End-of-week wrap-up!

Updated to say:  The children and I just got home from our Friday afternoon Nature Walk (we take observations and keep journals etc) and were thrilled to see three kangaroos at the wetlands!!  They were so beautiful, they even let Saraya get quite close before they calmly turned and bounded away.  So special, a first seeing wild ones so close- I just wanted to record it! Now I'm off to pack!  Original post follows. 

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I can't believe we've come to the end of another week already!  They are just flying past at the moment, especially when we get busy like we have this week.

So, what have we been up to?

Having a visit from Grandad (who brought really great presents with him).

Enjoying watching our sweet hens and waiting for the eggs to start arriving!

Having friends over to play.

Making our food into fun pictures.

Learning.

Looking adorable (well, some of us anyway).

Playing.

Climbing up the 'climbing tree' independently for the first time. :)

Spending LOTS of time under this stunningly blue Autumn sky.

Just being together.

Have a great weekend everyone, I am actually disappearing for a few days - more details next week - I can't wait to share!!  

Oh and Andrew, that contest I mentioned is still coming, I promise.

Meet sweet Hannah

Tonight I had the awesome pleasure and privilege of meeting this tiny sweet newborn, Hannah Millicent Ann.  

And I thought I would share her pretty face with you all.

She is the daughter of my friends Petrina and Brad, and little sister to big brothers Jacob and Ben.  I held her in my arms and she looked up at me with that slightly cross-eyed "I'm 2 days old and trying to focus on you" look.  And then of course, she fell asleep. 

Every minute was total bliss.  

Ahhh, newborn babies.  I just love them.  :)

Keep them open, keep them open......

I'm not feeling a heap better this morning.  I think it must be a bit hormonal because I was irrationally teary last night!!  

William and I were up between 4 and 6am this morning.  Guess who's idea that was?  I'll give you a clue......... not mine.  Anyhow, now that we are finally dressed and cleaned up a bit and into the day, things are looking a little brighter.  I keep writing bits of very interesting (well, interesting to me) posts in my head - if I had a clearer head, and some child-free time, I could give you a beauty today, I'm sure!!  Of course, neither the clear head nor the child-free time is going to happen.  I'm sorry to disappoint.........  :)

Hope everyone is having a good day!  I'm off to finish putting away the groceries from yesterday and do some more reading with my kids.   Oh, and try to remember to keep my eyes open.

Tired.

I'm feeling very tired tonight.  This week seems just so full.  Lots of bits and pieces have all come up in the same week, and it's a bit overwhelming right now.  It's wonderful to be busy in some ways - I love all the activities we're involved in, and we've been doing some fun things in our little homeschool.......... but I think tonight I need to remember that I don't need to do everything.   Sometimes I have issues with that. :)  I know that for me, these next few months will be focused on a lot of balancing things out.  Trial and error.  Learning as we go.

But really..........

.... so long as the house is relatively clean and tidy, my children are fed and washed, played with, cuddled and educated, my husband loved and adored.......... that's all that matters, right?  Well, almost.  I also need to be still and know that the God who made me loves me regardless of what I do or do not accomplish. Oh, and I do need to attend dance class on a Wednesday afternoon.  Just for my own personal joy!

Did anyone realise that tomorrow is Wednesday?  Suddenly I'm feeling a little less tired and have quite a smile on my face.

And right now I must go and drink my cup of green tea and eat my 3 glorious squares of organic white chocolate.  Goodnight.  :)

The falling asleep video post..... as promised

I told you I would put up this little video of my sweet William falling asleep in his birthday cake.... yes, it is a bit cruel to film him dozing upright but I really did clean him up and tuck him in bed as soon as I turned off the camera.  Truly!   Hope you enjoy.  ;)

Happy 1st Birthday William!!!

We have had a great day today!!!!  I still cannot believe my littlest baby is now already a full year old.  This time, this night, one year ago, I was lying in my bed snuggling with a tiny newborn and now- well, he's this adorable little bald toddler.  :)

We started the day off with cuddles and more head-shaking....... ("He's ONE!!!  Can you believe it? How can he be one already???!!").............. then presents!  Will wasn't all that interested in them, but thankfully had two willing assistants to tear the paper, exclaim with delight, and of course demonstrate how to play with the new toys.  :)  The children chose their own gift for him - a slinky. And yes, it's already tangled and probably won't see out the week, but it was their pick for him and they enjoyed it!  And Will had lots of fun with it today anyhow.  Stu and I chose a Megablocks dumptruck to fulfill all WIlliam's push-it-around, load-it-up, make-machinery-sound-effects, fill-up-the-container, build-and-stack needs.  He loves it!

