The Dower Family

We truly love Halloween around here. Each year it gets bigger and better and this year it was spread over an entire weekend.  Friday during the day we got to watch the ferris wheel and all the other rides getting set up at the park at the end of the street.  That night we headed down with a bunch of our closest friends for a movie in the park.  The kids had their eyes glued to the screen but I couldn't stop looking at them and their pals, feeling so thankful that we have such a wonderful little existence here.  It might have been a spooky occasion but I had nothing but love in my heart. The next night was the real deal.  Proper costumes were busted out - Vampire for Ollie and Pocahontas for Eve.  All of my efforts at making Eve a costume were undone once I added the final detail - black hairspray for both of them.  Ol managed to keep his reasonably together.  But within seconds it seems that Eve had rubbed her little black head all over ...

We are still here.  Just living a bit differently these days. What has brought about this change?  We are hoping to buy our own home in the not too distant future.  Which has brought about the need for paid employment for me.  I was lucky enough to land the first job I applied for, doing marketing, writing blogs and running social media for an architecture firm.  A bit of a crazy career change from being a lawyer, but with everything I've been doing for Mini Mayhem over the past few years I've picked up a few skills.   So now I find myself working three days each week.  It is certainly more of a juggle than before.  Thankfully Nanna Carmel has been a great help and is looking after Eve one of the days each week, including taking Ol to and from school.  I know Ol gets a real kick out taking his nanna along.   I am supremely grateful that Nick is such a super dooper husband.  If he weren't so helpful around the hou...

It is Father's Day today. A day for the giving of socks and jocks, homemade cards and keychains with photos and drawings inside them.  We typically celebrate Father's (and Mother's) day with no big ticket items, just a lot of love and creativity. In keeping with this theme I whipped up a little movie for Nick, showing him why we think he is something special.  It took a few evenings of surreptitious editing and a few plays for the kids when Nick was at work. This morning we played it for Nick after we'd given him all of his little presents.  He definitely loved it.  How could I tell?  He may have gotten a little dust in both of his eyes simultaneously.  Success!!! Here it is so you can have a little sneaky peek.

Oops, in all the birthday excitement (read exhaustion!) I didn't get around to showing you the pics from Eve's third birthday party.  The theme?  It had to be Snow White for this little princess. As some of you know, we take parties pretty seriously around here (maximum effort, minimum cash) and this was no exception.  I really wanted to avoid using any licensed party stuffs so as usual there was lots of crafty work to be done.  For party activities we decorated apple shaped cookies and we had an extremely tough to crack homemade apple piñata.  But the real fun was in the simplest of simple ideas - a good old fashioned table fort.  Chuck a few lanterns on top and a sign and you've got yourself "Grumpy's Mine" - the perfect place to hide out and scarf party food. We also played "Pass the poison apple" instead of pass the parcel but it was a bit of a dud with our crowd who were either too shy or too cool to faint dramatically if they were the o...

My little two year old went to bed last night (with a bit of the usual crying) and this morning my big three year old girl came into my bed for snuggles.  The transition to big girl was even more pronounced as yesterday we took her to get a big girl haircut! So as with every birthday around here, I wanted to share with you some of the things that I love (and loathe) about this gorgeous little miss of ours. - she says that everything is "booooooootiful".  It has become a new family word. - she LOVES Peppa Pig a crazy amount.  She loves to sing the song and make the snorting pig sound. - she needs to put on a dress up costume as soon as she wakes up in the morning. every. single. morning. - she has to leave the table for mid dinner dance breaks - she STILL sucks her thumb.  Put this one in the loathe category. - she calls everyone she meets "my friends".  Especially if they have nice clothes on.  Think a frilly tutu skirt and a Peppa Pig t-shirt. ...

