Year Review 2009!

I'm thinking of the environment this year and not doing a Christmas newsletter but a year in review blog! So tomorrow I'm sending Christmas cards to the UK and they can choose whether to catch up on our year!... I'm flicking back in the calander/camera and so I thought I might do a 12 month highlight reflection with pictures...

January - Rob turned a year older! And it's Summer and holiday time! We took Em on her first camping experience in our very small tent (we did buy another one not long after!) We went to Raglan - a gorgeous little small town with large surf beaches. This time of year is always great - hot, lazy Summer days... And Holly Eve - Jo & Pat's baby girl made her entry into the world..

February - My birthday! Emma started at Kindy. I remember the day before she started she fell over and hurt her knee and as I comforted her I feared that at kindy if this sort of thing happened she would'nt receive the same comfort. But to my relief she loved kindy (& the teachers love her) and after the first week she said she never wants to go to school she just wants to stay at kindy forever!!

March -Quieter month getting into the year... We did have the Coldplay concert this month which was awesome. And Emma had the Wiggles concert which was fun too. Bummer thing for the month was having the car stolen...

April -A nice quiet Easter... And our nephew Kaleb had his first birthday! I love seeing how Em & him are such great mates.

May -My first weekend ever away from Em - I went to Port Waikato for a ladies craft weekend which was fun & refreshing.

June- At the end of this month my Mum & Emma had an operation on the same day. For Emma it was her tonsils for Mum it was a knee replacement. Both recovered beautifully with no probs!

July - We had a great week down in Queenstown - we hadn't been for about 8 years so it was great seeing how it had changed/developed. Rob managed a bit of snowboarding while Emma and I made snow angels and drank hot chocolates! Wonderful family holiday.

August - Looking forward to the end of Winter.. I joined the gym & was good at going at the start... No before & after photos (ha ha ha!! - I wish!)

September -Springs' here! Spring party at Kindy, Spring fairy festival, daffodils at Cornwall Park and Spring Flowers! The only time I buy flowers every week!

October - Rob had a conference in Rotorua this month which Em and I went along for too. Gorgeous Spring weather with so much fun things to do! We're going to head back there in February when Rob's family comes over. Fabulous few days away during a very busy month!

November - Our little girl is growing up! Em turned 4 - November 14th and we celebrated with a Little Miss & Mr Men party which I talk about in the previous post. She was very cute this year with her wish list and knowing exactly what she wanted!

December - This month isn't upon us yet but I look forward to our Christmas traditions including: making gingerbread houses, making Christmas crafts, new pj's on Christmas Eve, Church service Christmas Eve and then all sleeping under the Christmas tree which is easy to do with a family of 3! Having a nice lazy Christmas morning opening pressies and pancakes for breakfast - taking Dudley somewhere for a Christmas walk followed by more food and family time at Mum's place! Can you tell I love Christmas! Hope everyone has a good one! And all the best for 2010... XX

Emma's 4th Birthday!

What a long blogging holiday I've had... October was Light Party month which I'll have to blog about at another time.. Because this weekend has been all about Em! My little girl is growing up she turned four yesterday!

This year we celebrated with a Mr Men & Little Miss party. Em had nine little friends come and help her celebrate. And she was completely spoilt with gorgeous gifts. At the start of the party the kids dressed up glittery $2 shop hats - which was Em's own idea! I should've taken a picture of everyone wearing their completed hats but I only thought of that after the party!!

We played a few games - a postman game complete with Mr Men & Little Miss letterboxes, musical statues and pass the parcel.

Our house is little so I hired a gazebo where I set up the party table. Grandma Janet helped getting cool Mr Men & Little Miss cups, napkins and banners sent from England and these were great - thanks! Party food included some of Em's favourites - jelly, lollies, popcorn, fairy bread, cupcakes, strawberries, grapes, cheerios and cheese and pineapple sticks.

Em's present from us this year was a trampoline which Daddy was still putting up late on Friday night! Em was surprised and delighted. It was well and truly tested during her party. I had wanted my friend Gillian to do one of her amazing cake creations - maybe a Miss Sunshine or something... However my independant daughter was determined to have a trampoline cake which I managed to do myself - although being the theme addict that I am I remade the dollies clothes so they were wearing Little Miss & Mr Men clothes! This won't make sense cos I don't have a photo just yet! But below is a photo of the take home goodie bags that I made - full of important things like - hairclips, bangles, glitter pen, Mr bounce ball, Little Miss figure and jelly beans.

Em has always had issues with the Happy Birthday song - not too sure why and she can't explain it herself... This year Emma had a few ideas of what to do... 1) No one sing and just shout out Happy Birthday! 2) Grandma only is allowed to sing Happy birthay as a solo and lastly 3) Children were allowed to sing it but only if they sang it like a choir! In the end Em wanted option one - there were still some tears but she quickly told us they were happy tears!!

Mummy even shed happy tears later that night too - the wonder of loving a little person so much and feeling so blessed for the last four years. Just one of those heart bursting moments...