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.