a quick shoot ...

Well, my beautiful baby girl is turning 4 on the 5th of Feb, and she wants to have a little party ... so of course I insisted on her having a photoshoot in order to do a nice invitation for her party! ... Luckily it didn't take much to convince her ... Iliana woke up half way through, so she joined in too ... it was a beautiful warm day, and the shade of our ash tree was perfect ...

It never ceases to amaze Tim and I how we managed to get two girls who look so simular yet one has blue eyes and the other brown ...

Getting a little bored of things here ...

And finally, the shot that was to become the invitation ... she's actually pointing at the sun through the dappled light falling through the tree ..

And 'wah-la' ... the invite ...

So ... what lives in your tank?

We took the top off our rainwater tank this morning, so that we can get it all fixed up and use the 22,000 ltrs that is just sitting there going to waste at the moment! ... the tank is brimming with life - in the sunshine there were dragonflies, butterflies, bees, wasps, lizards and HEAPS of frogs ... I counted at least 15 ... all fairly small, probably about the size of a 50 cent peice I guess ... they were just beautiful.

They would dart down to the bottom of the tank whenever I moved too quickly, but if I stayed still for long enough they would let themselves float to the top and bob about ... some sitting on the wall, others in the middle just enjoying the sunshine I guess ...

Some of them had the most gorgeous black spotted legs ...

And, I've just come to an even greater appreciation of those glorious macro dragonfly shots taken by wildlife photographers ... they are damn hard little critters to capture, and they NEVER stay still!

smiles ...

Just a quick brag about my beautiful family ... :)

Tickles with dad ...

And is there any wonder why this boy gets away with murder!!?? ...

We teach them young in our house! ... "smile mum...!" .. They all have their daddy's eyes ...

She's not so little anymore ...

ACOCP and The Courier

This morning Joan Clayton from The Courier (the Adelaide Hills newspaper) came and did a brief interview about the ACOCP (Australian Charity of Child Photographers - www.acocp.org.au).

It is great to have the backing of some media coverage to help get the Charity known to the people who may need it - families.

So keep your eye out in next weeks Courier, in either the News or Life Style section!

Puddy Muddles ...

The best thing about mum and dad digging up the back yard ... ? PUDDLES!

And of course, mum with a camera!

Fairy Floss, Jumpy Castles, Kites and Drumming Monkeys!

This weekend we went to the Meadows Country Fair with Merryn and Jonathon and Charlee. It was a wonderfully typical country fair, with sac races, cows, clowns, fairies, rides and fairy floss!

First of all we went and saw the Amazing Drumming Monkeys ...

They are great! Soooo funny ... they drum and sing and try to get a little toy frog to jump into a pond of water ... they tried about 5 times, and finally got him in the pond! ...

Meanwhile, Max's obsession with his belly button continued ..


Did I mention how hot it was? It was about 35 degrees, and sitting in front of the Monkeys was HOT! Crazy weather, especially seeing as it is still October!



Then pester power won out and it was straight to the jumpy castle! ...


The bloke running the jumpy castle said the thing cost about $80,000, and has paid for itself 10 times over! He commented that on an average day at the Adelaide Royal Show, the castle clears $1,000 an hour! ... at $5 per child for about 7 minutes, that's a LOT of jumps!

He also said that he thought that it was currently too windy to legally have the castle open (!!!), but assured me that he had tied it down really well, even tying it to his truck ... it didn't really make me feel much better ...

Next door to the jumpy castle was a circus with performing dogs, and what they called a "comedy act" ... well ... the kids found it interesting ...

Here Max and Charlee watch the plate spinning ...

After the "comedy act", Morgan had the choice of either face painting or the craft stall. She chose the craft stall (which saved us about $5!) She chose to make a kite ("just like Charlee did"). She flew it around the fair for the rest of the day, putting many innosent fair-goers in peril with that stick!


The one thing Tim really wanted to do was buy Morgan her first Fairy Floss! It was great! At first she wouldn't have a bar of it! (What IS this - pillow stuffing!?) ... she wouldn't taste it, and looked at us like we were nuts! (Max got the hang of it pretty quickly though, and managed to polish of half the floss before Morgan summonded the courage to try some herself!)


It didn't take long until her looks of disgust, turned to delight as she entered the magical world of PURE SUGAR!

Off to sea Grandpop ...

We went down to see grandpop on the weekend (grandnan was off having a girls shopping weekend in Melbourne! half her luck!)

Grandnan and Grandpop's boat is moared at Goolwa due to the lack of water in the river, which is down by nearly a metre. Very sad.

It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon ... calm and warm ...

We got grandpop to take our first complete family picture!

We had hamburgers on the boat, and the kids had fish and chips ... got their jarmies on and headed home to bed ... it was lovely ...

Three little monkeys ...

..... jumping on the bed!

(thankfully they didn't fall down and bump their heads ... !)

And finally ... pictures of all three of my beautiful bubs ...

Merryn's Birthday & Father's Day!

I love these photos! Merryn is going to kill me! ...

We all went down to Clayton to Tim's folks place for a webber lunch ... it was great fun. The boys (Charlee & Max) had a wonderful time running the toy trikes into each other and then cracking up laughing! There was also much fun to be had in a large cardboard box ...

Much fun had playing "ride uncle Alan" ....

until ...

Good catch Uncle Alan!!!