Home & Family

 1. Trampolining is becoming a regular after-dinner event. ** 2. We had a good laugh when we discovered that Dad was tucking his guitar into bed while Mum was away on holidays! ** 3 & 4. Lots of demolition, re-modelling and hard yakka takes place as my brother-in-law gets ready to open a new gym in town.

 1. 2. & 3. I joined in on the scrappy-trip along craze and started sewing a few blocks just for fun – it will be ages until I have finished but I’m enjoying a quiet little project on the side. ** 4. Lil gives me amazing pedicures which involves opening at least 10 bottles of nail polish and takes over half an hour!

And the biggest hit of the week was this fun, impulse Family Home Evening activity – The Great Malteaser Slide Roll…catching it in your mouth is not as easy as it looks and those little malteasers can build up a lot of speed their way down, resulting in a cut lip for Oscar!

 

And before we know it, Summer holidays are over. It’s always bittersweet, sending the kids back to school. Sad, because our relaxing, holiday mode is over for awhile but nice to get back into routine and for the kids to see their friends again.
This year, we are very lucky that a brand new Primary School has opened just down the road from our house. The school is amazing, with everything brand new and architecturally designed. The classrooms are just beautiful and it was really exciting to go and have a look around this morning when we dropped the kids off for school.

Lil is in Prep this year (her first year of full-time school) and was feeling very grown up this morning and excited to see her little friends again.

Oscar started grade 2 and wasn’t as enthusiastic about going back to school as Lil was, but once he got there he was okay and had a really good day too.

Lucky today was Tommy’s daycare day because this little boy was adamant that he was going to school too! It’s going to be tough dropping the others off every day and taking him home with me. I’m predicting some tantrums already so will have to make sure we have some fun things to go home to every day!

And what about me? What did I get up to on my child-free day today? I’ve had a lovely break from Make It Perfect work over the holidays (I think I worked out long ago that there just wasn’t any point trying to keep it up in the holidays!) and was eager to get stuck back into it today. I did lots of planning and a little bit of sewing – I want to try and have a few patterns up my sleeve to give me a break once I have the baby so have a few action packed months ahead of me! ** Have you tried the new choc mint Kit Kats? Best things ever! This pregnancy has turned me into a Kit Kat lover – before, it was always Cadbury, but since being pregnant, I’m liking Nestle more. ** Inspired by a few fellow Instagrammers I put a little note and chocolate on each of the kids beds to surprise them with when they got home (they loved it!) ** and quickly baked some muffins for afternoon tea (thankyou Betty).

But it wasn’t all work…I managed to put my feet up for half an hour before school pick up and have a little rest in my absolutely silent house – I love Tuesdays!

To say our Summer break has been action-packed is an understatement! It feels like just a few short weeks ago that school was ending for the year, and now we are getting ready for the kids to start back again next week.

We have been blessed with lots of family visits, perfect weather and the beautiful nature that surrounds us to make the most of our Summer holidays.

Whilst I haven’t been as dutiful at taking photos as I would like to be, I am very grateful for the convenience of my iPhone and Instagram to help me capture some of our special moments. 

We’ve spent time exploring our local national park with Ranger John. This man is a wealth of knowledge and easily captures the attention of both adults and children alike. If you’re ever in town, pay him a visit! * A few movies have been seen – Les Mis being my absolute favourite…wear waterproof mascara! * Lots of twilight BBQs at the park and river mouth fishing. * A rare morning sleep in followed by cuddles in bed until 8:30am. (I can guarantee that as soon as school starts again and we need to be organised, somehow their body clocks will change and their early mornings will turn into sleep ins!)

 

A brisk New Years Eve walk on the beach followed by one crazy family disco. We did have fun. * Bushwalks at National Parks and Leven Canyon with visiting family.

Many a river swim in a beautiful river taking us back to our childhood when we would swim in the river with Pop and a squealing Nan! * Farm visits with Bruce and Rhonda – one of our favourite country places to be.

Beach picnics. * Renovation rescue begins at Move Strong Gym. * We get an abundance of delicious plums from our trees this year. * Fun watching brothers and sisters tackle new parenthood! * Growing baby bumps. * Lil decides that sewing is cool. * Annual blueberry pick takes place and I get bitten by two very nasty jack jumpers on my back!

And that is a brief summary of family happenings over the last month! It’s been a lot of fun and I’m not ready for school to go back yet…making the most of our last week of freedom together!

(If you want to follow me on Instagram, my username is make_it_perfect.)

P.S. And don’t forget, if you haven’t already gone to have a sticky beak – make sure you head over to Fabric2Go ASAP! And use the discount code Make It Perfect to receive 15% off your order until 31st January EST!!!