Birthday Party!

Lolly had her fourth Birthday Party on Sunday, which was a rousing success!  There was a green dinosaur cake.

Roar!

DinnerDad puts on the finishing touches.

Birthday cake proves to be a pied piper for the small ones.

ZOMG, cake!!!!

My piece!

Birthday girl gets cake.

Festive cat is festive.

 There was face painting, thanks to a lovely friend (she is available for parties if you're interested!).

DinnerDad's dino watermelon!

There were lots of family and friends, lovely gifts, and a happy, tired, birthday girl at the end of the day.  Thanks to everyone for making it a lovely, special day for all of us.  xo

We make cupcakes!

And then ate 'em!  They're pink. 

As you were!...

Cutest hat in the world!

Cutest hat in the world!, a photo by Selenegonecrazy on Flickr.

I knit cute hats, apparently. Being new to knitting, I remain overly impressed with myself. Hence sharing here :)

Birthday garden fun

Last week was my birthday, the last of my 30s!  I took the girls to the Botanic gardens with my family.  Here is a lazy blogging set of photos from the day.  :D

Snail and me!

Following the children's trail (intently!)

Giant bug, with child.

Pop, Lolly, and Aunty J!

Snail and Lolly both loved the giant xylophone!

Lolly the Artist

Lolly is loving the artwork at the moment, she loves to draw and paint, and do collage, and stick all manner of things on to all manner of other things. 

DinnerDad was particularly proud of this drawing of Snail's new wheelchair Lolly did while we were at the hospital for a Snail appointment last month.  It has perspective!

Snail's wheelchair (with dinosaurs)

 I was even motivated to take her to art class at Gymboree!  She LOVED it.

At art class!

 We have clearly nurtured an artistic genius ;)

Footprints in a puddle, by Lolly

She has been doing collage all morning, and told me just now "Mummy, when I grow up, I want to be an artist!"

Doin's

We've been out to lunch...

Lookin' goooooood

 I've been knitting!

For my Purple Day fundraiser!

 But mostly we've been making and hiding in cubby houses.

Middle of the lounge cubby.

On the lounge cubby.

Puppy IN a cubby!

 Oh, it's cute alright!!

Preparing for a new art space!

We're doing more moving things around and making things more function round these parts, and part of this is setting up a room for the girls and a room for us.  In the process we're converting the unused master bedroom upstairs into a kind of gym/art space combo!

I recently did the Playful Learning Spaces e-course (it was wonderful BTW), and have used a lot of the ideas already, but am inspired to make something beautiful and functional to get us through the dreaded craft years.

Like this!  From Mariah's beautiful atelier -

Playful Learning Spaces Atelier

I mean, come on!  Who wouldn't love to have that in their home for their kid!  Or for me, let's be honest! 

So, off we went to scour Ikea for ideas - strictly NO purchasing yet, we're still in the design stage.  I want a good set up for art stuff, a low table, and an armchair for me to sit in.

Lolly LOVES her a trip to Ikea, she rides the giant trolleys, eats chips in the restaurant, and plays in the kids area.  We both indulge in an ice cream on the way out.  It's a great wet-weather excursion with kids, and pretty cheap so long as you don't fall for the siren call of all the Ikea awesomeness that surrounds you!

Why yes, I DID knit that gorgeous dress!

This bright green table top is going to be our art table! 

I confess to buying a new griddle pan and some cool storage boxes for stationery.  But that was it.  Not bad.

The Atelier is going to be our big project over the next few weeks, so I'm sure you'll be reading more soon :D