What The Flock - Audrey's Three!

This week Audrey celebrated her 3rd birthday and it's been a full week of festivities. 

It was a really fun one this year. I've been looking forward to the year that Audrey picks the theme for her party and she didn't disappoint when she picked a FLAMINGO PARTY!

I got her to decide about 3 months ago so I could get started on planning and prepping everything. Which has meant that for the last 3 months she's told us that 'tomorrow is her birthday' and we've had to explain that she was wrong.

It's been a full on year with the shop and i've been single parenting it a lot because of BJ's hours and i've been feeling really guilty about Aude having to spend a lot of time at home while i'm working my two jobs so I wanted to throw her a really fun party. I needed as much time as possible to make this party happen.

Audrey made a list of who she wanted to invite and I did the rest. I designed the invitations, made the decorations, the snacks and the cake of course. 

I design all of our invitations and I had a lot of fun with this one. Really happy with how it turned out. 

Once the invitation was out of the way I planned out all the other decorations and started bringing them to life. The thing I actually slacked on this year was the cake. I usually have a very detailed plan of what i'm going to make with drawings and even test cakes but this year I just had a vague idea of what I wanted to do. I whipped together the topper the week before her party and the rest of the cake I threw together the day before. 

I also managed to find a few minutes to chuck together some cute cookies. 

I was really proud of the paper garland I made for the wall. I honestly wasn't sure how it was going to turn out but I spent ages with my silhouette curio cutting out all the leaves and flowers and am really happy with the final result. It's been hanging up for 2 weeks now because I didn't want to have to do EVERYTHING on the day of the party. And it may be up for another 3 hahaha.

On top of the decorations we had a couple of games. Flamingo ring toss and Pass the parcel. Wasn't sure how Pass the parcel was going to go with a bunch of 3 year olds but it was a total success. And lastly, I couldn't resist in getting a giant inflatable flamingo for the kids to go nuts on. Surprisingly, it didn't pop and it was a huge hit.
Best $20 ever spent!

xx

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Audrey's 2nd Birthday!

How the hell is she two already?!

We had a fun afternoon on Sunday celebrating Audrey's birthday with friends and family (and Uncle Slick Bone). Audrey is obsessed with rainbows and believes in marriage equality, so we thought a colourful party would be perfect.

I love a good party theme and enjoy any opportunity to get creative.

I almost gave up on making the rainbow balloon for the wall because it was absolute hell to put assemble and used up all my tape to keep it together but I'm so glad it was a success in the end as it was perfect for photos.

This was the first rainbow layer cake that I've attempted and I'm soo happy with how it turned out in the end. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty damn good... and tasted delicious!!

As well as the cake I made some really cute hand piped gingerbread cookies, rainbow jelly, meringues, super cute fairy bread and lots of other tasty, sugary treats.

I also made the adorable little scalloped popcorn boxes, the flamingos party hats AND a giant lollipop piñata. Because what two year old doesn't want a piñata?!

In those two hours Audrey had more sugar then she's had in her two years of life and she handled the sugar crash really well.

I can't wait till next year when I ask her what kind of birthday party she wants to have and she tells me a theme.

#Voteyes

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Eighteen

I just can't wrap my head around the fact that my nephew Chris is going to be 18 in a week!!!

Where the hell did the time go?!

When he's not around, I still picture him as the little 3 year old that moved into our home and liked climbing into cupboards and hiding sandwiches in the heater vents. My world was changed forever that year that he came to live with us. It look the worst thing ever to happen for Chris to get given the best chance at life and I'm so thankful for the past 18 years. 

But he is not that little kid anymore. He's a giant. He towers over everyone he meets. He's turned into a male. Stinky feet, so much hair and grunts to answer you. A typical male. 

He can eat more tacos in one sitting than anyone I know. Wolf down a piece of cake in 10 seconds flat. Knows how to tell you what he wants or how he feels without using any words. He can walk on stilts and has NO fear. 

From the moment he came to live with us I was responsible for him. Looked after him while nana worked. Watched The Wiggles, Cars and The Simpsons Movie more times then I could count. Taught him sign language and how to fist bump from an early age. I bought him his first suit. Baked him many a birthday cake. I helped raise this kid. 

Despite everything he has been through he is the most amazing kid person. I'm so proud of the man that he has become. 

He's just got me feeling super old right now.

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9 Fucken Months

I haven't written anything in a while. Scratch that. I haven't posted anything in a while BUT I've written plenty.

I haven't been happy enough with anything I've written to post it though.

It's been a crazy couple of months. My work life has been crazy busy as always. I've struggled a lot with balancing work and baby day to day and some days are just horrible.

Audrey is now 9 months old and is no longer a little baby. She is the worlds fastest crawler, silent like a ninja sometimes. As soon as she is near anything that she can pull herself up on, she is standing and cruising around. If the object moves then off she goes walking it around the house. None of our dining chairs stay in the same spot for very long. This week she has even started trying to stand unsupported.

There are now 5 razor sharp teeth in her mouth, with 2 more currently cutting through and her hair has finally started growing.

She is also such a chatter. Loves the words 'mama' and 'up' at the moment. It is just amazing to watch her grow and develop day by day.

Over the last month we have developed a really good routine. One which I thought might be lost when Audrey got sick last week but thankfully it mostly has continued to run smoothly.

