30 January 2014

Craft: Paper roll fairies

This will be one of the last crafts Popette & I make together for a while. As of next week my "big girl" will be starting Kindy, so I will miss the time I have with my little crafter. But it won't be too long and Cherub will be wanting to make something special with me.

When I suggested to Popette if she would like to make a fairy craft out of plain toilet paper rolls she was very excited. Like most little girls Popette & Cherub adore fairies. Over the Christmas break they watched a couple of Tinkerbell movies which they both enjoyed (OK, me too!), and Popette & I built a little fairy garden out the front of our house.

Popette in front of our fairy garden

Out of some plain toilet paper rolls we had lying around, Popette & I made Tinkerbell, Fawn (The Animal Fairy) and Silvermist (The Water Fairy).


Fawn & Tinkerbell
This is a simple craft to make.

All you need is:

  • Plain toilet paper rolls
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • Textas, Pencils 
  • Plain white paper
  • Pom-poms


To make the wings, draw half a wing shape on a doubled-over piece of paper, so when you cut it out you have two exact size shapes for the wings. Then cut it out, and decorate however you like.


You could get your little one to draw a pattern, colour-in shapes or stick glitter on the wings. We drew patterns in textas, then glued the wings on to the toilet roll. Along with some fairy clothes made out of paper, and legs with little shoes.

Then drew a face and some hair on the toilet roll. And finally, stuck on pom-poms to the shoes, so they looked like Tink's shoes.

Popette making the Silvermist fairy
Cherub was happy to colour-in and place stickers in her Dinosaur book

Suitable age group: 3 - 5 yrs
Estimated time: 15-20 mins (if Mum or Dad helps cut out the wings)
Messiness factor: low

24 January 2014

Words to guide me through the new year

 
 
Instead of writing down a list of new year's resolutions I have decided on three words to guide me through the new year.
 
Positive
 
I don't know about you, but I can get a little sensitive when I hear something negative said about me, so this year I am determined to remain positive, and not let other people's thoughts or comments bother me.

Savour

During our Christmas/NY break we had six fun days as a family and made some wonderful memories which I want to savour.

Spending time with loved ones and family is precious, so I want to make sure that I savour these moments, make more time for just Hubby & I and special ocassions like Popette starting kindy.


Reclaim

For me, reclaim stands for so many things.

Firstly there's my health, I need to lose some weight and get my cholesterol to a healthy level. I also need to reclaim my fitness, so I can run around with my girls and not be huffing & puffing.

I want to reclaim some of my old hobbies that I used to enjoy before becoming a Mum, like sewing and my art.

And finally I want to reclaim my home, and say goodbye to the mess and clutter.


Do you have any guiding words or are you keeping to a list of resolutions?


(Maybe I should add 'Strength', to the list, cause I'm going to need it if we continue to be sick throughout the year! Hubby is unwell with the dreaded virus that's been lurking in our household for the past month! Ugh!!)

17 January 2014

Being grateful: for six fun days

As you may have read on here or my FB page we have been hit bad with sickness in our little family. You name it, we've had it! Gastroenteritis, a vomiting bug, tonsillitis, throat infection, laryngitis, and 3 more viral infections!!

It's been the worst Christmas break for us in a very long time. I feel so sorry for Hubby who has to return to work on Monday. He is pretty disappointed that he hasn't been able to properly relax over the 3 week's he's had off. He's spent most of it looking after us three girls, or been sick himself.

Six fun days

Thankfully it hasn't all been bad over the past 3 weeks. We've been lucky to have some lovely days together. If I counted them up (including a couple of half days) there would be a total of six days.

~ My birthday lunch with Mum, Hubby and the girls
~ Hubby's birthday which was spent at our favourite beach
~ Daddy took Popette to see "Frozen" (I didn't have a pic for this!)
~ Popette's 5th birthday party at Build-a-Bear
~ Another day trip to the beach
~ Creating a fairy garden with Popette
~ Our outing to the Australian Museum to see the Tyrannosaurs exhibit

So this week I am grateful for six days of fun, of no vomiting or bed stricken sickness, but days of laughter and joy.

