Filling the gaps.....in 26 days

I know, I know! It's been a while, but let's just skip over that little fact while I attempt to reacquaint myself with the world of blogging :)

I thought to ease myself back into it, I'd at least try and fill some of the gaps that now consume this space :) and what better way to do that than with a (nother) photo project!!

So for the month of July (or should I say, the rest of July:) I will attempt to reclaim my abandoned blog by sharing photos with some bits and pieces of our year thus far!

Day 1.......

Spending time picnic-ing, bike riding, and park playing at bicentennial park!! One of my favourite things to do with our kids and visiting family!!

 

ps) I don't recommend bike riding and trying to film at the same time either ;)

Week-end Happiness

Early morning walk with one

market {family}goodness

post market {lunch}freshness

cubby house reflections

can't help but be cute time

pool play

work time

down time

family time.

And a few more

Spring in Darling Harbor.......

and what's a trip to the city without playing in the spinning doors of fancy hotels :)

Book GIVEAWAY!!

So sticking with the theme of  books we love (from the last post), I also love a GOOD parenting book. For my birthday last year I gifted myself with this one (Chad was away, so what's a girl to do. .miss out. I think not :)

This is definitely one of my FAVOURITE parenting books. I love it because it's so enjoyable and EASY to read. It's real, inspirational and offers practical and achievable ways to "Making Motherhood Magnificent" and finding joy in the little things. Even when the journey is sometimes crazy and hard! And don't we all know that Motherhood is at times both of those things :)

The truth is I want to give this book to everyone I know. That's how much I enjoyed reading it (and I am a BIG 'fan' of the Eyres and love Shawni's blog). Recently I 'acquired' a few more copies and thought it would be fun to give ONE away on this here little blog! After all this is my birth week as Chad calls it, so why not share the love (and the gifts :) right??

This will likely be my one and only 'giveaway' (which by the way Chad thinks is quite 'funny' that i'm doing, but it's my birthday so i'll CRY give one away if I want to :)  and since this post and the last one are really all about good books, why not???

  

So TO ENTER, leave a comment telling us either your favourite children's book or one of your personal favourites (for the record, Twilight doesn't count - even though we know we all love it, even if we don't admit it :)!!

Next Friday (which happens to be Chad's birthday) we'll randomly pick someone to RECEIVE the book :)

POST SCRIPT:  Just for the record (OK this is really to answer Chad's questions relating to the 'giveaway' :) the book is NEW, not my used copy, It is FREE and postage is NOT $25 as Chad suggested. there is NO postage cost.....It is a giveaway! If you (Chad) or anyone else have any other questions feel free to ask :)

Can't wait to hear your favourite books!!

Books we LOVE

We are serious book LOVERS in our house. We read everyday. Multiple times a day. I especially LOVE children's stories that have some kind of moral to them. Stories that we can talk about and learn a little something from.

Some of our current favourites (which do change regularly and are not all 'morally' based are.....

Green Eggs and Ham (read at least 4 times a week during our bedtime 'reading ritual' and great for helping Zahn try new foods that he assumes he won't like :)

Miko makes me laugh - it's a about a little mouse that wakes up early and wants to play with his mum but she wants to sleep a little bit longer (ahhh so appropriate for my current state in life :)

and then there's this one......

A cute story about appreciating that 'treasure' is not always what we think it will be!

and there's Gakky Two-Feet......

when we first got this one I thought it was going to go down the 'evolution' path but it didn't :) It's just a funny story about a monkey that's different and how he learns to accept his differences.

We call this one Stripes! Another funny book about being yourself  and not worrying about what others think (aaahhhhh to instill this message in my children :)

Then there's the Feelings books by Trace Moroney (ugh sorry about the quality of the pic - but you get the idea)

We often read the 'Angry' one when Zahn is 'about' to go into timeout or when he's just finished :)

And this one is one of my MOST favourites. EVER.....

We pretty much LOVE all of Max Lucado children's books and have been reading this one since Rylan was about 3.

If you don't have it, you should seriously go and get it. like right now. I promise it will become one of your favourites too!!

This little list of ours could probably go on forever so we'll leave it at that for now and say Happy Reading!!

PS) Rylan wanted me to add that all Pokemon, Zac Powers and Diary of a Whimpy Kid books are also on our favourites list :)!

a few of their favourite things.....

Our kids get a serious kick out of watching FUNNY you tube videos with Chad! I have no idea how they find them. but they do. and they ARE funny!

There are a couple that have now become 'famous' in our house and are watched regularly.

This is one of them.




Definitely one of their favourites! It is a classic listening to the kids laugh EVERY TIME they watch this!

Cookies and Monsters.....

Thanks to my creative genius sister Fiona and the celebration of her sons first birthday, today we made these little babies. The kids absolutely LOVED them!!

Cookie Monster on the other hand was not impressed when he saw what we were eating........

school holiday catch up......

The holidays finished over 2 weeks ago now so I better get this post out before it becomes too old to put on here (like half of our Japan pictures that were never posted :)

some of the things that occupied our time......

• we had our boys book club get-together (we didn't have our 'book chat' this time but the boys and I still read one of the Zac powers books)

• hours and hours were spent playing lego......

• Jazzy joined the world of 'doing crazy faces' to make people laugh. It works. Everytime. The boys think it is hilarious. She loves their reaction and loves to entertain them!

• The boys were thrilled they got to play the computer! I love it when Jazzy watches with them.....and I love her little hand resting on Zahn's shoulder - oh so cute)

• we ate pancakes galore.......

• and ate lots of delicious fruit to try and compensate for all those pancakes

• we played games. a lot. (and the boys were happy to keep playing games while I had my little sleeps during the day thanks to my crazy bout of sickness). There may have been bribes involved....I mean rewards if they played nicely and didn't fight.....or wake me up :)

• breakfast in bed = the best day ever......the pic with jazz in the background cracks me up - so hopeful that somehow she'll get over that gate and share the food.

(as you can see zahn still wears his costumes pretty much every day. you'll notice he even wears them to bed. they are washed more than any other item of clothing in our house).

Jasmin is still the.cutest.baby.in.the.world (she may also be the loudest and craziest :) but cute none-the-less

• we had friends come and play
• sleep overs with the Degaris's and the 'boy cousins'
  
• movie nights with treats!
• Went to little A's
  
• Rode our bikes and scooters and.....

relaxed @ home! We love the holidays!