30/52

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

Harrison: I just love the way you look after your little brother, always there to lend a helping hand or play with him.

Amelie: In her element baking and decorating gingerbread men.

Finley: One year and one week old and already looking so much older! Loving your new truck you got for your birthday and saying Brmm Brmm, so cute!

A much quieter week for us this week to relax a bit after what seems like a crazy few months.  In doing so we've all ended up sick this week so thankfully we were able to rest up.

Our Mainly Music group had a mid winter Christmas party on Saturday night so we all had a lovely evening with friends and lots of Christmas food! An amazing ham with all the trimmings.

Finley has been starting to make out some sounds/words that are very deliberate when he uses them.  This week he's been saying 'more' when eating! he loves playing with balls so he is making a sound very similar to 'ball'  I've got out some of Harrison's cars from  when he was Finley's age and he is loving them as well as a few he got for his birthday so 'Brmm brmm' is coming along nicely!

29/52

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

Harrison: An awesome new head piece from Grandma, he was in his element playing cowboys and indians each day after school.

Amelie: Digging in to the party food!

Finley: Our big one year old, happy birthday gorgeous boy!

A wonderful week full of family, friends, party prep and celebrations!

It was so nice to have my Mum visiting from New Zealand for Finley's first birthday.  Amongst the busyness we still found time for a bit of shopping and the kids loved having Mum here to be part of the regular week & her doing the school/pre-school drop offs and pickups, bonus for me to getting to have a wee break from that!

A bit of drama the day before the birthday boy turned one.  He found a piece of washi (craft) tape on the ground that had accidentally dropped when we were making some little flags for some of the party food.  He choked on it giving us a terrible fright.  We hadn't seen what he had picked up so after a visit to the Doctor he sent us straight to the Emergency department at the Children's hospital.  After the morning at the hospital and two x-ray's later  we were sent home as they couldn't find anything in the x-rays (I've now learnt that plastic doesn't show up in x-rays!).  The day after his birthday when changing his nappy we found the culprit, a large triangle of washi tape!  Thankfully he was all ok but it sure was terrifying at the time.

On Saturday our baby boy turned one! we can't believe how quickly this year has flown by.  He is such a happy, placid little fellow who has a cheeky side to him and makes us laugh so much.  Bringing joy to  all of our lives we are truly blessed to have him in it.
Present opening was very exciting, especially the paper!  A pancake stack for lunch and then the party guests arrived for an afternoon of fun.  He had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed birthday as he loves the book.  He loved everyone singing him happy birthday and getting to eat his first piece of cake!
(Photos from the party coming soon!).

28/52

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

Harrison: Na na na na na na na na  Batman!

Amelie: Very proud of herself climbing to the top of the climbing frame for the first time!

Finley: There's no stopping him now!








A week late with this post sorry!

Last week of the school holidays with lots of play dates with friends and a mountain of holiday washing to catch up on!
Can't believe my baby will be one next week!  We've been counting down the days until Grandma arrives from New Zealand to join in the celebrations!

The Enchanted Wood Party

A few weeks ago we celebrated Amelie's 4th birthday with an Enchanted Wood Party.  What a wonderful afternoon she had with all of her friends as well as Nana and Poppa visiting from New Zealand.  Lots of yummy woodland treats were enjoyed by all.  

27/52

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

Harrison & Amelie: Seeing and touching snow for the first time! Very exciting!

Finley: All rugged up keeping warm at the Dubbo Zoo.

It's been the first week of the school holidays and we escaped the city to beautiful Orange.  About a three and a half hour drive from Sydney heading inland over the Blue Mountains.  What a beautiful drive through the mountains and country side.  Orange and the surrounding towns were so lovely with a lot of historical buildings.  Temperature's inland are much colder than Sydney so we had to layer up, the kids couldn't believe how many layers they had to wear but it was definitely needed.
We stayed in a beautiful old homestead that dated back to 1867 and the grounds have now been turned into a golf course.  Unfortunately Matt had to work (we had tagged onto one of his work trips) so the kids and I ventured out on day trips exploring the countryside.
One of the highlights of the week were the kids seeing snow for the very first time! It had snowed on the Sunday morning but by the time we arrived in the evening it had melted in town, up on the mountain there was snow but the road was closed because it was too dangerous.  We were told by another family at the playground to go to a lookout close to the mountain so we climbed the many stairs and found a snow on the side of the track, the kids were so excited!
Other highlights were visiting a fossil museum, a bush walk to  the Borenore caves, visiting the Dubbo Western Plains Zoo on the way home from Orange and Old Dubbo Gaol.

26/52

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

Harrison: You are loving reading the Secret Seven series at the moment, borrowing from the library and now you have Daddy's 'vintage' books that he used to read when he was a boy.

Amelie: Open morning at the end of term ballet class.  I loved being able to watch you dance with so much more confidence than last term.

Finley: Book time with Daddy.  

A slow week this week with everyone in the house sick with colds, Harrison had a couple of days off school so we were all able to rest up.

Highlight of the week was Finley learning to crawl! He did it after being so close for what has felt like months, he just took off on Friday morning after Amelie's discarded ballet shoe caught his eye and he hasn't looked back.

Another school term has finished and we have school holidays for the next two weeks, yay! looking forward to easy days and our time away for a week during the school holidays.  Although Matt is working we're tagging along and looking forward to exploring some more of Australia.

25/52

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

Harrison: All rugged up on the coldest day so far this year, it was bitterly cold as we explored Cockatoo Island, a hot chocolate helped to warm you up.

Amelie: Happy Birthday to you! Our big 4 year old!

Finley: Smiles for Nana as she pushes you on the swing.

A very busy week here for us with Nana & Poppa visiting from New Zealand and the birthday party prep ramped up. 

We caught the ferry to Cockatoo Island and explored the island with it's interesting buildings and learnt about the convict history.
Nana and Poppa were a huge helping hand during the week as well as getting to spent some quality time with all of the grandkids making time to do special outings with them which they really appreciated.
Amelie took Poppa to preschool for the reptile visit where she helped hold a giant snake!

Amelie loved having a week of birthday celebrations.  She was very spoilt with wonderful presents, a yummy breakfast of pancakes to start the day, a visit to one of her favourite parks, getting her fingernails painted with Mummy and Nana for the first time at the local nail shop!  Gelato for afternoon tea once Harrison was home from school and then her dinner of choice - chicken and noodles!
Amelie then celebrated on Saturday with her friends at her Enchanted Wood Party.  She had a ball eating lots of yummy food, playing games and doing fairy craft! photos to follow!