Photo a Day August: Part 1

 

Day 1. Outside: Hey pretty lady with the high heels on. Keira walking around outside with my high heels one. She loves wearing them and it''s hilarious when she tries to run and jump in them lol

 

Day 2. One: Keira is channelling the MJ look today with one white glove or sock in this instance :) Just another one of her crazy outfits!

 

Day 3. Coin: After a few attempts, I got the hang of spinning a coin and the pic turned out pretty fabulous :) (Yes, I am starting to get a bit lovo with my photographic creativity)

 

Day 4: Somewhere I sat: Today I sat in a church service commemorating the one year anniversary of the passing of beloved Grand uncle Nanti. RIP xo

 

Day 5. Logo: Tricky word today. Sticker logo on the Aussie avo

 

Day 6. Writing: Writing and posting up love notes to surprise hubby when he gets home from work after midnight so it will be our anniversary when he sees it :) xo

 

Day 7. 8 o'clock: Time for dessert. Strawberry choc ice cream - yum!

 

Day 8. Glasses: Anniversary celebrations continue today with chili chocolate mousse filled glasses - yum (ok diet is going out the window in this week of celebrations!)

 

Day 9. Messy: Sonia and Diva took me out for an early birthday lunch today and this is Keira's chair when she got up. I think she was feeding the chair lol

 

Day 10. Ring: My birthday today :) so I bought Keira a ring pop - especially for this prompt lol

 

Day 11. Purple: I attendede the Fairfield Relay For Life launch dinner tonight. I went solo and had to leave my own birthday party but I had a really good time especially as I was an actual guest and NOT working! Purple is the Relay For Life colour :)

Day 12. Spoon: I found Montana crawling around with this wooden spoon. Keira must have gotten it out to play 'cooking'. If only she was old enough to cook with it ;)

Day 13. Simple: A simple ball and dandeloins keeps Keira entertained in the back yard while I hang the washing

Day 14. Arrow: Boring prompt. I was on my way to my parents place and drove around the quiet streets trying to find a safe place to take a picture of an arrow. With some editing, this pic turned out pretty cool (lovo again)

Day 15. Ready: My mother in law arrives today from NZ for a visit. The twins are ready to meet Nana Lilly for the first time :)

Twin-isms: Interactions

Our twins look so grown up in the picture below. To me it looks like they are discussing the very important subject of shopping tags and stickers ;) I love seeing them interact with each other more and more everyday. In our eyes, Montana is the adventurer and Lucas is  the safe player. We can just see the following scenario in a few years time where Montana will be coaxing Lucas to follow her 'C'mon Lucas' in some kind of adventure and Lucas will hesitantly respond "But mum told us to stay here"....hahaha

 

Well they are only 8 and a half months old so there is still plenty of growing for them to do....meanwhile it's really fun watching them together. Sometimes I wish I could just wake up with a camera in my hand to capture them saying good morning to each other by putting their foreheads together or capture the look they exchange to each other when big sister Keira is doing a funny dance or acting silly in front of them. Their cuteness just makes my heart burst with happiness xo

 

Keira-isms: The little Housekeeper

Keira can make quite a mess, as most toddlers do. She is a Miss Independent who likes to feed herself, pour her own drinks, make her own milo and cereal. Sometimes when I am busy with the twins, she will look for food in the pantry and fridge then get her plate, cutlery or cup to serve herself. It's cute but her 'independence' can leave a mess behind.

However, on the bright side Keira has shown a likeness and eagerness to cleaning especially to vacuuming, sweeping and washing the dishes. Teach and start them young right? Is it wishful thinking to hope that this will continue for years to come? ;)

Playing with my new toy

I bought my sisters Canon DSLR camera when she bought herself an upgrade. She gave me a good price and I was excited to finally own a flashy dashy camera! Even though it's second hand and it's at the bottom rank of DSLR cameras - I love it and I was eager to play around with it straight away which happened to be the weekend that my niece Lilly was staying over.  

 

Now, there was no instruction manual included (my sister is yet to give it to me) so I just basically did a point and shoot with no idea of what I was doing. We all had fun though and here are some of the results of our playful photo shoot in my front  and back yard. All unedited.

 

Lilly getting close to nature with our back yard tree - the top shot is my favourite



I took a few pics of Lilly and her cousins -  I shot these pics in the wrong spot as there was too much shadow caused by the sun but it was hard to move the twins around plus it was starting to get windy so I had to do a quick photo shoot hoping I'll get some half decent shots!

Lilly and my adorable little man Lucas

 

Two beauties. My beautiful Montana was all smiles for the camera :)

 

 Lilly and Keira started to get sick of posing and just wanted to play around the front yard





Lilly showed off her gymnastics skills (she asked me to make sure I included this cartwheel photo)

 

Jumping around.... 

 

Ring o ring o rosie....

We all fall down....

