It's a Roller-coaster some weeks

Its been an odd kind of week for me.
An emotional rollercoaster.

I was blessed, having my Mr home from uni all week.
Having his love and  his company on tap and live was beautiful.
We went to the cinema to watch movies,
had lunch, and shared family meals.
We lazed around and talked for hours,
we laughed long and richly,
we watched Origin Football with his mates,
and basically had a fantastic time.
My happiness was reaffirmed when Miss L
said to me one morning
"Mum, I heard you and G laughing last night,
I like it when you are happy"


However the immersion in happiness soon wore off.
Mr Ex called to tell me, his grandma had passed away.
I was saddened by the passing of a beautiful lady
I knew as a Grandmother for 10years.
Today as her family fared her well.
I stood  in the background,
silently supporting my babies from afar.
The difficulty of not being part of a family
you were once part of.
I watch with deep sorrow in my heart
as my children each placed a rose
on their Great Grandmother coffin.
I don't think JD fully understood what was happening,
Miss L on the other hand, was quiet and sullen.
Managing their grief by loving and supporting
them is my top priority right now.

The highs and the lows seem to be getting to me.
I am tried beyond belief.
I slept soundly on the Mr's lounge for an hour today.
To rest and to escape the world.
I am weary again and can feel the pillows calling my name.

Soccer Mum

I became a soccer mum.
I didn't want to be one.
I resisted.
I wanted to have a tantrum like a 3 year old.
I don't wear white joggers with jeans.
But it happened.

Today however I got to share a moment with JD
A moment where we both danced like goons in public
and high-fived on the sideline.

His First Goal... followed minutes later by his second goal !

 Making the break away 

 Kicking it in

Victory Dance.

A Mother by any other name

Mothers Day.
It had the potential to be a disaster.

I spent the morning with my mumma.
I whizzed over to her house early and picked her up,
wowed her by ordering coffee via an app on my phone
and amazed her even more when the coffee was ready when we arrived.

We took a slow, meandering journey into the hills.
Chat, chat, chat all the way.
We stopped briefly to peruse a local village market,
where we argued about which of us would buy the bromeliads  in a tea pot. (I won)

We wound our way out of the hills and back to town.
Here the executive decision was made that in celebration of our motherly-ness
we would dine on scones with jam and cream for lunch.
Supplies were obtained and we returned to my house to meet my children.

Miss L and J-Dizzile bounded from their daddy's car
bearing beautiful potted succulents and a marigold.
They were happy to see that I had already spend some time Saturday potting new plants.

We headed to Nanny and Poppy B's house and devoured our
ridiculously sweet lunch treats before again hitting the road.

Laden with bunches of white and lilac chrysanthemums we headed out
to visit the mumma's and nanna's that we no longer share air with.
I was proud of the respect my babies showed as we visited my nanna's graves.
More so I was proud of them, when Miss L noticed the grave opposite my nanna's
shared her surname, even more creepily, this lady also shared Miss L's given name.
We read her headstone and noted that she was born exactly 100 years before Miss L.
Miss L and J-Dizzile were saddened that no-one had visited this lady's grave and chose to share
their flowers with her. I was deeply moved by their generosity and compassion.

I returned my mumma to her home and my babies to their daddy,
and headed to help my Mr and his sister prepare for epic birthday awesomness.
Mr's mumma is turning six-oh and her beautiful family had organised a surprise party!
We decorated the venue, before I crept off for a quick nap, before the party :)
On returning home I discovered a beautiful gift from my previous nights house guests,
a block of chocolate and a mothers day cookie !

Mr's mumma was truly surprised.
The look on her face when she saw her friends was joyous,
the look on her face when she saw her brother from Sydney.... priceless.
The warmth of this gathering was evident, but what was about to become even more evident
was that I had become a part of something wonderful... a new family.
Mr's mumma introduced me to the room full of guests as the newest part of their family.
Not gonna lie, I got a but choked up, a bit misty eyed.
Never have I been so deeply touched and more generously welcomed.

Mothers Day 2013, not the disaster I had predicted, instead a beautiful day shared with people I love.

Pencils, Paints, Crayons and Love

Today, I did something I have not done in a long time.
I unwrapped a fresh canvas and let my heart draw on it.

I set my babies up by my side with their paints and sets of water colour paper,
and we went to work.

Never with an idea in my mind, my work draws itself on the canvas.
My pencil makes shapes without control, my pastels shade and blend
driven only by a sense of balance.
Crayons and paints smooth together creating texture and movement.

My babies made self portraits and pictures of their dad.
They played in the colours of their watercolour paints,
adventurously blending colours and experimenting with what might happen.

This is how things look at the end of the day.
Some are already hung on the fridge.
Mine is awaiting the final touches.

The Weekend with ALL THE THINGS.

My weekend had ALL THE THINGS!

