Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 28

What a long and busy day it has been...

To sum it all up... we enrolled our eldest two children into another school today, Zachery would be starting year 6 at Smithfield Primary, and Darcy would be starting big school in Kindy...

Today was also Tilly's 1st day back at preschool without her older sister Darcy there this year...

There was alot of running around getting transfer papers, immunisations records from medicare, and then filling out some more forms at the the new school.

Tilly as I suspected coped just fine without her older sister.. when I asked her this afternoon if she missed her sister at pre-school, she replied "oh no mum, I was just too busy!". :o)

Darcy was overjoyed to see her new school.. and asked why she couldn't start today already.. she didn't care that there weren't any other kids back yet from their holidays!! On Monday we'll be getting her uniform.. and other neccessary items...
Luckily for us... Smithfield primary has the same colours in polo shirts and shorts as Zach's old school, so we won't have to completely buy everything from scratch for him to start there.

Now on top of this... the youngest in our family, Angus was a grizzley lil bear all day through.
While at home, each time I'd put him down for one of his naps, he'd wake getting only about 15-20 mins at a time of sleep :o( I'm quite certain it's his first teeth troubling him, they haven't cut through yet.. but all day Angus would chew on the corner of his favourite blankie, which is also how I'd find him after each of his short sleep stints. When he's this grizzley... I usually don't get much done at home as he becomes quite clingy and wants to be cuddled most of the time..

Hmmm... I'm thinking maybe I should pull out the baby carrier/sling again from the cupboard... maybe then I could multi task a bit??

Anyways... I did manage to head outside to our backyard while Hubby entertained our lil one.
Darcy & Tilly in tow.. they'd convinced me to come out and check out their skipping rope and hoola hoop skills. A short while afterwards I snuck back inside to grab my camera, I'd had an idea of what I would photograph today... but both my girls had other ideas, and just wouldn't play along.. So I layed down on the grass, pretending I was uninterested in what they were upto.
Tilly took no notice, but Darcy headed on over curious as to why I was taking photos of the sky..

My 1st photo below is of a gorgeous blue sky, but with puffy cotton wool like blotches of cloud.
Out of no where Darcy & I spot an aeroplane breaking through one of the clouds.. leaving a tail streak behind it..

The 2nd shot is of Darcy dreamily watching the aeroplane vanish out of sight.. as it flied further and further away.



Well I'm off now... I've already stayed up too late again tonight..
Tomorrow Zachery comes back home from his week and a half stay with his Omi & Opa (Grandparents)..

Ok... must go... very.. tired.. need..sleep

♥ Guten Nacht ♥




** Click on the photos to bring up a bigger image **

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 27

I'm very thankful.. today wasn't the scorcher like yesterday was...

The girls were able to come and go as they pleased outside, which definitely saved my sanity!

When it had cooled down a fair bit this afternoon and some of the clouds and rolled on in.. I took my lil monster Gus outside as well for a bit of a wander & play...

I sat myself beside him... and promptly started taking some photos.. Gus, quite bemused.. watched me as I snapped away, so while I had his attention I quickly grabbed a few closeups.

Do you think he's getting used to his mumma taking so many photos??

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 25 & 26

Tuesday, 25th January 2011

Well yesterday my two girls Darcy & Tilly decided they'd take their huge big stuffed toys outside to play... on the trampoline, in the swings, in their cubby... and then in the end they raced each other ontop of their doggy & pony...

Lol... After their races... as you can see they were quite sweaty & puffed :o)

Wednesday, 26th January 2011

Happy Australia Day everyone!!

Today we all stayed inside... with temps of 37°C and 88% humidity... none of us really wanted to brave the heat unless it was really neccessary..
At one stage the girls got cabin fever and needed to get out of the house for a while... but it wasn't long before they came back in with puffy red cheeks and quite a thirst for iceblocks...

Tomorrow's weather forecast is even worse then today's... so if I can find the ball catcher sprinkler set... I will try and set it up for the girls tomorrow :o)

Anyway.. today's Photo A Day is with my girls at Bathtime... I made the water considerably cooler today... but that didn't deter them from staying in just as long as they usually do :o)

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 24

I really wasn't sure what I was going to capture today for my Photo A Day.. so after dinner I headed outside into the backyard, and just photographed things that caught my eye...

At first it was the sunset, then secondly it was the silhouette of the roof of our house against the sunset.. then the washing line against the sky... the sunset had almost passed...

In the corner of my (naked) eye I saw this minuscule black thing swaying in the wind from the clothes line... and on much closer inspection, I realised it was a teeny weeny tiny spider!
So I got my camera ready and adjusted the setting to macro, and tried to focus in on this tiny lil creature. After a quite few goes, I managed to capture him... then suddenly my camera automatically recognised the darker settings, and my built in flash popped up, so I took a couple more shots... and I couldn't believe my luck... upon checking my display screen, I'd managed with the flash to snare it's web in my shots... something I would not have seen for myself in daylight or evening had I even tried.

