lily // nine

My darling girl is nine. Almost double digits, as she would say, and I can hardly believe we are almost into a decade of parenting.

Lily, you have really embraced the tween zone this year. A voracious reader, you are tearing through books at a rapid rate, including many non-children's books too (you comb through my book shelves but to your dismay as you try to squirrel them off to your room, I have to inform you that many of the books are not yet quite appropriate!). Your devotion to reading fills me with joy of course, to see you become such a little book worm! 

You love hanging out with your friends, such a social butterfly. I am so grateful that you still fill me in on every social intricacy and we talk all the issues through together. I am so in awe of how self-assured and self-aware you are. How I pray we always have this relationship, it's such a privilege to be part of your world, even as it expands and grows beyond our home. I know you are so very eager to be grown. You love to take solo walks around the block. Be part of adult social events. And yet you are still so very little and I hope you can embrace your childhood for a good while yet!

You are so very funny and quirky, a total tomboy (you now spurn dresses and don't even suggest anything pink!!!) yet you still yearn for perfume and makeup and a hair straightener. You loooooove animals and have plans to be a vet (and with zero squeamishness may very well end up there!). You are constantly writing stories and plans and lists. You are incredibly creative, always sculpting amazing things out of scraps and bits and pieces. You are incredibly articulate and socially aware. How will all these beautiful parts that make you 'you' meld together over the years? I can't wait to see how God works in your life! 

It's a blessing to parent a girl like you. While we stumble our way through this new phase, leaving early childhood behind and head towards the teen years, I know it won't always be easy being our 'trial run' as the first born. But I am more grateful than ever for our strong bond, your respectful nature, and your kind and gentle heart. You are a beautiful big sister and a wonderful girl full of light and sparkle and spunk.

We love you, Lily, and couldn't be prouder of the young woman you are becoming through the grace of God. 

The Annual Interview with Lily...

What are you going to be when you grow up?

A hard decision... so many things! An acrobat! 

What’s that going to be like?

Very fun and creative! 

What are your favourite toys?

Can they be pillows? My watermelon pillow and food!

Who are your best friends?

Hayley from church, Charlie and Elsa. 

What makes you happy?

Hanging out with friends and going to the movies with just my parents. 

What makes you sad?

When my pets die.

When you dream at night, what do you dream about?

I had a great dream about where I break world records but they all go wrong. So it's like science experiments. 

What do you like to do with Daddy?

Do weightlifting and go to the movies. 

What do you like to do with Mummy?

Go to the ice skating rink and also have snuggles.

What do you like to do with Eli?

Practise tricks on the seesaw. 

What do you like to do with Miles?

Play lego with him and snuggle wrestles. 

What’s your favourite colour?

Aqua.

What’s your favourite book?

Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

What does Daddy do during the day?

Works very hard and comes home tired.

What does Mummy do during the day? 

Do you help homeless people? Help homeless people and come home exhausted. 

What do you do during the day?

Hang out with friends and go to school.

It's good to be nine because.....

Because you are almost double digits and you are a TWEEN! You are also no longer an equal number. 

The collage....

eli // seven

Seven years old, my dear boy.

Our little rocket, we do love you. You have flourished this year and matured so much. You love riding your huge mountain bike like a speed-demon with Dad, reading like crazy (ahem, Captain Underpants are the distinguished novels that really got you rolling, lol), and obsessed with gems and crystals and rocks (and trying to find them). So grown up but you still love snuggles with your Mum (phew!). 

You have overcome challenges, you have persevered through so much, and always, always, always with that cheerful, unflaggingly gracious spirit. You are always thinking of others. Always ready to help cheerfully, unprompted you often go out of your way to do a kindness for someone in your family, and rush to help anyone in need. You sacrifice immediately without second thought, always so generous and so happy to share. You amaze and inspire me, my boy! You are brave and kind and so tender-hearted. You are so sincerely sweet it makes me cry. You are also so genuine and honest, I just love your pure spirit, and the deep thought processes that you share with me. Big spiritual questions, thoughtful musings about how the world works, your busy mind is always working. You are also wild and loud and silly and funny and challenging and you never.stop.moving!

