The Dower Family

We have had you now for five years.  That's half a decade. Half the time your Daddy and I have been married. No wonder we couldn't imagine a life without you in it. You've gotten so big and grown so very much in this past 12 months.  So let me share with you some of the things that I love the very most about who you are at this moment: - Your full name is Evie Alice Snuggle Buggle Dower.  You are quite possibly the cuddliest person I have ever met in my life.  Your sweet little on the lips kisses are just beyond. - You have approximately 57.5 gorgeous freckles on your nose. Everyone tells me that they looks like I've painted them on.  - You call ping pong Bing Bong - You absolutely love to have a good dance with wild shaking hips and lip syncing.  Lately the words to songs have really started to kick in and you even seem to know the words to "Advance Australia Fair" from parade. - Your favourite songs on Spotify are Barbie Girl and Rockin'...

In just four more sleeps our tiny Eve will be five years old. I just want to bottle up her gorgeous four year old self so I made a quick film to remember her at this age. You can also have a sneak peek at her riding without training wheels for the first time.  Look at her go!!

Quick, I've got five minutes to get you all up to speed on what has been going on around here lately. In big news, we've got a brand spanking new library in our little patch of the world. This is super exciting for a bunch of book lovers like we are. It's bright and big and there are heaps of great spots to curl up with a book or a magazine too. I think we went there three times in the first four days it was open! We've also had a bit of island time, despite the cooler weather. The kids might not have been able to swim in the chilly water but they sure had a good time fishing and stomping around on the beach discovering all kinds of treasures.  A trip to the dentist might not seem too exciting to us but these two were counting down the days until their appointments. Eve was especially pumped to wear the glasses and ride up and down in the chair. Ol was more interested in watching the television in the ceiling.  In...

Just a little snippet of our trip so far.  This week we've been to the zoo... I'm surprised they let us out. We are such a bunch of animals! We've also been to the waterpark where we spent the day going on as many scary rides as we possibly could. Which is plenty if you are Ollie, but a few less if you are a slightly shorter Eve.  She's been making up for the loss of the waterslides with lots of pretty and cheap dresses and all day swimming. 

We are in Bali. Again. We've just spent three very relaxing days at one of our favourite resorts in Sanur, on the west side of the island. We couldn't resist the opportunity to recreate one of the photos we took here three years ago. Can you believe how much they have grown in that time?!

Ol got his first love letter!! He is horrified and nearly in tears because it is SO embarrassing for a girl to love you. Naturally I took a photo of it and uploaded it so you could all see!!

It's nearly the end of March, which has given me a big kick up the bum to finish off the video I made of our Christmas. We were lucky enough to have a big family Christmas with Nick's family at the awesome family beach house.  Nine adults, five kids and one dog all under the one roof.  Thankfully it all came together beautifully with lots of food, fun, drinks, games and trips to the beach.  I know a lot of people think Christmas should be cold (we have a lot of English friends!) but I'll take prawns, cold beers and swims every time. x ps you can check out some of our other Christmas's  here  and  here . 

Saturday night = movie night.  We've been rereading Charlie & the chocolate factory, so tonight we thought we'd revisit the original movie.  With pizza and movie snacks of course. Maybe even some chocolate.

We have a new super fish in the house! Eve has had a great big 10 months off swimming lessons. Mainly due to my laziness. But thankfully it doesn't seem to have been a problem with her managing to advance to the next level on her third lesson back. Even better was that she had her Pa and cousin Max there to cheer her on as she rang the champions bell. Then she had a little sook because it's a bit scary and loud and strange when a group of random strangers start clapping for you. Nothing a celebratory milkshake and chocolate brownie couldn't fix. That could make anything better. Look at these little cuties. We are currently rereading Charlie & the chocolate factory and the kids can't wait to see whether we read one, two or even three chapters before bedtime.  Their love of books continues to grow, with Ol saying the funniest thing the other night - "I just wish we had millions of dollars so we could buy all the books".  That kid's got his priorities rig...

Ollie's birthday present from us was sailing lessons - a present he didn't know he even wanted but I'm pretty sure he is thrilled to bits with. One of his best mates also got this for his present so the two of them have spent the morning at Royal Queensland (aka one of favourite watering holes) learning the basics of how to to sail. They seemed to be having an absolute blast, especially when they got to capsize the boat a number of times!  The grown ups watched with coffees while the little ones played in the playground and on the beach. The original plan is for the mums to paddle board while we wait but as today was a bit windy, we found it too easy to make an excuse to stay on land. Next week maybe.  I think there will be plenty of sailing in our little guy's future. 

Toasting the end of the first looooong week back at work while an epic light sabre battle takes place nearby.

