6 interesting things about me...

Eek! I got tagged by Jane and now need to tell you all 6 interesting things about me. Oh the pressure! After much thought and deliberation, I offer the following "interesting" things for your amusement:

1. Last weekend I was green.
Quite utterly green from the top of my forehead to the tips of my toes!
We went to a 40th Birthday party with the theme "come as your favourite character from musical". I went as Elphaba from Wicked. Fun stuff. Dunc came as "the crew" and we had a ball! Lots of champagne was had and thanks to Mum, a rather extravagent sleep-in the next day made it all very bearable! :D

2. I had the right to remain silent.
When I was 20 years old I was arrested and charged in America. I was 'done' for underage drinking, tresspass and 'open container' for sitting with a bunch of friends in a playground and drinking a few beers and... oh the shame... wine coolers! I handled it all really well until the Police Officer started reading me my rights. Then it all seemed a little too much like the tv show "Law and Order" for me and the silent tears started to flow! Six of us faced court and we were 'let off' on a good behaviour bond. I've not tried to enter the States since they really got tough after 9/11 yet. Wonder if it would be an issue??

3. Duncan and I only started dating as a joke.
He was trying to avoid the attentions of someone he was not interested in and we thought she might move on if she thought he was 'taken'. It only took 2 weeks of pretending to be dating before we ended up not pretending anymore. All that arriving and leaving in the same car...and me carrying his "very expensive, very large, very high tech" mobile telephone which was only slightly smaller than the average laptop these days worked too well!

4. My closest friends are "internet buddies" who I only see once a year.
We met online when we were all pregnant together, so we have known each other for 6 years now. They are a constant source of support and we are in contact almost every day. Sometimes MANY times a day. I can tell them anything and know that they love me and will be there for me. I count down to the annual catch up when we can actually hug and chat and laugh in person.

5. I am tragically addicted to 'late' television shows.
I really should go to bed much earlier than i do. I know this. But somehow I have to stay up and watch crappy television because I need to see what happens. I blame school reports and the school magazine, when I HAVE to stay up to get my work done. Then I get stupidly addicted to the shows and end up staying up when I do not need to. Take tonight for example... I would love to go to bed early and catch up on sleep, but I know I will watch the trashy "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" because I have watched every other episode when it was on during report-writing time. Its a miracle my school reports do not say "Sally is a pleasant and cooperative Art student who likes to undress slowly"!

6. I've sailed significant bits of the world.
Through Holland (canals, locks and lakes) and over to England and up the East coast of England. And down the East coast of Florida, through the middle of Florida (more canals, locks and lakes) and down the West coast of Florida, over to halfway to Cuba and then back to Florida. Not nearly as much of the world as some members of my family, but certainly more than the average person has! Duncan and I also got engaged on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere while we were trying to get to Cuba.

So there you go. I hereby tag Foofie, Jaki and Nik as the rest of my family has already been tagged. Go for it!

So proud of Lexie...

The recent Victorian Bushfires have been so horrendous and Duncan and I have required the tissue box just to read the newspaper. In case you've missed it, Jane's blog gives some idea of the devastation. Lexie's school has held a casual clothes day (much to her disgust - she loves her uniform!) and we have donated tinned food and made our own donations through each work and the internet. We have tried to shield the children from the horror, but they are well aware that people have lost their houses, toys and some their lives.

For my birthday on Friday, I was given a very groovy heart-shaped muffin tin by Lou and an even more groovy cupcake stand by Monica. Lexie was keen to try them out so a batch of choc chip muffins was quickly made on Saturday. Earlier in the day, Lexie had wanted to have a "lemonade stand" (thanks ABC TV) but realised we had no lemons. She decided we could sell the muffins instead. After a short discussion about how much the muffins might cost, we asked Lexie what she might do with the money. "Use it to buy toys? Add it to my pocket money? Oh! I know! I will give it to the children who lost their toys in the fires!".

Our darling girl managed to turn 12 muffins selling for 50cents each into $23! We are so very proud of her. And our generous neighbours...

My baby girl starts school!

How quickly does the time fly? First my baby boy turns three years old and now my baby girl is old enough to go to school!

Lexie started school a few days ago and it has gone amazingly well. Not much of a surprise really, as she was sooo ready to start! The tantrums when she discovered that Neave started in Septmeber were quite incredible: "but she isn't five yet Mummy and I already am! I'm OLDER than her and I can't start yet. That means she's going to learn how to read first and its NOT FAIR! Why can she start now when I can't?!" Ahem... So we started on sight word sheets back in September and she now has a fair few words under her belt before the start of the year.

