Seven

She loves her new bike - especially the sparkly streamers!

Another year has flown by, and we celebrated Ellen's 7th birthday with a simple family gathering at Aunty Tricia's 'party house'. She loves her new bike which was waiting in her room when she woke up, and was quick to have a ride before school that day. Daddy assembled a sandcastle cake, which fit her request - all it had to be was a chocolate cake underneath, and the decoration/theme she wasn't at all concerned about (easy for us - thank you Ellen!).

We're so thankful for this beautiful girl. She always trys her best, sets her mind to things and achieves them - whether it's at school or outside, and if she doesn't succeed the first time, she persists until she does. She is nearly always found with a book in hand, and she's very competetive in everything - and I mean everything! She loves being in front of people performing (with school/Church singing and ballet this year, and can't wait to try an instrument next year) and keenly anticipates every opportunity to be involved at Church and school. We look forward to seeing how God is going to use those and so many other beautiful traits in her life in years to come.

Happy Birthday Ellen!

A night at the ballet

Ellen and her lovely ballet friend Samantha at the dress rehearsal

Livvy and the rest of the Rio pink birds

Finally the big night arrived! The girls were quivering with anticipation and it all went off without a hitch. They did a fantastic job, looked gorgeous in their costumes and showed that they had learnt a lot more than I had anticipated. Well done girls! Who knew that daughters of mine could be so graceful!!
Lauren was a trooper throughout, despite being up two hours past her bedtime - full of smiles and lots of clapping. Many thanks to both sets of grandparents and Aunty Tricia for making the journey to watch the show and show their support - the girls were soooo excited to have them there.

Zach meets Violet

Lauren received a toy called Violet that talks etc. for her 1st birthday
and Zachary was rather taken with it...as you can see. Dad captured this
sequence, which I just discovered when trawling through the multitude of
snaps that he took on the day.
The Z-man had a lovely time playing with her for quite a while.

Nearly...

Olivia's school shoes nearly made it to the end of the year - this is
her 2nd pair, and as you can see she's the kind of girl that plays hard!
With only a few weeks to go, I'm reluctant to purchase new ones, but
these have to go. They've already had one running repair, so they are
now officially dumping property...

I feel a little like the shoes at the moment - tired and worn out, rough
edges showing and in need of some relief...hopefully they won't ship me
off to the nearest bin, but a rest would be nice!! School holidays and
another move to a new house coming up, so not looking too great on the
rest front...but it is summer, so a few trips to the beach to get some
sand between my toes will certainly help I think!

A time for trusting at present...Phil 4:6-7 is rapidly becoming my daily
reference!

Day trippin'

Queen Mary Falls - just beautiful!

We loaded into the car to visit some National Parks an hour or so from home, and had a great time bush walking and exploring. The first was Queen Mary Falls, which was impressive and the walk was just the right length - not too short, not too long; and we managed to spot a few Eastern Water Dragons along the way - no snakes thankfully! Lauren had the comfy ride on Daddy's back, while the girls talked their way around the track (perhaps that kept the snakes away...?).

Browns Falls, outside Killarney - our adventure walk

Next stop was Browns Falls, which is small and not well signed and really wasn't a path so much as just working our way up the creek by rock hopping etc., but the adventure was great for the girls who relished the thought of being 'explorers' and apart from 1.5 wet sandshoes, we survived all the creek crossing and scrambing remarkably well. They were all very ready for a paddle in the creek when we were finished - including Lauren. She was a trooper really, as the second walk was right across her sleep time, so less than animated, but not complaining thankfully.