Don't let this sweet little noodle slurpy face fool you.  Those baby blue eyes might be enough to trick you guys but I know better.  This is the face of one of the most sophisticated guerrilla warfare specialists.  Her area of expertise?  Thumb sucking and how to drive her mother bonkers. You see Eve has been partial to a bit of thumb sucking for a long time now.  It was fabulous when she was little and could settle herself back to sleep.  It has also been a great indicator of when she is tired.  Feeling a little sleepy?  Pop, thumb goes straight in the mouth. The thumb sucking has even had an enabler.  Enter "Wooby.  I originally bought Wooby one after I noticed a very small Eve was rubbing the satin edging on her blanket to get to sleep.  As summer was approaching I really didn't want her to have to sleep with a winter blanket.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Famous last words. Wooby one so...

How cute are these kids? This was them this morning rocking out a bit of double Mini Mayhem shirts (and triple Mini Mayhem necklaces). Ol might look too cool to smile but he was actually shattered. A long week at school coupled with waking up at silly o'clock does not make for a happy camper. All is much better now though as they sit on the couch together watching a movie and eating twisties. Much more to tell soon (like the battle of the thumb sucking Eve), but I just thought you might all like a glimpse of Saturday morning around here.

Global domination is tiring work.  The Mini Mayhem trajectory has taken a massive leap this year with the introduction of our wholesale agent who is bringing in a lot more stockists.  We've also just had our winter production arrive which includes some great new long sleeved printed shirts, cool dinosaur hats and just to keep me busy, some great little necklaces for the boys too.  Ol has been the perfect little fit model and I think he knows he looks pretty cute in all his new gear. Speaking of keeping me busy, I've also picked up a regular gig teaching a kid's art class at one of the local stores.  The response has been really good and we will be adding a second class next month along with the possibility of another one shortly after that.  It is certainly helping with the extra $$ and it is great (and REALLY exhausting) to be introducing these young little minds to some great art. Ol is doing really well at school.  His reading is just amazing ...

We had the joy of heading down to Byron Bay on the weekend to share in the amazing wedding celebrations for Hayley and Simon. To say it was a great event would be an understatement.  Every little detail was just as Hayley had imagined it and we all had a blast. Except Ollie.  Ol got sick between the ceremony and the reception (and threw up all over my dress).  Thank goodness our dear friend Kate was with us and earned major awesome friend points by taking him back to where we were staying and looking after him for us.  There are no words for how grateful we were. Our gift to Hayley and Simon was to put together a little film of the day.  I have watched this about 100 times while editing and I am still tearing up.  I hope you enjoy it too.

I'd like to say that all the chocolate is gone, but there is still SO much of it in the house.  Probably a sign of a great Easter.  And a great Easter we certainly had. We have had Ollie at home for a full two weeks before the long weekend and we had the company of Nanna Freddie for much of that time thanks to a bit of shoulder surgery.  It didn't dampen our plans though as it seems what Ollie really needed to do more than anything was just relax and chill out.  The first term of school was pretty exhausting but all indications show that Ol has done a great job. All that calm went right out the window when the Easter Bunny came to town.  He made a right mess with his sweet little powdery footprints but all was forgiven when the kids saw the chocolate bounty. Easter - the one day of the year when it is perfectly acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast!! The only thing that could possibly top all of the chocolate consumption? A ...

Ol has been asking to go to Dreamworld a lot lately.  Sometimes its nice to be the parents who say yes. Enjoy.

You might be forgiven for thinking that nothing has been going on around here.  But you would be wrong.  We've been having lots of fun and games, and thankfully the camera has been a pretty regular companion so you guys can have a peek into life lately too. This little guy is enjoying school.  It seems to have switched on his brain even more, and even though they are only learning how to write individual numbers and letters he is coming home and reading the little books I'm getting him from the library and randomly telling me things like "four fives are twenty". Clever clogs. This girl is cracking me up on a daily basis.  She is chatty and loud like her brother (give me strength) and she thinks dressing up and pushing her trolley filled with little toys around is just the greatest thing. She misses her brother when he is at school and I often find her having a little cry about "my big boy" and asking if we can go and get him when it isn't ev...