See how they grow...

It's that time of the year again, school's back!!

This year our littlest has donned a uniform and headed off to join her big sisters and she couldn't have been more delighted about it all.

Having all three children in one place - one drop-off and pick-up point will make life much easier for me, also the fact that there is now one fair, one concert, one art show, less committee involvement and also longer hours.

That said, I will greatly miss my chatty little buddy who has happily trailed along with me over the past few years to all the events.

I'm looking forward to her having things to call her own, and I know she is too.

I'll leave you with comparative pics taken over the last three years;

Prep, three year old kinder kid, Prep

Grade 1, four year old kinder kid, Grade 1

Grade 2, Prep, Grade 2

It's an exciting year for all of us, and we can't wait to sink our teeth into it!

The 52 Project

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

There's a little bit of mischief in this one...

I started this project last year with great intentions - but I found that I didn't want to 'force' the portraits of the girls and that at times that is what I would have had to do to get a portrait of them every week.

Waiting for the waves to come into the sandcastle...

That said I could have done better than I did!

Hard at work on something for yourself, honing your skills

"Go on puss, jump - it's safe. I'll catch you"

So I am having another go at it - I've started off slow as much of our summer has been spent with either water or sand - or both. Not the ideal environment for a camera.

A Scrabble champ in the making

This means a lot of our summer fun has been enjoyed but not captured in a photograph.

No more training wheels

These two are demons in the surf, taking on bigger and bigger waves each day

I've decided to share a few pics from the last four weeks - encapsulating 1 - 4/52.

I promise I will try harder from here on...

Slippin' and slidin'

Water baby all her life

Make a kite from a paper bag then fly it on the beach; instant fun.

In another few days the girls go back to school and the routine returns.
In some ways we all need that, but boy it's nice just to disappear into the waves and sand for a few days.

How was your summer holiday?

46/52

You may have thought I dropped of the face of the earth...

Blogtober turned into Floptober for me - I really bombed out...

Wendy's became Flogtober - or What-ober!!

Never mind, life is busy and full and I won't make excuses for spending time with those I love rather than getting to blog about them.

I've missed many weeks of Che and Fidel's 52 portraits in a year - but nevertheless - here they are for this week.

Miss L - spinning and twirling - always

Miss G - exploring and discovering

Miss A - enjoying her new-found love of basketball!

If you are playing along - pop over here to see what other people have posted.

Blink and you'll miss it...

That's how these holidays have felt...

They seem to have just begun, but now they are over...

This is but a brief snippet of what has been happening - so many days, parks, friends, play dates, family outings and fabulous cubby houses built that remain as memories, not images.

Blogtoberfest is on again - join in over here.

Bend and stretch...

then flip upside down!

This kid is gymnastics mad at the moment, so when the gym exhibition called for a 'Space-themed' outfit I took her shopping, and this is what we came up with!

Long, long legs...!

She knew exactly what she wanted and I was very lucky to have been given a pattern by Kelly that she no longer needed and it was perfect for this outfit, having leotard and leggings in the one pattern.

It is Kwik Sew 2725.

Raspberry and silvery white, stretchy, stretchy, stretchy.

She wasn't keen at first but I convinced her that a small silver piping strip down each side would look good and I am glad she let me as it really sets off the star.

Always the wrong way up!

The shorts are quite snug - I would probably go up a size next time, but she says they are perfect, and they certainly didn't cause any performance problems on the day.

It didn't take much encouragement to get her back into it!

I realised I hadn't taken any shots of just the leotard, so here she is, bad indoor evening shots - sorry!!

When she raised her arms up the creased section disappeared, without any 'wedgie' factor!

I added 5cm through the lower body of this leotard as she is very long in the torso.

She measured a size 5-6 but length was size 10!

I made a size 7 with the extra length and it was perfect, did not need to be pulled at or adjusted at all.

I think she will be wearing this again and again - and I certainly plan to make her more leotards using this pattern.

To complete the outfit I made two tiny scrunchies that she wanted to wear on two little hair buns to keep her long hair at bay as she was performing.

She was more than a little proud to receive her very first trophy - it was a demonstration day so everyone got one, but that didn't diminish her excitement. She is working hard and loving her gym and deserved something special.

I'm playing along with Blogtoberfest. 

Join in!

Wordless Wednesday

Playing along with Blogtoberfest.
It's not too late to join in...

The stitches that bind

How this post has not happened til now I don't really know - as I've spent many a winter evening of late snuggled under this lovely quilt.

Those who know me or have read my blog for a while would know (as I have said on many occasions), that I don't quilt.

