Moments 15/52

- Preparing for Littlest. Nearly two weeks till she's due!
- Green hills of home. Hard to believe that only a couple months ago the hills were brown and fire raged. This has been our first properly autumnal week and I'm so deeply, deeply appreciative!
-An overcast beach - my favourite kind!
-A beach picnic. A little early for Hot Cross buns, but we love them so!
-Studying rockpools.
-Holding close to Daddy as they admire the big waves.
-Poppet, running along the sure.
-More rockpool studying!
-My sister-in-law has been visiting from Queensland this last week. My Poppet is devoted and I am so glad that she has such a special relationship with her aunty (and Godmother). We are greatly missing Aunty Bec now!  Hopefully she'll be down again soon!

Joining with the lovely Em of The Beetle Shack for moments from our week. 

15/52

-Poppet on the beach at Inverloch. I love how her little kilt (thrifted on a great op-shopping extravaganza while my sister-in-law was down from Queensland) makes her looks like a little girl from a story - Milly Molly Mandy or Famous Five or something very '30s ish, especially with her new hair cut.

-Sprocket - we got out of the car at the beach and the sky was overcast and the air chilly. (Well, it seemed warm to me, but I have my own internal heater at the moment!) I found a jumper in the boot for the Sprocket - which happened to be an oversized pink one of the Poppets and he put it on without hesitation. And me? I think the colour suits him. It saddens me to think a day will likely come when he'll turn from it as 'too girly'. As if 'girly' were a bad thing.

Joining with the lovely Jodi of Practicing Simplicity for a portrait of my kids once a week, every week in 2014. (Well, except for last week when I got distracted!) 

6/52

"A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2014"

Sprocket - beach-combing. Searching for crabs and fish. A ridiculously hot day - you can see the heat and smoke haze -  and we shouldn't be out in the sun, but when the alternative is staying at home in the the stultefying heat, lumbering between the fan and cool baths… the beach won out. (And it was divine!)

Poppet - heading down the path to the beach. Her 'treasures' or 'sweethearts' (various dolls and stuffed toys) are packed in the bag under her arm. 

Joining with Jodi from Practicing Simplicity, and all the other wonderful bloggers taking part in the 52 project.

Stills from our (very Christmas-y) Week

 - The advent calendar. Once we've lit the Advent lights and read the Christmas stories the kids get their advent  chocolate. Highlight of their days.
-Nativity. I went a little mad on the gold paint this year. It's a little addictive. Grasses, twigs, gum nuts. Everything we found out walking got sprayed… and then the can ran out…
-Our rather lopsided Christmas Tree. Sign me up for Christmas-Tree-Decorating 101. With mostly thrifted and handmade decorations… I seem to have lost the ones from past years and the kids have claimed many as toys…
-Our beach Christmas tree. Now at home on the mantlepiece.
-Our beach Christmas tree amidst the excess of 'stuffs' I threw at the mantlepiece.
-Sprocket, admiring the Christmas candles and eating his Advent chocolate.
-Poppet and Sprocket at the beach.
-Poppet & Sprocket running down to the sea. The day we got the good news my Beloved passed third year med-exams. One more year to go! O the relief!
-Tinsel forgotten on the water.
-My Beloved with 'the limpets'. True joy is floating in the sea with little ones attached!
-My Poppet. She's a klutz like me. She'd just been warned to be careful with the Big M and hold it in both hands. "It was the Super-Villain who did it!"

Joining with the wonderful Em of The Beetle Shack for a very Christmas-y Weekly Stills. Only two more sleeps! (And… being all nostalgic… this time last year.)

Weekly Stills

-Blossom from the garden. I think this is ornamental plum, but I'm not sure. It's my favourite of the blossom trees in my garden.
-Our trampoline is under our big wattle tree - my Poppet loves scooping up the fallen blossom and throwing it up.
-Wattle blossom, shadows and little hands on the trampoline.
-My Poppet is just discovering the wonder of clothes. Unfortunately, the clothes she likes best are mine. At present she doesn't want to take off a little black silk cami I picked up at an op-shop last week. (You can see it peeking out from under her dress as a kind of petticoat. She wears it as a (very oversized) nighty and has to be (strongly) dissuaded each day from wearing it as a dress. I was looking forward to sharing clothes with her eventually - I just didn't know it would start this young!
-My Sprocket - climbing a tree trunk out over the lake.
-Crab City. We went to the beach for father's day, and the first day of spring, and because the weather was a balmy 25 degrees. This stretch was our playground for the day. This was where we found 'Crabby' last time, and this was where Sprocket made a bee-line for. (Forget the lovely stretch of white sand to the side!)
-My Poppet, exploring the rock-pools. As it has been so cold recently I foolishly didn't pack bathers. Poppet lay tummy down in rock-pools in her dress instead and lolled happily in the sun warmed water.
-Sprocket with one of the many crabs we found. This one was not Crabby, but only Crabby's friend. When it tired of being carried around it gave my Sprocket a nip, which, he assures me, Crabby would never do. Poppet also got a little nip, but the crab in question was only the size of my pinky fingertip, so she was more surprised than anything. (You might note that Sprocket's top is also covered in crabs, we are considering it our good-luck-in-finding-crabs-top and are looking forward to taking it on many more crab-hunting expeditions over the summer!)

Joining with the wonderful Em of The Beetle Shack for weekly stills, little moments from the week. 

Weekly Stills

1. My Sprocket on the beach at Inverloch.
2. Inverloch, looking along the beach.
3 & 4. Nature shots at Inverloch. I regret to say that I don't know what the plants are - but I believe them to be indigenous and I like them.
5. My poor Poppet, recovering from her upper respiratory infection. Many hours this week were spent just holding my little one and waiting for her to feel better.
6. In the garden. After a weary week of sickness with my beloved interstate, the kids and I spent an afternoon in the garden. We planted some sweet scented spring favourites - narcissus and daphne, and the dahlia bulbs my granny gave us, added some more mulch and pottered. It was so good to be home and outside under a clear blue sky.

Joining with the lovely Em over at The Beetleshack for stills from the week. 

26/52

1. My Sprocket, so happy at the beach. Pretending to be a bird as he runs down the sand at Inverloch. My wonderful sister-in-law visited us from  Queensland and we had a lovely (chilly) day by the sea.
2. My Poppet. She was the sickest she's ever been this week. Her nasty cough suddenly changed into something truly hideous resulting in a rushed visit to the doctors. When the doctor mentioned 'pneumonia-like' and 'take her straight to the hospital if she gets worse over night' panic set in. After a sleepless week as all her coughing woke her up, she's finally on the mend. Thank you antibiotics!

Joining with the lovely Jodi over at Che and Fidel for a portrait of the kids once a week for 2013. It's very strange to think we're halfway through the year, although the cold is telling me we're not long past the winter solstice!

Sunday Stills

1. Trying to make more room in my bookshelves, I offloaded a lot of childhood favourites into the kids room. I still read them all every year...
2. My Poppet's new doll (courtesy of the Sunday Market, no I didn't crochet the dress!) all tucked in...
3.  Vanilla and Elderflower ice-cream. Heat waves = lots of ice-cream.
4. My sandy Sprocket, happy by the sea.
5. Long weekend crowds at The Cove.
6. Addicted to the play of light and water.
7. My Sprocket playing in the sand in the shadow of the tall trees.
8. I love seaweed (except when it's wrapped around my legs...)
9. Poppet running along the beach in late afternoon light.
10. My Poppet and the rock tower.

Joining with the lovely Em at The Beetleshack for Sunday Stills. I'm loving looking at little windows into lives from all over the world.