April 2012

Josh and Hamish at Buffalo Park on the flying fox.

Isabella playing in the sand under the flying fox.

Sammy and Hamish at Buffalo Park.

In April we found our first au pair, Sarah, from Canada who happened to already be in Sydney. It was only for four months and she was a perfect introduction for us to the world of au pairs! This is the photo she sent us! Very nerve wracking meeting at Macquarie centre for the first time. Her first day coincided with my first day at work. A very stressful time all round! My mum was lovely and helped Sarah with the kids for the first two days of the term which was really more for my peace of mind than anything!

Copying the names of classmates off of her class list.

Completed egg parcels.

Sarah and her sister.

In April the weather was perfect to go to Buffalo Park and play on the equipment. Josh took Hamish on the flying fox for the first time and he loved it!

Daddy watching on as Hamish tries the equipment at the beach.

Playing at the beach.

Escaping in the sand towards the pretty legs.

Isabella and I made some lovely chocolate egg parcels to give to her classmates. We used some paint cards from Bunnings which I cut into egg shapes and then Isabella very carefully and conscientiously wrote her class mates names on each label.

Easter decorations.

Easter decorations.

David's study in the process of being cleaned out.

Looking into the study.

Looking from the window to the door of the study.

The weather was okay to go to the beach. Not warm enough to swim, but certainly a lovely day to play in the sand and check out the play equipment at the beach.

The Easter Bunny did come!

Isabella with new Easter pyjamas and her eggs.

Hamish knows where the chocolate eggs go!

Josh with his chocolate egg haul!

He's almost taller than his mother!

Sammy with her eggs and Easter pyjamas.

A delicious Easter breakfast!

In between Easter, school holidays and getting ready for me to go back to work David was cleaning out his office now that NPS had an office in Chatswood so that we could make room for the arrival of Sarah. What a mess! Luckily it tidied up really nicely and made a nice bedroom. Unfortunately for Sarah we didn't have it totally finished when she arrived. But before she left we had put in a TV, a heater, a wardrobe and a set of draws to finish it off.

Sarah's room is almost ready!

Isabella next to Sarah's bed.

Looking back ...

Last year we moved into the house we're in now. I was just finishing work and about 4 weeks off of giving birth to our wonderful baby number four. It was a very busy time. We managed to get organised enough last year to celebrate Easter and even remember to take some photos! It was all a blur really. I even managed to take the kids along to the Sydney Easter Show dressed as a whale. Well maybe not dressed as a whale, but I certainly looked and felt like one. Eveyone thought I was mad taking the kids to the Easter show when I was so close to giving birth. I knew better though. I knew that when baby number four arrived I would have no time to myself let alone the kids. Anyway I'm getting distracted...

I wanted to share a photo from last year and then compare it to another one this year taken from the same spot. My how the children have grown. Josh has gone from looking like a little boy to more like a man. Sammy doesn't look much different, but Isabella seems more grown up and of course now we have little Hamish.

Easter 2011

Easter 2012

This year I got the table ready for breakfast the night before which was just lovely. It meant that after the rush of half asleep Easter egg hunting (we're the one's that are half asleep not the kids of course)I didn't need to rush to get breakfast ready. We got to sit down and eat as a family. While the kids ate their first chocolate egg we heated up the croissants and the adults drank coffee. We then all sat down and ate croissants while the bacon was cooking in the oven. Then David cooked the eggs in our fancy egg poacher (it does 6 eggs at a time) and made toast and we then ate egg and bacon with another cup of coffee. We got to sit around and chat and enjoy Easter relatively calmly. So nice.
We even managed a self-timed photo of the family with my new camera. Very funny. We have a couple of serious ones, but it was much more fun to do the crazy faces. The problem of course is keeping a still face while the little light flicks away. Anyone do self-portrait shots of the family?

The serious one.

Our crazy mob!

 The kids all got pyjamas this year. I was marvelling at Josh's pyjamas that were for a small man. My little boy has grown out of the children's department. : ( He had to see if he was finally taller than his mum. I kept saying not even close. But I think I only have a couple of months of being taller. He is literally growing taller every day at the moment. Here's proof that I'm still taller.

I'm still taller!!

Ready for Easter

I repainted the bunny to match our colour scheme.

It's 'Easter Eve' the kids tell me and I've been busy decorating the house ready for Easter. The older two have been off with their dad, visiting the zoo and having an early Easter. They've come back with lots of Easter Eggs which they're guarding well, knowing their mother as well as they do!
It was nice to have the table ready for our Easter breakfast tomorrow morning when the kids got home tonight. They were nicely surprised I think. I love surprising them with the magic of Easter, Christmas, birthdays etc. You're only a kid once after all.
We've got a menu of warm croissants followed by egg and bacon for breakfast in the morning. I'm guessing that our starter will be some yummy chocolate Easter Eggs that the Easter bunny will hopefully leave for us!! I can't wait to see the kids faces in the morning when they see the Easter Eggs.
I still remember that feeling of seeing the Easter Eggs and waiting impatiently for everyone to be up so that we could go and hunt for the eggs. So much excitement.

Paper cup wreath made in a few minutes with hot glue

Branch decorated with bought eggs.

The table ready for Easter breakfast.

The wreath in steps.

At the entrance I put down a table runner that I'd bought on sale at Spotlight for Christmas. On top of that I placed the three wax, battery powered candles I bought from Costco last year. I topped them with napkin rings I also bought on sale from Spotlight for Christmas last year and put an egg in each that had been blown, washed and dried. I hot glued a little chicken to the top of each one. Then lent the wreath in front of it all. A bit of cheap and cheery Easter decoration.
On the other buffet I put our branch that David helped me find yesterday. We went to the beach to hopefully find a piece of driftwood, but I had no such luck. We did have a lovely day eating out and playing on the sand with the kids. But no driftwood. On the way home we drove past all the places we thought we could hopefully find a branch and just before we reached home I shouted to David to stop the car again. This time I was in luck. A gorgeous branch. It didn't have a long bit to hold itself up so I shoved it into a vase with a small opening and then used little bits of wood to wedge it in place. You wouldn't know it from looking at it though. I was hoping to spray paint it white but I didn't have time. Maybe next year. I hung up some decorations that I bought from Bed, Bath and Table for a few dollars. They look very cute. I had also painted some real eggs blue, written the kids names on them and then threaded them with cord. I think it turned out nicely and the kids loved having their names on the eggs.
The table is decorated with Ikea plates and cups and the Spotlight table cloth that I bought at Christmas time on special. I wish I had thought to buy some flowers to decorate the centre of the table with. I had to make do with a bowl with green Easter paper and blown eggs. Not very fancy, but they'll do.
We're all going to drink our water out of wine glasses since it's a special occasion and the kids will probably drink some very weak tea.
As I type this we're sitting on the edge of our seats watching Dante's Peak. An oldie but a goody. Sammy's already asked me who dies. I'm as bad as her with scary movies and hate not knowing what's about to happen. So I had to tell her that the main characters don't die but some characters do die.
I leave this post with a quick look at how I made the wreath. I found the wreath on pinterest and though it was so easy that I had to make it. You can find the original here. Much nicer than mine.
David's downstairs finishing emptying out the office. It's council clean up on Monday and so all the stuff we want to get rid of will be picked up by council. I'm so excited to be able to do up a new room. It's for our upcoming au pair. I will update soon...