Katy & Luke's Wedding

On Sunday, my friends Katy & Luke got married. I've known Katy for a long time (we went to pre-school together, a fact we only discovered when we both started at the same high school!)

In case you missed it, the date on Sunday was the 10/10/10, and it was seven years exactly to the day that Katy & Luke first started dating! And now it's their wedding and anniversary date too.

The ceremony was on the lawn at the beautiful Vaucluse House, and the weather couldn't have been any more perfect. It was a warm and sunny day, but the chairs were set up under a tree, so most of us could stand in the shade.

Of course, I took tonnes of photos- my friend Keisha was a bridesmaid, so I wanted to get pictures for her too.

Here are the three bridesmaids making their way across the lawn.


Keisha

Katy and her mum walking down the "aisle"

Signing the register

With Luke's parents

With Katy's mum, stepdad & Luke's mum & dad

After the ceremony- Claryse, me, Laura, Elise & Sam

Adam & Keisha

Claryse, Elise, Keisha, Laura & me

Elise said when she saw this next photo, "That is so us!"

After the ceremony, the wedding reception was at The Tea Room, which is a huge beautiful historic room inside The Queen Victoria Building.

Elise, Laura, Elisha (Laura's fiance) & Claryse at the reception

Now, the details:

The table

The centerpieces

The placecards

The menu

The monogrammed napkins (my favourite detail!)

The cake

The bomboniere/ favours

Cutting the cake

First dance

And then the party really started!

Adam & Keisha on the dance floor

Laura

Luke getting Katy's garter off

Tossing the garter

Saying goodbye to the newlyweds

Cake & Cookie Must!

Here it is- the Yoda Cake, finally finished!
I wasn't able to go to the party, but I heard the cake was a hit, and elevated the birthday cool to "super cool" status among her friends!

And of course, once I got on a roll with my baking, I had to make a cookie cake too!

Cake & Cookie lust

So. One of the daughters of the family I just finished housesitting for turns 10 today. (Happy Birthday Miss Emi!)

As such, she has requested that Leashy here make her birthday cake.

Leashy was happy to oblige.



Until she saw the kind of cake that Emi had in mind.



Meet Yoda- the cake.

And this one is my favourite- Yoda the half eaten cake head.

These aren't even close to the more complex Yoda cake designs that I found whilst looking on Google tonight. Those ones just scare me with their intensity.


And then.... THEN.... whilst still Googling, I found this:

Hello, cookie cake love. Where have you been all my life?

I must make one. I MUST!

If only I could convince a certain 10 year old girl that proper birthday cakes are overrated. Cookie cakes are where it's at!

Housesitting

This past week, I have been housesitting for my dance teacher. I've done it before for a weekend (where I ended up spending most of the time at my own house, and only coming over to feed the animals in the morning because I was too much of a chicken to stay the night in an empty house by myself!)

BUT. This week (or rather, 10 days) I was determined not to be a chicken and to spend the whole time here. By myself.

Imagine my surprise then, when I discovered that I actually really enjoyed the experience! I found a new sense of freedom in being wholly responsible for myself. It kind of crept up on me, and then one afternoon when I was sitting on the couch watching countless episodes of Private Practice, I realised that I was enjoying being by myself! I found this unusual, because I am very much a people person, and a noise person who always has music or the tv on in the background. But nevertheless I got a simple kind of joy out of doing whatever I wanted and coming and going as I pleased.

That's not to say that I don't get to do this at home, or that I don't love being at home. I do.

(Hi Mum, I know you're totally going to read this, and don't freak out at me saying all of this!)

But right now, my friend Keisha is over, and she's making us both dinner with Taylor Swift playing on my iPod in the background while I sit at the kitchen table on the computer writing this. And there's something very grown-up about it all that I'm enjoying.

I've had a few "I'm a grown-up" moments this past eight days, where just the act of backing out of the driveway or collecting the mail or switching off all the lights at night stops me and makes me realise how much I'm enjoying the experience of getting to play "adult".

Naturally, my mum was quick to point out that part of the reason it's so enjoyable is because I don't have any bills to pay :)

Which quickly brought me down to earth, but still... I'm really liking this whole thing.

Happy Birthday Mum!

Today's my Mum's birthday!

Last year for her birthday I made a little collage of photos of her and I beginning from when I was a baby. You can see it here.

Happy Birthday to the best mother anyone could ever have! Hope you have a great day Mum.

Lessons

Being a teacher (or student teacher for that matter!) is a funny paradox- on one hand you are planning lessons and teaching the kids in your class everything they need to know. On the other hand, the kids themselves are constantly teaching YOU things, and you are learning things about yourself that you never knew before.

What 3 single day visits and a full week of being on prac have taught me includes:

- never try to assume what kids will do. Sometimes they will have no idea what you're talking about, and other times they'll blow you away with their creativity and insightfulness.

- be prepared for sweetness (eg. being brought a handmade cinnamon scroll) and the complete opposite (eg. a child slamming their fists on the desk when you correct one tiny thing)

- lecturers know their stuff, there really can be seven years difference in ability within the one class.

- similarly, you as a teacher really need to know your stuff, because if you're teaching it, you better believe the kids will ask you every type of question about it.

- nothing goes to plan. It's a miracle if it does.

- the school day is full of interruptions. Just when you get started, you're almost inevitably distracted.

- you can go into a class with all sorts of expectations, and some kids will meet them, some kids will go above and beyond and some kids won't at all. But not for a lack of enthusiasm.

- be nice to the kids and they'll (usually) be nice back.

- you're only as good of a teacher as the relationship you have with the students.

- teaching is a team sport. Other teachers are your assistant coaches.

- contrary to popular belief, the school day DOES NOT end at 3 o'clock when the bell rings. At least not for the teacher, anyway!

- it's impossible to get everything right, but you keep on trying.

Weekend fun

On Friday during the middle of the day at school I started sneezing, and by that afternoon, I'd come down with the full cold/flu bug. Enter nausea, head and body aches, scratchy throat and runny nose. I pretty much passed out in bed that night, and unfortunately I didn't get much opportunity to sleep it off as I had to be up early the next morning.

On Saturday I went to an engagement party for two of my friends from school and church, Polly and Alex. I was feeling better, but still sick. They had a champagne brunch, but needless to say I steered clear of the alcohol! I think I would have been on the floor if I'd had any, thanks to the combination of sickness and tiredness!

This is how I spent most of it- tissues at the ready!

We did manage to snap one nice photo though- if you don't look at my red nose too much!
Here's Keisha, me, Polly & Claryse at the party.

That night, a younger girl from our church had her 18th birthday party, so we all saw each other again later. The theme for the party was cocktail and black tie, which was lots of fun because it's not often that I get the chance to really dress up! It was great to see everyone in their fancy clothes too.

It was a beautiful night, great weather for a party outside, but I only stayed a few hours because I started to feel feverish and sick again. It seemed a bit of a shame to waste my hair and makeup efforts on just a few hours at a party, but it was still fun to go out and see everyone.

Here are all the people that went from our church- the birthday girl is at the top left.

And then on Sunday... I slept in!