I am, however, lucky enough to have a lovely friend who does.

She noticed once the size of the 'scraps' I was donating to kinder and I realised that what is a scrap to a garment maker is more than enough for a quilter to work with.

So I started keeping scraps and giving them to her to look at to see if there was any treasure amongst my trash.

At Christmas, she presented me with this amazing quilt, made with many of my scraps and with her own special pieces added in.

She has that gift of colour combination. 

She just gets it right when it comes to colour - things that I would never think to try she just does; it's inherent, I don't believe it can be learned, at least not in the intrinsic way she can do this.

It's quilted with a combination of hand and machine stitching and as a fellow 'hand-maker ' I know it has been made with time, care, consideration and love as a reflection on our friendship.

Every time I look at it, it reminds me of so many things; the many different garments that each scrap represents, the enjoyment I get from seeing hand-skills so well executed and of course the wonderful friendship I enjoy with my very dear friend, who was introduced to me through a mutual love of sewing.

A belated but ever so sincere, thank you for caring enough to make this for me.

A celebration of you...

Caution - Super pic-heavy post ahead!!

A year in pictures

Happy, happy 5th birthday to you our 'baby'....

We celebrate the lovely little girl you are and the joy you bring to our lives daily with a list, of only some of the things, we love so much about you.

Your constant willingness to join in and be part of whatever is going on, from dressing up to challenging yourself physically...

The unbridled joy you express...

Your willing smile and 'have a crack' attitude...

Your smiling big blue eyes...

Your constant gentle curiosity...

Your desire to always wear pretty dresses warms my heart...

Your mermaid tendencies!

Your kind and considerate disposition...

Your amazing ability to put on a show with your sisters and stand up in front of others to 'strut your stuff'!

That smile that makes us all melt...

Your sense of fun!

Let's not forget your cheekiness!

The fact that you have spent a large part of this year dressed as a cat...

Your 'beyond your years' sense of humour and quirkiness...

What a delight you are to have in our lives.
Our family was not complete until you came along and we all love you to bits Miss G.

Party animals

I've been a little party preoccupied this last week.

This little lady is nearly five and to celebrate we had a 'Pet Party' on the weekend.

My little kitten with the doggy balloons (idea courtesy of Martha)

We spent the morning setting up and getting ready for our 15 small guests to arrive, here my gang are before it all began: a small black and white birthday kitten, Mr purple-tailed rat, a pink and white frilly rabbit and a long and slinky black cat.

The door bell rang before we could get a family shot!!

Once the guests arrived and ventured through the personalised cardboard kennel Miss G's dad created, we played some musical animal statues where we galloped like horses (and unicorns), flapped like chickens, waddled like ducks, pounced like kittens, flew like parrots, bounced like bunnies and barked like dogs.

Testing the entry kennel out before the big day!

Then it was onto parachute games with soft toy dogs on top that we put into the wash cycle, and some cat and mouse.

'Washing' the puppies proved a big success

We played pin the bow on the kitty using an amazing personalised cat poster made by wonderful Wendy.

A cat, green parrot and unicorn waiting for their turn.

We also played 'Doggy Bingo' using game sheets I made up and laminated.
Believe it or not I found 18 'famous' dogs, largely from kids literature!
How many can you name??

Apart from doing the fabulous painted cat, Wendy made this amazing costume for Master O - definitely the costume of the day, it was incredible.
Even better, he loved it and wore it all day and was warm and snug, as it was a cold afternoon.

Feathers of various shades sewn very cleverly onto a hoodie to make this fabulous green parrot

Wendy shows some of the construction method on her blog if you wanted to have a go at making one for your small person.

In full flight

This little kitten is much better at having Happy Birthday sung to her than she used to be and embraced being the centre of attention with joy this time!

A pet cake of course!

She wanted a very simple cake this time around - so I decided to let the surprise lie within.
I know, I know, the old rainbow layered cake is hardly new or original, hundreds of versions having been rendered on Pinterest and on blogs the world over.

But the thing I hadn't considered is while they are 'old hat' to me - the girls hadn't really seen one.
There were exclaims of delight when watching Masterchef not long ago when the girls saw the inside of a rainbow layer cake and so my mind was made up to make one.

A rainbow of colour on the inside.

It's a very simple cake to make - there is just a little time and planning to get the layers made, and of course assembled in the correct order, which I knew Miss A would be checking!!

Not much was left as you can see!!

Her actual birthday is still to come so I will save my birthday post to her until then.

And I will give you the rundown on the party bags and the like in another post.