52/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: Getting straight into playing with your Christmas presents.

Amelie: You love the ribbon on a stick just like a real gymnast!

Finley: Sitting at the table for Christmas lunch like a big boy!

We farewelled my Nannie at her funeral on Monday and it was a lovely celebration of her life and the talented and loving woman she was.  I'm so thankful we were home to be with all of the family at this time.

The kids have been counting down to Christmas and have loved being around both of our families and hanging out with their cousins.  They had a great time digging up potatoes in Grandad's garden ready for Christmas.
The Pohutukawa trees are in full bloom all around Auckland and are a great reminder to us how beautiful New Zealand is and how lovely it is to be back at Christmas time.
Christmas Eve came and the stockings were hung, a note to Santa was written and a few treats left out for him and the reindeer.  Two super excited kiddies come Christmas morning, and one who fed off their excitement not knowing what it was all about but joined in the fun!  All very spoilt with presents, an amazing Christmas meal at my in-laws and special time with family.
We travelled north Christmas night to have our Christmas celebration on Boxing Day with my family at my sister's new house in the country.  Another great day of family, food and lovely gifts followed by a fun day at the beach the next day as a family.  Harrison and Amelie loved trying out their Uncle's surf board in the estuary and Finley sat on the towel and didn't move the whole afternoon, he was so content just digging and playing in the sand!

Wow it's my 52nd and last post of 'The 52 Project' for 2014! I'm so pleased that I've stuck with it for the year and it is going to be so lovely looking back over them with a portrait of each of my kids for the whole year.  I'm looking forward to putting together a photo book in the coming months.  Thanks for your support this year reading my posts and commenting on my photos.  I've loved doing it and I can't wait to take part again in 2015, I hope you'll join me.

Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year and may 2015 bring you loads of fun and happiness.
Nat x

Wishing a very Merry Christmas!

51/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: Your last day of Year 1.

Amelie: Your last day of Preschool!

Finley: Helping to unpack.

Another crazy week with highs and lows.  We unpacked and found new homes for most of our belongings with only a few boxes outstanding before we left for New Zealand.

Harrison finished his second year at school, he's done so well this year and has a great bunch of friends, we're so proud with his achievements and how much he loves school.

Amelie had her last day at Preschool on Thursday, wow how the years have passed and we can't believe she starts school at the beginning of next year.  She has loved her time at preschool and learnt so much and we definitely feel both socially and academically she's ready for school.

Sadly Thursday brought very sad news from home that my Grandmother had passed away after going downhill in the last week.   After suffering from a long illness she can now be at peace.  I missed out by one day of seeing her in person but am so thankful that my Mum put the phone to her ear so she could hear my voice.  A truly wonderful woman who was a great inspiration to me in many aspects of my life, I have so many amazing memories that will stay with me forever.

Friday we travelled to New Zealand as planned for our Christmas holiday and were able to be in the loving support of our families.

50/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: We're so proud of you being presented the class citizenship award at prizegiving.

Amelie: You had a blast at your Preschool Christmas party.

Finley: The perfect spot for you amongst hundreds of balls!

What a week it's been, we are exhausted!

Amongst the craziness of moving we needed to make time for the end of year activities.

We had a great time at Matt's work 'kid's' Christmas party that they hold each year.  Finley had great time with the petting zoo, he was obsessed with the calf! Harrison and Amelie loved the rides, bouncy castle and seeing Santa.

We were so excited to get a note home from the teacher telling us to come to prize giving as Harrison would be getting a prize but we had no idea what it was for.  We are super proud of him for receiving the citizenship award for his class, such great affirmation that he is doing well at school.  We also received his school report in the mail where he has consistently achieved high marks across all subjects.  I can't believe he is about to finish his second year at school!

Amelie had a fantastic time at the preschool Christmas party spending a large portion of her time on the bouncy castle!  She looked gorgeous with the amazing butterfly face paint.  The kids performed a couple of Christmas songs which was very cute.
Finley loved the ball pit and an added bonus for me meant I didn't have to chase him around everywhere!

Amelie had her end of year  ballet concert where they performed 'Frozen'.  They looked beautiful in their Princess Elsa tutu's and danced to a selection of the songs from Frozen.  So funny watching them dance but couldn't help themselves to sing along to 'Let it go' at the same time!  Amelie did a great job and has come a long way since starting ballet a little over a year ago.

Finley is pretty much running now and getting into everything! This has proven to be challenging with the move! His new words this week are 'up' and 'birdie'.

