13/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Harrison: Hanging out after school.

Amelie: Toasting marshmallows at our friends place down the coast.

Finley: Our little book worm, everyday I find you sitting and reading your books, one by one until you've looked at all of them in the basket.





We had a lovely day trip down the south coast to visit one of Harrison's best mate who moved there at the beginning of the year.  There was the village festival on so we had a great time catching up and the kids enjoyed a swim at the beach before a yummy BBQ and toasting marshmallows on the fire. 

Both Harrison and Amelie ran in the School fun run on Tuesday morning, it is the cross country equivalent for the junior school.  Both of them did really well and ran the whole way!

Cricket World cup fever has well and truly hit our household this week with New Zealand winning the semi final and going forward to final on Sunday.  Matt has managed to get some tickets through someone at work so Harrison and him are flying to Melbourne for the final, they are so excited and Harrison can't stop talking about it or playing cricket around the house!

Friday night we enjoyed another easy tea of takeaways down by the river, along with a game of cricket and walk along the river watching the most beautiful sunset, making the most of daylight savings which finishes in a week.

Our local Real Estate Agency put on a Easter egg hunt in the park on Saturday and the kids had a ball racing around filling their baskets with eggs. Harrison and Matt had to head off to soccer so the rest of us hung out with the animals at the petting zoo.  Amelie loved holding the duckling, rabbit and guinea pig and feeding the lamb and goat a bottle of milk.

12/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Harrison: Our garden at our new place is full of snails, you love collecting them!

Amelie: A crafty afternoon with the stamps.

Finley: Bed hair!

Finley and I have been have been spending lots of mornings at the pool hanging out before lunch, making the most of it while the weather is still warm.  He likes to potter in the shallows and steal (borrow!) all the other kids toys!


With cricket only finishing last week we were straight into soccer this week for Harrison.  We are back at the same club as last year and it's looking like the team from last year will be together again.  Harrison is pretty excited to have his Dad coaching his team again!


 

11/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Harrison: Looking down the river

Amelie: Riding around the flag pole or the roundabout as you call it

Finley: You enjoy sitting on your bike, you're not so bothered about actually going any where on it yet!

We had a relaxing Sunday around home and enjoyed a walk/scooter down by the river.  We're loving having the river so handy for walks and picnics.

Harrison lost his 8th tooth this week, he sure has lots of gaps at the moment!

Harrison's cricket came to an end this week.   They had a fun final training where the kids competed against the Dad's on Tuesday night and the last game was on Saturday followed by an end of season dinner with all the families at the cricket club.  Harrison has loved his first season of cricket and will definitely miss it over the winter months.

Amelie has been a bit clingy this week with school drop offs, I think she is just really tired from starting school and it being such a big change from what she was used to.  She's absolutely fine come pick up time.  We're counting down to school holidays where everyone can have a break!

Finley has started saying Harry & Ame this week instead of Hara and Ama, it sounds so cute.  He sure looks up to his big brother and sister! He's also started calling us Mummy and Daddy instead of Mama and Dada.
He picked a leaf (which he also thinks are flowers) from outside one morning this week and brought inside and gave it me and said flower, it sure made my heart melt!

10/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Harrison: Heading off to cricket, only two more games to go for the season!

Amelie: You love your accessories, you were super excited when I bought these New Zealand sunnies for you for the Cricket World Cup!

Finley: You're gravitating to play with the big boys Matchbox cars now.

This week ticked over into Autumn already, I'm thankful for the warm days continuing, although you can just feel a little bit of a cool change in the mornings and the nights are getting darker earlier.
I've enjoyed a couple of swims this week in the pool which have been so lovely.
  
Finley has been sick again this week with a cold after having one only a couple of weeks ago, the poor thing has not been his normal happy self. 

Fish n chips overlooking the river were the perfect end to the school/working week and we all enjoyed a kick around with the ball in the early evening sun.

We enjoyed  a lovely BBQ with friends followed by a board game once the kids were all tucked up in bed which gave us lots of laughs.  Harrison loved that his mate was getting to stay over too!

9/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Harrison: Having so much fun tipping buckets of water over yourself to cool off!

Amelie: Enjoying being sprayed by the hose!

Finley: Quiet play at home with Mummy.

Amelie and I got to enjoy a 'Mummy Daughter date' with a morning of painting at Ceramic studio where Amelie created a plate that she'll be able to use at dinner time.  She loves arts and craft so was in her element and also loved having me all to herself.  We then had lunch at a cute little cafe called Daisy's milkbar, really retro and they had yummy milkshakes!

Amelie started bringing home readers home this week, as soon as she finishes school and comes out of the classroom she is taking her book out of her bag to show me what book she has for the night.  She is really enjoying getting to sit down with us and trying to read them after we've read them to her. 

Finley's language has taken off this week and he is trying to copy lots of words we're asking him to say.  He's learnt a number of words this week but his favourite words would be 'happy', 'bubble' and 'iceblock'!

