May 2012

Hamish and Liam playing.

A picnic at Putney Park.

Hamish is now 1! Where has that year gone?  Sarah moved in and we got ourselves into a routine pretty quickly. Here we are picnicing at Putney Park while overlooking the water.
I started helping out with writing in Isabella's Kindy class every Thursday for 45 minutes. She loved my coming in and helping and I got to know all the kids in her class really well. Isabella received a reading certificate at a Friday assembly standing next to Tom of course.

Tom and Isabella with their reading certificates.

Isabella gets chosen as the Kindy SRC rep.

Hamish and Henry had a belated birthday at my sister's house and all the cousins got to catch up. It's wonderful that they all get to play with each other!

Hamish being kept busy with food at Friday Assembly time.

In May there was time for playdays with our mate Liam. They're almost old enough to play together instead of side by side. It won't be long! At school Isabella was chosen as the Kindergarten SRC representative for her class. She got presented with a badge and got to go along to SRC meetings. What a grown up thing to do in Kindergarten! David had a birthday which we celebrated with a fancy breakfast as a family. It was delicious. Hamish got to have his own baby cino which he loved. So much in fact that when it was taken from his lips he screamed. The first time we've really seen a temper on him. We finally got a new fridge. Nice and silver and shiny! At school the duck eggs came again in the incubator and I got to watch the eggs hatch at school and the little ducklings grow into very cute and fat ducklings. I took the kids and Sarah into my school to have a cuddle outside business hours. We got to play with them without being interrupted. It was lovely. Isabella got another certificate through swimming.

Family!

Our new fridge.

Daddy and his boy!

Look at those good looking boys!

Playing on the swings.

A Hamish and Henry birthday cake!

Sarah and duckling.

Josh and Isabella with a duckling.

Isabella and another swimming certificate.

School Holidays have begun

I can't believe that so much time has passed so quickly since I last posted...

A new fringe on my gorgeous daughter.

Brotherly love. Awww!

A trip to the beach.

How can Josh's foot be so much bigger than mine?

Eating at one of Isabella's school assemblies.

Isabella with a reading award.

Hamish with his Dad. Gorgeous boys!

My Dad, Mum and sister with Sammy.

Some of the boy cousins. Missing Henry.

All the cousins and Hamish with his cake. Happy Birthday!

A play day with Liam.

So what have I been doing and what has been happening here...

I've been back at work 10 weeks and have not only survived but have really enjoyed myself in the process of remembering students names, routines, breaks and retraining my bladder to only go during recess and lunch! We decided to get an au pair instead of sending Hamish to day care or family day care as I was only going back to work three days and for us it seemed like a better idea for Hamish while he is so young. He got to stay in his own familiar surroundings, get one on one attention and stay away from sick snotty children. The older children give him enough germs to build up his immunity to bugs. We found a lovely young girl (23) from Canada using a website called Au-pair World who has now been living with us for 10 weeks. Sarah has settled into our home and is well loved by Hamish. (phew!) We've gotten into a routine that works for us and everyone seems happy. We finally got her a wardrobe and some hangers. (I kept forgetting to buy these. Whoops!)  I've finally weaned Hamish from his last feed (the night time one)  as of a week ago and of course he's just got a nasty cold. I've spent the last two weeks coming to terms with both weaning him and deciding that we're done with babies! A big step for us and a bit of a mourning period for me. No more babies growing inside my body, no more kicks, no more new baby smell, no more breast-feeding. BUT hopefully sooner rather than later, no more sleepless nights, eventually no more nappies, getting my body back, getting more time to spend together, watching the kids growing up and experiencing new things as parents of teenagers. So because I've now got my body back I've decided to join the local gym (where a friend goes already) and have done my first yoga and zumba class with a girlfriend and have had a lot of fun and quite a lot of laughs. Sore muscles this week! I've been drinking too much coffee because I can! No worry about eating the wrong sort of foods anymore and making Hamish get a sore belly or keeping him awake.


Hamish has now got a new bedtime routine that goes along with weaning him. I managed to feed him for 14 months. The same amount of time as I breast-fed Sammy. Josh got 12 months and Isabella the shortest with 11 months. It's getting easier each day to put him to bed as he gets used to the new bedtime cues. First he plays while I cook dinner. We eat dinner together and then he gets a bath and dressed in his pyjamas and his sleep sack, has warm milk, teeth are cleaned, wave goodnight to everyone and get lots of kisses, a story and then lights out. I lay him in his cot and pat him gently until he's almost asleep and then creep out. Tonight he lay down straight away without trying to get up and cried twice, I wiggled my hand gently against his back for a minute and he was asleep. Poor little boy was very tired tonight.


