my youngest is getting older

it is hard to believe that on the 3rd of July my little Claudia turned 4! she is the light and laughter of our home and loved to pieces by us all. i am so glad that i have taken this year off to be a stay at home mum, Claudia and i spend 3 whole days out of 7 together, alone, just us :) we exist so beautifully when we are at home, she sets up games while i do a chore then we play that game and the as she sets up the next game i do another chore...then she has a long colouring break cause that is her favourite way to pass the day...so my mister moo had a great idea for a present that she would actually use.

first present...a new pencil case with new felt pens.

present number 2...new colouring book. isn't she a cutie!!

present number 3...

her own little table! and boy does she love it! her sisters love it too :)

money well spent!

we had a wonderful day, 15 young friends at a hungry jacks party followed by cake and family at our place. she was so lucky and received lots of lovely presents. she has a purse full of money thanks to some special people that live a little way away and from one that lives close by. she was even gifted this wonderful 'make your won tiara' before her birthday by a very close friend of ours.

excuse the messy face @_@

we are so blessed to know so many people who are not blood related that love my girls!

a few things about my little girl...

her nicknames are. hammy, hamster, smooch, Gloria

she is so very very bright

each day she does something to make us laugh out loud

she wakes us up early and crawls into the middle of our bed for a cuddle

she no longer has a bottle or uses a pram, she is a big girl now!

her favourite colour is yellow

she loves to talk to strangers and pat dogs

she has 4 scars, 3 of them are on her face!!

she has a birthmark on her cheek in the shape of a Scottie dog

she is so very pretty, my heart melts each time i look at her

i love her so much when i hold her i want to melt her back into my body

children are such a blessing, i do hope that i don't make too many mistake raising my 3 gorgeous gals.

have a great weekend

xxrosey

not that sort of tea party...

no mad hatters tea party here sorry... just a party for my little girl who turned 6 last month and 6 of her sweet little friends. but before the day of the party...

it seems to be quickly becoming tradition that we cut cake at my fathers house followed by an afternoon of good laughs, coffee and treats. it is an open invitation to all those that can make it and no matter if it is just us or all of the family we seem to mark the occasion with much love and new memories.

we also follow tradition with a dinner of the birthday girl/boys choice.

Mia chose 'hogs breath cafe' for our meal and we happily headed out the night before her party. we have been to this restaurant 3 times so far this year!! we don't eat out much so i guess it is a bit of an extravagance we can afford :)

here are the girls excited to be all dressed up and ready to go. mick and the girls on one side and Claudia and i on the other. we love this family restaurant, colouring pages for the children, drink, meal and sweets all for just $8.95!

the following morning as early as everyone can bear we open presents on our bed. we buy three presents. one from each sibling and one from us.

here she is with her new favourite toys! littlest pet shop seems to be all the rage around here, they are so cute i can understand why they like them so much.

once all the presents were unwrapped it was time to get the party started...well set up in our case. we put out the little tea cups made by the girls the previous night...

i made fresh fairy bread and iced the cupcakes. mick cut up fruit and made cordial for the tea pots.

and then the little guests arrived. the girls had so much fun. nothing fancy at this party, just good old fashioned fun. while they played on the sings and in the cubby house

here she is with her "bestest buddy" jorja

or jumped on the trampoline

we prepared for some party games...we had pass the tea pot...

wrapped lollies inside the pot made for lots of fun and no messy newspaper to clean up :)

we also played balancing the book on your head and seeing who would walk down the path the furtherest...so much fun and lots of giggles. and we also played pin the cherry on the cupcake...

excuse my crude cupcake...i made it at about 11:30 the night before!

the girls had so much fun, we had hot finger food and still hadn't cut the cake when parents started to arrive to take their children home!

anyhow no birthday is complete without a cake...and our favourite and most requested cake is the raspberry swirl (packet mix of course). i coloured the icing pink and decorated it with flowers made out of marshmallows.