So here are the resulting photographs... the first one shows Mr.Spidy dangling bwteen the two lines of the clothes line, the second shot close up and with the flash and then lastly also one of Tilly... she came out just after I'd taken my last shot of Mr.Spidy.. and so she asked for a photograph.. when my children request a photograph... lol I do NOT hesitate!!


**Note clicking on any of the images will bring up the original size**
**making it easier to see Mr.Spidy ;-)

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 19,20,21,22 & 23

Well it's time for a blog catch up...
And what a week it has been!!

I've been busy doing alot of graphic designs for a friends business... and so I haven't had much time to do my Photo A Day, except for taking the photos...



Wednesday, 19th January 2011

On this day, well I should say evening.. I was surprised to find out our Arabic next door neighbours had helped to lift their two grandchildren into our yard over our fence... Of course my two girls were estatic, and promptly showed off all their backyard toys and ride-ons..

Below is a photo of our two daughters with the neighbours grand-daughter...
Her little brother was wondering around at the time trying to work out how to ride the skooter.

Thursday, 20th January 2011

On this day... My kids and I were meeting up with my parents at a park in Hornsby Heights.
My son Zachery usually spends about a week with my parents each school holidays.. so that he gets to have a little bit of quiet time away from his siblings, and also gets to go out places which he wouldn't normally with us as a big family... yes I am finally realising that our family dynamics are larger then the average family :o) But you know I wouldn't have it any other way!!

Anyway... at first we all sat down to have a hot roast chicken roll picnic, and then let the kids burn off as much energy as they could before my Mum, Dad & Zachery headed back home ...

p.s. Zachery >>> WE MISS YOU VERY MUCH!! ♥ ♥ ♥

Friday, 21st January 2011

On this day Darcy, Tilly, Angus & I headed over to Aldi to do a little shop, mainly to just get bread and milk, but of course like any other visit to Aldi, I came out with more then we'd planned...
McDonalds is conveniently {note the sarcasm} located just next door to Alsi, so the girls were begging me for a thickshake, so through the drivethru we went... my girls were delighted when not only did they get their yummeeeeey caramel thickshakes, but they both got a balloon each..
They insisted on taking them outside when we got home, so after Angus had gone down for a nap, out we went... a perfect excuse to snap a few photos... Unfortunately not long after the photos, both balloons POPPED once coming into contact with the spiky grass on the lawn..

Saturday, 22nd January 2011

While my girls were jumping away on their trampoline... I heard my lil man Angus had woken from one of his naps... So for this day's Photo A Day, I took Angus outside to watch his sisters for a little while... he was giggling his little head off watching his Sisters try to do forward flips, and other tricks.

Sunday, 23rd January 2011

Now for last night's entry... I got caught up trying to do all the usual day to day stuff... and totally forgot to capture my Photo A Day... So just in the nick of time at about 11pm'ish, I snuck into my girls bedroom to capture my two darling angels sleeping ♥ ♥ ♥.

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 18

Sleeping like a baby?

"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one." ~Leo J. Burke

I hope I can still classify this photo as the Photo A Day for the 18th, I did infact take this photo after midnight... the reason being that Angus was quite unsettled yesterday, and pretty much all through the night.

I took this photo about an hour after Angus had finally fallen asleep...
It was the longest stint he'd stayed asleep for before I'd finally crawled my way into bed.

Poor Angus has been teething quite badly for the past week, and also had his hernia flare up on and off again, so the mixture of the two was probably causing him quite some discomfort last night. On that same note.. my lil man's surgery date is mid next month... I'm definitely looking forward to that being behind us all.

So all in all my day wasn't all that productive either... I was quite tired, and had no inspiration on what to photograph for the day, let alone really get a chance to.. So I hope you'll forgive me with my late entry for yesterday's Photo A Day :o)




Taken roughly at 12.30 am (19th Jan 2010).

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 17

My eldest two children (Darcy & Zachery) were in such cheeky moods today... and again were tormenting each other...

I think you can see from here what they were up to :)

Darcy can definitely hold her own... and so she continued till she'd pushed her eldest brother off the lounge with her feet...

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 16

While changing my lil man today, and getting in some nappy free time..
I couldn't help but take a quick photo...

Look at those dimples... aren't they just adorable!

Now on another note...
My hubby was getting the whipper snipper ready today to clean up the edges around the yard and house.. when all of a sudden he rushes inside, and asks me quickly to check something out...

Something had stung him..
My hubby is allergic to quite a few things, and bees are definitely one of them.
I couldn't see a stinger lodged in where he'd been stung, at 1st it just looked a lot like a green ant bite, but gradually the affected area was starting to swell.
Hubby quickly went and took some polaramine to try and prevent any unwanted ill effects from the sting.
Sometime afterwards he went back outside, only to come back in and tell me there was a huge wasps nest located directly above the garage door, which is where he said is exactly where he was when it happened...
We looked everywhere for a spare can of insect spray, sadly hubby had to go down the road to buy somee.
I'm think my husband may have doused the nest, because when I'd gone outside, I found about half a dozen or more european wasps dying on the concrete, and then I also stumbled across a Blue Banded Native Bee...

