USA day 2

Hamish woke around 2ish in the morning and chatted to himself for a couple of hours before falling asleep again. David decided to get up at 3:30 am as he couldn't sleep anymore. I on the other hand was quite happy to go back to sleep. The alarm went at 7:30 and it was a huge struggle getting out of bed. We showered and got dressed and managed to get down to breakfast just after 9:00am. The choices were scrambled egg (powdered egg I think), ham, breakfast potato (fried up potato cubes), toast, cereal, fruit and yoghurt. More than enough to feed our hungry family. Isabella loved the chocolate puffs and went back for about four bowls. It reminded me of Sammy's return visits to the buffet in Fiji. She just loved the bacon, pancakes and maple syrup. Obviously the kids are not eating enough sugar in the morning back home!! After breakfast we headed to the 'big' Walmart. The kids were really excited to spend their own American dollars and really took their time picking treats for themselves. Josh got a huge bag of marshmallows, Sammy chose 'milk duds', Isabella chose some an art set with sparkly paper and fruit smelling textas. I got boring gluten free cereal, nappies and mascara, David bought himself a couple of slacks and a shirt and the youngest member of the family found an iron man doll that talks and that he couldn't put down. The three eldest kidlets paid with their $50 American notes. I handed them out and then waited for them to finish marveling at their change before I could put the money back in their individual envelopes in my wallet. There were lots of oohs and aahs about the coins. Back in the car we all tried some 'milk duds' for the first time while we headed home for a snack. They're little caramel and chocolate balls of yumminess. Mmmmm! Sammy was very good about sharing. At home David made me a cup of tea. No kettles come standard in hotel rooms so he had to improvise with a pot of water on the stove. It was a little slice of home. We're both really missing our familiar coffees and haven't been able to get our taste buds around to American filter coffee. After a short break we headed out to lunch. We decided to try 'In N Out Burgers' which are supposed to be so good. What an effort to find one! Really they should have a store locator on their site instead of the PDF list of outlets. Not very helpful when you don't know one suburb from another. We eventually made it there all starving! The choices for burgers were number 1, 2 or 3 with or without onion. Barnes and Noble, a mega book store. David was in his element! The kids were let loose and all came out with a magazine or book.

USA here we come...

A change of template to give a hint of where we're going in less than two days!

Our once in a life time trip is almost upon us and we're really not ready to go! Air tickets, visas and accommodation are all booked and we even have our e-tickets in our hot little hands, but bags are not packed, money is not loaded onto our travel cards and work we need to do before we leave is not done. Plus on top of all that everyone has been really sick. Thirty hours approximately of dosing everyone up on medication for conjunctivitis and high fevers and hopefully we'll miraculously come good at the last minute. 'You'll be right on the night!' is my motto for now!

So where are we going? The U, S of A of course! Twenty-four years ago I was an exchange student to Rhode Island and became a part of the senior class of 1990. I got to live with a wonderful family in North Kingstown and be a painful teenager. I went to two proms, joined the track team and pulled a muscle, (short lived experience) joined the drama club and performed in a big production, met some great people, explored the countryside, go myself an American boyfriend and made a friendship that has lasted the distance.

I'm looking forward to catching up with my girlfriend, Jenn, who is still as funny and gorgeous and crazy as she was all those years ago. How are we going to fit the last twenty years of girly gossip into the day and a bit I'll see her. Maybe encourage her to come to Australia and stay with a crazy family of six!! Ah....a plan!! ; )

I'm also catching up with my host family. A lovely family of three who put up with a crazy Aussie girl for an entire year. How painful was I? I will surely soon find out!

Before we leave Rhode Island we're going to visit North Kingstown High. This is the high-school I spent a year at. I managed to make an appointment with the principal this week. He was just lovely. The new principal is married to one of the girls that I was in my senior year of high-school with. She is an English teacher now. There is also another English teacher at the school who was also in my year at high-school. What a small world! They both remember me! I think a crazy Aussie chick with no sense of fashion and hair with a mind of its own (Who knew you could use product in your hair to tame it?) was never going to be able to blend in quietly.

Enough for now. Back to packing and medicating...

June 2012

More certificates. We're so proud!

Dressed up for a Ball.

Hamish's first play-doh experience.

Sarah and Isabella playing.

Sammy and Josh giving Hamish tips.

The view from the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Josh trying to work out the ribbon art.

After school we got to play with freshly made play-doh which Hamish loved! I think the others loved it too, even Sarah! Isabella got more certificates. What a beautiful smile on her face! We were invited to a Ball where we got to dress up and boogie the night away. Don't we look smart! During the school holidays we went exploring Sydney. While poor David was working we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art and got to play with some of the installations and even have afternoon tea overlooking the Opera House. I think Sarah and the kids enjoyed the city visit.

The cousins having lunch at Questacon.

Hand prints at Questacon.

We visited Canberra in June with Sarah and caught up with Brenton, Annabella, Lucy and Henry and got to visit Questacon and just got to hang around together. This month my little Sammy became a fully fledged teenager by turning 13! She had a wonderful pampering birthday party with robes and face masks and most importantly of all, a chocolate fountain! She loved every minute!

