I was honoured that my friend asked me to do a session for their son all the way from Singapore.
She wanted to have a session while they were in New Zealand for a short holiday.
The weather was gorgeous that day so it was great to take advantage and have their session in the Botanical Garden.

He certainly make me work for it as he was constantly on the go, which is a reminder that my boy will probably soon to follow on his path.
He was a cute little munchkin to hang out with and im glad i get to meet him and capture him at this wonder age.

I can’t believe its December already….the last month of this year, and this come up so quickly i found it scary! lol

Of course the most exciting thing about December is the countdown to Christmas,
so this year i have a new idea for my lil girl to get even more excited about Christmas approaching…

my lil girl loves scrapbooking, and anything arty and creative….she loves cutting paper, drawing, writing stuff, making cards,
all the things i used to love to do when i had plenty of time to occupy myself - hence before i had kids which felt like a looongg time ago lol.

So for almost for the whole month of November our Christmas project is to create the “25 days of Christmas countdown treat cards”.
I know we can easily buy the ready made stuff for this, but i thought it was a good idea to make them ourselves.
This was my plot to keep her busy during the weekdays for about an hour or so each day after i pick her up from school.
Usually we wait til Logan is due to have his nap before we start on the project each day
because there are a lot of scrapbooking material that can be a choking hazard for him.

Anyway, so Claudia was really excited to start the project after i explain to her what its all about. However each day it gets harder and harder
to think of a new idea of what to put on the cards…since we have to make 25 of them we have to come up with new idea each day….
sometimes thinking about what she wants to put into the card doesn’t come easy
so i suggested a few things for her and she gets the last word to say yay or nay lol

the most exciting thing for her is choosing what treats goes into each card…
she carefully chooses each one for the cards each day and she even said that she will share them with mummy and daddy, isn’t she nice?
she said she would also would love to share it with little brother but seeing that he is not allowed sweets yet
she said she will wait til next year before she shares her treats with her brother LOL

well the first day of December is been and gone, the night before i saw her eying the cards and excitedly said to me
“mummy i get to open my first countdown card tomorrow morning, yay!”
and sure enough early in the morning on 1st Dec she came down the stairs bouncing with excitement and grabbed her first card…

this will continue til Christmas and so far we still have 20 more cards hanging on the wall for her to open and enjoy each day.
I really enjoy the quality time we spend together making these countdown to Christmas cards with her,
and i  honestly think she really appreciates the one on one time with mummy too.
For at least one hour each day we get to have a quality time together without anything else interrupting us
and just enjoy being creative and doing something we both like to do.
So for those of you with children who loves being crafty, i highly recommend doing something like this with your kids..its well worth the effort.

So, just to show you our crafty work, here are a few shots of our Christmas countdown cards hanging at the corner wall of our stairs.

you can see how proud she is when we finished all the cards…
i was just about to take picture of the cards when she stood proudly beside our handy work and said “tadaa!!” lol

a closer look of the cards hanging on the wall

and this is what the cards looks like inside with her special message & one of the treats…

and lastly here is the finishing result at the end of our project…you can clearly see which cards she did herself
and which cards that has a lot of help from mummy LOL

we had the perfect summer days this weekend…loving the glorious warm weather and of course we had a wonderful family time outdoor.
we took Logan to the beach for the first time and his reaction to the new surrounding was priceless…
he played in the sand and of course was about to explore it further by putting it into his mouth when i caught it in time LOL

he was unsure about the sand actually….and when daddy dip his toes into the water he cried lol
I think it was because the water was still cold eventho the sun was so hot and bright…
the sun was so bright that he was squinting most of the time and luckily we lathered on the sunscreen on him so thickly
because he got a bit of a tan from his first trip to the beach LOL that is of course preferable than getting a sunburn…

anyway, hopefully this awesome weather is here to stay…we love that we get to spend quality family time outside.
here are some of our beach day pics to share…

first touch of the sand…he was hesitant and unsure of it at first…

me and the kids….i dont get many of these pics, so im grateful when i get one decent pic with both of them lol

Logan and daddy…

a kiss from mummy…please ignore my crazy messy hair lol

another one with daddy…

this is what happened when daddy dipped his toes into the water…lol

Claudia asked me to bury her in the sand….and she promised me that i’ll get to take pics of her sandy toes afterward LOL

isn’t life so wonderfully simple when you are a baby?
he smiles, he babble and he smiles and giggles….
he explores everything with curiosity, and of course everything its new and exciting…
I can’t think of a better way to spend my day than capturing the simple moments in his young life…

oh and he is finally sitting up…i think he finally finds his center and can sit up a bit longer now, although still a bit wobbly at times LOL

