bathroom 1 complete

well, bathroom number one is finally complete! when we moved into this house almost 6 years ago, the only things i hated were the bathrooms and laundry. i just was not at all into them, the colours especially. a few years after we moved in, we found out there was water coming through the wall into our theatre room, bubbling the wallpaper and wetting the carpet. it got worse and worse, to the point where the wallpaper began peeling off the wall. we plan to sell the house at some point in the future and know we won't be able to sell it with the water damage, so we decided to go ahead and reno the bathrooms, repair the theatre and upgrade the laundry while were at it.

i was so so anxious during the process, they came and completely demolished the ensuite, then had to strip the theatre wall as well to replaster and repair it. i cried the day the theatre got ripped out, the damage was so bad that i thought it wasn't repairable. but bit by bit and day by day, the tradies worked their magic and created this beautiful room that looks incredible!

in all the samples and pictures and inspiration i found, i loved the mermaid tiles that were available. but the grout and work in them were horrendous. doug looked at the options available from the renovation company and chose these gorgeous black tiles with a scale style embossing on them. they look incredible and we are so happy with them. i have to admit that seeing the bathroom is so weird to me. so clean and huge, but really nicely done. i am sure i will get used to it in time.

we are really happy with the finished product though and i cannot wait to see the rest, which is being undertaken as i type. it's going to be amazing.

 

daily walks

we've been walking nearly every day in the past few weeks while we are obediently staying home (other than this!) and social distancing. we have walked past this park over and over, but had no idea what was there! from the road it just looks like bushland...

then the other day madeline said again to me, "mum what's down there?" so we went down the very uneven path and found ourselves a little oasis. at the end of a wooden boardwalk style path there is a roman bath style lake, with a few steps around the edge going down into the water - and even a waterfall! it is just gorgeous, other than the colour of the water haha and they have started calling it the secret garden.

the kids were loving the bunch of ducks swimming about and promised they'd be back to feed them soon...

which we have every day since! they must be loving life. bread, cereal... you name it, my kids have fed it to those poor ducks. maddie has even named one of them deanna, but says she doesn't have any duck friends cause she is always off far away from the others.

we also explored this incredibly gorgeous lane way that we have often spied from the car, but have never had the chance to walk through. it is so beautifully cared for with such gorgeous bushes and flowers growing down both sides - which clearly has not been done by our local council...

apparently it's done by the people that live either side and i love them for it! what a gorgeous thing to do.

the kids love it and want to walk through there all the time now and i can't say i blame them... i am rather partial to it myself.

i am loving our walks - this time with the kids each day chatting is the best! 

back to school

these little nuggets went back to school today. i am so proud of them, though also equally as sorry for them. they really didn't get a holiday, it's been a month today since we lost their grandfather - but they have borne this trial with a great deal of courage and i am so proud they made it through. we spent nearly all of the holidays between the hospital and home, then the rest organising things for the funeral and the aftermath... but they made it through, with minimal whining. hooray!

maddie is so excited to be back and see her friends and learn some more... she has been split off from her closest friends at the beginning of each year, but thankfully she has been blessed with the ability to make friends easily and i know she will be fine yet again.

joseph was nervous about a new teacher and a new class (we were very spoiled having the same education assistant two years running, which was a great blessing for our shy boy) but went in with a determined look on his face ready to start the new year. he has been put in a split year one/two class this year, which i hope will allow his new teacher to extend his learning some more.

i am really blessed to have such great kids. these holidays were not ideal, but many times, they would tell us it was okay, not just the other way around... so i know we must have done something right! i am sure they will do well in whatever they do this year.

of course the morning wouldn't be complete until we threw baby alexander in for one of the photos. he is so loved by these two. such a lucky boy! 

2020, we've got this. bring on another year at ellen stirling!

exploring with the kids

it never ceases to amaze me just how many parks there are in ellenbrook. i read somewhere once that the aim is for there to be one within 600m of every house... it can't be far wrong. i took the sister missionaries to a local park to have pictures earlier this week and when we were there stumbled upon around a dozen painted rocks. there was a huge trend of painted rocks being hidden in parks (you can read about it here) around western australia and although it's not as common any more, you can still find them. i knew the kids would be thrilled to pieces, so i decided to take them exploring. 

the park doesn't have a name on the map that i can see, but is surrounded by the broadway, elmridge parkway, farmaner parkway and addingham drive. it has a real bushland feel, with paths through trees and a creek, plus a (pretty murky) lake. but it was fun to explore and the kids were even more excited when they went off the path and discovered a fairy door too! (another craze that came along with the rocks, you can read about that one here)

there is no play equipment in this park, it's more of a nature playground, but this old tree has been placed in a sandpit for climbing and the kids had plenty of fun on there.