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.

February 2012

Date night

February saw the settling in to two new schools, new bus trips to navigate for Sammy and a chance to spend quality time with Hamish while everyone else was at school. It also saw the beginning of our weekly date nights as Joshua finally became old enough to babysit for us. Yay for us! Hamish became a little more mobile as he began to crawl and Sammy and Josh hung out with old friends. Isabella made a new and very important friend, Tom, who she is going to marry. We even had a chance to finally swim in our own pool. The Summer hasn't been a warm one, so the pool has been very brisk and shall we say, 'refreshing'. Not my cup of tea at all!!

Play time with just Momma.

Swimming in Summer.

Crawling is just about to begin.

Hanging out with Jaslyn.

Movies at Top Ryde with Emil and Konrad.

Bella and her 'boyfriend', Tom.

Swimming in our pool.

Isabella getting her first certificate at assembly.

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. 

Ready for Easter

I repainted the bunny to match our colour scheme.

It's 'Easter Eve' the kids tell me and I've been busy decorating the house ready for Easter. The older two have been off with their dad, visiting the zoo and having an early Easter. They've come back with lots of Easter Eggs which they're guarding well, knowing their mother as well as they do!
It was nice to have the table ready for our Easter breakfast tomorrow morning when the kids got home tonight. They were nicely surprised I think. I love surprising them with the magic of Easter, Christmas, birthdays etc. You're only a kid once after all.
We've got a menu of warm croissants followed by egg and bacon for breakfast in the morning. I'm guessing that our starter will be some yummy chocolate Easter Eggs that the Easter bunny will hopefully leave for us!! I can't wait to see the kids faces in the morning when they see the Easter Eggs.
I still remember that feeling of seeing the Easter Eggs and waiting impatiently for everyone to be up so that we could go and hunt for the eggs. So much excitement.

Paper cup wreath made in a few minutes with hot glue

Branch decorated with bought eggs.

The table ready for Easter breakfast.

The wreath in steps.

At the entrance I put down a table runner that I'd bought on sale at Spotlight for Christmas. On top of that I placed the three wax, battery powered candles I bought from Costco last year. I topped them with napkin rings I also bought on sale from Spotlight for Christmas last year and put an egg in each that had been blown, washed and dried. I hot glued a little chicken to the top of each one. Then lent the wreath in front of it all. A bit of cheap and cheery Easter decoration.
On the other buffet I put our branch that David helped me find yesterday. We went to the beach to hopefully find a piece of driftwood, but I had no such luck. We did have a lovely day eating out and playing on the sand with the kids. But no driftwood. On the way home we drove past all the places we thought we could hopefully find a branch and just before we reached home I shouted to David to stop the car again. This time I was in luck. A gorgeous branch. It didn't have a long bit to hold itself up so I shoved it into a vase with a small opening and then used little bits of wood to wedge it in place. You wouldn't know it from looking at it though. I was hoping to spray paint it white but I didn't have time. Maybe next year. I hung up some decorations that I bought from Bed, Bath and Table for a few dollars. They look very cute. I had also painted some real eggs blue, written the kids names on them and then threaded them with cord. I think it turned out nicely and the kids loved having their names on the eggs.
The table is decorated with Ikea plates and cups and the Spotlight table cloth that I bought at Christmas time on special. I wish I had thought to buy some flowers to decorate the centre of the table with. I had to make do with a bowl with green Easter paper and blown eggs. Not very fancy, but they'll do.
We're all going to drink our water out of wine glasses since it's a special occasion and the kids will probably drink some very weak tea.
As I type this we're sitting on the edge of our seats watching Dante's Peak. An oldie but a goody. Sammy's already asked me who dies. I'm as bad as her with scary movies and hate not knowing what's about to happen. So I had to tell her that the main characters don't die but some characters do die.
I leave this post with a quick look at how I made the wreath. I found the wreath on pinterest and though it was so easy that I had to make it. You can find the original here. Much nicer than mine.
David's downstairs finishing emptying out the office. It's council clean up on Monday and so all the stuff we want to get rid of will be picked up by council. I'm so excited to be able to do up a new room. It's for our upcoming au pair. I will update soon...

Wizzy world

This morning we had planned to go to the Harry Potter exhibition at the Power House in the city. The only problem was that when we tried to get tickets on-line for today they were sold out. Frustrating. David booked and paid for the tickets for next weekend so we don't miss out altogether. I was disappointed and so were the kids. So what do we do today? We didn't really know. I googled 'what's on today in Sydney' and found a few things on but nothing that excited us. So after Hamish woke up from his nap we got in the car and went exploring. First off we went to Roseville Chase to check out the national ark under the bridge. Very wet. And no coffee. Not so good for us that needed a caffeine boost to get through the rest of the day. Hamish started getting cranky because of his teeth and so we stopped at the closest place to where we were for some afternoon tea. Whizzy World. It was noisy and full of stinky, sweaty children but there was coffee and a relatively comfy spot for our bottoms while the younger ones happily played. Bliss for parents. Josh and Sammy were less than impressed. We sweetened them up with cordial and biscuits.