left over birthday cake

What do you do with left over birthday cake?

Cut out a mini cake, redecorate it, and have your own cake smash photo shoot of course!

I really wanted to have my own play around doing one of these on the day of Jacintas first birthday.

So we did! Here are the results...... (sorry there are SO many photos, I could narrow it down any further!)

The cake looks pretty good in the photo - trust me, in real life it looked pretty dodgy!

She loved the cake, but the rest of the day she was a bit miserable. True to form, and just like all her brothers, it turns out she was actually sick on her first birthday. A visit to the doctor yesterday confirmed my niggling suspicions that it was something more than teething or tiredness that was affecting her. The poor little mite has Tonsilitis. We are back off to the doctor this morning, after just one dose of antibiotics last night, she has woken up covered in a rash!

{one}

To my darling little princess,

Happy 1st birthday sweetheart!

One year ago today we welcomed you into our lives. It was a long day. The boys were all very quick labours - I had never experiened pre-labour before. When I had the first tell tale signs of your arrival at 3am, I expected to have you safe in my arms by 7am - not have to wait until 7pm! Having to wait around most of the day with just niggles, and hints that you were on your way was a totally new experience for us. Luckily once you finally decided to get things moving it all happened very quickly.

With a cold shiver I still remember those first few moments after you were born with the cord wrapped tightly around your neck and body. The terrifying feeling of helplessness and fear that settled over us, enveloping us like a heavy fog until we heard your sweet cry for the first time. Then the feeling of total euphoria as we were able to hold you,

and delight in the fact that we really did have a little girl to complete our family. A beautiful little pink bundle we named Jacinta Grace.

You slotted right into family life. Our lives were definatley busier with a fourth child, but it was a wonderful, although at times exhausting, first few months - you completed our family, in a way we never thought possible. The touches of pink here and there, the girly toys, clothes and colours are slowly spreading through our home and lives. Even the Christmas tree got a girly make over of pink, lime and silver to celebrate your first Christmas! The cars, trucks and motorbikes that have surrounded us for so many years, can now be found laying alongside a pink teddy or a dolly. The clothes line is often filled with pretty girly colours, the splashes of pink are evident everywhere. Its funny, I never really liked pink that much. After having three boys I was used to being surrounded by almost every colour except pink - after just one year of having a little girl in the house there is definately a disproportionate amount of lovely shades of pink everything to be found in our house!

At {one} you are ....

...breastfed 3 times a day

...LOVE food, and eat three meals a day, and snacks when ever you see someone else eating.

...refuse to drink any sort of milk/formula/expressed breastmilk from a bottle or cup

...drink lots of water from a non spill sipper cup

...wear cloth nappies during the day, and disposables at night

...wear mostly size 0 clothes, but are starting to move into some of the smaller size 1 tops.

... love playing with the boys toys

...dont crawl yet. You get yourself from sitting to your tummy, can roll over, wriggle around in circles on your tummy, will lay on your back and push along with your feet to move like an upside down caterpillar.

...you looks so cute when you drop your lip and start to grizzle. ...Love holding our fingers and pulling yourself to stand. You think you are very clever when we help you stand up to hold onto something all by yourself....enjoy music and dancing. We went to our first session of music & movement last week and you LOVED it.

...give us the biggest, happiest smiles when we get you out of bed in the morning, or walk into the room

...sleep in a cot, with your dummy and your pink blankie. Sometimes teddy sleeps with you too. You often end up sleeping on your tummy with your legs wedged between the bars. Isaac tells me you need rescuing if he finds you like that!

...have so much fun laughing a giggling with Isaac.

...Enjoy going walking in the pram. You very rarely sleep in the pram though. You like to watch whats going on around you. The other day we went walking and you stuck your arm out to wave at every car that passed us. It was so cute.

...wave goodbye

...say mummum, dad, dadadada, tickletickletickle. Im noticing new sounds all the time

...you love to play games like round & round the garden, this little piggy and peek-a-boo

...you have a morning breastfeed and then usually go back to sleep for a couple of hours. You have a couple of other sleeps during the day as well.

...You tend to be a bit clingly to me at the moment. You cry just about everytime I walk away from you.

...You are a very patient model for Mummy as she tries to learn to use her camera better

...You are a still bit wary of other people, but will go to them as long a Mummy is close by

...You are still more of a baby than a toddler. Im trying to hold on tight to your babyness, one

day I know I will wake up and it will be gone forever

...You are Daddys little princess - he hates to hear you cry. I think you will have him wrapped around your little finger for ever!

...you flap your arms around when your excited, can clap your hands, and you tug at your ears when you are tired.