So far these holidays we've been to Cockatoo Island and saw art words from the Biennale which were amazing. The kids loved these and many of them were interactive. We also went to the drive-in and saw Brave. We ate over buttered popcorn, white chocolate, drank hot chocolate from a thermos and then drove home. The older two then got picked up by their dad for his engagement party. They'll stay there until the end of the week.


We got a call during the last week of term from one of Josh's teachers to tell us how well he'd done in his class. He got 100% for all his assessments for the year so far and is first in his year. We were and are so proud of him and let him choose a place to have a meal. He chose Ribs and Rumps and had a whole rack of ribs and then had room for dessert! He's a growing, eating machine at the moment!

Sammy turned 13 and enjoyed her 'Pamper' Party with some close friends. I think everyone had a wonderful time and felt really spoilt. Sammy and her friends had a chocolate fountain and went through 6 punnets of strawberries and 4 bananas, not to mention the cucumber sandwiches (high tea sandwiches - a big hit!) lollies, pop corn, mini cakes and cans of diet coke and champagne flutes (blue plastic ones) full of juice. They had nails painted, a pedicure and foot massage and a face mask. Kim (Sammy's step-mum) curled the girls hair while they were waiting.


Next week Sammy is getting braces and is so excited about it finally arriving. Her teeth are so overlapped and it will be good for her to have straight teeth that are easier to keep clean.


I will try and get this poor neglected blog up and happening again. I really do enjoy keeping a diary of my day to day goings on and it's a great way for me to keep all our families excursions, goings on, and just day to day life in one place. 

Isabella's 5th Birthday party

The courtyard cleared for party action after the rain cleared.

Today was Isabella's 5th birthday party and we had 7 little people coming over to help celebrate. They were: Amelia, Meg, Jess, Annabelle, Bridget, Kaitlyn and Cooper. I decided to organise a fairy to entertain them and to let me have a chance to touch base with the mums that I usually only get to see in passing. Eg on the way to or from preschool.

I got hold of 'We came here to party' and organised a fairy through the lady in charge 'Kylie'. We were amazingly lucky with the weather today. The forecast was for rain and so I had set up the entire party inside, moving furniture in my craft room to the edge of the room so that there was enough room for them to move. The fairy arrived and the skies cleared and it ended up getting really quite hot! So out we moved them. The party finished while it was dry, but about half an hour later the rain was pouring down and we were thanking our lucky stars that we'd had a dry morning!!

The Great Stuff

Fairy Laura was pretty and her costume was gorgeous. She really could've passed as a fairy! The cupcakes, balloons and party bags were exactly as described. Fairy Laura was on time to the minute! Her punctuality was fantastic and let me relax! She got herself organised quickly as far as set up, chairs, music, costumes etc. The children (all the girls) were engaged the whole time!

The Good Stuff

Fairy Laura arrived 15 minutes early to set up and was stunning in her purple fairy ensemble. She unpacked her car quickly and had Isabella help her. She thought helping Fairy Laura was wonderful! The set up included pink chairs (although the website says they have pink cushions as well - there weren't any), a little white tree with butterflies on it for decoration, a white basket with pink ribbon on it for the prizes, another container full of the fairy costumes, cupcakes for the children(fairy topped ones for the girls and a pirate one for Cooper, the only boy), lolly bags and helium balloons (I had to pay extra for those). She was very polite and friendly and she greeted the children as they arrived. She had the kids engaged the whole time and there was very little noise coming from them. They played some cute games outside and were all very happy. The prizes were good quality and the kids loved them so much that many of them came inside to show 'mum' what they had won. Very cute.

The not so good Stuff

So the issues I had with Fairy Laura were her arrival in my house chewing on gum. It kind of ruined the wholesome fairy goodness that my five year old needed. She did get rid of this before any of the kids arrived though. Although Fairy Laura greeted the kids as they arrived it seemed that she had nothing for them to do in this time other than sit on their little pink seats. I think I would've liked to see some story-telling on a special 'story mat' or her putting on their dresses while waiting for the others to arrive. The children arrived between 10 and perhaps 10:15. So I feel that 15 minutes of that time could've been better spent. The Fairy party didn't really cater for boys, although they said that they did. I asked if they could supply something for the little boy that was coming to wear and they said 'no' in a round about way. I ended up going out and buying a little pirate costume which I'm sure will come in handy in the dress-up box for when we have boys over to play dress-ups or for when Hamish is old enough to play. I'm not sure if quiet always equals good fun! But it did mean that the parents had a chance to drink a hot cuppa! Supposedly the party says 2 hours, but in reality they don't stay for the 2 hours. Fairy Laura arrived 15 minutes before the party and then packed up at 11:30, half an hour before the end of the party. I thought she was going to stay for the cake, but to be honest I spoke with so many party places that they may not have said this. I really should write down what exactly is on offer shouldn't I! The only other thing that worried me was that Fairy Laura took off all her fairy stuff before she finished packing up which I thought broke the illusion of 'magic' that she had created. I would have liked to see her disappear in her fairy outfit.