She seems to be enjoying everything - the uniform and school shoes are a particular favourite and she was almost disappointed when it was a casual clothes day on Friday. She has chosen to wear her school shoes on many a non-school day and it was a struggle to convince her NOT to wear them to Angus' birthday party! :)


She is in a class with ALL of her ballet friends, which is an amazing stroke of good luck. She has Jasmine, Elise, Jana and Tahlia in her class and has already made friends with a few more of the girls. Sigh... not so many boys at the moment. Unfortunately we seem to be at that 'divided' stage.


My new timetable is great and I have every Monday off as well as Tuesday mornings. Hilly has been particularly wonderful. She is looking afte Lexie every Wednesday and is doing ALL of the other drop-offs and pick-ups at the moment. Next week Lexie will attend after-care for one day to ease in, and after that she will be there Wed, Thurs and Fridays. It will be a fair juggle with TWO drop-offs and pick-ups, but I'll manage.

And whilst Lexie is having a ball, Dunc and I are counting down the days until she acclimatises! She is desperately tired and the arguments and tantrums have escalated. Part of the problem is the fact that we have had busy weekends and nights (what with it being 'birthday month' in our house) and she's just not having as much rest as she needs. Hopefully that will all sort itself out soon.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this picture. Think she likes school much?? :)

The big boy turns 3!

How quickly time flies! Our little boy turned 3 this week, which is just a formal recognition of the massive growth spurt and recent developmental leaps. He's really matured over the past couple of months. We now have a little chatterbox who has lost a lot of his insecurities with strangers and new situations. He's really blossomed! So to celebrate we had a Dinosaur birthday party, complete with enormous birthday cake:

Gosh I love Google! I stuffed up the first batch of fondant for the "bony backplates", so had to make a second lot of very blue, sweet, edible playdough. Gave the first batch to the children to play with and they had an absolute ball. Lets hope they don't try and eat the horrible salty stuff next time!
The look of absolute glee on Angus' face when he first saw the cake was so heartwarming. It made every minute spent making it worth it. The 44 degree heat I could have done without - the poor butter frosting couldn't keep up and the dinosaur got a little too tired to hold his head up until candle time. Oh well... he looked good for most of the party!


I copied another mum's idea with strawberries and mint leaves. They are so easy to make and look amazingly effective. And the kids and adults seem to like them. The 22 children (good gracious!) who came were enjoying themselves so much that at first I scrapped the idea of doing the party games. But then the girls were getting a little too keen on the idea of a concert, so Pass-the-Parcel was quickly re-instated and I'm so glad I did. Angus thoroughly enjoyed it. Three years old is the PERFECT age for these games and all of the children enjoyed their little chocolate and dinosaur. Luke, our little winner, was very keen to get his, and a bit put out that it was taking so long. He was extra excited to GET a present at someone else's birthday party.
Now I have a whole 6 months to prepare the next party - how sensible we were to space our children across the year like we did! :)

Our Annual Summer Holiday!

Once a year we have been taking the children away for a Summer holiday. First it was a week in a caravan park in Metung, then last year a week in Phillip Island, and this year we went to New Zealand! Hey... we figured we may as well drive around in a caravan, rather than stay in one spot!

We started the trip with a night with our dear friends Chris and Lou and were able to finally meet their little man Cody. The children LOVED playing with him and he has been constantly mentioned since. It was soooo nice to have a great catch up with Chris and Lou too.
We thought we were heading to NZ to see the beautiful scenery, but travelling with children is a vastly different kettle of fish! We spent lots of time exploring the local playgrounds and were tucked up in bed by 10pm each night. Of course we also saw some truly amazing scenery and went on some fabulous tours. One of our first stops was the Moeraki Boulders, on the East Coast. Its just amazing to see these incredible perfectly round rocks being formed and spat out by the Earth.
The area in and around Milford Sound was one of the most beautiful places in the world. Truly awe-inspiring stuff and the time I really felt like THIS is the New Zealand I've heard so much about.
Our last stop was at Mt Cook/Aoraki. We went on a glacial lake boat ride which got us nice and close to the glaciers and icebergs. It was reassuring to see the boat driver kept her hand on the controls the entire time in case we needed to vacate the area though!
Absolutely gorgeous and the children had a ball playing in the dry river gully in the National Park.

We really only covered the bottom half of the South Island, clockwise from Christchurch in a large circle. It was an amazing time and so nice for Dunc and I to be travelling again. It is a completley different thing travelling with kids, but no less fun. And next year? Well next year's Annual Summer Holiday will be rather cold and wintery as we are headed to:

And we can't wait!!

will try and fix the vidoes another time...

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!