What are you grateful for?

09 January 2014

Oh crappy crap crap

Today I am supposed to be flying to Brisbane for a week's holiday with the family, but instead we are home. I have laryngitis and viral infection which my Hubby has also caught. So much for a healthy start to the new year! Arrgh!

The only word I can think of at the moment is crap.

Its been really crappy time for us.

I don't like to moan and groan, and feel sorry for myself, but today I'm going to!

We've had such a crappy Christmas. If it wasn't for the girl's excitement at opening presents, leaving a glass of milo and cookie out for Santa or the carrot for Rudolph, it would have been a very dull day.

I had a terrible bout of gastroenteritis the day before Christmas Eve, and Cherub was also sick with a vomiting bug, so our Christmas was a quiet day spent at home. Mum came up for a "light lunch". But there was no pavlova, or even a mince tart for dessert. :(

Then Popette got the horrid vomiting bug the day after we had our belated Christmas lunch with the in-laws.

Thankfully I felt better by my birthday (NYE) and we had a really nice BBQ lunch at home (again with Mum), which actually felt more like a Christmas lunch. After the shocker week of us 3 girls being sick, it was nice just to be home. I even felt well enough to have a few glasses of bubbly with Hubby to celebrating our birthday's and NYE.
One of the happier moments - with my girls on my birthday
For Hubby's 40th birthday (the day after mine) we celebrated with a day at the beach, and takeaway seafood from Doyle's at Watson's bay. It was such a lovely day.

Then it all turned to crap AGAIN.

The next afternoon I started getting a soar throat, so off to the doctors I went on the Friday. The doctor told me I had a throat infection, then over the next couple of days I started to lose my voice, by the time Popette's birthday party came round I could hardly talk. Went back to same doctor who told me there was nothing he could do for me. Then over next couple days I felt worse started coughing and had low grade temps. Was worried I wouldn't be better by the time we had to travel to Brisbane, so Hubby & I went to a different doctor as he was having dizzy spells!

Having fun building sandcastles
This doctor told me I had caught another viral infection, as well as the laryngitis, and that hubby was coming down with it too! Oh crap!  There goes our holiday to Queensland!

I'm hoping we get better soon, and that the girls don't catch it from us. We are taking all the precautions: giving them Vitamin C tablets, cold & flu gummies, Vick's on their back and the vapouriser on for the slightest snuffle...keeping our fingers & toes crossed they don't get sick, cause I've had enough of this crap!

05 January 2014

My birthday wish for Popette

To my Popette,

Today is your 5th birthday! The past five years have literally flown by. It doesn't seem that long ago when you were born as a tiny premmie at 29 weeks, and Daddy and I worried about when you would be coming home.

My first ever photo of Popette
While I should be excited that you're at the next chapter of your young life, I can't help but feel a little upset that you, my sweet little girl, will be starting big school this year. It makes me sad that you'll no longer going to be at home with me and Cherub. We are going to miss you terribly.

Popette & I (taken last November)
I'm trying to be positive when talking to you about starting school, but I'm finding it hard not to tell you how much I will miss you. You reply "Its OK Mummy you can play with Cherub" or "When I get home we can do craft". When did my big girl grow up?

Popette wearing her school hat at Kindy orientation
You are such a happy, fun, sweet, cheeky little girl. We've had our share of tantrums of course, resulting in lots of yelling (mainly from me) making me feel like the worst Mumma ever. At times I didn't control my temper or be the bigger person and walk away. So now I worry that you will only remember the bad times and not all of the good times we've spent together.

My little princess
I wish I could take back the times I raised my voice or snapped at you. You really are a good girl who I am very proud of. I wish you were still that little girl asking me to make "something special" or us spending days together playing at the park or exploring with Cherub.

My birthday wish for you is that you enjoy the next stage of your little life, to have fun at big school and making new friends, to be happy, don't grow up too fast and stay my little girl for a little bit longer!

As you will always be my sweet little Popette.

Happy Birthday Popette!
Lots of love Mumma, xxx