We were so happy to have my Mum and Ray here to share this special day.  Thanks so much for coming, we loved having you and look forward to seeing you soon for Elijah's birthday!

I'm so happy I caught this picture - 

Ray sat down to play the piano, and soon had a little shadow pull

up his own keyboard to join in. :)  Elijah loves his Grandpa.

The morning flew by. We all had fun exploring William's gifts - and the wrapping paper of course; it kept getting stuck to Will's feet and he was walking around with little 'skis' on!! - drinking coffee (well, the adults) and making William's birthday cake.  :)  I had planned on a teddy bear cake but I didn't have enough icing sugar or motivation, in the end.  SO, we had a square butter cake iced with chocolate frosting and decorated with Smarties.  Very colourful, I'm sure he was happy!  Saraya and Mum had fun putting the Smarties on and writing Will's name in them.

We had a little party lunch during which William proceeded to fall asleep.  When I figure out how to upload video footage I'll put up the video I took of him doing this...... cruel, I know, but so incredibly funny!!  And cute!!  He was eating his cake and literally his eyes were closing.  Poor little guy.  Birthdays are tiring!

I.......can........ hardly......... stay........awake......Must..... sleep..... Must....eat.....

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We farewelled our visitors and enjoyed the great outdoors after rest time, until baths and tea.

A great day, a monumental day and one to remember!

We all love and adore you William David.  You are SO very special to us, and we will treasure you every day of your life.  We just love having you in our family!  I hope you enjoyed your birthday today, and I look forward to seeing what wonderful things God has in store for you as you grow up.  :)  

P.S. for Andrew - YES, well done on picking the black eye, you are the first!!  A contest regarding that sweet little injured eye is coming to this space, this week - so keep watching! ;)

The countdown is on!!!

I just needed to post to say............

My baby boy will be 1 year old tomorrow!!!!  

In 57 minutes, to be precise! 

I can hardly believe our sweet little boy will be ripping wrapping paper, chasing balloons and bubbles, blowing out candles and eating his first ever piece of birthday cake in just a few short hours.  To be really honest, I feel like crying.  :(   Why, you ask?  Well that's simple.  He is growing up too fast!!

Off to the Fraser Coast Show!!!

Stuart surprised us at the dinner table last night by announcing that we were off to the show today!!  It comes but once a year, and I guess is a bit of a local highlight around here.  Not to mention an extra public holiday too!  To be totally honest, I'm not too fussed on the crowds and noise of this sort of exhibition - but today I had a brand new experience.  I saw the show through the eyes of my children, and it was wonderful.

I'm not going to caption these photos..... too tired........ but I hope you all enjoy them!!!  :) 

I know I said I wouldn't caption but kind-of needed to with these ones......

Saraya worked on a self-portrait while she was still at school last term, and her lovely teacher must have decided to enter it in the show even though she's not officially there anymore.  :)  She was pretty excited, and surprised!  SO - can you spot her?

Yes, here she is!!!  I am so proud of her efforts, I think it's a great picture!

 Have a great weekend everyone!

Good enough to eat!

We've had a great day today, and are set to have another one tomorrow as we set off for a grand family adventure!  More about that soon .....

Today started off with a sleep-in for some fortunate family members (do I need to mention that I wasn't one of them?  No, I didn't think I did...), breakfast and a whole hour playing- er, learning with Math manipulatives.  Thank you so much Jane, they were very much enjoyed!! 

 A lovely phone-call from Grandad Fern (we're all looking forward to seeing you next week!!),  and then a visit from our little friend Declan for a couple of hours while his mummy had a well-deserved rest.  :)   Having my big girl around to help with little boys and not-so-little boys was GREAT!  And hooray for Dr. Seuss!

A big rest after Declan was picked up, then a great outdoorsy afternoon spent playing in the sand, jumping on the trampoline, washing, folding, bird-watching (aren't these Lorikeets stunning?), gardening (Saraya and I managed to plant out a whole patch, I am so happy! it was one of those afternoons that just went on and on-in a good way) and generally getting very dirty.

 Long, warm lavender baths soon fixed that.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love really really warm lavender baths in the cold months?  So, so much.  Actually, I'd take them pretty much anytime they're offered.  :)  Heck, I give my kids one every single night - even the scent and the ambiance of them instantly relaxes me, and we all know we can do with a bit of that during the crazy, pre-dinner hour, right?!

So it's been another good day.  Getting to finish it off with blogging is always the icing on the cake for me too.  :)  Off to bed with my husband and our wonderfully warm feather doona!

Oh, just one more thing.

Is it just me?

Or is this baby

so adorable in his navy blue and white stripey pyjamas

that you 

could just

eat him all up?

I know I could!!

But maybe I'm just biased 'cos I'm his Mamma.