A 3 year old and her handbag

Yes. We are still alive. We are safe and well and loving Indonesian life thus far. But before I go into all of that, it would be amiss of me not to post about my littlest girl and the day she has literally been waiting for for months.

Her birthday. Or in her words; "ma birfday". Since about mid March she has been telling people almost everyday "it's ma birfday" which is usually followed by "oh happy birthday Lily". She beams everytime, even when I explain "it's not actually her birthday today", she just insists it is...

And now, somehow this day has finally arrived and the baby I held in my arms not so long ago is 3.

T.H.R.E.E.

Because my posting has been so sporadic over the last couple of years I sometimes wonder at the accuracy of the portrayal of my littles. Especially this little lady.

If you know Lily from the blog, she is cute (I'm her mother) sweet, and adored by her siblings. All true.

If you know Lily in real life you know that this girl gives me a run.for.my.money!! She is adored but she is tough (said with total love :) She was born with the freest of free spirits and while I want this girl to soar high, I also want to help her follow the 'rules'. Even just sometimes. We're still working on that one :)!!! 

So the morning of her 3rd birthday we all woke up with much excitement, because it was finally 'ma birfday'. My excitement was in watching Lily delight in her day of days, but I may or may not have also been celebrating the departure of the terrible 2's :)!! A mumma can dream right? :)! Her siblings showered her in love all.day.long and I think it's entirely accurate to say that she had the best day ever.

 
I even bought her a lollypop. All her dreams come true!

Sporting her new handbag that sat on her shoulder for a large portion of the day and her new dress from Grandma...

Happy Birthday 3 year old! We love you!!!!!!!!

8 things.

OK. I know this is a bit late (like 5 months late :). But let's just go ahead and pretend that Zahn has only just had his birthday, so I can record some of the things I want to remember about him at this wonderful age...

8 things we love about our newest 8 year old!

1. Zahn is F.U.N.N.Y. He makes us laugh all the time. He often breaks into song or dance and does funny accents (I particularly like his Irish impersonation of "That's not how you make porridge" :)

2. He is methodical!! He loves routine and likes to get things done quickly so he can play when the work is done (most of the time ;)

3. He is a brilliant 'self starter'! This boy is up and dressed and half way through his morning jobs while I'm still rubbing my eyes and rolling out of bed :)

4. He is a such a great big brother, especially to Lily! He entertains her and plays with her everyday. Especially when I need her sticky little fingers occupied while I'm making lunches in the morning, or dinner at night.

5.  He has the most contagious, cheeky smile. He always looks like he's up to mischief, but he's not - it's just the way he smiles. It's hard not to smile when his cheeky face is looking at you :)

6. He is genuinely sorry about things. He apologises easily (to me :) and I know that he means it. He tries hard (really hard) to do the right thing. I often whisper to him 'you are a really good person'. And I mean it, absolutely. It makes him smile.

7. He is a rule follower. Especially at school. He works hard and is a teacher pleaser :). Recently he was awarded with a school medallion for getting 60 merit awards (which is a lot for a student in year 2). When he was first given his certificate, it only acknowledged him for 40 merit awards. We tried to fix this, but the second time he was given the award, it only said acknowledgment of 50 merit awards. Finally he was recognised for having 60 merit awards, but not until the deputy could verify that he had indeed received 60 merits!

8. He is thoughtful!!! He does nice things for people without being asked - for example a few Sundays ago, when Lily was getting restless in church, Zahn quickly drew a picture for her, complete with her favourite little animals that she could colour in and she LOVED it! It was the cutest thing! He often writes cards or little notes and leaves them for people to find - the words are just so sweet (I would share one here, but he would NOT like that :).

Have I mentioned that this boy has been entertaining us since he was born??

In Zahn's baby blessing it talked about how he would be a great comfort to his mother, and how I would find happiness in him. My goodness how these words have proven to be true!!!

 

Happy Birthday 8 year old! You are my light!!!

Birthday girl

Best.day.ever. 

Ok, I'm done. Where's my bottle.

One

More pics to come!

Ladybug party in the park

I know it would be much easier to have a party at home and NOT have to transport everything to the park, but it's the place our girl loves the most and so the effort in transporting everything including the table, was well worth it :)

Family. Friends. Lollies on tap. Cakes. Sweet food galore. Lovely presents and running around the park. The perfect morning for a girl turning 3. 

