Connections Challenge from Remember When's blog

Ok so over at Remember When's Blog, they are having weekend challenges. This weeks is to find some photos with connections. I love this idea and have been working on it a little already. I have posted one of these pictures in a previous post, and I have also taken a few same age, same place type photos and I have scrapped a few, but none together on the one page - I will give this a go soon.
Here are some pictures I have found and put together, it was lots of fun - you should give it a try!
















This one is a favourite, I have had this picture of my husband up in our house since Noah was born, and the number of people that have commented about it thinking it was Noah just confirms how much these two look alike! The one on the left is Andrew, at 3 days, the right is the day Noah was born.
















This is my hospital photo and Katelin at just 6 hours old, Katelin is on the right.
















I am loving these two photos, it is amazing what you can find that is similar when you look. This is my Mum holding me, and then me feeding Noah a bottle I am loving that we have such similar photos.
















Andrew and Noah in their respective baths, I think there is a bit of an age difference here, Andrew is sitting up and Noah is only two months, but it is so cute!



















This one is a favourite and one I have shared before. I actually edited this to be in the same file and I can't wait to scrap it some how! Katelin is about 2 months, Mum thinks I am about 4 months.


























There seems to be a lot of shots of Andrew and I in bouncers, so I had to look a bit for one to match up, but I did find one. Katelin on the left and me on the right. My Mum still has this dress of mine too! And there seems to be a few similar shots of Andrew and I, perhaps as we are so colse in age, but that is a whole other project!


























These two are fun, there is not much detail on Mum's photo but from what I have been told, I climbed into my sisters cot one morning. There is four years between my sister and I. And this is Noah reading Katelin her bedtime story (in the middle of the day), there is only two years between my two.
















These two cheekies seem to love doing the washing up, if only it would last. I can assure you Andrew shares the same dislike for washing up that I do and we really are very lucky to own a dishwasher, trust me I know first hand, we went without one for six months when our old one decided not to work - we were running out of dishes a lot!
















These last ones are just of my kids, about the same age and in the same place. These shots of Noah are some of my absolute favourites. This is his first swim at the beach, Avoca rock pools infact. So I tried to get some similar shots of Katelin at the same time 2 years later, not her first visit to the beach though, she has been many times before - we love the beach!


























And lastly, this was a pure coincidence. My husband snapped this photo of Katelin and when I saw it I knew I had some similar ones of Noah! Too cute.

I am Lucky!

I am just feeling very lucky today, it has been a good day! For a while now I have been disappointed in myself for being grumpy all the time and yelling at the kids too much. Yes I know everyone does it, and I always have, it just seems for a while it has been a lot worse.
We have all had a good day, playing, cleaning and just hanging out. There has been a dramatic decrease in the grumpiness and everyone is getting on much better because of it.
Also I had a lucky find today. I have been looking for a while for some pictures on an old mobile phone of mine. I happened to open a draw today and there it was, waiting for me to find it.
So I will share some of the pictures I had been looking for.































































































Some of my favourites, I love the outfit, I love the beanie or heanie as it is called, and I love these feet in the sand! Taken in July 07, gotta love heading to the beach on a sunny winter day. This pictures remind me I am lucky.














Also I found a picture of Noah asleep on the floor with his toys, this is an awful shot but so important, as this was such a huge part of our everyday for a long time, and I never thought to take any others.






































And lastly, when you don't have your camera on you there is always a good photo opportunity - so make do with the camera phone. These shots also don't have great colour, but if you look closely you can see two little sets of footprints crossing over one another, so precious to me.
I am lucky, and hopefully I can continue to show it to all.

Turning Two, in photos!

So as you know my baby girl is two and I thought I would share her celebrations in photos. I was so inspired by Di's beautiful words about her daughter, you can read here.
Official Birthday day starts with Daddy home for breakfast and your family bursting in with birthday greetings.



















Being two takes a little getting used to.













You get to open presents.













And your big brother loves to help.



















It is always great to have some happy birthday cake, even if it is wooden. Real cake was the order for breakfast. We didn't have any ready though.
Brunch with Mummy at our favourite place, Avoca Beach.



