We have set nap and meal times and if we stick to them then the evenings are soo much more pleasant. The days when her routine is messed with are the hardest for me. I have to spend so much more time getting her back on track over the following days and with my work load, it's not easy.

I'm finding it hard to get as much work done as i need and find myself doing more and more after hours or on weekends to make up for it. I've started talking myself into looking at child care. It is not something I wanted to do before 12 months but I realise now that I cant keep going like this if I'm wanting to stay on top of things.

I never thought I'd be THAT mum who can't handle the thought of leaving their kid at child care. I mean, yeah, I always expected the first day would be rough but I'm struggling to make the appointments to just go and have a LOOK at places. It's really quite daunting and scary. I'm looking to book her in for 2 days a week so that I can have some solid work days. Mostly I'll still be working from home but it gives me the freedom to go into the office when necessary... AND also some time to myself because that just doesn't happen anymore. Ever!

I am also trying to make time for birthday prep. Audrey will be ONE in less then 3 months... (What the hell!!)

We decided we were going to have some fun with Audrey's 1st birthday to celebrate surviving a shit pregnancy and a really full on first year of parenthood... Oh yeah, and I guess we'll celebrate Aude's birthday too.

But I'll talk a little more about that soon.

xx
Smorgy


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Fork This 79, 80 and 81

I know i'm been a total slacker lately.... I blame it on getting engaged!!

My mind has been elsewhere  but here are the last three Fork This episodes.

Episode 79

Episode 80

Episode 81

After this week i am on holidays. I will be setting so new years goals, cleaning up my craft room and getting myself motivated to post frequently again.

xx

Smorgy

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Decorations

For Kaia's 6th Birthday I made some decorations for the celebration. Some cute tissue paper pom poms and an adorable flag bunting for the cake. (I also baked the cake). Kaia was most excited when I told her she could take the pom poms home and hang them in her room.

xx
Smorgy

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Homemade 6th Birthday Present

Last week my niece Kaia had her 6th birthday. Normally I have a plan well ahead of time of what I want to do for peoples birthday presents but since we bought the house I've been a bit stuck coming up with ideas.

I love making presents but what can you make a 6 year old and have them get the enjoyment out of it as they would any other birthday present.

Over the years I've made LOT'S of presents: Scrapbooks, art, figurines, jewelry, food etc but this birthday was hard.

And then it came to me.... I knew exactly what to make her and have her love it.

I made Kaia her own personalised game of Memory.

Kaia LOVES playing Memory and I knew this would be a hit. 

I picked out 12 photos of her - Fun memories like our family trip to the zoo, her weekend with George (the class teddy bear), Cooking with BJ, her first day of school and Meeting Santa.

I designed a cute little back for the cards and laminated them all so they last.

Packaged them all in a cute box I've been holding on to for years and with some alphabet stickers 'Kaia's Memory Game' was complete.

She liked them soo much that i plan to make her two more sets - One for at Aunty Megan's house and one for at Nana's so she'll always have them on hand to play. (Oh and just so you know that's not ALL that i gave her for the big 6).

Coming soon... Homemade party decorations

xx

Smorgy

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Fork This - Episode 28

This week Cooper turned 3 and BJ and i got out the Party Hat to celebrate with him!!


Fork This 28 - Special Agent Birthday Cooper from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


xx
Smorgy Pin It

25 in a month

So I looked at my calendar and realised that in one month i will be 25. Meaning my birthday will have gone and i'll just be 25.

I've never been big on celebrating my birthday. I don't have a lot of great birthday memories because things always seem to go wrong on that day.

Some amazing birthday i've had have been thanks to my beautiful partner BJ who always tries to make the day as amazing for me as possible.

The BEST birthday that comes to mind is when i turned 22 in 2008. BJ and I were travelling for 5 months and my birthday was celebrated on the Dawn and Drew farm in West Bend Wisconsin for 3 days with people from near and far who we'd never physically met, coming to party in the barn.

Drew Domkus, Dawn Meceli, Megan Newman and BJ Carter

I can remember the countdown to midnight. Everyone decided to climb up to the loft and i have this great group photo taken just after they all screamed

'5... 4... 3... 2... 1.......Happy Birthday!!!!'

It was an amazing experience and truely is my most favourite birthday memory ever.

Generally i prefer to spend my birthday with BJ and Cooper and just forget about the rest of the world for the day. Forget about how much junk food I've eaten or that i'm still in my PJ's at 3pm... Just be happy with the two most important people in my life.

Cooper and I 2009

But people keep asking me what i'm doing for this birthday. 25 seems to be a big thing in everyone elses mind so now i'm trying to decide if i can be bothered organising something for it.

I don't have a great success rate with birthday parties and I don't know that people would actually want to come if i did organise something. I don't want to set myself up for failure, planning something, getting excited about it and then being let down because people have their own lives to live and couldn't come to my little party. The last thing i want is to put in all that effort and only have 3 people turn up (And that includes BJ and I in the 3).

So what should i do?!

Should i organise a small gathering at my house?

A dinner out with some friends?

An evening at a bar for drinks?

Or just plan nothing and do what i normally do on my birthday?

I think the main issue i have is, I'm the organiser... I organise everything, and this is the one thing i really don't want to have to organise. It's not that i don't want to do anything, more that i'd just prefer someone else felt it important enough that they decide to plan something special for my birthday.

Any suggestions, ideas or comments? I'm be happy to hear them.

xx

Smorgy

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