Silly Season Update featuring our Elf on the Shelf: ELFIE!!!

Okay... 

so life can get a little crazy around this time of year.

It doesn't lessen one bit my love for it though - the magic and joy of children at this time, the Christmas carols playing at home, the sparkle of my girls eyes as the watch in awe of the Christmas lights.

And of course there's Elfie! 

My girls are MASSIVE believers and they ADORE Elfie and his antics.

Here's a quick photo montage to bring you up to date (I'm such a slacker at keeping you posted!):

DAY 6:

The art of the Elf

Elfie found the toothpaste tube and thought it was the perfect way to remind the girls to be good (whilst still getting to release a little elf mischief at the same time). 

Oh and yes, why thank-you! I do have the most lovely retro grey-green, black and salmon pink vinyl tiles... urgh! I do love retro but just not my bathrooms style of retro! It matches the lovely pink hand basin and bathtub... my bathroom screams renovation - but it needs to get in line and take a ticket! Hopefully our kitchen will be getting a facelift in the next month or so... then, maybe then we'll start the bathroom!

DAY 7:

Just Hanging About

Elfie was taking it easy today... just sitting about in the Christmas tree with a couple of new jingle jangle baubles.

DAY 8:

Sleep Over with Elfie

We were in the city visiting my brother and his daughters and Elfie of course was along for the ride. The girls awoke to find he'd been digging into the Christmas candy and thought the perfect way to introduce himself to the cousins was to spell out his name.

We all had a great day with my brother and his two girls... park picnic for lunch,

 feeding ducks, on the swings and slides and then off to the berry farm to pick some berries...

How gorgeous is this entrance to the wonderful family run bramble farm?

So after an afternoon of berry picking the girls and I set off on the 4+ hour drive home and with a bucket full of berries Elfie got busy that night!

DAY 9:

A berry berry nice pie

1/2 way there

How pleased does Elfie look with himself?

And out of the oven...

Then presented to the girls... oooh, that Elfie knows how to impress!

And so we are almost (okay maybe not really) caught up... but it's super late and I need to be catching some Zzzzz's so I'll continue with the catch up REALLY soon...

If you are ultra keen to catch up on Elfie you can always head to my facebook page: 

SpaNGle*

or follow along on Instagram: 

the_spangler

Take care and I hope you are staying safe, being merry and spreading joy and cheer!!!

xoxoxo

Elfie Diaries... Making the dough!

Yesterday my girls pleaded with me to make some homemade play dough for them... 

I would have loved to but unfortunately it was a crazy day and by late afternoon when I finally found five minutes to cook up some coloured squishyness I discovered that I had only enough salt to make a half batch when I knew they were hoping for a full rainbow selection that would have taken at least 5 times that! Urgh... what's a mum to do?

I promised that it would be a priority in the morning after a trip to the supermarket for salt. 

But guess what?

Elfie does not only have eye's everywhere but apparently ears too... 

The girls awoke this morning to discover Elfie had slaved away (actually, it's a super easy play dough recipe that takes less than 5minutes per batch... but Elfie is only small and his little arms could only stir so fast) and whipped up 7 wonderful big and bright playdough mounds... he then fashioned a wishing well, filled it with coins and scattered a few coins about for some extra girly wishes!

Recipe link for the play dough is from fabulous blog "Musings of a SAHM" and can be found  HERE... the only thing I did differently was to knead in a little extra oil in after it had cooled on a plate slightly just to give it an even smoother/silkier texture. Seriously, the quickest and most simplest recipe for fabulous playdough!

The girls were so thankful to Elfie and spent a good 3 hours playing, moulding, and shaping dough whilst making random wishes...

Then it was all systems go for another hectic day of ballet concert rehearsals... thank goodness my big girl will only be taking classes at one ballet school next year - I don't think I'd cope with another year of multiple ballet schools considering my littlest miss will also start ballet at a different ballet school again come February next year!

There's something I can't quite put my finger on that I just LOVE about this  'inbetween' shot of my beautiful little ballerina.

And of course my little miss never misses a photo opp... She loves to pose, she loves to smile, she loves to dress up... She does NOT love having or keeping her hair done!

And after ballet concert rehearsals some play time in the sunshine was just what we all needed!

See what I mean with the hair? Ah well, hair done or not I still think she's gorgeous - I love how easy a smile spreads across her face and deep into her eyes. ♥

Till next time...

xoxoxo

He's back in residence... ELFIE!!!

♫♪ So this is Christmas... ♪♫

I just love Christmas with children... and my two love their elf on the shelf - Elfie!

Last year December 1st 2011, he arrived for the first time to spend 24 days of fun, tricks, shenanigans and games.

He flew home to the Nth Pole last Christmas Eve with a promise to return and this is the beginning of his 2012 Christmas adventures... 

It all began on November 30th when a mysterious parcel addressed to my two little misses turned up on the doorstep whilst we were out. 

It contained Elfies book and a letter from the star of this adventure himself!!!

This led to a flurry of Santa letters and drawings and a trip to the local post office to stamp and send a letter direct to the North Pole.

