The Fairy Party

The girls celebrated their FIRST and THIRD birthdays with a combined Fairy Party on Saturday, February 13, 2010, at 10am. We were blessed with perfect weather - lovely and sunny, 29'C top temp, beautiful cool breeze gently blowing - fabulous day for a garden party. Kira was SO excited for their party day to arrive! Don't the girls look cute in their fairy costumes?! You can't see it in the photo, but Kira has Barbie-pink toenails with silver "fairy dust" (silver glitter nail polish) over the top (she insisted Mummy do the same to her toes!), and also "fairy dust" on her fingernails. She has shimmer powder dusted over her cheek bones and upper arms, and a touch of pink glitter lipbalm to her lips. She thought she was it-and-a-bit!! Here they are, waiting for their guests to arrive:


The little guests were all given wands and wings (though most of the guests were boys, and they weren't too keen to be fairies - took some convincing to tell them they were "elf" wings instead!). Here's Kira with her cousins James (in green) and Adam (in red), and Noah (in the blue wings - a friend from playgroup), looking for fairies in the bottom of the Enchanted Garden....


Look! There they are! There's one near Kira's hand, and another further up to the left:

Some of the guests... Grandad, Felicity (Noah and Poppy's mum, from playgroup), Adam, Rob with his son Daniel (the bumble-bee!), Amanda (Liam and Nicholas's mum, from playgroup), Liam, Aunty Virginia (holding Erika) and Grandma:

Some more guests....In the back is Wayne, baby Athena, and Angela (Angie is now expecting again!!), Sue and her son Thomas (in the green singlet), Kira's cousin Adam, then around the table is Kira, Liam (I'm friends with his mum, Amanda, through playgroup), and Noah. There were 12 kids there (plus our two!), and their parents, plus Grandma and Grandad.

The "teacups" were a hit! (Marshmallow "cups" with half a life-saver for a handle, on a Tic-Toc biscuit.) So was the fairy floss served in plastic shot glasses.

Here's Kira opening presents (with James). By this time, Erika was very tired - she normally naps around 11am - so she was in bed. Unfortunately, she wasn't sleeping! We eventually gave up trying....she wasn't too thrilled to be up, either, but at least she wasn't screaming! She spent much of the morning being cuddled while she whinged/cried, so unfortunately we don't seem to have many pics of her.

Here's the Fairy Godmother!


(Ooh, look! There's Erika in the background, having a cuddle with Grandad!)


The toadstool cake! It didn't quite turn out the way I envisioned - I had to rebake the top part, and so it ended up being larger than the original (different quantity of mix). I also should have used powdered food colour instead of liquid - I used half a bottle of red to get that pink colour! Powder would've been more effective. Oh well, lesson learnt for next time. Still, Kira was suitably impressed, and it tasted just fine, so that's all that matters, really! Kira was thrilled to see Tinkerbell on her cake, too!


Some of the decorations: This is the Tinkerbell "Happy Birthday" banner I found...


I found fairy stickers, and put them on the clear plastic cups. And I made LOTS of paper flowers! Here's some of the paper flowers I made (since I don't have many real ones in my garden at the moment, and lots of unattractive bare earth and empty pots!):


Our back yard, after the party.... There's four pots with paper flowers (three at the back, one on the left), a green "shrub" (left-over green shadecloth with paper flowers stapled to it!), paper flower garlands hanging from the fence, and the toadstool fairy ring (cardboard circles painted red with white spots). And Kira's in the vegie patch, trying out the new gardening tools Grandma and Grandad gave her!

Kira's collection of treasures from her special party....

...and Erika's haul:

It was a lovely day! Kira was sad to see it end, but I was glad to be able to relax at last!

Kira Turns Three!!

Kira turned three on Feb 1, our 7th wedding anniversary. We had a quiet day, as Daddy had to work in the morning. We waited til he got home before opening the presents.

This is our gift to her - a Leap Frog "Scribble and Write" (encourages her to write the alphabet, as well as draw simple shapes and play games - not that getting her to draw anything is ever an issue for our budding artist!):

Granny and Gramps got her an awesome Tinkerbell costume! Kira LOVES it!!

Pretty fairy!!

Kira-Tink getting busy with her gadget from us...

We had Indian take-out for dinner, and for dessert we had the cute pink-glitter cupcakes that Kira helped me bake (vanilla cupcakes with strawberry icing, and pink edible glitter sprinkled on top). Kira's a great help in the kitchen - she helped put the paper cases in the tins, pour the ingredients into the mixer (and counted the number of cups I added so I put in just the right amount!), she helped keep an eye on the cakes as they cooked, and sprinkled on the glitter, and did a FANTASTIC job licking the beaters and bowl clean!! Of course!

Kira got TWO Barbie fairies from Aunty Jeni and Uncle George - so lucky! She LOVES these, too. I couldn't get them out of the boxes quick enough for her!


Erika was very impressed, too!

Kids At Play

We love watching the girls playing together. Here's some recent random pics of the girls at play...

Kira and Erika testing out the Princess table given to them from Granny and Gramps for Christmas '09:

Erika and her favourite toy...and her favourite dog! And Kira in Daddy's shoes:


Caught! Kira was reading a story to Erika in Erika's room. Now they're playing "Row, row, row your boat".


Kira is supposed to sleep, or read quietly, during nap-time. But on this occasion she climbed up on her stool, got her bangles out of her jewelry box (round thing with the bear on top), and placed them decoratively on her tallboy! Silly girl!

