5/52

 "A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Ellie:  First day of school. Our brave, determined, head-strong girl flew the coup to spread her wings and beauty in a new realm. My heart tugged as a realised that someone else would watch you through your days as you discover this exciting new world. 

5/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Luca: With fingers made for playing the piano, this week you learnt your very first song.

4/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Luca: The fair has been in his mind all year. He couldn't wait to get on the rides. First the ferris wheel. A gentle ride with his sister. He ended the evening with exhilarating water roller coaster. He can't wait until next year.

Ellie: Always dancing. The beach offers such space and freedom for her creative expression.

3/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Luca:  This board walk keeps him interested every time we visit. A feast for his senses as he absorbs the smallest details around him

Ellie:  I give my heart to you Muma

2/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Luca:  He saw this tunnel of water and couldn't wait to traipse through it

Ellie:  Our seemingly fearless one always leaping into life

1/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Luca:  A pensive moment enjoying the delights of the harbour

Ellie:  Our new kitten smothered in love by its little Mama

This year will bring many changes to our little family. Ellie is off to school and Tools and I return to full time work. My time at home with my littlies has been a gift. I have taken thousands of photos of our days together, enough to fill hundreds of albums. I know that come February we will hit the ground running and won't stop until Easter. 

52 weeks is my attempt to slow down and document these new days together.

Juice

We have about 20 kilograms of Narromine oranges to turn into juice. 

One day at a time.

With all the shed-building, ice-skating, bike-riding, movie-watching and play-dating that we did throughout the holidays we had forgotten to spend a single day together as a whole family. So on Day 16, the very last day of the break, we loaded the bikes and headed to Mt Annan Botanical Gardens.

We rode the very steep Sundial Hill and were rewarded with a view of the city at it's summit. There was also a very cool analemmatic sundial, where we used our shadows to tell the time. Can you tell what time it was? The kids loved how accurate it was (again with the stacks hats! They are either very cautious or very well trained). We took some wacky self timer photos and, after a riding the perimeter of the park, found ourselves beside a gorgeous lake where we had a BBQ basking in the glorious winter sunshine. 

I love that shot of my boy. He still has that dimple, the only one of us to sport one. He is in that sweet (almost!) 7 year old stage. Full of information and the most interesting observations as he acutely observes the world from his emerging big boy perspective. We are weeks out from his birthday and he is quietly counting down the days until he is 7. It seems to be a big deal, this turning 7. He tells me he is looking forward to sitting next to me in the front seat rather than behind me.  I have convinced him that the safest place to be is behind Mummy and that he can ride in the front on the short trips we take without his sister. It doesn't bear to think about the sulking that would take place if Missy was left alone in the back seat. 

We were talking the other day about his birthday and that maybe this year we wouldn't have a party. After thinking about it for a minute he thought that would be OK and instead we could have a play-date with cake for 5 of his friends. As much as that sounds like a party he insisted because there were no invitations to hand out it wouldn't really classify as such. I think I am being duped. We'll see how that idea pans out as we creep into August.

The Shed: Day 5,6 and 7

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

A bike ride

I'd like to point out that I'm not an over anxious mumma who equips her children with stack hats as they stand on the edge of cliff. Just before the rain of this afternoon we took a bike ride down a bush track to a lookout and breathed in the fresh air as we looked over the valley. 

The Shed: Day 4

Heat seekers

Each morning of these holidays we have found these two set up in front of the heater busying themselves. We've been able to revel in a lie in on these cold winter mornings, waking an hour later to find these self sufficient bunnies colouring or reading or playing happily till their tummies start to grumble for breakfast.