Wordless Wednesday: I {heart} Autumn

Playing along with My Little Drummer Boys + Faith, Hope & a whole lotta Love

5 Ways in 5 Days: Day 2 ~ We Play Hairdressers

Figures they'd suddenly get camera shy

This morning the girls chose glittery accessories for their hair and I tried a side ponytail. Very cute. I've always wanted to be able to pull off the side pony but it's just not something that works with my hair, so having two little girls that are able to wear it is very exciting.

Since receiving the parcel of goodies in the mail for this challenge and starting to help me choose what they want done with their hair, the girls have started playing hairdressers. I just love the natural progression as what's happening in their lives reflects in their play and this one is particularly cute.

Now he's a girl, apparently

They each set themselves up with their toy of choice, a brush and some hair accessories and get to work. Kahlei does a whole lot of chatting and getting distracted (just like many hairdressers I've been to) while Ellie quietly goes about her business, lovingly brushing and styling.

As is to be expected with any hairdresser, they eventually start looking for live models to try their skills on...

Isn't Uncle Caleb a lucky boy?

Come see what others are playing

Check out all my 5 Ways in 5 Days posts:

Day 1: For the Love of Hair

Day 2: We Play Hairdressers <--

Day 3: A 'Tangled' Review + GIVEAWAY

Day 4: Day Care Hair

Day 5: Magic Hair

5 Ways in 5 Days: Day 1 ~ For the Love of Hair

Both my girls were born with practically no hair. In fact; Ellie didn't have any until well after she was two. When she was a baby I had to have her in a headband at all times, even when she was wearing a dress or pink, otherwise people would comment on my cute baby boy.

The moment I could manage to put her hair (or the few strands she had) I did - she was 16 months and I was thrilled.

Ellie's first ponytail

From that day I wanted to put her hair in a tiny ponytail all the time. Unfortunately, she wasn't so keen.

Now that she's a little lady who loves all things pink, pretty and girly she loves to have her hair done and because Ellie likes to have her hair done, so does Kahlei. I love it. I waited SO long to buy clips, hairbands and accessories!

With the release of the new Disney movie, Tangled, just around the corner the girls and I have taken on the Porter Novelli 5 Ways in 5 Days Challenge because a) we loved Tangled and b) we LOVE to do hair!

The lovely Briony sent us some funky hair accessories so this morning we broke them out.

Piggy tails are BIG here at the moment, Ellie always requests "Two, please." and I think they are just the epitome of childhood; a happy, bouncy hair-do for those carefree days of innocence.

And it's just so damn cute watching them run around with their hair flying everywhere.
Now that they have some!

What' your favourite kiddie hairstyle?

ETA: I have just drawn the winner of my April Giveaway. Congrats Lisa W, who wrote;

Whenever the kids ask for a difficult character for a birthday cake, I tell them I don't have the copyright to reproduce the image...oops, bad mummy. lol.  


I have really enjoyed the comments about white lies, some of you are such fibbers ;)

Check out all my 5 Ways in 5 Days posts:

Day 1: For the Love of Hair <--

Day 2: We Play Hairdressers

Day 3: A 'Tangled' Review + GIVEAWAY

Day 4: Day Care Hair

Day 5: Magic Hair

We Play: Fairies

If you're oh-so-quiet when you step out my backdoor and tiptoe your way to the edge of the garden you might just catch a glimpse of the two beautiful fairies who take up residence amongst our daisies and kangaroo paws during the day.

There is a pink fairy and a blue fairy. They flit around, checking on plants, singing songs to butterflies, dancing, tending to animals and even weeding.

If you're lucky enough to catch a glimpse, enjoy the simple happy moments which unfold when you have a gorgeous garden and two beautiful fairies who are too magical to fight.

What have you been playing lately? 

Visit Childhood 101's We Play link up for more play ideas

{52 Weeks}: Week 32: Ready or Not

We've just come home from a weekend away. We travelled 5 hours to go to a Family Day Care interview and to meet the carer we'd chosen. Both girls will start Day Care on the 10th of March.

Am I ready?

Swimming

On Sunday we were finally able to get out the Little Mermaid shell grandma gave the girls for Christmas and fill it with water. They had a wonderful afternoon splashing about. James popped his feet in and dropped pebbles in for some good splashes.

Jasper and I watched, laughed and I took lots of photos. It was lovely, although I managed to get burnt. I didn't even realise I was in the sun.

The rest of the weekend was full of tantrums and sickness and tears, so this was a special, happy time for us as a family. A break in the crazy weekend.

Come join in with more Point and Shoot fun with Fat Mum Slim.