Erika On The Move, And Other Fun Stuff

Just before Erika turned 10 months, she worked out how to move from one spot to the next. It wasn't a typical crawl - not really a crawl at all, but more of a bottom-shuffle! We've never seen anything like it, so it's a great source of entertainment! (20.12.09 - 10 months)

Some more fun (brief) video's of the kids:

"If you're happy and you know it..." Erika doing her "happy dance" (23.10.09 - 8 months):

Kira, the Tickle-Monster! (8.10.09 - 7.5 months/2 years and 8 months)

"Bwah-bwah-bwah!" (20.9.09 - 7 months)

Kira showing Erika what to do in the Jolly Jumper (7.9.09 - 6.5 months/2 years and 7 months):

Barber's Backyard

We're constantly wanting to do "something" with our yard, especially out the back. We've made several attempts in the past, but something happens (like pregnancy, or just lack of inspiration) and plans go on hold again. We started thinking again about what we could do - Kira loves to play outside, but it's not always practical to take her to the park. So, getting the yard done has become a priority once again. The girls' birthdays are fast approaching, too, and if we're having the party here, we'd better get cracking!!

This is our yard a couple of weeks after the lawn bloke came and sprayed what little lawn we had. He had to kill it off before rolling out the instant turf. You might be able to see little tufts of dead grass in our dirt carpet!



And this is the end result! When he arrived (20.11.09), the lawn bloke had just received a call stating that our turf was not available due to the high temperatures we'd been having (in the 40's, in November!), but he did the ground prep and edging anyway, with view to lay the turf the following week. But we got a call from him that night - he'd been able to get the turf after all (not sure how)!! So he came back at dinner-time to finish the job. Yay! And just in time for Erika's Baptism on Sunday!!!



Our next mission is going to have to be the fence. Not sure if you can see, but the bottom horizontal beams have rotted away - you can see the marks on the fence where the beams should be! Those sticks on the ground aren't from the tree! At this stage, we're not sure if we can just replace the beams, or if we have to redo the whole fence. The vertical posts aren't in the best condition, either.



This is our crazy tomato plant! You can see it in the first picture, not too long after we planted it. We've already put two stakes in to hold it up, and today (2.1.10) we went and bought a trellise for it. We're not terribly successful at gardening, so this plant is a delight for us! And we've already had a few tomotoes from it (they're a "grape" variety), and there's HEAPS more budding now! This plant is sharing a pot with another tomato plant, and some carrots, but I don't think those plants are going to do much unless we move this monster!



We might be a bit ambitious, but we thought we'd try our hand at tending a small vegie patch. At the moment, we have strawberries, parsley, lettuce, chilli, beans and snow-peas. And some pansies in the front, for colour! Kira helped me plant some nasturtium and marigold seeds in the discarded seedling pots too (and watered them in with her new purple "Dora the Explorer" watering can that she got for Christmas from Aunty Jeni and Uncle George!), so hopefully she'll get to see how plants grow, right from the start. She loves to come outside and hunt for new growth on our current plants - new flower spikes, baby leaves sprouting - very exciting!

Christmas 2009

We were visited by Baubles, the Christmas Elf, this year! Can you see him? He's in our tree!

His job is to keep watch over the kids, to make sure they're behaving. He reports back to Santa each night, and returns before dawn each day. He "freezes" like a statue (or a doll!) during the day, only coming to life once everyone's asleep. Sometimes, though, he gets caught out...we've caught him toasting bread cubes on a toothpick by tea-light candle, raiding the cookie jar, and fishing in Daddy's aquarium (using one of Kira's pencils, some kitchen string, and a decoration hook!). He even surprised us with a visit to the apartment we stayed at in Mildura over Christmas, and also at Granny and Gramps' house! Kira thinks "Elf" is silly!

I made Gingerbread Men (and Gingerbread Angels) for the first time ever! Kira helped mix the dough, cut out the shapes, and decorate some of them. Mostly, though, she directed me - "Yellow dress...green eyes, Mummy....". They tasted pretty good, too - Kira wants me to make more! This is our Gingerbread Family - Daddy, Mummy, Kira, and Erika, in our swimwear and thongs!!

We went to Mildura for Christmas. This is the first Christmas the kids have had with their other grandparents (last time we were in Mildura for Christmas was when I was pregnant with Kira!). It was a very special occasion for all of us!

Kira found her beloved Thomas the Tank Engine at Centro Plaza (Mildura). She just wanted to give him a hug and a kiss (she doesn't like rides that go 'round like this one does, just those that go up and down on the spot). Kira loves to sit on Granny's knees as she hoons around in her wheelchair, though! But for now, it's Erika's turn:

Christmas morning in our apartment..... "HE'S BEEN!!!" Favourite gifts included blocks, ball, Doctor's kit, Thomas train, books, Learning Piggy Bank, and Play Dough.

Later, at Gran and Gramps' for Christmas lunch - and MORE presents.... Favourites included the super-soft dogs (the girls got one each - and they're bigger than Erika!), noisy racing chicken and dog cars (they go faster the more you shake them!), books, hair clips, and clothes.

Here's Erika and her favourite toy, her snuggly "Simmy" (Kira's is "Skye"!), and Kira chasing a balloon. My sister, and my Mum....and Erika trying on her Christmas sunnies!

The kiddies with Granny and Gramps, and three generations of girls:

Back home, and the girls are having a tea party on the new Disney table (a gift from Gran and Gramps), and showing off their Disney pj's (also from Granny and Gramps). This is my "tidy" lounge room....still not a lot of space! The kids' toys are taking over! I really need to do a clean-out before their birthdays, or we'll be drowning in toys!