15/52

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

Harrison: Easter craft on the last day of school.

Amelie: At your end of term ballet open day.

Finley: Still smiling while you're sick.

This week has been the last week of term so lots of things coming to an end and we're all ready for the holidays! Two weeks of lazy starts and a road trip to look forward to.

With Daddy away in Japan for work, Nana arrived from New Zealand to help for the week, thank goodness she was here, with three sick children I needed all the help I could get!  

So lovely for her to see the kids in action in their home surroundings and be part of the daily routine. 

14/52

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

Harrison: We talked how this looked like an entrance into an enchanted garden.

Amelie: You make us laugh so much cheeky monkey. 

Finley: First visit to Ambury Farm, enjoying a picnic with your cousins.

A wonderful week back in New Zealand celebrating Mum's 60th birthday and I was lucky enough to be at home for my birthday too. It was so lovely to spend lots of special time with both sides of our family and for our kids to keep on connecting with their Grandparents, Aunties & Uncles and cousins.  I'm so proud of the the kids how they are so loving to our families and have such wonderful relationships with them.

13/52

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

Harrison: A wannabe lifesaver!

Amelie: Making sandcastle faces with seaweed of our whole family including Nana & Poppa and Grandma & Grandad!

Finley: Loving sitting under the umbrella seeing all the action on the beach.  You got your first mouthful of sand today & you went back for more!

More beach time and fun exploring a new beach on the Central Coast on Sunday - Toowoon Bay.  We were so glad we took the mask & snorkels as the visibility was great & lots of fish to see.  Harrison loved it.

A busy week getting sorted for our trip back to New Zealand to surprise my Mum for her 60th birthday.

We arrived back late Friday night and caught the car ferry over to Waiheke Island early Saturday morning.   We pulled the surprise off well as the rest of the family had arrived the day before so Mum's hopes of us coming had faded.  We tiptoed into the living room of my Auntie's bach and gave Mum a great surpise!

We had a wonderful time together eating delicious food, playing on the beach, reminiscing and most importantly us all being together to celebrate her special birthday.

*Sorry for the late post for week 13, for some reason I couldn't get this to publish from my ipad while I was away.

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.