My Baby Girl

Chicken will be 2 in a couple of days, I can't believe it!

She's growing up way too quickly and is turning into such a sweetheart. This morning she spend 10 minutes handing me piles of toys to cuddle because she thought I looked tired (I was lying on the sofa).

I usually go a little nuts when buying presents, especially with my kids but I am trying to be frugal. So instead of spending money on toys she'll probably destroy anyway, I decided to make her a present (which she'll probably destroy anyway).

A friend of mine got some dolls for her daughters made by Emmi's Cottage that were super cute. So I thought I'd try to make one. Thanks to my way too big fabric stash and some donations from my lovely mother-in law. I made this little mermaid.

Now I just need to wrap her up and give her to my not-so-baby girl.

The Bathroom Parade

Every morning for the past few weeks W@dsy and I have been woken up by the rattling of the bedroom doorknob. Gremlin bursts in the room and yells "Daddy, Daddy, I need help wit you!" and bolts into the bathroom. He then stands there doing the "I need to go to the toilet dance" and refuses to actually pee in the toilet unless W@dsy removes his pants for him and plonks him on the toilet.

Now don't get me wrong, my son dragging my not-a-morning-person husband out of bed at 5:30am is funny, but.... Apparently now it's my turn. Since W@dsy doesn't cope well with mornings, I need to take over. And that means Gremlin isn't too happy that his favourtie parnet isn't there, so he wakes his sister and thus begins...

The Bathroom Parade.

The Bathroom Parade is what occurs when 4 people (two of which are fairly new to the whole toilet concept) are attempting to use a single toilet at the same time and all end up having to line up and take turns.

Gremlin is always first, he wakes every one else up and reminds them he needs to go NOW.

Chicken is second, mainly because she stills wears a nappy at night so if an accident occurs, well at least it's in the nappy.

Next it's me, I lock the brats out and do my business in private thank you very much.

Then it's W@dsy because while I was in the bathroom, the kids were in our bed jumping on daddy to wake him up.

As much as I love my kids at the age they are right now, I am really looking forward to the day when they can both get themselves to the bathroom unaccompanied.

Are You All Super Jealous?

When W@dsy's parents took the kids for a few days, I had a chance to do some sewing, not 'cos I needed to but because I wanted to. My mother-in-law gave me some fabric when we dropped the kids off. So I thought I'd experiment. Again YouTube was my friend and I tried to make a baby quilt that was a little more adventurous. I haven't finished it, but I think I made a pretty good start.

So I had a few fun days relaxing with my husband and working on a new skill. Are you jealous?

When the Kids are Away...

Mummy and the sewing machine start to play.

W@dsy's fantastic parents are looking after the kids for a couple of nights to give W@dsy and I a break. So I am doing what I love to do when I get spare time, sew.

Inspired by the craftiness of Faith from PoPnBelle, I decided to make my kids a quilt each. No, I will not attempt this in one day, in fact this has happened over a couple of weeks. I have never made a quilt before, so I visited Youtube, of course. I found this from the Missouri Star Quilt Co. Then I went over to the local quilting shop and bought some cute fabric for Chicken's quilt and cut it into 5" squares.

I layed them out the way I wanted them.

Sewed them together.

Added borders.

And now I  have the top piece of the quilt!

All I have to do is get the batting, quilt it all together and then sew the binding on.

A Whole New World

Gremlin is entering a new stage in his life, that means so are we. Birthday Partydom.

This is the stage where kids start to care about their birthday parties, they plan what they want months in advance and then of course change it every day until the party arrives. To say nothing of the parents trying to look awesome to not only their children, but all the other parents that are invited.

A couple of weeks ago we received two birthday party invitations from some kids at daycare. The parties were on the same day, so one was booked for the morning at the local indoor playground, and the other was a train party in the afternoon (the invitation was so fancy it could rival some wedding invitations).

Well, today was party day.

Gremlin went to his swimming lesson, then to Party 1 with W@dsy. This was apparently a pretty standard kid's party at a kid's party place. You know what I mean, party hats, sausage rolls, kids unable to focus enough to play pass the parcel, cake and then happily go home knowing someone else is being paid way too much to clean up the mess.

Then home for naptime.

Then Party 2. This party was in a class of it's own. Gremlin and I showed up with a homemade card, and a present wrapped in homemade paper under our arms, I expected to see a similar party to the morning one, except in someone's backyard. I was wrong, we were greeted by the mother of all parties. Balloon arrangements, facepainting clown, puppet show, balloon animals, jumping castle, trampoline, play equipment, battery powered cars, individual afternoon tea trays for each child, super easy kids games where everyone "wins" large prizes and party bags filled with waaay too many lollies for 2-4 year olds. It's parties like these ladies and gentleman that make me feel rather inadequate.

There is absolutely no way I can compete with this party. So I have made a decision. I won't even try.

Gremlin's party this year will have kiddies, cake, basic party food, toys etc, to keep them busy and will probably be in our backyard, with all the adults huddled in the one shady corner we have. What can I say, I plan on setting the bar for parties a little lower.

Gremlin will have fun as long as at least one friend shows up and he gets to pick out his birthday cake. And you know what, I kinda like that kind of party best too.

Blessings

I am so blessed. I have a lovely husband, two beautiful children, a roof over over our heads and food in our bellies.

I guess today I'm just feeling how I have so much. Some people have so little. I don't know why God chose me to give such a wonderful life to, but I'm grateful He did.

Getting Things Done

Okay, haven't posted in ages, been busy, nothing too special, just normal busy. Oh and I did end up shaving my head. Thanks so much to those who sponsored me for the World's Greatest Shave!

Today I went a little crazy.

• I made pancakes for breakfast
• Hubby and I took the kiddies to swimming lessons
• Voted
• Tried unsuccessfully to get the kiddies to take a nap
• Let W@dsy have the afternoon off
• Took the kiddies to the zoo (yay for yearly passes)
• Kiddies then decided to nap in the car afterwards, the cheeky munchkins
• Took the kiddies shopping for those things you always seem to need and never get like cutlery drainers and car mats, oh and I got 2 seasons of Sherlock Holmes, I think I've got a a crush on Benedict Cumberbatch.
• Chicken went to the toilet at the shops and did a wee! That's the second time this week!
• Got home and stuck the kiddies in front of a DVD with W@dsy
• Removed all rubbish, toys, dodgy old car seat covers etc from the inside of the car, vacuumed and scrubbed the interior clean, put on new car seat covers and hung "new car smell" air freshener in the car. (BTW I am stoked they have "new car smell" now I can pretend my clean car is new, at least the interior looks good, might have to try getting to the outside soon)
• Now time for a bath and another Vanilla Coke Zero

Phew, it's a good thing I only go crazy like this every now and then.