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.