fremantle in a day

i feel like i say this all the time, but fremantle always feels like home to me. my family moved to the country just before i turned 4, but my parents grew up and were married here and my oldest brother was 14 when we moved out there, so they had their childhood in fremantle too!

i love the old buildings 

i love the old streets, i love the memories we've made here over the years... i love going to the markets and remembering visiting my mums father roy who always had a honey stall there. it's just such a wonderful place, so now i love to take my kids there too. 

the school holidays always call for a trip there if we have time, so today we went off exploring. walked around the town centre, looked at some of the shops...

including my all time favourite, the picked fairy. i used to spend hours here as a child! i must admit, it would be my dream job (probably even now) to dress up as a fairy and host childrens parties. mums friends daughter had a fairy party when i was a teenager and she paid me to be the fairy and host it. it was like all my christmases had come at once. if only i could find a photo!

we would always throw coins in this fountain and make a wish... although judging by how clean and empty it is, that's not really a thing anymore.

before enjoying a lunch at cicerello's where we met up with madeline's favourite teacher, the lovely miss hannah!

we had to visit poppy's favourite place, the bon scott statue on the fishing boat harbour.

(side note, how delicious is this almost two year old in his pram!)

before we went for a spin on the big wheel! it's the first time any of us have been on it and i loved it! i'm petrified of heights, but it's in a cage with a flat solid base so i can cope. all good.

 alex thought it was wonderful and kept looking everywhere to see what was going on.

joseph was pretty happy too

but as he had the rest of the day, had his nose in a book. oh look it's a miniature version of me. a book nerd. 

miss madeline. cool as ever

loving her time with miss hannah.

lauren is the nicest human being and adores alex, which is totally fair considering they share a birthday. i remember when i was pregnant with alex and she knew i was going in to be induced on her birthday she called out, no pressure, but today's a great day to have a baby. she was pretty chuffed when i emailed later in the day to say he'd arrived.

daddy and his mini 

and me and my girl!

our little family! ❤

few more stops before home time, the memorial at monument hill. we used to climb the bombs when we visited as kids, but now i'm horrified at the thought of my kids doing the same haha.

the fremantle i know and love

and a quick stop in to see my grandparents

at the fremantle cemetery.

last but not least, we stopped off at two little free libraries i had found on their online map and we even had books to trade. happy day!

what a good day. fremantle i love you!

a holiday trip to the pinnacles

today we braved the drive to the pinnacles all two hours and fifteen minutes of it with three kids, one who isn't even two yet, oh my word. i'll start by telling you the funniest bit so that you can laugh now and enjoy the rest of the photos when you're done. joseph (six and a half) was convinced that we would run out of petrol and be stranded on the side of the road. now. i completely get anxiety. completely. so, i thought i would make it easier for him to be settled on the way and when i filled up the car with petrol i got a jerry can of fuel and put that in the back too. worst mistake of all time. it's about a 400km round trip, our car can do that easy without refuelling, but i honestly was trying to keep him calm.

the car stank. so bad. it was horrendous. windows up it was terrible. windows down it was terrible. i couldn't just pull over and tip it out because i needed to keep the can obviously, but holy wreck it was so bad. doug and i both ended up with a headache and by the time we were there it was so bad. it's hilarious now, but i legitimately would have done pretty much anything to get rid of the smell. when we finally arrived, we emptied as much into our car as we could and then the rest into mel and aitu's car (who we'd met up with along the way to go adventuring together) before leaving the car open under the back of our car while we looked in the discovery centre for a while. when we got back and it was emptied and aired, the rest of the day was a lot better. thank goodness!

back to regular programming... the kids had the best time! running free and looking at all the rocks (and not touching them of course!) and generally wrecking havoc.

this kid loved it the most, he had a big sleep on the way up and was full of energy to explore and roam free in the big open spaces.

the pinnacles are these incredible limestone structures that formed about 25000-30000 years ago when the sea receded. you can read more about them here

our bestiecousins. so blessed to do life with them!

this place honestly had views for days and after doing a few laps of the park roads and getting out to inspect some of the stops, as the sun got low, we got ready to find somewhere to eat and share the ridiculous amount of food we always pack when we are together.

nice seeing you again pinnacles.

wa you are amazing. i'm quite happy to be stuck in such a wonderful place.

and the company isn't bad either. ❤

 

school sports dress up

today the kidlets had a sports dress up day. they are always excited to go off to school without having to wear their uniform and today was no exception. 

joseph decided he was going to be a basketball player and dragged doug off to kmart late last night to get a pair of shorts to go with the shirt he had. heaven forbid he wear a pair we already own...

and miss madeline, went off in her step up street clothes, although let's be honest, she would have probably worn her crop and booty shorts if i allowed it. yikes.

some pretty cute kids on show here. ❤

running races

this girl is always trying her hardest to be fast and faster when she runs. they had their time trials this week for running ahead of their upcoming carnivals so imagine her delight when she placed in the top four - and technically in third place seeing as the girls in first place drew for their position. she was so excited to come home and tell me and i was so proud. i mean seriously, look at that smile on her face! yay maddie! 

