Plop!

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Smash It

For Eliza's birthday invites I knew I wanted to do a cake smash. I had a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to them.

Eventually I picked out my cake design, an outfit for Eliza, and organised a photographer to take the photos.

I was thrilled with the end results, and received many lovely comments about the invites.
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The new house

I know, I know. I have been very slack in showing you the new house. Until last night I hadn't even downloaded our photos from my camera! They have been there over two weeks :O

And because I am incredibly lazy, far to lazy to edit them, I am going to show you the photos from the Real Estate agent. It is quite tricky to photograph most of our house without a fish eye lens!

There is also a spare room and an office (4th bedroom) that are pretty much the same as Eliza's room.

So thats our new house. There are things we want to alter, and replace, but that will come in time.

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What is in a name?

(Eliza Rose, found from here)

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Last night I learned that our family has welcomed a new little boy into the world, by the way of my husbands cousin. A new life is a prescious thing, and with a new life comes a name.

The name that his parents chose for their special gift just happens to be the name we had chosen for a son, if we were ever blessed with one.

And whilst I am happy for the husbands cousin (who I don't know very well, I think I have met her less than fice times in eight years), I am sad for the fact that we won't be able to ever use that name.

The name is a family name to me, and is the name of my great grandfather, a man who I idolised growing up. My Pa and I had a special bond, quite possibly because I was the only great grandchild he had. I have fond memories of him telling me the story of Jane Duff, a story which holds special meaning to him, as he lived close by.

But this got me thinking about Shakespeare, and how we put so much meaning into a word by which we call ourselves. Why do we put so much emphasis on a word, that is shared with quite possibly millions of other people in the world. Take my name, April. Whilst it is reasonably uncommon, it is not unique. The reasoning I was named April quite possibily is, however the word is not.

The logical side of my brain is yelling at me to move on, yet I still feel sad. The husband doesn't see the great deal and is still happy to use the name, as we rarely see them. But to me it's just not the same.

What do you think?



For those wondering, I was named April after my Great Gran and my Grandma being born in April, and my mother meant to be born in April. When I came along in July I had to follow the trend of the previous 3 generations, and was given the name to carry on. Pin It

It's mine. All mine.

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Eliza Wears

This is our last Eliza Wears, as it was getting hard to get a photo of her whilst she was crawling off the mat, and time is precious in the mornings. I am a bit sad about it, as it has been wonderful to watch her grow each day.

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Eliza's Second First Birthday

confused much? Yeah me too.

So with the first birthday being a write off, it was lucky her party was planned for the very next day.

I scoured pintrest for many many months, collecting ideas on what I wanted in a birthday party. In the end I decided I wanted finger food, a pink and orange theme, and a bunny cake.

Must have a bunny cake.

Eliza woke up in a good mood (as in not screaming, its always a good mood if she isn't screaming), and we were able to open some presents.

It is very lucky for me (who doesn't do pretty baking) that my sister in law is a magician when it comes to decorating cakes, and offered to whip something up for me. I can not describe how thrilled I was when she walked in with this creation! The woman is a magician I tell you!

(See the food in the background - finger food. Another tick)

The girl was spoilt rotten, she is very lucky to have some wonderful friends and family who love her almost as much as her mummy and daddy.

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Eliza's Turns One. Twice.

Nothing ever goes to plan in our world. Eliza's birthday was not an exception to this.

The poor dear was sent home from daycare the day before her birthday, as she had a mid-level fever and was miserable. By the time I got to her she was into the high end of fever, and whimpering. A quick dose of panadol gave some relief, but not enough to warrant going to daycare the next day.

The daycare I send her to is a lovely place, a place where the staff are lovely, caring and go out of their way to make each child feel special. When it's a child's birthday they have a party in the room, and give a card and have cake, however Eliza had to postpone her party due to staying home with Daddy.

I had arranged to work half a day on Friday, with the plan of getting the grocery shopping done, dealing with the bank for settlement, and spending some quality family time with Eliza.

Instead I quickly did the grocery shopping, picked up the husband and Eliza, flew to the bank to sign contracts (a whole other saga) and we spent our quality time sitting in the doctors surgery with a miserable child. Diagnosis: fever, ear infection, throat infection and quite possibly a school sore on her mouth.

Not the plan we had for her birthday.

By the time we left the surgery and got home it was dinner time, where we endured the nightly battle of eating, and the girl was in bed by 6.30pm. She didn't even get to open her presents from us :(

First birthdays are meant to be memorable. Eliza's will be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

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Birthday Cakes

As a testiment to how busy I am these days, I haven't been able to sit down and write about planning Eliza's birthday party, something I have been planning for months (and pre-planning for years!).

So, as I have a few spare minutes, I am going to share with you some of my favourite cakes, courtesy of the Pinterest.

Source: hello-naomi.blogspot.com via April on Pinterest

Source: google.com via April on Pinterest

Source: bing.com via April on Pinterest

Source: hello-naomi.blogspot.com via April on Pinterest

Source: karaspartyideas.blogspot.com via April on Pinterest

As for what we have ended up with? Well you will just have to wait and see... Pin It