Here's a photo I took of the angry buggers I'd gone to pick up so my kids wouldn't accidently step on them.

Vintage inspired...

As some of you know I have a love for ANYTHING vintage!

If it weren't for my 7 month old son waking for a bottle (at freak'n 4 am) I would not have stumbled across >> This Awesome << blog while randomly browsing through a "vintage" google search...

>> Dream Home << indeed! Oooooh I'm in love... it's everything and more!
I just love how this blogger has brought these collection of images together, makes me want to get a paint can out myself :-P

Go on, have a look for yourself... Aaaaah well, will have to wait til we win the Big, BIG, BIG one!

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 15

While I was adding more clothes to the clothes line outside, Tilly & Darcy wandered outside to see what I was upto.
Darcy hopped onto her skooter, and proceeded in showing me what a ballerina on a skooter looks like (can you just imagine) wish I'd gotten more photos of her doing this, but she had other ideas after I took just the one photo of her...

Anywho...
Tilly was doing her own thing... I wasn't quite sure what she was up to so I decided to investigate.. and hid behind their cubby house to get a glimpse of what she was up to without disturbing her...

Our next door neighbours had their two grandchildren over, and Tilly was peeking through the palings of our fence, watching the boy which I'm sure is just a little older then Tilly.

The little boy was playing on the ground with his cars and making car noises... and Tilly just stood there, peering in even further whenever the boy moved out of sight.

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 13 & 14

I took this photo of Angus & myself because he has started this quirky habit of using the tag from his blanket to soothe himself...
My little man has been quite grizzly the past few days, and so I've put it down to him getting his first tooth...

Usually he'll only rub the tag near his nose or play with it between his tiny lil fingers, but just lately he's resorted to chewing on it as well...

But what's even stranger about him doing this is that his big brother used to have this exact same habit ( playing with the tag and ruffles of his baby blanket) when he was a baby.. neither of my girls showed this trait at all.




NOw for this photo... I was wanting to experiment with long exposures and sparklers...
When my son found out what I was wanting to do, he jumped in and volunteered straight away..

Task completed... got my long exposures... but then while Zach was fooling around with what was left of the last sparkler, I quickly changed the settings on my camera and snapped this one up of him... I quite like the play of light and shadows on his fave here.

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 12

Angus ~ Aged 7 1/2 months old



My baby boy is growing up...

It was a beautiful warm day, not as humid as the last few other days... so all the kids and I headed out for some fresh air.

While the eldest 3 played & rode on their assortment of wheels, Angus and I went and sat on the lawn and watched on...
Of course when ever I'm in the backyard I usually have my camera with me.. So when Angus decided he could sit all on his own... I quickly tried to set up my camera to take this shot.

Unfortunately though by the time I'd checked all my manual settings... the harsh sun made it's appearance through the clouds.. I wasn't sure how long Angus would sit on his own, so I took this shot while I could..

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 11

A game of backyard cricket with my eldest 3 children...

Watch out of the ball Muuuuuuuuuuuuuum!!

Tilly had requested a game of cricket... so out we all went. Tilly actually hit her 1st long run, and had to abandon her princess heels... which was almost the end all be all of the game..
Next was Zach's turn... and Darcy had a mean ball heading his way.. I literally almost copped it square on my telescopic lens, so I quickly put the camera away to join them properly in the game...

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 10

I was reeeeally lucky to snap these two shots... walked out with my camera at just the right time :-)

Moments before stepping outside... I could hear these two antagonising each other, and mercifully teasing each other. What i'd expected to see wasn't what you now see here before you!

Unfortunately the momentum didn't last too long, and they were back to their usual antics.

I'm not sure how to explain what kind of relationship these two have.. they are very much the same in their temperaments, hot wired, and equally just as sensitive. So when the two of them pair up, it's forseeable that they'll clank heads quite often ...

Summer Special 2011

I've been wanting to offer a special for quite some time, but with other commitments, both photographic and non-photographic, I haven't had time to put one together until now.

So without further adieu... We have a Summer Special!

The best time to photograph these sessions is between 5-7pm so as to capture the warm summer sunlight, anytime before this and the sunlight is at it's harshest, there is always the option of doing a morning session.. if you're prepared to get to your location between 6-8am.
Personally I prefer the evening timeslots :-)

So anyway, head on over to the link below, or at the top of this page, there should be a tab named Competitions & Specials, just click on that!

{{ CLICK HERE }} for the Summer Special

Photo A Day Challenge ~ Day 9 {Family}

It was quite hard to choose just one image from yesterday as I also had a mini photo session with my family.. minus me of course :-)

So below is a collection of photos of my family... Meet the "Brand Family" !