We've had a lovely, quiet week. Mostly at home.

Puzzles, gardening, a couple of finished crochet/knitting projects that I'll share next week, and finally lots of sewing time!

All 3 boys got new pants, Leo is modelling his in the photos above. 

And for Caspian, I made this darling romper for the coming Spring/Summer months. I used all upcycled bed linen. And the sweetest polka dot bandana bib!

Tomorrow we are having a little birthday party for Caspian at the local park - thankfully the weather is amazing! 

Happy Friday!

x Shara

I am a Mum.

Even though we only realised on Friday evening that Mothers Day was but days away, we still managed a lovely day. Kaleb and Roman made me breakfast in bed (peanut butter on toast and a hot cuppa), then I fell back to sleep until 10am! While I was snoozing, Kaleb cleaned the kitchen, vaccumed the floor and did a load of washing... Swoon - I love that man!

Kaleb's Mum popped over for morning tea and bought me a lovely bunch of flowers from her garden and then she played outside with the boys for an hour.

I spent the next few hours knitting myself a new hat.

Then, after too many hours indoors, we decided the boys needed a run. So over to Kaleb's work we went to kick a ball and the boys had a play on the obstacle course. 

Caspian preferred to eat grass.

Once home, the boys enjoyed a nice warm bath, a light dinner and all 3 were in bed by 6:30pm! 

What a lovely day!

x Shara

PS: My Mum is away at the moment, holidaying with my brother and his family. We'll have a belated morning tea, together with my Grandma, later in the month....

Every year... (A gratitude Sunday type of post)

Every year, April gets the better of me! So I'm just going to share some of what I'm grateful for right now!

• Kaleb celebrated his 30th birthday. I made this lovely chocolate cake for him! I'm grateful for such a kind, loving and hands on Husband!

• So much art and creativity. I'm grateful for the chance to get creative with my kids every day!

• Roman spotted 2 Tawny Frogmouths in a tree by our tanks. This led him on a fun fact-finding mission! I'm grateful for the abundance of wildlife around our home and for Roman's curious nature!

• Lots of loving on these 3! I'm grateful to be blessed with 3 wonderful boys!

• Multiple days spent celebrating Leonardo's 3rd Birthday. I'm grateful for this boy who lights up my life everyday and for all the family and friends who celebrated with us!

• I celebrated my 31st birthday (and can't find any photos from that day? I do remember I was sick in bed with tonsillitis) Here I am in a new skirt I made for myself! I'm grateful for the lovely breakfast in bed my guys made me and the day of rest I was able to have!

• LOTS of knitting! I've got weeks of potential Yarn Along posts up my sleeve ;) I'm grateful for hands that work and a hobby that I enjoy!

• Our very first time celebrating Easter! I'm grateful for the fun morning we had together hunting eggs in our garden!

• Caspian celebrated 9 months! He is now crawling and has 6 teeth! I'm grateful for this happy boy, he is so much fun!

• Our first day of Homeschool!! I'm grateful to live in a country that supports different education choices and for a family that supports our choices!

• Did I mention these 3?? Love them soooo much! I'm grateful for the oppurtunities I've had in my life, in particular the opportunity to be called Mama by 3 gorgeous kids!

Phew! Did you make it this far??

I hope your April has been busy and full of love too!

x Shara

Feeling thankful for:

• the ability and tools to cut the boys hair. It saves us around $50 at the barber. Plus, we have a lot of fun experimenting with weird and wonderful styles before buzzing it all off.

• my Mum taking the big boys for the whole day on Saturday. To the beach for swimming, fish & chips and ice cream. They had a great day!

• a wonderful local library. We visit every Thursday afternoon as a family. It has a delightful children's area that keeps the boys occupied while Kaleb and I search out books.

• Caspian joining us at the dinner table.

• 3 little boys all in a row at the dinner table. 3 little boys who all love to eat!

• Sunday morning sleep ins! 

• watching Kung Fu Panda 2 with Roman and giggling non stop together, because that movie is so funny. 

I hope you've got many moments to be grateful for this week!

x Shara

Autumn Mandalas

{by Mama}

{by Leo}

{by Roman}

Yesterday's craft activity went a little off course, in a good way!

I love mandalas, all different types, and thought that using dried beans would be a good way to tie it in to Autumn. 

I kind of explained what a mandala was to Roman and showed him some examples on Pinterest. 

The thing with Roman is, is that he doesn't really get into arts and crafts when there is an end product set out for him. Bless him though, he tried to follow along, but it was easy to see he lost interest pretty quickly. In the end, he went his own way, drew a caravan, added glue, and then used the beans to so the outline. I'm glad he found his own way to enjoy the craft. I sort of think the caravan looks a bit like Australia, which led us into looking at maps to compare!

Of course Leo just did his own thing from the start, ending up with a fun, mixed media piece ;)

As for me, I'm not arty at all, which is why I often like to follow a formula - play by the rules, so to speak.

Anyway, regardless of the end products, it was really great to sit together for a couple of hours and just do art.

x Shara

This week I'm thankful for:

• wonderful time spent with family and friends celebrating Roman's birthday.

• finishing a knitting project that has taken much of my time and brain space!

• a husband who handles middle of the night vomiting children much better than I do.

• a beautiful linen skirt my Mum found for me at the op shop for 50c.

• lovely, happy packages waiting at the post office for me.

• an awesome rainy week, filling our tanks, followed by a beautiful, sunshine filled weekend.

• listening to Roman read books, all on his own, with just the occasional help from me. It's opened up so much independence for him. Reading is awesome!

I hope you've found much to be thankful for this week!

x Shara

Feeling thankful for:

• plenty of rain. Filling the tanks and greening up the lawns and gardens.

• gorgeous yellow roses blooming.

• watching Leo move into the world of imaginative play.

• a generous home schooling family in our street who gave of their time this week. Showing us the ins and outs of their day as we prepare to home school Roman once this term finishes.

• Kaleb having the weekend off again.

• watching the boys craft together, play together. Hoping their friendship will strengthen as they spend more time together.

• watching Caspian try with all his might to get crawling. 

Hope you've had a wonderful relaxing weekend.

x Shara