The End of an Era and a Jesse Tree

I have been taking my children to Mainly Music for 6 years now - since Saraya was 2 and Elijah was in my belly. :) William has been coming along since conception too! Today was Christmas break-up day, and the end of an era for my big two children who will not be able to attend next year. They will be busy at school.

Of course I took lots of photos! Here's some to share.....

Thank you beautiful Petrina for 6 wonderful years of fun! We love you!

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And this afternoon we found some branches and sprayed them gold and started our first ever Jesse Tree. It was exciting!!! The children are getting into the idea already, of following along with God's story, His story from the very beginning through to the coming of Jesus, anticipated and planned since creation! I cut out and laminated all the little 'ornaments' last night, the Bible verses and stories are printed and ready, and I'm so looking forward to this Jesse Tree being part of our Advent and our anticipation of Christmas Day.

Wishing you an Advent filled with the peace and joy of Jesus' coming.

Sunday Happiness

Big plate of pancakes for breakfast

These Lime and coconut choc chip cookies for morning tea (promise me you'll try these - they're amazing!)

Healthy zucchini slice and salad for lunch

Not-so-healthy rum balls for afternoon tea ;)

Decorations and sunset in the park for Christmas Carols 2010!

Big smiles

Dagwood dog for dinner

Watching the carols with family and friends.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Another Delightful Story

Thankfully 3 or 4 days after visiting the library, Saraya always finishes her newest stash of Famous Five and Secret Seven mysteries, and goes looking for something else to read. :) A few days ago she plucked this delight from our shelves.....

...... and after being absorbed in it's pages in every spare moment this week, she finished it this morning. She doesn't recall being read this book by Papa when she was only four, so the story was new to her.

She loved Polly. And Ben. Actually, she loved them all.

Thank heavens for books!

More Spring Fruit

William is still unwell, and only granted himself (and myself) a total of four hours sleep last night. :( We're groggy and a little out of sorts today.

Still, it's Market Day in our little town so we took ourselves out of doors and walked the streets, met some friends, visited the library and restocked our book stash, and lunched at one of our favourite cafes.

William is now napping, the older children have retreated to their bedrooms, and I am soaking up the quiet.

And Market Day always brings loads of fresh fruit into the house, so all is well in the world!

A Nectarine Harvest

Today was the big day - we harvested our very first ever nectarines!!! :D

It was with great excitement (and still in pyjamas) that the children ran inside from visiting our little tree, planted only in January this year, to tell me there were 3 ripe ones! We've been watching them closely this past week.

So, we picked them. And the children ate one each with their breakfast.

YUM!

Can you guess what we'll be harvesting from our baby orchard next?

Apples!!!!!! I am SO excited about this. The orchard brings me much delight. I'll have to plant all these trees again in our new place. They've done so well and there's nothing quite like growing your own fruit. :)

And I just couldn't help taking this shot. Naked bottom and his rainbow gumboots. He he. :D

An Inside Morning

Well, the weather is setting the mood for our days at the moment. Wet, grey, windy, rainy, cool, bleak = an excuse to stay indoors and do cosy indoor things. :) It may be spring in theory, but it sure doesn't feel like it! We're all still in winter pyjamas and I'm still drinking (herbal ;)) tea all day long. It couldn't be any more different to this time last year, when we had had 8 months of total drought!!!

Anyway, today William was really unwell with a flu. I put on the most comforting music on hand, and we pulled out some bits and pieces to do. It ended up being a lovely morning!

Remember this puzzle? Well, today she pulled it out again and reassembled it with all the blocks of pieces in the box. :) Fun!

William is heavily into puzzles at the moment - more of the peg puzzle kind. ;) So we sat and did at least a dozen of those.

Elijah - not so much. He just sits and stares at all the pieces, feeling overwhelmed I think.

Then he enlists help.

And gets it done!! :D Nothing like some team work.

When all available puzzles were completed, this fairy took to plaiting rainbow thread and decorating herself.
She still adores her wings Jane! They have held up well - they're 4 years old now, amazingly!

Dancing and twirling to the music.

And the piece de resistance was finding my old Connect Four game. Well. These boys just loved it. I don't know that they ever quite got the idea of it, but they sure had a great time.

Especially William, who happily posted those red and yellow coins in random slots for a good hour or more - and forgot all about his stuffy nose and his chesty cough, for awhile.

New Life

Well, you know spring has sprung when there is new life all around you.

This baby foal (the little brown one on the left) was born just a few days ago and is possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. He frolics and plays, he runs, he skips..... he makes us smile. :D He belongs to the cream and brown pony pictured with him. They, plus two other ponies and a big brown horse, live in the paddock behind us.

And there are 8 baby ducklings to a mummy and daddy duck here on our land too. They are a little harder to capture on film as they shy away from me, but I'll try. :)

A Creative Morning

Oh, the freedom of being little, and home, and having time.

The joys of finding old ballet shoes and cowboy costumes hiding in the shed (you'll remember these Mum!)

The pleasure of cutting fabric.........

.......... and turning it into something new.

The fun of playing pretend.

And all this in just one morning!