a weekend with my sister

A belated post due to a busy couple of weeks...
I recently had a wonderful weekend in Geelong with my gorgeous sister Christy. I went down to surprise her for the weekend (thanks to my fabulous super-husband who stayed home with the kiddies) which was such fun. What a treat to have a couple of days together and just hang out. I look at this photo and realise the older we get, the more alike we look. I LOVE that! Oooh, and that's my divine little nephew Micah (very unusual that's he's not beaming!).

exploring, painting and picnics in the sun

Another fun-filled monday with Christine and Trinity...
Fun in the cubby house
Eating food-dye paint instead of painting on the paper
Picnics in the glorious sun at the park
A very happy, tired little girl

mothers' night at kindy

I'm being very naughty as I have LOADS of work to do at the moment, but couldn't resist taking some time out to quickly post this photo of me and my gorgeous boy! Emma took this photo at Mothers' Night at kindy last week which was a celebration of mums just before Mother's Day. It was such a wonderful night and Aski just had a ball. He was absolutely delightful and kept whispering 'Happy Mother's Night Mummy' in a very loud stage whisper in my ear all night and was beside himself with excitement. It's times like that that make you remember how blessed you are and how your kids are the most wonderful human beings on the planet!

shopping at home

Arkie shops for some collage supplies...

Aski manning the butcher shop complete with foam steaks and sausages

Aski surveying his stocks of DVDs

Today's activities...

1. Mid morning coffee with the lovely Sally at XOXO in Paddington with two crazy kids with way too much energy.
2. Trip to Officeworks to buy some new crayons and have some fun with the (much loved) mini kids trolleys.
3. Very fun trip to Reverse Garbage to fill a bag of collage materials, then got side-tracked when Aski decided he wanted to make up a market when we got home...ended up coming home with a range of retro price tags, gelati cups from a shop that closed down, and a range of other weird and wonderful things as seen above in the Battley's Marketplace pics!

We spent the rest of the day setting up our marketplace complete with Mummy's butcher shop, Askin's DVD shop and Arkie's collage shop! Much fun to be had...

lest we forget...

ANZAC Day (today) began early for us Battleys with a little trek across town to Gaythorne RSL to watch Grandad Trevor march in the Anzac Parade. Aski learnt all about ANZAC Day at kindy this week so was super keen to see his Grandad march. He was just so proud to stand beside his Grandad, and nearly made it all the way through the service. Trevor was so lovely and gave Aski a special Vietnam badge that he was desperate to show anyone who showed even the slightest amount of interest. Of course, I was absolutely hopeless, tearing up as soon as I saw the veterans marching and then just got worse as the national anthem was played, then the last post, I even had to hold back the tears at the New Zealand national anthem! In all seriousness, it was such a privilege to be a part of the service, and I love that our children will have an appreciation of the sacrifice Australian servicemen have made, and continue to make for our freedom. We are a very, very blessed country.

The Hoff has officially moved in

It's official, The Hoffy (the very lovely retro fixie that Cal built from scratch), has moved in. I've been bugging him to mount it on the wall since he built it up as it's so gorgeous, and being white it matches our house perfectly! It still comes off the wall for the friday and sunday fixie rides, but mostly it just hangs on the wall looking super cool.

easter at the coast

In what has become a bit of an Easter tradition, our easter holidays were spent this year at the Sunshine Coast with the whole Battley family. We all stayed together at Cotton Tree with days spent swimming, park playing, boating, fishing, riding bikes and even an afternoon of jet-skiing thanks to Cal's Uncle Lindsay! Easter Sunday began with a hopping visit from a crazy Granny Easter Bunny resplendent in her stripey bathrobe with bunny ears made out of paper towels!! The kids loved every minute and also enjoyed their first Easter egg hunt in the park. We finished the weekend feeling thoroughly blessed that we have such a gorgeous family that we genuinely love spending time with.