Just landed back in Brisbane about an hour ago... lots of of updates and photos to share... but I'll be back later with a proper update!
I just went to check out one of my latest favourite digital scrapbooking sites - Digital-Crea... I've put a couple of freebie kits they've got going on in my shopping cart. Anyway... a couple of weeks ago I entered a competition/challenge they were running... people had to submit one LO using the freebie collaboration kit - Delicate Spring - they were giving away and there were vouchers for the store up for grabs for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Anyway... on the home page of Digital-Crea, my LO is listed! My LO won *second place*! OMG... I am so totally stoked! I won a 20 euro voucher to spend in the store... (okay, so this is not going to be that exciting for most people, but to me that's a huge deal and 20 euros can but quite a few digital kits!) I can't wait to go shopping tonight!
I just had to share, because I am soooo excited! I'll leave you with the LO that submitted to the competition ...
Journalling Reads -
All dressed up and ready to go to Skylar’s place to celebrate her 3rd birthday... You were looking forward to the party so much and had practiced saying “Happy Birthday Skylar” (incessantly!) all morning. These photos were taken just before we went to the party, you were being so silly for the camera! You had a wonderful time (although you were a bit uncertain at the beginning of the party) and after the party had finished you spent the afternoon repeating your recollections of the party to me... “Jumping Castle”... “Cake”... “Icecream”... “Chocolate Frog”... “Fairy”... “Happy Birthday Skylar”...
“Party Hat”.... “Elmo Balloon”.. “Jumping Castle”....
Credits
Delicate Spring - Collaboration from digital-crea
Font - Garamond Premier Pro
OMG!
Happy Birthday Daddy
Happy Birthday Phan! We love you so very very much. We have been practising saying "Happy Birthday Daddy" all week... Beth's pretty good at it now... although it's taken a fair bit of practise... It started off as "Happy Birthday Skylar Daddy" (because Beth still remembered Skylar's birthday... how cute is that?) And then morphed into a dyslexic "Happy Daddy Birthday"... and finally we have mastered "Happy Birthday Daddy". Hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day Phan...
Giving Mummy Some Cheek
From the same shoot that the "Party Girl" series was taken.
Thank you to everyone who left me get well vibes in the comments of my last post... I think I'm starting to get a bit better... throat still kills, but only one ear hurts now... although, that hasn't been helped by Beth squealing and singing along to John Mayer on DVD tonight (although, I love that she is a John Mayer fan!)
This morning we went to a Cushion Concert at QPAC. It's a concert held by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra with the conductor (who in this case was from Norway) dressed up as a clown and hamming it up a bit and making classical music and the orchestra more accessible to young kids. It's aimed at the 3-7 year olds I think, but Beth thoroughly enjoyed it... She actually sat still for almost the entire concert, only getting up at the end to dance to a circus polka that was obviously too irresistable to not dance to. She even sat in her own chair (with a cushion on it)... now *that* surprised me, because I thought she would have been nervous of the big crowd, and would have wanted to sit on my lap, but nope, even when I offered my lap (because I thought she might get a better view from my lap), she insisted on sitting on her own. I loved that she enjoyed it so much... I actually enjoyed the concert myself... it was fun, music and I had a lovely time oogling the pipe organ in the concert hall... just divine... I wonder what it sounds like...
Okay, gotta get some rest, I've a heap of laundry to do tomorrow and some things I need to get done before we head off on a trip back home to Adelaide on Friday... Looking forward to going home and catching up with family and friends and having them see what a chatterbox Beth has turned into... Also looking forward to some gooooood food (yes, the foodie in me is looking forward to chao tom, bracegirdles, tay do bread rolls and yum cha... and I really want to go and visit the Central Markets! Bring it on... (and please make my ear stop hurting...)
Dreaming...
