50/52 - it's beginning to look a lot like...

Lily

She took it upon herself to create/collect Christmas gifts for everyone who we will be celebrating Christmas Day with - two gifts each. They are crafted, drawn or pilfered from around the house ('Mum, do you really need all these fridge magnets??'). 

She ended up being home sick for a couple of days but even in her sickness, was determined to finish her self-assigned task, crying to me 'I was planning to get them all done today, Mum, I have to get them all finished!!' as she continued wrapping earnestly, even through her lethargy and my encouragement to just leave them till tomorrow. 

Sometimes she is so much like me, it is frankly terrifying. Seeing your own personality quirks appear before you in a little person (such as being determined to stick to a plan no matter what other reality may occur) is a really eerie thing.... 

Eli

Leaping for joy!

The kids were playing outside in the afternoon, deciding to get gloriously muddy while making mud pies. It started raining and suddenly I had the three kids running and leaping around the patio, squealing with delight in the summer shower. And not too long after, they transformed into three little nudies racing around merrily. 

I stood in the doorway watching them, smiling, casting aside other afternoon plans as the chance for a spontaneous rain dance appeared.  Delighting in the way they embraced their childhood, before they all tumbled into the house for a warming shower....

Miles

Funny little man, just chilling in a bucket, on a towel, in his PJ's, watching the world go by... as you do?!

Mark

To celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, we escaped to the coast for a little night away. We have a more significant celebration planned, but it worked out better to wait till next year for that. 

One night away, with the children divided up and left in the hands of their wonderful grandparents, was a much appreciated little getaway. A drive through the mountains, lunch and browsing through historic country towns and let's not forget the interruption-free conversation - bliss! :) With the heavy dose of nostalgia that comes with a decade milestone, we decided to return to the beautiful, secluded little cabin in the bush where we spent our honeymoon. It was still delightful and so very relaxing!

We may now be an old married couple, but thankfully we can work out how to do a bit of a beach selfie on the iphone... right before a stroll on the beach and fish and chips for dinner on the beach too. 

Love this guy truly madly deeply - he is still my very favourite person to hang out with xx

Project 52: A portrait of my family, once a week, every week, in 2014.

More highlights from the week that was....

Our leafy little hideaway. Love the views, hidden amongst a national park.

I took the kids to choose out a gift to donate to the children of Marymead. They took their
decision making very seriously. This is such a special Christmas tradition.

My clever friend Nicole has started up a cookie company called NJ Creations - she is amazing at baking and decorating! She asked if my kids would like to test out her new kid's Christmas 'cookie decorating kits' and of course they were more than happy to both create and then sample ;) Meanwhile, I loved getting to experience all the fun without any of the mess or stress - thanks, Nic!

I can't really sew, but took it upon myself to stitch the kid's names on their stockings. I have to admit it felt rather sweet and homey to do so, to create a little something in their honour. However dodgy and messy the stitching, there was love and satisfaction in the project :)

Five stockings in a row... makes me smile and feel so grateful. Even though the greens clash ;)

The Christmas pile o' pressies is growing day by day. As well as the basket full of unwrapped books from our Christmas Book Advent!

Treasured ornaments, delightfully clumped together by the children. The gold ones were wedding gifts from my dear old housemate. The 'Lily' star is from paperboatpress, each of the children have one. The papered star is one I bought for myself and extended family about three years ago. The beautiful Aboriginal art painted bauble is one Mark bought when in Adelaide last year for the funeral of his grandfather. A small way to remember a great man each Christmas.

Selfie ;)

Eli's turn to decorate!

Eli's amazing cookies :)

She decided she wanted to write Christmas cards to her whole class, and spent an entire afternoon and evening doing so, with a different personalised message to each classmate. She was so pleased with herself, getting them all done in one day.

Ah, childhood!

Hard at work, washing all the pegboards we brought home from Playschool as part of the end of year clear up!

49/52 - trimming the tree

Lily

She is a creator. A determined, visionary little spirit.

