Quick catch up

A quick glimpse at snippets from the last few months.

Our church did a great series on Daniel. The first chapter was looking at how David chose to eat vegetables instead of having the King's food. He wanted to follow God's rules, not the King's rules. To help us as a family learn more about what God was teaching us about following his commands, families were given a recipe with ingredients to have a meal together of vegetarian nachos. It was really nice and it was lovely to sit, read the Bible and talk about what we had learnt and about what God was telling us. The kids also decided that we'd put their plate of vegetables on the table and say 'thank you God for...' because Daniel remembered to be thankful to God. Pretty cool.

After our trip to Queensland and driving through a few roadworks spaces, the kids started to play 'roadworks' in the hallway. They set up a 'roadwork' space with a blanket, made a barrier for no access, lined cars up both ways who were patiently 'waiting' for the stop sign to change to go. I love how their play uses their experiences.

Eliza learnt to wink. She looks so funny winking.

Hot days = watermelon ice blocks.

Music is still in the bones of the kids. 

Eliza's hair went a bit crazy at preschool. Reminded me of Pippi Longstocking.

This little rascal loves his Swans. He clung to my arm as he ate his lunch and then clung to Cyggy as we went to school pick up.

With the rain lightly falling over a few days the kids loved walking to school spotting spider webs with the droplets on them.

We also had the Sydney Sixers flag flying high on the way to school. Some kids even cheered Eliza and Alexander on.

I asked Alexander to sit properly at the table and he told me 'this is how Daddy sits'. It is true.

Alexander's gorgeous Queen's guard pjs finally fit him and he is just the cutest!

Eliza doesn't do much pretend play with her dolls being kids or friends but she did start to do some tea parties with them and the play food. It brought back memories of me playing with my dolls when I was her age.

Eliza went through a few different stickers on her ears as earrings which lead to us getting her some earrings for her birthday.

I love Alexander's 'yessssss' when he is excited about something.

Eliza and I both have Eternal Creation dresses. Matchy matchy.

Daniel got his AFL Auskick pack which included a Swans t-shirt. He was a bit excited about it.

The kids had been asking to play Monopoly a few times so while Alexander napped James and I decided to introduce them to Monopoly. The games is a lot slower with kids playing too. They did enjoy it though. But it is hard to work out how to sell properties fairly when they kids have no clue of money.

This lead to the Howie's getting Eliza a Junior Monopoly game. Much faster than the big game and much easier for the kids to follow. Eliza won her first game. She felt bad about it and wanted me to take her money. Cheeky girl.

Alexander decided to help James with whippersnippering the lawns and Daniel was keen to mow with James. Daddy's little helpers.

Eliza has really been getting into drawing. Here she drew a giraffe and then made a giraffe family. Clever girl.

Nana J was down for Eliza's birthday. It was lovely having her join us for normal activities.

Alexander made a bee at library

School drop off

I love that Alexander still uses my umbrella from when I was his age. Don't know how much longer it will last though. Here he is still spotting  some more spider webs in the rain.

Alexander wanted to have a play upstairs and he chose his quietbook. I love that he still enjoys playing with it.

Jens and I had to laugh when Alexander tried to hide from Oscar. This was his attempt.

Our crazy kids each decided to sleep on the floor instead of on their beds. Crazy. Alexander didn't last on the floor for long and asked to be put into bed before he went to sleep. The other 2 fell to sleep and we had to move them into bed before we went to sleep. This has happened multiple nights.

Alexander went through a faze of wanting to 'read' his own books to us at bedtime. I love it!

Daniel, James and Malcolm had a wonderful time at the V8s. I loved getting a video of Daniel's excitement as the cars drove past.

Before he went he wanted me to draw a picture of Craig Lowndes in his car to colour in Not an easy task but was pretty happy with my drawing attempt.

For Eliza's birthday we got her a wooden fairy garden so that we had a fairy for on top of her cake. We forgot to give it to her on her birthday so she received it a bit after but that was ok. She was very excited!

My gorgeous girl at preschool when we came for morning tea at the end of Term 1.