We Play: Cooking

My girls love to cook, whether it be helping me in the kitchen or pretending with some bowls and spoons. For Christmas, Nanna gave them each utensils, bowls and a fry pan for their cooking adventures and James and I had plans to purchase a kitchen we found at IKEA, which ended up being sold out.

The other day as I tried to soothe my unsettled bub while attempting to clean the house and entertain Ellie and Kahlei I decided to kill too birds with one stone and use the empty Huggies boxes to make a fridge, stove/oven and microwave for them to use with their Christmas gifts.

It's worked a treat. They are forever cooking me pancakes, though I am not sure why when we rarely ever have them in real life. The best thing is it only took me 10 minutes to whip these babies up, all I needed was some wrapping paper, sticky tape, bottle lids and a marker. Easy peasy.

Come play with Childhood 101's We Play link up

What have you been playing lately?

A Visit to Santa

We tried the whole shopping for Oprah Show clothes again today, with our three grumpy kidlets in tow who should have been napping instead of meandering through clothes store after clothes store.

After trying on garment after garment thrown at me given to me by James or the lovely yet over-zealous shop assistant I did manage to come away with an ensemble I was happy to wear (well, I was until James took some photos to send to mum), minus a bag, bling and shoes.

Around lunch time we managed to fit in a Santa 'visit'. We sat on a park bench where we could see the man in the Big Red Suit from which Ellie happily waved and called out to him as we ate our meal and talked about how she was about to go and see Santa. She danced about like an excited Pixie and when the time came she gave Kahlei a pep-talk about how he wasn't scary.

We made our way over, only to have both girls freak out. No surprise there, really, so we said they should just wave at him as we passed which they happily did until Santa decided to be his generous self. He stood to give the girls some cardboard reindeer antlers as they passed another bench and both ended up kneeling on the seat crying at Santa to stay away.

And me being the horrible mother that I am found it amusing (only mildy so, of course).

Santa's helper saved them by bringing their antlers and a balloon each and we went on our way, only to have both girls obsessively waving and calling out to Santa again once they were a safe distance from him.

Ah well, maybe next year...


When did your children feel okay to go see Santa?

Today I am grateful for:

1. Getting out of the house and this town
2. Watching Ellie and Kahlei together, especially Ellie as she cuddles and comforts Kahlei
3. My beautiful cousin, who I miss like crazy and who leaves me loving messages that make me miss her more, but they also make me feel warm and loved
4. My wonderful husband who bought me my outfit and has organised maps, aps and timetables for our travel into and out of the city on Tuesday
5. New clothes. I don't often get to shop for myself, especially not for fancy-ish clothes

Highs and Lows

This past weekend was full of tears, excitement, sadness, happy moments and plenty of them all.

There were words with my mum, making me cranky and upset, mammoth tantrums and neediness from both girls, frustration about the lack of help I am receiving. More drama and feelings of having spent this year supporting others through tough spots, using so much energy on that and then being treated like I am a pain now that I need some support and help. As so many of you know, things get magnified a million times over in the emotional stakes during pregnancy and at this late stage everything simply seems to be piling on top of me at once.

On the upside there was a decision to let myself think Ethan is on holiday to release some of the stress about him reading instead of helping, the beauty of nature as I saw my first whale, watched an Eagle soar just over my head, a quiet lunch with my husband - alone - while Ethan stayed home with the napping girls, a precious moment with my girls at the park as Ellie caught Kahlei on the slippery dip.

And last night there was a phone call from mum telling me that 1) I can finally stop hiding my brother's secret now (as to whether I can share it here, I am not sure yet) as we all know and 2) She got tickets to Oprah and I AM HER GUEST! 

It was also our last weekend as a family of four with just two busy girls.

Join in with more Point & Shoot fun over at Fat Mum Slim
Or share your weekend at Scissors Paper Rock

We Play: With Uncle Max

With Uncle Max is here to help me out, I sent all three kiddos outside with spray bottles containing a mixture of half paint, half water, a pile of paper and let them loose.

I think this is one of our most successful painting activity for a long time. It lasted until we were all out of paper and even then Ellie wanted to keep spraying the pictures we had hanging up to dry. I really love the effect of the end product and think I will wrap some pressies at Christmas time or something along those lines.

Of course, once all the paper was sufficiently covered there was a need to use up the rest of the mixture by running around spraying each other.

Both girls tried 'sneaking' up on Uncle Max numerous times... but somehow he always seemed to catch them...

Although, sometimes they managed to get him :)

And once the spraying was over there was lots of running around and playing chasing until both girls and Uncle Max were thoroughly worn out.

I highly recommend anyone with children get themselves an Uncle Max ;)

Come play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up.