Sure enough, Santa's mail service is like no other in the express department, for at the crack of dawn today, the 1st December 2012 there were squeals of delight and excitement!

Elfie was back!!!!

Same cheeky smile and glint in his eyes...

He'd been busy during the night and prepared a wonderful feast for the girls of fruit, waffles and a couple of treats for later in the day.

(I seriously was nearly sprung helping Elfie get ready this morning... the girls were up before 6am!!! Crazy... I think it's time I put a clock in their room!)

So... I wonder what troubles, mischief and fun Elfie will get into this year?

You can follow "The Eflie Diaries" here on my blog (although I am sometimes a little behind - as I am today... grrr blogger was giving me grief!)

or

over on my Facebook business page SpaNGle*

or 

for the earliest peek of the day at Elfies shenanigans follow my Instagram feed: 

the_spangler

Updates coming daily!!!!

xoxoxo

My little sk8er, baker, biker, rainbow jello loving girl...

Today was fun...

The sun was shining and the girls and I loved it.

Big Little Miss M received a new cookbook for her 5th birthday and was so keen to pick out a recipe to make.

She chose and made a Pecan Biscuit Crumb cake... kind of like a grooms cake (but girl-ified with pink dusting sugar) - it's yummo!

The girls were keen to do some bike riding...

We only have a small concrete area in the back yard so I bundled their bikes, scooter and a new skateboard in the car and we headed to the local courts which were deserted and perfect for biking and skating fun...

Big Little Miss M had not used a skateboard before and to say she was super-excited about it is a massive understatement... here's my little skater girl in action - she LOVED it...

In that middle photo above on the right she's doing a super cute, double fisted hand pump - she was busting with happiness at her new toy! Normally my big 5 year old gets pretty frustrated at things when she's learning (she wants to be perfect at things first go) but oddly enough she was too caught up in the thrill of trying out the skateboard that she must of forgotten to get frustrated! She's going to be awesome - and of course I'm not parentally biased :P

The girls spent nearly 3hours this afternoon at the courts biking, scooting and skating... it was bliss - I'd packed a huge thermos of coffee, so I got to laze in the sun, sipping coffee and watching my girls be girls... I miss being a kid on days like this - I gave the skateboard a tentative go but it didn't come with any weight rating and I was nervous that I would snap it and forever burn a devastating memory onto my girls first skating experience!

Speaking of being a big kid... I bought a new cap and on the inside as a pre-sale shaper it had a cardboard insert with instructions on how to do 'The Worm' ...ahhh... now I just need a party to be a fooligan at so I can bust a move across the floor... lol - yeah right, I think I'd more than likely end up with a back spasm looking a tool on the floor - forever to be labelled as the infamous geriatric worm!

Jokes aside though - how tempting is it... the 'how to' makes it all look and read so easy ☺

Well, the girls are sleeping extra soundly tonight after all their pedalling fun... plus they've bellies full of our new favourite dessert...

Rainbow Jello... a time consumer to make but the looks on the girls faces when this gets plopped all wibbly, wobbly on the table makes it more than worth it. I think we spent at least 15 minutes just watching it wobble and laughing at what wacky things we could do to get it to wobble some more. Plus... it actually tastes pretty awesome too!

Till next time

xoxoxo

Snow... Snow... Snow...

SNOW... 

You make me love winter - if only for the fleeting time that I am with you! I love the snow... 

I love the ascent up the mountain, spotting the first few scatterings of the wonderful white stuff... 

I get excited when I see cars heading down mountain with snow on their roof and under their wipers... 

I love winding the window down (hahah... just re-reading... how funny still calling it 'winding the window down' when it's been pushing an electronic button for so long now!) and feeling the crisp, cold air against my cheeks and breathing in the smell of the clean, clean mountain air full of powdery snow promises!

I've missed the snow soooo much... 

It's been just shy of 6 years since my last visit (yep... just a couple of months before I found out I was preggers with my beautiful Big Little Miss M I spent a WONDERFUL 5 days on the snow, skiing, boarding and having too many après drinks). 

It's been so long for many reasons... children, life, living at that time thousands of kms from the slopes, the fact that sadly the hubs does not share my adoration of the snow :(  One thing I know is - I'm going to do everything I can to ensure my girls love it so that snow trips will be incorporated into our regular girly adventure days!

We set off early for the three hour trip there and took a beautiful, back roads trip through greenery, hills, and small country towns with gorgeous cottages and café's that I fantasised about living in as we drove through (the towns not café's that is - although my coffee loving self could most likely quite easily and happily live in a café).

I would have taken more photo's but I was driving and seriously would having been stopping every few km's to take photo's and I just wanted to get to the snow (as did my girls). I'm thinking a summer trip for sightseeing, moseying, photo taking and more quaint country life fantasies might be in order!

My girls oohed and ahhed at the hills that disappeared into the clouds along the way. When I told them that we would be driving up almost to the clouds to get to the snow Big Little Miss M declared that she wanted to climb onto a cloud and snuggle into it and then asked if she could take a cloud back home with her... Not being one to spoil the childhood magic I love, I told her of course we could but we'd have to make extra room in the boot because it was such a good idea that I wanted one to take home too (I figured I'd deal with the whole logistics/reality of the situation if and when needed)! 

