Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Backyard Fun









Yesterday afternoon the kids decided to try some head stands on the grass. There was lots of falling over and laughing and not much in the way of head stands but it was very entertaining for the photographer.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Photo of the Day


Today I decided that the photo of the day would be the kids with their Aunty Lisa (my younger sister) so I put a chair out in the backyard, grabbed the camera with the 50mm f1.8 on it and thought in 3 mins my photo will be done, then we can jump in the pool and have a swim. Well, what's that old saying, never work with children or animals!!! I ended up taking about 10 photos which took about 20 mins because Sienna was having a meltdown that she didn't really need to have. Then beautiful photo of 2 of them and the 3rd one eyes shut, next photo, beautiful picture of the other 2, 3rd person's eyes shut.......soooooooo what was meant to take 3 mins did take some time. Here is the only photo that is worth showing you but I do like it because it's James and Sienna with their beautiful Aunty Lisa who they adore.
Everyone has a thing, and Lisa's thing is to bring a packet of marshmallows with her when she visits. Yep, every single time she visits which is once a week she brings over one packet of marshmallows with her which gets divided between 2 adults and 2 kids so it's all in moderation but a lovely thing that she does that we all enjoy.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

This week in pictures







Here's a few pictures from this week. The kids squeezing fresh orange juice for breakfast, pretty flowers on my entry table, making school lunches, James and Sienna eating dessert and Sienna collecting the school bags for me this morning looking like a pack horse.
I feel very behind in my photography projects and very slack in my photography but come the school holidays there will be more time (oops... more subjects) around for me to photograph. I am keeping up with my Project 365 and enjoying the varied photos however I feel a little bit disorganizec compared to 2009 when I planned about 4 days of photos ahead so I had a rough idea what I was going to take that day. At the moment I am flying by the seat of my pants.

I sat down about a week ago with my Project Life Kit from Becky Higgins as I really want to print out photos for the year and put them in the album as I go but I am behind on that as well. Ali Edwards is my inspiration for the Project Life for photos for the week and I like that she has other inserts, receipts, ticket stubbs etc. which I am hoping to get going with. I have some photos on my USB I just need to get down to Harvey Norman and start printing some photos and I'll on my way. I have done January up to Australia Day but that's about it. I just need to set 2 hrs aside to go through my photos for a start. If I don't catch up now I'm afraid the time will slip away and I will feel too overwhelmed with it all.
Ali Edwards has posted her "WITL" Week in the Life dates for this year at the end of July so I will particpate in that as there are lots of changes coming up for myself and the kids so it will be a very different book than April 2010.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

More pics of Sienna's Birthday







On Sienna's birthday she was not feeling well at all and just looked flat and unhappy the whole day. After everyone had left in the afternoon she told me her head hurt so I gave her some medicine and within 20 minutes she was laughing, happy and running around. I couldn't believe it. I kept checking her temp all day and she was fine but I knew she wasn't well. Here's a few more pics of her after everyone had left except for my sister Lisa.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

No Donna Hay tonight!!!


Yesterday for dessert I thought the kids might like some "pie apple" (basically apple out of a tin) with their yoghurt. They both objected and didn't really like it very much so I thought that today I would make an apple crumble out of it and they would eat it that way. I also added a tin of peaches and looked up a recipe on line and made the apple/peach crumble. I spent a little while preparing it and it took 30 mins to cook, then cool down and it went into the fridge. At dinner time I zapped it in the microwave for 15 seconds just to warm it up again and served it with ice cream which mind you I had to make a special trip to the shops for after we arrived home from school. I was feeling very pleased with myself about the lovely dessert we would enjoy together. Well............. that's as far as it went.

James took one mouthful and nearly threw up and ran to the bin and spat it out. He went all red and teared up and starting crying. Umm... not what I expected as I really thought he would like it and then I calmed him down and he ate his ice cream and that was it. Sienna is sitting opposite him saying YUK in a sulky voice and then said "THIS TASTE LIKE DOG FOOD" to which I nearly spat out the crumble that was in my mouth from laughter. Since when has this 5 year old girl tasted dog food. We don't even own a dog and don't really know people with dogs. I happily sat there with my beautiful apple/peach crumble and ice cream and ate it and I thought it was delicious. After all my hard work this morning I certainly did not get the response I had hoped for. That quote about the dog food has to go in my word document I have with the kids quotes because you can never remember them and I type them up, put their age on it.

I'm actually a very good cook and it blew my mind that I got such terrible reviews from the kids about my apple/peach crumble but I don't take it personally......hey they are only 7 and 5 - what do they know!!!!
So I hope your evening meal goes down better than mine and that my story puts a smile on your face.

Sienna and Fluffy


Yesterday afternoon Sienna wanted to go for a swim even though it was a little bit windy and cold so got into her togs and before the swim she was playing with her chicken Fluffy. I love the way she hitches up the chicken on her hip and looks so comfortable. The chickens are a part of our life and we love them. We definitely still love getting 2 fresh eggs a day as well. I have sent this picture to two friends and they both commented on how grown up she looks.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Hidden Valley World










This morning I took the kids to a new park (not new, but new to us) which is about 30 mins drive away but it was totally worth it. They climbed, they slid, they scootered, they had swings on tyres and spun around and generally had a great time. The Brisbane City Council has really built some fantastic interactive parks for young children in the past 5 years and I'm going to be trying out a few more with the kids.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Coffee and Park afternoon








This afternoon we took a little drive to Samford (about 20 mins drive from home in what we consider here as the country). My sister and I had a quick coffee and the kids had a milk shake and it was all over in about 10 mins including ordering. Kids find cafe's boring so we finished our coffee and headed over to the park which was more fun for them. It was raining a bit so we only stayed for about 30 mins and headed home but the kids had a great time and it was nice to go for a little outing this afternoon even if it was a quick one.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Bedtime Books



Our bedtime routine is teeth first then I read a book to Sienna in her room and then I read a book to James in his room. I was pretty tired last night and hadn't taken my photo of the day yet so decided it had to be a picture of reading the books. As Sienna is more than willing to be in photos at the moment she seems to feature more often than James so I was trying to even it up so the photo of the day will be the one of James and I on the bed reading the book.
Naturally I still wanted a photo of reading to Sienna and since I had the camera out, the tripod, the expodisc (for the white balance) I set about to take the "reading books to my beautiful children" photos. Remember I have to set the camera on timer, check the focus point, press the shutter and run to get onto the bed and pretend to be reading before the shutter goes off. At one stage in Sienna's photo we had the book upside down and my glasses weren't even on. She was quick to point this out to me however I said "oh well, it's just for the photo and no one will ever know"....well right up until I put it on my blog that is.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Thank You Cards






After the kids birthday's I always like them to send thank you cards to family and friends for their presents. I always use a photo from the birthday and put some writing on it. This afternoon Sienna was writing her name on the back of each envelope so we can post them out. I love the way she is sitting on her legs....just so cute.