Officially Aussie Kate!

Tonight I became an Aussie! After 5 years of living in Australia I am officially an Australian Citizen. I said the Pledge and sang the National Anthem and received my certificate and Australian Native plant so yes, that means I finally, officially belong in this country! Woohoo! No more visas. No more paperwork. And no more checking in with the government to prove that my relationship/marriage is real. I love it.

Thank you Aussie family for coming along and supporting me. You all are the reason I'm now an Aussie and it meant so much that you could all be there to see it become official. Thank you to Anna for my cute Aussie bear (made by Anna!) and thank you Laura for my super cute hand made American/Aussie postcard (made by Laura!). It's going front and centre on the fridge! Thank you Madre and Padre for the beautiful Australian flowers that showed up at the door tonight! (They had a VERY similar arrangement at the citizenship ceremony so you hit the nail on the head!) They are beautiful and mean so much!

I now declare myself and American Aussie! Here's a few photos from the night courtesy of Andrew (specially for you Madre!). Thank you Aussie family for coming along and supporting me and thank you Madre and Padre for the beautiful Australian flowers that showed up at the door tonight! (They had a VERY similar arrangement at the citizenship ceremony so you hit the nail on the head!) They are beautiful and mean so much!

Oh yes, and Happy 5th birthday to little Alfo for tomorrow. You can see from tonight's photo that he looks wicked excited about it. Hehehe.

A little Fun at the Beach - Abby & Paige

Friends of ours were kind enough to let me practice my photography on their little girls, Abby & Paige. They happen to be shy, sweet and super adorable subjects to play with. We took ourselves to Williamstown beach on a bright sunny morning and had a bit of fun! It was my first time photographing kids (minus baby Jay in New Orleans) so I had a quick learning curve trying to engage my little subjects from behind the camera. (Well, more like beside the camera... it's hard to keep them engaged unless you have eye contact, and even then it's not easy!) I've had fun editing and playing with a bit of the colour in photoshop to give some different moods to the images.

Thanks Abby and Paige for be so gosh darn cute and thank you Aaron and Rochelle for letting me hang out with you guys with my camera for the morning. I had a blast and would LOVE to do it again!