We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary with a lovely dinner from a local French restaurant but in the comfort of our own home, we picked up takeaways and set up our lounge like a restaurant!

Daddy was off to New Zealand again for the weekend, this time to celebrate a special birthday with his Dad as well as see New Zealand play Australia in the Cricket World Cup.  What a game it was, he had an awesome time. 
We took things easy and watched Harrison play cricket and had a fun walk/bike ride along the river.

8/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Harrison: You had fun looking at all the Chinese lanterns in the city for Chinese New Year.

Amelie: Enjoying some well earned rest time at home, going to school is hard work!

Finley: Starting young at wanting to help Daddy.

 Harrison got to have a go at tennis for the first time as there are courts as part of the Country Club where we live and he got a tennis racquet for his birthday, he had a great time with Daddy and wants to go back for more!  We then organised a play date later in the week with one of his mates so they could have a hit around with him as he's been having tennis lessons. 

I think the novelty of starting school has worn off a bit for Amelie and she's realised she has to go five days a week!  She is pretty tired at night after the long day,  she's really enjoying just being able  to play with her toys and do whatever she wants.  She is playing schools a bit which is pretty cute, it brings back fond memories of me doing that with my siblings.

Finley had his 18 month injections which he handled so well, just a yelp when the needle went in and that was it, I expecting way worse now that he is older and more knowing.
He learnt to say apple this week which sounds super cute when he says it.

Harrison and Daddy had a fun outing together for some one on one time, mini gold, movies and lunch!

7/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Harrison:Wherever we go and there is water you're always looking for fish or crabs!

Amelie: Look how tall you are!

Finley: Cooking up a storm in the kitchen!

Daddy was lucky enough to be away in New Zealand for work for a few days managed to catch up with some of the family.

This week felt super busy with Daddy away and all of the activities in full swing, Mainly music started up again for Finley and I, it felt so weird going along with only one child, I really missed not having Amelie there with me too!

I managed to 'escape' for two nights this week with different dinners that were organised with friends, it felt like a real treat!

We had some kiwi friends over for a BBQ and had a great time catching up with them and their kids.  Our first chance to entertain at our new place so it felt nice getting creative in the kitchen again.

Finley has really taken to Amelie's kitchen and is always there tinkering around with pots and pans or carrying the utensils around. 

6/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Harrison: Secret Agent Harrison reporting for duty at your 7th Birthday party!

Amelie: You love dressing up so you had fun being a Secret Agent at Harrison's party.

Finley: Too cool with your sunnies on!

We decided to try a different beach that we hadn't been to before so we headed to Freshwater beach on the Northern beaches.  Nice to be back at the beach as we hadn't been since our trip back to New Zealand.  Harrison had a ball boogie boarding as there were plenty of waves and he was flying into shore.

Amelie did so well with her first full week at school as the previous week she had only had two days.  She has continued to do so well at drop off and goes off to line up in her class with no problem.  I was certain that she would be a bit clingy so I 'm pleasantly surprised! 

This week all of the extra curricular activities kicked off again for the term with swimming, cricket and ballet taking up four of the week days plus the cricket game on Saturday, it sure was a busy week of running around everywhere.  Poor Finley gets a bit fed up being shipped here there and everywhere!

Also a busy week for me getting the final things sorted for Harrison's birthday party on the Saturday.
We celebrated with a Secret Agent party at the local park.  All the kids had a ball being trained up as Secret Agents and being sent on a mission to find the stolen party bags. 

5/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Harrison: Harrison and the Giant Peach!

Amelie: It was your first day of school! We are so proud of you.

Finley: You had your first haircut this week! Looking like a little boy now.

We had a relaxing Australia Day long weekend around Sydney.  Making the most of the pool with lots of swims.
We also had a wonderful day trip up to the Blue Mountains to go fruit picking.  We went back to Bilpin where we had done the apple picking last year but tried some different orchards and came home with beautiful peaches, apples, strawberries and tomatoes.  The strawberry season was coming to an end so it made it extra exciting when you found a nice big juicy strawberry!
We had a lovely BBQ at a friends place with some non Australian friends to celebrate Australia day.  Our Scottish friends who were hosting even put Haggis patties on the menu which was interesting to try and actually tasted quiet nice!

As the school holidays drew to a close Harrison started back at school and entered Year 2 on Wednesday. A super exciting week for Amelie as she started school for the first time on Thursday!  In Australia they only do one intake a year so although she is only four and a half she made the cut off and we felt she was ready to embark on school life.  A bit of an emotional day seeing another one going off to school but I must admit it is much easier second time round.  No tears from Amelie and she was bounding ahead walking up the road to school and couldn't wait to get there! She had a wonderful first day.  Amelie also started back at ballet on the same day which is an extended class now she is at school that includes ballet and jazz and goes for an hour and twenty minutes versus the forty five minutes she was doing last year.  It was a huge day and she was exhausted come the end of it!

It was also the time for Finley's first haircut, it had grown so long and although he looked super cute we decided it was time for a trim.  Now he looks so much older with a big boys haircut!