My Dad's Garden Party Birthday!

Last weekend we celebrated my Dad's Birthday with an Italian style outdoor garden party. The weather was absolutely amazing on the Gold Coast last weekend! It has since cooled down a fair bit unfortunately!

Now, if you solely read my blog for health and clean eating tips, then avert your eyes now. Whilst I am all about eating healthy and exercising, I am also about occasionally enjoying an amazing feast with family and friends on a prefect day! If you're okay with that too then read on...

As per usual, Tim was first at the table when the antipasto came out...he doesn't shy away from olives, eggplant or a piece of prosciutto... or 10.

 Teaching Mason his ways...

Like I said, this ones not a post about clean eating...

For the main, we had Penne, Osso Bucco, Roast Veges and Salad. It was my sisters first attempt at Osso Bucco and it was delicious!!

 My children might only be a 1/4 Italian, but they still get into their pasta like they're full blooded!

For dessert we had Cannolli and they were amazing!!!

We had to have a cake as well because it's no ones birthday to Mason without a cake! On the way down to Mum and Dad's I said to Mason "Remember it's Nonno's Birthday today" and he said 

"Yeah, I'm gonna eat it!".

Nonno is one of Mason's absolute favourite people in the world!

It was such a beautiful day. I'm so grateful for my awesome family!

Sophia xo

Spontaneous Mid-Week Vacay!

On Tuesday we found out that Tim's work truck needed to go in for repairs and so he was not going to be able to work for the rest of the week (bummer...), so we decided to take the opportunity to go and stay at my parents place about 20m away from the beach at Kingscliff! We hadn't been down there for most of winter so the fact that the weather had really warmed up this week made it the perfect time to head down for some beach time!

Now, I feel i should put a disclaimer here. There is an excessive amount of photos to come. Be prepared or just opt out now cause this post may never end...

In our 1 night, 1.5 day trip we went down to the beach 3 times...

After we arrived we popped down to put our feet in the sand straight away...

What is it with boys and sticks? I don't get it...

It was a bit too cold to go in the water on Wednesday because it was quite windy and a little bit overcast towards the end of the day so we just hung out on the beach...

 Running down the sand dunes...

 and taking selfies... Chloe was loving herself sick in the camera on Wednesday arvo. Usually it is really difficult to get her to smile for the camera, but the beach air must have put her in a fab mood!

When we woke up on Thursday morning the weather was absolutely perfect so we headed down again and got a bit wet this time...

 Chloe was being a total girl and wasn't so keen on the wet sand at first...

 But with a little help from Daddy she got totally into it...

 It wouldn't be a trip to the beach for Mason without some boogy boarding along the sand...

 or running away from the waves...

 I tried to get a bit clever, but Chloe wasn't having a bar of it...

Do any other parents find themselves constantly pushing empty prams??? Story of our lives...

Well, if you made it this far, I thankyou! You were warned....

We had such a lovely couple of days away. Although it was only a short trip it was a nice change of pace and we were really in need of it. Life can get so busy and hectic and crazy, it was nice to get a surprise couple of days to chill out! No doubt next week is going to be crazy because Tim is going to have so much catching up to do, but whatcha gonna do...

Hope you all had a great week and are having a nice relaxing Friday night!

Enjoy your weekend!

Sophia xo

Mason & Chloe's Birthday!

This past weekend we had Mason and Chloe's joint birthday party. Mason turned 3 on Wednesday of last week and Chloe is 1 tomorrow!!!

I seriously can't believe how quickly time is passing by. It was a year ago tonight that I was lying in bed having a hot chocolate, milk arrowroots and reading The Hunger Games, anxiously awaiting the next morning when we would get to meet our little girl. I remember my nervous excitement kept me awake all night! (Side note: I read the first hunger games book in the 3 days prior to going into hospital to have Chloe. I started the second book in hospital and I finished it about 10 days ago!! Just to give you an idea of the kind of spare time I have now with 2 babies!)

We decided to have a photographer present at Chloe's birth after a friend who was pregnant at the same time as me recommended someone who she was going to be using. At the time it sounded a little out there I'll admit, but I went with it and now I am so grateful that we did. I only wish that I would have known to do this when Mason was born. It is a lot of still shots of before the birth, during and after. All done tastefully, I promise. It is so special to us now and I so look forward to showing Chloe when she gets older. If you would like to watch the video you can find it here Chloe's Birth.

So, on the weekend we celebrated with a joint Baby Girl/Golf Party (Yes, my 3 year old is a mad obsessed golfer!) In the morning before the party started our wonderful friend Luci took Mason to play golf with his new golf clubs (His big birthday present!). He had the best time and that night when I was putting him to sleep he proudly told me "Luci's my friend". So cute!

After Mason got home our families and a couple of close friends started to arrive for a barbecue and some cake!

We also added a new member to the family... a hermit crab called 'Robot'.

I made a pink cake for Chloe and a golf cake for Mason...

What an amazing year it has been! Not going to lie, those first 9 months were tough, but all well and truly worth it!!! I love watching them play together now that Chloe is a bit older. They have the best fun and spend so much time laughing. This is them cracking each other up in the bath after their party.

I am so grateful for my beautiful family :-)

Sophia xo