3….How can that be???

Posted on February 18, 2014 by natalietrew

This week my youngest baby turned 3…THREE…how can that be???

I will forever remember the drama that surrounded Mia’s birth. Being diagnosed with a dilated aorta and tricuspid aortic valve at 37 weeks pregnant was enough to take my pregnancy to a whole new level, as we entered into a scary world of the unknown. Would I survive? Was it safe to deliver? Cesarean? ICU? Risk after? Open heart surgery?…it’s safe to say I was completely frightened out of my wits!!!! But when she finally came out, 2 weeks early, it was such a relief to hold my precious baby girl and know that I’d made it through the hardest part and so did she!

Now 3 years on, my baby has gone so far past a baby it makes me really sad that I’ll never have ‘baby’ moments again!

Mia – aka cookie, pumpkin, poocoo, darling, chick…pretty much anything other than Mia lol, is growing into a funny, intelligent little lady. When I looked back at photos from her second birthday, it really hit home how much she’s grown. In a year her language development has been amazing and she has been completely toilet trained since before Christmas. She LOVES reading books and her favourite shows are Playschool and the Wiggles. She knows her colours, most of her shapes, counts to 20 and spells her own name.

Mia loves to help and she is a really good helper (most of the time lol). She is such a busy little bee now. Her week consists of hanging out with nanny while I work, play group, swimming lessons and helping me out with the house work and groceries. I really love hanging out with my mini me…she is so funny and makes me laugh a lot!! Mia was my most challenging baby and such a busy toddler, it’s so nice she’s reached an age where she’s great to take anywhere and unless she’s super tired, she really is a good girl!

To celebrate Mia’s birthday this year which was on a Monday and my work day, we decided to have a family day on Sunday down at Wynnum. The weather was absolutely amazing and everyone had an awesome time, particularly the birthday girl. We spent the day swimming and had fish and chips for lunch.

17th of February at 7.30pm Mia was exactly 3 years old! To celebrate the day, she spent it with nanny while I worked. They went to Maccas for morning tea and then did their usual – read books, sing songs, cuddle teddies and watch Playschool. I came straight home from work to cook dinner and ice her cake. This year’s theme was teddy bears. Mia loves teddies. She has so many of them and carries one around all the time. She was super excited it was her birthday, she didn’t even have her day nap so was pretty exhausted by the end of the day, but never stopped smiling:)

Mia turning 3 really hits home that my baby days are over. When I walk past the nappies in the supermarket, it reminds me I’ll never have a little babies bottom to kiss again. When I looked at the Best and Less catalogue this week and saw all the gorgeous new bonds all-in-ones , I think I actually had a tear in my eye. The only bit of baby I still hold onto is the fact that Mia is still in a cot…and she loves it so much I can’t see her vacating it anytime soon lol. But that day will come…later in the year the girls are going in together and that will be the day I’ll never have a nursery again…booohoooo;(

But for now I’m not going to dwell on that fact that my baby days are over, cause my mothering days will never be over. As the kids get older and they become more involved in sport and extra curricular activities, let alone everything that comes with going to school, they’ll need me more than ever!! This is Mia’s last year before she starts preschool next year and then she’ll be off to prep! I love my work days off with her, she is my little shadow and I will enjoy every moment I have with her before she starts school!

Me and my mini me…my very own baby angel … Happy 3rd birthday princess xoxoxo!

The Big 5!!!

Posted on June 30, 2013 by natalietrew

5 years ago on the 30th of June at 11.55am, my beautiful 10p 2oz baby girl was born. I still remember like it was yesterday pulling her from my inner soul to discover she was a girl!!!! I was so over joyed. After having a boy first, I really wanted a little girl and my wish was granted! She was MASSIVE (lol) but oh so devine. She never whimpered once and looked around at us all as if to say “I’m ready to take on this world!”

Sienna Lynette Trew has been a shining star from the minute she took her first breath on this earth. She is kind. She is thoughtful. She is so beautiful and sweet but also very funny and feisty! She never wants for much and is so easy to please. She has an anxiety attack if you mention the word dress (lol) and would prefer to wear shorts and joggers over skirts and ballet flats, but she has a great sense of style of her own. Sienna is the type of child to give you her last bite of food if you were starving or her last dollar if you were broke…she is just amazing!!!

Sienna was so so excited to be turning 5 this year, after all it is a whole hand worth of fingers to hold up now!!! And after what has been such an emotional month for our family, it was a lovely way to end the month on a happy note for once. Now that Sienna is in school, she had several celebrations…..