The packers came on Thursday and packed up the whole house and then delivered it all to the new place on Friday.  What a hectic day with boxes everywhere and trying to figure out where to put all the furniture. We were so lucky to have some lovely friends help out with the kids on moving day and over the weekend to give us a chance to start unpacking.  A relief to be here and start the new year in our new house(apartment!) once we're back from New Zealand.

49/52

 "A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: You were so excited to see the giant Lego Christmas tree.

Amelie: Your preschool graduation!

Finley: Finished lunch, ready for bed.

We caught the ferry into the city to look at all the Christmas decorations.  We hadn't told the kids about the giant Lego Christmas tree and the look on their faces were awesome when they realised what it was made from.  It was such a lovely day to get into the Christmas spirit and forget about the move.  The David Jones windows were great, Amelie was really intrigued.  The tree at the QVB was just beautiful with all the swarovski crystals.  We did a hunt through the QVB building with an app you could download to find ten elves hidden over three levels, the kids got a free drink and prize after finding them all and they had a great time.  Darling Harbour had loads of inflatable Santa's on the water which were cool too.

Amelie had her preschool graduation which was so lovely watching them perform two songs with actions.  She really got into it and had a great time.  They looked so adorable all dressed in their gowns and caps that they preschool had organised.

Harrison lost tooth number six at school, he was so excited to show us after school and to get another visit from the tooth fairy.

Finley is fascinated by shoes at the moment and keeps on bringing me his shoes to put on.  He is also always trying to put my jandals on! much to his dismay he can't and he gets really frustrated.

We visited Santa at the mall on Friday after school and Finley was not impressed, the poor thing cried and cried.  We did manage to get a photo with the whole family but no smiles from Finley this year!

We've been having really hot weather again this week and at the end of each day it's been turning into crazy thunder and lightning storms, poor Finley has been getting freaked out by the thunder.

48/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: Looking so old now, nearly 7 years old!

Amelie: Our little girl who is almost a big school girl.

Finley: Playing with your reflection in the TV cabinet.

The weeks are flying by, I can't believe it's the last week of November already.  Our focus this week has been getting more sorted for our move. 
The kids can't wait to open their Lego Advent calendars and have them set up on their drawers already.  We're waiting until we move to set up the Christmas tree and decorations.  We'll end up with less than a week to enjoy them before heading back to New Zealand  but we've decided to do it any way as we want to for the kids as well as for ourselves as we all love Christmas time so much.

47/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: Busy writing his spy books after school.

Amelie: Cooling off after ballet on a very hot Spring day!

Finley: Always watching what your older brother and sister are doing.

I've managed to get some more sorting done of the cupboards ready for the move which feels really good.  I've also managed to get onto my Christmas shopping as the plan is to have all done before we move, only three to go so I'm pretty happy with that!

We're still getting some really hot Spring days so lots of iceblocks are being consumed at the moment.  Amelie and I had great fun juicing a whole bag of oranges in the juicer on Friday and making our own iceblocks. 
We went to one of our favourite parks on the weekend which has a water park so the kids had a great time cooling down in the water.

46/52

  "A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: All dressed up and ready for the school disco.

Amelie: Excited to be joining Harrison at the disco.

Finley: Always watching your big brother!

Good news, we've found a new house! Our application got approved so it's a huge weight off our shoulders and means we can move in before we head back to New Zealand for Christmas. We're getting in packers and removalists for the actual move but in the meantime it's a great opportunity for a Spring clean so that kept us busy over the weekend.

Finley's walking has taken off this week, on Tuesday it just seemed to click and he's gone from walking up to five steps to wanting to walk everywhere.  He's picked up speed too, it's so lovely watching him walk around so proud of himself and seeing the world in a different light.  I see him looking at things in the house and pointing them out with delight.  He is loving being able to carry things around as well while he walks, one in each hand!
Finley has been saying 'Hara' for Harrison for a couple of weeks now and this week has started calling Amelie 'Ama', co cute! For the past few weeks he's also been saying 'nana' for banana and pointing to the fruit bowl every morning after his weetbix.  He impressed both Nana and Grandma this week when we skyped by saying 'Nana' and 'Um ma' for Grandma.  Poppa and Grandad might have to wait a little longer for their names.  He's also picked up 'bubba' this week so keeps on calling Amelie's dolls bubba and picking up a couple of photo frames that he can reach on the bookshelf and saying bubba to the photos of Harrison and Amelie as babies.

