thirty something.
Thirty one actually. But I get a kick out of the fact he’s now a thirty something. I realise he will kick me in another manner later but hey, it’s my blog and I’m right now I’m still a twenty something so I’m going to enjoy my moment. Now on to his birthday 
Steve bought a bargain triple pass deal to all the theme parks recently. I call it the six month pass to Rides and Regurgitation. For his birthday we decided to take the kids out of school and go to Movie World. Kids – thrilled. Parents – happy not to be in the office. Here’s the birthday boy, helping along his thirty something arteries with a hamburger and chips.
Rally cars. Noisy and smelly, but popular with those with male parts. If we had gone in, seen the car show and gone home, Isaac still would have said it was a good day. AS it was we went back for the 2.30 show as well. Personally, I just can’t get enough of burning rubber.
We stood watching them go on this ride, line up and go again about ten times. I knew if they spewed, inertia would not be our friend. Isaac treated each ride with much suspicion and sent his sister on first most times to see if she lived before he went on. Steve said she’d make a great canary in a coal mine 
Daddy had a bit of a moment and bought the kids double scoop ice creams just to give their stomachs some extra charge.
The parade – always a winner with the kiddos. Although can we just add, Cat Woman seemed to enjoy being Cat Woman a little too much. She flicked that whip with a purpose I tell you. You got the impression she didn’t just do it for kicks and being Cat Woman was a full time job. I’m certain the bloke she has at home is a very good boy….
My favourite three.
Take a photo of me Mummy. Okay. People having coffee nearby smiled at her and made “isn’t she sweet and adorable” gestures. If only they knew.
We went to conquer Batman but Batmans’ library at the start proved too ominous for Cass, so we waited outside and took photos of ourselves. Cassidy took the one of me.
I told Isaac to stand in front of the superman sign for a photo. He did his own styling and found himself quite hilarious.
See Cassidy. See Cassidy with fairy floss. Cassidy is happy.
See the pink section of Cassidy’s fairy floss landed on the ground and roll to perfectly coat it in dirt. Cassidy is sad. Mummy is trying to be sympathetic but managed to snap the tragedy unfold.
And to think we have six more months of theme park delight ahead! Happy first thirty something baby. Love you lots and heaps. xoxo
two pretty girls.
It seems as I’m completely slack and haven’t taken any photos of my own off spring lately I’m resorting to other more agreeable subjects. I was going to post them on the studio blog but I know their mummy is a visitor on this one (although they are so cute I think I’ll post them on both!) And, after a week I’d rather not think about, they make me smile tonight. Meet Marcella and Gabrielle. Cella and Gabby to their friends
And Becky I just have to add – having one daughter with brown eyes and one with blue is just plain showing off
tag, you’re it.
No, this isn’t one of those posts where you have to answer a heap of questions then tag someone else. This post is quite literally about The Tag.
As most of our family and friends know, Cassidy doesn’t go far without Baby. Baby came as a twin set when Cassidy was about 18 months old and they were very quickly christened Shut Baby and Open Baby because one has it’s mouth open and one is shut. (If you’ve made it this far you’ve probably realised how weird and twisted the inner workings of our family actually are). Shut Baby was immediately the favoured child for some reason; Open Baby was always there but is treated sort of like the black sheep in the family that’s still around, but no-one talks about.
An integral part of Open Baby’s appeal was her tag. Cassidy would hold Baby with her finger in her mouth and use her other fingers to fiddle with the tag and brush it against her nose. I have watched her do this countless times and it’s a very involved process. She could be melting down like a mad woman and all you have to do is hand her Baby, she’d go straight for the tag and you could have called her mellow yellow – akin to as if we’d given her a kiddie Xanex.
Consequently, Baby’s tag started to show it’s age some time ago and lately it was literally nothing more than a single twisted thread of matted nylon. Every time I put Baby through a spin cycle I said a little prayer that this would not end because of me – she would never let me forget it.