Btw, he is still attempting to fly off somewhere…LOL this is still his fave position when he is on tummy time…

my little girl is turning 6 today…
i want to tell her how very special she is, how proud we are of her,
and how much of a joy it is to see her grow and blossom to be a smart and beautiful little lady.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!
you are a special treasure and we love you for being you,
and may the love you have shown to others return to you, multiplied…
we wish you the happiest of birthday, and many, many more.

btw, today is also happens to be a ‘Red Nose Day’
its been 13 years since Kiwis have been spotted with red noses, and today Red Nose Day is back!
its being organized by Cure Kids with the aim of raising $1 million to help fund research into life-threatening illnesses affecting Kiwi kids…

what better day to celebrate a special day for my little one…we hope by small means we are helping other kiwi kids in a worthy cause.
if you see the street collectors today please give generously…

here is my little sweetheart with her big red nose…

even her fave puppy - Spot the dog, gets a red nose today…

this last one was taken before she changed her clothes, so eventho her top doesn’t match her red nose i still like it, bcoz she looks so silly! LOL

i have been thinking that my boy is seriously attempting to fly when he can’t even walk yet LOL
this is his favorite position during tummy time…both hands on his side flapping furiously as well as kicking up his legs.

he is so cheeky and inquisitive yet made of pure sweetness…i just can’t get enough of him.

im sure if he has a super power he would’ve taken off flying by now…look at him! lol

but of course, its not safe flying without a protective gear…just as well mummy made his hat, it fits like a helmet! lol

another one of his flying pose - one hand on hips and one hand in front…”hmm, wonder why i haven’t taken off yet?” hahaha

“what’s that mummy? what do you mean i can’t fly??” LOL

lately its all about being able to reach his toes when lying on his back and he is munching on everything within reach - that includes his own toes! LOL

yup that’s right peeps, my baby boy turns 7 months old today…so of course i had to post some new pics as he changes constantly.
Its so true what people say to me about the difference between raising boys and girls…their personality is so different (but that was to be expected)
and i can already tell that he is going to be a handful when he reach toddler-hood, whereas his sister was so laid back (i think we strike it lucky with her lol)

Logan reaches his milestones differently from Claudia, at 7 months he still cannot sit unsupported yet whereas Claudia sat up at 5 months
and was already bum shuffling at 7 months. However Logan rolls over earlier at 4 months whereas Claudia didn’t reach that milestone until
she was 7 months old.

Logan loves to squeals and babble, he is so vocal at expressing his needs, whereas Claudia was so laid back she was happy to just chill
and wait until we do things we need to do for her. Logan has just started to notice his toes now and his favorite position while on the floor
was lifting his legs up and reaching up to his toes. He also have 2 teeth and starting to really enjoy having his solids.

So here is my boy at 7 months old…

just wanted to share some recent pics of my cute snow bunny…
i had to bundle him up in the warmest and snuggliest jacket he has seeing how cold it was yesterday…the wind chill made
the temperature dipped to 1 degree and its suppose to be Spring! yikes! i think winter still trying to snuck-in every now and then…

anyway, i knew i had to wrap him up nice and warm when i have to take him outside, specially since he is still recovering from bronchitis
i have to be extra careful not to expose him to the cold weather…not that i can help it seeing that i have to drop off and pick up his sister
from school everyday, so regardless what the weather is like i have to bring him out with me. But dont worry i also made sure the pram cover
is on to shield him from the cold & the wind, so i think he was nice and toasty inside the pram when i took him out for a walk.

Anyway so I took some quick snaps of him in his cute bunny jacket….here is my cute snow bunny (coz it looks like he was ready to brace the snow LOL)

one of my fave quote from Storypeople:
“there has never been a day i have not been proud of you, I said to my kids, though some days i’m louder about other stuff so its easy to miss that…”

and today i want to say something about that, mainly because i feel that these days i always seem to be yelling
or growling (like my daughter would say) about one thing or another…so i just want to take one day to say
how proud i am of my daughter and how much i appreciate her in my life…

this morning as i struggle to wake up i saw Claudia slide into bed beside me because daddy has just gone to work…
she was already armed with her writing pad and her glittery pens at 7am in the morning.
i managed to squint and lift one eye open as i saw her scribbling into her writing pad.
as i was dozing off she touched my shoulder and ask me “mummy i made a song for you, do you want me to sing it?”
i was still half asleep so i said “that’s nice honey, but Logan is still asleep so can you please wait until we go downstairs
then you can sing it to me while we have breakfast…”

about half an hour later i finally gave up my attempt to catch a quick snooze and we went downstairs for breakfast…
of course she wasted no time to sing me her song which she created specially for me….and do you know what the song is about?
its about how much we wanted to complete our family with her having a brother and she wrote in the end that now we’ve got a family…
isn’t she the most thoughtful, loving and talented lil girl?

her other fave thing is of course is making cards and drawings…our house is full of them.
she uses a LOT of papers and usually her creations involves almost an entire roll of sticky tape (cello tape) but of course
those cards and drawings meant a lot to her so we have to keep it safe (along with a gazillion other stuff that she makes daily LOL).