(love that cake plate i got on sale at spotlight for $20!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my sweet curly haired angel! it is hard to believe you are 6! you make us so happy and i love our special cuddles. you are constantly curling up on my lap expecting to be tickled :) you are smart, above average so i am told...you love to ride your bike and you love to play with your sisters.

we love you more than you will ever know and so do all those around you. big smooches your number 1 fan mummy

xx

and if you are still here after that super long post, have a happy Easter and a safe break.

xxrosey

very belated birthday (lots of photos)

i cant believe that over a week ago my eldest child turned 8 and i am only now just posting about it...slap my wrists, i feel like a very bad mother. i guess that it is only fair to remind myself that on the 29th of January, which is lilis birthday, we found out about the return of Paddy's cancer and the weekend and week that followed have been rather emotional to say the least. in the week following the news of Paddy's illness, i decided to start the process of resigning from my teaching position. i am finding the stress of teaching and being a mother to 3 young children just too much and i don't want my marriage to suffer. teaching is just such an emotionally draining job and is NOT a 8:30-3:00 job. and even though i am part time it is still like doing a full load. i will have to work again at some stage but for now i am happy to do something that requires no accountability!

now onto the post about my lili turning 8...can you believe it??

it feels like only yesterday when she was born only to be whisked away to special care unit for 2 nights of antibiotics and observation. i had told the nurses the choices of names we were tossing up and they brought back a photo of her with the words lily or lucy? at that moment mick walked in with a big bunch of lillies and the name was decided. so on her birthday (and i think from now on) i presented her with...

her very own bunch of lillies

as is tradition we all gather on our bed to open the presents, each family member presenting her with something.

opening her first present...a game for the Wii

a thrifted collection of miniatures to add to her growing collection

miniature German candle holders...very sweet and oh so collectible.

gorgeous Tasmanian pottery thrifted for $1

a lovely drawing created by little miss Mia moo.

lili's main present was to have her ears pierced. she chose pretty purple studs and she looks so very very sweet with them in.

another tradition in our house, as i am sure it is in many households, is that the birthday girl/boy gets to choose dinner for the night...no MacDonald's for this 8 year old oh no lili chose hogs breath cafe! mick and i didn't mind too much as it really is value for money and we quite like the meals (only our second time but it is worth going again). the girls ate all of their food and mick and i enjoyed a succulent steak.

mister moo and his girls on one side...

you can just see the earrings in this picture

enjoying the famous 'curly fries'

and clauds and me on the other side, enjoying a spot of colouring while waiting for dessert.

a very generous serve of ice cream...

we decided to share cake the next day with those who could make it...

i made a mud cake and just happened to have some fishy edibles in the cupboard so it became a muddy dam instead of the ocean :)

here she is with her cousins Kate and Emma

and the back view of my father and my brother in law Michael (father of the 3 girls in this picture)

i love birthdays and will always do everything in my power to make them special no matter what.

here are a few things to remind me of lili at 8 years of age...

*in her own room

*ears pierced

*friendly and kind hearted

*neat and tidy

*funny

*likes to help cook

*has a huge amount of friends but still like to have just a few close ones

*sensitive

*will open her own collectibles shop one day

*likes kisses and cuddles and told that she is special

*my very first baby that i will cherish forever and ever

I LOVE YOU LILI JANE (lilipop designs INC)

thanks for sticking through such a long post...

smooches and thank you for your prayers and support

xxrosey

the tooth fairy makes a visit...