Harrison is still very passionate about anything to do with spies.  His latest thing this week is writing up series of spy books that he has given names and illustrated the front  cover.  He's come up with 5 titles in the series and all covers are ready to go and he's finished one book so far.  He has been doing them when they get free play at school and bring them home to continue working on them.

The school disco was on Friday night which is a family event so we all went along and the kids had a bit of a dance and mucked around with their friends.  It was 38 degrees that day so was super hot for all the parent spectators and even more so for the kids running around!

45/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: All dressed up for 'yellow' day at school!

Amelie: A beautiful drawing of our family.

Finley: You are happy to sit quietly and read your books.

Harrison's school had a 'yellow' fundraising day for kids with anaphylaxis.  He loved the idea of getting dressed up and heading to school as a crazy yellow policeman.  He ended up being voted the most 'yellow' costume in his class!

We all ended up sick this week with colds, thankfully we didn't get hit too hard and all managed to get over them quite quickly.

This week we found out that our landlords want to move back in and to make matters worse, by the end of the year!  This was not news we were expecting and is certainly not the time of year we want to be moving, especially as we are heading back to New Zealand over Christmas so this has added extra pressure! It's been a crazy week of searching the internet for rentals, drive bys and numerous house inspections.  This is very time consuming and has pretty much summed up my week!  Seeing what is out there on the rental market at the moment makes me appreciate what we have here and really makes me want to stay here! Stay tuned...

44/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: You were so excited to eat your first mango of the season!

Amelie: Cooling off on the hottest day we've experience this Spring.

Finley: You took your first steps this week!  


There has been some hot weather this week and Spring has certainly started to heat up, the odd iceblock has been a nice treat for all!
The big kids are both a couple of lessons into their swimming lessons for the summer and are doing so well, this is Amelie's first term and thankfully she loves water so there is no need to coax her her into the water.  A nice way to cool down in the late afternoon too, wish I could join them!

Finley surprised us this week with his first steps, we were expecting a couple more weeks of him walking the furniture and using the trolley.  He is still in the early stages but he is super proud of himself and we are too, it is super cute to watch!  I'm sure it won't be long before he picks up speed.

Finley has become very interested in the planes flying overhead and always points them out. Even when we're inside he hears them, makes a noise and points up to the sky, very cute.

43/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: You loved the Aboriginal visit to school where you spent a day learning about their culture and watched lots of performances.

Amelie: Keeping yourself occupied outside with a paintbrush and water.

Finley: 'Ball!' this is one of your favourite toys, you love throwing the ball and then chasing after it.

We can't quite believe that Amelie will be starting school at the beginning of next year.  She had her first orientation morning at school this week which went really well.  We visited a classroom to meet a teacher and some of the kindy kids as well as take part in some activities.

Finley has improved so much with his balance and pushing the trolley along and then letting go and just standing there.  Watch this space in the coming weeks for a walker!

We had some really good friends from New Zealand stay on Thursday night and it was great to catch up over some yummy Thai takeaways!

42/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: Hanging out at the park after school.

Amelie: Trying to hide from the water fight with Harrison, Ruby and Daddy on the day he got back from Thailand.

Finley: Clever boy learning how to walk with his trolley all by himself!

With Daddy away for work in Thailand we had some very special visitors from New Zealand, Nana and cousin Ruby came to visit for the week! Ruby is a year younger than Amelie and they get on like a house on fire.  They loved each others company and lots of special times were had by all. 

41/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: All chained up in a cell at the Richmond Gaol.   You were  super excited to spend some of your pocket money at the gift shop on some convict made nails  from the 1800's that had been dug up at a nearby farm.

Amelie: You love looking at (and picking) flowers so it was a real treat to see all the Spring daffodils and blossoms in Tasmania.

Finley:  We stopped for yummy lunch in the gorgeous village of Ross and you loved the roller coaster in the play area.

We spent part of the week finishing our adventure in Tasmania and then it was back to reality, routines and a huge pile of washing!

Harrison started the cricket season, his first time in a proper team as he was only part of the Milo junior cricket last year.  He loved it and looked super cute (cool!) in all his cricket whites!

40/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: You had a ball climbing the trees around Dove Lake in the Cradle Mountain National Park.

Amelie: You loved exploring the giant rocks in the Bay of Fires and what a view!

Finley: The giant air pillow at one of the camping grounds was a highlight for you having never been on a trampoline before.

I'm running extremely late with my posts for the last few weeks so here goes!

