My #Instaweek Round-Up: Week 5

This past week has been quite demanding and emotionally charged. My husband left on Saturday and we won’t get to see him for about five weeks. The girls have been really good, but my eldest daughter’s teacher did mention to me that she’s been a bit teary this week. It’s been a tough week for her in particular. She doesn’t cope well with change – daddy going away and us breaking the news about the move and a new school next year. Also, she had to deal with the fact that her best friend, another friend and her little sister have all had their birthdays in the past week and she still has to wait another three whole weeks before it’s her birthday. Poor little love – I’m sure she will make it, despite her claims to the contrary.

She did well on Friday though – her sister’s birthday. Usually she likes all the attention to be on her, but she was a very good big sister and really managed to hold herself back from making it all about her. She’s definitely growing up and I couldn’t be prouder. The best moment came today when we were driving home from the birthday ice-cream treat and they were each quietly staring out their own windows and I heard her say, “Happy Birthday A* … I hope you had a good day.” My heart just melted and there may or may not have even been a few tears in my eyes. It’s those special little moments that get us through the hard days.

So on to the round-up:

In at No. 5 is quite possibly my favourite pic of the week. As I said, yesterday (Friday) was my youngest daughter’s fourth birthday. She had a school party on Thursday, and since yesterday was a public holiday in South Africa, and because her daddy is away, we just had a quiet day. We spent the morning playing with her presents (#hatchimals and #Shopkins collectibles) and then I took the girls to the local nursery to play in the playground and have an ice-cream. Then we got pizza for dinner. She was a bit subdued most of the day, not sure if she’s getting sick or maybe just missing her daddy on her special day. Whilst waiting for the pizza she turned to me with tears in her eyes and a wobbly voice and said “No one sung Happy Birthday to me.” I really am the worst mother in the world! Huge mommy guilts hit me like a smack in the face. This is at 17.30pm, they’ve already finished the cakes etc – but I promised we were saving it for before dinner. So when we got home I put her candle in her pizza (she loves pizza with olives), and her sister and I sung the loudest most exciting rendition of Happy Birthday you ever heard. She was so chuffed, my special girl. After that I proceeded to drown my guilt in wine. *kidding, not kidding*. Anyway, I only uploaded this picture late yesterday evening so I’m sure it’s going to get more likes over the weekend.  I mean who doesn’t love a #pizzacake!?

I now have to figure out what to do with them tomorrow as it is going to be Father’s Day. Parenting is hard.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVZ-QBJhecB/?taken-by=momoftwolittlegirls&hl=en

No. 4. is the cover picture from the first week of my new blog series #ParentingWin vs #ParentingFail, which saw me feature the lovely Liberty on the Lighter Side. Please check out the blog post and let me know if you would like to be featured. It’s really simple, just one win story (literally anything meaningful to you), AND one fail story. I don’t mind if you have published a full breakdown on your blog of the story before, I’m even happy to include backlinks and links to all your social media accounts too! Please email me your story at momof2littlegirl@gmail.com – TIA!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVRsNZNhwnd/?taken-by=momoftwolittlegirls&hl=en

No. 3 is a really bad picture of the cupcakes I took to my youngest daughter’s school birthday party on Thursday. I have to confess, I did not make these cupcakes. They are supermarket store-bought! *gasp* – I know right? I AM a bad mom! But they were pretty and a bunch of over-excited four-year olds had no idea and we just as excited as they dived in to lick the icing off and discard the cake! #parentingwin in my opinion. Note to self – for the purposes of #instagramperfect pictures, dark green napkins as a background are not the best.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVWxeNDBpKr/?taken-by=momoftwolittlegirls&hl=en

No. 2 is my regular #WineWednesday quote. This one is an old favourite of mine, but I decided to put it up this week because on Saturday just gone I had to take the girls to my eldest daughter’s bff’s birthday party literally half an hour after saying goodbye to my husband as he left on his trip. I had picked up my friend and her daughter on the way to the party and sobbed the whole way there – yes, I love my husband and miss him terribly. Anyway, on getting to the party at 10.00am, the host mom, also a friend of mine, offered us refreshments and actually said, “Do you want some wine, or is it too early?” I always knew I liked her! Although, as I was driving and it was freezing I opted for a coffee instead – look at me all grown up and responsible!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVUl7XJht2G/?taken-by=momoftwolittlegirls&hl=en

No. 1. Is the cover picture from my blog post from Thursday on the Evolution of Motherhood. The picture of the stones I took myself from my garden, and obviously just overlayed it with the title using Canva. The blog post itself was a special one for me to write. I’m not sure it’s perfect in its form, but it was a special post in terms of the sentiment I hope that I conveyed. I may joke and complain a lot, I might drink a glass or two of wine, I might be sarcastic at times (okay, a lot), but I really do love being my children’s mother … and my husband’s wife for that matter.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVWyeGJhBSQ/?taken-by=momoftwolittlegirls&hl=en

Have a good weekend all.