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Learning to say good-bye

Our featured book this week is 'Owl Babies' (by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson) All my kids from babies, to toddlers and preschoolers just love, love, love this story. Even my two big school aged kids still enjoy listening to this story. The very first time I picked this story up to read to my kids, I thought it was such a plain and simple story. Three baby owls missing their mummy... waiting, waiting, waiting for her to come back. And when she finally comes back, everyone is happy again. That's it. That's essentially the plot. I wondered why the children were so eager to listen to this simple story so many times. Was it simply the three cute little baby owls in the story? Probably. Then just last week we welcomed another new little baby to the family *. It's been a rocky start, as it usually is with most children getting used to a new environment. All the other children were quick to point out whenever baby was crying and feeling sad. Why is baby c
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Recent posts

"I'm just going to miss him"

During our regular bedtime chat this week, Grace and I were talking about plans for tomorrow and the rest of the week. Then seemingly out of nowhere my little girl suddenly burst out angrily...  "Sometimes I think Nathan has more fun than me!"   She started sobbing "When he's playing something fun, I feel sad when I can't join in!"   I knew it was not true that Grace is excluded from playing with Nathan. My two kids love playing together all the time, and my little girl absolutely adores her big brother as much as he dotes on her.  "Why do you say that? Did something happen today?" I prompted, trying to figure out where this was coming from.  "Well... not today, but one time! Like playing Star Wars!" "I thought you guys were playing Star Wars together yesterday? " I clarified.  "Okay... maybe not Star Wars... but other times... Like when he's playing Lego..."  "Can you tell me what happened?"   "I
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Double digits

It's been a fantastic decade! Ten years since  the arrival  of this dude... and the beginning of a  new era . Just look at the size of this guy.  He keeps waking up each morning bigger and taller (why on earth do we keep sending him to bed each night?). This boy is absolutely one of the smiliest people I ever knew (possibly barring my own dad , but this guys is definitely a serious contender for first place). I am seriously bursting at the seams with pride over my little man. I always have been I suppose. But lately, the credit has been well and truly well-earned on his own merit. It's still early days to tell if there is a Shakespeare, Einstein, Mozart or Da Vinci waiting in the wings. At this age, almost all possbilities are wide open. What does shine through is that unpretentious spirit... sincerity... sense of honour... milk of human kindness or whatever you want to call it. That's what shines through. Of course, I wholeheartedly recognise that every child deep inside
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No longer young, not yet old

Recently I had one of those little lightbulb moments and thought of this... When it comes to ' adulting '... Your 20s are like the childhood stage of adulting, Your 30s are like the adolescent phase of adulting, And your 40s onwards are like the start of the grownup chapter of adulting. Sometimes in my musings, I like to imagine clever quotes or advice I might give to my younger self. There are many things that if I were to do again, I would have done differently.  So much of what I did in my early years was because I was trying to 'do the right thing', or to please others or impress them. Of course I would have vehemently denied it at that time. In my mind, I was always convinced that everything I did was for myself. But it's inevitable that a lot of what we do, especially when we are starting out in life, is outwardly focused. We are all wired that way after all. Humans are by nature social animals. We constantly try out different things to figure out how and wher
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Stay fabulous darling!

Grace turned seven years old this month. We decided to keep the celebrations small and exclusive with just the family ( in light of the current situation happening all around ). It was a toss up between a day at the Perth Zoo or a visit to the Swan Valley Cuddly Animal Farm. Grace went back and forth on the options for days. Finally she chose the animal farm so she could cuddle some guinea pigs and rabbits. It was a fantastic day for the whole family! View this post on Instagram Celebrating Grace's 7th birthday at Swan Valley Cuddly Animal Farm A post shared by Serenely (@livingserenely) on Jul 11, 2020 at 10:04am PDT Her birthday cake request was a unicorn cake (which I pimped up myself ✌). Her other seven year old wish was to finally get some bling! 💠 What a sophisticated young lady she's growing into. These days she's also into Katy Perry and Taylor Swift; Leg
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Pandemic

Blink. And it's now four months since our family holiday in Bangkok . I should chronicle some thoughts on this unprecedented time in history with the Covid-19 pandemic that is has brought the entire globe to it's knees. What has life been like for us these past few months, riding through this storm? Here's a month by month snapshot of what's been happening at our end. February... Coming back from our holiday, settling back into our routine for work and school. There were murmurings of the new Coronavirus in the background. But it was the start of the new academic year for the kids who were excitedly settling into their routine with their new teacher and catching up with old/new friends. A number of my daycare kids were starting kindy this year too, and I had a couple of new daycare kids I was happily getting to know. So it was all busy, busy, busy. We were on full steam ahead to take on the new year. The murmurings and news about the Coronav
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More Popular Posts


DSC07989Our DIY outdoor chalkboard

Today’s entry is not so much a post as it is just a way to showcase the latest addition to our outdoor play area… Our new mega sized outdoor chalkboard!

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SnailCraftCollage2Learning about snails

This past week has been all about snails.The children are always fascinated by the snails in our garden and ask endless questions about them.A couple of weeks back, one of my boys stumbled across a snail crawling along the ground.

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[image%255B6%255D.png]DIY magnet shapes

A couple of weeks ago, I had posted this snapshot of these set of magnetic shapes I made on my Instagram. I received a few curious questions on how I made them.

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DSC06501A_thumb[1]Three Questions

And so Nathan’s very first day of kindergarten is over. It was a mixture of good, bad, sweet and sour. I think that so much happens throughout the day, it can be challenging for a little person to filter through it all.

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DSC05282My cup runneth over

These days my days are packed full to the brim. From the moment I wake up to the sound of Grace calling through the baby monitor and Nathan’s cheeky face peering at me over the edge of the bed… to the evening when I finally tuck them into bed and say goodnight.

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