Sophies 5th Birthday

Sophie has turned 5 and Alicia and I attended her party. The family still lives in Qatar and sounds like they are having a ball but they managed to get back to Australia for Christmas and it was good to catch up. Alicia and Sophie went straight back to where they left off. It was really lovely to see.

My Birthday Present

Ewan's eye

Alicia's eye

For my birthday, 1 of the presents I received was a movie camera. I LOVE it. I just have to learn how to get the movie from the hard drive to a DVD but I will work that out eventually. I was also mucking around with the still camera section of the camera and the zoom and the photos of Alicia's and Ewans eye was the result. I thought it looked cool and it was amazing to see the different shape of their eyes aswell as the different colour. Ewan definitely has my eyes where I think Alicia has Brads.

Birthday cake for Ewan

There was no direction given to Dee for Ewans birthday cake. It was just a wait and see attempt. Pretty good attempt, I must say. Ben 10 was a hit. You have to admit, she has flare.

Ewan turns 7

Hey, hey. He's arrived, only just. Ewan turned 7 yesterday and it was a momentous occasion. Well, any kids birthday is, really. He had fun, away from home, inviting some friends and family to the video arcade Intencity. They played hard on the arcade games for 1 1/2 hours. The most time consuming thing was to pick the prizes at the end.

The arcade was followed by dinner with the family. We haven't had a full get together for a while and it was really good to have everyone over. Tea was delicious, (it would have been, I didn't cook) and the company was even better. Everyone complied with my request of a family photo, but they are so used to it now that they just do as I say. I especially love the family photos.

Bhodie's 4th Birthday

Alicia was invited to Bhodies's birthday party which was held at Littlehampton at Platform 1. Bhodie is Alicia's best friend at kindy. Platform 1 is set up like a train station. It's party room is an actual old carriage and then they have a miniature train, for train rides and animals, pig, horse, chickens, sheep. It takes approximately 2 1/2 hours and you aren't bored for 1 minute. They have their schedule down pat and it runs very smoothly.

We all went, as a family and got to meet other kindy families. Things you normally don't do because the kids are getting picked up and dropped off at different times. These parents will probably be the same parents that we will know when the kids go to school, so its nice to develop some kind of rapport.

The kids had a great time, even though it was freezing cold, it at least didn't rain.

Birthday Cake for Alicia

Wow. What an effort from Nanna and Poppa. The cake looked magnificent. Exactly how I imagined. Alicia loved it too, the feathers on the Barbie in particular. The Barbie theme was reasonably easy. Anything to do with dolls she loves.

Alicia turns 4

Alicia has turned 4 and as she is accustomed too, she had a great birthday. She had a birthday party with many new friends, as well as family. We played pin the tiara on the Barbie, musical statues, pass the parcel and we did a treasure hunt. The kids played on the trampoline and rode the bikes. In all it was a good day. She also got a lot of really nice presents, that were surrounded with lots and lots of plastic and ties. Painful for me. Now we have to find somewhere to put everything. Hopefully she will go to bed early tonight.

Alicia's 4th Birthday Invites, Barbie theme

Here is the latest on the Alicia's 4th Birthday invites. Mum was an absolute star. As usual (in the last 6 weeks) I am a little time poor, which is code for Oh my god, I have to make Alicia's invites before tomorrow. I am certainly not as organised as I once was and there are a few extra factors to be dealing with this year.

Mum worked out how the doll was folded to be cut properly, she cut the dolls out, cut the skirts out and glued the flower on. I did the rest, which wasn't much really. I made up for it with the lolly bags. Painful, fiddly things. I plan on organising Alicia's entire party before Uni starts again, just to be safe.

The invites turned out really well and Alicia loved them.

Cameron's 4th Birthday

Cameron turned 4 early March. Yes, they are growing up, big time. Leanne and Steve had a barbeque. It was a great get together. Stephanie showed her younger side and went on the trampoline with the kids. She was bouncing just as good as the rest of them. Its funny how you have motion sickness when you get older, but as a kid, you could jump all day. I can't stay too long on the trampoline. We didn't make it to Cameron's superhero birthday but it sounded like a really good day.