yes ladies and gentlemen, Mia is officially a 'big girl' as she lost her first tooth 2 days ago!! i just love how children think...lili is waiting until she is 8 and a half to move into the spare room by herself, cause she will be more mature by then :) anyhow before all the excitement of the tooth fairy visit we had more important business to attend to. i have struck up a friendship with our lovely neighbour across the road and recently she looked after my girls for a few hours while i went to my staff party. anyhow while i was away she cooked the tastiest curry for my family so that i wouldn't have to cook dinner that night!! we had been trying to organise a time to share a meal but this time of year seems to be so hard to find time for anything so i promised to bake a cake for her 2 year olds birthday. we decided to go with a fairy theme and invited them over on Friday for afternoon tea... we have made a few fairy cakes in our house full of girls so we were armed and ready to make this special for little Jayana. the following photos show the making of the raspberry swirl fairy cake... start with the best packet mix cake ever..raspberry swirl cake (sorry to all of you gorgeous domestic goddesses out there gasping at the thought) top some marshmallows with those sparkly hard coush thingys while the fairies sit around waiting add some green coconut for grass and some sugar flowers and flakes for logs and you are ready to... to place the fairies on top, light the candles and have the cutest 2 year old on the block blow them out! she really is the prettiest little girl and her mother has become a good friend to me. it was lovely to share this special day with her and best of all each of the girls got to keep a little fairy as a keep sake.

fast forward a few days and after a long few weeks of wobbling Mia's tooth finally fell out. boy what a drama the last 10 minutes were...in hindsight i should have taped the whole process, who knows i could have won $10 000 as it made me laugh my head off!

anyhow the photos tell the story, click on the tooth fairies letter and see if you believe her..

if you ask me i bet the fairy just plum forgot!!

i still have a vivid memory of when i realised the tooth fairy wasn't real...i hid under the dining room table and kept an eye on the glass that held my tooth...i watched as my step mother put a shiny 50cent piece in its place...i wonder how long it will be before my girls catch me?? i will try my hardest to hold that day off as long as i can!

anyhow looking forward to a lunch with my husband tomorrow, little one is at day care and the two older ones will be swimming the day away with 'aunty juls' perhaps the rest of the shopping will get done as well!

have a great week, mmmwwaaahhhh

is she still a baby?

i guess i started this blog to start documenting my crafting adventures but have come to realise that this blog is so much more than that. not only is what i write here forever but it is a way for those friends who are not geographically close to me be able to watch our girls grow and keep up with the crazy life we lead. i started journals for each of my girls but saw huge gaps in entries and almost felt guilted into writing in them. this blog is different... because i can add photos and blog about all three girls at once, it is more appealing.

anyhow the reason for todays post is... our baby turns 3 today!! and that is the question mister moo asked me this morning, is she a baby? or is she a toddler? or is she something else? she is something else alright!! we refer to her as babygirl all the time and i guess she will always be our baby but what is the technical term for a 3 year old?? any ideas?? i would also like to know what nick names you have for your precious children.

all our birthdays start with a gathering on our bed with the presents handed out one by one.

here is the birthday girl ready for the first present. she is opening a cute little sylvanian families baby.(our little brambly hedge dolls live beside our bed)

then the next and largest present...

a mega blocks wagon filled with blocks, oh boy was she excited!! we bought a few more blocks to go with it so that she had some characters to play with. we gave her this wonderful children's but real video camera that takes photos too. i got it a few months ago when it was on sale for $50 what a bargain as i saw them in the shops yesterday for $150! she also got this lovely book from her godmother Miranda, thanks mir! she has already spent the money she received from mama and pa in toowoomba! a ball, push car and dvd had her more than satisfied. and this is the 'book' puff ball made for her baby sister. now to end this post with a few words about claudia...

• your eyes are stunning!
• we love your unique birthmark which we think is in the shape of a scotty dog.
• you make us laugh all the time
• you are a diva
• you speak very well for a 3 year old
• you like to sneak into our bed early in the morning for a extra special squeeze, you usually give us tiny kisses and tell us that you love us
• you are very very pretty
• you like sparkles in your hair every day
• you still have one bottle of milk at night
• you fight with your sisters but sometimes you can be so very peaceful and loving
• you love any type of music
• you love being naked :0)
• you are loved so very much by all those around you especially your little family!
• our nicknames for you are...fattyham or hammy

i will be back with more photos after we cut your cake with family and friends tomorrow afternoon.

mmwwaahh rosey/mummy