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Ella //  It's been too cold to play outside so we've been having fun indoors.  But gosh I can't wait for it to warm up!

Lucas //  I love seeing them open their eyes for the first time in the morning

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Ella //  Swings and balloons - two of her favourite things.

Lucas //  Just hanging out at his first birthday party.

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Ella //  To celebrate Lucas' birthday we let them run wild at Lollipops Playland.  Needless to say they slept for over two hours when they got home.

Lucas //  Opening presents bright and early on his first birthday.

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Ella //  Learning to use a knife and helping me make dinner.  She was so very proud of herself.

Lucas //  Making a huge racket banging lids.  My ears!

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Ella & Lucas // Doing a spot of cleaning

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Ella //  Every five minutes - look, I can lick my nose mama!

Lucas //  This is how I find him when he's supposed to be sleeping.  Just looking out the window.

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Ella //  Sometimes the kids wake up at the crack of dawn and to make the most of the early rise we go out for breakfast together.  Eggs benedict make everything better!

Lucas //  Judging by the brown marks on your onsie Lucas, you will need more than a dust pan and broom to clean mama's floors!

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Ella //  Not technically a portrait of Ella I know…but those hands.  I love them so much, especially when they are squeezed around my neck for a hug.  We painted our nails together today.

Lucas //  He took his first steps on my birthday and then got a little lazy but in the last day or two though he's really started to get this whole walking thing!  It's difficult to get a picture of him now as he toddles around the place - he's just a blur.  My baby is growing up.  It's bitter sweet.

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Ella //   She has a crazy birds nest going on at the back of her head most days

Lucas //  Just gardening

This is why I've been absent...

I love cake decorating and towards the end of last year, after much encouragement from family and friends, I decided that I should take my hobby a step further and actually turn it into a little business.  It certainly won't mean that I can forget about returning to work (boo hoo! - I'm due back at the end of June) but it has helped with buying little things here and there and has been great for me to focus on something other than the children or the house or all the other things that a stay at home mum has to deal with.

It has been difficult though.  The only times that I can do things like this is when the kids are having a nap or after they have gone to bed, which means that I have had little to no downtime this year (and it shows in the way that I snap at my poor husband constantly!  Sorry Timmy) and lots of late nights.  But I have to keep reminding myself that this is something that I love to do and need to persist and then maybe one day it will turn into something bigger and I won't need to work for somebody else any more.

Although I haven't done a great deal to promote my business, I have had so much support from friends and family and I started a Facebook page and have had so many likes and inquiries - it's so encouraging.  Time has gotten away from me and the plans I had to write a proper business plan and marketing schedule and all the other things on my list I need to do, have slipped by the wayside.  I'm in a bit of a catch 22 situation at the moment because I really want to put everything into place properly before I return to work so that I don't lose momentum, but at the same time, I'm so scared that when I return to work I'll be so much more busy that I won't be able to continue with my cakes.  I guess it's all about priorities though.  I just need to keep my head up!

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Ella //  "Faster! Faster!"

Lucas //  A trip to the park wouldn't be complete without eating  few fistfuls of bark

Mother's Day 2014

We spent the Mother's Day weekend at the farm with mum and dad this year.  We hadn't been up there for quite some time so everybody was really looking forward to it, particularly Ella. 

It was a quiet weekend.  The weather was dreary so there wasn't a great deal to do but we managed to fit in a few walks, lots of eating and lots of relaxing.  Ella also flew a kite for the very first time which was exciting for her.

Poppy and Ella made Nanny and I pancakes for breakfast on Mother's Day itself.  It was nice to be spoiled.

Every time I come home from the farm I always think to myself "why do we live in the city again?"  Hmmm, if only we could find a small block of land not far from suburbia (within our price range!).  Needless to say the realestate.com.au website has been getting a workout from me over the last few days.  If only I had a cool $1.5mil spare...Better buy a lottery ticket.

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Ella //  Flying a kite for the first time at the farm

Lucas //  A quiet moment with mama sitting on the bridge (he was enthralled with my rendition of 'Old McDonald had a farm')