I love that she comes home from a long hard day of school and unwinds by creating an 'Air Dog' (I really couldn't describe this masterpiece with any justice). Once she has her vision, she is utterly compelled to carry it out, busily and happily working away to bring her idea to fruition. In the zone. Ever since she was tiny, this has been her joy, whipping up these original 3D creations. 

It is a beautiful thing to witness, and a passion we love to nurture - even if it means the craft room is a constant jumble of cardboard, paper, glue and markers. I guess a creative genius can't also be expected to be a tidy one, right? ;)

Eli

He is a 'noticer'.

Nothing escapes his attention (nor holds him for very long). He notices what other people are doing and feeling, he notices things both big (the cloud formations) and small (every ant and Daddy Long Legs that veers into his eyeline). He remembers and reflects and takes pleasure in memories and shared stories. He is so thoughtful and aware, quick to help and assist, and quick to show compassion. His busy little mind and heart are in a thousand places at once, it seems.

He notices the water spilled from the tap, meandering down the paved courtyard. He takes pleasure in quietly observing its gravity-motivated journey along the paver edges. I take pleasure in watching him enjoy the small things. My son, I delight in you.

Miles

He is not just a baby any more. I need to keep reminding myself of that... 

On December 1st we decorated the Christmas tree, and at first we expected Miles to only watch or otherwise attempt to dismantle the tree. What did we know? When given the chance, he eagerly and oh-so-seriously picked up the ornaments, carefully separated the string and hung them from the tree branches with care. So keen to participate in the family activities and keen to show us he is not merely the baby of the family but a very big and capable boy! He took utmost care and no Christmas ornaments were harmed in the creation of this sweet scene ;)

Yes, sweet son, you are a fully fledged family member now, able to participate in all our little traditions. I'm so thankful xx

Mark

See that smiling face? 

That is the face of a proud father, taking pleasure in even the smallest of achievements of his children. He delights in his children and nurtures and supports them through whatever they do - just for being themselves - it's a beautiful thing to witness.

He watches, engages and talks with his youngest son while he is hanging the ornaments on the tree, cheering Miles on through every precious baby step. 

Project 52: A portrait of my family once a week, every week, in 2014.

More highlights from the week that was...

Sometimes waking up is hard to do...

Dear friends from Sydney came to stay, and Miles was pleased to have his sweet new buddy Ava to share in his hijinks. They perched themselves on the couch together, expectantly waiting for Playschool. 

Our Christmas Book Advent, ready for another year. I have been loving seeing this movement take momentum, with so many wrapped book collections being shared on my Facebook page. Christmas and books are a winning combination, huh? The kids are loving unwrapping both new and old favourites this year, already taking pleasure in a familiar tradition (only three years in!) 

They love decorating the tree, we love watching them. They comb through the piles of ornaments so carefully, decorating the tree with their own haphazard flare. I'm happy to just enjoy it and this year didn't even tweak the tree after they went to bed, lol. 

Master Ornament Holder

Every ornament holds a special memory or story. This silver heart was brought to us from Nana on her trip to Italy a few years ago. 

Not all family scenes are so idyllic - most are far from it!! - but this one - trimming the tree - is a treasured moment every year. Just everyone working together happily on this fun little activity, it's one of my favourite memories :)

A job well done, time to break open the first book of our Christmas advent. Books are always better by the light of the Christmas tree, dont you think?

Two new friends...

It's been two weeks of wicked thunderstorms and light shows every afternoon...

Making spinach tortillas...

We took a big box of peg boards home to clean from the playschool. Eli was playing with them and Miles wanted in. Twenty very serious minutes were thus spent filling and unfilling three different boards!! 

Beloved, pudgy, dexterous little fingers :)

A decade of marriage. We celebrated this week. Ten years of wedded adventure, a humble, happy life together and rather a tribe to show for it! I am so thankful for those vows we made a decade ago to walk through life together. I love him dearly, and more each day xx

{GIVEAWAY!} LaQ Review.... a rival for our beloved Lego!?

