Sydney Observatory

last friday bracky and i went on a date.

it was a guilt date.

the friday because braxton was getting his excellence award in assembly.

i promised him i would be there all week.

but you guessed it,

i wasn't.

i got stuck at the hairdressers for FOUR HOURS !!!!

i felt horrible.

and braxton is my sensitive one, he feels deeply over everything !

i was messaging his teacher to see if he wanted to wait a week

but he didn't.

so while i was feeling like the worlds worst mum,

i thought a way to make him completely forget about it was take him to the observatory,

he's been asking for us to go on a date there since he got a telescope for christmas.

and let me just say IT WORKED.

i am now back on the top of his list.

but yes i'm that mum who buys their kids affections when it needs to be bought.

i had the best time with him.

we had dinner (of his choice) together,

we walked ALL over the city,

he thought the observatory was awesome,

watching his little face fill with excitement made my heart so full,

i couldn't stop smiling for him.

he was so involved in the tour,

putting his hand up and answering questions the guide would ask.

we got to see jupiter, saturn and the moon through the telescopes.

he turned to me after seeing the moon and said

"this is the best time of my life mum."

and that's all i needed to make myself feel better about the excellence award incident.

we stopped to get ice-cream while we walked back to the car,

braxton was chatting away all about his life to me.

it was the first of many dates i'm going to go on with this boy,

his next date request was to go to a real life restaurant.

i told him ok but we have to get dressed up in our best fancy clothes then.

i can't wait for it.

Zig Zag Track

i don't even think i'm going to write too much about this little adventure,

the photos speak for themselves.

but i'll give you a little blurb anyway.

when i was a little girl one of my most favourite memories 

was going on an old steam train on the Zig Zag Railway.

bushfires wiped them out and they are working hard at having it ready again by the end of the year.

but before they do i wanted to take the boys to walk along the track.

it was awesome.

it was like people just up and left.

their were train carriages with seats still in them,

a digger on the side of the road looks like it hasn't been used in years,

the viaducts were spectacular.

it was one of my favourite things we have done this year.

i love that this walk won't always be here to do.

once they begin using the train line again i doubt you'll be able to walk it.

now here's a bucket load of photos from my culled list of favourites.

Balance

during these holidays i learnt a very valuable lesson.
balance.
i've always been a keeper to the routine kinda mum,
probably a bit on the ocd side.
with the boys growing up i realised that i need to relax.
tv time was a BIG adjustment for me.
during the weekends and holidays it's ok for them to watch more tv than during the week.
i've always been so self-conscious of my boys not being sitting in from of the tv boys,
i want them to love the backyard and playing sport  or toys with each other.
i want them to use their imagination and not rely on tv to entertain them.
but i had like a light bulb moment.
that at night the way i relax and veg out is by watching the tv
and i turned out relatively ok lol.
so it's ok for the tv to be on a little more without them turning into tv junkies.
i know it sounds absolutely ridiculous and not a massive big deal
but for me in the way i parent it's a big deal.
this light bulb moment wasn't just about the tv
it was extended to bed-time and the foods that they eat.
i promise i can be really chilled about lots of things lol,
but these three are pretty much my mains.
so too sum up,
i've been learning to chill which has resulted in pretty happy kiddos.

a side note to my boys
 - can you guys stop growing up !?

Sea Cliff Bridge

our last big activity for the holidays was going to the sea cliff bridge.

you will find this little beauty down south in clifton.

i have to be honest i did think it was going to be longer than it was.

the boys rode their scooters and i walked along this amazing bridge,

 that moves along the side of the mountain and stands tall above the ocean.

the day we went was super super windy,

brushing my hair that night was not fun.

the boys raced up and down the bridge as we made our way up and down it.

they spotted an army plane, hang-gliders, what they thought was a whale (it was just seaweed) and boats way way out on the horizon.

besides the wind,

the sun was out in all its glory.

zayden and makai were also out in all their glory,

fighting over who won the race.

i almost wanted to throw them overboard

-almost.

because the bridge didn't take us too long we found a park to play,

had a picnic lunch and watch the hang-gliders.

zayden and brax told me that they wished they could be old enough to be a hang-glider,

makai said he would never do it EVER.

Echo Point

the two older boys were so interested by the story of the three sisters

we decided to take a trip up to see them in the holidays.

the weather was perfect.

the boys kept saying they felt like they could touch the sky

because they were up so high in the mountains.

zayden wasn't so great when it came to this hike.

in his defence though,

he was still recovering from being sick.

we did the little walk down to the giant staircase,

it has awesome trees to climb over and animal states all the way through this walk.

this kept zayden entertained,

this boy LOVES animals.

we got to the lookout point which is where i thought we were stopping

but the two older boys had other ideas.

they wanted to get so close to the three sisters so they could touch them.

so down the giant staircase we went.

they did awesome !

bracky even snuck in a sneaky kiss to one.

