Better Late than Never September

I can’t believe there are 3 months left in 2014; its boy-band crazy.  It doesn’t look like there will be much of a lull over the next few months either!  I skipped August so here is a throwback to last month.

At the Cherry Blossom Festival, Auburn

I started September off on a wonderful note!  I had the opportunity to be a parent helper for Miss E’s first kindergarten excursion: a Teddy’s Bear Picnic at Muogamarra Nature Reserve near Cowan.  We spent the day bush walking and playing games.

Teddy Bear Picnic

PAWS

At the lookout

Playing games

Fun day!

In August and September, we’ve had a lot of rain.  And by a lot I mean records broken.  So at the first site of sunshine… especially on a weekend, we had a beach day!

Monkey on my back!

Love moments like these between them!

MissE Says the Darnedest Things

Donut on a String

Year 5 held a mini-fete as a fundraiser.  MissE was sent to school with a few dollars.  She had her eye on the ‘Donut on a String’ game since the day before… and she won!  She holds the title of the fastest, hands-free donut eater in the school.  Hilarious!

Wreck-it Ralph

Have you seen Wreck-it Ralph?  It’s a lesser known Disney movie but we like it.  Miss E came home and was disappointed that she did not receive a medal at the end of the term.  Mr E came into the conversation with this “Who got the medal, jie-jie?  Wreck-it Ralph?”

Singing in the Shower

Have you heard Becky G’s Shower?  It came on the radio in the car one day.

MissE: (Singing) I'm dancing in the mirror and singing in the shower… Mama, do you know who sings in the shower?

Me: Who?

MissE: Daddy!

Me: What do you hear daddy singing?

MissE: Frozen.

MrE

MrE has had it a bit tough lately.  The flip has switched and he’s definitely 3.  His favourite word is “no!” and he has an affinity to stomping when he doesn’t like what we say.  He’s had a bit of a naughty streak at day care too. L  He’s lucky he’s cute.

Eden as The Hulk (or Honk)
I am pretty sure that was the first time that had been requested.

Prince of Hip Hop: Eden in a Run DMC shirt
and Adidas, of course.

Favourite after-bath game: "Newborn baby brother"

MissE

MissE finished Term 3 this month and has had the last 2 weeks off.  Again, she had a mix of time at “home” (mostly with Daddy) and at Vacation Care.  She is looking forward to her last term and going into Year 1!

Eloise and a new furry friend
(Shana's 1st birthday party)

South Coast, NSW

On the first weekend of her school holidays, we made it a long weekend and went on a road trip.  Visiting The B’s is one of my favourite annual trips (better late than never this year) for both the company and fresh air!  So on Friday morning, after breakfast and loading up the car, we were off!  We didn’t stop until Berry (my favourite little town ever) for good ole alpaca burger (sorry, Anita!).

I couldn't resist!

I feel the need.  The need for speed.
- Maverick, Top Gun 

On arrival, the kids were excited to see each other again and ran straight outside.

Next generation friends

On Saturday morning, the daddy’s had surf lessons with world champion surfer Pam Burridge.  We later met them at Mollymook Beach for a park play, body boarding and then lunch.  In the evening it was AFL Grand Final (no, thanks) so we had a BBQ.

Mollymook Beach

Eden & Will

Joanna the Goanna (Sorry Yi-mah!)

Love this photo!

Catching the chooks

Sunday, we spent the morning at Funland for something different, then a tractor ride and feeding the alpacas before heading home. 

Funland

Tractor ride

Feeding the alpacas

Me

I had a reasonably quiet September other than taking in a movie or 2 (lucky me!).   A tiny bit of self-promotion news is that I was nominated for the Employee of the Quarter award!  I didn’t win but sometimes being nominated is something to be proud of too!  I couldn’t help to think of how different it is from just a few years ago (shudder).  It’s been an awesome change to say the least. 

Yay!

Until next time…

Star Wars room reveal

It's FINALLY done!

After

In May, Eden got his big boy bed.  With no rush, we kept him in his converted toddler bed until he started to roll out of it… every night.  With an abundance of spare beds, we simply did a bed switcheroo with the guest bed becoming Eden’s new bed and the spare bed #2 going into the more used guest room.

Before

As I mentioned previously, at the ripe age of 3, Eden loves Star Wars (sniff, sniff. As we wipe a little proud tear away from our eyes).  It was our opportunity to geek out and finally buy the Pottery Barn Kids Star Wars sheets!  MrH is so jealous; he takes any opportunity to have to sleep in Mr E’s room.  And suddenly Uncle Ed wants to stay over too?

I had so much fun choosing these pillows.
With free shipping it was too temping to buy more!

We didn’t have to do much other than kit it out with all things Star Wars.

• Linen:  Star Wars™ Darth Vader™ Quilted bedding (Pottery Barn Kids)
• Throw Pillows: The Force by Maria Jose Da Luz, This is my Lightsaber by 6amcrisis, It’s a Star Wars by Danny Haas, and Star W. alphabet by Fabian Gonzalez (All purchased from Society6; I kept going back for more)
• Wall decals: ‘The Force is strong in this one’ (Purchased from eBay store Sticker Studio and 'A Boy and his AT-AT' by DisaDesigns (Purchased from etsy)
• Framed Star Wars art: it’s fabric!  Star Wars Kids by nixongraphix (Purchased from Spoonflower)  (We are missing one thing (his name in Star Wars characters) but it will be gained as a token from Eden’s inaugural trip to Disneyland)

I had a few DIY projects for Eden’s room and little time to complete them.  So, I made it a goal to complete one per weekend.  They weren’t difficult projects to complete, I just lacked the time to sit down and do it.

Weekend 1:  Wampa rug – it sure beat forking out $400+ for it.  It’s not that expensive but adding in
                     the shipping Down Under, it topped the $400 mark!  I used this fantastic tutorial and am
                     happy with the way it turned out.  Occasionally he is up for a wrestle but mostly he sits
                     at the bottom of the bed to “protect” Eden from bad dreams.

A Boy and His Wampa

Weekend 2:     Re-purposing a pink bedside table that no longer suited Miss E’s princess room to a white bedside table for a boy’s room.

Somewhere to store Star Wars books

Weekend 3:     Re-purposing a previously green chair into a Stormtrooper chair.  This one took longer than a weekend due to the time it took to bleach out the green.  I didn’t want to re-sew a chair cover and thought bleaching would be a much easier solution (and it was!).  After I was happy with the colour (I couldn’t get it snow white), I used a fabric pen to draw on my Stormtrooper.  Ta-da!  

Chewie backpack from Gap