Here's a few pics from our morning in the park!

My favourite birthday tradition is that Chad makes the cakes for our kids :) They get so excited over what he comes up with and I love that I don't have to make them ;) It was really cute watching Jazz and Chad browse the computer together until she found the 'perfect' ladybug cake for him to recreate!! 

The look on her face in this picture pretty much sums up her day and her ladybug party in the park!!!

3 years old and an interview

It really is unbelievable how quick time is flying by and suddenly the old adage; "the years roll into one" takes on a new meaning as I look at this little girl who used to be my baby. My angelic happy baby. The baby that made me desperately want another little girl just like her because she was so lovely and calm and peaceful {muahahahaha oh how some things have changed - haha I kid. She is still my little ray of sunshine she's just simultaniously ridding that wave of toddlerhood and tantrums :) but oh how I love and adore her ;).

We had a lovely day on her 'day of days' filled with pom pom balls, kinda-gym, jelly beans and pretend cooking with real flour that lasted for over an hour (and took me almost an hour to clean up :). Usually I would give her playdoh for pretend cooking, but it was her birthday so I let her explore every creative avenue she could think of. And she loved it. Every minute. The hour long clean up was completely worth it :)


Here's a few thoughts on life from the birthday girl in the form of an interview........(black is me, and pink of course is Jamin :)

1. What do you like doing? Going somewhere Where? Um, parks. me like doing cooking and me rove you :)

2. Do you have a best friend? Yes. Braden (said with stars in her eyes :)

3. What do you love about Daddy? He always takes me somewhere. To the video store

4. What do you love doing with Daddy? Swinging on the spiderman swing and um planting plants

5. Do you have a favourite food? Um Sausage hair (this made me laugh because we don't really eat sausages unless we're at a barbeque somewhere and they don't typically have hair on them :).

6. What other food do you like? Um pankcakes

7. Do you have a favourite healthy food (like fruite or something)?  Fruit is a great idea but not right now mummy (hahaha)  um me like drinking soft drink (hhmmm ok maybe we should look at this child's diet :). Anything healthy??  softdrink. That's not healthy. oh. me like pumpkin and avacado.

8. What's your favourite toy: what's your favourite toy mummy - a minion?? well princess toys. me got no princesses though. 

9. What do you like doing with mummy? Making playdoh and me want to go to kindagym

10. What's your favourite colour? Green

11. What's your favouite animal? Me like froggys mum Is that because they're green?  yeah

12. Do you have a favourite movie? Karate kid and nofing else (funny again because she's probably only seen a few minutes of this movie :)

13. What are your talents? Doing balance at gymnastics

14. Do you have any other talents? Doing ballet

15. What do you want to do when you grow up? Take care of Lily (oh so sweet :)

16. What makes you laugh? Lily. nofing else. Rylan

17. What does love mean? About me and you :)

18. What's your favourite dinner? Pasta

19. Do you have any jobs? Ah doing the dishwasher

20. What's your favourite thing to do with our family? Go to park


So there you have it. The world according to Jasmin at 3 years old. I really wish these answers could have captured her intonation and body language as she answered. Most of them had me laughing with the way she replied to them :)

I am blessed to be the mother of this girl and love watching her grow and seeing the person she is becoming. She is strong willed and soft and fiesty and lovely and funny and sweet and all the things a little girl should be. She absolutely loves babies (of any kind :) and generally showers her love on them and mothers them like a pro :)


Above all. She is LOVED and so very adored.

Happy birthday to my girl!!

Inspiration Board

I know with a title like that it sounds like I'm about to delve into some serious aspirations and how I plan to achieve them, but, I'm not. I'm talking inspiration for a 3rd brithday party here. Serious business I know :)

Before I share some of my favourite party stylers, I'd love to know how my girl has gone from this....... 

 

to this.....

It hardly seems possible that it's been 3 years already.  {sigh}

Anyway, as planning is underway for our little party to celebrate my girl, here's some of the MANY pictures I'm loving and feeling inspired by.....

{Jasmin keeps asking for a "lady bug cake please" so just think red and white for the colours}

I'm pretty sure this one is Martha but I couldn't find the original link for the picture.......