 

The girls had fun playing in the front yard and I had heaps of fun playing photographer although it's quite evident that I need some photography lessons. I am hoping to do a basic photography community course which my sister did and recommended for new starters.  I don't want to be a pro, I just want to learn how to make the most of my new toy, capture lots of memorable moments and have fun along the way :)

July Highlights

Lia's Birthday

My cousin Lindsay (Lia) celebrated her 23rd birthday on 20th July.  Lia has been doing 'work experience' with me since when she was 15 years old! Her first job was assisting me with the clean up of the events storage room when I was a PR Assistant at Marrickville City Council. This room was called the 'cage' and it was situated underneath an old town hall. Not the place one would like to clean out alone! Even now, we cannot look at flags or banners the same way! I got her to work by telling her it would be good work experience for her and she could put it down on her resume. I then started working at Cancer Council as an Events Coordinator where for the past 7 years Lia has volunteered at my events including Australia's Biggest Morning Tea, Daffodil Day, Pink Ribbon Day and has been a Fairfield Relay For Life committee member for 6 years. In that time Lia completed her HSC in the States top 8%, graduated with a double degree in Economics and Commerce (or something fancy like that) from University of New South Wales and now has a HR job at a top firm so obviously she does not need to volunteer with me for experience any longer! This year she told me that she wants to volunteer for another charity.........as if I'm going to let her go!!! Haha

Apart from being a wonderful volunteer, Lia is also a talented cake baker/decorator. We give her a theme or concept and the result is a brilliantly decorated cake. So, for her birthday this year, her sister Tildy, my sister Flavia and myself went all out to make some delicious desserts for her. This is the result:

Clockwise from top right: Creme Brulee by Tildy and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting by me, Triple layer white buttermilk cake with buttercream and coconut icing Birthday cake made by me, White chocolate oreo cheesecakes made by my sister and Strawberry fruit jelly made by my Aunty Zinda. Lia was impressed by our efforts and felt the love.  It was all so delicious!

Happy Birthday Aunty Lia! Keira and Jaime love singing Happy Birthday and blowing out candles

Cheeky cousins creating their own fun at the party. Jaime rode the bike pulling Keira who was sitting on a chair behind him and then they swapped. Clever kids :)

Lilly's Visit

Cousin Lilly stayed over for a weekend. It was great for me as I had an extra pair of hands from a very willing helper! The pictures above are snapshots of what Lilly did over the weekend which included looking after the twins when we were at Play School, changing nappies, feeding the babies their solid food and comforting crying twins (she was pretending to scream in the picture or did she really want to scream? haha) Lilly also played with Keira and read her books. What a wonderful help she was and great practice for when her twin sisters arrive. She is going to be a great big sister! xo

Play School

Play School has started and on our first day, it wasn't as hectic as we thought it be! Hopefully it will continue to be haha but I know that Keira and myself had an enjoyable time.  They had a fun lesson on the Human body and next month they are learning about the Olympics :)

The 2-3 year old class learning shapes and colours. Hyrum looks disinterested, Mercedes is concentrating on colouring in, Kingston playing with cars and Keira playing with shapes.

Photo a Day July - last days

I have now completed my third straight month of Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day challenge and it is now a part of my day which I look forward to. As I rarely venture out of home with my three kidlets these days, it really has become a challenge to do but that's when I have to be creative and most often, the opportunity presents itself throughout the day. Here are the last few days of July:

Day 23. Mirror: Keira loves dressing up and dancing/ twirling in front of the mirror

Day 24. Stranger: I stood on my front lawn for 10 mins waiting for a stranger to walk past and no one did except our neighbour in his front garden so I went up to him and introduced myself - finally after 8 months. His name is Tony and we chatted for 30 mins and then I asked him for a photo. It took today's prompt to finally say hello to him! I wrote this on Fat Mum Slim's photo and she commented that she loved this story. This photo then gave me some insta fame with over 40 likes and 12 new followers...amazing what a little photo and caption can lead to!

Day 25. Heart: Keira's look this morning - heart shirt, beanie and pink bloomers over her tights. Her fashion statements always make our day :)

Day 26. Sunshine: The sunshine finally made an appearance after a gloomy start to the day

Day 27. On the Road: I was in Parramatta today and this is one of its on the road street art

Day 28. Cup: We had my friends Alwin and Charlie over for dinner. I made enchiladas and this picture is of the cup of dates needed for the sticky date pudding I made for dessert. It was a hit and I'm so glad to make an impression on Charlie the Chef

Day 29. Last thing I bought: I  bought this fancy dancy camera off my sister who has upgraded her camera for a bargain price. I had a great time playing with my new toy all weekend

Day 30. Calm: With the twins teething now, all is calm when they are asleep. I actually joined their hands together and they held it together for a few minutes - long enough to capture it :)

Day 31.Toothbrush: Keira's cute Mr Toothbrush - she finally enjoys brushing her teeth properly now! Better late than never! :)