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My crazy chicks, could they look any more different?  Haircut day today.  One curly, one straight; one blonde, one brown.

Love you two x

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

Ella     In only 12 days she will be into double digits.  She still loves to play with her younger sister (sometimes) and I hope that continues for some time longer.

Leila   Long golden haired girl.  Tomorrow she wants it all to come off.....  Stay tuned.

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On the weekend we had a family lunch to celebrate my sister in law's 50th birthday.  We had a gorgeous lunch and as per normal, I took many photos of the family, including posing all the smaller groups within the family so that everyone had a snap of them on the day.  We don't normally end up with any photos of us, because I'm normally manning the camera.  Yesterday our nephew Chris took snaps of us, which, with a little help of Picasa effects, I think look pretty good!  How beautiful are our girls, seriously!!  We're super lucky x

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

Leila    Out to a special family lunch.  She loves to be out with family, but still likes the security of mummy right beside her.
Ella      Right now, the most glorious combination of a beautiful girl with the most amazing little glimpses of the young woman she's becoming.  I'll enjoy these last weeks of single digits.

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Red waiting for her friend Aurora to arrive and walk together to meet their other Fairytale friends at school.

Prep year coming rapidly to a close and it's gone so very fast.  We're having such a wonderful year, such a gorgeous group of children and families, Leila thriving with her learning and developing so beautifully in a social context as well.

I'm loving being home with our girls full time.  I have been applying for some roles and recently missed out on one that I really thought would be a perfect fit for me, a great company working for a great cause.  It wasn't meant to be though and that's okay because it really wouldn't have worked for our family.  Whatever I do again that is paid has to work with our family and these precious girls, because there is nothing more important than them.

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

Ella     After being spun round and round in the park, this was the "will she puke" moment - she didn't!

Leila   Still small enough to be flung around by dad, but then she is light and he is strong!!\

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

Ella & Leila         Celebrating Father's Day 2013

Life is distracting me from this space in a big way.  I've been sharing in this space for 6 years but of late have just found my interest being focussed on other things.  Perhaps the girls being bigger - we have less time together and therefore less photos.  I still have things to share, so must make more of an effort to be here.

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

Ella & Leila     The kinder park half way between home and school.

With Leila doing two weeks of swimming lessons we had no after school commitments on Wednesday and found ourselves able to stop in the park on our walk home.  The sun was shining and the grass covered in small lawn daisies.

I sat on a bench I've sat on in a park I've visited since Ella was 10 months old.  I watched my two girls, now grown, playing so happily with each other, picking daisies, making chains, preparing pretend campfires, using the language they've played with since they could speak I'm the fairy godmother and you say ...... 

There was another lady in the park, with a little girl about 10 months old, watching my girls so intently, as I so clearly remember Ella, particularly, doing in the same park about 9 years ago.

It's unoriginal, but we forget to slow down and drink in these wonderful moments and opportunities for play and togetherness.  I spent time with my dear friend Julia this week, at her new beach side home.  My word, how invigorating our half hour walk was on the beach.  Of course a big part of it is her company, she has a calming influence, but her home near the water, being so close to the sea, I came back amazed at how recharged I felt.

I kept that thought with me, with the girls and I as we spent an hour together, playing, being, for me remembering.  The time has gone so fast, but there are so many more moments to be cherished if we remember to grab them while we can.