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. 

How are there so few days left?

All my craft stuff out on the dining room table. OMG!! What a mess.

A red-eyed special of the kids in the cinema.

Present ornament.

Snowflake ornament half done.

Ribbon container finally started.

Monday was such a busy day of Mothers Group and Christmas tree decorating at Granny and Pa's house (with the biggest real tree in history) followed by no sleep and then a day of craft on Tuesday with my mum followed by picking up kids from school and then fitting in a Christmas countdown activity. Well it's left me feeling like a walking zombie. And here I am at 10:48pm still on the computer (well my iPhone) and all you'll get tonight is a few fuzzy late night photos. Oh, and you must see Arthur Christmas if you're over 5!! It put tears in Dave and my eyes and the older kids loved it!! Hamish loved it too. No crying from him. Isabella loved parts of it but it was quite scary for a little person. She'll love it next year though!! And what is left on my dining room table so I can finish my crafty stuff tomorrow. The kids will have to eat breakfast in the lounge room!!

17 days until Christmas, a finished skirt and a Christmas menu

A sneak peak of my beautiful Christmas skirt.

Sleeping peacefully in his new sleep suit.

So today I finally finished that Christmas tree skirt that I've been making. Well finished the sewing part that is! I've still got to cut off all the little bits of thread all over the skirt and that's going to take quite a bit longer than 5 minutes. So at the moment the skirt is keeping our lovely rocking horse warm and I'll try and get around to it tomorrow. Hamish was a good little boy today and slept for nearly four hours. I was sorry that I didn't take the opportunity to have a sleep myself, but lately he's only been sleeping for an hour or an hour and a half at the longest. Not enough for me to have a sleep! So instead of a sleep, Isabella and I watched 'The Story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer' snuggled up together on the couch. It was lovely. We were so cosy together and I almost fell asleep. Isabella had spent the night at Granny and Pa's house last night and arrived home around lunchtime. She then played 'Barbie' so nicely while I sewed. I could hear her making Barbie and Ken have lots of conversations that sounded strangely familiar. Kind of like someone had been recording our conversations. We must be very careful of what we say infront of her! She's just at the age of taking everything in. Very funny too though! Do we really sound like that?! Once the Christmas skirt was finished we played Barbie for a bit. Then we played 'shops'. I wasn't such a fan of that game as most of the stuff that had made it into her shop were things that I didn't want to go missing like my car and house keys. We had to have a little conversation about what things she can sell in her shop!

Tonight was the task of making a menu for Christmas Eve brunch. The older two kids and Dave were at their last Scout evening of the year. They went to laser tag as an end of year celebration and so I was left to my own devices this evening. I decided to go to Pinterest and see if I could find some nice ideas for brunch and also for Isabella's fairy party that we're having on Sunday. Once I started looking around Pinterest I couldn't get off. There were so many different things to look at. I love Pinterest!! If you haven't had a look around then you need to check it out. What a great way of organising pictures of things you like the look of. Here's my boards.

Here is the menu so far:

Muesli

Greek yoghurt/Vanilla cream yoghurt

Mixed berries

Orange segments

Fresh fruit platter

Nutella dip

Ricotta dip

Pancakes

Crepes

Croissants

Ham off the bone

Shaved cheese

Mini omelettes

Zucchini, tomato and gorgonzola puff pastry tarts

Tomato and basil quiche

Bacon and Zucchini quiche

Oven dried tomatoes

Asparagus spears

Salad

Fresh baguettes

Orange Juice

Champagne

Mineral Water

Tea

Coffee

You can go here and see my pinterest brunch board.

18 sleeps and a movie night

Today Isabella was at preschool and she was going to be picked up by granny and pa and go toy shopping for her birthday. She was given the choice before her birthday of getting a present on her birthday or going shopping with granny. She chose the shopping trip! I think all the cousins have chosen this option. I think it's exciting to do the choosing with a budget. So cute!

Our movie 'The Rep' and lollies and popcorn.

My trusty Janome!

So today in between housework and playing with Hamish I did some sewing of both the Christmas tree skirt and Dave's Christmas stocking. I managed to finish the stocking today. Yay. Another step closer to Christmas. Dave's stocking has a little Christmas 'emblem' for each year we've been married. It's taken me 7 years to decide to do this for him. I have a stocking that my mum made me and Dave didn't have one at all. I kept saying that the stockings were just for the kids but he really needed one. So I finally caved and made him one. You know how much I love you honey!! Today our activity was a DVD and popcorn. Since Bella was at Granny and Pa's for a sleep over we decided to watch a favorite of Dave's and mine. It's called 'The Rep' and is very funny and filled with way too much swearing. We had a chat to the kids about the swearing before watching it and said that we expected never to hear them use the words they hear in the movie, but we know they've heard them before and if they ever use them they better never use them around us!! We made microwave popcorn (we usually just make air popped popcorn which is very healthy, but we needed the buttery salty stuff tonight) and got out a selection of left over lollies from Bella's afternoon tea yesterday. I don't think the kids enjoyed the movie at all! I think we'll just watch the regular sweet stuff with them next year. We always watch 'The Santa Claus' one, two and three and are looking for something sweet to add to our Christmas DVD collection. Any suggestions?

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!

Saturday dress rehearsal and then the big Concert

On Saturday Sammy was taken to both dress rehearsals by Sandra and I am forever grateful. I would never be able to take the kids to all their activities without such great friends to help with pick ups and drops off (with my sanity intact). So on Saturday after already having Sammy for a sleepover the night before and taking Sammy all the way to Lindfield for a dress rehearsal and then bringing her all the way back home so that she could have lunch Sandra then offered to take her back to the venue for her next rehearsal before the evening performance. It was so appreciated!!
The girls arrived from the first rehearsal looking so cute in their black tutus and I couldn't wait to see them all dressed up for the concert.

