1st Quarterly Top 5 - 2012

I probably say this every time but I can not BELIEVE how fast this year is going! GAH!

As always, it was really hard to choose a Top 5, I've done a couple of really fun shoots with the kids so far this year but I've chosen some favourites!

I haven't even shared these pool shots yet and they were taken back in January =O This was at our holiday unit on the Gold Coast, the kids and I went with my Mum :)

A few weeks ago I realised I hadn't taken any photos all week and would have nothing for my Project 52, so I grabbed my camera and did some shots of William in the bath. He's so funny! You can see the rest of this shoot HERE. 

This is probably my favourite shoot I've ever done...my baby girls first day of "big school". She started Kindergarten in January and is loving it so far! We had a quick session out in the lane way before heading off to the school. This is my favourite shot but you can see plenty more HERE including some hilarious Charlotte poses ;D

Another from William's bath shoot. Couldn't you just eat him up?! He has the best grin :D

It was hard to choose a favourite from this Swings + Sun Haze shoot, but I've gone with the big happy smile. I love sun haze in a photo, it makes everything so pretty :)

Thank you to 

Click. Pray. Love. Sarah Halstead the NapTime MomTog and Ashley Sisk for hosting!

For those of you that have been following Charlotte's broken arm, she's heading back to Hospital  next Wednesday to hopefully get her cast removed, yay! The poor thing hasn't been allowed to take even her sling off for the last 5 weeks and she hasn't complained once! I couldn't be prouder of my brave little girl :)

xxx

Crazy Hair Day!

On Friday Charlotte had her first 'Crazy Hair Day' at school. I wasn't sure what we would do because of her broken arm, she can't have a bath or shower and I've been taking her to a salon to have her hair washed! In the end I thought a little bit of coloured spray won't hurt and she went to the salon the next morning to have it washed :D

After scouring Pinterest for some inspiration, I found this tutorial for some 'lady gaga inspired' hair bows! It looked easy enough for this hair challenged mama to pull off and it was!

Charlotte wanted no part in having her photo taken, so please excuse the surly expressions, lol

The only thing I did different from the tutorial was to crimp her hair once I had it in two high pony tails, to give it a bit of extra texture and craziness! 

I think they turned out pretty cute! We added a bit of orange hair spray and some glitter spray too :)

haha!

At one point during the day, when her kindergarten class went for a walk and they all had to wear their hats, she had to balance hers on top of her hair and she said to her teacher "I KNEW this hair do was going to become a problem!" It made the teacher's day, she's so funny :D

This is the standard Charlotte pose - grab a dandelion flower and hold it right up to your cheek...you may remember this pose from her first day of kindergarten shoot!

I think the orange spray makes her look like she has a terrible dye job haha! After we took these photos we met up with one of her little friends and we swapped hairsprays, so I sprayed the middle of the bows with hot pink =D

And a couple of Instagram shots where she's actually smiling!

      xxx

Swinging Through the Treetops - Treetop Adventure Park

Way back in September, for Fathers Day, I gave hubby a voucher for himself and Charlotte to do the courses at Treetop Adventure Park in the Ourimbah State Forest. 

We didn't get a chance to use it until last month because of bad weather, holidays, birthdays, etc but it was worth the wait!

{Obviously we went before Charlotte broke her arm!}

Charlotte getting her gear fitted..

Even though this was his present, most of the pictures are of Charlotte, lol because I had to follow her along the children's course.

When I first saw how high the kids course was, I thought for sure charlotte would chicken out! But she really surprised me, I'm so proud of her :) She was scared, but she just kept on going like a champ!

There are 3 children's courses all up and on each course the kids are hooked up to a continuous belay system, so they can just worry about having fun :)

It also means you can't really chicken out because there are a bunch of other kids hooked up behind you haha!

At the end of each course there's a flying fox to get back down to the ground, super fun!

There are all different kinds of ropes and bridges to cross, some scarier than others!

The staff were fantastic, someone helped her across the first bridge to get her used to being up there, and someone helped her through part of the second course when she got a bit scared. They were very patient with her :)

The other kids that were there on the day were such a great bunch, instead of getting angry and frustrated when Charlotte got scared and wouldn't budge, they encouraged her to keep going, saying things like "Come on Charlotte, you can do it!" and then they all clapped and cheered when she made it to the other side :)

One of the other kids even had to "rescue" her, lol. She tried to swing across to the other side like a flying fox instead of walking across the rope but didn't get enough momentum and ended up dangling in the middle! The boy behind her had to start crossing the rope and give her a bit of a push until she was able to climb up onto the next platform :)

She kept right on going though! All up she did the 3 courses 3 times each! By her last lap around she was a pro :)

After we had a break for lunch we went and watched hubby on one of the adult courses. I knew he would love it, he used to volunteer with the State Emergency Service so is trained in all sorts of rescue abseiling and caving etc so this was right up his alley!

William had to have a turn wearing charlotte's helmet :D He was calling out "Careful Daddy!" and giving him the thumbs up, so cute :)

Then he got bored and played with my iPhone instead haha!

He was a bit little to join in the real fun, you have to be 3 to do the children's courses but he still enjoyed the day out :)

Back to the Childrens course for Charlotte!

Peekaboo! Riding the flying fox like a lady, hands and ankles crossed ;)

She really enjoyed herself, I was amazed by how brave she was. In some parts you could see the fear on her face but she pushed through :)

This is my favourite shot from the day :)

  

{I used 'Pop my Backlight' from My Four Hens to edit all these shots}

{The photo templates are from Pugly Pixel and are FREE! Yay!}

 At one stage towards the end of her session she got a bit *too* confident and had a fall from the bridge in the bottom left. She tipped to the side and screamed as she spun in the air, hanging by her rope, then got her feet back up on the boards and called down "That was REALLY FREAKY!!"

Some parts were pretty high for a 5 year old! She's so brave!

William was pretty proud of his big sister, he ran and gave her a big hug and a kiss when she came off for the last time, so sweet :)

We had such a great time there, I think we'll definitely take Charlotte back there when her broken arm is all better, she was so brave when she went to hospital that I think she deserves a special treat....and I kind of want to have a turn too haha!!

Thanks for stopping by!

  

 Hosted by Cecily and Lolli