Who doesn't love to eat sugar, you can get away with a lot when you are 2!













You also get birthday muffins.













We can never leave without playing in the sand, and just look at that view, who wouldn't want to eat here.













Throwing some sand is always fun.













And here is the special bracelet my family gave me, I know there is a cake and some pink. I got some more beads at my party too.













And sometimes you just look cute, when you are 2!



















Finally in the evening there is some Dorothy cake, and dinner with Nanny and Poppy. (Yes Mummy made the cake)



















Blowing out the candles, I am getting the hang of this!



















And on to my special tea party, such a fun party, just for me!



















Looking very fashionable in some of my new presents!



















Some more singing and candles to blow out, I know the words now too!



















The birthday girl gets all the balloons, there is one orange one for my brother though!













And after two days of partying a two year old has to get her beauty sleep!

My baby is 2!

Today, my baby girl turns two! I can't believe it, I am sure she was just that baby I posted in the me and her picture, where did two years go?



















This was getting out of bed to open presents this morning. Daddy stayed home for the event (he is usually at work by 6). Katelin said "Hap Bithday Katie" and "Katie eat cake" as her choice for breakfast.
These are opening her wooden cake which was a huge hit.

























































I will share more later, we are off to morning tea. I will also try to post a picture of the bracelet we gave her.
Enjoy your day, my baby girl and I will be. Happy birthday precious girl!

Me & Her

Loved this idea from Ali Edwards. Couldn't wait to do my own! Love it - no words needed.

The Easter Show

Ok so I am borrowing the idea, but I really love it. Ali has posted a couple of times recently, a story in photos. So I am going to give it a try, to share and so I can use it for journalling.
I took both my children to the Sydney Royal Easter Show yesterday, by myself, yes an almost 2 and an almost 4 year old!
So once we were packed up we got in the car and started on our journey, after running back in to get a jacket for me! I should have taken a photo at the start but was getting frustrated so got in the car and left. Kids had been up since 6am and we left at 9am.
Thankfully there was some sleeping in the car about 40 minutes each, and once I had nicely parked the car and turned it off I was greeted with "that didn't take very long Mummy!"
So we headed into the grounds past all of the rides, where Noah mentioned some like the merry go round or carousel horses looked fun.













I decided on a show first to sit and watch and have some snacks after our journey, so we went to see Wow Wow Wubbzy! Noah was extremely excited to see in person a character from television.













There was some eating of cookies, some dancing to the songs, some applause which was very cute to see and then of course a crash off the chairs onto the concrete, complete with graze and bruise, to Katelin.













Pie making was next to see and Noah was most interested in watching the man as he made the pies asking about the processes, he didn't really follow the man telling the story as it was not simple enough for him. So I explained as I was hearing the information myself. This was followed up with "I would like to eat a pie Mummy" or would you like a sausage roll, "no I asked for a pie!" I questioned because he doesn't normally eat pies, but he was certain.



















Enjoying the pie while waiting for a milking demonstration. He finished the whole thing, it was only small though.













The working dairy was fun to learn about, for the kids, and I have childhood memories as my Aunt and Uncle had a dairy, and I spent many holidays there, they only farm beef cattle now and it is not the same. "Why isn't he throwing me one" Noah said of the man giving the demonstration. He was handing our squeezie yoghurt's, Noah's favourite, to children that answered questions correctly. Noah was a little young for this, but he did try and he got a yoghurt.













One of the few shots of the day including myself, since I went alone it was hard to drag the camera out a lot too.
From here we needed a toilet stop, which was important as Katelin (not quite 2) has toilet trained herself recently and she wasn't distracted, she remembered to say when she needed to go even if it was in the middle of the milking demonstration. And she went all day like that I am so very proud of her. Next we tried to watch a milking demonstration but that was full so we sat early and watched a shearing demonstration.













