time flies by doesn’t it?

my baby turned 8 today

here are eight things i know about Bear …

1. He loves riding on his motorbike & building things (he’s always loved building things!)

2. He gets very animated & tells great stories

3. He’s wearing the same size shoe as his big sister (size 3)

4. He is very ticklish!

5. So far, he’s only lost 3 teeth (all on the bottom) but another 3 are wiggly right now

6. His favourite bedtime toys are still sheet & Digerdy

7. He has a sweet tooth & sneaks chocolate  from the fridge – but he hasn’t learnt to remove the evidence (a stepstool) !!

8. He wanted lego for his birthday – lego on his cake & more lego to play with – & he was in lego heaven today!!

sunday = pancakes

i’ve ordered some new baby props from this talented girl – one of these & an earflap hat. can’t wait to use them at my next baby shoot!

jodi at MCP actions recently blogged about some of her favourite photography & photoshop books – well worth checking out!

speaking of books, i finished reading Goodbye Jimmy Choo today – i enjoyed most of the story, but thought it was a shame it ended so abruptly. this book by marian keyes is next on my reading list. it received some great reviews at amazon & sounds like a good read!

although gardening has never been my forte, this post about farmers markets & a garden article in country living have inspired me to think about our “garden” & dream about what it could look like. i could sure use the help & vision of the backyard blitz team! we’ve got lots of coolibahs around the house & the soil isn’t great, so raised garden beds might be the answer. i googled raised garden beds & wasn’t surprised to find a great step-by-step post about making them on the pioneers woman’s blog. Ree writes a very entertaining blog about her life in the country – be sure to check it out!

Whacky Wheel would have to be one of Madi’s favourite on air sessions. They usually have them a couple of times each term. One of the class takes the role of chairperson & is in charge of running the show & everyone else prepares an item to present to the class – eg. secret sounds, jokes, news & weather, fascinating facts & book or movie reviews. We recently received “A Cinderella Story” from bigpond movies & both kids really enjoyed it (we’ve seen it 6 times already this week!) so it seemed like the perfect choice for a movie review. Here’s her review:

Good morning year 4. Today I am going to give a movie review of “a Cinderella story”

The main characters are: Hilary Duff as Sam Montgomery and Chad Michael Murry as Austen Ames.

Sam gets straight A’s at school, scrubs floors at her step mothers diner and she has to get breakfast for the rest of her family. Sam’s dad always used to say, “never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game”

Austen is Sam’s prince and he met her in the princedon chat room. He is football captain and he is just like Sam because his dad has his future set.

Sam dresses up as Cinderella & meets her prince (Austen) at the Halloween dance. She freaks because she knows he’s the coolest guy on campus & she’s worried he will find out that she’s diner girl.

I liked the music & the moral in the story because it gives you courage to play the game.

This song by Jesse McCartney is one of their favourites from the movie.

seeing Angie‘s recent project about everyday moments, reminded me that i haven’t captured many photos of our life lately. so i went out during the golden light this afternoon & captured some photos of my kids – no fancy clothes – dressed in whatever they were wearing & just being themselves. (even tho its almost the end of autumn, that is a swimsuit madi is wearing – the weather has been delightful!)

i just love these photos of Bear – they really capture his spunky nature!

7 fun facts about my sweet boy …

1. you love being outside – riding your bike, practising tricks, playing with Beauty (our dog), catching frogs or helping your dad

2. you used to prefer caps, but this hat is your current favourite – you love the shady brim & the fact your cousins (jack & mac) have hats just like it!

3. you lost your 1st tooth in march & now another tooth is wobbly, but the new tooth has started growing behind the baby teeth. i was worried about it until your aunt said it happened to her boys too. you’re keen to visit the dentist so he can fix it (dentists aren’t a scary idea – yet!)

4. you’re a great storyteller! you love sharing news during onair lessons & you love telling stories at dinnertime – so you’re almost always the last to finish

5. you love to add a generous dash of tomato sauce to almost everything

6. you have a sweet tooth (like your mama)

7. you’re an ideas man – you love inventing things like new security systems for your room

& your mama loves you to the moon & back!

Kids + easter eggs = bliss!

We had the annual easter egg hunt before Sunday pancakes – and the 1st thing we discovered was lots of wrappers & no eggs!? It appears that our dog, Beauty has developed a taste for easter eggs & a talent for removing the wrappers! Fortunately she didn’t find all of them, so the hunt contunued & the kids shared the bounty! There was a bit of a sugar rush today, so it will be interesting to see how long their stash lasts. Last year, they made them last til October! Hope you & your family had a wonderful Easter!

… some things stay the same …

we’ve had some welcome rain over the past couple of days, so the ground is quite muddy & my mud monkeys have had such fun playing in it! seeing them out there today, brought back memories of another muddy day …

Madi was just 3 years old back then & i love the look of pure joy on her beautiful face! the joy that comes from simple pleasures … fast forward 5 & a half years & its great to see that both kids still adore the simple pleasure of playing in the mud!

Some fun stuff at school last week. Bear had to get dressed up as a professor & solve some maths problems!