We had the most amazing time on our motor home adventure around Tasmania.  We packed a lot into our ten day trip and were wowed with beautiful scenery, history and some interesting wildlife experiences.

I'll post some separate posts in the coming weeks with some of the highlights from Tasmania.

39/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: You were so excited to get the Lego Motorhome you have been wanting since learning we are going on a Motorhome holiday around Tasmania!

Amelie: Just like your brother you were excited to have some new Lego but the girls version!

Finley: Intrigued by the iconic buzzy bee!

A quiet start to the week have the patient discharged from hospital and resting up at home, nothing like being surrounded by your family to cheer you up!

The rest of the week was busy with lots of play dates catching up with friends who go to other schools as well as seeing our local friends.  Both Harrison and I really enjoyed our time together while Amelie was at preschool on Wednesday and Thursday, he always looks forward to those days when he is on school holidays and although we do one on one time with the kids during term time he knows it's guaranteed time with me (and Finley).  He had our days all planned out and written up on a checklist on his clipboard ticking them off as we did them.  Highlights being our fun trip to our favourite park, a visit to the local opshop and many games of Guess Who!

We've been gearing up for our Motorhome trip this week and we leave tomorrow! We're all so excited about the adventure and the things we will see along the way.  We gave the kids an early holiday pressie with their Motorhome/caravan Lego sets so they could make them up today in anticipation for the trip (and so we didn't have to take the big boxes with us!).  Looking forward to sharing our adventures with you in the coming weeks.

38/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison & Amelie: Let's go fly a kite!

Finley: Eating sand, sand and more sand!

We had a fantastic day at Bondi Beach flying our kites at the Festival of the Winds.  We went last year but it was a bit of a rainy day so this year the weather behaved and the hundreds of kites looked amazing against the blue sky.  We spent the afternoon at the beach and after kite flying Amelie braved the water once again for a swim while the boys played in the sand.  Finley had a ball eating so much sand and he also loved playing with the bucket and spade.

Finley had his first hair cut this week, well really just a fringe cut which was majorly overdue! He surprised me by staying perfectly still and no tears! 

Amelie's preschool has been studying New Zealand this month so I was invited to go in and talk with the kids.  I loved getting to play teacher for half an hour and read them story books from New Zealand, talk about the kiwi, teach them to count to ten in Maori and very badly teach them the haka! I had the help from a little kiwi soft toy that we have that sings the haka, the kids didn't care how bad I was, they just loved sticking their tongue's out at the end!  Amelie loved having me there too!

Amelie had her last day of ballet on Friday for the term and parents are allowed to view the last class.  She did such a great job and has really improved, Amelie didn't get stage fright like the last time Matt came.  She had a lot of nervous excitement and I think we got the most waves and smiles out of all the parents!

Harrison was excited to finish school for the term and had his second spy club meeting to celebrate the start of the holidays!

A very eventful and scary Saturday night for our family, whilst having friends over for dinner poor Matt got a large piece of chicken stuck in his throat. After realising it was well and truly stuck we took him to the hospital emergency department where after an xray and then CAT scan he was operated on in the early hours of the morning to remove it.  It certainly gave us all a real fright, he's doing really well, he just a really sore throat and is very cautious about eating.

37/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Harrison: Having fun cleaning the car with Daddy and Amelie!

Amelie: Always a happy girl to play out on the patio with a paintbrush and water .  Today I found you painting your toenails! 

Finley: Helping Mummy hang out the washing.

The kids were excited to celebrate Fathers Day with pancakes, a ten pin bowling game and once the rain cleared we explored a new playground that has been built at one of our local parks.

Harrison has started up a spy club with his friend next door, they have been sending messages to each other over the fence by paper plane during the week and they had their first meeting on Friday.  Harrison was organised with an agenda written up the night before on what they needed to discuss.  After school came and he couldn't wait to get home.  His tent was set up outside, spy outfit on, afternoon tea snacks provided and they were ready to go, no little sisters allowed!  We're over halfway through reading the Secret Seven book series by Enid Blyton to him so these stories have given him lots of inspiration.

Harrison got his fourth Merit certificate this week at the Year 1 & 2 assembly so was then awarded his gold certificate at the big school assembly on Friday which he was chuffed about.

While Harrison was at a birthday party on Saturday morning Amelie was excited to have a Daddy Daughter date at the pools, she loves going swimming!

Finley is loving crawling around the garden and is obsessed with the soccer ball!

A few photos below of Fathers Day with their awesome Daddy!