These days

You know what? Some days I'm really still struggling quite a lot. It could be because Sophie is still up every 2-3 hours most nights and is nearly one. It could be because the boys spring out of bed everyday at 6 and are right into playing, fighting, being loud and needing me to this and that and this and that. It could be that I'm just feeling a bit too old for this! It could be that hubby leaves for work at 5:30, just before my hectic day starts so I'm all alone. It could be that I just need some sleep, a break and more rest.

Some days I feel like I just make it through the day.

And this morning, while I listen to men with power tools make heaps of noise outside on one of the precious mornings that I only have Sophie so could be sleeping, I saw this quote on facebook and it made sense.

"I don't want to minimize the stage you're in. I don't want to tell you "Enjoy these days, they go by so fast." I don't want to patronize you.

Instead let me pour a little encouragement your way:

Go ahead and grumble, or be patient. You don't have to handle all the issues perfectly.

Go ahead and cry, and wonder if it's all worth it.

Go ahead and pray, for strength to make it through the next five minutes.

Because one day--often when you least expect it--often when you've come to peace with the imperfections and decided to be happy anyway--you'll wake up, look around and realize:

They just don't do that anymore."

I hear a lot about enjoying these early days as they don't last forever. Yeah, I know. I get it. But some days surely I can just grumble for the strength to make it through.

yep.


 

A quote for a Sunday

(image here)

I love this quote by Dr Seuss. We recently went to see my sister in her latest musical, Seussical the Musical. She played the lead role of The Cat in the Hat and she was awesome! She has regular roles in our local musical society and it surprises me how good some of them are, especially her!

There was a song in the musical using the quote above. And since the musical, I've been having it playing over and over in my head. In particular when my small people are testing me... and that's a lot lately!! Need to keep it in my head that they are small people and their opinions matter, even when they are disagreeing with me. Although, of course, I'm usually right ;)

 

Book Week - The Big Bad Wolf

Book Week is a fun time for kids. At our school it's also a time to raise money for new books for the school library.

Part of Book Week is the dress up day. The kids go as a character from a book. Last year we had a parade, but this year we didn't which was disappointing as I wanted to see them all dressed up!

Jack chose to go as The Big Bad Wolf! We needed something fairly simple, so I dressed him in black pants and a black t-shirt, made a mask from felt, a tail from fluffy fake fur fabric and matching arm bands. Done!! And super easy!!

 

Banana Muffins

I found a yummy recipe for banana muffins. I've tested it out on my toughest critics (the kids!) and they gave the tick of approval.

 First thing you need is a special little helper! While not *really* necessary, it can make a difference to the end result ;)

Ingredients
2 cups of self raising flour
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of mil
2 eggs
1 cup of mash bananas - this is around 2 large

Method
Sift the flour, add the sugar and beat
In a jug, pour milks, oil & eggs & whisk
Pour the milk mixture & banana into the dry ingredients.
Beat
Bake for 15 mins

I put them in a small cupcake cooking tray as I find the muffin size of the muffin trays way too big. This way, I had heaps of small muffins. Perfect for school lunch. These muffins froze really well too.

 

Luke's 4th birthday - Batman Party!!

In April, our little Luke turned FOUR! He seems to have grown up so much from 3 to 4 and while our sweet little quiet boy is now boasting a bit of an attitude, he sure is growing into such an awesome little dude.

The morning began at home with present opening!! His requests?? He wanted LEGO of his own - he usually plays with Jack's - and he wanted cars & Batman LEGO.

Yep. Think he was impressed! 

His birthday fell on a Saturday so we had his party on the same day. We hired a little local hall that has a playground and a huge yard for the kids to play. It's the first year he has had an actual party and he wanted to invite his little mates from preschool.

His only request for his party??? He wanted a Batman Party!!! Months before his party, I found some great invitations at a newsagency - score!

I was searching on etsy for some Batman party printables and came across this awesome set from this store. 

We had a welcome sign at the door to welcome Luke's guests

I printed the hang tags and lamintated them. Punched a hole in them, tied some string through and tied them to his party bags. The party bags were just from a local party shop. 

The food table was decorated with a blue plastic table cloth from the party shop. I was going to use the food labels from the party printables, but didn't really need them. I wanted to keep the table fairly simple. 

I printed the party bunting and laminated it for a bit of strength. It is just blu tacked to the wall. 

A helium 4 balloon was also tied to the food table. I also had Batman drink labels that I stuck to water bottles, but I can't seem to find a picture. 

