Easter Craft

 I bought a pack of ceramic eggs with designs already printed on some of them and the others were blank.  I had intended on doing my own eggs but when I spotted this pack of eggs for a reasonable price I decided to take the easy option this year.  I also picked up a set of water colour paints for each child and we were good to go!

The kids had a great time using the water colour paints for the first time and painting each of their eggs with their own designs.  Harrison was concentrating really hard to stay within the lines and spent a lot of time on his eggs, whereas Amelie was super quick and trying to get through all of her eggs first!  I love how once they were lined up you could see how Harrison favoured blue, green, red and orange for his eggs and Amelie with pink, yellow, purple and blue.

The end result looks so lovely sitting in the centre of our dining table.

And because he's too little to paint his own eggs I had to include a photo of Finley's first Easter!

16/52

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

Harrison: Look no trainer wheels! We're so proud of you buddy mastering your big boys bike!  You took no time to get the hang of it in just one afternoon.

Amelie: In your element doing crafts; painting ceramic Easter eggs with water colours.

Finley: Always smiling.  We've noticed a definite change with you in the last couple of weeks, not our little baby anymore, you're so knowing.

We welcomed the first week of the school holidays after such a busy term.  It was so good just to take it easy, spend some more time with Nana while she was still in town, pratice the biking skills and enjoy some easter crafting with the kids.

We left on Good Friday (and Matt's birthday!) for our road trip up the east coast, from Sydney to Kingscliff which is just north of Byron Bay.  It is a long drive - nine and a half hours! so we split it into two days and stopped half way in Port Macquarie for the night.  The kids were amazing in the car and we saw some great scenery along the way.   Some highlights being our visit to the Koala hospital, walking around the prison ruins at South West Rocks,  and seeing a huge goanna (monitor lizard) walk in front of us on the path up at the picturesque Smoky Cape lighthouse.  It was the first time we've seen one in the wild so we were all super excited!

*I'm a bit late with this post due to me being away! This weeks post coming in the next few days!

15/52

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

Harrison: Easter craft on the last day of school.

Amelie: At your end of term ballet open day.

Finley: Still smiling while you're sick.

This week has been the last week of term so lots of things coming to an end and we're all ready for the holidays! Two weeks of lazy starts and a road trip to look forward to.

With Daddy away in Japan for work, Nana arrived from New Zealand to help for the week, thank goodness she was here, with three sick children I needed all the help I could get!  

So lovely for her to see the kids in action in their home surroundings and be part of the daily routine. 

14/52

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

Harrison: We talked how this looked like an entrance into an enchanted garden.

Amelie: You make us laugh so much cheeky monkey. 

Finley: First visit to Ambury Farm, enjoying a picnic with your cousins.

A wonderful week back in New Zealand celebrating Mum's 60th birthday and I was lucky enough to be at home for my birthday too. It was so lovely to spend lots of special time with both sides of our family and for our kids to keep on connecting with their Grandparents, Aunties & Uncles and cousins.  I'm so proud of the the kids how they are so loving to our families and have such wonderful relationships with them.

13/52

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

Harrison: A wannabe lifesaver!

Amelie: Making sandcastle faces with seaweed of our whole family including Nana & Poppa and Grandma & Grandad!

Finley: Loving sitting under the umbrella seeing all the action on the beach.  You got your first mouthful of sand today & you went back for more!

More beach time and fun exploring a new beach on the Central Coast on Sunday - Toowoon Bay.  We were so glad we took the mask & snorkels as the visibility was great & lots of fish to see.  Harrison loved it.

A busy week getting sorted for our trip back to New Zealand to surprise my Mum for her 60th birthday.

We arrived back late Friday night and caught the car ferry over to Waiheke Island early Saturday morning.   We pulled the surprise off well as the rest of the family had arrived the day before so Mum's hopes of us coming had faded.  We tiptoed into the living room of my Auntie's bach and gave Mum a great surpise!

We had a wonderful time together eating delicious food, playing on the beach, reminiscing and most importantly us all being together to celebrate her special birthday.

*Sorry for the late post for week 13, for some reason I couldn't get this to publish from my ipad while I was away.