My special date weekend with Ella

Ella Bella is our middle baby at the moment and she rarely gets time with either parent one on one. It usually happens that Faith goes out with a parent cause she's older and easier or sometimes the girls come out together, but it hardly ever happens that Ella gets special time. So that's exactly what she's got this weekend. After our family time at the Sky Tower, Daddy Joe went to Hamilton for the weekend with Seth and Faith and Ella and I caught the train home. We did heaps together, went out and about, talked, laughed, cuddled and more. I've loved it sooooo much and she was very boggly for a lot of the time so I think it was good for her too.

1st afternoon after we got back off the train. Pooped! Very angry when I woke her up to get ready for the aeroview dance cause she was having a great snooze with Mrs Bunny

Ready for the dance....rua Maori wahine?!?!?! She calls them our 'marae faces'

Mac knew good refreshments when he saw them....these must have gone like hotcakes cause I didn't see them at all :(

Ella did her typical for a shared food situation, bypass all the yummy treats and head for apples, oranges and popcorn?!?!?

Cute lil twinnies

Spence won the prize for best dressed child in costume (his mexican brother and maori cousin were both good too but he won the top prize!)

A whole kingsize bar for this little body....if he was allowed I'm sure he would have given it a good go!

Hillarious EQ dance routine. Wish I had video footage to capture the 'lol' skit

So excited to be able to get out and help with the petrol at about 10:30pm on Friday night

Bonus that we got 3 big choccie bars for $1.50

Shopping at Dressmart on Saturday morning with Aunty Nae and Aunty Beezy. Almost turned out to be a long drive just for window shopping but 'Typo' saved the day and we got 4 'love letters' books

Ella all 'makeded up' for Gabe's 5th birthdady party. She did her lippy in the car on the drive there and I heard her saying 'I'm not using lots Mum, I'll put the lid on now' Wow, if this is not lots I'd hate to see what that would look like

The cute birthday boy and his amazing cake from Sis Sanchez

Painting frames for Mum and Dad's bedroom makeover. She did the hot pink one and I did the teal. Mine dried in about a quarter of the time it took hers to dry cause she'd used sooooooo much paint

Playing games on Mum's bed before bedtime. I loved having her in my bed. After the first night of clinging to me the whole night, she eased up and stayed on her side. She's a faster learner than her father!

I sat in bed on the lappy and 'checked my messages' before lights out and she wrote a letter to Faify to tell her about all the cool things she'd been doing with me.

When Faith came home she told us all about her great weekend away with cuzzies and aunties and uncles. She had a blast as did Ella and I. It was interesting that Faith said to me a couple of days later 'Mum, our family was broken this weekend cause we weren't altogether, but now we're fixed cause we're all home'. Interesting how her 4 year old brain perceived it.

I had a great time with one child and I look forward to having more one on one time with my kiddies when time and circumstance permits.

Seth's 1st Year Calender

For each of the children I've done a 1st year Calender that is in their keepsakes box. The girl's ones are literally like a calender with each month on a page and small photos on the page above to match that month. Now that Seth's one, I was going to print his pics all at once and unfortunately with the way the self-service computers work now, it was going to take me about 3 hours to get the job done. Not surprisingly I didn't have 3 spare hours to do it, so I had to come up with an alternative. And I'm so happy with how my idea worked out. It's completely different to the girls, but much easier to do so I think I'll stick with this kind for next time. Although I'd be more organised and do the labels nicely on the computer (sorry son, you get Mum's handwriting!)

Sky Tower Experience

The Willoughby's gave us tickets to the Sky Tower and Fortuna Buffet Restaurant for my birthday. What an experience it was, in a wonderful way. Although this is how it started....
We were about 2 or 3 minutes early for the restaurant to open so we were waiting at it's front door along with an elderly couple. The girls were playing with pebbles at the bottom of a big potplant. The lady (another patron) said to me, in a jokey tone, 'they better not play around with the food like that' (referring to the way they were playing with the pebbles). I said they wouldn't, I'd be watching them. She then proceeded to get down close to them and said to me 'It's best if Mum stays the good guy and a stranger tells them this' She said to the girls 'I pull the extremeties off little children who play at restaurants so look out and watch your behaviour'. I was a bit shocked she said that, albeit with a big smile. I wasn't impressed with her hiding behind jokey humor so I told her I'd watch them and she needn't worry about them. Turns out that she kept going, and told the waiters on Ella twice. Eventually I walked up to her and told her my children were fine and she better get over it!!!!! What a psycho woman!