For the cake, he wanted a 4 cake. I made the 4 cake with blue icing and smarties. I wanted to put something about Batman with it and was talking about ideas at his preschool. One of his little mates came up with an idea... to print a Batman picture and just pop it under the cake. Perfect! I printed the picture, laminated it and popped it under the cake. The kids loved it!! Luke's little mate who had suggested it was suitably pleased ;)

Back at home after the party, Luke opened his presents with his cousins. Boy, he got so many things!! Such a lucky little guy! The present he asked for from my mum was a Tonka truck. Jack has one that Luke loves and now he has his own one :) They loved playing with them after the party. 

He had a great day at his Batman party!! This mumma sure is glad the boys don't have birthdays now until Feb!



 

Sophie's new pram liner

Earlier this week I bought a new (second hand) pram for Sophie. I have an old pram that I used for the boys, but it has pretty much done its dash and is trashed!

I wanted one where she faced me as I walked as I that was one thing I didn't like about the prams I had for the boys.

I found a second hand strider on a local Facebook group and bought it. Love it already!

One thing it needed though is a lovely new pram liner. I searched a bit around Etsy, but couldn't find what I wanted.

What's a sewer to do????? Make one, of course!

I found a tutorial here and looked through my fabric stash for some fabric. I chose aqua chevron for one side and aqua polka dots for the other side. I lined it with micro fleece to make it nice and comfy.

I got the fabric ready, plus made up some white binding to go around the finished product

Then cut the pieces to size to match my pram as explained in the tutorial

Sewed the 3 pieces together once down the middle to secure them together. Then marked the button holes and cut those out. First time doing button holes and I had a bit of a fight with the button hole foot on the sewing machine. I ended up just doing them manually. 

Here's the polka dot side finished after the binding had been sewn on and the button holes cut out. 

Here's the chevron side finished

The chevron pram liner in the pram

The polka dot pram liner in the pram

It's so nice to be sewing something for me / baby. I'm hoping to find more time now that she's a little older. Watch this space!!!!


 

Some days are just hard

You know, some days life can be a struggle. I know a lot of people have really bad times and that I'm super lucky, but some days can still be a struggle.

Today is one of those days. I think that I just don't cope too well when I haven't had the much craved for sleep. Just like lots of parents!

Most days, I take it in my stride. Being tired goes hand in hand with the parenting journey. But today, I'm giving in. I'm going to have a sad day.

Then tomorrow, I'll be back to normal

image

I saw a quote on a page today that made me stop and think.

"You will never have this day with your kids again. Tomorrow they'll be a little older than they were today. This day is a gift. Breathe and notice. Smell and touch them; study their faces and little feet and pay attention. Relish the charms of the present. Enjoy today, Mama. It will be over before you know it" Jen Hatmaker

I'm off to play trains with Luke. Positive Sarah thinks he'll have a nap soon. Reality Sarah knows that it probably won't be the case!




 

She's growing! 4 months already

I know that *everyone* says that time goes so fast, but it really does sometimes. I still think of Sophie as a brand new little newborn, but this morning when I dropped Luke at preschool there was an actual newborn there and it made me realise just how much  Sophie has grown!

She's 4.5 months now and has 2 little teeth! She smiles at pretty much anyone. So happy all the time, except when she's tired or hungry! She's interacting so much with the boys now and loves watching them. They include her all the time and while they are still learning that they can't be as rough with her as they are with each other, they are so great with her.

I melt when she smiles at me. She lights up just that much more when she looks at me and I love it :)

image from here

 

Our baby girl

I haven't updated about our girl! I guess I have an excuse..... I've been enjoying my little newborn. And trying to sleep when I can!

 On the 4th of December, our daughter Sophie Charlotte entered the world. And she's so gorgeous. She weighed in at 3870 grams or 8 pounds 5 ounces with dark brown hair and a cute little face :)

 

The boys adore her. Luckily, she's pretty patient and puts up with them right in her face!! They want to help and hold her all the time. It's quite sweet even if it can be a little annoying when I'm trying to feed her and they are fighting over whose turn it is to hold her! haha. 

 

 She's now a month old and sometimes I can't believe she's already here but other times it feels like she's been here forever. She's starting to interact a bit with the boys and tries to reach out to them. So gorgeous to see them all together.

 We are pretty sure our family is now complete. And that feels good! Hubby had 3 weeks off work once Sophie was home and now he's back to work and it's just me with the 3 kids. I thought I'd panic, but hey, it's working ok so far! I've even taken all 3 to the park. I can do this! haha.