Happy Halloween

My second favorite Holiday of the year (after Christmas)...I love Halloween.

The kids and I spent the afternoon decorating the house and preparing the loot bags.  And we didn't prepare anything like enough.  We ended up with 75 trick or treaters (up from last year 30).  I am so pleased to see that Halloween is finally catching on in NZ. 

Then we spent the evening greating all the kids and enjoying dinner with Nana and Grandad.  My kids loved it.

Holly loved her Pumpkin costume.

Phoebe loved her witches costume in the afternoon.  But by the time evening came....she wanted to be a dinosaur.

Hunter was a pirate.  Simply because, I had bought him a skeleton costume, which I put in a "safe place".  I guess someday I will find it again.

Happy Halloween everyone :)

Halloween Countdown

I love Halloween.   I wish it was celebrated here more.  

In preparation for tommorrow, Holly made some Halloween Cupcakes. 

Here's the recipe....in photo form!!!

I haven't managed to get a photo yet, but she made them purple inside.  They looked very cool and were delicious!  Well done Holly.

The Dentist

It was a special day today...Phoebe (right) had her first trip to the Dentist. 



Luckily we were able to combine both girls appointments so Holly (left) went along for a second time and was able to assure Phoebe that it was all fun! (after all her recent hospital and doctors visits she is slightly cautious now).  It was such a relief to get an awesome dentist tht the girls loved.

Poppa even came to watch the big event.  Don't you love the Dentists special glasses...how come my Dentist doesn't give me ones like that!  I loved Phoebe's first choice of glasses - big purple ones to match her outfit - she must have style ;o)

Curious George Party

Phoebe turned 2 on Saturday!  How quickly those 2 years have gone but how fun they have been.  She is such a cheeky little monkey - she brings so much joy. 

She also loves Curious George - hence the theme of the party!

I had so much fun preparing for this party.  I enlisted the help of Holly (3) and we managed to get everything organised during Phoebe's nap times.  Holly was so proud of herself.  And it was so much fun to include her in the preparation.

A snapshot of the party...

We made the invitations into magnets - which makes it so much easier for guests to keep the details to hand.

I ordered Phoebe a handmade skirt from http://www.etsy.com/shop/MagicalDreamTouch  I found it really hard to get Curious George merchandise in NZ actually so most of my purchases were from overseas...or I had to hand make them.  I made the top for her just using an iron on transfer.

Holly loved the top we had made for Phoebe, so I made one for her and also for Hunter (2 months).  The tie is supposed to be the tie of "The Man with the Yellow Hat".  I actually ended up making these on the morning of the party.  In hindsight I wish I had made more of an effort with making yellow outfits for them...oh well.

I decorated the house with Curious George books and soft toys.  We had the Curious George movie playing in the background the whole time as well. 

Holly and I also made Happy Birthday Phoebe bunting each with pictures of George on them.  This was mostly Holly's efforts...good work Hol!

As well as red and yellow balloons, we hung inflatable monkeys around.  Very cool.

I made these wine charms using buttons from http://www.etsy.com/shop/BarefootWithButtons

We had an awesome cake made by Suzanne.  Banana of course!  It was spectacular!

I had to order most of my Curious George party supplies (napkins, plates etc) from http://www.prettypartyplace.com/.  The service from here was great - quickly delivered from the US.

The kids loot bags included Barrel of Monkeys game, Curious George stickers, Curious George sunglasses, Curious George bubbles and food goodies.

The adults favour bags were banana flavoured lollies.  On the back of the lolly labels I listed all the important historical events that occurred on Phoebe's birth date.

Phoebe had such a fun day playing with all her family!

She was shattered by the end of the party. 

Happy Birthday Phoebe!  xoxo

New Paintings

Wow it has been a while since my last post...we have had weeks of sick kids (including Phoebe in hospital).  I am holding out for the change of weather and hoping it brings a change in health.

We had an exciting day yesterday with the delivery of 6 new paintings we had purchased!  I am so stoked with them.  They are just amazing.  Two of them were commissioned (and we are waiting on a third commission to be completed).

I wish the photos did them justice...I need to work on the photography.

They are by Kevin Logan.  Kevin had a recent exhibition at the Lake House in Takapuna called "Acrylic Allsorts".  "Kevin is a builder who started with pencil drawings just three years ago. With encouragement from his elder brother he attempted painting with acrylics. Painting has helped to fill the void of losing his eldest brother a week after the loss of his twin brother, both from melanoma cancer, four years ago."

Lake Rotiti (the picture is also Kevins' business card)

The Kingston Flyer (commissioned by us)

Boats at Rest (March 2010)

Venice (October 2010)

Lake Waikareiti (commissioned by us)

Stoney Beach (April 2011)

We are so stoked to have these paintings to add to our collection.  Now we have to work on getting a bigger house to display them all!