 

mental health check

i have learned a lot of things in the past few weeks about who i should and should not be friends with. without elaborating, a friend said something in a public forum that another friend did not agree with and the that person made complaint after complaint to me about it, in such a way that she suggested it was my responsibility to fix it and undo the stress it had caused her. 

this sent me into a stress spiral, a real anxiety overload. it had nothing whatsoever to do with me, but as the days went on it was making me more and more stressed until i felt physically unwell about it with a constant headache. it was only through the help of another friend who unfortunately had to be involved, that i was able to realise that it did not concern me in the slightest and it was wrong to have been brought to my attention with those expectations in the first place. but ughhhhh. it still annoys me thinking about it.

i now feel more confident in knowing when something is not my concern - and seeing this post online this week was a real lightbulb moment for me. i often have tried and tried to be friendly with people i don't like purely because it's the "right thing to do" and i now know it is okay to walk away. there is no reason to force it and it's so much healthier for me mentally to not have to force it and feel uncomfortable the whole time! in fact, there are a few people i have given the chop since coming to this realisation and it has helped me so much!

this also spoke volumes to me when i came across it. i genuinely believe the person mentioned above who took offence at the post had felt that way, because they had been looking for the things that hurt them. it's easy to spot things that offend you, when you are always thinking of things that offend you. i really don't believe that was what had been intended by the poster and for some blasé comment that they hadn't thought much of, it had caused a world of problems for me. i now know also not to read too much into comments made by others on the internet. lot's of learning to be had here.

but in the midst of all the stress and mental discomfort for me, i came across this post (it was quite the few weeks of discovering amazing posts on social media haha). "it came to pass." this time will pass for me, just as all other things that cause me stress and anxiety will. i just need to be still, have faith and most of all have patience. and somehow, they all come to pass.

but most of all, keeping these things of stress and anxiety to myself, does not help me get through them. being brave enough to talk to others and share how i feel and how i can get through them, allows them to help me. 

this has been a rough few weeks of learning, especially about others and when they are perhaps not helping me with my struggles, and how i need to know when to make that call. it's certainly done wonders for me. thank you internet!

 

disco time

schol discos are over and done with again for another year. the kids had a great time at madeline's segment, because joseph stayed and was happy to be with her friends but oh, he did not like his part. he can be erratically shy out of nowhere sometimes, which can be a bit of a headache for us - and the school disco was one of those occasions. 

from the time we arrived, i encouraged him to go and hang out with his friends, but he was having none of it. in fact, he went and found himself a comfy spot underneath a desk, where he could observe and not participate. he was perfectly happy there, unless someone came and spoke to him, or encouraged him to come out.

the sweetest part of the disco though, was watching his sweet friend mahalia come and ask him to come out. when he shook his head and looked at the ground, she joined him. didn't say a word, just sat by him and kept him company. it really warmed my mum heart. more people in the world need to be like that. not trying to pull people out of their comfort zone, instead joining them in theirs. what a lovely, sweet girl.

maddie's disco was a riot, my crazy outgoing girl is always in the thick of it and partied it up with her friends... and then joseph was all for it and danced about too

maddie and some of her little mates ❤

and her day one girls. she has been with these girls since kindy, so i am certain they will be friends for always. madeline, brooklyn, lara and sophie

here's a shot of them back in pre-primary, with their other kindy friend charlotte (who has unfortunately left us and gone to another school), but missing lara, as she was sick that day. it's amazing how much they have changed!

long live the primary school discos. 

bookweek 2020

i loooove bookweek. well, i love books. i always have. i spent many of my years with my nose in a book - or really in multiple books. so when i became a mum and the reality of book week came around, i was so excited! until this year when madeline matter of factly informed me that she wanted to be rey from star wars. um what?! that'd not a real book. cue my eye twitching.

but as i have had a third child and started to learn not to care so much about things, i have been more okay with the random unexpected requests of my kids. cue the search for a rey costume, which was incredibly unsuccessful unless i was willing to pay more than $60. yeah nah.

thankfully uncle james came to the rescue with charlottes rey costume from a few years back, (complete with a light saber!) posted express to be here in time. then all i had to do was google rey's ridiculous hair do, which thankfully didn't end up being that hard!

ta-dah!

joseph's costume was so fun! i was amazed that he agreed to it so readily as he can be such a little fuss pot, but when i suggested the tin man from the wizard of oz, he was super keen.

every so often, my sister in law donna passes on things that belonged to her kids, my 5 nieces and nephews. this super cool suit of armour made from flattened out tin cans was one of them. it was actually so impressive, all connected and attached perfectly with snaps and pieces of leather to take it on and off. it was absolutely perfect for tin man, along with some grey clothes and a silver sprayed funnel with elastic through it to wear as a hat. he drew the line at letting us swear his face with grey eyeshadow, but happily carried the terribly misshapen axe that doug and i threw together at the last minute and i spraypainted in the backyard late at night. #mumlife. he looked adorable! he honestly is the cutest little thing sometimes.

the axe, inside to dry in the hopes it would be dry for the morning, made from an old plastic sword, some cardboard and a lot of tape. woo. 

bookweek 2020, done and dusted.