Madison's 13th Birthday

Madison had a birthday on the 11th April and is now "officially" a teenager ! I am a bad mother, and I blogged about Michaela's ball on the official day of her birthday...OOPS !? Here is the time line of events as they unfolded...

So....our wonderful and terrific "Fred" (Harvey's dad who's real name is really Ian..) came for a "quickie" visit on the 7th April. The 8th was Michaela's ball night. (see previous blog) Since Fred lives so far away in Tasmania, it was a terrific opportunity for the family to get together. After dropping Michaela off to her friends house to get the limo Harv and I hightailed it off to Dianella and the very beautiful temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a truly magnificent place to be with family. So very special.

After the temple session, Harv, Fred and I went to Nando's for dinner. Delicious !

On Sunday the 10th April we listened to the inspired prophets and leaders of our time. I LOVE technology that allows us the privilege of doing that! SO uplifted !

The whole family  decorated a "Olivia" the octopus for Madi's birthday cake to take to the other "Oates" for birthday dinner ! It was fun to make and decorate.



Olivia the Octopus



"Happy Birthday Madison" in Japanese.



Michaela add her special "touch" the the cake with her inscription of "Happy Birthday Madison" in Japanese !

Harv and I made a "last minuet" trifle with all the left over bits of cake etc...

My beautiful and wonderful sister-in-law made us an AWESOME lamb roast dinner ! It had never occurred to me to cook a roast dinner in the BBQ before?! Very delicious and WOW ! It was SO lovely to spend time with the family ! Madi felt VERY spoilt and special.

Blowing out the candles.

Cutting the cake.



Poppy Fred, birthday gal Madison and Julian.



School Ball

Once upon a time, you bought a ticket and you went to the school ball in your "best dress"....now a days...(boy do I sound OLD in saying that!?)...it's THE dress, THE limo, THE corsage, THE shoes, THE hair do, THE makeup, THE accessories and who has the HOTTEST date !? Go figure !

Michaela attended her year 11 ball on Friday 8th April 2011. It was a "BIG DO". Months of planning and saving went into this....with the final balance being very ...erm...expensive...I was VERY proud of Michaela who has been logging hours at Kmart and saving for her big night. She planned ahead and had decided wayyyy back in December 2010 that hiring her dress was the way to go since she would "never ever wear a dress like that again." Smart gal. She also decided that she wanted a "foofey" dress...aka a dress with tulle and "foof" as opposed to a dress that was slimline and more cocktail like...so "foofey" we did ! Her theory is that she will only get to ever wear "foofey" dresses twice in her life - ball dress and wedding dress. Sounds good to me!



The 2nd dress she tried on was IT !



We tried no less than SEVEN dresses before the big decision was made....but we found one ! YAY ! The lady at "After 5 Hire" was awesome. Once you book a dress, she writes all the details down and no one else from the school is allowed to hire the same dress. Sweet as !

The day before, we picked up the dress, matching wrap and matching tie. Michaela got waxing done- eyebrows, lip, legs - sucks being a hairy gal...and sorted last minuet makeup artist, our friend Amy...and we are almost good to go.

B day and school finished at recess time, Harvey picked Michaela up, home, lunch and a quick shower before going to the hair dressers. TWO hours, half a tin of hair spray, hair wax, mousse and 32 bobby pins later..... 

Our wonderful friend Amy came over to help Michaela with her makeup....the final finished, polished and dressed up Michaela was truly BEAUTIFUL !

I'm a VERY PROUD mama bear !



I have FUNNY children !

I have funny children - I mean, seriously hilariously funny as in a "Ha ha ha" way ! They sometimes LOOK funny, but mostly they sound funny ! Madison and Michaela have this awesome banter and great repertoire and they do it so seamlessly....must be all the practise they get at their brother's expense ?!

Over the past few weeks, Madi has decided that she needs to improve her vocabulary with some "bigger" words so that she sounds more "sophisticated". Last week's word was "pedantic" and she managed to insert the word into conversations quite flawlessly and in context, so we thought she was on a roll ! This weeks work was 'egotistical' and she may have used the word once or twice in describing her brother's actions....but it took us awhile to figure out what she was saying....ECO-TESTICLES !? Erm....not quite my darling ! 

I love that they have such FUN together and enjoy each others company so much !