Before finishing school the boys had their end of term disco which was a dress up night. They could go as either a Surfer or a Biker. In our house we had one of each, with Preston dressing as our surfer and Addison our biker. I think they looked fab, with their cool hairstyles to match. Some how we manged to give Addison a mow-hawk (or at least an attempt at one).

Preston is settling in very well at school and doing extremely well with all his reading. Reading like a little champ!! I got to visit his classroom and see all his work and progress for the term. I think this year is going to be amazing for him.

I tried my hand at sewing some bags this month using free patterns from Swoon. I made my first ever bag as a 80th birthday gift for my Nana. I also used some left over Dr Suess fabric from other projects to try making myself a bag. This one was more structured, using some foam interfacing for the sides and base. I really love how both of them turned out. It was really interesting to sew something that wasn’t clothing. I also made some adjustments to my Harry Potter dress, by adding straps, and the fit is much better now! I did another type of sewing this month. Something extremely special and rewarding. I was part of a large group of ladies from my church who did some sewing of reusable and sustainable maternity sanitary pads for the women of Vanuatu. It was wonderful that I could use my hobby in this way to help so many women.

Charles and I finally got to go to Aladdin, which we treated ourselves to for our anniversary (in May). We booked it for the final show at QPAC. It was really spectacular and Charles thinks it is the best one he’s been too. They did have a technical difficulty with their magic carpet but the show was still wonderful and I absolutely loved the Genie. I wore my 1950s dress that I made, and it fitted perfectly. I felt very glamours in it. I dressed up in another way this month too, this time for the school playgroup superhero day. I was their Wonder Woman! I did however try to cover up the best I could, in somewhat of a disguise with my black trench and sunglasses, sneaking the boys into school and of course it just happened to be the morning they had assembly! At least all the playgroup kids loved it, and I gave all the other school kids, parents and teachers a bit of a kick for their morning. It’s not every day you see Wonder Woman at school!

I did some more sewing during May, which actually saw me sewing a dress that I wore to my very first Emmanuel Mother’s day Lunch. I have always had Jasper home with me and this year it just happened to fall on a kindy day, so I was able to attend. I made both the boys matching hoodie jumpers, which was another first, working with a stretch material and making them on my over-locker. They got to wear them when we attended the Junior School Musical, The Lion King. The Emmanuel students should be so very proud of their performance, it was so entertaining and absolutely perfect. The best experience for the kids first time watching a musical. I made my first bucket hat, this time for Jasper, using some dino fabric. I also sewed a vintage inspired dress from some beautiful fabric I was gifted. This dress is really stunning and I can’t wait to wear it when we go to see Aladdin at QPAC for our anniversary gift.

We continued with some house renovations this month, continuing working on the kitchen. After finishing the tiles in the Christmas break we wanted to make some more progress at changing the kitchen. We were able to update most of the doors and timber stair panels in our house to this amazing black. The difference is incredible. We just have a few more pieces to replace on the kitchen island, near the bin and the drawers.

Jasper has been enjoying his last year at playgroup, recently using the dress up box and wearing the most adorable lion costume. He sure looks cute in it, suits him to a T.

The boys had their school fun run, but not many photos to share there because there were too many other children in them. The video of Preston was so adorable though, and really quite funny. I’m not really sure if he knew where he was supposed to be running, as he was heading in the wrong direction. I’m surprised he managed to catch up a little after going the wrong way. Both the boys did well considering they are not really runners. They sure give it their all, and that’s the important thing. After all it is a “fun” run.

The first little bit of excitement that we were exposed to was the Baton Relay which was happening a matter of streets away, so close in fact that we walked to watch it. All of us watched as they passed and ran the baton for our area, all of us of course, except Jasper who fell asleep on the walk to the relay.

The school holidays were wisely planned around the Commonwealth Games, thankfully as the boy’s school is a mere stones throw away from the stadium and getting to school would have been next to impossible. Our school was also the home for the emergency services during the games! There was excitement all around us really with the buzz of it all.

While we spent some of our school holidays in Toowoomba with Gran and Grandad, I made sure that I took the boys down to see some of the activities that had been set up for the Commonwealth Games. There was a lot to see and do, particularly for the kids. They had shows on and craft, some of which we were able to take part in.

One of the first things we saw was a fish net wall where everyone could write a little note, anything they like and pin it up for others to read. I was extremely proud of Preston’s note, he wrote “I love God”. It was a hot day, so I treated the boys to ice blocks while we waited in line to walk through the Arboria; an interactive installation “Architects of Air” a luminarium, walk in sculpture of light and mazes. It’s hard to explain the experience, but the kids thought it was great, all the colours created by the light coming in, a different effect in each space and room. Pockets of air rushing in and an overall calming experience and space.

We walked around seeing the Borobi Mascot statues, went on the beach to chill out and play with our new volleyball, had some sushi for lunch and chilled out on the beanbags watching the games.

One of the most time consuming but very worthwhile activities we took part in was the sewing craft. The craft was to make a flag. Our flag was designed by us all, and I did the sewing. It’s got what we thought to be all the important things to include on a flag. We have the sky, the land and the sun. We have a fruit tree to represent paradise. We have hearts for love. The Cross and rainbow to represent Jesus and God. And our hands to join us all in unity. Ideas from all the boys and myself. We could have brought it home with us, however they did say we could leave it for display, so we decided to leave it there for others to see. I’m very proud of my little men and their flag design. What a great experience for the Comm Games 2018.

