13.2.11 it's all about Sean

It was Sean's 5th birthday yesterday. oh my goodness, where did that time fly. We went to the pub the night before.

the DAD squeeze

The sponge cake I decorated. (I cant cook a sponge for the life of me. I've had so many attempts and different ovens and I'm a big enough girl to admit I'm a failure at sponges. But that's cool. I can find them unfilled at our local supermarket.

Sunday morning. This day was all about Sean.

The sibling hug (yes, we are a family of huggers. We hug a lot every day)

Getting acquainted with his monster truck (remote control). Definitely an outside toy this one!

Sean had a pool party with alot of his friends (cant show those pics here as I didnt ask permission from the parents.) We started at 11 and didn't finish to 4pm. It was excellent. We are so very lucky that our community has a first rate pool and surrounds.

stop it!!

One from last night.

I'll be posting a few pics of Sean's pool party later on tonight.

Need to get the bookwork and committee minutes done first.

Journaling says: for goodness sake Annie. Stop climbing up the door jamb. It's driving me NUTS.

5 years ago today...

...at 6.30pm this little man came into my life.

Happy Birthday Sean.

I couldn't have wished for anyone else but you!!

Scrapbooking Memories 2011 People's Choice

Scrapbooking Memories have announced their People's Choice Awards for 2011. I'm so very lucky to have a number of LO's that are up for public voting.

For you, the voter, to be in the running for one of 5, $100 Kaiser Craft Packs chock full of product, you need to write in 25 words or less why you nominate a particular piece of work. You can only vote once so make it count       ;O)

The artist that has the most nominations then wins a $500 Kaiser Craft Pack of product as well as the title of 'People Choice'.

 You need to be a registered member of Craftlovers.com.au to vote. So if you are not already a member, you'll need to registrar to cast your vote here.  (in the competitions tab)

Good luck and thank you. :O)

s&b?

Kylie snapped this cute as pic with her phone some time ago. Because I scrap in chronological order, I've only just come up to this one. (Actually I misplaced this one for a bit and have moved onto 2009 since, and I'm so glad to have found it as its just soooo cute.)

With thanks Kylie for allowing me to post this LO of our kids. Based on a sketch from PageMaps

hope?

what a hilarious night at Shabby Chick Shack. I haven't had so many belly laughs for ages. Late night home. About 2am for me. And sooooo many mice on the road. The number of them sure are on the rise!

Sue came up with me and it was wonderful to catch up with her again. Since I stepped back from the Escape2Create team I haven't seen a lot of Sue in the scrappy sense. She was my next door neighbour when I was growing up on the family farm so we do go waaay back.

I learnt a few new definitions of words and phrases last night (a bit too ruggered to say what they are on here lol) and I'm working my way to a Lock passport apparently (location joke).

I did manage 2 and half LO's done, 2 of which are the same (his and hers) with some slight differences. And just need to get the journaling done on the third.

This is one of the his and hers. Journaling says:

I really hope that one set of those little hands will one day choose to carry on the business of the family farm. At this stage I don't think either of them may do that. Annie is not overly interested and Sean doesn't seem to be all that enthused about going out with Dad on the header, truck or tractor.   4.11.2008

sweet Miss M

Now this sweet lady is such a little doll and she was wonderful. She had a number of wardrobe changes and she didn't even bat an eyelash about it.

We were at Nan and Pa's home for this shoot and that was fantastic. Nan is a keeper of family treasures. The suitcase belongs to Pa from when he went to collage. The blue rug was Miss M's Mums from when she was a baby. The paper in the suitcase is from 1983 which had this family's clearing sale listed in it. There was a little wooden chair, and a little square toy with a bell that's a family heirloom. Not to mention a very old teddybear that came out  for his photo as well. And Pa loved the photo of Miss M sitting on a ride on John Deere tractor toy.

Thank you so very much for having me.

More over at Tiff Firth Photography on Facebook.

braces

Annie had braces put on her top row of teeth yesterday. We've been waiting for the two teeth either side of her front ones come down far enough so there was enough tooth for the brackets to be adhered to.

I've been asked several times already "Isn't she a bit young for them?". And if I didn't know Annie's situation with her teeth, I'd be asking the same thing. So I'm not offended at all. It's just the top row that's been straightened out and making sure there is enough room for her 12 year old molars to come thru later on. At this stage there's not, and even tho Annie's jaw will be bigger by then, they probably still wouldn't fit without pushing a lot of other teeth out of place. To make the room the front four need to be straightened up. And the added bonus is a beautiful smile with straight teeth.

We've stocked up on lots of soft foods for Annie. Her teeth will be sore for about a week before they settle down a bit. I'm so proud of her. She's so tough. No panadol last night and she reckons yep, they do hurt a bit but she can handle it. She even ate snitzel for tea. I wasn't sure if she would want to go to school today, but she was so keen to show her friends that a little bit of soreness wasn't going to hold her back. I went in to drop off her swim bag that she had forgotten and checked on her. She's just fine. There's been no teasing and her friends have asked lots of questions about them. I've asked her to let me know and her teacher know if she gets any hassles from anyone.

