WITCHY WENCHY HALLOWEEN

Our lovely daycare mum Maria scheduled a Halloween day for the girls - all 4! Brave lady I hear you say and we agree. She went to so much effort putting up spiders webs, skeletons and ghouls through out the room she has for the girls. So it was with great excitement and magic spells that Sophie headed off, broom stick and all, for her first Halloween tick'n'treating day.

Witch by nature, witch by dress is our girl:)

Nana, did you notice the "Brotherton" scowl in the second picture??? she has this down patt:)

I love my stickers Ashlee - thank you

A few weeks ago Sophie's big Sissa sent up a parcel of goodies, including some iron-on transfers, Sophie has been chomping at the bit to use these transfers. Finally I found a couple of plain T-shirts for her to use and boy did she use those stickers! She had such fun and really listened when I explained about how hot the iron is and to be VERY careful, you can see the absolute concentration on her little face. The end result "beautiful" and according to Sophie "these are the best t-shirts ever I had".

Happiness is.................

a new friend:)

Sunday week ago Sophie and I went to the only shop that is open in Blackwater, the $2 shop, to get some blu tac to put her ABC letters up. As I was browsing Sophie introduced herself to a little girl who's mum was also having a lovely browse. Sophie promptly sharing all of the important information with her new friend "I had two dogs, Bella and Toby, Bella is a bull-mastif and Toby is only a little Jack Russell, I'm 4 and I have chookens too, my mummy is Sandie Michelle and daddy is Nickers, he sometimes bites me! we live at........................................." and on it went - I stopped her when she got to the bank account details:)

Sophie has always had the beautiful ability to make friends where ever she goes and this was no exception. Next I am being bombarded with "mummy can Annabell come to my house? I told her mummy where we live, can she? can she?" I looked apologetically at Annabell's mum as Sophie was really putting the pressure on (who I found out later is Bridget:) and she said "is she lonely for little friends too?" and there began a new friendship - Bridget and I swapped addresses and contact numbers, arranging for a play date, which took place today. It was a lovely afternoon, both Bridget and Annabell delightful people, the girls had such fun and naturally all of the "glam" gear came out.

What a lovely way to start the day....

With a schnuggle and cartoons on the couch. Some mornings, like this one, we are quite privileged not to have to get up and get going the minute our eyes have opened. Sophie loves her "cuddles" on the couch and Nick both love cartoons so it is a "win/win" for both of them.

Me, I'm taking breakfast orders - "a Meggi-mite sandwich cut into triangles pleeeeeeeeeeease mummy"

The Reward

I know this isn't the best parenting, but to help us ALL survive the 3+ hours at the hairdressers, I promised Sophie a new nail polish. The funky little salon that I go to in Emerald now consults and sells Napoleon Perdis products, smack bang in the middle of the table we were sitting at was a carousel of nail polishes. So being a quick thinking Gal that I am, I said to Sophie that if she was a patient and helpful girl I would by her a new nail polish - Well I am no wonder mum, but that suggestion worked WONDERS:).
She was hilarious trying to decide what colour to select, cuz daddy's favourite colour is blue, but the orange was pretty and the gold was sooooo sparkly, but SHE really loves pink and mummy loves the aubergine one! What is a girl to do - consequenlty she spent most part of the 3+ hours consulting with everyone in the salon on what colour she should select! Most people had a huge interest in why Nick's favourite colour should come into the equation? They buttoned their lips with a smirk after she told them that she will paint daddy's nails first.

This is soooooooooooo Boring!....

I might be a hairdresser when I can get on the chair?

Ah, now, how can I help you?

Nooo, that colour will make you look soooooooooooooo funny:)Ooooh, so you want to look cute, like me????This cute????Here, this is what you will look like!

Do you like it?

Well, it will cost you.......$$$$$$$$$$$$

Today I had no choice but to take Sophie to the hairdressers with me! When I made my appointment Nick was on a day off, so I had planned to leave madam home with him, but due to his recent change of roster, he was on an 0615 start so I had to take Sophie with me - and it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring! We did all sorts of things to make the 3+ hours fun but because it wasn't all "about her" it was boring:) She chatted non stop to all the customers, so much for them having a relaxing hour or so at the hairdressers! But we did have some fun, but at the end of the day she has decided that she doesn't want to be a hairdresser, she wants to be a fire fighter?

A Pixie in the Japanese Garden

Even though Blackwater is a very small town and often very dry and desolate - it does have a few redeeming features. Blackwater is sister city to Fujisawa (Japan), consequently we have a beautiful Japanese Garden attached to the new Coal Exhibition Centre. Sophie had the most wonderful time in the Garden frolicking from place to place, but as always the water held the most interest.

Dancing Queen

A little solo as we waited for dinner:) Sophie was in her favourite nightie and shoes - minus undies which was a concern for the audience!

At the pool - again

The pool is almost a daily activity for us - probably paid off our own by now! Each day we go Sophie buddies up with the kids that are there, if she knows them or not. Everyone remembers her and one lady said to me today "she won't lack confidence when she is older!" and we hope that she doesn't.

Soph has been desperate for us to hire a floating mat as she has seen kids having heaps of fun on them. They are actually great toys as they don't seem to sink even when the kids stand on them and dive off. We didn't need to hire one, she just hopped on this one as it went past! As it turns out the little girl was at the pool with her grandparents, grandad was lovingly holding on to the mat whilst she had fun and generous enough to allow Sophie to climb aboard. The girls had great fun, frolicking for what felt like ages to us "cold" ones. Grandad even encouraged Sophie to turn around to me so that I could capture some photo's. Small communities are great when it comes to kids.

All dressed up and nowhere to go?

Thank you Nana for me new outfit
Do you like my lip gloss?
And my pretty pink nails - thanks for the nail polish AshleeWhat about my curls?

Sophie is one very lucky girl, she is never forgotten by her sister, brothers (and their lovely ladies), grandparents, Aunties, Uncles, godparents or friends, regularly receiving goodies in the mail for all sorts of occasions. She is sooooo used to the drill - "ok Sophie, wait while mummy/daddy gets the camera!" Now, when some thing new arrives or she wears something that has been sent she will say to us "well, are you going to take my photo?"

Thanks to you all who appreciate her passion for all things "girly" - lipgloss, lipgloss and a little lipgloss she ensures that the "gloss" is on before the photo is taken - But not only the gloss she is now telling us how and where she will have her photo taken. I hear you saying "prima donna?" Nick and I have another name for her but we wont' share it over the net!:)

Her latest obsession is curling gel that I picked up at the supermarket in an attempt to put some curl in MY hair. Well as you may have guessed it is now "our" product! And you will see that she even knows how to "fluff" the hair to get the best of the product.

PS hope you noticed the beautifully painted nails - her toe nails look just as beautiful - painted by oneself! Nick wonders how he will ever manage the teen years:)