Making Music

This morning we braved the wind and rain and I took Asha - and Geordie - to the New Auckland Art Gallery to the kids club. It was great they talked the kids through some pieces then played them some music by artists who make all their own instruments through 'found' objects. 

They then took them into the art room where they made their own instruments. Asha made a little shaker/drum for Lulu from a paper cup and a larger shaker/drum of her own. She was in art heaven (of course) and these pics are from after everyone had gone.

Hopefully we'll be able to go quite often, a great winter Sunday activity. :)

Kath - note the shoes, she LOVES them, and the look so cute on her, thank you so much. 

Another Surfin' Girl

Taken with the underwater camera hence the grain though I kind of like it. Asha also had a ball out on the water. Little Cove has perfect little waves for beginners. 

With an enormous storm due tomorrow, weather warnings due left right and centre .. feels like this is half a world away! It was less than a week ago!

Matt wanted to name her Gidget ...

and perhaps that might have been a good choice. 

We're back from Byron/Noosa/Brisbane and we had such a great time, not exactly relaxing but really lots of fun. We stayed out in the Byron Hinterland to begin with in an old farmhouse was fantastic. Caught up with Mish and her family, met the nippy little sweet Fonzie, saw the new amazing headquarters of SeeSaw, saw Beck and Shane and their new house which they're working on which looks amazing and can't believe how much they've got done so fast. Ate well, shopped well, had a night out at the Bangers pub with the girls. Went too soon. Sad to leave. Must go back!

Then on to Noosa, to the rain, oh well, the sun came out in time and we spent some beautiful time down at the perfect Little Cove beach. Happy place. Happy times. 

Then onto Brissy to stay with the incredible Kath, meet up with Megan and family and also Jan, always great to see these guys, happy, positive, lovely people. Went to the Picasso Collection which we all loved, kids included, then back home. 

So that's the short version. Here are some braggy pics of the amazing Lulu who stood up all by herself and rode the malibu into shore. Asha did it also. These kids are amazing. 

Away, Away

I'm pretty sure everyone knows we're away at the moment, coping quite well, the kids are having a ball and behaving themselves well. We've spent four days in the Byron Hinterland catching up with friends and we're now up in sunny Noosa .. using the wifi hotspot at my favourite restaurant! Better go my salad is on the table! Here's a pic of Asha, Lulu, Beck, Mish and Ted .. was so nice to catch up with old friends. 

All Three Together

I don't get many pics of all three kids together. This is a cute one, I was hoping to show off how similar their eye colour is (for Rach) but got this nice shot. Do you think they look similar? I know that they all look beautiful! (don't forget you can click the pic to see it bigger).

School holidays today, we had a little party planned here for Asha's friend Sophie but unfortunately she's sick. Matt made a cake and Asha decorated it, it was stunning! I dropped if over to Sophie's house without taking a pic. Another dreary rainy day here. Not feeling very well but that photo of my three darlings cheered me up a little. As will an early night. 

One of my favourite things ...

is to give Geordie his bath. It's such lovely peaceful quiet time together. He loves it and he's so chilled. I always wish that I could take some pix of him in there but never prepared. Today Matt gave him his bath so I rushed in to take a quick one. 

He's going to be another water lover like his sisters. 

Family evening at Bear Park

Lulu's creche put on a special night tonight, they have been exploring light all year, in all it's forms. Tonight they decorated the centre out - it was incredible, hard to show in the photos but there were lasers and light tables, fluorescent rooms, disco rooms, glow sticks, smoke machines, and great food and wine!

Great to spend the night with the staff too and meet some other parents and kids. Found out the most lovely Claire is pregnant again, fantastic news. 

Asha loved being back in that environment, with some of her old friends Clayne and Beanie, and Lulu was so happy boogying in the disco room .. and spent quite a bit of time at the food table, hee hee. 

The photos don't do the centre justice, it was super fantastico. :)

Oh that face :)

He's getting cuter and cuter and sweeter and sweeter. Such a gorgeous child. These are from yesterday. He does smile, just hard to get on camera, I promise!

Winter Uniform

The long hot (ish) summer has finally gone, it was a good one! It is bitter, windy, rainy, haily, thundery and lightening-y. Which is fine. That's what winter is for, as long as it doesn't last until Christmas. Asha is in her official winter uniform at V.A.S. and looks well cute in it. Thought I'd throw a pic up to show off just how cute she looks in it. 

OH and got her mid year portfolio and had her interview last week .. she's doing just fine, thank you very much. Ahhhhhh.  

6 Down

Fourteen to go. 

Hope that the Tooth Fairy comes tonight!  You can click the pic to see it larger if you like (same goes for all the pics on here). 

Lazy Sunday

Buckets of rain started the day and we hid inside the warm cave that our house has become. I leave the curtains closed to keep the warmth in, today was the coldest day yet this winter ... bitterly cold, and wet, and windy .. gah!

Eventually we crept out of the cave and journeyed to Sylvia Park .. for Borders browsing and purchasing and for pub lunching and baby foot. All good. 

Quick mad rush of chores on the way home then an equally quick trip to the wet park with a small towel in hand to wipe swings and monkey bars and slides. It was very cool to have the park to ourselves. Very low res video of Asha the Queen of the Monkey Bars. Nothing puts that kid off the bars, not even two broken arms.  She's obsessed.

Home to Matt's yummy beef burgundy stew from the slow cooker and listening to the new Anika Moa cd and reading the new Henrietta book for Asha, then I'll head to bed and start my book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  

Bovver Boy

This is a just cos post. 