The brace will be on for about 6 months at this stage, so I'm hoping that the school photos will be later this year. After August would be fantastic, but if it's not, then that's fine. But here's hoping  *crosses fingers*

tip:  Annie first picked out the clear rubbers that hold the wire onto the brackets. These stain very quickly so we were advised to go for the lavender colour as they fade to a soft pink and will be hardly noticeable. And use bee's wax on the brackets that cause any irritations. It sticks better and doesn't fall out so easily.

my day with Pete Dobre...

...and Laura Smith.

Pete is a renowned Australian Landscape Photographer who has had many hard cover books published. His signature in his images are the clouds he captures within his landscapes.

He was in my local area for a couple of weeks a couple of weeks ago. Through Laura, I was invited to have a day out with him and Laura shooting different locations on Lower EP.

First stop was at a windmill and an old stone tank on the Nowhere Else Rd. We were so blessed with awesome skies.

Next was the Sheringa Church. Again, amazing skies.

After a longer stint there we headed down the coast and ended up at Coles Point for some big wave action. That sand was soooo blistering hot to run over and it was so very refreshing to get wet in the water

Evening found us having a quick meal at the Coffin Bay Pub before we went to a spot to capture the sun setting.

I learnt so much along the way, and learnt a lot more since processing the images and how a wide angle lens can be tricky to stitch panos with.

Pete's a crack up. Spontaneous and energetic and so very generous with sharing his knowledge. Cant wait to hook up with him again come this winter. Yes, we have a date lol.

u saucy thang!

I had a visit up to Shabby Chic Shack (sale on all of February!!) the other day with Maryanne and found the October Afternoon Modern Homemaker in shop. I always take my 'in works' folder with me to match up papers and embellies with my photos. I just adore OA. It just 'speaks' to me. And MH is just perfect for this photo. 

Journaling says: there's nothing quite like homemade sauce 15.2.09.

itty bitty little miss Z

You forget how small an infant is. Well I do. I had the chance to be with a very beautiful 10 day old angel the other day. I still adore that newborn smell. There's nothing quite like it.

She's definitely a clothes on kind of a girl. Skin shots were upsetting for her and after a couple with her parents she was dressed again. I would have loved to get one of her with just her skin in the hat box but it was just not worth distressing her for that.

This is her big sister. She's a bit camera shy and I had to work hard to get her looking at me for a sec. But I did catch her!!   :O)

 More sweet images over at Tiff Firth Photography
:O)
t

today...

... was a magic day for the kids. I took them to watch Tangled. I was warned to let the kids know about the witch as she has scared some of our younger friends. So with a bit of warning to expect a scary looking lady, they were fine. Great movie. Recommend it.

After a coin toss, Annie won the choice of KFC for lunch.

We went to the Leisure Centre for the afternoon. Annie had a ball climbing over the floating obstacle course, swinging out on the rope and the going on the slide. Sean is a bit small to go on the slide on his own so that meant I could be a big kid and go on it too. And he also went off the swinging rope up the deep end. He was wearing his bubble and I was in the water to push him over to the edge. little tarzan

Gosh we all had a ball. No pics, alas, I was having far too much fun with the kids to bother with the camera. And that's the way it should be  :O)

ps. Harry Potter update.  Annie's just finished the fourth book Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire. All 636 pages of it. She amazes me. And now she's into the 766 pages of the Order of the Phoenix.

t.i. tops - sean's

Sean's LO for his album. similar to Annie's a couple of posts down the screen.

ti tops

At last I had an evening clear last night to scrap a LO. And after a quick run with Maryanne up to Shabby Chic Shack for their sale (love my Thickers!!) I was motivated to get into it with gusto.

I think the journaling explains it all, but I was really taken with the tropical patterns in the shirts, hence the hibiscus theme for the LO. I'm about to quickly do a 'his' one along much the same line.

I even have an evening tonight just to scrap, such a rarity these days as I'm usually found processing photo shoots these days. I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow's shoot of a 10 day old cherub.

 

finally getting underwater

It's taken till recent swimming lesson for Sean to get his head underwater at the pool. To have a bit of fun with him and for me to cool off on one of our hot days I got into the pool too with an underwater camera.

I did this for Annie when she first discovered that going underwater was more fun than being on top of it.

The camera is a film camera on lend from a dear friend and I would like to thank her deeply for it. Not everyone has photos of their kids underwater and I cherish these.

proving he can yell underwater. lol

cheeky

and raspberries to you too!

1st day of skwool 2011

mandatory 1st day of the year school photo. I'm going to try to remember to use this art easel blackboard each year to give a height comparison for the kids.

she was in the middle of a giggle- a- thon this morning.

Sean's turn tomorrow for his 1st day at CPC 2011. He actually starts school this year so he'll be having another turn with the blackboard in a few months.