So, the other night we had Nanna and Pa, Steve, Em and William over for tea when It Happened. Cassidy was sitting on my lap with Baby when suddenly Baby and her tag were two. Instant pandemonium. She was devastated. I carried her off to bed sobbing and heaving and lay with her there trying to soothe and calm her down.
The problem with Cass is that she doesn’t melt down in the usual way. She cries but she still talks – she walks you through each emotion that comes into her little heart. It can be heart wrenching as a mum to listen to her but in this case it was also unfortunately damn funny. The drama with which she talked about it was worthy of an Academy. The dialogue went on for ages, but my favourite bit would have to be this:
She’d calmed somewhat at this point; I was laying behind her and cuddling her and every now and then she’d shake with a little quiet sob. She then obviously had another little super-charged run of emotion and said,
“But mummy…she’s going to be this way FOREVER now…..(insert frenzied gulping, sobbing and tight little voice)….until I die!”
She then threw herself dramatically onto the pillow for another round of sobs. (Imagine this when she’s 16 and it’s a boy).
I readily admit I was a bad mother at this point. I had to excuse myself briefly from her room so I could laugh hysterically. The others were still downstairs and once I stammered out what she’d said, they were no help whatsoever. We were all trying to cover the snorting laughter so she wouldn’t hear us.
I calmed myself and went back in and she eventually drifted off. Baby was beside her but she turned her head the other way and stuck a resentful arm around her. The next morning I expected to go through it all again, but instead she was perfectly chipper. She told me she’d decided that even though the tag was gone, Baby still smelled the same so it was okay. Last night was Night Two sans Tag and it didn’t even get a mentioned. That’s my daughter – moves through the seven stages of grief in under 24 hours. At least she’s not prone to hanging onto emotional baggage.
The last pic I have of Cass and Baby B.L.O.T (Before Loss Of Tag )
spam schmam.
Unfortunately some little spam shack in Russia has discovered my blog and decided to move in…along the lines of 800 comments a day that I have to delete in a very s-l-o-w manner on my dashboard.
My Man Behind the Curtain (aka Steve) has done what Steve does and declared war upon Russia and has googled how to put them out of business on my blog. There is some techo bits he can download to adjust it but it’s a few hours work so for now you have to log in to comment to prove you’re a real live person and aren’t an employee of the spam shack.
Sorry, I know it’s a pain in the bum so we’ll get it fixed asap. The spam shack is a little ‘ole place that weeeee would like to get riiiiiiid of….spam shack ba-ay-beee….SPAM SHACK BABY.
(Sorry about that. It’s late).
joyful.
Don’t you think Joy is a fitting name for this beautiful lady? (Her kids aren’t half bad either!!) Joy is a dear friend of my mum’s and I went over to take a few shots of everyone before the big event. They all looked just gorgeous and the flowers were divine.
Congratulations to a wonderful and special lady and her overly attractive family (I am forced to say nice things here because we go back far enough that they have photos of me naked in their wading pool. You can’t be too careful).
ballerina rama.
Her day started with the usual opening of presents in mum and dad’s bed. Isaac gave her a Lola doll (of Charlie and Lola fame) that you can colour Lola and her dress in, then wash her and start again. This was rather well received by the birthday girl and was the gift of the moment. The last photo is Isaac asking sweetly if he can have a go…as you can tell by her expression her response was something along the lines of ‘touch Lola and you may have trouble using your legs’.
A couple of beautiful pics of my girl sent to me by my wonderful off-sider…thankyou Sheye xo
The singing was performed by all with great gusto
The ballerina cupcakes. Under much opposition from loving family and friends declaring me mentally unstable, I wanted to make individual ballerina cupcakes. They didn’t take me all that long…I had twelve ballerinas made in a couple of hours (insert poking out of tounge and “na-na-na-nya-nya” at said loving family and friends).
Grandma and Grandpa gave Cassidy a hammock – a huge hit. When they weren’t ballerina-ing they were hammock-ing.
