#highlightsreel // mother's day and teaching her way

It's been too long since I was able to share our #highlightsreel. These posts are at the heart of what I do here, recording, reflecting, documenting the delight in our days, so I wanted to get back into them even if I am waaaaaay behind. Bear with me ;)

These photos go a little way back, okay, a long way back, all the way to May! Ahem. Such is life, it's been an intense few months, and so that's ok. But I want to get back into sharing these snapshots of our days, otherwise my end of year photobook will not be up to scratch, haha!

These are the days of our lives, we love them just for being what they are. And I have never been more grateful for them....

I cheered on Lily and Eli in their school fun run. How surreal it felt, to scream and shout in support from the sidelines. Yep, yep, ok I am really a 'School Mum' now!!! They both ran their little hearts out :)

Not to be outdone, Miles was rocking out some serious yoga moves on the sidelines. Perhaps he thought he was missing too much attention, lol! 

Mother's Day... our way.

As is our tradition, we take the Saturday of 'Mother's Day weekend' for our own little family's mother's day. A quiet day to sleep in (woohoo!), and spend time just enjoying being together, having adventures and of course, Mama getting some chill out time too! As I said to Mark the week earlier, when he was asking me what I wanted the day to look like 'You know, all the good bits of mothering, without any of the grunt work' Haha! 

Then on Sunday we are free to spend the morning worshipping together at church, and the afternoon celebrating and honouring my own wonderful mother and mother-in-law. It works well for us! :)

So, the day started in the classical fashion, with a delightful long-awaited sleep in. Always soooo good. Pretty soon though I could no longer resist the sound of excited, eager little voices hovering outside my door, constantly enquiring of their father if 'mummy was awake yet!!???'. Who can delay such joy? In they tumbled, clutching those precious and quirky Mother's Day stall gifts, colourful home-made cards and of course a tray bearing the most delicately prepared breakfast one could imagine. 

Behold.... :)

I mean, really! It's the carefully cut grapes that really slay me.  Lily put her all into this breakfast! (There was croissants, coffee and pancakes too!) Love these munchkins :)

When pondering what activity to do as a family, that balanced both wide open spaces for kids to freely roam,  combined with good coffee, sweet treats and a delicious lunch, the Botanic Gardens came up trumps. The perfect location. We spent a couple hours adventuring and exploring together, then ended up at the cafe for lunch!

A father instructing his son in the ways of flora and fauna.

My ongoing attempts to capture the three of them together! This was the day's winner. My three little loves xx

We all know how rare it is for mothers to get photos with their children! Especially when the mother is rather obsessed with being the photographer (ahem!). I have made it a little tradition now to get photos with my kids every year on Mother's Day, so at least I know I have one shot per year at any rate!?! ;) And surely once a year I can insist on photos and snuggles, right? This was a quick and wriggly session, much reminiscent of herding cats as Mark snapped the shots and we tried to quickly swap kids in and out... oh yeah and the camera settings and light weren't great. But you know what? They may not be perfect photos but they are perfect moments. Perfect in all its imperfections, that's what family is :)

Miles. My sweet ray of sunshine, my beautiful baby foreverrrrrrrrr. FOREVER, I say!! ;)

Eli. Oh, my lovely middle man. You are joy, you are energy, you are beloved.

Lily. My daughter. My one and only girl. My teacher, my firstborn, my treasure.

This photo. This random little out-take. I was flicking through while editing and came upon this, and first it caught my breath then brought tears to my eyes. I don't know what we were talking about at the time. I was just struck by Eli's little face, shining up at me like sunshine, bathing me in pure love, adoration and grace. As mothers, how often do we even realise that our kids look at us like this?? What a privilege, what an honour. To be mothers, to be loved, to nurture these little souls. But, it's so easy to get caught up in the noise and the correcting and the daily grind and not even see these little faces, right in front of us. Thankful for this simple photo, a worthy reminder.

Group photo... this was the best I could get, lol.

Determined to make his own way down the steps, and hold the banister like
his siblings :)

Our Mother's Day ended with an unexpected detour... while at the Botanic Gardens Cafe, I was just taking Eli to the bathrooms. I pushed open the door and my finger grazed over a metal sign and somehow managed to slice open my finger!! You know one of those things you assume will be a momentary annoyance? But then it just kept bleeding. And bleeding. Blood kept dripping everywhere, I had to ask for bandaids and even with several of them wrapped around, blood kept dripping all during our nice lunch. ARGH! So we wrapped up the outing pretty quickly, and I ended up dropping the family off home and going to the Health Clinic!!! Thankfully, the nurse was able to tape it all up and I got to wear a cool bandage on my finger for a week. Good times, real life! ;)


And on we go....

Miles is obsessed with tools, fixing, construction, anything related! When Daddy gets out his tool bag, Miles freaks out with excitement, it's so funny and cute :) 'I helping!! I fixing! I really fixing!!' he shouts :) 

Their relationship has been flourishing as they find new ways to play together. They holed up in Miles' cot for almost an hour, just busily building Duplo :)

Oh yeah. Just my daughter, kicking back and reading poetry aloud!!!! I won't lie, as a life-long poetry buff, this warms my heart immensely! Someone passed on this lovely old book of poetry for children and all the kids have enjoyed listening to them!

Miles' life philosophy: Don't cry over spilled milk.... laugh your head off!

What can I say, I love my knits! Betty and the Whale... hmmm, sounds like a movie or band?! ;)

Grandpa came to visit from Queensland, for a week of painting, house projects and
hanging out with the grandkids. It was a huge help!! Miles enjoyed getting some
practise using the saw. He was so dedicated to the task, sawing all these little cuts.

You know I am all about play-based learning in the early years... no flash cards, no rote learning, no pressure. Just natural
child-led learning through play. But what do you do when your Year One child decides she wants to teach her brother his
'3 R's'?! And he eagerly accepts?! Haha, they got me there. What could I do but watch on with a smile as they spent numerous evenings in their room, Lily drawing up 'work sheets' and ever so patiently guiding and coaching her little brother. Pretty darn amazing - and cute!

I came across this little paper on Lily's table. These items are stapled to the page, lol!!
'How to plant a flower: Get some dirt and get outside, plant it in the ground.'