I know shouldn’t complain because it is very sweet to have your daughter showers you with attention and showing how much she loves us…
like yesterday when she came home from the park with nana with a handful of flowers picked specially for mummy…
awww, seriously sweet rite? btw, if anyone asked who is that kid that keeps on picking random flowers in the park,
just act like you know nothing of it… LOL

and get this, sometimes when im tired and i complain that my body is sore she offered me a back rub to make me feel better….
if only daddy is quite that forthcoming with his back rub offers! LOL she put a lot of effort to her back rub too,
she even uses my massage oil and doing the little chopping motion at the end.
“howz that feel mummy? do you feel better now?” she asked after a couple of mins. ”
“ohh that feels so much better sweetie, thank you so much!”
come one now, what mum in the world is not touched with her daughter’s thoughtfulness like that?

she also gave me another thoughtful gift the other day….made specially of a toilet paper roll and cotton buds,
surely by now you cannot deny her creative talent….and she also made a drawing of our family eventho her proportion size
might need adjusting a bit because for some reason a picture of Logan is somewhat bigger than hers
and seeing that Logan is still a baby a lot smaller than her you can say the picture is a bit misleading LOL

Yes, there is nothing like a gift from your child to remind you that it really is the little things and the thought that counts.

check out the song she wrote this morning about our family…

and these are our collection of cards, drawings, notes that she made for us from all around the house…

the drawing she made of us and her toilet roll creation…lol

and of course we can’t forget the flowers she hand-picked specially for mummy…

this last note was for my mum…Claudia wrote it a couple of weeks ago and she wants us to mail it to Oma, but god knows how long it takes
to send mails to Jakarta these days, so im taking a picture of the note specially for my mum so she knows how much Claudia misses her…

I know i have missed a few days of blogging…it is mainly because of the school holiday as i have no time for anything else but the kids,
however it is also because i just re-opened my Etsy shop again and i have a few hat orders that i have to do,
so im trying to get those orders out in my spare time (been knitting furiously lol), which is usually after the kids are in bed for the night….
that time is my downtime that i usually use for blogging and uploading photos, but now i have to divide it evenmore
between uploading photos, making hats and quality time with hubby….so needless to say im behind on blogging again.

But don’t worry, eventho i didn’t get a chance to update the blog, i have been keeping my promise and still taking daily photos.
Ijust dont have the time to download them from my memory card, edit and upload them or update my blog as often as i would like….

Anyway, so we finally had a decent weather over the weekend after a whole series of crappy weather…
so we decided to take advantage of the fine weather and went to the Spring Festival in the botanical garden over the weekend.
The tulips were in full bloom and was soo beautiful….i took some tulip photos of course which i will post a bit later or maybe tomorrow
if i get some free time to download the photos from my memory card and upload them here.

in the mean time…while we were in botanical garden over the weekend we saw a Tree Climbing Competition for kids,
which was one of the school holiday activities that the City Council have going during the Spring Festival.
Along with the competition, there were people there who were teaching newbie kids on how to climb a tree properly
with safe rope and proper harness. After observing a few kids having a go at learning how to climb, Miss C decided she wanted to give it a try,
luckily i have my camera with me so i took some snaps….we were impressed that she was brave enough to climb pretty high up…

oh and btw, these pictures were damn hard to take in a full sun as well as dappled light underneath the tree so there are a lot of harsh shadows
and blown highlights….but i dont care, i have mommy goggles on when i took these coz we were so proud of her, she was very brave
and we were impressed that she have the guts to do it as it was pretty high up (specially for me coz im petrified of heights! lol)
and most importantly we were glad that she had a great time.

getting ready to climb…safety first, so she has to put the harness and making sure the rope is secure…

being taught how to handle the rope…

making sure everything is safe and secure before the climbing start…

okay so here we go….being hoisted up first…

a bit higher…

and she is off….

now she is trying to go back down…

going down is easier than climbing up…

just like a pro at handling the rope now….lol

almost there…

and…touch down! yay…isn’t she brave?!