Dallin turns 1

This gorgeous baby of mine is 1. Makes me teary as I type that cause my baby is growing up, but it also feels so good at the same time.

We had a lil (well kinda big), party for her last weekend....lots of cuzzies came up and over and it was a super fun Friday night and Saturday with them all.

A little pre-birthday organising....lolly skewers for the kids....

And 3 different slices for the adults. In the week leading up to the party, I'd had people randomly talk to me about all of these slices and how much they love them so that's why they were chosen. Apricot, Coconut and Passionfruit, Reeses & Ginger + Pistachio.

My hot hubby and I got to go out to a restaurant for a sneaky dinner on Friday night thanks to Aunty Sarah and Aunty Bex who dealt with all the crazies/cuzzies. Such a nice surprise to get dressed up and go out for a couple of hours

I didn't take any pics of our outing to Chipmunks which was pretty manic due to it being a rainy saturday, last day of the school holidays, and 10 parties being booked there. Usually we'd last there at least 3 hours, but after an hour we were struggling to keep them there. So when they were well and truly spent, it was back home for party central out on the deck

These pics hint at how Ella's party will go down next month!

Love this pic of the two beautiful ladies in red lippy!

Now since this little madam has turned 1, I should say 1 thing I love about her, but that's pretty darn hard since there's a whole lot to love about her. So it might just be a long, long sentence to try and fit some of it in.

I love this girl for her cheeky smile, especially the way she scrunches up her button nose, for her compliance when I tell her off in her bed (if she's protesting about sleep, which is quite rare these days) and say 'sleepy time' and she leans back on her pillow and gives me a little grin, for her skinny little body and how she wobbles and sways when she tries to stand up on her little pins, for her giggles if you say 'where Dallin? there you are!!!', for her lip sucking when she's tired, and for her climbing all over me when I'm on the floor, wanting to be close and give big cuddles. She's a gem this girl, and I love her to pieces.

With that said, we're now onto prepping for Ella's Make Up/Rainbow Party....exciting!

ANZAC Day 2015

To say that Faith has been fascinated by ANZAC day this year seems like such an understatement......she's been all consumed by it.

As soon as it was mentioned at school, she became part of the ANZAC group, and the seed was planted. This girl has such a reverence and deep sense of concern for what went on so many years ago and soaked up every little bit of whatever she could that was in any way related to it.

After school one day we drove into the Swanson RSA to have a look at their memorial

These crosses out the front of school were made by the ANZAC group.....I told her to smile for the photo and she said it's not right to smile when you're thinking about ANZAC day because it's sad and serious

Our special night out at the RSA restaurant. A comedy of errors really, from not being able to get in until we had some kind man to sign us in as his guests, to having all 4 kids by myself with no highchair for Dilly, and probably topped off by Seth doing a huge wee on the chair while wearing undies!!!

If you ever try and eat dinner without saying prayers, this guy is sure to pull you up on it

'Mum I don't really like the burger or chips, can I just eat the sauce for my dinner!'

Found a highchair in the last 5 minutes.....thanks to the waitress for not offering it to me an hour earlier!

FINALLY Faith got to buy her poppy. She's been wanting to for weeks and we've either had money and not seen the collections, or seen the collections with no coins.....she finally got it!!!!

This little kid looked straight up at an elderly lady walking in to have a nice dinner with her husband and said 'put it on me please', so that's exactly what she did, even though she had really bad arthritis in her hands.

She kept saying he was so cute and she wanted to give him a big kiss and cuddle before we walked out....so sweet

Ready to go into her class and do her ANZAC speech and share the ANZAC cookies we made

This girl convinced me it would be really special for us to wake up early (4am!) and go to the dawn service at the Auckland Domain. I kept trying to talk her out of it, saying we'd just go to the Swanson one at 9am, but she wasn't having that

Pretty much every man and his dog was there, so we were probably standing about 10,000 people back from the front. All she could see through the black night was people's legs, but she stood for the whole time so well....Almost 2 hours by the time we got there, listened to the service and started to walk back to the car. I thought she'd say she didn't ever want to go again, but no, she said next year she'll go with Dad cause he'll be able to hold her up on his shoulders

And then it was straight home for a quick breakfast and then off to the Swanson Parade with the rest of the family

So proud of this girl and the special interest she's had. It made me pause and remember the soldiers who have gone to war in the past for our country, which I honestly don't usually do. The few times I heard the 'last post' played it brought tears to my eyes to think of sons, husbands, brothers, dads going to war and not coming home. Sad that it's part of our past, and I really, really hope it's not part of our future. So thankful to live in a peaceful country!!!!!!