I did some sewing in preparation for Addison’s dress up day, coming soon. Working on his Flynn Rider Costume that I’m making, finishing my first ever boys button up dress shirt. Jasper did some dressing up of his own, wearing the spider costume I’d made for Addi when he was in Prep. I made myself a play-suit too, however I’m not 100% happy with this one, love the cat fabric though!

We had our professional photo shoot done, that we had won first prize for, which was enough to get six images printed! They are beautiful photos, that I look forward to displaying proudly on the wall of our home. Thanks Sunlit Studios for our wonderful prize!!

Preston went back to school with a bang, earning his first Smiley certificate on assembly. Here’s to another wonderful school term in term 2!

We’ve been busy preparing Easter gifts for school. I’ve been working on making hand painted cards for the boy’s teachers and I’ll put some rocky road eggs with them. We did some baking for Easter too, making this fab GF chocolate donuts nest from The Whimsical Wife.

March was time for more sewing, I’ve got the bug! More pants, some skirts, and my first dress using a paper pattern. I’m in love with fabric, from unicorns, to llamas, licensed fabrics and pretty floral prints.. I love it all!

We had plenty of fun getting to know Emily, she’s a little ratbag!

Our garden was producing massive cucumbers and I was working on experimenting with ink and watercolour pencils.

I made the boys some Easter pj shorts with cute bunny fabric and prepared their Easter egg cartons (I painted and decorated one each) all ready for the Easter Bunny to fill with goodies. Watch out, the bunny is coming!

We had been thinking about it for a while, and had actually planned to do this as the boys Easter present. We thought a new little life would be something super special for Easter this year. But it turns out she was ready to come live with us much sooner than we thought. It was all organised and Daddy went and picked her up and brought her home. She didn’t have a name, we thought we would let the kids come up with something. Funny how we both thought they would come up with a cute, or funny name. That’s what you would expect for a new kitten. But instead she got a “real person name”. Introducing our latest family member Emelia ‘Lamington’ Scheuber, Emily for short, Em for even shorter. She’s a black ragdoll and as crazy as you could ever expect a kitten to be. So very tiny and really cute, and very very tolerant! This is the first pet for the boys, they still have a lot to learn, but I think she will make the perfect addition to our family. And at least now, I’m not the only girl in the family.

February was also a busy month for sewing. I’d been dabbling around with sewing for a while. I guess I kind of started in a back to front sort of fashion with my sewing. I was attempting to make clothes, just making my own patterns and making it all up as I went along. I used other ready made garments to work out how things were done and did my best to recreate them. I have so far done quite well using this method, but I thought it was about time to try to teach myself how to use a paper pattern. I managed, and I am on a roll. I made a pair of pants and shorts using my first ever bought paper pattern. I also made my own wrap skirt (my own design). Addison also got the sewing bug and wanted to make his own pj shorts. I showed him from beginning to end and he did it! They turned out really well. He did well using the sewing machine and really took it all in.

We had the school picnic this month, always lots of fun playing in the water. Thankfully everyone was well this year and we could all attend. We finished the night with some fireworks.

At the end of the month I got stuck in preparing Charles’ wedding anniversary gift. Our 9th anniversary, leather and bird of paradise for the flower, which we celebrate on the 1st March. I decided to paint this unique cow picture for him, thinking outside the box a little to combine the “leather” and anniversary flower. It seemed the perfect fit with my nickname being moo. It was clearly meant to be, as it took shape very quickly and just came very easily.

It was also a month for another first. The very first time that Addison had spent time away from home (other than one over night visit to Nanny and Poppy’s house when Mummy and Daddy were both very sick) but this time it would be an entire week, and in a different city! Addison spent a week in Toowoomba with his Gran, Grandad and Uncle Regan. It was such a strange feeling at home with just the two little ones but we tried to make it special for them with a beach visit and some other outings. It was a very hard time for all involved to say goodbye, but he had an absolute ball and it was a great experience for him to be away from home.

Addison and Preston actually started school on different days this year, as they ease the new Preppies in with a short school week. There were smiles around though as the boys eased into school and were happy to be with friends. Preston fitted straight in and was so very eager to learn even more.

It was an exciting end to 2017 with Preston having his last week at kindy and his Christmas concert and graduation. He’s off to big school next year!!! Where does the time go?!

In December we did some fun Christmas activities, some baking and craft, went to visit Santa (most of those photos were taken on my phone, so are not part of this post), Mummy finished a painting, we had Nanny and Mummy’s birthday on the 9th and of course had lots of fun Christmas Day with Nanny and Poppy.

I Can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store for us.

Firstly for November we celebrated Preston’s 5th birthday for which he had a Star Wars Themed birthday party (I’ll do a separate post for the party).

Addison had his swimming carnival at school, and despite not being the strongest of swimmers he made it to the end of each race and all of his classmates supported him and cheered him on as he did.

Jasper had his playgroup breakup / Christmas party where he had lots of fun with his friends and was given some little treats for the end of the year.

It was also Addison’s Presentation Evening at school where he was given the title for the year of “Kind and Patient Friend” very fitting indeed. We also had Addison’s last day of school for grade one as he heads into his school holidays to recharge ready for a big year in grade two, and of course to enjoy the Christmas fun next month.