Maddie's Christmas Carol Concert

Hi,

Just a couple of vids from Maddie's Christmas Carol concert with her school :)

Making Nanny's shortbread

This morning we spoke with Nanny and she told us that she had made some yummy shortbread dipped in chocolate! As I had the day off today, and we were looking for things to do, we thought it would be great to try it out.
I knew it would be fun, but the greatest surprise was that the shortbread actually tastes REALLY good! Amazing!.. and Hooray!

Just baked!


cooling down...


The best bit... dipping!


Wow - don't they look scrum diddly umptious!!?? (They ARE, I know!)

Recent pics

Drawing with Dadda's helmut on!

I love this cheeky laugh! Just out of the shower.. with our new little baby.. Amedia (named by Maddie of course!)



'I must wear my ladybird wings to the supermarket'




Our Christmas Tree

Anika's Birthday Party

A few weeks ago Maddie had a super duper weekend where she had TWO parties in one weekend! What more could a four year old wish for!

These weren't just any parties, they were spectacular, amazing, over the top, hard to live up to - type parties. Needless to say, much fun was had. Is it because she goes to an expensive school!?? Mistake! Anyway, I forgot my camera at the second party (which was at an Italian restaurant and had a kids entertainer/magician) but below are a few photos from a friend from schools' birthday. The theme was 'A beary happy birthday' and they all made their own bears which they took home, along with a gigantic party bag, and don't even get me started on the food!!!

Making bears


Floppy headed bear


Limbo!

Maddie and Anika

Feast!

The London Eye

I am so SO behind in blogging.....Sigh..... I guess that's what happens when you: A. Move to a new computer, which doesn't have the software you need and you are absolutely stupid at using computers and therefore you just ignore it and hope someone else puts the software on there... and B. you start being a working woman again.. and all chance of any free time is swiftly stolen from you!

And so despite being very behind, I'm going to keep this short and sweet.

Tonight we went on the London eye with Matt's work as an end of year family kind of get together. It was fun.. the night was beautiful (freezing) but so clear.. and the view was spectacular. Maddie was particularly excited about the whole adventure... and the deal was sealed when Matt's boss gave her a spectacularly girly present! Plus there was a baby on board which she was completely and utterly fascinated with (forget the view of London!!).

I'm soooo excited!

I'll try and update more random pics and things again soon. Time and motivation permitting!.. One must have time to veg out on the couch as well.. it's vital for sanity!

On the Eye

The baby!

Unwrapping her beautiful present


.... and here it is

Random pics...

 

Maddie is learning to read!

 

Wearing fairy wings to church! .. & searching for a pizza place

Maddie is....not happy that we can't find the pizza place!

Pizza place can't be found.. must settle for a burger instead!

... or a fruit salad

 

Maddie dresses up as Cinderella for a school fundraiser.. pretty hair!

 

What a cute hat from Great Grandma Sue!

 

Christmas decorations in Carnaby Street

Kylie turns 27!!!  Its time for an Indian feast!

Happy Birthday to me

Maddie did a good job of looking after me on the morning of my birthday. 

She made me an awesome wrapping paper covered bottle... my favourite present!   A few days before my birthday we were skyping with Mum, and Maddie told me I had to go into my bedroom while she showed Dee Dee the present that she had made for me.  So I marched myself off to my room, and she promptly held up the wrapping paper covered bottle to mum... who exclaimed 'wow its beautiful.. what's inside it?"  (by this time I am giggling in the bedroom, because I know that there is nothing inside it..and how proud Maddie is of the fact she has covered this bottle with paper) 

Maddie replied with an 'are you stupid!' flat tone: "its just a bottle, just an old recycled bottle"   .. so by this time I am cracking up, and Maddie tells mum with a sigh "Mama's laughing in there"   :)

I guess you had to be there, but it was funny at the time.  Its so cute how fiercely proud of her paper covered bottle she was.  I made a very appropriate fuss of it when I was presented with it on the day!

Me and my pressies - taken by Maddie

Pressies and cards... (note that amazing bottle at the back!)

Maddie gets a present of her own!

On the Friday night following my birthday I had a great night out with Michelle and Laura.  We went to a funky Asian restaurant,with desserts to die for.  We ate so much, that we felt the need to walk.. and walked nearly all the way home!

 

I can't tell you how good they were, but Loz's face sums it up!

Trick or Treat! (or Twinkle tree)

To be quite honest I think the celebration of Halloween is one of the strangest things I have ever heard of.  I may be completely ignorant, cause I have no idea of its origin, or what it actually means... but the idea of dressing up as frightening scary creatures, and knocking on people's doors at night (which have been decorated with carved vegetables!!!); asking for lollies (or sweets if I was to use the 'English' term).. is just plain weird!!!

I'm reading this to Maddie as I type .. and she said to say "But tell them it was fun!"  Ha ha :)

Well just for a bit of fun we decided to join in on doing the whole trick or treat thing, with Maddie's friend from school, her brother and her parents.  Maddie thought it was an absolute blast.  We had to find her a quick fix costume in the morning of the 31st, and being the girly girl that she is, there was no way in the world that she was going to dress up as something scary!  She was desperate to be a princess, and luckily thanks to Woolworth's we were able to pick up a cheap sleeping beauty costume. 

 Getting ready at Ruby's house

Ruby, Max and Maddie

Collecting from a Witch with a big black spider!!

Artistic Pumpkins

The excitement was absolutely out of control as we got ready at Ruby's house and that was before we even fed them any sugar!!

We caught a cab to a nearby street that was particularly well known for its decorations.  It was pretty impressive.. the majority of houses were really well decorated and people had gone to a lot of trouble.  Everyone obviously had the same idea as us about this street, as the footpaths were packed with kids!   The girls thought it was absolutely fantastic that they were greeted at the door by witches who gave them lollies.  They went from house to house and filled up their bags with goodies... with us reminding them at each gate to remember their 'thankyou's'!  

Thankfully it was all over pretty quickly, as I was absolutely freezing (yes yes Mum, I know, Maddie's only wearing short sleeves!  You should have heard me trying to convince her to put a coat on over her costume.. it was no use!) 

Besides the cold, I had a dinner appointment to get to (see the next post).. so we hurried to Sam and Laura's where Sam showed great interest in inspecting Maddie's goodie bag, and did a great job of cheering her up (as the walk back to their house was a bit of a trial!!)

Would I do it next year?... hmmm....well... I think once every two years would be better... or maybe every three!

Oh - and the best part of all was walking back to Sam's house when Maddie said "Mama, I love doing Twinkle tree".....