My friend Sally who is a 'Martha' in her own right put on this sweet party for her daughter a couple of years ago - she is amazingly talented (and I WANT that clock on her wall :)  More pics from her party HERE

The food styling master Amy Atlas - oh how I love her clean, straight, white lines (you must check out her eye candy and blog if you haven't already seen them

I LOVE these pics from Alannah Rose but there will be NO fake green grass or florals on our table ;) everything else is gorgeous!! 

Ruki from INVITEDbyRUK Is also AMAZINGLY talented (and happens to be the daughter of the lovely Shamala Maddison if you happen to know her). Here's a taste of what she did for her son's birthday (amazing right!) you can check out more of her gorgeous projects and ideas HERE

 I'm thinking we might take the party to the park again like we did LAST YEAR because it made it SO easy and enjoyable for everyone (read: pregnant.sick.tired. let's go to the park and decorate a table so the 'entertainment' is built in :)

I can't wait to help my girl celebrate her day!!!


POST EDIT - I've had a few people ask about the clock on my friends wall, I'm pretty sure it's from Freedom furniture and it's the Arles clock $129 click HERE to view it otherwise I found another one very similar to it HERE :)

Day 13 - Six years

We have a six year old in the house........

My babies are growing up WAY too fast!!!

Book GIVEAWAY!!

So sticking with the theme of  books we love (from the last post), I also love a GOOD parenting book. For my birthday last year I gifted myself with this one (Chad was away, so what's a girl to do. .miss out. I think not :)

This is definitely one of my FAVOURITE parenting books. I love it because it's so enjoyable and EASY to read. It's real, inspirational and offers practical and achievable ways to "Making Motherhood Magnificent" and finding joy in the little things. Even when the journey is sometimes crazy and hard! And don't we all know that Motherhood is at times both of those things :)

The truth is I want to give this book to everyone I know. That's how much I enjoyed reading it (and I am a BIG 'fan' of the Eyres and love Shawni's blog). Recently I 'acquired' a few more copies and thought it would be fun to give ONE away on this here little blog! After all this is my birth week as Chad calls it, so why not share the love (and the gifts :) right??

This will likely be my one and only 'giveaway' (which by the way Chad thinks is quite 'funny' that i'm doing, but it's my birthday so i'll CRY give one away if I want to :)  and since this post and the last one are really all about good books, why not???

  

So TO ENTER, leave a comment telling us either your favourite children's book or one of your personal favourites (for the record, Twilight doesn't count - even though we know we all love it, even if we don't admit it :)!!

Next Friday (which happens to be Chad's birthday) we'll randomly pick someone to RECEIVE the book :)

POST SCRIPT:  Just for the record (OK this is really to answer Chad's questions relating to the 'giveaway' :) the book is NEW, not my used copy, It is FREE and postage is NOT $25 as Chad suggested. there is NO postage cost.....It is a giveaway! If you (Chad) or anyone else have any other questions feel free to ask :)

Can't wait to hear your favourite books!!

Pink party in the park.......

I'm not sure if it gets any better than this for a little girl that turns 2 on Tuesday.

Pink balloons. Cup cakes. Family. Friends. New 'girl toys' and the Park. All WAY up there on her list of things she LOVES.

There are so many things I could share about how we feel and why we love this little (getting-big-way-too-fast) girl. But. I'll save all that for her special day and instead share some pics from her 'pink party in the park'!

 

"Can you believe my mum and dad are letting me eat all these treats. I think I am in heaven"........

enjoying her cup cake

If you look closely in this pic you can see how sticky and dirty her hands are.......

playing with some of her 'big' friends

this is how I found her after returning from a trip to the car. Eating yogurt with a paddle pop stick. completely covered in sticky-ness, dirt, sticks and yogurt. She was so free and happy :)

let's move in for a close up of her sticky hands.

And as a result of her blissful 'free' morning, this is what she looked liked right before we left......

happy, clothes free, somewhat clean and ready for a 4 hour sleep (she played really hard :)

Thanks to our lovely friends and family, the Ligits, The DeGaris's and the Smiberts for sharing part 1 of Jasmin's special day. She was thrilled that Hannah, 'Bamon' and the 'Brim' brothers were at her little party!