Today there was no skiing and boarding - it was all for the kids really, to give them a chance to play, marvel, make snow men and angels, throw snowballs and toboggan. The snow was average but still awesome from the kiddies point of view... which meant it was awesome from my point of view too. Happy kids = happy mum!

It was a little overcast most the day but gentle, wafting snowflakes greeted us as we arrived and the sun graced us every so often.

We made a snowman: 

The girls tobogganed:

(I love that Big Little Miss M chose to drop the 'to' from toboggan and simply calls it 'bogganing... eg. Mum, I can go bogganing all by myself! I love bogganing! She makes me laugh)

We travelled in convoy with some friends... from 3 families, 2 cars, 4 adults, 6 children, 4 toboggans.

(minus 1 kiddo... they move too fast!)

All the kids had a wonderful day despite each one of them at some point during the day losing it a little and cracking a wobbly - as they do.

Driving back the kids were still all pepped up with excitement and I loved them even more for it... 

And bonus... gorgeous sunset - just a shame my phone camera doesn't do it justice... the colours were so much more spectacular in reality!

I really must sort my camera situation!

Well, that's our day in the snow - it was AWESOME!

The kiddies have another almost 2 weeks left of school holidays, which even though my two aren't yet in school that means they don't have schedules including Monday morning - swimming lessons; Monday afternoon- ballet lessons; Tuesdays - kindergarten; Wednesday morning - music playgroup; Thursday - kindergarten; Friday morning - craft playgroup; Saturday - more ballet lessons.... (and crazy me wants to fit in singing and tennis lessons somewhere in there!).

Stay tuned for more girly adventure days and surprise daytripping!!!!

Winter... it's not all bad!

Well, yesterday I was all wingey, moany over the cold, winter weather. I'm over it now, and apologies for being so ho hum... 

I like to think I'm pretty upbeat, positive and big on not letting the things I can't change stress or bring me down, but I guess we all have our moments and yesterday was mine.. all just because it was cold! Duh! Pathetic I know but I needed to get it out of my system and now it's done and over with... woohoo!

Moving on....

Check this out:

Tomorrow my girls and I are setting off on another girlie adventure... a day trip to the snow!

Big Little Miss M's instructions at bedtime when I told her and Little Little Miss M that they had to sleep so I could finish organising things for the snow trip was to make sure I'd packed a snowman kit, with extra emphasis on there MUST be a carrot for the nose! (Found some googly eyes to pop on him too... I had forgotten I'd bought a container of about... ooh... maybe 200 googly eyes in all different sizes, until I was cleaning out the depths of my car boot earlier today only to discover the container had rolled right to the back, burst open and scattered googly eyes EVERYWHERE back there!)

So, I'm super excited - not a fan of winter but ironically LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the snow... I so hope that my little ones do too - I'd love to go for a few days next time and have them take ski lessons (and to get in some skiing and boarding myself). 

I'm like a big kid right now... I'm hyper alert and not able to sleep because I'm excited but at the same time I know I need to because I've about a 2.5 - 3hr drive tomorrow to get there!

Really. Must. Sleep.....

xoxoxo

Day to day...

Life is still busy... It amazes me sometimes how I can seem to achieve nothing yet have raced around chasing my tail all day!

Most days at some point I actually believe I am suffering from early onset dementia... but then I remember... I am a mum and this is most likely a normal side effect! (Just jokes of course people... maybe... hehehe... OMGoodness I need sleep!)

Constantly amazed at how quickly my beautiful girls are growing up... it is happening right before my eyes. Little Little Miss M is definitely testing the waters of independence and stubbornness... much to both my frustration and admiration - frustrated that it really feels like I'm talking to a brick wall but admiration because my little one is going to be one tough cookie who stands her ground... yay girl power! The little one certainly has got the 'tude... Only just three and has standard answers for most things... 

ME: Pick up your toys and I want you to clean up your room.  

HER: Me a little tired... 

ME: If you don't pick up your toys I will take them away! 

HER (said with utter and bland coolness): That okay, take them away...

or

ME:  If you want to come with Mummy to the coffee shop/playgroup/shopping/etc you need to pick up your toys first.

HER: Me okay, I stay home.

Grrrrrrrr... but you know what? As frustrated as I may feel I do know that this stage of childhood will pass before I know it and I will reminisce on these times and my memory will replace the frustration with a sense of sadness at just how quickly they go from toddlers to children to teens to adults... I mean, if you read my last post you'll know it only feels like a couple of years since I turned 18 but reality is it's been almost (but not quite) as many years since!

I look at Big Little Miss M and already know that as much as I love how she's growing into her personality and independence I already know that it all feels to have gone too fast!

Its just occurred to me that I need a slow, lazy day... this cold winter weather is making me long to be back living within meters of the beach again... I feel a pyjama day coming on soon!

So here's wishing for a nice, slow, lazy, snuggly, pyjama day with my girls in the very near future!

☺