Last night Beth woke up in the wee hours of the morning crying out... I went to resettle her and she was dreaming and pointing and getting annoyed... then she said "Go!"... So I asked her, "Where do you want to go?" and in her dream-state she answered "Shop!" I was chuckling to myself, 'cos she was so cute, so I tried to half wake her and said "We can't go to the shops... It's night time... Time to go back to sleep." And then she started doing this whingy cry at me for not letting her go to the shops... Very cute and hilarious... After about half an hour she settled down and went back to sleep. She's must be going through a dreaming phase now...
Sorry, I've been missing in action on the blog... I came down with a fever last Thursday and have been feeling pretty awful for all of Easter. Now I have a throat and ear infection... I just got back from driving around for an hour looking for a pharmacy that was open so I could get some antibiotics... I just want my ears to get better before we get on a plane on Friday to fly home to Adelaide and I wish my throat would stop killing me so I can eat something without being in pain! Send me some get well vibes!
Hanging Around
Taken at our local park yesterday... I was trying out my new camera (I've got quite a collection now!)... a Canon G10... which I bought for our upcoming holiday in San Diego, because I don't want to lug the 40D with me... (day trip in unfamiliar country + toddler + heavy camera + by myself = too much hard work!) The G10 is a fabulous high-end P&S camera... really happy with the quality of photos and it's easy to use with kind of familiar controls for me... It shoots RAW (although, I've just been shooting JPEG so far) and I can attach my 580EX speedlite to it... which looks rather ridiculous and top heavy, but works well!
The Party Girl
Beth got invited to a birthday party on Saturday... It was her friend Skylar's third birthday party... and particularly special because Skylar is Beth's first "real friend" (as in Beth and Skylar became friends of their own accord... It's probably fair to say that most of Beth's friends have started off as being arranged because I have become friend's with the mum first and then us arranging playdates for the girls to become acquainted... (yes, interferring mums.. :))... but in the case of Veronica, who is Beth's other good friend, they have really hit it off as a result of us "setting up their friendship"). Anyway, I digress... I had spent the latter part of last week teaching Beth to say "Happy Birthday Skylar"... (which often ended up as Beth saying "Happy Skylar"... a sentiment I'm sure was true, but not quite the correct expression... :p) and by Saturday morning, I was listening to Beth say "Happy Birthday Skylar" over and over like a broken record for about half an hour!
We had a wonderful time at the party (okay, maybe not for the first 30-45 minutes.. Beth got a bit freaked out by the people that were there that she didn't know, esp the strange men!), but once we played a game of pass the parcel and got to eat a Freddo frog, she was much happier and had a ball dancing to "The Fairies" on TV, jumping in the jumping castle, having icecream cake and playing musical statues. It was a great party... and lovely to get the opportunity to meet Skylar's parents, who were just delightful.
Beth crashed out in the car on the way home... and had a massive 1.5 hour nap, before waking up in the the most chipper mood and started telling me about all the things at the party... Our conversation went something like -
Beth - "Jumping Castle!"
Me - "Yes, there was a jumping castle at the party".
Beth - "Party! Skylar Party"
Me - "Yes, did we have fun at Skylar's party?"
Beth - "Party! Party Hat!"
Me - "Yes, you liked wearing the party hat didn't you?"
Beth - "Happy Birthday Skylar"
Me - "Yes, that's what we said when we saw Skylar."
Beth - "Dinosaur...
Me - "Yes, you ate dinosaurs didn't you?" (the natural confectionery kind!)
Beth - "Cake"
Me - "Yes, we had cake at the party too"
Beth - "Icecream"
Me - "Yes, icecream cake... it was yummy"
Beth - "Chocolate frog!"
Me - "And the chocolate frog was good too." (notice how she takes huge notice of the food)
Beth - "Jumping Castle!"
LOL... It is so hilariously cute having a conversation which involves recalling events with a 2 year old!
The series of photos, I took just before we headed off to the party... Beth decided to ham it up and be really silly in the 5 minutes I had to take some snaps... and that last photo is a real "classic" Beth shot, because she always covers her face when she's scared or doesn't want to do something (the latter in this case!)
