Here we are all dolled up and ready to paint the town red….

Thankfully, there were not many ‘kids’ around and most were between late 20s to the 50 yr old man beside sis who kept telling her that the night was still young as we got ready to leave. lol I thought that was simply hilarious – old man telling *ahem* younger women that the night was still young!

Over all, I did have fun but I could not TOTALLY have fun and forget about who I left behind. I wasnt concerned about the girls, it was Brandon who I was worried about as he normally wakes up for a feed around midnight. I kept checking my phone to see if Mum was calling us home but she didnt. So we stayed on a little longer and enjoyed the live band. But once the DJ started spinning, I was caught off guard really. Actually, its more like I had forgotten how loud club music can get. I could feel my pants vibrating!! LOL Needless to say, it’s absolutely pointless to talk in a club so whatever Sis said to me, I just nodded.

O and we had the chance to check out some (so-called) professional pole dancers at work. Sadly, I thought they were more like posers instead of dancers. Dont get me wrong, I was impressed at their upper body strength and thighs to be able to swing and hold on to the pole like pole dancers do but they werent really dancing at all. So rough and spent most of their time just posing on the pole really. The skinnier one was just plain and this goes to show that one does look nicer when you’ve got a bit of flesh on you coz the other dancer who was a little bit chubbier (and better at it too) was nice to look at. All in all, I didnt think they deserved any tips but someone did give them some so good for them.

We came home after 2am, fighting off major hunger pangs which is normal after clubbing coz I remember stuffing my face at mamaks after clubbing but not this time. I was too worried about bub to go eat. The moment I stepped in, he woke up. I reckon he sensed me and woke up….what a good boy!! So all in all, I did have fun and I think I’d like to take Ted there. It’s loud but its fun!

Anyway, I had Nutella sandwiches for Arianna and honey/butter/cheese sandwich for KR. Needless to say, I should have seen it coming but I didnt. 20min into the trip, Ted calls me and tells me that he’s heading over coz KR had thrown up in the car!! Poor thing…..and I blame me of course! Should have noticed that I was giving her dairy. *sigh* She looked awfully pale when she got out of the car – the whole car was stinking and just foul. So I got her cleaned up and ready, and we waited for the other party to come, which I think wasn’t soon enough!

As soon as Sis (Godma) go in, KR went flying to her as if she met her just yesterday but in fact it was at least 1yr ago! It’s good to see how they react with each other after all this time. Brandon wasn’t too keen at first but caved in when Sis offered him his water (cheapskate!! ). It’s great to hv sis around coz I’ve been trying my best to sew up some new stuff for the trip. And not cooking really makes a difference. Pity she’s leaving on 8/10.

I may have mentioned this before but in case I have not, while the decor is somewhat simple…this vanilla sponge is DELISH! It’s actually one of the smoothest and fluffiest (sp?) I’ve had.

I still remember how much Fr. Dom (the priest who baptised the kids) loves this cake. He thinks its the best too. This is pretty much our standard birthday cake. I dont blame my MIL if she cant remember what sort of cake she gets for everyone birthday coz there are just so many to remember! (OOOOooo, this reminds me that I’ll have to remind Ted that Simon called about wanting to know more of POS systems – MUST remember to tell Ted coz I got so many things to tell too!!)

We had meat pies that day for lunch and omg, that woman is just such a superb cook!! I could try and cook the exact thing and it would taste nothing like hers. Talk about experience and the hand that cooks it….simply delish I tells ya!!

After that, we had cake cutting…

Note that everyone is eyeing the cakse especially Brandon who is just waiting to swipe it! lol

My tribe and I

Today, as I reflect on my life one thing is clear. I have a good life, a blessed life. Looking back, if I had not met Ted and was still dating my ex, I highly doubt that we’d be married much less have 3 kids! Todate, he is still the same party animal he was back when we were dating and has still not settled down. Last I read, he was dating someone but I’m not entirely sure his mum would approve of her.

While it is my birthday, it has been like any old day for me. I guess this must be the life of a SAHM, not that I’m complaning since I get to do everything at my time and speed. I was however showered with gifts this morning before Ted went of to work.

Egyption cotton sheets (YUM!!), DVD & Gift Card from Ted & the kids, perfume from ILs and cream from BIL.

10 years ago if someone gave me sheets on my birthday, I would have been disappointed and perhaps annoyed to a certain degree coz what would a single girl, living at home with mum do with sheets??? But today, I was silently doing the jig when I saw these!! LOL Yes, I was beaming from ear to ear. That’s what family life turns you into…these days, seeing loads of laundry being hung up to dry on a hot sunny days is exciting and getting manchester and cookware is the way to make a wife happy. ^.^ How times have changed…

And I’m also very glad that Ted got me a Gift Card – he wanted to get me some clothes (I must be really bad at dressing myself up!) but he didn’t know my size. I’m not too sure if its a good thing or bad but given the choice, I’d pick the first. As the day comes to a close, we are all hoping that Ted will be back in at a reasonable time so that we can have dinner at Pancakes On The Rocks. I’ve been wanting to go there for as long as I can remember, so why not now eh?

