The Last 6 Months...

Well, it’s now the end of June and I have finally finished the backtrack posts.  Oh dear.  I also had some technical issues and my hard-drive crashed.  It’s okay – I didn’t lose too many photos.  Not sure how else to do this, so here are the highlights from January to now.

Back to School (January)

I made it home just in time from the sunny Gold Coast to see MissE start Year 1.

Gold Coast, Qld

First Day of School

And now, Term 2 is already done and dusted.  We are proud of her for earning her Bronze Merit Badge (1 of 3 Year 1's), Merit Certificates (x 2) for her writing, and a few ribbons too.  This is also my first year as a Class Parent which I am learning by stumbling through!

In January, MissE also lost a whole lot of teeth – 3 within a week!

Wet ‘n’ Wild Sydney (March)

We went back; this time as a family.  Our friends told us of a good deal as it’s the end of the season so why not?  Eden really enjoyed himself, going up and down the Jr Wet ‘n’ Slides at least 30 times.  We lost count.

Wet n Wild Sydney

MissE and Daddy under the giant tipping bucket

Advanced Screenings (March)

We checked out ‘Home’ at the movies.

"I'm waving my hands in the air like I just don't care!"

MrH and I had a date night to see ‘Insurgent’ (Book #2 from the Divergent series).

Iron Tiger (March)

MissE surprised us by being invited to grading for her blue/white belt.  She is really enjoying taekwondo and kickin’ butt (literally)!

Easter (April)
Yay for Easter.  It was a much needed break for us.  (Me with a whole lot of domestic travel done for a while).  We stayed home this year as we were working on the house (see below "Home Sweet Home") but we were busy!  We started the long weekend with Eloise's Easter Hat Parade then had a long overdue catch up with friends and also went to a footy game.

We had a lovely Easter Egg hunt with friends

The Easter Bunny came!

It's Easter - let's hunt!

On Easter Monday, we went to an NRL game: Eels v West Tigers
(The Eels lost.  Boo!)

Term 1 School Holidays (April)

With Easter drawing to a close, Eloise was officially on Term 1 holidays.  Again, she had a mix of activities.  Here are a few of the fun things we did:

We went bowling

Rode scooters at the park

Eloise's favourite was our girl's day in Sydney CBD.  It was a gorgeous Sydney day so we impromptu jumped on a ferry to Luna Park.

The Tea Salon

Eloise's afternoon tea
(yes, it was all for her!)

A view form the top
(of the Ferris wheel)

Luna Park fun

ANZAC Parade (April)

The cousins had the honor of walking in the ANZAC Parade with their great grandfathers' medals.

May Celebrations

For Mr H’s birthday and Mother’s Day, we had a mini-break at The Sebel Resort & Spa Hawkesbury Valley. We spent the afternoon swimming, evening eating pizza and I indulged in a spa treatment for Mother's Day.

Donut cake (man-cake)

Villa Thalgo spa treatments

K-2 Disco (May)

We finally made it to a disco.  Both E’s really enjoyed their selves dancing the early evening away to Katy Perry and Taylor Swift.  Both were spied on stage at different points of the evening.

Day Trip: Hunter Valley (June)

Over the June long weekend (Thank you, Queen!) we spent a day in the Hunter Valley.  One of the stops was the zoo.

Maned Wolf

Serval

VIVID Sydney (June)

For the VIVID Festival this year, we decided to turn it into a mini-break and booked into the Shangri-La Sydney.  While waiting for the sun to set, we watched the ferries from our Harbour-view hotel room and splashed around the pool.  Here are some of the highlights from our mini-break (finally made a Flipagram)

Home Sweet Home

From previous months, we moved onto painting… every.single.room (more or less).  What we thought would be 2 weekends painting has turned weeks (months even).  And painting leads to cleaning/ reorganising (so therapeutic) and re-homing furniture plus numerous trips to Kmart (Kmart Australia new home range is too cute and so affordable!) and Ikea.  I’ve been having a bit of fun decorating (still a work in progress)

Our Easter break was spent on this scaffold

Painting is done, a new chandelier installed
and wooden bench refinished and re-homed from outside

I made the 2 outer pillows using CS6 (Indesign) and iron-on transfers.
The 2 middle pillows were purchased from Society6

Freshly painted walls and some necessary art
(Print ordered from Society6)

Our Laundry was completed with "dirty" photos of the kids and dog too
(I let the kids loose in the backyard with holi powder!)

I can't explain the muddy pup.  We came home from work one day and she was like that.
(That photo is several years old)

Everybody Poops.

The kids got some new "artwork" in their toilet

And these photos (located over the towel rack) remind them whose towel is whose!

Me
I celebrated another year older.

9-5
Yay!  I had great news at the end of February, moving from a maternity leave cover contract to permanent.  I am thrilled to be staying!
June is Project6 Month, we have the opportunity to give back to many organisations around the world.  I joined in on a day at RSPCA.

I cleaned these 2 gorgeous bunnies hutch

And then this happened just recently!  What?!  What?! What?!

Crafternoon
I also have a new hobby.  I now do cross-stitch/ embroidery but in my style, rap lyrics.  There aren’t enough hours in the day for this, it’s so addictive.  I find myself constantly scribbling phrases for cross-stitch in my notebook whenever inspiration hits!  Why aren’t there more hours in the day?

Gangsta Nation - Westside Connection

Turn Down for What - DJ Snake & Lil Jon

I’ve also turned a new leaf, literally.  I was feeling a bit sluggish and did a Clean Eating Challenge for 2 weeks.  I slipped once or twice with coffee, as that was the hardest part for me.  Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it and have been keeping it up to a not-so-restrictive extent.  My favourite have been the chia breakfast “puddings” and my new found love for green smoothies (much to the disgust of the kids).

Overnight chia pudding

Until next time… Hopefully sooner than another 6 months! (Technically it's only been 4…)