Seven? 7? SEVEN??? How have we possibly had you for seven years??   As our tradition goes, I just want to share with you some of the things that I will always remember about this year for you: - Your love of books has hit a new level this year.  If I had to think of one thing that summed the year up for you it would be reading.  Your head is constantly in a book.  You have gone from reading picture books to smashing novels in less than a day.  You often have four books on the go at any moment.  One in the bedroom, one in the lounge, one on the back deck and even one near the toilet!!  You are just like your father and can flit between books and reread them over and over again.   - You absolutely love school and are a bit of a brown nose.  You save your best behaviour for school hours but to be honest, I am thrilled with this.  You actually hugged your teacher every single day when school finished.  I hope you have a...

We went to see Santa last week and these two absolutely rocked their cheesy Santa pic grins. They really are seasoned professionals at this now! While we were getting in the Christmas spirit we thought we would spread a bit of Christmas kindness.  First up was putting a few scooters under the wishing tree for the kids who don't have any toys:  Then we put a few notes with $2 coins on them on the rides outside the supermarkets:  After that I gave the kids a giant bag of silver coins to put in the guide dog and the Salvos's collection:  Then we rounded out the day by dropping in a box of chocolates to the police station to thank them for keeping us safe this year:  (Ol wouldn't pose for a photo in front of the car in case we got in trouble). It was a super day to be these kid's mama. They got such a kick out of doing these acts of kindness and I got some pretty good lumps in my throat from watching them. 

We got the jump on the school holidays with a sneaky little camping trip to Straddie the last weekend of school.  Our favourite camping buddies joined us and as usual, the kids had an absolute blast. I put together a movie of what a great time they had.  Check it out and tell me that our little ones don't just have the loveliest existence.

We had a sneaky pre-school holidays camping trip to Stradbroke Island on the weekend. The trip had been planned for a good month or so but the timing ended up being perfect, with us taking delivery of Nick's new 4wd ute just the weekend before.  Ol got a sneaky day off school on the Friday and we were on the 7am barge. This got us into Flinders Beach around 8am where we managed to nab the perfect camping spot that we had been crossing our fingers for. Set on a little freshwater creek that eventually runs into the ocean, it was just what we needed for our party of 10. The boys got the campsite set up beautifully (with a cold beer in hand) while the wives kept the children and dogs safe while offering pearls of wisdom about where everything should go. The creek we camped on would have been perfect for bathing in, except these two seem to prefer their black tub. We couldn't help but notice that it was a bit squishier than it had been in Septmember and I'm thinking we might nee...

At the ripe age of six years and ten months this gorgeous little guy has lost his first tooth. Exactly six years after the tooth first turned up.  Not surprisingly he is very excited about the tooth fairy turning up tonight! 

We've just had school holidays here so we packed our little crew (& a bunch of stuff) up and went to Stradbroke Island for a week of camping. This was our first family foray into hardcore, no electricity, fetch your own water, no toilet camping. The potential was there for it to be a total unmitigated disaster, but somehow miraculously it all worked out just fine. That isn't to say it wasn't without it's challenges. We arrived on the island just as the grey clouds started to roll in but thankfully the rain held off long enough for the boys to get most of the big items set up. Then it really started to bucket down!! Our first night was spend using pegs to stop leaks between our gazebos and catching rainwater in buckets. Less than ideal but the kids didn't seem to mind in the slightest. Day two was much better, and after that the days just got even more gorgeous. We drove the cars on the beaches, the big boys surfed and the little boys frolicked in the surf. The t...

The kids love LOVE LOOOOOOOVE their dad so I couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to make a little movie showing how much they adore him. Father's Day was the perfect chance to ask the kiddos a few questions about Nick. Their answers were just a little bit adorable.  

What other kind of party would our sweet little pea want than a princess party of course!  Well, she asked for a Frozen party first but that was never going to pass muster with me.  I successfully negotiated to extend the theme to Princesses, Knights and Dragons to keep the boys happy and then got to work on another low key, laid back birthday party (ha ha ha!). This party was the first one we have had with a nice big yard so I crossed my fingers and hoped for good weather.  I wasn't disappointed, with one of those glorious winter days that aren't really that cold and with not a cloud in the sky. I took full advantage of the yard by setting up a bunch of carnival games to keep the guests entertained - feed the dragon (throwing beanbags through the mouth of a cut out dragon), crown toss (quoits with crowns instead of hoops) and knock em down cans.  I threw in a bit of craft with making crowns and tiaras out of gold pipe cleaners, colouring in, twirling ri...

Our baby is four.  How can this be? On the plus side though, she is no longer a threenager.  This past twelve months have been more than a little challenging.  I had fooled myself that epic battles of wills over hairstyles, skirt choices and high heels would not trouble me for a good decade.  How wrong I was. But amongst the crazy fashion feuds of the past year there have been oh so many wonderful times with this sweet, funny little girl.  Here are just some of the things we have enjoyed/endured with her as a three year old. - she is scared of storms, bees and the bell that the home ice cream man rings (no seriously, she is terrified of the home ice cream man. Absolutely petrified!) - when she holds my hand she lovingly strokes her thumb inside my palm. It's just the loveliest. - she shrugs her little shoulders, tilts her head to one side and squishes her sweet little face into a closed eye smile that melts my heart. - she has wacky ways of pron...