Our first Christmas Day at home!

I LOVE Christmas time! This year I let Lexie choose the colour scheme for the house and tree and she chose "pink and silver" - no great surprises there! LOL. Dunc and I also caved and finally joined the "artificial tree brigade" and bought our first. Somehow I just haven't been able to keep the last 3 trees alive from one Christmas to the next. I'm just not that good at keeping up the watering in these times of drought. So here we have it - our tree for 2008, complete with ALL the presents!


The children let us sleep in - Lexie didn't wake until 7.10 and Angus slept until 7.30! Unfortunately I just haven't grown up and was awake from 6.30 with excitement! We had a special yummy Christmas breakfast of croissants at a very 'odd' table... you'll see why in a minute.


After breakfast, Hilly and Pop arrived and it was time for the presents. The children had already opened a couple but were very keen to get right into the rest of them. They were blown away by all the wonderful gifts they got. Angus had specifically asked Father Christmas for a Christmas Train and was soooooo excited when the big man came through for him! At one stage he was just too excited to choose a present and was jumping up and down on the spot - its SUCH a cute age.




Soon it was time for the G family to arrive en-mass and get ready for another yummy meal - lunch! We had created the biggest table in history and rustled up almost every chair in the house. Lexie, Angus and I created the centrepieces:






I re-created the centrepieces last night, as they spent the last couple of days re-hanging all the little danglies. The largest table in history meant that the dining room was converted into the smallest lounge room, although to be honest I really like it! Note the new shelves that were hung only last night... after leaning against the wall for the previous year or so.


After lunch we had a relaxing cuppa and were able to stop and chat. The rest of the family arrived and after a quick catch up and another glass of wine, it was on with what felt like a whirlwind of presents and a herd of reindeer!


We had a truly fabulous day! Lots of yummy food, plenty of time to just chill out and relax in between courses, no need to rush off anywhere else, Dunc could drink whatever he wanted and the kids could play with their toys. It was GREAT! Thanks so much family - we LOVE you!

My baby girl is a graduate!

Sob Sob! Today was "Lexie's big day" - the Daycare Annual Christmas Party which included the graduation concert and ceremony!


She's been soooooooooo excited all week and had mentioned that a few of them would be standing at the front singing into the microphone.

But then tonight we saw that it was just Lexie and Will leading all the other Kinder 4s who were in a line behind them! She's certainly not shy...

The big man in Red was there and both children were very excited to recieve their first gift of the season:


Lexie spent almost an hour running around finding all of her little friends to give them the cookies and cards she had made for them. She helped Angus to hand his out too. I just love seeing her absolute joy in giving out her gifts. Angus is starting to understand what's involved and he drew a special picture in every card for all of his friends too.

Ahhhh... they just melt your heart!

Its been a while between drinks...

I've been a little busy at work. Marking trial exams and working on the school magazine until 1am for 2 weeks straight does not make for free time to do stuff like update blogs! Never mind... school holidays are fast approaching, my reports are well under way and I see some light at the end of the tunnel.

The rest of the family are pottering along nicely. Dunc has finally tidied and cleaned up the garage. So much so, that today he was completely and utterly unable to locate a box of "important bits" for a little job. Ah well... He's been busy in there creating his Kris Kringle gift and outside tending to his growing vegetable garden.

The children are their usualy happy selves. Its just so lovely watching them play together. Hopefully I don't curse it by mentioning it, but Lexie is just so caring and loving with Angus. Her patience is amazing. She has started her Orientation at school. Do you think she's excited?


Last weekend we went to the local church strawberry fete. The kids had a ball - jumping castles, a ride in an old fashioned firetruck, balloon animals and... pony rides!


So that's us in a nutshell at the moment.

A lovely loonie weekend

I'm just back from a truly FABULOUS weekend away! 2 days in Sydney with 5 of my closest friends, chatting about our children, families, work, hobbies, lives, food and anything else we could think of really!


We stayed in a wonderful apartment right near the beach up at The Entrance, although we spent rather too much time catching up and not enough time outdoors. I did go on a nice walk along the beach to the shops and back though!



I got to experience using our new GPS (who seems to have been christened 'Mabel' by Dunc) and she really is quite useful. Except my Sydney friends instantly took over Dunc's habit - "what? No... we're not going that way. Ignore her and go right ahead"... "re-calculating route" was heard rather too often! Oh and "you are over the speed limit!" on the way back to the airport. There was a bit of low level flying to get there in time.

Dunc and the children had a fun time at home too. They spent the day at Bunnings! Its so funny to hear both children shout "Yay! Bunnings!" whenever we drive past one. They love going there. And who could blame them?


After they got home it was time to play outside in the garden, and I think that ski trip truly did have an impact:

The gals

So we have recently added two new members to our family and Lexie just adores them.


About 2 months ago we got a couple of gorgeous chickens who Lexie named Mia and Lemon. They started laying about 4 weeks ago and we now get an egg a day from each chicken. One lays in the morning, and one in the afternoon. We think that Lemon lays in the morning and Mia in the afternoon, but its a little hard to tell. Angus is a little unsure about them, but is happy to play with them and cuddle one if someone else is with him. He likes to chase them and try to catch them... as long as it doesn't look like they are about to be caught. When one sits down and waits for him to pick it up, he suddenly gets all shy - so cute! Lexie will run outside and play with them for hours at a time. Both children LOVE eating the eggs they provide and boy are they YUMMY! It really makes you wonder what on earth they feed the chickens which lay the commercial "organic free range" eggs as they really don't compare at all.

When we first picked them up, poor Dunc was still making their hen house. They had to wait in the animal carrier for an hour or so and Lexie stayed with them the whole time. She fed them grass one strand at a time until it was time to transfer them to their Taj Mahal.


Now they are happily settled in and we get are getting enough eggs to start giving a few away. The other day Lexie waited and watched (and kept opening the nesting box door and disturbing...) until Lemon laid her morning egg. The second that egg was laid, she opened the door, took it out from under the chicken, passed it over the fence to Emilie who was waiting there, Em took it into their house to give to Sarah, who rang me in amazement as it was still warm! Now THAT'S why we got chickens!!

Oh and for this. Check how how wonderfully Ella and Lexie play with them:

Family ski trip

Our first trip to the snow as a family of four. The children had a ball and we managed to get some skiing in too - gotta LOVE ski school and ski creche! Luckily the children did too. The weather was gorgeous with blue skies and sun. The snow was amazing with well over 1.2m! The company was great with the 2 other families from mothers group, resulting in ski-mates for Dunc and I and playmates for the children.

Lexie loved ski school and mastered the art of getting her skis on and off, walking, climbing, riding the 'magic carpet' and skiing slightly downhill. She's starting to snow plow and was heard to say "A weekend isn't long enough Mummy. Next year I want to come for 5 days!"




Angus howled for 10 mins and then crashed out and slept the first afternoon. Luckily he was excited to go back the next day and play with the same carers and the dumptruck full of snow. Right after we collected them, we headed down the slope a bit to lunch:

Late nights, early mornings, tired legs from extreme amounts of un-accustomed snow plows with Lexie skiing between our legs, a final play in the snow, some tobagganing and it was time for home.

What fun! Just quietly... I think we all agree with Lexie and will be saving up for next year!

first post!

hmm... here we go. Thought it might be time to join the rest of the family and get a blog! Lets see if I can figure out how to work this thing!