Zoe's Birthday Party

This morning we headed to the indoor play centre to celebrate our friend Zoe's 5th birthday.  

We weren't sure how Clay would go with the crowd & noise. He was a bit overwhelmed to start with, but we took him into the under 2's area where there weren't too many kids and let him run around.  He wasn't too sure what to do at first and kept running and getting the balls to put back in the ball pit, but after a while he worked it out and was having a wonderful time in the ball pit!

Craig & Clay

Ball pit fun!

Quick cuddle between running, climbing and having fun.

The birthday girl Zoe & her mum Bec

Time for birthday cake with Bec and  little sister Bianca

Enjoying birthday cake :)

Clay, Jeanie & I

After watching the bigger kids - Clay decided to climb through the climbing section and go down the slide by himself!  How pleased with himself does he look?!?! LOL

Jeanie's 3 boys - Linc, Hudson & Ollie

Clay & Hudson trying to work out how to escape ;)

Thank you to Zoe for the invitation - we had lots of fun celebrating your birthday!

Washi Chick

Recently Hayley from Washi Chick contacted me about featuring one of my cards on her blog - of course I said yes :)  Anyone that knows me, knows me addiction to all things washi tape - so it was nice to meet a fellow addict LOL  Make sure you pop over and check out the other cards featured in the post and the rest of Hayley's blog :)

Thrifty Thursday

Mum and I are still getting to pop into our fave op shops on a regular basis and the occassional garage sale.  We were excited to find out that a new op shop opened too!

Garage sale find - hanging baskets 3 for $1.  I will spray paint these black, add a liner and plant - then hang on our front verandah.

More!! cookie cutters and some sandwhich cutters 20c each

Toolbox 50c.  Bag of toys $2 - kept the Little People, wind up monkey and the LP car and donated the others back.

The day after I found the toolbox, mum and I popped into a new op shop that had opened in town and I found the set of plastic tools for 50c - perfect :)

I also found this gorgeous glass bird feeder / bird bath $5

Single bed feather doona $8 also from the new op shop.  I normally wouldn't look at the doonas, but mum pointed out how clean it looked.  We looked it over and there were no marks and it smelt fresh & clean - so I snapped it up ready for when Clay goes into a big boy bed.  The pink sunglasses print bag $2 is for putting dirty laundry in when I travel / go to retreats and the little fabric bag $2 is perfect size to pop my camera into and hang off Clay's stroller.

Nappy wallet $1 - great to keep in the car or pop on the stroller if we are only going out quickly.

2 more Pyrex bowls & lids - love these!!  $1 for the small and $3 for the large one.

Unopened box of nappy liners $3 and a pair of shorts for Clay $2

Everyday Moments

Icecream break while out op-shopping with mummy and Ma Ma :)

Finally snapped a photo of my new haircut!

Delicious dessert Kylie made for a party plan party one weekend.

Date night to see "Ghostbusters" (which was awesome!!) and dinner :)  I think this was our first date night since we had Clay!

Cathie, Kylie and Charlee popped in for morning tea and a catch up on Friday :)  Clay adored "baby" Charlee and kept patting her LOL

Clay's First Pony Ride

Yesterday at the Strawberry Festival Clay went for his first pony ride :)  His horse loving Nanny was very excited and a little emotional - she has a similar picture of Craig having his first pony ride :)

We stopped so he could see and pat the ponies which he was very happy / excited about.  That went well, so Nanny offered to pay for a ride.

Safety first - helmet on!

I don't wanna wear this silly thing!!

Tantrum over and off they go :)

I was laughing too much to take photos, but back they came - the horse riderless and Craig carrying Clay :)  Apparently the horse stumbled a little bit and Clay wanted OFF!  So they walked the rest of the way around LOL

Bargara Strawberry Festival

Craig had the weekend off, so we decided to go the the Bargara Strawberry Festival for the first time.  The weather was perfect, so we hopped into the car, picked up Nanny and headed to the festival.  The first thing we spotted were the camels LOL

We didn't see any strawberries, but did find this apple / capsicum for a photo :)

The main stage had lots of different entertainment - bands, dancers, etc.

There were heaps of market stalls with homemade crafts, food stalls, wine tasting, etc and even a side-show alley area for the kids.

Mr Independant :)  Even though there were lots of people - it was definately less crowded than the Childer's festival and Clay was happy to walk around.

I did buy some yummy fresh strawberries and icecream :)

Modern Cloth Nappies

I know this not typically a "baby" blog, but I really wanted to share this post :)  This post has been sitting in my draft folder for a while and since we are starting to look at toilet training, I thought I had better publish it.  This is totally random, but I wanted to talk about Modern Cloth Nappies (MCN).  When I found out I was pregnant I knew I wanted to use MCN - for environment and financial advantages, but none of my friends used them (well Becca had, but it had been over 5 years and there have been changes in MCN since then LOL).  I researched about them online, joined FB chat groups and talked to other mums.  Some people were negative about the idea and tried to talk me out of it and some people (especially my mum) were super supportive and encouraged me.  Craig and I discussed it and even though it seemed like a huge financial outlay, we decided to give it a go.  

Now there are soooo many different types, brands, styles of MCN - it can be a bit overwhelming.  Some people are brand / type only and won't buy CC (China cheapies) and there are others like us who buy any and all brands (especially if they have a cute design).  I brought 3 new CC from a local seller, but then decided to buy a few second hand ones.  Now, I will admit I was a bit squeamish about buying / using 2nd hand nappies, but I soon realised that it was common place on the FB groups I was with.  It allows you to build up your stash, try different brands and see what suits you.  At over $30 each new compared to around $5-$10 second hand - that's a lot more nappies you can add to your stash.  I will confess this - buying MCN is addictive!! LOL  This is only a small portion of our stash- told you addictive :)

So how easy are they to use?  Easy! Unlike the old terry squares, there are no fancy folds - these cute nappies are shaped just like a disposable :)  There are snaps at the front (called risers) which allows you to shorted the length of the nappy so you can use from newborn (I admit we didn't use MCN till Clay was about 4 weeks old - we just wanted to get over the shock of having him first LOL).  

We us a disposable liner, but you can buy / make re-usable ones.  

Washing is an easy routine - we just dry pail (no soaking) and wash every 2nd day.  I wash in a hot cycle, then wash again in a cold cycle with Clay's clothes (to save water).

This is just a basic post to share our MCN use, but there are numerous websites and FB pages with more information if you are interested.  Feel free to email me if you any questions :)