21/52

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

Evie: love this face and this girl
Dexter: happy and filthy

We spent a lovely family afternoon sorting out the veggie garden, you can see our large variety of weeds in the photo above!

Some lovely links - 28

- 'Pope Valley Oaks' by Karen Smidth. From Serena and Lily, via mint

 - There's something about this photo, it just grabs me. From the socialite family, via bloesem kids

 - if money were no object I'd love to buy these bathers for Evie. From Stella McCartney

- baked this Date Spice Loaf during the week, delicious, every recipe from Deb Perelman is a winner. From smitten kitchen

- '7 ways to look better in photos' from Garance, great tips and charmingly written

- a cool blog post on living simply, it has made me think about my purchases and consumption

- an art exhibition is a great way to help kids feel proud of their art, and get relatives to buy it and take it home!

- '6 tips for photographing your child' on Cup of Jo

- a lovely post about independence and young kids

- little adelaide kate has been posting about planting natives at home, great idea

20/52

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

Evie: we made a 'houseboat' cubby with the lounges and sheets, then spent some 'girl time' just chatting - she's delightful
Dexter:this curious boy doesn't sit still for long (all rugged up for a visit to Mount Lofty this morning)

19/52

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

Evie: my tired beautiful girl
Dexter: peek-a-boo and giggles, he fills my heart

Happy mother's day to me...

Today I'm looking forward to being spoilt with a trip to a cafe, some homemade gifts and lots of cuddles. Happy mother's day to you and yours.

Evie and Dexter

18/52

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

Evie: looking little and wide-eyed on the bus
Dexter: that wrinkley-nose smile just kills me

17/52

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

Evie: loves the local skate park, growing in confidence and speed each visit
Dexter: ring ring, hello?

Evie's fifth birthday party

Evie turned five during the school holidays (crazy town, when did I become the mother of a five year old!). I'm sure you've gathered by now that Evie is quite a character, and her choice of party theme did not disappoint - a Christmas party!!

We held the party in a local park, with fine sunny weather, it was quite glorious. We kept the guest list simple with immediate families and a handful five year old friends.

Here's Evie in her Christmassy outfit, waiting for the guests to arrive, looking forlorn with her scooter (we replaced this scooter with a 'grown up' one for her birthday a couple of days later)

Here's our set-up - we got lots of decorations and tableware from friends and family, and borrowed the tree from little adelaide kate (thanks!). Under the tree are the party bags for Evie's friends - we painted the wrapping paper together and had fun filling them with treats (balloon, colouring sheet, bubbles, chocolate, stickers).

ha this photo cracks me up! Roger bought a Santa suit for the occasion and totally surprised Evie, it was awesome.