First was her school celebrations where I baked a batch of cupcakes for her and her fellow prep H students. They all sang happy birthday to her and enjoyed eating their cupcakes for morning tea…

Second was her party with her friends. Sienna was in control of her guest list and food, I just went out and bought and baked it all for her. She knew exactly what she wanted. I offered to put a tea party on with a few of her girl friends but she insisted on having her closest boy friends invited so the park it was. The day was spoilt by the weather, but that didn’t stop all the kids from having a ball….

The third and final day of celebrations was her official birthday which was yesterday! She is becoming so particular with what she wants it’s so adorable! Her request was straight hair and nails painted like me:), bowling with the family and of course lots of cake! For presents her only request was a microphone. So by granting her all of this, we had one very happy 5 year old on our hands yesterday….

The Cake:
Due to the passing of my dear nana at the beginning of the month and the weeks of her being in hospital leading up to her passing, I haven’t baked or decorated a cake or cupcake since grandad’s birthday on April 20th. That day, unbeknown to us, was the last birthday in the family celebrated with nana present – so to say Sienna’s birthday was bittersweet is an understatement!

It was nice to get back into something that I LoVe to do though. Sienna loves rainbows so this year’s birthday theme for her has been rainbow colours with purple as the predominant colour. I’ve always wanted to try a 6 layer rainbow cake and when I showed it to Sienna, she was so excited to be getting that as her birthday cake. This is how it turned out….

Sienna loved it as did everyone and I was extremely happy with my first attempt at a rainbow cake – one of my favourite cakes to date!

All in all Sienna had a wonderful 5th birthday filled with lots of love, fun and laughter. She was very spoilt and got a beautiful assortment of presents from one direction merchandise to matching nike shoes like mine. But her favourite present that she hasn’t put down is her microphone…we may have a singer and dancer on our hands! After such a turmoil month, I sincerely hope Sienna’s birthday marks the beginning of many happy memories for our family!

Thank you to everyone for all of Sienna’s birthday wishes and for anyone who helped make our little girl’s 5th birthday extra special!

February Babies!

Posted on February 27, 2013 by natalietrew

OMG!!!! What a massive month February will be for the rest of my life! I’ve been quite quiet on the blog of late as I have just finished celebrating my daughter’s 2nd birthday last week and my son’s 7th birthday yesterday!! When I think back now, it surely wasn’t good planning on our behalf! And what is more ironic is that both Bailey and Mia, who are my eldest and youngest babies, were both suppose to be March babies but were born at 38 weeks…so February it is!

In the past two weeks I’ve baked 5 birthday cakes, 60 cupcakes, a batch of biscuits, pikelets, pancakes, wrapped several presents, decorated and sang happy birthday a number of times…and as much as I’m lying here quite exhausted today, I just love making my babies birthdays special!

I’ve had so much fun cake decorating this month:)

It all started with Mia’s birthday on Sunday the 17th. We were hoping to spend the day at the beach swimming and soaking up the beautiful sun rays, but it hasn’t stopped raining this month so we were forced to stay indoors! But that didn’t stop my precious little one from having a fabulous day! We had family come over for dinner and cake and Mia loved all the attention….

And that was just on her birthday!

Mia had a big 1st birthday party with lots of friends, so we decided to have a quiet low key ‘polka dot theme’ morning tea with a few little friends this year at her regular hang out – The Runcorn Pool!

Another year of celebrating my precious little angel’s birthday…I still can’t believe my youngest is 2 already;(

Next cab off the rank was Bailey! With his birthday on a Tuesday (which is footy training night) this year, we decided to have our family celebrations on Sunday night at his favorite Kuraby Hotel. He chose everything. The venue, cake, his meal…Mr organised – so not like his father lol! It was a great night and was more relaxed being on a weekend rather than a week day.

Bailey’s actual birthday was yesterday. It was one of the first birthdays that I haven’t been with one of my children on;( between school and work I saw him briefly in the morning and for a couple of hours once I got home. I hated it:( 7 years ago and every year since then we’d spent the day together. I felt like I’d lost a part of me yesterday. But once kids go to school that’s what happens I guess! Bay still had a great day though. I made cupcakes for him to take to school and he had his request of Hungry Jacks for dinner. He received such wonderful gifts that he loves and is very excited to have over $100 to go shopping with!

The note I left in Bay’s lunch box with money for an ice block;)

Bay had a party last year with his school friends so this year he has decided he just wants to have a sleep over with a few mates. So this Friday night we’ll have four 7 year olds under our roof and then they are heading to The Runcorn Pool the next morning…this is a daddy job as this mumma is stuffed lol!