Isaac and his best girl, Ebony. He was thrilled to have her over for the day and the two of them seriously reach new heights of cuteness; they are such great friends. This is about four years and counting of Ebony Obsession for Isaac, but you can see why…she’s a bit of a doll. I watched them for a while and the basic system is Isaac caters to her every whim and she laughs at all his jokes.
…and a sampler from the booth. We had been talking about her birthday party one day and as she walked away afterwards she casually threw over her shoulder, “and the booth mummy. I want the booth at my party”. I find it somewhat disturbing that our five year old daughter thinks its stock standard to have a photobooth at any gathering but I’m chosing to move on.
As is with most birthday parties consisting of a kindy class full of kids, it all went by in a bit of a pink tulle blur but she’s still talking about it a week later so we’re chalking it up as a success
she is five.
Happy birthday my beautiful, sweet, clever and precious girl…..all my love, mumma xoxo
Her beautiful little face in that first one melts my heart.
As is the usual special event case…I was making food, chatting and wrangling children into party games so it always leaves a little to be desired in the photo stakes. Hopefully once I have a proper look through I can scrape up a few more.
I don’t really have to worry as I am blessed to have Sheye to cover for me so I know there’s photographical proof we did in fact have a party. I think it goes without saying that we expect to pimp the other out at parties. Works for me
peace out.
Amidst the madness following an expo weekend, we had planned to take the kids up to visit Nanna and Pa at Agnes Water. When we still hadn’t left at 8pm Monday night (it’s a five hour drive to Agnes) I was getting somewhat hysterical and wanted to stay home.
But we didn’t; we went and we had a lovely couple of days and escaped the madness. It really just comes down to the actual leaving of the madness…once you’ve left it all fades away.
Our beyond wonderful Nanna and Pa have also kept the kids with them till they come home on Sunday, so Steve and I have a weekend at home by ourselves. Pure bliss for this mummy and daddy.
booth bikkies.
Even as I write this post, I have come to think that maybe I am a just a tad un-hinged.
I made sugar cookies that look like our photo booth. But..but…but I did it for a reason!! I wanted something cute to put on our reception desk to look pretty at the expo. I forgot to take photos beforehand so I did some in the booth.
I’ve wanted to try decorated cookies for ages so I’m happy with my first attempt. I can feel some more themed bikkies coming on (and possibly people in white coats carrying me away….)
let me bake cake.
We have a lot on at the moment. The booth is slowly but surely taking over our lives, one instant photo at a time. I don’t think I can remember much of our lives BTB (Before The Booth) but at least we have one zillion photos of us in the booth to remember life after.
We’ve just got home from a three day wedding expo which went great, but made us feel our age. At one point this lovely young couple wandered over and I thought to myself, “she looks so young, what business do they have getting married”…when I realised she’s probably the same age I was when we got married. So not only was I acutely aware that ten years has passed since I looked that young and fresh faced, I am now also acutely aware that I’m acting like a mother who thinks thoughts like “what business does that young couple have getting married”. Scary.
Lately if I have a lot on, I seem to find some inane reason to bake something. I personally would rather I had an unending desire to whip up stir fries and casseroles and freeze them in portions, but alas I make useless things like cupcakes. Considering I am void of all creativity lately, these design ideas came from my hoard of cake decorating books. Like some people are afraid to open their linen cupboards for fear of a linen explosion, I fear a head injury everytime I open my overhead cake book cupboard.
Cassidy help me make these for their friend Noah’s garden birthday party. She helped do the “grass” and the “dirt” sprinkles while I made the vegies.
These little guys were for the kindy cupcake day.
I made a dozen each of bees and ladybugs. I was so happy with how they turned out, even if it involved Steve hissing in my ear “you are insaaaannneeee” when he came downstairs to find me inserting rice noodle feelers at midnight.
I happily informed him the following evening that the cakes had sold before I had them out of the box at the kindy. He implied that that may be so, but I was still insane. Loving soul that he is.
