Fire!

While Mummy was swanning around eating at fancy restaurants and dancing in public places in Sydney last weekend, Daddy took the Little Lawrences on a kinder excursion to visit the fire station!

It was all they talked about in the days prior and afterwards, and I have a feeling Mummy will be taking them on a return trip it ws such a hit. Daddy said that most of the other children were accompanied by their Mummies, and that all the Mummies seemed a bit disappointed that they didn't get to see a bunch of young, muscly firemen sliding down the fire pole (as sadly there was no fire pole).

Beau got to wear a kid-sized fireman's outfit, and everyone got a turn with the firehose and a chance to sit in the firetruck.

It was a rather timely excursion as 6 weeks ago Tim and I woke at the crack of dawn to the sound of nearby sirens. When we opened our bedroom shutters we discovered a firetruck parked right outside our house! When we went to investigate with the kids, all dressed in our PJs and slippers, we found that our friends 3 doors down standing on the street, with a smouldering fire in their roof - it had been burning all night while they slept! Thank goodness it wasn't worse! 

All the kids spent the next hour trying on fireman's helmets and playing in one of the trucks. Luckily it wasn't a serious fire so there were lots of 'spare' firemen to keep them entertained while we drank coffee and chatted with the neighbours. 

Wise words

Last night I was nagging the kids to eat their veggies. I ended up bribing them with rice pudding, which worked a treat for Jasmine who polished off the rest of her greens without complaint. Beau wasn't convinced however, and continued to push them around his plate for a good few minutes longer before I threatened no dessert.

At which point Jasmine turned to him and said in her best authoritative voice:

You eat
what you get,
and you don't
get upset!

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Just like Daddy

Beau has a bit of a shoe fettish. I find an avalanche of shoes in my wardrobe about once a week, and he often suggests shoes he thinks I should wear while I'm getting dressed (like ugh boots with a dress, or ballet flats with my excersize clothes, or boots with my pyjamas).

He also has a bit of a penchant for wearing my shoes. He shuffles around in them until he inevitably comes a cropper (AKA falls over for those of you in the northern hemisphere), at which time he decides after a cuddle that his shoes are preferable to mine.

So I wasn't all that surprised to discover that Tim's shoes had been raided recently. The kids were getting into their PJs before bed when they decided to take Daddy's sneakers for a spin.

My big girl turns 4!

Our beautiful girl turned four a couple of weeks ago, and chose to celebrate by having a fairy party at a nearby fairy shop & party venue. Jasmine, Beau and 10 of Jasmine's bestest friends were hosted by their very own fairy who entertained them for an hour an a half playing games, telling stories and feeding them chocolate birthday cake. They had a blast.

A sparkly birthday throne for a sparkly birthday girl

Her very own birthday fairy and birthday fairy cake

Forward limbo

Beau went as a pirate (manly because his dad didn't want him dressed as a fairy)!

Jasmine is growing into a girl who is extremely thoughtful and kind, determined and brave. Jasmine has a wonderful imagination, and tells us every day about her friends the fairies and friendly dragons. Recently witches and unicorns have been featuring as well, and night time stories have to include a combination of any or all of the above magical creatures eating or rescuing each other.

Jasmine is a bower bird. She collects all things tiny, sparkly and shiny and hides them away in safe places or gives them to the people she loves. She loves to pick flowers to make fairy gardens, which are tiny spaces filled with leaves, flowers, pebbles and anything small, bright, shiny or sparkly she can find. Sometimes tiny dolls act as fairies, but often she just creates a garden for the fairies to come to visit at night time.

She loves to make cubbies. Any small space she can climb into and cover with a blanket or curtain quickly gets filled with all her favourite toys and her pillow. She likes us to post her parcels (presents) which get played with inside the cubby.

Her favourite games at home are hide and seek and monsters (a variation of hide and seek where we pretend to be monsters trying to find her). She always asks when Beau will wake up after his daytime nap and can't wait to play with him when he's up. She loves to visit friends and have guests visit us. She has so many soft toys I put a basket in her room to house them all, and at least 3 accompany her to bed every night. Her favourites are the imaginatively named 'white dog' and another dog named 'rover'. She adores dogs and wants to pat every one we pass.

She has a crazy sweet tooth (like her mum) and will eat almost anything sweet. Her favourite foods are ice-cream and chocolate.

My beautiful girl - you are a treasure and a delight. I love you. Happy birthday.