Just cos he's cute basically.

All aboard the Vomitron!

with great thanks to Amanda/BDG.

With the modern advent of 'Tummy Time' we are required to give our babies time on their stomachs (preferably not after a feed  ewwwww!) each day in order to stop them getting flat spots on their heads and to build up neck control .. Geordie has always had great head control but we got him this playmat just for fun as it specifically designed for 'Tummy Time'. 

He spins around looking at the different 'petals' on the flower. It's okay. He lasts a few minutes. He may last longer soon, or Lulu will bust it as she spins around like a mini mad woman. 

Spider Kids

I went along for the first time to watch the girls climbing ... woot! ... they are amazing. This photo doesn't show the height but there is one on Flickr and have emailed a few to the doting grandparents. Very proud of our girls, there is not much that they won't try, they give their all. 

We ran into the girl's friends Beanie and Harry, also Hayden and their parents .. I feel so much more a part of the community here now, school has widened our circle so much (though those friends in particular were originally through Bear Park). 

Player of the Day .. and a future All Black

Oh my, the pride! Asha came home from her third game of soccer this morning with the TROPHY she kicked two amazing goals and was awarded Player of the Day! So proud, what a little champ. 

Geordie is proudly showing off his Thunderwear, our future All Black. Not. He'll be the leading goalkicker for North Melbourne in 2029. 

Tummy Time .. during and after

It's serious business and I got in a wee bit of trouble from the Plunket nurse for not giving Geordie enough 'tummy time'. He does have good head control but yes, how will we know when he first rolls if he doesn't spend much time on the floor? So we'll make a concerted effort to give him more floor time from now on. Here's a pic of during, look at the concentration and exertion in his face! And then after, ahhh .. that's better Mum!

Eeep I missed a day!

Got a bit keen but it won't last, I'll be missing weeks soon!

Yesterday was crazy in the bucketing rain - to the doctors for Geordie's checkup - to Lulu's swimming - back to the doc for G's needles. Poor baby, he screamed and screamed but he was lucky to have his big sister there for cuddles. Lulu was fascinated and though she said she wasn't going to look she did, up close - Mama didn't though! 

Poor baby. He had a temp last night and was unsettled, was hoping for a long sleep like last time but it didn't happen. Hopefully tonight to make up for it. 

So he's 3 months as of yesterday, 13 weeks on Sunday when the photo was taken with his Dad. Getting cuter every day. We love him so. 

3 months stats are:

Head 41.5cm - 50th Percentile

Weight 6.3kg - 50th Percentile

Length 64cm - 90th Percentile

So long like his sisters. Wonder if he'll overtake them and if so at what age?

Storylines

It's that time of year again and the Storylines Festival was on at Aotea Square, five levels of books, authors talking and signing, craft activities, face painting and crowds. Highlights were meeting Hairy Maclairy and Clifford (as was last year) and meeting Babette Cole and getting her to sign a copy of Princess Smartypants .. we watched a talk she gave, she's a total crack up and Asha put up her hand and asked her a question into the microphone I was quite proud!

Tanya Batt was scheduled to perform but had cancelled and I was so disappointed .. she's my idol. *Wail!* But a bargain was found, I bought the 7th Harry Potter for $12.50, will put on the shelf and hopefully read it one day as I'm still up to the start of HP5 as of about 4 years ago. Whoops. Maybe purchasing this new one will inspire me to get reading again. 

Threadless and Matching

This post is mainly for Jacquie, here are the girls in their new Threadless tees! They love them. This is as close to matching outfits as I could manage, they were so happy to be wearing similar clothes. 

Aren't they cute? And dontcha just love that Threadless went into their $10 sale mode a few days after I ordered these? Grrr ... but still, very happy. 

The new Sport -after the game ...

lots of mud, and managed to kick a goal (into the other teams goals but no need to tell her apparently) .. she was very proud! 

Loves it!

Lulu also came back covered in mud. *sigh* Into outfit number two for the day by 10am. Winter washing never ends. 

Asha's new love is soccer. Matt came home with the full kit last night, shorts, boots, socks, shin guards and this is Charlotte's team top. Asha is filling in while Charlotte and Natalya are in the UK for 6 weeks visiting Ali's family. I'm very proud of her, she's never afraid to try something new. 

(combined two posts - bit disjointed!)

Mr Non-Sleepy

Here's Geordie in one of his first times actually wearing clothes and not just night wear.  

We love the dummy and so does he. 

Geordie went to Book Club with me last night and he was doted on by all the girls, he's now officially the Club Mascot. Too cute, can't believe how happy he was, little darling. 

Miss Plum's Turn.

Short but sweet, first day of creche amongst other cute shots.

The Amazing Asha.B

The biggest girl. So many great images here.

The G Man

Some early photos of Geordie Boy. Very sweet.

Fresh Start

This is a fresh start for me, a purpose built online journal to keep family and friends up to date with what we're up to, to post photographs, videos, news, fluff and random otherness. Nothing clever or amazing, just snippets of our life when I can find time to put them down. 

Today I've been playing with Animoto - thanks Penni! - and making videos which I'll post here as I tried on YouTube but the quality was low. I love seeing the photos set to music, makes a real emotional connection. 

So to those I've emailed the link, bookmark it or subscribe to the posts if you know how (I don't) and I hope that I update this one more often than I did my last blog!

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