(this boy is for sure my ladies man.)

the only was we got zayden up those stairs without my holding him,

was telling him that he would get two lollies at the lolly shop we had planned to go to.

i have always wanted to stop in to the lolly bug at hartley,

so that's just what we did.

the lolly selection was AWESOME.

and the price was cheaper than i thought it would be.

this was a perfect way to end our day in the mountains.

Dates 5+6/12

wow i've been so bad with my blogging lately.
when life gets me down,
instead of fighting back i literally crawl into a whole (my bed)
and watch fresh prince of bel air.
so last month's date (date 5) was going to see wonder women !
best girl power movie EVER.
if you haven't seen it i am disgusted in that choice,
jk.
but really GO SEE IT !
i rarely accompany jevan to the movies so he thought this date was pretty spesh.

and this months date was pretty simple,
because we are lacking babysitters
(we are too poor to pay for one,)
jevan's mum was down from queensland so naturally,
 we pounced on the opportunity to go for a date.
we were going to go into darling harbour for concrete desserts at betty burgers
because i missed out when jevan and the two older boys due to a very sick zayden.
but by the time jevan got home it was too late we would've gotten there at like 9:30.
so jevan let me go and get knafeh.
i LOVE it
he HATES it.
so this awesome husband of mine drove me out to casula and sat with me as i ate not one but TWO of these slices of deliciousness.
the story behind us ordering two....
we were waiting in line and every time the guy would call out the name and how many orders,
not one of them was
"Kim for One."
it was for 3,4,8 some even 10.
jevan looked at me and i looked at him.
"should we just order two?"
lol so we ordered two.
i felt so so soooooo sick after,
but WORTH IT !
jevan said as i lied on our bed feeling like a sick whale.
"so that'll last you for another year?!"
i secretly think he was always going to make me get two,
 just so he didn't have to go back for another 12 months.

This Is Who I Am

life can throw some big knock-out curve balls at you.

this year has bought a lot of quick learning experiences for me.

moments i thought i would never have to face

and words i thought i would never have to say.

there have been a lot of tears,

a lot of heartache,

a lot of moments on my knees praying and pleading the hardest i ever had.

all this has resulted in me having to re-assess who i am.

what do i stand for?

what are my values and ethics?

what do i believe in?

where do i belong?

and i can say this is who i am.

i am kimberley ormsby, 

i am married to a loving husband and my best friend,

i am a mother of three beautiful boys,

i am loyal and honest,

i am smart and strong (even if i don't feel it),

i believe that there is good in the world

but most importantly i am a daughter of a heavenly father.

i will teach my boys that they can be the good change that this world needs.

i will teach them to love one another and those around them,

i will teach them that they need to be there for one another

and that they will pull each other into line when the times arise.

i will teach them to be strong and be honest.

but what i mostly want them to know is that they are enough just who they are

that i will always be proud of them no matter what they choose to do

and that i will love them "forever and ever."

Barrenjoey Lighthouse

these school holidays have been on point

(except thursday, thursday was bad so we are pretending thursday didn't exist.)

the weather has been exceptional,

which has totally made me want to go out and explore.

our favourite thing we did this week was the Barrenjoey Lighthouse Walk.

it was awesome,

well worth the 1 and a half drive,

(boys didn't agree they hate long drives.)

they loved it once we got there though.

can i just say how proud i was of the boys.

these 3 nuggets walked the WHOLE way and

didn't complain ONCE about the walk.

(even zayden, i know i can't believe it either!)

and this walk had some steep inclines,

even i was puffing and panting when we reached the top.

i think it helped that there was something to see once we got to the top.

ever since the norah head lighthouse tour,

the boys have fallen in love with lighthouses.

zayden wasn't very impressed though that this one wasn't working.

also helped i bribed them with freddo's once we reached the top

and pods once we got down to the bottom.

but it doesn't matter i'll take it as a win.

it was pretty awesome.

you start at the beach and then a couple of steps in you are in the middle of bush,

if you didn't know there was a beach below you'd never be able to guess.

the view from the top was awesome.

it was a perfect whale watching day.

we spotted 2 whales.

the boys threw rocks into the ocean,

we came across the first lighthouse keepers grave,

we saw funny looking trees and HUGE rocks that looked like boulders.

once we got back down to the bottom we found a dead crab,

which makai had to put back into the ocean to be buried,

we had a picnic lunch,

built sandcastles (classic beach must-do activity)

and all had a handstand competition.

i'm proud to say I CAN STILL DO A HANDSTAND !

i also made makai take a photo to send to jevan because

i knew he wouldn't have believed me either without evidence.

seriously

BEST.DAY.EVER

and then the next day was thursday.