Every time I need to get a gift for Ted, it arrives late coz I like to shop online and you can’t really rely on the post these days. These contract posties are just horrid – they dont bother handing you your parcels anymore, they just stick their ‘No one in’ card in the mailbox and bugger off. So we have to personally go in and get our parcel eventhough we were home at that time. Sick right?

Anyway this time, for Father’s Day I thought we’d get something for the car seeing that it recently got stacked and all. Maybe some new floormats like those chevy prizm custom floor mats. I reckon Ted might like it and well….it’s car related – very Father-ish, right?

We received a 1L bottle of Cottee’s Apple Raspberry Crush and I am glad to say that it has been a hit with the girls and myself included. I tried it as soon as we got home and I only had to use just a smidgen to get the full flavour of the cordial. I was very surprised at how concentrated this cordial is! Cottee’s recommends 1 part cordial, to 9 parts water and in my opinion, it’s definitely value for money seeing that you only use half as much. Plus, it’s Australian made!

Aside from the refreshing combined flavours of apple and raspberry, it also happens to have a lower sugar content compared to our current cordial which is great news for me (I don’t have to feel so guilty anymore!). And with the amount of cordial you can make up with just 1L, I think they would be an excellent choice for drinks at kids birthday parties. I’ll definitely be adding this to my birthday party shopping list but I’ll be having a hard time trying to pick a flavour – they have so many to choose from.

To see what flavours are available and some really fun ideas, check out http://cottees.com.au/. There is something for everyone!

Disclosure : No payment or compensation, other than product samples as described above, was received for this post. All opinions given here are solely my own.

They say that you learn from your mistakes but to a certain degree, I didn’t have to suffer too many lessons the hard way because I had parents who already knew what would happen if things didn’t go their way. And as a teen, you always feel that the whole world is against you when you don’t get your way. I’m actually not looking forward to the kids when they become teens. *shudders*

While I had no friends that required any drug rehab treatment, I have to admit I used to know people who knew people who were drug trafickers. I’ve lost touch with those friends but I reckon these are the sort of bunch that one would best avoid. Lord knows what’s happened to him, but I do hope that he is well, wherever he is.

So my search for THE best and most affordable carrier was on and I narrowed it down to either an ErgoBaby Sport or the Beco Butterfly II. After much searching and comparing, checking out youtube for getting baby on the back and so forth, I finally settled for the Butterfly.

My main aim was to get something that I could use to carry Brandon mainly on my back coz I want to have both hands free and front carries though leaves your hands free, gives you the extra bulk up the front which I dont like and it hurts my back big time. With our upcoming trip to Malaysia, this carrier will come in VERY handy! Even now, I can foresee me wearing him around the house while I cook and hang out the laundry.

The other issue was that I wanted something where I didnt have to shuffle bub under my arm and up the back coz I have no confidence in doing it although the general advice is you’d get used to it, it just needs practice. Me…I just dont like it which was really the ultimate reason why I chose the Butterfly.

While the Ergo and Butterfly are similar in many ways, the one thing Ergo doesnt do is the ability to change bub to another person without removing bub from the carrier which I like and because bub is strapped in separately, dropping bub while shuffling him to the back is no longer a worry or concern for me. So I’ve caved in and got me a Butterfly II in Paige.

It’s already been shipped out so I hope it will be waiting for me at MIL when we go visit on Sunday. I’ll do a separate review then…I really hope it works for us coz it is a relatively huge investment but if it works, it will be well worth it!

Note : I personally would not recommend new parents to buy a Baby Bjorn that only goes up to 8kgs. It was a wrong investment and I do regret buying it. It’s better to buy something that can last your child for as long as possible and most carriers these days are made to suit newborns and up to at leasts 18kgs.

After I went to collect my glasses, I put it on and it felt alright. I could see so clearly it was really good plus I got me news frames and totally different from my current ones. While I thought it was a bit out of the norm for me to choose this pattern, I really wanted to change my look and I’m glad that it looks good on me. Even my MIL complimented me, she said they look super. lol She’s cute like that.

Anyway, after I got home…I started to notice all the things that weren’t right especially the fact that it kept slipping off as the was nothing to loop behind my ears to keep it in place. So I will need to go back there to get it readjusted for me. I might decide to get the eye dilation test after all. Apparenttly it’s covered under Medicare and its bulk billed. Just makes you think what other benefits would be benificial to us. I wonder if the Medicare part D plans might work here……anyhoo, off on Saturday again to get it adjusted. Wish me luck!

This brings me back to the kids. While I did consider wanting to teach the girs some BM, I wasn’t sure if I should teach them the proper BM we learnt in school or just your normal conversational BM which is more practical if they were to use it. Back then, all this thinking put me off teaching Arianna any BM but she can count in them though. Anyway, with Bradon around and still young, I am once again considering teaching them the basic.

My question is, am I too late especially with the girls? Many say that the first 7 years of a child’s life is most important coz that is where you mould and shape your child so considering their ages, I’m still ok where age and understanding is concerned. Ted is quite happy to let the kids learn BM which is a good thing that he is on board with me about this. In fact, I already started talking to them in BM. Arianna seems to be picking up the words faster than KR but whether or not she understands is a different thing.

So I’m going to throw them into the deep end and see how they take to it. I reckon with enough pointing and tone of voice, they will pick up faster.