All these things are what make you YOU. The boy that God gave us. The boy that we adore - just as you are. 






Happy 7th Birthday, Tiger. Can't wait to see you continue to grow and shine xx 

The Annual Interview with Eli...

What are you going to be when you grow up?

An archaeologist. I mean a geologist. 

What’s that going to be like?

So, you dig for stuff in the ground and I want to dig for crystals and gems. 

What are your favourite toys?

My crystal collection but they are not a toy.

Who are your best friends?

Oh that's a bit hard. Are you allowed to write down God?? Ok, God, Mummy and Daddy. Actually I love everyone in the world. 

What makes you happy?

When you and Daddy take me to restaurants and give me special stuff and give me presents on my birthday. 

What makes you sad?

When someone punches me or hurts me. 

When you dream at night, what do you dream about?

Digging for crystals and gems and rocks. 

What do you like to do with Daddy?

I like when he beats me up with wrestles. and when he gives me presents on my birthday and Christmas and he gets really excited and says 'MY BOY!'

What do you like to do with Mummy?

I love when you help me do my crystals and digging for gems. And snuggles in the morning.

What do you like to do with Lily?

Lots of stuff. I like playing games with her and walking her to her class at school.

What do you like to do with Miles?

I love playing poison bal and when he gave me his camera and playing Lego! 

What’s your favourite colour?

Every colour and most of all Blue and green

What’s your favourite book?

The Jungle Book

What does Daddy do during the day?

He sometimes does cleaning. and he doesn't have computer time in the day so he has it at night and sometimes he makes dinner or goes to work. 

What does Mummy do during the day? 

Oh Mum. Sometimes working and sometimes making dinner for us and cleaning and sometimes you take me to restaurants. 

What do you do during the day?

That's really hard! I get ready for school and then I go to school and then I have afternoon tea and then I play outside and then I watch some TV and then I have dinner and that's what I do for the day! 

It's good to be seven because.....

Because I'm nearly really old and I'll get to be a grown up and you get to do lots of special stuff when you are a grown up like have fun with your kids and give them wrestles just like my dad and mum. 

The Birthday Collage...

21/31 {the january project} a fourth birthday

Our littlest man, Miles, turned four today!

We celebrated with a family trip to the zoo (a very special treat!) and then a picnic dinner by the lake with friends... making the most of our one summer birthday!

It was such a lovely day, especially seeing Miles absolutely thrilled from the start to the end...he never stopped buzzing with glee! 

He kept telling me how he couldn't believe he was three for a hundred days but now he was four, he called himself 'the birthday boy' all day! He had begged for a Stormtrooper cake as he is obsessed with Star Wars (never seen it, but still obsessed) so I did my best to deliver. Didn't quite nail it but he was thrilled and thanked me all day long for it... and said eating it was his favourite part of the day. 

Bless him, my sweet, joyful, passionate little love xxxx

Thanks to my friend Amber for taking these precious cake pics... so sweet!

The kids built a bridge across a little stream in the forest, and our big, brave four year old was determined to cross it independently. And so he did, again and again. 

A special day to celebrate his big day. My baby is FOUR, whaaaa??

{the january photo a day project}

Art Party // An Arty Girl's 8th Birthday Party!

My darling daughter Lily was turning eight and was due for a party! 

We don't do parties too often (so far, each of my kid's have had one for their 1st, 5th and now 8th birthdays). Lily's last party was her adorable Princess Tea Party when she was five (check it out here.... my teeny girl!). As we don't have them every year, when we do, I enjoy going all out to celebrate my little munchkins - and boy, do they LOVE a party :) They get to choose the theme too of course - and after running through a hundred theme variations, Lily finally settled decisively on an Art Party - fitting given her firm plans to be 'an artist' one day!