Back from rehearsal in their black tutus.

Rhapsody Studios always put on great concerts and we weren't disappointed. The choreography really showed off the girls dance skills and their costumes were wonderfully theatrical. The girls had so much fun playing dress-ups, doing their hair and putting make-up on and they looked so grown-up. I can't believe my little girl is almost a teenager. Before too long I think that Sammy and her friends will be wearing make-up on a regular basis. I hope not too soon!
After the concert the girls were well and truly pumped up and it took a while for them to calm down. Unfortunately as soon as the concert was over we had to take the older two up to their dad's place and try and find them some dinner on the way. That always means junk food. Yuck! Luckily my parents offered to take Isabella to their place for a sleepover so that we didn't have to drag her along for the almost 3 hour round trip and it also gave me a chance to have a much needed 'serious' talk with my ex without having to worry about Isabella being awake or asleep.

With the flower we gave her after the performance.

Cool man in his hat.

By the time Dave and I got home we were exhausted and it was close to midnight! Too late for someone who gets woken up during the night!

Waiting for the concert to start. Hot and no airconditioning!

Blue Hike and 6 years of wedded bliss

Josh and Sammy were both supposed to go hiking this weekend for scouts but we had double booked and poor Josh had his braces put on yesterday which meant he has a sore mouth. He probably would've toughed it out except that on top of the sore teeth he also has shingles which from what I've heard is extremely painful. So poor thing is tagging along with us to hang out at granny and pa's house with Bella and Hamish so that we can have a couple of hours of grown-up time to celebrate our anniversary. We've been married for 6 years today and I thank the universe for helping me find the man of my dreams. He's truly one in a million and I'm the luckiest woman around. I love you with all my being my love and look forward to many more years of mad crazy love with you!

Baby Concert

I forgot to get my camera out while we were at the concert today and so there are no photos of Isabella in her outfits or even of Granny and Grandpa who came along to watch! I had of course left it to the last minute to get tickets for the Rhapsody Dance Studio 'Baby Concert' to watch Isabella perform in her first dance concert. I was so upset when they had sold out of tickets and so I had to email back and forth to get some tickets. When we arrived at the venue I was totally sure that we would be right at the back of the room. How wrong was I!! We had the best table in the house amazingly enough.
Isabella was in her element on stage. She could've been dancing up on stage by herself and she would have been as happy as a clam. The first dance that we watched her in was number four on the program and was simply titled 'Dora'. She walked out with the twenty or so other little ones and stood in her little outfit on stage waving maddly at the crowd. Once the stage lights came on she could see us and waved madly at us. It was adorable. At one stage she shouted out 'Look Momma' while pointing to the stage lights. We all had a giggle. She certainly wasn't nervous at all. I was a bit worried that she would end up having stage fright and not be able to perform as we had seen some other littlies do. But not our Isabella.

David, Isabella and Hamish outside the Hornsby RSL.

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 day with Granny and Pa

Josh got to have a day to himself with Granny and Pa. They went 'jet boating' in Sydney Harbour. Josh got to take lots of photos...

Here he is on the ferry with Pa and Granny.

The First Week of the School Holidays

Well its the end of the first week of the school holidays and of course it feels like its gone far too quickly. So I've decided to write down some of the things that I've done and hopefully this will make me feel like the holidays have gone on and on... lol I can only hope. So here goes:
* I have just about finished covering the dining room chairs. I've done 4 complete ones and half of the other two. Just need Dave to help me finish them.
* Sammy has had her best-friend Brittnie sleep over.
* Josh has finally had Michael over to play and was even invited to go out with his family to watch a dance recital.
* I've been to a jewellery party at Sandra's home. Brittnie's mother's house. I bought quite a bit of very nice jewellery!!
* I've had my mother's group over to our house. There were 6 of us altogether and of course 6 toddlers. Very noisy, but great fun!!
* I finished sewing the last three badges onto Sammy's brownie guide sash.
* I've done a bit of programming for school. I've nearly finished the spelling program, the homework sheet and I've also found a school assembly item and then completed it and typed it out.
* I've finally babysat for Lisa and Howard and let them go out and have a nice date night.
* Dave and I went to GoldClass movies and watched 'Get Smart'. A really great way to watch a movie!! My dear Dave's hand in mine, sitting on reclining chairs, being brought yummy food and then having a nice glass of wine.
* A date with Dave. We went to a beautiful Italian restaurant. The food and company were divine. : )
* Went to 'ClownTown' with Lisa, my mum, the nephews and of course Isabella. Great fun was had by all. Took lots of photos!! Then my mum and I went to 'Dominies', the teachers resource shop. It's so much fun to look around and so hard not to spend lots of money. I thought I did well by leaving having only spent $130. Well done me!! Then I took my mum out to lunch. It was lovely, and Isabella behaved quite well too!!
* Went to Ikea and bought a new cube to go in our wall unit. It makes such a difference to the mess of the shelves. It all looks tidy again.
* Today I'm going to the beautician at 3:00 for TWO HOURS!!!! It's my mother's day present that I'm finally going to use. Decadence for two hours!! I can't wait!!

Well I have done quite a bit I suppose!! Still a week of the holidas to go too. A few things I have to do, but also some relaxing and FUN!!!!