...you have a bad habbit of grabbing faces and hair

We celebrated your first birthday with a party on Sunday.

It was a lovely afternoon.

Pink decorations, pink food, a pretty butterfly cake, and family and friends to help us celebrate all the wonderful things this last year has bought to our lives. You had a wonderful time, lots of yummy foods, and you were very spoilt with lots of beautiful gifts. I had lots of fun planning your 1st birthday party. Hosting a girly, pink birthday party for my own daughter was one of those things, that until we discovered we were expecting you, I never really thought I would get the chance to experience.

Happy 1st Birthday Jacinta

May your life be filled with happiness. May you always know how it feels to love and to be loved. May you follow your dreams, and achieve your goals. May your life be rich in the things that really matter.

I love you forever my darling little girl

Mummy xxxx

what a mess !!!!

This morning Jacinta and I headed off to have some photos taken by the lovely Philly of Sweet Chilli Philly Photography. I met Philly a while back through the photography forum on eb, and met her irl at a get together in the botanic garderns last year. When I mentioned that I was thinking about getting a photographer to shoot a 1st birthday cake smash shoot, she kindly put her hand up to have a go.

It was so much fun. My little princess was FAR from a dainty elegant little cake eater though. She dove straight in - basically burying her entire face in the cake for every bite. I can't wait to see the results of the shoot! (eta Philly has some of the shots on her blog now )
Here is a quick snap of the shoot in progress.

... yes that mushy mess of crumbs in front of her was, just minutes before, a painstakingly decorated miniture birthday cake!!!! and despite her looking reasonably clean form this angle, the other side of her face was totally covered in cake!!!

Thanks Philly!!!

Bushfire

We woke yesterday to the sound of rain drops on the roof, a welcome relief from the stifling temperatures of the heatwave of the previous couple of weeks.

Yes the heat was extreme, yes it was a pain, people whinged about the the power cuts from the load shedding, and tragically there were lives lost due to the extreme conditions.

Much of Queensland woke to the sound of rain as well - not the welcome sound of a few much needed drops, but he sound of torrential rains that have the potential to once again seriously flood vast areas of the state, already under seige from the flooding of the previous week.

All this rain, and yet still in SA the Murray River struggles to find enough water to flow, and the lakes are dying a slow torturous death.

But my heart really goes out to those in Victoria. All weekend they endured heatwave conditions even worse than those experienced here in the weeks before.

All across Victoria, the exact situation that thankfully we had managed to avoid was creating devistation beyond belief. The worst natural disaster in Australias history. Horrific bushfires are raveging the state.

The Horsham golf club, that had hosted Craigs Uncles birthday party only months before, once again gutted by fire. Thankfully as far as we know those that are close to us in that area are safe.

So many are no where near as lucky. This morning the official death toll from these devistating fires is 108. My heart goes out to those that have lost family and friends, and my thoughts and prayers are with those still enduring the agonising wait to find out if those close to them have managed to find somewhere safe to shelter.

So many lives lost, and a trail of destruction that is so hard to comprehend.

Australia is the lucky country. The majority of us are only brushed by the effects of wars in counties far away, we are sheltered from the extremes of disease and famine that envelope much of the world. Our government, in comparison to so many countries, is generally pretty good, and does the best they can to try and support the sort of lifestyle we have come to expect.

We are still the lucky country, but as this bushfire strikes with a ferocity never seen by us before we are reminded how fragile our lives and lifestyle really is.

Today I am truly thankful that my family are all safe, that we have a roof over our heads and food on our table. That my children can get a good education, and my husband can go off to work. I count my blessings today.

So many families, just like ours, who probably only days ago were in the same situation, have woken up today, heartbroken, there lives shattered, their loved ones gone, their homes destroyed. My heartbreaks for you all.

ninety three

Tuesday 3rd February 2009

Happy Birthday Nanna P

93 years

...2 children

...5 grand children

...11 (soon to be twelve!) great grand children

Its so easy to forget how blessed we are to still have both my Nannas with us.

I love that my children have had the chance to know their great grandparents, and that my Nannas have had the chance to know all my children.

May they both be blessed with health & happiness in 2009.

eta - As I viewed this post two things jumped straight into my mind...

1. Do you know I dont think Ive ever seen my Nanna not wearing any beads!

2. I had a giggle to myself - every year when we were kids Nanna (usually Pa when he was alive) would line us up for a photo of our birthday cake - always with some flowers she had picked from her garden for us....we would always roll our eyes in protest....now its me insisting she sit there smiling with her flowers and cake!!!!

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.......and (just cause I love it) a picture of my [cheeky] little princess and my gorgeous Mum