To my February babies,
Your birthday will always be a day where I celebrate the best days of my life. I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. The moment you took your first breath, let out that first cry for milk and the instant bond we formed when our eyes found each other. As I close my eyes I can still feel your soft baby skin that I kissed (and still kiss) a billion times over and those first precious moments of cuddling we shared are times I’ll always cherish. I’m so blessed to be your mumma and love you more than words can express. It’s uncanny that the first time I became a mum was in February and the last time as well. You are both so alike with your fearful ways, bossy personality, funny sense of humour and your need to be cuddled and nurtured! I love how much you both adore each other and I know you will share this special bond for the rest of your lives. Happy birthday my February babies…am looking forward to another year of growth and development!
Love your mumma!

80 Blessed Years!

Posted on August 19, 2012 by natalietrew

80 years ago today a beautiful lady was born into this world, and blessed this world is to have her! This lady is my dear nana Gloria! In her 80 years of life so far, she has experienced many great loves which have formed her family, but has also faced tragedies with the loss of a child, grandchild and parent. She has always been a devoted wife, mother and grandmother who would give you the jumper off her back or her last dollar if she had too!

Yesterday we celebrated nana’s 80th birthday just how she likes…being surrounded by family! My wonderful mother did a fabulous job organising such a fantastic day for everyone to enjoy! It was so lovely having most of nana’s grandchildren and great grandchildren present for such a huge milestone. And of course in true style we were able to capture many cherished moments…..

Nana and grandad with their children!

Nana and grandad with their grandchildren!

Nana and grandad with their great grandchildren!

My party of 5 with our dear Nana!

Nana’s cake I made for her:)

Aerial shot of the cake!

Mum put together a collection of things that my very talented nana made over the years…some of it is almost 40 years old!!!!

Nana and I….my fondest childhood memories included nana a lot!

As I was having a lovely chit chat with nan this arvo, it reminded me of all the wonderful girly chit chats we’ve had over the years! It makes me so upset at the thought of how Parkinson’s Disease has taken over my precious nana’s body and once where she was an active vibrant women who was very intelligent, now struggles with the day to day normal living of life. But in true Gloria form she never complains and always has time to give you a smile. As I kissed her soft forehead this arvo, I told her that she was the best and that she wasn’t going anywhere that we couldn’t survive without her….she replied with a beautiful smile and said “someone would replace me”, I replied with “never!” Because Gloria Holpen, the lady known to many of us as Nana Holpen, is simply irreplaceable!!!!

Happy 80th birthday Nana….I’m so glad you’ve had a wonderful weekend of celebrations!!!!!

Etch it out!

Posted on July 4, 2012 by natalietrew

Bailey’s wrestling ring cake with the wrestling logo etched out andu filled with sprinkles!

After spending the past two weeks doing a lot of baking and decorating, I’ve decided that spending time in my kitchen cooking or baking is quite therapeutic….except for the dishes!

Cake etching…what is it? Just a little technique I’ve been using quite a bit lately! Back in february when I made my son’s football birthday cake, I needed something to create the stitching part of the footy! I could have used my decorating icing cans or even lollies, but to be completely honest I’d run out of anything alike, but had plenty of sprinkles! An idea came to me to etch out the lacing part of the footy and fill it in with white sprinkles….and this is how it turned out:

When I did Bailey’s wrestling ring I thought for sure we’d have the wrestling logo somewhere around here to put on the cake, but of course not! So I copied the logo and etched it out on the cake and filled it with sprinkles! I was quite happy with how that turned out!

Etching is great to use when you want to put a person’s name on their cake to! I’ve recently done two cakes and this is how they turned out:

My daughter’s cake she took to preschool:)

My sister-in-law’s cake for tonight:)

So how do you etch? Simple:) you need to find something that is pen like in size, I use a medicine syringe and then etch out of the icing what you want…

Once you’ve finished etching out what you want, you can then continue to fill the space. I’ve only used sprinkles so far, but other things like piped icing or lollies could be used…I’ve got so many ideas I can’t wait to try! When using sprinkles you have to do it very slowly and carefully. I keep the sprinkles in the bag they come in and cut a tiny hole for them to come out of.

So there you have it ‘the etching technique’…well that’s what I call it anyway:) happy etching everyone!!!

Just to let you know I’ve started a fan page for my blog on facebook…Click ‘like’ on My Party of 5 and keep up to date with everything relating to my blog! Thank you to everyone who is always so supportive of my blog:)

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