Wednesday 13 April 2016

#highlightsreel // favourite faces, familiar places, treasured traditions...


Ok, I am still so far behind in recording our little family highlights reel here (and please remember this is a highlights reel... the reality reel is not so photogenic, haha, but we all know it is part of every family's real life!) - however I am inching closer to 2016 so sloooooowly catching up!! 

Here is our December. After we returned from our Brisbane trip, gearing up for Christmas. We had a lot going on in our family during this time, it was not the most relaxing Christmas season, that's for sure! But as the kids wound up the school year, we still took the time to make memories and savour the little moments, and carve out time for our most treasured Christmas traditions.

These are the days....


My first crop of  garlic!! It took six months to grow but totally worth it for this delicious, flavoursome, organic goodness!!
Even with giving a bunch away I was hopeful it would last our garlic-loving family a whole year - and so far so good!!?

A bouquet of beetroot
Not sure if dolly just got rescued by these two firefighters or what!?
My sweet son. He has such a generosity of spirit xx


Character in spades!

This face. It slays me. Those beautiful brown eyes, my sunshiney boy xx


A spunky little lady...not your average princess!! 
strong is the new pretty



what joy she brings xx

Decorating the Christmas tree is always one of my most favourite times.
The parents sit back (well, Mum takes photos while Dad sits back, ha!)
and watch with sentimental smiles while the kids intently and gleefully decorate
the tree. The result may be lopsided but it's every so gorgeous!


Reading the first book in our Christmas Book Advent...
Lily wanted to make her own Christmas cards for her buddies!
No fear. Dancing up the front during the community Christmas carols!
Enrapt by the opera singer with her little school buddy!
The day after the 'last day of school for the year', we have a little tradition of serving the kids breakfast in bed. Breakfast is very simple, just stuff they love - toasted cheese croissants and greek yoghurt with fresh raspberries - and juice! They are soooooo excited about this they even eagerly stay in bed till I bring it to them, haha! Their delight is worth a few crumbs in the bed once a year... a simple but sweet way to celebrate a big year of doing their very best at school.
Look at that face!! Worth a few crumbs or what!? ;)

It just ain't Christmas without our $6 Aldi Gingerbread Kits! A sugary, crafty concoction of fun and  memories, sticky fingers and sneakily sampled lollies. The kids love assembling them. While they may not win any gingerbread house competitions, we have a good ol' time.
Ha!!!! How to even caption this image?! ;) #mycrazykids
When your favourite meal is baked potatoes, the best way to get them on the dinner menu more often is to offer to make them for the whole family. And so she does.
Decorating baubles to hand out at the local shops. Glitter glue and gem stickers - what's not to love!?! ;) 

I was kinda proud of my home made drying rack, haha!
Clearly these photo settings were completely off, HA! But consider this a place marker to record the memory of surprising the kids one night by getting them up after bed time to go see the Christmas lights! The surprise factor (and hot chocolates in travel mugs) always makes it all the more exciting!! :) A very special night xx
All ready to hand out their home decorated ornaments at the local shops. A sweet and simple way to do a little random Christmas kindness. It is always a wonderful experience, especially to see them intently chase down unsuspecting shoppers so they can foist an ornament on them!! So many folks are overjoyed and you can see their pleasure in taking a moment from the pre-christmas shopping hustle to enjoy that little kindness. Many people automatically reached for their wallets and we had to insist 'No, no, it's a gift!!!'. Some people (I think assuming we were selling them) refused to accept our little gifts, to the utmost distress of the kids especially Miles, lol!!! He was so shocked and disappointed if anyone declined. We live and we give and we learn. Love to see my kids taking babysteps into the world, learning lessons of generosity and kindness as a family. 


And that was our December...

xx Kate