So it's been over a year since I last blogged...

Okay, ummm it's been over a year since I last wrote a blog and I have no excuse other than life is extremely busy and anyone who has a kid/s will know this! Elsa and Lucas are growing at mammoth speed and Daniel and I often find ourselves looking at them in wonder at just how big they have become and how fast they have grown. Where does the time go? Usually in rushed mornings of packing school lunches and bags, Kindy and school drop offs and pick ups, soccer practices, play dates, being outdoors on scooters and bikes, hitting the beach, exploring new playgrounds...the list is endless not to mention the cooking, cleaning, washing, and all that mundane and boring stuff. And all too often the days roll into weeks, the weeks into months, and the months into years and before you know it, another year has passed (like my last blog entry indicates!). I am not going to try and re-cap what has happened in the last year but what I will mention is that now that Elsa has started Kindy four days-a-week, I have child-free time on my hands! The last time this happened was over 3 years ago and while it felt weird to begin with (and I still often get the guilts too), I have adjusted to it very well now! And believe me, 6 hours goes by very quickly. The BEST part of being child-free means that I can do parent help with Lucas and his class. This means I can put my hand up if they need assistance to help with excursions etc. I have been helping on a weekly basis with reading, pre-paring art work and whatever else Lucas' teacher may need help with. I spent one day looking after a group of kids at the Rippa Rugby wich was an awesome day and so much fun. Another time was going with the class and looking at the changing colours of autumn leaves and collecting these and talking about evergreens and deciduous trees. I have been LOVING it and the kids are such a neat bunch to get to know. This coming Friday the kids will be heading to MOTAT and I will be tagging along and I cannot wait! So far Lucas doesn't mind me helping with his class. But come the day when it is no longer cool having mum in the classroom, that might be when I have to move onto Elsa and her class! I really enjoy having Elsa with me one day a week and we call this "Mummy & Elsa's Day". This is a day where we don't plan anything and just do whatever we feel like on the day. Some days we end up hanging at home and having so much fun colouring in, baking, watching Max & Ruby and learning how to write Elsa. She can now recognise her own name and the "E" in her name so whenever Elsa sees a sign with the letter E in it she will exclaim "that's my name!" even if it says "Takeaways". Elsa has recently become a Pumpkin Patch model and she has taken to it like a duck to water. I got a call about a month ago asking if Elsa would like to come in and do a shoot as they thought she would look gorgeous with the colours they were going to be launching for the Summer 2012 catalogue. Elsa had a great time and to her it's all about dressing up and having photos taken. Pumpking Patch were obviously impressed by Elsa as after the first shoot, the following week she was asked to attend an outdoor location at Wynyard Quarter. Because you shoot in opposite seasons, here was Elsa in a summer dress shivering away with the winter wind blowing a gale. Poor wee thing but she followed their instructions, smiled and didn't complain. Since then she has done a music video shoot as well as still shots for them and that day she worked 9 hours! She was such a champ. Waking up at 6:30am, getting to location at 7:30am and being the last child to leave at 4:30pm. She made me so proud. The lastest photo shoot Elsa has done was a swimwear shoot at Eastern Beach. Thank goodness it was a sunny clear day with hardly any wind. She worked for 3 hours and had a great time playing on the beach with the other kids, and keeping herself amused between shoots. Finally, as a way to give back to the community, I also volunteer for an organisation called Bellyful North Shore which cooks and delivers free meals to families who have a new baby or are struggling with illness. I am so happy to be able to do this and I help with the cookathons as well as delivering meals. I wished that there was something like this around when I had my kids, so that is why I have decided to join this particular organisation because I truly believe in it and think the service they offer is invaluable.