There was patting of the sheep dog, and Katelin was very proud of herself patting the ram who walked around on a lead type thing. Noah was amazed at the fuzziness of the sheep and that what was cut off the sheep was the wool, a bit like what was displayed in front. He wanted to have a turn of the shearing so we qued up and waited for ages, and missed out by two people as the sheep had had enough. "I want to have a turn. I missed out, too many kids had a turn and I missed out" I felt sad for him he was really keen to do it and quite upset he missed out.













Off to que up for the racing and diving pigs next. This was a bit of a que so it took a while to get in, about 15 mins. The kids were great waiting and while we sat inside and waited for the show to start we ate some sandwiches that I packed for lunch. After some instructions for the crowd to cheer the piggys came out. The races were over very quickly but the kids thought the piggys were funny.













As for the diving it was over in two blinks one pig came out jumped and missed the water and landed in the net. Noah was confused. The next pig came out and jumped and this was all I got. Noah then understood what was meant to happen and he said "one piggy missed".














Noah had remembered the sack race from last year and he asked to do it again. "I want to go to the sack race". Katelin was keen to try, but as you can see she couldn't hold her sack up for my photo. So the kids jumped. I helped Kate and Noah fell over, he got up and kept going, we only did half way and the other kids were coming back so we turned around and headed back. The kids got another free squeezie yoghurt for participating.



















What little boy can resist hitting something with a hammer. After watching several other children have a go Noah decided he wanted a turn to. He had a few goes on his own and then I helped him. Apparently I am not particularly strong, especially when assisting an almost four year old. But we both had fun trying. We walked past this several time so we had a few more goes as the day progressed, not much improvement though.













Collecting our second squeezie meant a stop in the car and a picture, think this should say something about not drinking and driving - not sure yoghurt is against the law though!













No trip to the show is complete without a visit to the baby animal nursery. Both Noah and Katelin ran around patting all the animals walking around freely. They were both so excited, Noah kept patting the sheep and saying fuzzy. Katelin walked around and quickly patted an animal then stood up with a huge grin and looked at me. It was very cute to see. There was so much excitement while we were in there. We walked around and looked at the different animals, the baby chicks hatching and the ducklings going down the slide are always a favourite.













Noah was keen to see sausage making, after all it is one of his favourite things to eat. The two butchers doing the show were having fun with it so it kept Noah very entertained. There were lots of antics the above shot was filling the sausage skin. They did it too fast and sausage came flying out then the skin popped and meat went every where. Noah thought this was hilarious. "It made a splat on the roof and the floor, they were going crazy!" Noah was also fascinated with the linking together of the sausage. I am glad we chose to watch this.













After some walking around Noah asked if we could "go on the big rounding wheel" we had seen earlier. This was the only ride he had asked to go on so far, and it turned out to be the only one all day. So I was happy to take them on. I love this shot they are both looking around in amazement. "It was very high up, look at all the things around" We all loved to see the park from so high up and I took a couple of photos I really liked.













This one captures the day well, a bit of drizzle on and off all day, but we managed to stay dry.













And one of the old Ferris wheel, such an icon of the show. I love it!

For the rest I did not take photos we just wandered around, looking at the food displays and having dinner and looking at the crafts. The kids were great. Noah asked for a light sword. Katelin got a spinning light wand. The only other thing Noah asked for all day. Then we headed into the main arena for the night shows, and because it was raining. We watched some horse polo type game, not sure of its name. Then the amazing story of True Blue, an Aussie cattle dog, and he chased sheep, cattle and horses. Noah loved that. Then we sang some songs. The precision driving cars were cancelled due to the rain, such a shame as Noah would have loved them. But we did see two crazy little cars driving around which Noah thought was quite funny and they started off the fire works. Katelin fell asleep in the pram by this time. We watched the fire works and they were awesome, they went for ages too. It was a great end to the day and the kids had been fantastic all day. We headed home, on the way out I snapped this as we walked past.













Noah liked the look of the lights on the big wheel we had been on earlier. As we went past all the rides which were now closed Noah said "oh I didn't go on the horseys" but that was all. He fell asleep too on the walk to the car. We then drove home and arrived at 10.30 what a day!