Have I mentioned before how much I love 5?? Well, I do! Love this age. Jack is such a pleasure to be around and is so much fun.

I took him to the Art Gallery last week to see the Picasso exhibition and he really enjoyed it. He walked along beside me (most of the time!) and was such a pleasure.

 It surprises me, because when he was 3 I really didn't know how I was going to make it through being a parent... but here I am, still holding it together! Go me! hahaha!

Maybe it's because he's settled in so well at school? He's going so well and I'm really glad we decided to send him this year as it was the right choice for him. I love the school we chose too.

Today, I took him shopping with my sister. Younger Jack would NOT cope with shopping. But 5 year old Jack? He was awesome. We even found a pony ride for him to go on. And he loved it.

I love the boy he's become, but he is still my little baby :)

 

Enjoying our own city

I think it's easy to forget all the cool things there are to do in the city we live in.

 So one afternoon recently, we went for a drive into this beautiful city of ours. 

 We strolled around the Opera House, had lunch in the Botanical gardens, 

Then back across the bridge to Luna Park. I haven't been there for many many years.... the last time I remember being there was in primary school!

It was a fun afternoon!

 

Turning 5! Lego themed party

Sometimes it feels like just yesterday. Other days, it feels like he's been here with me forever.

(pregnant in 2006)

 (newborn Jack. 1 day old)

 My big boy is now 5! I must say, I'm loving 5. What a great age!

Last weekend, we celebrated with a party. I asked him what theme he'd like and he very quickly replied "Lego Ninjago!" OK then!

I did some searching on etsy and found some great things. Starting with this cupcake toppers. I used these for the tops of the cupcakes and as stickers for the lolly bags. 

 (from here)

I found invitations and drink bottle labels on etsy too.  I printed the drink labels on stickers and stuck them on bottles on water.

(from here)

We had the party at a local hall that has its own little park. Minimal fuss! I set up a colouring in table as we'd been having months of rain in Sydney so I didn't know if it would be raining on the party day. (turns out it wasn't, but good to have a back up plan)

I found these lego colouring pages online and this one can be personalised. (from here)

We had party games.

And cake. Now, I will say here that I spent hours on a Lego cake for the party and it failed :( So, this little echidna one bought from the shop was the back up, and was pretty good too. 

His party shirt. And one of his little mates had one on too :)

Here are the party bags with the stickers on them. They looked great!

I found these printables online (not sure where now....) and I printed some with "Happy Birthday", some with "5" and some plan ones. Jack helped me put them on the walls around the hall :)

  Drink bottles!

It was such a great birthday and a lovely party. I had fun putting it together, but I'm glad it's now over for another year! Although, my nearly 3 year old keeps asking for a Rio themed party for his birthday in April. Here we go again!! lol

 

coloured rice!

Like lots of kids, my boys love craft. Luckily, so do I!! I was searching the net for some ideas on a few crafty things to do with the boys when I stumbled across coloured rice. What a great, fun, easy idea. And a hit!

Starting with some plain, white rice in a zip lock bag (white holds the colour better)

Food colouring

A few drops into the rice and SHAKE!

The rice after shaking

Different colours

I poured them into a baking dish on newspaper and put them outside to dry in the sun for around an hour

The boys decided to mix the colours together :)

Hours of fun! They loved it!

to market to market

Yesterday, I had my first stall at Mathilda's Market. I've been a shopper at Mathilda's many times and it's always such a beautiful market.

It didn't disappoint! The stallholders do such a great job with their stalls. Just beautiful! I didn't want mine to be the ugly duckling, so I put quite a bit of thought into my stall. I hope I did ok!

I had a great day! 

Mathilda's market tomorrow!

My car is packed. I have been sewing like a crazy lady (crazier than a cat lady perhaps??) and I think I'm finally ready for my first Mathilda's market tomorrow.

 

I'm excited! I'm really looking forward to it. I've been a shopper at previous Mathilda's markets and have always found some lovely new sellers.

I'm off to bed now to get my rest before a hopefully very busy morning :)

Sarah xx

running

Now, people who know me should know that I'm not a runner. Not even close! I can walk and walk, but running?? I last 20 seconds. And that's on a good day!

So, it's quite surprising really that I've been doing the "Ease into 5K" app on my iphone. It's a running app that helps non-runners start running. ( I have started it before, but haven't kept it up )

It's supposed to take 9 weeks (I think I will take longer!) and it's interval training. So, you walk for say 30 seconds, run for 45 seconds, walk for 90 second run for 60 seconds.... etc etc.

OK, I won't lie. At first I found it HARD! Very hard. But, I powered through and I'm now almost at the end of week 2. I can run for 90 seconds!! Yep. All by myself.

When I get home, my face is as red as a beetroot (see above) and stays that way for a while, but it's a good feeling. Next week, it goes up to running for 3 minutes. Eek! I don't know about that. I'll probably do the week 2 program again and then try week 3. We'll see :)