So I was happy to pay the money in the end and had a fantastic time at Isabella's birthday party. She had an awesome time too and really that is the main thing. I think the little things that I nit-picked wouldn't even have been noticed by most people, but I'm very fussy!

The thank you I sent to all the mums.

Josh playing Lego with Cooper to keep him happy.

Sammy being Cooper for a minute!

Bella having her hair sprayed with glitter.

At the end of the party. I made it!

All the gorgeous girls and a handsome young man.

19 sleeps to go, Sammy's new uniform and Bellas birthday

Cutting the cake. What a big knife you have!

Today is a day of photos. Too tired to type much. Isabella turned five!! Big day!!
Activity today was a hot chocolate with whipped cream(from a can!!)marshmallows and sprinkled with shaved chocolate (Cadbury flake). Yummo!!

My baby is five!

Bella, Sammy and the cousins.

The cake is in the shape of the number '5'.

Sammy's new high school uniform

The cousins in their viking hats.

She looks so old! I can't believe she'll be in high school next year.

Enjoying our hot chocolates.

Cream from a can. Yum!

Melting yumminess!

20 sleeps to go and in overdrive

The day started at 6:15am this morning when Hamish woke me for his morning feed. I grabbed him, unzipped him from his sleep sack and hurried back to the warmth of our bed. His little hands and feet were cold and I tried to warm them on me while I fed him. It made me cold, but also a little less guilty about him sleeping through and not being warm enough. That silly thing they call 'mother guilt'! Hamish feeds very quickly now and so I lay in bed listening to Dave breath and waiting for the alarm to go off before I ventured out of the warm bed. I was very reluctant to get up, but today was a special day for Sammy and so I asked Dave to look after Hamish while I had a shower, washed my hair and blow dried it. I'm pretty quick at my hair now, so I probably only took half an hour and then it was time to wake everyone up, have breakfast, get everyone else fed, dressed, hair done and out the door by 8am. We couldn't have done it without everyone's help and the house was upside down when we left!! I dropped Josh near school and then the four of us drove to Sammy's new high school, parked and unpacked what felt like the whole house to take Hamish and Bella into the high school and keep them quiet while we bought uniforms, book packs, checked bus timetables and paid school fees. The kids were all beautifully behaved and Sammy was so excited to get all her school uniform bits and pieces, find out what house group she is in and watch the high school students perform for us. My baby is growing up! She was very nervous about sitting the placement test and had asked Josh about it. In the end she did well and said that the test was very easy. I think it gives the school a chance to stream students from the word go instead of waiting for their results at the beginning of the school year. It was great to see her dad make the effort to come along to the high school orientation. It took him two hours to get to the school what with peak hour and school traffic. Sammy was pleased she got to spend some quality time with him without Josh or her dad's partner and baby around. I know I try and make the effort for Sammy to spend time with just me, but it is hard to find the time to do that. I hope they had a really nice time.
After orientation it was off to Top Ryde City to catch up with two lovely ladies, Sim and Kez and their four treasures. We gave them donuts and milkshakes and got a caffeine hit while the kids played imaginary games that involved moving chairs around, using the equipment on the activity wall (specifically a plastic phone) and even lying on the floor at one stage. It didn't really matter what they were doing as long as they weren't hurting each other or any passing strangers. It gave us a chance to catch up 'adult' like which is always so good at recharging the batteries!! I'm looking forward to our dinner out without the kids! That will be even better!! AND I'll be able to leave Hamish at home and have a glass of wine!! OMG!!
Dave had a meeting today and was dressed in a suit for a nice change. I asked him if he wanted to have lunch up with me at Top Ryde and he didn't need asking twice! Almost like a date!! We went to a place in the Piazza called 'Grill' something. The food was okay, nothing to write home about. It was the company that was delightful. Yes you honey! You looked great in your suit by the way! I love you!! XXOOXX
Dave left me after a quick lunch to get back home and do some more work before the end of year Scout party and dinner this evening. The weather went from bad to worse and I was sure that they would cancel, but they didn't. Dave suggested that I stay at home because it was so cold. I took him up on his offer straight away. No arguments from me. I'm sitting here with thick socks and slippers on and am still a little cold. What strange weather for December. It's supposed to be our summer!

Our 2011 Christmas decoration. A glass church.

Silver ornament ties to replace the red ones.

After Dave left Isabella and I went looking for a Christmas decoration to buy for this year. I've been looking all over and haven't seen anything I like until today. Today I saw a shiny, sparkly, cute, little church and so bought it straight away. It was from 'Bed, bath and Table'. Love that store. Also bought some new silver ties to replace the red ones on my white and silver Christmas tree.

