20/52

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

Harrison: You had fun playing in the Autumn leaves and throwing them as high as you could and letting them rain down over you.

Amelie: You loved collecting all the different coloured Autumn leaves to take home and cook in your kitchen.

Finley: Your first ride in the backpack, its a good view from up there!

We had a wonderful Mothers Day escaping the city to the beautiful countryside of the Blue Mountains, apple picking and walking through the Botanical Gardens of Mt Tomah.
Although it's Autumn and very nearly winter, it certainly hasn't felt like it this week with lovely warm temperatures.  It's looking like next week is going to be the same!

Harrison had his first sleepover at a friends house on Friday night, he had been counting down the days all week.  Friday came and we raced home from school, he got changed and had his backpack on ready to go waiting for them to arrive even though they weren't due for another half an hour!  He had a fantastic time and we all coped fine! Haha! #myboyisgrowingup!

Mothers Day Apple Picking

My request for Mothers Day was to go apple picking in the Blue Mountains, about an hour and a half drive away.  Bilpin is know for it's apples and there are orchards everywhere.  Pick your own had obviously been a popular activity in recent weeks and there was only one orchard open on the weekend, it grew the Pink Lady variety.   We were so lucky to get a beautiful Autumn day and had a great time walking up and down the rows of trees picking apples in the orchard.  It was interesting to see the difference between Harrison and Amelie's picking styles, Amelie was all about picking apples as fast as you can and Harrison was very careful to find the biggest and the most red apples!
We treated ourselves to a piece of homemade apple pie for dessert after our lunch at the cafe!
The Blue Mountains looked stunning with all the Autumn leaves and we had a fun afternoon exploring the Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens and playing in the Autumn leaves.
I had a wonderful Mothers Day with my Three Little Dickie Birds!

Hot Air Balloon Mobile

I've recently finished Finley's hot air balloon mobile to hang above his cot.  I'm super pleased with the result as it certainly challenged my sewing skills!
Finley loves to watch the balloons float around as he goes off to sleep!

19/52

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

Harrison: You couldn't wait to pick Amelie up from preschool so you could see the chicks again.

Amelie: So chuffed with yourself holding a chick.

Finley: Peek a boo with Harrison.

Harrison and Amelie have loved the experience of having the baby chicks at Amelie's preschool.  They were delivered to preschool as eggs and over the last week they've hatched and grown so big and fluffy already! We were lucky enough to be there one afternoon picking Amelie up and see two of the chicks hatch.  We were all really intrigued watching watching the whole process and the kids couldn't wait until they were a few days old so they could hold them.  

Finley has had two new bottom teeth pop through this week with no hassle at all which has been great.  He has learnt to clap his hands and wave goodbye this week which is super cute to watch!

Ten on Ten: May 2014

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

one / Rosy cheeks after cuddles in Mummy & Daddy's bed.

two / Getting ready for soccer.

three /Busted chewing on the bouncer straps!

four / Enjoying your soccer game, you scored 3 goals today!

five / Beautiful Autumn leaves on the walk home from soccer.

six / Lunchtime antics.

seven / Just chilling.

eight / Your arm is full of loom bands, we gave in to the craze this week and bought a loom.

nine / Bubbles to entertain your sister, you're such a thoughtful big brother.

ten / Off to our friends house for dinner.

18/52

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

Harrison: A very happy boy after losing your 3rd tooth! You've been waiting over a year since you lost your first two and you couldn't stop wiggling this one once you realised it was ready!

Amelie: Looking cosy in your fluffy vest!

Finley: Our beautiful 9 month old!

Back to reality this week after our wonderful holiday away.  School started back on Tuesday and back into the swing of things with preschool, ballet and soccer not to mention the mountain of washing to catch up on!

The temperature has dropped while we've been away so we've feeling it this week and have needed to put an extra layer on. The leaves are all changing colour and starting to fall off, it's fun to watch this change with the kids.  There is this one cherry blossom tree on the walk to school that we watch through the seasons and is a perfect example of what each season means, I think Amelie really gets it now.

Finley continues to stretch, balance and inch forward while sitting and when on his tummy he's pushing up a bit and in turn moving backwards, how frustrating it must be for him!  We've been trying to encourage him with the remote and Harrison's big lego storage head as they're things he really wants to get his hands on!  It is so lovely watching Finley develop over the weeks and see how the older kids are trying to help him too on his quest to crawl.

 

 

17/52

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

Harrison: Prisoner at the Trial Bay Gaol! You loved exploring the ruins of the old jail.

Amelie: Loving the gondola ride over Sea World at the end of a very exciting day, you're pointing at the dolphins below us.

Finley: Peek a boo! A favourite game of yours right now whether you hide your face in my chest or are lying on the floor.  I love how you play this with me.

We had such an awesome week away on our holiday.  It was great to have the time to relax as a family around the pool as well as do some more exploring which we also love to do when travelling.

Our days by the pool were fantastic, up early with the kids and we were down to the pool by 7.30am! this allowed us to be there in enough time to get one of the huge lounge chairs under an umbrella and we set up camp for the day! The kids are such water babies and pretty much stayed in the water all day, once they got a bit cold from the swimming pool, they'd head to the spa to warm up again.  We found that Amelie's confidence grew tremendously and by the end of the holiday she was swimming by herself with a float on her back on her tummy with doggy paddle and floating on her back to make a starfish and jumping into the water and putting her under, something she would never do before.

Our days exploring were spent checking out Byron Bay which had a very relaxed, trendy vibe.  The lighthouse and view over the Byron Bay Marine Park was awesome, we were amazed how from up the top of the cliff we spotted a shark, giant sea turtles, manta rays and a large pod of dolphins swimming below us.

We drove up to the Gold Coast which was only about 40 minutes away from  where we were staying and visited Movie World and Sea World over two different days.  The kids loved the rides, seeing the characters and the animal, movie stunt and Dora shows.  There was a huge aquarium at Sea World that had an amazing selection of animals, it was fantastic for the kids to see the animals up close and personal that we had seen from a distance a few days before in the marine park.

One of the animal highlights of the trip had to have been when we were walking back from the beach one evening just on dusk and Matt spotted a huge snake curled up asleep under a tree just metres from the path.  We were all super excited as we haven't seen one over the three years that we have lived in Australia.  We have always wanted to but only from a distance so this was perfect.  Thankfully I had my lens with reasonable zoom and we were able to get a great shot and check out what we thought it was when we got back to the hotel, we think it was a diamond python.

Finley has more noticeably started to inch forward a little bit more with his bum shuffling and he can reach so far for things now.  He's getting the hang of putting his hands out in front of him but can't quite get onto his knees and ends up face planting!

Harrison has had fun all week wiggling his top tooth and it's getting more wiggly by the day.  It's been over a year since his last tooth fell out so he's pretty excited.  Won't be long now!