, there is a truckload of butter and sugar in this baby. Let's not even go there shall we? Just enjoy the sheer rainbow coloured madness of this thing...

Shop

I do not get excited about shopping for myself. But, give me a kiddy store of any kind and I'm in retail heaven. This is one of my favourite local stores which I could have gone absolutely nuts in the other day (lucky I reached for the small amount of cash in my wallet and ignored the credit card). The store owner is one of my lovely sponsors over on my other blog so we oohed and aahed over all the new stock together.
Is it wrong that I want the divine Nathalie Lete colouring book and pencils for myself? They are just sooo darn pretty!

Finally

After living with an ancient Nokia for a few weeks (following the death of my other 'not-quite-so-old' phone), I now have a snazzy new one to play with. This will definitely not be making its way into the little man's mouth like the last one did. Excessive baby saliva will not claim the life of this little gadget.

My other half knew how excited I was and went and bought me the pinkest looking cover he could find. Pretty in pink, don't you reckon?

Cabin fever

Anyone else wondering what on earth has happened to Spring? We had a serious dose of cabin fever yesterday as the rain set in and I made the bold decision not to venture out. Nothing particularly exciting happened, just a bit of crazy chaos I thought I'd share with you all.

Starting with a tub of wet laundry that was up-ended before it had the chance to make it to the line. Little Man rummaged through the mess. Little Miss grabbed her Dad's undies from the pile and tried them on. Every. Single. Pair.

With 'fundie' time soon over, Little Miss followed up with some reading time in her room. Actually, I did the reading while she screamed at her little brother to get his hands of her books. Story time was moved from the floor to the bed, away from busy little hands that wanted to shred pages rather than read them. 

So while we continued reading, Little man spent some happy time rummaging through his sister's toy kitchen and terrorising the cat. Yes, there are smiles in these photos but they were quickly followed by tears after his encounter with our cranky feline. 

Some light at the end of the tunnel in the afternoon when we took our cabin fever over to my neighbour's place. Funnily enough, I put in an SOS call to her that morning but she was out and about. I think she sensed my desperation. Amazing what a change of scenery can do, don't you think? With a couple of other neighbourhood kiddies added to the mix the afternoon was surprisingly calm and peaceful (as much as it gets anyway when little ones are involved). 

Tomorrow, ballet and hopefully some sunshine that lasts for more than 5 minutes. 

Wanting

This afternoon I popped into the Kate Owen gallery in Rozelle to take a closer look at one of the artworks I've had my eye on. An acrylic on canvas by Louise Numin. Oh so beautiful and I know just where it would go in our little home. It is slightly extravagant for us seeing that I'm not working at the moment but as my other half said, this would be an investment. One of the lovely gallery managers mentioned that I could take it home for a few days before I commit to buying it. I am so tempted, but if I brought it home for a trial I might just have to go ahead and buy it. Money we really can't afford to spend at the moment. Would be perfect on my living room wall though...

Christmas wish-list maybe?

Guilt

This week I've been feeling guilty. Second-child syndrome guilty. I haven't documented his milestones (they're currently filed in my not-so reliable memory - bad idea), his toys are big-sister hand-me-downs (which he doesn't really play with anyway. He prefers to snatch and grab whatever's lying on Little Miss's bedroom floor) and I just realised I have no video footage of him whatsoever. He has been such a cruisy, relaxed baby from the moment he was born and he is a little piece of calm in what is often a whirlwind of chaos in our house.

Little man turns 1 next month, only 2 short weeks after his big sister's birthday. I have been planning her big day but not his. Someone suggested combining the celebrations but I could not even think about doing that. This little man needs to have something that's his. A special day for him alone, even if it's just a homemade cake and family dinner. Apparently he wants a rocket cake (according to Little Miss) so that's what it will be. Chocolate rocket cake. And he'll have the first piece. I'll, of course, have the camera ready...

Long weekend

Strolling through Summer Hill on Saturday we found a cute little cafe with a gorgeous courtyard. Little man spent most of the time staring in fascination at the painted brickwork on the wall while the little Miss absolutely amazed me with how well-behaved and patient she was. Waiting over 25 mins for a piece of banana bread is no mean feat for a pre-schooler! Since I was totally unprepared with nothing to keep her amused I love the way she just sat there and chatted away about whatever was running through that 'almost 4 year old' mind of hers. You know when you have one of those moments that reminds you of just how much your little one has grown? This was one of those moments.

8 years

I can't remember the last time I got flowers from my other half but our 8 year wedding anniversary this week seemed to do the trick. I picked him up from work on Tuesday afternoon and almost lost control of the car when I spotted them in his hands. To be honest, I had a feeling there might be flowers as we had nothing else planned in the way of celebration. I remember our anniversaries and the money we would spend on each other before we had kids. So different these days. Now, with me not working and limited babysitting options it was so much easier and less stressful to keep things as simple as possible. This year it was cards, flowers, our favourite Thai takeaway and a relaxing night in.

Oh, and as if 8 years of marriage didn't make me feel old enough, when I tried the upload a wedding photo from the dvd our photographer gave us, the disc was so old that neither one of our computers could open the images. Most of the photos are sitting in a huge album in our wardrobe anyway. Will have to dig it out and scan (that's right - scan) a few of them at some point. 

Snapped

Since I have hardly any photos of myself with my two little ones, I decided to step out from behind the camera last weekend and let my other half have a go at working the DSLR. He didn't do too badly actually. A few over-exposed shots that saw me looking like a ghost (delete, delete) but then he managed to snap a few little goodies.
With those extra kilos of baby weight still hanging on I can't say that I'm totally comfortable having my photo taken (which is probably why I hide behind the camera most of the time). But, I realise that my kiddies need photos with their mum as well so I am making an effort - once in a while!