12/52

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

Harrison: You loved our visit to the Powerhouse Museum in the city; you were especially fascinated by the science section.

Amelie: We've been keeping an eye on the neighbours passionfruit vine that dangles over our fence. It is slowly ripening giving us a passionfruit here and there.  We shared this one and savoured every mouthful; having 'little bites' as you would say.

Finley: Oh the joy on your face when Daddy lifted you up onto the Penny Farthing! you didn't want to let go!

This week has been fun with a ferry ride into the city to the Powerhouse museum, exploring all the exhibits and watching the intriguing presentation on liquid nitrogen.

Some beach time making the most of these warm Autumn days and catching up with friends.

Harrison has got caught up in the 'trashie'/'trash pack' craze at school and is busy trading each day with his mates, he seems so grown up doing this! He's been lucky enough to be given a few from his mates and he used his pocket money to buy a pack last weekend.  I'm a mean Mum as I said I wouldn't buy him any as I think they are a waste of money!

Poor Amelie had a nasty fall at preschool this week so is sporting an impressive graze on the side of her face.  She's not too phased though and tells everyone how it happened.

Finley is 8 months old this week and two new teeth have shown up without any fuss.  He's loving the song 'if you're happy and you know it clap your hands' so we've been singing it lots and loving how he instantly responds to the song, no clapping yet but slapping his legs!

 

11/52

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

Harrison: How our kids love playing with cardboard boxes, especially giant boxes! So much excitement when we said they could not only convert it into a house but could paint it too!  Daddy made a roof and carved out different shaped windows. (a bit like playschool!) Harrison is busy concentrating on the detailing around the window.  Amelie had painted the side that you can see and I think she was inside the house at this point!

Amelie: I love how your drawing has evolved over the last few months.  A special drawing of our family.

Finley: The 'ooh' face! You have been pulling this face all week and it looks so cute!

A fun week visiting the Auburn botanical gardens, with highlights exploring the Japanese gardens whilst dodging the huge gaggle of geese!, seeing all the Aussie animals in the Fauna reserve and throwing stones into the pool of reflection.

Some arts and crafts with painting the cardboard box 'house' and collecting leaves and flowers to press in the flower press I got from the op-shop on Wednesday.

We all loved having our tea party after school in the tent I made last weekend.  It was so cute seeing the kids using the mini china tea set and sipping on their lemon cordial!  Finley was excited to be in on the action and munch away on his rusk!

Our friends got married yesterday so it was good excuse to get dressed up and a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  Driving home we were treated to a spectacular electrical storm! Thankfully the sun had shone for the wedding!

The little things

I frequent our local church op-shop on a regular basis, there is always a bargain to be found!  It's only open on a Wednesday morning & the kids always ask at school/pre-school pick up, 'did you go to the op-shop today Mummy?'.  Harrison loves coming along for a rummage in the school holidays.

This Wednesday's haul was especially fruitful!  I had been on the look out for a few things & was happy to find a number of them this week.

Some Enid Blyton Faraway Tree books recommended to me by one of the Mum's at ballet.  I don't remember them from my childhood so I'm looking forward to reading them to the kids.

Cutlery just like my Nannie & Granadad had when I was a child.

A flower press, ready for a new craft project with the kids.

Cute books for our collection.

Baskets ready for our nature walks and market visits.

A mini picnic basket for Amelie as she'll collect anything and everything and loves to carry it around!

A cowboy hat for Harrison to go with his new cowboy tent, look out soon for a post on one of my latest craft projects!

Golden books that I had when I was a child.

Gem Irons just like Nannie had at her house, now to dig out a recipe to try making them!

Ten on Ten: March 2014

"ten photos over ten consecutive hours on the tenth day of every month."

one / Early morning light shining into the lounge.

two / Walking to school on a lovely sunny morning.

three / Reading fairy tales from a vintage find from our local op-shop!

four /  Mainly Music time!

five / Snuggles on Mummy & Daddy's bed.

six / Finley's hands always grabbing his toes!

seven / Afternoon sleep time.

eight / Baking time with Mummy, trying a new Apricot slice recipe.

nine / Remembering my Grandad today, it's been 8 years, I miss him so much. 

ten /  Planting the herbs and flowers we bought on the weekend.

Ten on Ten

Thanks to Jodi from Practising Simplicity I've discovered a new photo project and I have also been inspired to take part too!

Ten on ten is a project that was started by Rebekah from A bit of Sunshine.  Rebekah said ' Ten on ten is to a project to document a snap shot of our lives, once a month on the tenth taking a photo an hour for ten consecutive hours. Finding life and beauty in the ordinary things of our day to day!'.

I'm looking forward to capturing our family life in this project.

10/52

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

Harrison: You love your Lego so much! An invasion of minifigures with all 158 of them lined up and ready for battle! You had fun knocking them over afterwards.

Amelie: This photo says it all, you love baking and licking anything that has been used to create our baking! Chocolate chippies were on the menu today.  So often you will say to me during the week, 'can we do baking?' followed by 'chocolate chippie biscuits!'  These have to be your favourite, maybe because the batter tastes so good! and because I always give you a container with some extra choc chips to munch on while we bake.  'The' special container that my Nannie used to put choc chips in for me as a treat when I baked with her many years ago!

Finley: Smiles for your big sister! You love her so much and she makes you laugh!  

Homework & home readers started up this week at school for Harrison.  I love hearing him read, it blows me away how much he has learnt since starting school a year ago.  He is really enjoying a series of secret agent chapter books that he is getting out from the school library.  We read a few chapters to him each night, there has been lots of secret agent role play going on this week!

Over the past couple of weeks something has clicked with Amelie and all of a sudden she is interested in writing her name, she has been able to do an A for quite a while now but she is really into practicing writing all of her name.  Her drawings have also come a  long way from the scribble and she is loving drawing our whole family.  It was Poppa's birthday this week so we sent home a birthday card for him; it was of her and Poppa when they went to the zoo last year (something Amelie remembers fondly) and they were looking at a lion. I loved how it had a tummy button and Poppa had nearly as many whiskers as the lion did!

Cutting with scissors has also been a highlight this week. Her cutting skills are definitley improving and she's had great fun cutting out clothes from a fashion magazine! 

Finley has settled down this week with the top teeth both properly through and a concentrated effort last weekend on some sleep training! What a difference it makes with his sleep being back to normal!

I love watching him interact with Harrison & Amelie as the weeks pass, seeing the joy they bring to his day.

9/52

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

Harrison: Bed-time stories outside on a balmy night

Amelie: Quiet time with teddy

Finley: Sitting on our bed in the early evening light

 

We've enjoyed more movie classics as a family over the weekend.  A new tradition we want to keep up this year with family movie nights every couple of weeks.

 The older two had a day trip on the train into the city with Daddy visiting the Australian Museum.  Harrison was super excited to see the Egyptian exhibition.

Finley's top two teeth have now come through and he had his immunisations this week.   Poor little guy has been in a bit of pain.
The last week of Summer!  Thankfully the Autumn days are still sunny and warm in Sydney as I'm not ready to give up the warmth just yet!