Alexander was very keen to dress up like the older kids. I love his enthusiasm!

We celebrated Auntie Sue's birthday.

And had a chuckle at Eliza doing bunny ears on Grayma.

Beading was a fun task.

The kids love to ring the bell at Mum and Dad's place. Only problem is that it is too high for Alexander and Eliza to reach and Daniel can only just reach it. Being the helpful big brother he decided to help them ring it while I finished chatting with Nana and Poppy. Team work!

As we got ready to head over to the UK, Chilli became quite cuddly. Daniel has loved it having bonus cuddles with Chilli without being too worried about her scratching him.

Alexander has started to draw pictures of people. He loves it and so do I. Here is a picture of our family.

He has also started to learn how to swing on his own. Here is a video Anne took while we were away of him swinging on his own at her place. He unfortunately isn't keen to do it on his own when I'm around but it will come.

Daniel is doing really well with Auskick and really enjoys it.

We visited the new park at Waitara. It is really cool. Has lots of different equipment for the kids. They especially loved the slide! Alexander was a bit shocked the first time he went down but was very excited the following goes.

The inbuilt trampolines are lots of fun too!

Eliza slid down a pole for the first time too.

The kids have enjoyed playing with the skipping rope. They haven't been able to master skipping yet but they love to play 'Crocodile crocodile may we cross your river?'

One weekend James was away so I decided to take the kids to the beach for the day. We loved it! The water was cool (too cold for me but the kids still were happy to go up to their waist in it), the sun was lovely and warm, the beach wasn't too busy. It was just lovely. It really is our happy place. We didn't end up getting home until around 4pm!

Straight into it

Burying my feet became Daniel's game.

Followed by Eliza. The water was cold!

And of course Alexander joined in the fun.

We then dug a hole. Alexander wanted a deep hole with water in it. Daniel wanted to make a tunnel. We managed to make a tunnel down to the hole.

Team work

Alexander liked his hole

I love Alexander's joy when listening to the Wiggles. He just loves to sing and dance to them!

Alexander rode to Emma's house for a play. She wanted to ride back with us part of the way.

Daniel had his first school disco. He had lots of fun dancing with his friends. I love that he doesn't just join the crowd and stop dancing because it isn't cool for the boys to do, but instead he just went and danced with the girls.

Alexander likes reading his Farm book and making the sounds of the animals. I just love his 'neigh' for the horse and his 'baaaaa' for the sheep.

I love that our kids are friends. I don't force it (most of the time) they just choose to hold hands, play well together, look out for each other. Most mornings on the way to school or home from school the kids choose to hold hands. It really does make me smile. 

Alexander is enjoying doing his paint with water. I love his little concentration tongue that sticks out.

Each of my kids have had contagious giggles when they were around Alexander's age. Here is Alexander's giggles.

We haven't had much rain for a while so this past week when it rained a bit during the day, Alexander was quite excited to be able to 'jump in muddy puddles' like Peppa Pig. The pure joy on his face as he jumped in them. 

 Alexander made a picture on the ground. He told me to guess what it was. I really had no idea. After multiple incorrect guesses I told him that I didn't know and I gave up. He told me that I had to guess. I said "I don't know though Bubba. Just tell me what it is." He then said "No Mumma. You need to guess what it is. Like is a flower or something else."
Ha! "Is it a flower?" Alexander excitedly said "Yes!!" Thanks for the clue Bubba. Now he tells me I can see 2 flowers there.

At swimming Eliza has started to learn to breathe to the side. Clever girl! She just needs to remember to breathe.

Daniel has learnt how to blow up his own balloons.

Daniel was invited to Rohan's birthday party at a Ninja Course. He loved it! Was straight into climbing the wall, balancing on the beams, trying to go across the ropes.

Eliza has been home from preschool this past week. She and Alexander have had a lot of fun playing together. Here she is 'reading to him to put him to sleep'. Too cute!

We also made her feather crown to fill in time. Very pretty!

And that is all the snippets from the past few months. :-)