Chelsea turns 9

No, they don't get younger, they only get older. Chelsea turned 9 and we had a pool party to celebrate. It has been mega hot here for almost 2 weeks. Even grandma had a dip in the pool. The icecream cake, almost didn't make it because we were too busy getting photos. I hope Chelsea had a good day, we wish her a Happy Birthday.

Keira's 1st Birthday

A lot has happened in the Coulter household in the last few weeks. Keira turned 1. So Leanne had a lovely birthday party with all the family, including a wading pool which we certainly needed. The older kids had a ball in and out of the pool. Keira loved all her presents and seemed very content to just 'hang' out.

Ryans 11th Birthday

We had a nice BBQ to celebrate Ryan's birthday. The kids had a great time and a get together is always very cool. Isn't he growing up.

Brads excursion

Brad went to the shops with the kids to buy my birthday present. I had already bought some things because at least that way, I know I am going to get something. Before they went shopping, he asked Alicia what she would like to get me. Her response "A toy". Brad said "What kind of toy?" She proudly replied, "A barbie" and then said, "Me too". So there goes it, Alicia thought I would like a Barbie doll however if I was having one, then she was going to have one. That's kids for ya.

Its birthday time

Its that time of year again when heaps of people have their birthdays. Phoenix was over from Melbourne with Scotty in the second week of the school holidays. Boy, she is growing. Her birthday was the end of September. And Charli turned 6 not long before Ewan. Carla made the cake, she is very talented. Not bad, for a throw together in a couple of hours.

Superhero Birthday Cake

Deirdre you should make a birthday cake like this. What do you think? Luckily she said, "Yes" and voila, it seemed to appear. We had a couple of templates and Deirdre had a thought. The pan size proved to be a little temperamental and the Superman figurine wasn't that easy to find but she succeeded in the end. She produced a masterpiece AGAIN.

Thanks again Dee, the tradition is well cemented and the cake adds to the celebrations of the day.

Ewans 6th Birthday

Ewan turned 6 on Saturday and we had a superhero party. Everyone dressed up in the costumes and had their best smiles on. We had a couple of games, including a pinata (that I made) it almost lasted one round. Brad opened it a little more and then tipped the lollies and stuff out. The kids had a good time collecting the lollies and toys. The other was a sack race. It least it passed the time and the kids didn't have to run a muck. The trampoline came in handy as did the football and balls. Ewan had a really good time and received lots of lovely presents.

Its funny. I didn't think about his birth day. The day he was born and the drama that unfolded before that. Slowly other memories take over and you admire the way they have grown and how fast it has all happened instead. We have many more milestones to happen, lets hope they are just as memorable.

It ends up a long day, luckily it was the beginning of a long weekend.

Ewan's Party Lolly bags

Check these out! They turned out exactly as I had imagined them. Pretty cool, hey. Black for boys and purple for girls.

Ewans 6th Birthday Invitations

Its getting to that time of year AGAIN, and as usual we have to decide on a theme. What to do, but make it easy, nothing too extravagant. Ummmm, I know exactly - Superhero's

Yes, I know we have used Spiderman but this incorporates Batman & Superman aswell as Spiderman. The girls should not be forgotten because we could have Wonderwoman and Violet and Elastagirl (The Incredibles). Wahoo, we have a theme, now for the cake and invites.

Google is our friend. The cake decoration was very easy to find. Dee can make that, no worries. She has become our resident bakery expert. Share the jobs around I say. Sole Traderships are over rated. She was happy with the design and didn't do that (OMG) face. This is a plus.

Unfortunately for me, I have a thought in my head as to what the invites will look like. Yes, they are made from scratch, yes they involve Ewans face or features, yes it has to be a big production. Why else would you do it? Finding the building picture was the hardest thing and I still haven't mastered the concept of the invitations fitting into a standard size envelope. This would take the fun out of it. I also need to find a way of cutting out more than one picture at a time, because when you add it all up, it becomes a lot of cutting. 20 invites, 3 characters per invite, 3 Ewan photos per invite. See what I mean. Anyway, they turned out exactly how I pictured them, so I am very pleased with them.

Next, my thoughts will turn to the lolly bags, decorations and games. I'm hoping to include a pinata, but Brad is not keen on the idea. Party pooper.