Bad lighting. It was 8pm when I took the photo. These are at my front door.

I then raced home and put Hamish straight to bed. I needed the break more than him I think! While he was asleep I changed the ribbons on the ornaments on the silver and white tree (the red ribbons were very obvious and although I know many of you are probably rolling your eyes right about now I needed to fix it for me), put up our new church decoration after writing on the bottom of it in permanent marker "Top Ryde 2011". I then finally planted the succulents that I'd been given by my girlfriend Jo from a couple of weeks ago. They look amazing! Thank you.

I have two of these inside now.

 Finally the 'activity' or 'task' for today was to make a treat. Well Isabella is turning 5 tomorrow and for breakfast she would like to have pancakes. Well I cheated slightly and made them tonight already. It meant that the task for tonight was completed even though the older two were out and Isabella was too busy playing school to help. It also means that in the morning when I get up feeling exhausted I can appear to be organised with breakfast when all I'm actually doing is heating up the pancakes. We're going to have them with either banana, blueberries or chocolate chips or chocolate Hershey kisses and maple syrup. I don't eat pancakes so I will be having a cup of coffee and WATCHING everyone else eat the pancakes. No I'm NOT on a diet, but I forgot to buy gluten free pancake mix and I can't be bothered trying to make some just for me. It seems such a waste!!
What a day!! I'm sitting here with Hamish and Isabella in bed, Dave at Scouts and the older two out with their dad. It's 8:54pm and I'm exhausted. I had every intention of doing some more of my Christmas tree skirt, but I think I will finish Dave's stocking while watching tele and then go to bed. But of course not before wrapping Isabella's presents that are hiding in my cupboard.

Grandpa and Hamish

Look at that gorgeous smile!

Granny and Pa came to visit Josh for his birthday. He wasn't really good company as he hadn't had any sleep after his sleep over and I woke him from a nap to come upstairs and say hello. We only kept him upstairs for a few minutes and then sent him back to bed. You couldn't really get anything out of him other than grunts. Poor tired boy. Granny and Pa got so many smiles from Hamish today. I took a couple of really good photos with Dave's camera, but you'll have to make do with the not so great one I got with my iPhone instead.

Josh's 14th birthday and his sleepover...

Josh turned 14 today. Fourteen! I can't believe that I'm the mother of a 14 year old. I can remember so many things that happened to me when I was 14 and Josh will have vivid memories of moments of his life from now.
That's just so weird to me.
Josh wanted DVDs for his birthday and we weren't really keen on buying them for him. Not that there's anything wrong with DVDs, but we just didn't want to buy them for him as a birthday present. There's not really anything special about a DVD. I suggested that he use some of his money to go toward his present and then he could think of getting some technology like a new iPod or even an iPad. Well iPad it was! And we're so impressed with it. It's so awesome! We've made sure that it doesn't have internet so that we don't have to worry about what he's doing on it. He can download stuff through iTunes and then sync his iPad through the computer in the lounge room. I'm sure people with teenagers can totally relate to this. The one rule we have is that it doesn't go to school with him. I'm sure that it would disappear if it went to school. Josh has already lost an iPod on a bus. He saved all his pennies and bought it with his own money and then left it on his school bus. We called the bus company straight away and even went to the bus depot and nobody handed it in. I was so devastated for him. What an awful way to learn about dishonest people and the ways of the world. I hope whoever found it on the bus and kept it had lots of bad luck for stealing!!
For Josh's sleepover we had hotdogs for dinner and then bought heaps of lollies for the boys to eat while watching their movies. Josh had Konrad and Emil over and had invited Aiden, but he wasn't able to come. The boys were all very well behaved, but they didn't get much sleep. At 4:00am I was woken by their laughter and shortly after Hamish wanted a feed. I fed Hamish and then fell asleep about 5ish. The boys were still awake at that stage. After I fed Hamish I wanted to go and tell them to go to sleep, but I was just too tired.
Josh came and woke us up at 7:00am for breakfast and so that he could open his presents. I said that I would make pancakes for the boys for breakfast. So once Dave had made me a cup of tea I stumbled out of bed bleary eyed and made a double batch of pikelet mixture. I cooked the whole lot into big pancakes and the kids ate them with maple syrup and ice-cream, except for Josh who had his with Nutella. I really can't believe that they had any room left in their stomachs after eating all the junk that they did.
At 10am everyone was picked up and Dave and I had a short reprieve before it was off to Boronia Park for the Moocaboolla Festival and Sammy's dance on centre stage.

Getting ready to watch the movies.

Birthday cake for breakfast!

All comfortable now...

The table of  food!