take a photo of me mum! with pleasure ♥

we spent a good couple of hours wandering and it was so nice to see them occupying themselves with nature. i grew up in the country, well before ipads and youtube and barely even watched television... because there was always something better to do. living in the suburbs doesn't really offer that.

one of the cute rocks we found and rehid, a bright blue ladybug.

ellenbrook, we love you! ♥

heyyyyyyy joseph is five!

today we celebrated joseph's fifth birthday with a loosely themed (it was more just rainbow everything than anything else haha) hey duggee birthday party at the local water park. 

it was a great day for it, nice and hot, with great company!

aunty jenny made our cake as usual and presented us with this gorgeous rainbow, drippy, lollipopped number. joseph loved it and it tasted amazing, 

it even had bubble gum flavoured icing!

see, so chuffed! isn't he the cutest? ♥

we could not have chosen a better day for it either, there was a food truck evening being held in the water park playground beginning later that afternoon and going on through the evening and the local lions club had their community train there.

mum paid for all the kids to go on and have a ride around the park area and it was a hit. we were so thrilled, couldn't have been better if we'd planned it,

the train was even rainbow

and he was the happiest little boy in ellenbrook!

♥

we'd brought along our own gazebo, thinking that we would never get the area we wanted, but as we arrived to the park, there was barely anyone there, and the actually party area near the barbeques was empty. i could not believe my luck!

joseph's favourite gift of the day was this epic water gun from our friends hayden and julia. hayden only has girls, so it's like he makes up for it buying the most over the top boys toys he can for our joseph. it's hilarious. it was filled and being blasted around the place within minutes and wasn't put down the whole afternoon!

hanging out with my love. we made a pretty cool kid!

grandma was on alex duty as usual and he was passed about and kept happy for the afternoon. everyone seemed to have a good time, even "grumpy old poppy"

i made the party favours by simply getting a 24 pack of rainbow lollipops from our local big w and printing a cute "thanks" label featuring hey duggee using the canva app. they were cute as! 

it was an excellent day... and if i may, if you haven't seen the show "hey duggee" yet, then you seriously need to check it out. it is hilarious and well worth the watch. you can watch it here.

duggee hug!

christmas in elfenbrook

a week or two ago, the owners of madeline's dance school posted in their parents page that the school would be participating in the annual ellenbrook christmas pageant "christmas in elfenbrook" and asked for volunteers to be part of their group as they danced their way down the main street. maddie was thrilled to pieces and instantly said she'd love to do it, so i put her name down... i must admit though, i actually thought it was unlikely she'd get to be in it, as she was one of only a handful of kids who only do one class - and therefore only had one costume from the concert... which is what they would be wearing.

to my surprise though, a sheet came out with their allocated costumes and positions in the parade and there she was! i actually had a laugh with one of the teachers, who said she'd internally groaned knowing she had to put the tutus in, as they are so huge they require extra space around them, and therefore only allowed for three of them in their line, instead of the five in all the others. oops.

i was incredibly proud of myself, as i managed to do her makeup myself this time, full stage makeup, with the heavy eye shadow, liner (with added glitter at little miss's request) and bright red lippie. (maybe i can do this dance mum thing after all. haha. also, maybe not? i am the least dance mummiest person there is!)

we had a great time at the parade, watching all the people go by, (my favourite was the gingerbread man below, oh and of course, my daughter! tehe) eating icecream (we tried the ones that are little balls in a cup, if you haven't tried them, you should, they are yum!) looking at the stalls - and buying crystals for miss madeline... it was a fun afternoon.

the adorable gingerbread man

and miss madeline in her bright blue tutu... such a good colour for her! if only the makeup didn't make her look like she is twelve all of a sudden! i can't cope...

merry christmas elfenbrook! we love where we live!

madeline's kindy grad

i honestly feel like i blinked and all of a sudden this school year was over... this evening was the primary school open night and miss madeline graduated from her kindy class. we are so proud of her and her eagerness to make friends and learn about absolutely everything... she's just grown up so much!

madeline and her two best friends from school, charlotte and isabella with their graduation certificates. 

madeline receiving her certificate from mrs tiekink 

the kids sang for all of the parents on arrival.. the good old tune "a sailor went to sea" that is so old that we sang it back when i was at school.

and just like that it's almost over... our little girl is a big girl, school finishes next week and next year she is in pre-primary full time. i can't wait to watch her take on the world!