Yesterday we went to Hannah’s birthday party and there was a drumming circle. The thing I loved watching was Grace with her roll. She was hungry just before they started, so she got herself a roll, and then between each beat she would quickly grab a bite of the roll, put it down and carry on drumming. After a while though the noise was too much for Grace and she exited the circle to join Emma in a quieter room.

The birthday girl

Anna

Cake time!

Eli has started clapping. Now when he is excited he bops his head and claps his hands.

I just love his super cute crawl – something about it warms my heart every time he goes zooting around.

I was on the phone at the end of the day and Grace came to call me to come inside. I said, “Grace, I’m just on the phone, I’m coming in soon.” She goes back inside and tells Donné, “He’s still on the freaking phone!” I think she might have heard that one before…

One year ago, on Donné’s birthday, Grace went to her very first day of school. School has been good for her.

We just had a quiet day together for Donné’s birthday, but it also presented the opportunity for Eli to try some sushi. He didn’t seem to be too keen. Hmmm.

Eli having fun zooting himself down the slide

Grace auditioning for a role in Batman

Donné was busy drying Grace after her bath and out of the blue Grace says to her, “Mommy, sometimes you’re a dork.” Pause…..”You forgot to do the washing.” That comes from Donné sayings things like, “Arg Donné, don’t be such a dork.”

After we cleared the furniture out of the lounge for her birthday she starts singing the Doc Mcstuffins song, “I feel better, so much better, thank you mom for taking all the furniture away. And I can eat sweeties all day.”

This morning before school she says, “I’m like Gogo, in the morning I go to school and do my work tasks, and then I come home in the afternoon.”

And on a more serious note: “No one dies on crosses anymore. Now we die in our beds.”

Grace engaged fully in her first swimming lesson of the term, and it was great to see how well she is doing and how much her swimming has advanced (Donné took her to lessons last term because I was taking Eli). We all went together today and got to have some fun and a good laugh watching out one arm bandit.

By the end of the lesson, once she had put on her other arm, taken her “kickies” out of the bag and remembered to use them all together, she was looking much better.

The invitations

The excitement when waking up to a decorated house

The bunting

The balloons (one of the things Grace loved playing with)

Grace’s sweet shop

Grace’s bakery (with chef’s hats and aprons)

The cupcakes

The family

The party planner

The friends

The pizzas

The make up comes out

The jumping

The fruit skewers

The petting zoo

The princess palace cake

The princess

The candles (I’ll huff, and I’ll puff and I’ll blow these candles out)

The clues for the cupcake hunt

The cupcake decorating

The break between the morning and the afternoon

The afternoon which was entirely different to the morning: melodica, glow sticks, whistles and the human worm

And that’s how we threw our baking party.

One funny quip from the party: it was cloudy and looking like rain, so Grace and Hannah say, “We can’t go outside, it’s going to rain,” so Emma retorts, “But it’s not raining now.”

Today was Grace’s baking party with her friends. One of the activities was to find all the ingredients for decorating cupcakes, and the hunt was on…

Photo’s of the party to follow tomorrow (with a tired mommy and daddy, processing 400 photos is going to take a little bit of time).

Grace’s birthday party with her close friends is tomorrow and we’ve been preparing…