Under the Sea party

We finished off a week of celebrations today with Abi's Under the Sea party. The girls were up early decorating the party table appropriately.

When the party was underway the first activity on the agenda was making Under the Sea snowdomes......a very brave undertaking for a bunch of 4 year olds (with a couple of older siblings in tow)

 Then it was time to eat!! (a recurring activity at this party..........

 ..then a break for play - in the garden on this gorgeous late Summer morning ..

 ..and ending up with Abi's Octonauts cake (Mark 2)....

 ..and party bag fun.....

 ..and there were a few lollies too - thanks to Joshy's last minute plea on behalf of all the four year olds...

 ..and some lovely presents of course.......

 ..and then the inevitable wind down after......utterly wasted......but voted best party ever!!!

Abi is four

Abi's fourth birthday celebration is looking like it might extend over a week or so - so these pics are just an introduction to what might lie ahead.

This bunny rabbit mask (and a unicorn headdress I didn't capture with a pic) seemed to be among her favourite presents on the morning of her actual birthday.

 .... making big sister Ella happy too!

We had a happy birthday meal out last night at Abi's favourite "Happy's" restaurant in Garema Place then a huge double gelato (her favourite lime flavour) from Via Dolce afterwards.

 ..making big sister Ella happy too......

But of course - it's all about the cake....and this year it was the Octonauts special.  Abi has no expectations of her Granny in the cake decorating department. She is always super thrilled with whatever we come up with as long as the icing is thick and the smarties are prolific. Jody and I made the cake a combined effort this year. I thought Jody's honeycomb crumb "sand" was a master stroke!

This is birthday cake mark 1...we'll do a repeat performance - maybe even an improved one for next weekend's little peoples' party.

Saint Valentine

I'm not sure if we are agnostic or atheist about the existence of Saint Valentine, but we are all pretty atheistic in our family about the commercialised cheese that is Valentine's Day.

Betty K...rapidly approaching the final months of her 102nd year (!!) enjoyed the opportunity for some Valentine's Day related craft activity - probably the first time she has ever done anything Valentine's Day related in her long life (thank you Bernadette).

The rest of us did nothing about the Saint's day. We went to the park with the girls...where it took them a while to get out of their weekend, battling sibling mode (it wasn't very lovey-dovey at all actually!).

 Although things had calmed down a lot by the time the ducks appeared.

I made my first pavlova ever - which was a bit Valentine's Day worthy I guess.  I think I nailed the soft (but chewy) inner meringue layer and the light and crispy exterior but my pav lacked structural integrity - the shell collapsed and had to be held together with wallops of cream. I need more practice Saint Valentine!

Back to school

It was back to school week this week for Ella and the start of preschool for Abi. It was also the start of Monday night Gym class and Thursday night swim squad training for Ella and Monday swimming and Tuesday Gym classes for Abi - they're busy girls. 

But very happy about all that too......

Ella started school on Tuesday - in year three (in the senior school now).

Abi started preschool on Wednesday morning: three 6 hour days this week (two next week). We didn't think she would be able to stay the full days this early in the year (she's only 3 after all, and she's never been away from her Mummy or us before!).

But each morning she's left home in very high spirits...

and while there have been a few tears at saying goodbye time each morning she has ended up having three really good (whole) days at preschool this week, which means we can all start to relax about it too. Hopefully this great start means we'll all have a really positive school year ahead.