The weather’s been mostly lovely, on my days off even.  Cue gelato with sprinkles for afternoon tea.

How could I walk away from a Priceline 40% off beauty sale?  Especially when their Randwick store had the gift sets I was looking for?  I’ve been planning to replace my current dying collection of work lip colours for some time now but couldn’t decide whether to splurge on a few spendy items or go for cheap and cheerful with NYX.  Thank you, Priceline, for forcing my hand.

Now I and any colleague in need will never be without the perfect nude lip at work.  It’s just a shame I can’t improve the presentation of my stash a little.  Everything looked so perfect in the packaging with all the colours set out by colour tone.  Now they’ve all been unceremoniously dumped into a spare cardboard box and stashed in a desk drawer.  Should I get an acrylic organizer for them, I wonder?  Would it be too much for a work desk in a non-beauty related field?  Quite possibly.

And to finish off?  A beautiful way to say thank you.  I got to use my new Orla Kiely note cards for the first time this week.

Are you looking forward to December?

Have you noticed that the world is slowing down and smiling a bit right now?

Friday night after work saw us embrace the spirit of adventure and take a peak hour train into the city to meet my brother and his family who were visiting from Perth.  The CBD was wall to wall people and it took some getting used to as we ordinarily only visit on Sunday afternoons or in that 2pm weekday lull you get in the retail and eating areas.  But it was a happy crowd of workers celebrating the end of the week and families enjoying the warm evening and its daylight saving given light.  The stores were all decked out for Christmas and Friday night was the first time this year that it didn’t all feel too early and commercial.

Saturday morning was a gift.  The dawn was just warm enough for running without an extra layer or long sleeves.  Change was also in the air because I didn’t have an almond croissant or a sultana and custard snail for breakfast afterward.  Readers, I had cinnamon fruit toast with peanut butter and honey instead.  And it was delicious.

We went to the first of the weekend’s birthday parties for Preschooler SSG.  The birthday girl was an especially close friend of Preschooler SSG with the pair forming a solid trio with another boy.  It was a morning of art, dancing, fairy bread and the limbo.  So pretty much a perfect morning for five and nearly five year olds.

Until then, I’m on the champagne and sparkling weekend diet.  I’m still not quite sure how I ended up with this stemless flute of Chandon and Orange Bitters  on ice with a twist of orange rind in my hand while I raced around Woolies and after Preschooler SSG but I did and I’m glad I tried it because it’s going to be drink of the summer.

Both my brothers and all my nephews dropped by Saturday afternoon and we celebrated with a superior cheese board assembled at short notice from what I bought after our family Dan’s run.  It’s all coming back to me.  That’s how I got my tumbler of Chandon and Orange Bitters….

This was our star purchase and we enjoyed it over a leisurely afternoon in the backyard doing such things as making sure that there was fair access to the wheeled toys for all

as well as ensuring that board games were allowed to be played to the best of a person’s ability based on their age and not on the expectations of one pedantic nearly five year old.

It warms the heart and restores the sleep deprived soul watching your nephews play with the toys your own little one loved with all his heart once upon a time…

But it’s not the chief duty of the hostess aunty to get misty eyed and rose coloured Snapchat filtered about the past.  No, her chief duty is to ensure the little ones are fed before witching hour.

Preferably with a dish that both young and old will enjoy because it can take until adult dinnertime to feed a two-year-old.  Noodles, it was then. My first attempt at making Malaysian style fried mee hoon (vermicelli) from scratch, to be precise.  The trick when frying fine noodles like this is to pre-soak in cold water for 5 or so minutes, drain and then place in a bowl to which you add your sauce ingredients.  This way, the noodles get evenly coated before they get fried.

Sunday lived up to its name in magnificent fashion.

That sky was all it took to convince me to dust off this beach casual shirt dress.  Or at least it was a dress that one time I tried it on the J Crew outlet a couple of years back. Commonsense prevailed and I slipped on a pair of white skinnies before we left the house.

We were off to our second fifth birthday of the weekend.

There was plenty for everyone.

Silence descended on the party as cones of ice cream were devoured.

I remember the day Preschooler SSG was born and how the world seemed to suddenly shrink down to just the two of us in our hospital room.  I had no idea what I was doing as a first-time mother and he had no idea what this crazy place was that he’d suddenly been thrust into.  To a soundtrack of soothing white noise from my iPhone and the occasional prompt from our midwives, we somehow got through those first five days together.

Birthday Number One was celebrated at home with a group of fellow graduates of the ‘we made it through the first year’ school of life from my mothers’ group.  The house was pretty much stripped of anything potentially breakable by then because Preschooler SSG was both an early walker and a very capable climber.  The baby gates were his nemesis and he hated his cot which seemed to cramp his rolling while asleep style.  So he often took his naps on a mattress in the family room that was close to the ground.  Wish I’d known this before I’d invested in the cot I thought he’d use from birth to the age of four….

It was lovely seeing all our friends and it was probably the only birthday where us parents were able to still have relatively long and uninterrupted conversations with each other over our children who hadn’t yet learned to speak, tantrum or get into too much strife in an enclosed space.  We managed to last about an hour and a half before Preschooler SSG decided it the party was over which he declared with a loud and lengthy squawk-cry.  His guests joined in the chorus and they were all whisked away for a solid hour and a half nap in their respective car seats.

Last year’s fourth birthday party was great fun for young and old.  We went from wall to wall Thomas to wall to wall Toy Story…

plus a table of food and drink for the parents. 

One of my favourite parts of Preschooler SSG’s birthday parties (besides the champagne and cake) is the chance to catch up with the beautiful people I’ve gotten to know through Preschooler SSG.  We’re all often rushing from one place to the next when we do drop offs and pick ups so there’s often not much time to get to know each other.

Birthday Number Five will soon be upon us and preparations have begun.  We will be celebrating at a play centre this year which will be a lot less work for me but at the same time, I do enjoy the decorating and frenzy that leads up to parties at home.  We’ve got around three weeks to go but I’m bracing myself for the noise, energy and high emotion that I’m sure will be big features of the day.  I’m also meant to be making a cake, the theme of which is currently changing on a daily basis.  Watch this space.

Do you have a favourite birthday of your own?

As a parent, do you find each birthday of your children to be the best ever?

Another thing that’s accelerated my thoughts about all the change that kindergarten will bring is the fact that we went shopping for school uniforms yesterday.

Preschooler SSG was excited.  So excited that he refused to face the camera for those all important first uniform photos for the grandparents and aunts and uncles so here are the back views of his summer and sports uniforms for term 1.  It took just over half an hour to purchase these uniforms.  Firstly, a certain person decided to lock the changeroom door from inside and slide out from under the locked door after each change.  There was also a lot of wriggling but we got there.

School uniforms have changed so much in the last decade or three.  All items of clothing now seem to feature spaces for names to be stamped (if your handwriting is as appalling as mine) or written in.  No sewing!  No ironing on!

This is my trusty laundry stamp that I purchased earlier this year but you can find to order over here.

I had heard rumours that the kindergarten uniform was not only virtually indestructible but that if you had the foresight to use your dryer on it, ironing would be redundant.  Do you reckon that’s because it’s Teflon coated?

Will you be joining me in being a first time First Year Of School mum in 2018?  Have you stocked up on waterproof mascara and polished your largest sunnies yet?