Photo diary of how it went down...

Seth was pretty well behaved. Each time he made a noise we put more food in front of him but most of it ended up on the floor. He won the award for best behaved, but not really on account of him being brilliant, moreso that the others were just really really bad!

Typical plate - Faith

Typical plate - Ella

Typical plate - Daddy Joe (x5)

Typical plate - Mummy Mel

Ella ended up eating lemons while waiting for her Dad to finish

Ella was far too comfortable up here for my liking. She was leaning back on that glass without a care in the world. I just kept thinking she might be the first person ever to fall through the glass in a freak accident!

 

Thanks Aunty Natty, Uncle Kris, Jordy and Kyky. It was so exciting to go out for lunch and go up the SkyTower together. Something we've always talked about doing but we wouldn't probably do for ourselves, thanks to you guys, now we've done it :)

I'm the big 3-0!!!!

Last Sunday it was my 30th Birthday......a real milestone. Can't believe I've joined that club!

I not going to deny it, I was hoping that I'd have a party, but I didn't hold out much hope that it would happen. We had Seth's party on the Friday and I hadn't heard any inklings of plans happening so I thought it would be another 'happy birthday honey' and that's it. Actually the only thing I'd been told was 'Everyone will come over for a family potluck dinner on Sunday ok, so get over it!!!!' That was spoken out of frustration by my lovely husband after I reminded him of my disappointment at my previous birthday after I'd just given birth to Seth!

To my shock and overwhelming surprise, there was a party planned for me!!!!! Sneakily it was under the guise of a family friendly party at the park for Rose Bennett's 9th birthday. We went over to the Onepoto Basin Community Centre and instead of walking into Rose's party like I was expecting, I walked into my own!!!!! I couldn't believe it, my awesome family had organised a special party just for my 30th. WOW is an understatement for how I felt. My heart's even racing a bit as I write about it.

We had lots and lots of my favourite food, cake, games, fun, laughs, and a card and present that was extremely exciting on top of the excitement of the party.

A cool photo backdrop that I've had on my 'parties' wall for a while.

 

The Stoners (makes me sad looking at this pic now cause Uncle Pete moved back to Australia during the week :( )

 

Another Pinterest Idea....throw the twisties onto the shaving foam covered shower cap

Makes for very cute photos!!!!

Love this lil guy with his dumbo attached like that, cute Pency!!!!!

'Typical!!!!!!!' as Daddy Joe would say

Presentation ceremony of my card with notification of my present, Shark Navigator Vacuum....yeeyah!!!!!

Old family fav - hit your balloon into the basket and try and get the other person's balloon away. I'd say we'll be re-doing this game as often as space permits. It's still fun even 20 years later

Mean choccie cake made by Aunty Nae. Mean on the night and meaner the next day....so Yum!

Seffy was intrigued by this big brown guy who picked him up and talked to him for a while. He was speechless with the whole experience

The next morning (my actual birthday) I was awoken with breakfast in bed from my husbunny and big girl and then joined by the other two. The girls proceeded to open my presents and sing to me!

After church I was surprised to have a special package of treats left on the seat in my car.....a lolly lei, card and slideshow of pics. So so cool Aunty Nae, and I'm not sure if you're right about me looking 22, kids the other day at school made guesses of my age in the 20s, 30s and 40s!!!! Definitely right about the apron though, it's a staple piece of my uniform, along with grey trackpants usually :)

And Aunty Beezy and Uncle Pete came to our ward for the day so that was extra cool too. And they gave me a knew peachy cardigan (I've always like her one), and my favs.....Perky Nanas and Forever Friends Christmas cards. Spoilt!

 

I feel like I can't say enough how cool my birthday was. I got lots of cool things, but I think the thing that made me feel most special and happy was knowing that other people had thought of me and love me and wanted me to have a good time.

(Aunty Natty gave us a cool family experience present that will be my next blog entry....and Daddy Joe gave me a hair makeover so I'll do a before and after of that too)