I have to admit I was thrilled with such a fun and creative theme and had an absolute blast pulling this together, with my ideas-filled little assistant planner! This kid had a clear vision and actually I was basically the assistant planner, carrying them all out on her behalf haha! Maybe she will be an event manager like her mama one day :) Lily's original big idea was to hold the party IN an art gallery so she could 'look at all the art with her friends then paint pictures of what we saw and have cake and dancing!'. Amazing, right?! But it was the midst of winter and I couldn't find a gallery that also had a good space for art and food and a horde of giggling little girls... so we decided to bring the art to us instead - with our own little gallery!

We had an absolute ball putting this all together. Homespun, simple, child-led and theme-driven, it was just a joy. I couldn't do this every year but I have to admit I absolutely love throwing parties when the time comes! I'm mostly grateful for the opportunity to make my kids feel cherished with a big celebration. And I was thrilled with Lily's creative choice because the theme just made it so easy and fun for everyone. Lots of art, laughter and food - what could be better?!

Thanks to my lovely friend Amber for taking many of following photos while I was busy flitting around! 

I think most of them speak for themselves so.... enjoy scrolling, if kid's parties are your thing ;)

DIY Art Gallery. It was so fun gathering images of some of our favourite art works. It was amazing how powerful and inspiring they all were displayed on the walls together too. The impact of beautiful art is not to underestimated :)

The Art Table, ready and waiting...

I made this simple little banner for Lily's 1st birthday party (I did the same for the boys too) and we pin them up for every birthday :) 

I made this in Canva - easy and a nice little welcome sign and wall decor.

What's a themed party without coming up with silly matching names?
Pop Art for Popcorn?! Yes, I am a genius. Ha!

'Art Palette' Rainbow Poke Cake! Click here to see how I made it and how it looks inside (clue - colourful!!). It was so easy, fun and delicious!! :) 

My lovely mother-in-law made these adorable art palette cookies

Lily came up with these names and wrote the signs. LOVE :) You can't see them too well but they are layered jelly cups.

Healthy Bliss Balls go rainbow!

Eli (6yrs) bought this little mannequin as a gift for Lily with his own money! *melt* Perfect table accessory!

Who needs table decor when you have art supplies to scatter around!? Colourful, useful and fun!  For art supplies, I had watercolours (both liquid and dry), watercolour paper, charcoal, black fine tip pens and also this fun colourful air-dry clay the kids could use to make mini-models.

An arty rainbow of fruit and veggies

I love open ended arts and crafts for kids, so I simply laid out all the materials and let them do what they liked - painting, drawing, modelling with clay. It was very relaxed and so sweet to see all the girls working away at their art. The drawing prompts on the table and walls helped inspire them when they needed it too.

I was thrilled when I found these cute little art palettes and brush sets at a cheapie shop. It meant each girl could have her own little set to use and take home. I wrote their name on each in gold pen.

'I'm just here for the food'

So, so excited for his sister's big day, my sweet boy xx

Little artists get to work!

I like to come up with (more useful, less sugary) alternatives to party bags where I can :) This time I got a bunch of calico 'library bags' and the kids had a total blast decorating them with puffy paint pens (retro!), fabric stickers and markers. Something to carry home all their art in, and use after the party. The girls were thrilled with this and I think the lollies weren't too missed ;)

Beautiful artworks drying in the afternoon sun. Little clay model animal figurines too!

They were very serious about their library bag decorating!

Lily came up with this game, kinda like 'pin the tail on the donkey' but each
blindfolded girl had to try and draw some clothing on the Lily outline, haha!

Another Lily Idea: Play Arty Musical Statues - we played music and everyone
danced around. When the music stopped, you had to freeze in a pose from one of the
art works on the walls!! It was super cute :) Harper is giving a great pose here!

Dancing up a storm and suddenly looking way too grown up! He was very into the game and had no interest in being 'out' haha

Blissfully happy to be with friends at her very own party :)

The artistes at work!

Miles was very much part of the action :)

The moment arrives... lighting the cake....

Oh my, I love this photo, cuddled up with my stripey little party-planning accomplice
as she joyfully eyes off her cake! I love this girl so much, planning a party for her was
truly a pleasure. What a wonderful young lady she is, I'm simply in awe of her xx

Great memories of a wonderful day...


Happy Birthday, Lily. What a privilege it is to celebrate you xx