We discovered LaQ by chance over three years ago. Wandering through an outlet mall when Lily was about three, we looked through a 'pop up shop' filled with Japanese toys. They had a kids table set up with a bunch of tiny plastic shapes scattered about, that seemed to click together. Lily sat down and was instantly entranced, connecting up all kinds of shapes with her teeny little fingers. We are certainly not the type of parents to just buy kids toys on a whim, but I loved the fine motor aspect and how engaged she was, so we ended up buying a small kit. I know, I know, how spontaneous ;)

So what is LaQ exactly? Well, you can click this link to go to the Japanese site which has a bunch more info. In a nutshell, it's a series of seven small plastic shapes (triangles, squares and joiner pieces) that click together to create pretty much whatever you like, whether 2D or 3D. The pieces click together in the most satisfying little 'snap' and then are easily separated by bending till they 'crack' and come apart. I think this is part of the pleasure of building - the sensory satisfaction! They are really fun to build and create with... and just engage children in a really beautiful way, unleashing all sorts of creativity. Lily and Eli just love squirreling themselves away to make their LaQ creations as I have recorded many times on this little blog, such as here.

Our three engineers gather to do a little post-dinner car building with their new LaQ kit :) This Hamacron kit can make five different vehicles, the kids wanted to try the race car first.

 



Yes, they are sort of like Lego. Now, I would dare not say they are better than Lego (quelle horreur!!), but I would dare to say they are on par! Like Lego, you can build kits or just build freely, wherever your imagination takes you. The plastic is top quality, you can imagine passing it on to your grandkids like you can do with Lego :) With Lego you generally build 3D tower/vertical shapes, but with LaQ you can be creative with 2D images or fully 3D curved and angular shapes. And they are so fun to snap and click together and apart - unlike the agony of prising apart two Lego blocks with your fingernails, haha ;) We are huge Lego fans in this household and always will be, but we REALLY love LaQ too. They are similar but different enough that it's fun to build with both. One bonus is it doesn't hurt to step on LaQ ;)

Concentration Face!

Father and Son, working together on their race car :)

The kids have made do with our tiny little 2D kit for a few years but often ran out of pieces when building. This Christmas I wanted to expand their set to include the 'cornered' pieces so they could build in 3D. I hunted and hunted for a stockist in Australia - they are not easy to find here though they are huge in Japan - and finally stumbled across this absolutely gorgeous (online and real life) store called Crayons. I was pretty impressed - their site is full of creative, quality, exploratory children's toys, including a wide LaQ range. Yippeee!

While making my order I had to make some inquiries about the stock, and lo and behold, the Crayons folk kindly offered to send a couple extra kits - a 3D kit for us to try, and a basic building kit which I decided to give away to share the LaQ love :) So - if you love a good giveaway, this is your lucky day! :) Enter below and you could introduce your children to the joys of LaQ! I honestly believe you will be impressed - kids who visit our home just LOVE playing with it and friends who have purchased it for their kids have become big time fans too.

The finished product - a speedy little race car. They quickly disappeared into their room to make their own LaQ designs right after finishing :)

Lily made a sleigh - very Christmassey ;)

Fire Truck!

A perfect gift for under the Christmas tree, just enter below and your child may be the lucky recipient!

To win, just enter through the Rafflecopter form and answer this simple question: Who would you gift this LaQ kit to, and why?

(Sign in to the Rafflecopter form below and tick the boxes for the entries you want to make. Write your blog comment entry in the regular blog comment box at the end of post (not in the app!). Please let me know if you have any troubles with entering!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Terms and Conditions:
Giveaway is for one LaQ Basic kit (185 pieces) , including delivery within Australia
Australian Entries only. 
Must leave a name and email address if using "anonymous" or a profile not linked to a way to contact you if you've won.
Winner will be deemed most creative/interesting response as chosen by me. This is a game of skill, not chance.
Entries close Tuesday 16th December, 12.59pm 2014. 
Judges decision is final. Winner must respond within 48 hours or prize will be awarded to the runner up. Good luck!!!

**The LaQ Hamacron Kit  (for us to try) and Basic LaQ kit (which we decided to giveaway) were gifted to us by Crayons, but all opinions are very much my own. We are LaQ fans from way back! :) **