A road trip with the BF.
Ice-skating, my first ever adventure on ice.
A romantic night away.
Delicious breakfasts.
Strolls by the ocean.
Playing Marylin Munroe at the Sawtell blow hole.
A photoshoot at the local Agricultural Show with the beautiful and talented Minyarose Photography.
Eating carny food.
Watching bull riding and woodchopping.
My babies came home from their dad's house.
An ANZAC service.
A picnic in the park.
Horse riding with Deegan and Shannon.
and Movies with the munchkins snuggled in bed.

Rock and Roll

Cloud Staring and Butterfly Chasing

My soul feels revived after spending the afternoon

lying on a blanket staring at the sky and chatting with my beautiful friend Flick.

We munched on Chokito Cookies

and watched my 3 children (3,5&33)

catch butterflies in the bug catcher and play on the equipment.

Saturday afternoons just don't get any better that this.

a sunny saturday

with not much to do, or should i say while procrastinating on cleaning all the things today,

i enjoyed a latte @ Gym Beans with Felix and the kidlets, then we headed to the park for some fun, lollipops, jellybeans and crochet. Ahoy!

Crafternoon Chaos

Valentine's Crafternoon of delight

Featuring:

Little L

JD

FelixExplody

and

Lola

downloadables from:

Kiddley ( Paper Dolls and Little People);

Creature Comforts ( Tea Note Flats )

KaiserCraft Digital Freebies in Gypsy Sisters

Day 2 - The long awaited..

Picture of my children together !!!!!!

Every parent, photographer or not knows how difficult it is to capture

that on perfect image of your children TOGETHER.

you know the one WITHOUT silly faces, closed eyes, fake smiles, tears.....

i did it, i finally captured that PERFECT photo.

Day 1 - Happy New Year

Welcome to 2011 @ iknitshit

i am kicking the year off with my snapping buddies by participating in "a photo a day"

Today's photo was actually shot last nite, we are holidaying in a sweet little seaside village at my Grandparent in Law's beach house with aunties, uncles, neices, nephews, grandparents etc etc. it's a full house and a family that i am over joyed to be a part of.....anyway back to the photo, as is customary while holidaying at the beach we take family walks after dinner or as it happens this year - bike rides.

New Years Eve is no exception, my little people just love the salt air and the sun.

Hanging @ Minnie

Hanging out at Minnie, awaiting the warm weather.

Interesting Things

After a busy morning doing a photo shoot with the gorgeous little Bailey.

I returned home and we decided the pack up the car and take a trip to a little village about 30 minutes away.

Nymboida was just a blip on the map until last year when Russell Crowe decided to buy the local pub and build himself a museum.

"The Museum of Interesting Things" is really just a place for Russ to store is excess wardrobe I am sure, with most of the "interesting things" being costumes and props from his movies.

And obviously Russ only has a small garage at home because he has park a half dozen of his personal motorcycles at the museum too.

But there is something a little bit special about this museum,

something a little bit personal, you see, my dad is a car man...... no that is an understatement, he is a car NUT, you see my dad owns a Robinson Jaguar, it is his pride and joy, I don't know a lot about cars, but I know I like this one, it's red and it's shiny !

The kids were very excited to see "Poppy's Racing Car"

although Lillian was reluctant to have her photo taken with it

(she was distracted my the mannequins in the stage coach, after we had just explained the process of taxidermy and the giant horses pulling Russ's Gladiator Carriage, she was a bit concerned that the people had been taxidermed too ! )

ParkLife

I jus tlove a good saturday afternoon at the park with the husbeast and the kids!

to see my favorite photo pop over here to my photography blog

why you should not take your children to work..

... because the co-worker who's chair you tied all the balloons too that were left over from safety week last week will offer said balloons to your child, and you child will not be able to refuse the delighful gift that said co-worker is offering and will accept with a squeal of ecstacy, you will have to shove the ballons in the rear of your station wagon and use only your side mirrors to navigate your way home, and once home you will be requested to "take pictures of me mummy, with my lovely ballons, please mummy, i love them, i feel like a bug"

Boys and Toys

Took JD to check out the Grafton Aero Club Jacaranda Rally this morning.

I think he wants to be a pilot...

She's a Poser

Oh dear.. look what a photography obsessed mumma has created.......

a little poser

JD turns 3!

My little man is three!

where did the last 3 years go?

It feels like just yesterday that the Dr was retreiving him from my womb and placing

a perfect little man with a shock of black hair on my chest and into my arms for the first time.

We have had some ups and downs in those 3 years,

but everytime he pulls through, he is a tough little bloke my JD!

I love you buddy xxxx

10 Pin Bowling !!!

what do you do on a rainy saturday morning with a 2yo and a 5yo???

GO BOWLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So much fun - huge congrats to Lilli who won on 90 points, JD how came second on 76 points and poor mummy came last on 68 points.......and i was actually trying !!!!!