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

Harrison: You loved the Aboriginal visit to school where you spent a day learning about their culture and watched lots of performances.

Amelie: Keeping yourself occupied outside with a paintbrush and water.

Finley: 'Ball!' this is one of your favourite toys, you love throwing the ball and then chasing after it.

We can't quite believe that Amelie will be starting school at the beginning of next year.  She had her first orientation morning at school this week which went really well.  We visited a classroom to meet a teacher and some of the kindy kids as well as take part in some activities.

Finley has improved so much with his balance and pushing the trolley along and then letting go and just standing there.  Watch this space in the coming weeks for a walker!

We had some really good friends from New Zealand stay on Thursday night and it was great to catch up over some yummy Thai takeaways!

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

Harrison: Hanging out at the park after school.

Amelie: Trying to hide from the water fight with Harrison, Ruby and Daddy on the day he got back from Thailand.

Finley: Clever boy learning how to walk with his trolley all by himself!

With Daddy away for work in Thailand we had some very special visitors from New Zealand, Nana and cousin Ruby came to visit for the week! Ruby is a year younger than Amelie and they get on like a house on fire.  They loved each others company and lots of special times were had by all. 

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

Harrison: All chained up in a cell at the Richmond Gaol.   You were  super excited to spend some of your pocket money at the gift shop on some convict made nails  from the 1800's that had been dug up at a nearby farm.

Amelie: You love looking at (and picking) flowers so it was a real treat to see all the Spring daffodils and blossoms in Tasmania.

Finley:  We stopped for yummy lunch in the gorgeous village of Ross and you loved the roller coaster in the play area.

We spent part of the week finishing our adventure in Tasmania and then it was back to reality, routines and a huge pile of washing!

Harrison started the cricket season, his first time in a proper team as he was only part of the Milo junior cricket last year.  He loved it and looked super cute (cool!) in all his cricket whites!

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

Harrison: You had a ball climbing the trees around Dove Lake in the Cradle Mountain National Park.

Amelie: You loved exploring the giant rocks in the Bay of Fires and what a view!

Finley: The giant air pillow at one of the camping grounds was a highlight for you having never been on a trampoline before.

I'm running extremely late with my posts for the last few weeks so here goes!

We had the most amazing time on our motor home adventure around Tasmania.  We packed a lot into our ten day trip and were wowed with beautiful scenery, history and some interesting wildlife experiences.

I'll post some separate posts in the coming weeks with some of the highlights from Tasmania.

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

Harrison: You were so excited to get the Lego Motorhome you have been wanting since learning we are going on a Motorhome holiday around Tasmania!

Amelie: Just like your brother you were excited to have some new Lego but the girls version!

Finley: Intrigued by the iconic buzzy bee!

A quiet start to the week have the patient discharged from hospital and resting up at home, nothing like being surrounded by your family to cheer you up!

The rest of the week was busy with lots of play dates catching up with friends who go to other schools as well as seeing our local friends.  Both Harrison and I really enjoyed our time together while Amelie was at preschool on Wednesday and Thursday, he always looks forward to those days when he is on school holidays and although we do one on one time with the kids during term time he knows it's guaranteed time with me (and Finley).  He had our days all planned out and written up on a checklist on his clipboard ticking them off as we did them.  Highlights being our fun trip to our favourite park, a visit to the local opshop and many games of Guess Who!

We've been gearing up for our Motorhome trip this week and we leave tomorrow! We're all so excited about the adventure and the things we will see along the way.  We gave the kids an early holiday pressie with their Motorhome/caravan Lego sets so they could make them up today in anticipation for the trip (and so we didn't have to take the big boxes with us!).  Looking forward to sharing our adventures with you in the coming weeks.

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

Harrison & Amelie: Let's go fly a kite!

Finley: Eating sand, sand and more sand!

We had a fantastic day at Bondi Beach flying our kites at the Festival of the Winds.  We went last year but it was a bit of a rainy day so this year the weather behaved and the hundreds of kites looked amazing against the blue sky.  We spent the afternoon at the beach and after kite flying Amelie braved the water once again for a swim while the boys played in the sand.  Finley had a ball eating so much sand and he also loved playing with the bucket and spade.

Finley had his first hair cut this week, well really just a fringe cut which was majorly overdue! He surprised me by staying perfectly still and no tears! 

Amelie's preschool has been studying New Zealand this month so I was invited to go in and talk with the kids.  I loved getting to play teacher for half an hour and read them story books from New Zealand, talk about the kiwi, teach them to count to ten in Maori and very badly teach them the haka! I had the help from a little kiwi soft toy that we have that sings the haka, the kids didn't care how bad I was, they just loved sticking their tongue's out at the end!  Amelie loved having me there too!

Amelie had her last day of ballet on Friday for the term and parents are allowed to view the last class.  She did such a great job and has really improved, Amelie didn't get stage fright like the last time Matt came.  She had a lot of nervous excitement and I think we got the most waves and smiles out of all the parents!

Harrison was excited to finish school for the term and had his second spy club meeting to celebrate the start of the holidays!

A very eventful and scary Saturday night for our family, whilst having friends over for dinner poor Matt got a large piece of chicken stuck in his throat. After realising it was well and truly stuck we took him to the hospital emergency department where after an xray and then CAT scan he was operated on in the early hours of the morning to remove it.  It certainly gave us all a real fright, he's doing really well, he just a really sore throat and is very cautious about eating.

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

Harrison: Having fun cleaning the car with Daddy and Amelie!

Amelie: Always a happy girl to play out on the patio with a paintbrush and water .  Today I found you painting your toenails! 

Finley: Helping Mummy hang out the washing.

The kids were excited to celebrate Fathers Day with pancakes, a ten pin bowling game and once the rain cleared we explored a new playground that has been built at one of our local parks.

Harrison has started up a spy club with his friend next door, they have been sending messages to each other over the fence by paper plane during the week and they had their first meeting on Friday.  Harrison was organised with an agenda written up the night before on what they needed to discuss.  After school came and he couldn't wait to get home.  His tent was set up outside, spy outfit on, afternoon tea snacks provided and they were ready to go, no little sisters allowed!  We're over halfway through reading the Secret Seven book series by Enid Blyton to him so these stories have given him lots of inspiration.

Harrison got his fourth Merit certificate this week at the Year 1 & 2 assembly so was then awarded his gold certificate at the big school assembly on Friday which he was chuffed about.

While Harrison was at a birthday party on Saturday morning Amelie was excited to have a Daddy Daughter date at the pools, she loves going swimming!

Finley is loving crawling around the garden and is obsessed with the soccer ball!

A few photos below of Fathers Day with their awesome Daddy!