christmas in elfenbrook 2021

another weekend, another party... this weekend was the "christmas in elfenbrook" parade, which madeline's dance school was a part of. along with her dance besties madison and isla, we lined up ready to go, but couldn't resist a shot with santa first! he was the sweetest, he was coming past and when they waved to him and he saw i had my camera out taking some photos, he quickly came back and had a few with them. that's my kind of santa!

i am so proud of this girl, she is always head first, full throttle into everything and she is so much fun! she and madison carefully chose their favourite costume together, then messaged isla to make sure she wore the same one too. not going to lie, i am sure they picked this one purely to be able to wear their crowns from the concert one more time!

their little dance squad is certainly a force to be reckoned with!

all lined up and ready to go... just waiting for their signal

and waving furiously as they passed their mums hahaha

suda for life yo hahahaha

all done and ready to party at the markets and side show alley.

don't ever change girls ❤

i love living in such a nice community, there are so many events and fun things to do - but the christmas in elfenbrook is by far the best!

earlier that afternoon madeline had sang christmas carols on stage with her school choir too and was so happy to be busy for the day. from one thing to the next, all smiles and endless energy.

the best part of our day was going back to the car with a very tired and grumpy joseph who didn't want to walk anymore, only to find out we had parked in the perfect spot to see the fireworks. we stood behind the car and looked directly up, with doug holding alex up high to see better as they lit up the sky. it was the perfect end to the day. 

madeline's scitech excursion

last week madeline's class went on an excursion to scitech in west perth. scitech is a science and technology education (and fun!) centre for children - and adults too i guess. it has been open since 1988, and as usual it was way too much for their minds to handle when i told them i have been there on a school excursion more than once when i was in primary school. mind blown for them haha. she tolf me she had the best time and the photos prove it... here she is with her friend ella hanging out. this is  the lift your own weight chair, which has been there as long as i can remember.

another shot - with her friend briella. she was a bit taken aback when the information about the excursion went out, as i said immediately i didn't want to go. i have been on every excursion she's had since pre-primary, but i honestly couldn't be bothered this time. she was surprised, but not upset thankfully.

i was very jealous of their trip to the planetarium (previously the omni theatre) afterwards. i loved that place! and last time we went to scitech as a family i couldn't go in as alex was asleep (and not old enough to go in as the chairs are super steep!) and i wanted niques to get to hang out with them a but more while she was here. it is so cool in there, the seats are very steeply tiered and the movie is projected onto the dome. they used to play movies like speed (about the evolution of movement from bicycles through to modern day rollercoasters) and antarctica (exploration of the very southern points of the earth) but now it's used as a planetarium, which made me even more jealous. i'll have to go and check it out one day.

i am so glad that my kids get to have experiences like these - living in perth certainly has its advantages!

when the planets align

tonight the sky put on a show for us with one of those "once in a lifetime" things. the moon, venus, saturn and jupiter all aligned and very visible with the naked eye - and so bright that you could even snap a visible photo! it was beautiful! 

i used my star map to show the kids as well before they looked, best app i have ever purchased, hands down. i love being able to see which are the brightest stars and which ones are planets.

i also found this stunning photo online the next morning on the abc perth facebook page. honestly, what a sight! what a beautiful world we live in, we are so blessed. 

merry christmas primary lesson

today in primary, we did something a little different for our lesson. i spotted this merry christmas program on one of the many primary pages i follow and thought it would be really fun to do with the kids. each of the letters of merry christmas had a reading as we stuck them to the board and spelt them out with a few songs in between. (you can locate a copy here!)

took only a little prep in the hours before church started as i decorated each letter then stuck them up one by one as we went through.

the kids loved it because it was interactive and i loved it because it was easy and kept them entertained.

christmas countdown is on... 20 days to go! ❤

carols by candlelight

this superstar is always on the go - and tonight we went to the carols by candlelight in aveley to watch her sing in the school choir. 

they had a good turn out of kids and sang with plenty of energy and you could tell they were having fun!

our neighbour gracie (who is joseph's bff) came along with us and kept him entertained... as you can see he was thrilled hahaha

alex loved it, but kept trying to run away the entire time - no surprises there

❤

gracie is just like part of the furniture now, she is forever at our house or joseph at theirs... we don't even notice anymore

i am absessed with this photo of doug and joseph. he doesn't smile all that much, he's very serious and quiet, but he grinned for this one and i love it.

we even bought the little electric candles for the kids and alex loved his. it made me think of years and years back when we used to have stake carols by candlelight at the reserve across from the dianella stake centre. everyone would show up and we would use real stick candles with a paper plate with a hole cut in it to make sure the wax didn't drip onto our hands and burn us. fun times.

we had a great night - and alex loved watching maddie singing "santa claus is coming to town" and the "somewhere over the rainbow/ what a wonderful world" medley.

the countdown to christmas is on!

outlander love

not once have i regretted buying the outlander. it was legitimately the best move ever.  

from the day it came to live with us (i was 3 or so months pregnant with alex at the time) it's been an absolute winner. the kids loved it from day one and so did this mum. the space... all the space. i know it's not the biggest car, or the best even, but it's perfect for us. i went out of my way to get a seven seater and i have never regretted it. i constantly have other peoples kids in the back, picking up anything and everything... and when all the seats are flat, you can fit pretty much anything in and i mean anything.

exhibit a. life size moana cut out for one of isabel's birthday parties...

exhibit b. a big ass mack truck from cars for one of jacob's birthday parties...

a bike for jens kids...

another bike for jen's kids... maybe the room was all just for the macqueens hahaha

and my all time favourite - a washing machine. which fit with all the normal seats up!

all the times i have had to sit in the bitch seat (aka the back back in the pull up seats) cause the kids didn't want to...

but i love it. best purchase ever!

mandurah with hb

a day in mandurah was just what the doctor ordered... it's been way too long since i have been anywhere kids free, so after i dropped the kids to school and alex at nannaleahs house, i headed south for the day, dropping off two pies on the way. i met up with my mate hayley from school and we actually had the best day. we hit up the local "promises" op shop that her mum volunteers at, then had lunch at a cute restaurant down on the jetty before wandering the local arty shops.

i loved this alleyway painted in all different pastel colours! so cute.

home again home again, the longest way of all time, to garden city to get grace a present from country road (lucky she's cute), then via forrestfield to drop off the very last pie and a lyrical costume to my friend. what a day, but it was the best kind of day. ❤