And it's set to get even better before the week is over.

My final weekend before summer holidays ended and it was back to reality and the office for me ... at least until April/May (not so bad really Scott tells me).

After a week at home with clingy cranky high needs toddlers, my sis and I were in desperate need of a time out and despite our promises to wait for our mum to get back from her holidays, we decided to go see Saving Mr Banks.

I preface my review by saying that I went in to the movie, totally biased and expecting to love it. Mary Poppins to this day is one of my all time favourite movies and I was sure I wasn't going to be disappointed. Guess what? I wasn't! I loved every single minute of Saving Mr Banks from the opening sequence 'Winds in the East mist coming in ...' to the very end of 'let's go fly a kite'.

The story, the cast ... it was all completely brilliant in my humble movie-goers opinion. I shed tears and possibly clapped a few scenes, it just inspired so much emotion. The little Australian girl was mesmerising, Colin Farrell was the tortured father and of course, Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks wowed as you would expect. It gave so much insight to a story I have loved forever and made me ache for its author and the childhood she lived through that controlled her adult life. With no special effects, action sequences or animations, the movie rested solely on the quality of its storyline and the cast's delivery and made a nice change. Its absolutely a must see and I would have to say, Oscar worthy for sure.

I also did a little shopping of course and picked up some bargain buys from plenty of my favourite stores ... you know, Kikki K, Country Road, Kookai, Peter Alexander, the usual haunts. Winter PJs at less than half price for E ($14 a pair), a monthly planner (to keep Scott on top of things), Fresh Jive tees for Scott at only $10 a piece (these wash and wear amazingly well), new tees for me for $12 at Kookai, back up EL mineral powder ($20 people) and pajama style pants at more than 50% off to fit my expanding bump.







We rounded off the weekend with two birthday parties, a 2nd birthday on the Saturday morning for a friend's little boy and my beautiful littlest niece Lillee's 1st birthday on the Sunday. With a 'You are my sunshine' theme and colours of yellow and pink, Karly and I were busy baking and prepping to meet the brief. Its not a 1st birthday without chocolate crackles so I whipped up some mini ones along with some number 1 hundreds & thousands cookies and fairy bread.



decorations came together beautifully and the birthday girl was an absolute delight for her party despite having only a 30 minute nap the entire day. E on the other hand was more than a little clingy, wary of the crowd despite knowing almost everyone and at least had a 60 minute nap that saved us from a potentially more difficult afternoon.

What did you get up to?

It was my birthday this week... another year passed already. Where do the years go?

As usual, S bought me the perfect gifts without a huge amount of guidance on my part. My wishlist was relatively vague including a new watch and a black leather bag. He surpassed all expectations with a beautiful Michael Kors rose gold watch and the Oroton Alpine Hobo. Both entirely practical and gorgeous. He also surprised me with a drinks urn he knew I had been mulling over to buy for awhile. He picked the perfect style and I can't wait to fill it with water, ice and fruit slices for hot Summer days and entertaining.






I had the pleasure of starting my day with my two boys and Ethan loved getting in on the gift giving and unwrapping. There was something so perfect about having him come running into the bedroom shouting 'mumma mumma mumma' with glee, arms outstretched with my birthday card. It reminded me how truly blessed I am.

Rather than head straight to the office, I attended a morning tea meeting with the Moncrieff women of the LNP at Evergreen where we had coffee and cake while discussing the latest news... a pretty fun way to start work really. When I finally did make it to the office, my very thoughtful boss and assistant had beautiful flowers and assortment of tarts and muffins to acknowledge my birthday and I got to leave a little early too and spend the afternoon with my boys before we headed out for Mexican with my family.

It was a wonderful birthday and I had a lovely day but like I said earlier, where do the years go? In some ways it feels like I was only celebrating my 23rd birthday a couple of years ago, not almost 10 and it reminds me, the days are long but the years are short so make the most of each minute.

With this in mind, I have a few things I want to do before my next birthday:

1. Be thankful - everyday write a list of 10 things in my life I am thankful for and take the time to reflect on those.
2. Take a family holiday - we have two booked already so this one is easy
3. Host a Halloween themed celebration - this is in the works so stay tuned
4. Spend the day at a spa with my mum and sister
5. Have a proper date night every fortnight with Scott 
6. Broaden my cooking horizons by trying one new recipe each week - I used to be good at this but have stuck to what I know the past year
7. Make time to exercise and make healthier food choices
8. Keep striving to be the best wife and mumma possible
9. Go to bed earlier
10. Have baby #2 God willing
11. Challenge myself ... with a new hobby or interest, study ... I'm not quite sure how what or where, this is something to work on
12. Declutter my life in ever area and surround myself with only that which I need or makes me happy

I was spoilt with a long weekend this past weekend. My dad had his Order of Australia Medal presented on Friday at Government House so my mum, sister and nieces made the trip with him to see it presented by the Governor General. It was a perfect day and a fitting ceremony for such an enormous honour followed by an elegant champagne reception complete with delicious cucumber sandwiches.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Casey Stoner, his wife Adriana and their daughter Ally at the ceremony as Casey was being honoured with an AM. As they were the only others in attendance with a child, we kind of gravitated towards each other and the girls played together. I can say they are an absolutely delightful couple. Genuine, down to earth and just really nice people.




Scott had Saturday off this week which was enough to make E and I happy campers but throw in Seaworld and our day started at 6am because E was too excited to sleep ... not really, he always gets up early so I don't think it was Seaworld that did it.

We met Scott's family at Seaworld to celebrate SiL and our niece's birthday. Lots of fun was had watching the animals, going on the kiddie rides and sampling an ice block for the first time. E was in heaven, especially with their new Dinosaur island exhibit given his new favourite word and toys are 'Dinosaur'. He also clapped for the dolphins and was fascinated by the polar bear - unfortunately the cubs still weren't out to play. We capped off the day with a very tired poppet who crashed out before we even left the parking lot.






After Seaworld, we all met at Scott's parents home for pizzas in Father in Law's wood fire oven. I made the dough earlier in the week (my kitchenaid means it takes all of 20 mins for 3 lots equaling 9 bases) and topped the pizzas for everyone when we arrived because I'm a control freak when it comes to topping pairing and placement.


It was a celebratory night of good food, good company and lots of good drink - the in-laws love to sample different wines and beers and always have a good supply on hand. We also had fun correcting Scott with a blindfolded sampling after he told us the aerator was pointless. We converted after our little experiment and he concurred it was a pretty nifty little device.



Sunday was a low key day at home for E and I, catching up on housework, doing some baking and a few errands.