Back in Sydney October 2007

Well we had a lovely 6 months away from Sydney and enjoyed ourselves immensley while away, but we have really missed family and friends here in Sydney and are having a great time catching up with everyone. Now we’re back we of course have missed some things from our life up in Evans Head, but most of all we’ve missed hanging out with Belinda and Paul on their amazing verandah/deck surrounded by the river on one side and sugar cane on the other. When we were there we’d be relaxing on the deck with a beer or a cuppa and feeding ‘boob boob’ to the littlies with of course Paul cooking some snags on the barbie. Invariably there would be the occasional tiff between the older kids, but this was always forgotten when dessert came out.

We’re looking forward to catching up with them soon to celebrate Paul’s 40th…on the deck!!!!!

Oak St. Performance

It’s been education week this week and the school has had open classrooms. I’ve got to go and sit at the back of Josh and Sammy’s classrooms and just watch. They were very excited that I was there!! It’s been a long time since I’ve had time to go into a classroom as just a parent.
Today was a chance for classes to go and perform in the main street (Oak St) of town. The kids walk there from school, which takes them about 6 minutes, maybe 8 for ones with little legs. There was even a programme given out to parents!! Kindy performed, “The Wheels on the Holden”, Year 1 did “I Jump” and Year 3/4 did “Brumby Jack” using lagerphones. Year 2 sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” however Sammy missed out as her teacher was sick. She was disapointed that she didn’t get to go.
Josh did an amazing job of shaking his lagerphone of course!!

Josh is infront of the rope coloured pole.

MY FIRST TOOTH!! Arrived on the 7th May, 2007.

It’s now officially ten days since Isabella got her first tooth and we finally have managed to get a photo of it. She wasn’t happy about it but here it is:

You can just see the little tooth on the right.

Dave's new bike!

Guest post by the lovable Dave...

After a couple of rides into and out of town on a rather tired 10 speed bike supplied by my boss, I decided to take the plunge and invest in a decent bike to haul myself to work and back combined with a desire, nay a need, to get fitter.
So, with Gareth’s help last Saturday, I drove into Ballina to the bike shop recommended by m’colleagues. Naturally, given my height, there were just 2 bikes that were tall enough and I ended selecting the bright red rocket you see in the photo.
Twenty one gears (!!), a broad enough seat, a rack and basket on the back strong enough for the laptop and good lights and a snazzy new pump and I’ve been biking in to town every day since – including Sunday!
It’s a four and a half kilometre ride into town and I can now complete it in around 12 minutes and getting faster. I have a combination speedo/odometer/trip computer of sorts that came with the lights so it’ll be interesting to see what improvement greater fitness, and thigh muscles, brings.

A picture Dave found of his bike on the net.

But I tell you what, it sure beats being stuck in a car in traffic!

Washing the kids - I mean car

Washing the trusty Passat.

The poor kids, I mean car needed a much needed wash. The kids were very excited to be able to help, but I don’t know how much washing of the car there was. I think they did a much better job of washing each other. Not quick enough to get Dave though. Much fun had by all!!

Dave spraying the kids with water.

Monopoly - Sammy wins!

After Josh had been dropped home from soccer we thought about what we could do for the rest of the day. It was raining and miserable outside and so it was decided that a day inside sounded the best thing. I struggled with the Saturday Sudoku while Dave played Monopoly with the kids.
We had played a few days before, but we hadn’t managed to finish a game yet. Joshua is getting very good at counting money and loves to put houses and hotels on all his properties. He really likes the idea of being really rich and taking everybodies money. Don’t we all though!
Well it wasn’t the case this game as Sammy had beginners luck and managed to land on free parking at least three times, and pick up quite a bit of money from the community chess and chance cards. She beat Dave and Josh by a lot!

Sammy has her own way of keeping her money.

You can see in the pictures how neat and orderly Josh was with his money and how messy Sammy was with hers. lol Just like their rooms!

Josh has his money and properties laid out very neatly.

Josh's first soccer match 28th April

Onto the field he goes.

Waiting for the game to start.

Josh was very excited about donning the red and yellow to play against Byron Bay in his first soccer match of the season. It was to be a home game which meant a 5 minute drive up the road to the Woodburn Soccer ovals.
Well sometime early Saturday morning it started raining. Not the gentle rain of the city, but the thunderous down-pouring only the country seems to spit out. We of course thought this meant that soccer would be called off and we could enjoy a much needed sleep-in.
Well this wasn’t the case. Here in the good ol’ country a monsoon doesn’t automatically mean that games are called off. Here in the good ol’ country it needs to be the sort of weather that’d make you scared to venture outdoors before they even think of calling a game off. The game would go on.
I luckily stayed in bed while my dear husband rose a comatose Joshua and then off they went to the very wet field to play a decidedly muddy match.
A telephone call 10 minutes into the game from Dave asked if it would be okay if Ruth could bring Josh home if we would be happy to have Izabelle for the morning. The answer was of course, “YES!!” So a mad dash to get dressed, a 5 minute once over of the house and then Dave and Izabelle arrived home.
Sammy was very excited to have company and the girls were happy to make necklaces while I made some anzac biscuits. Busy fingers and full tummys meant that the house was very peaceful for a Saturday morning. Even Isabella was on her best behaviour.

Coraki Country - Guest Post

Feeding Isabella at Coroki Hotel.

An old country singer.

Out the back of the hotel.

Saturday saw us scanning through our local paper, The Northern Star, to see what was on throughout the region.
Happily, the Evans Head markets were on so we bundled the gang off at the unexpectedly early hour of 9am and looked through the surprisingly small array of stalls between the surf club and the skate park. Looking for shelter for Isabella, we veered off through the scrub along a dirt track that came out in the middle of the caravan park and then from there to the Oak Street shops.
The shops were very busy, relatively speaking, due to the large number of people planning on heading home after the school holidays. You could almost feel the sense of last minute preparations along with a touch of sadness that they were ending their holidays – almost always too soon.
The hunt for Isabella’s shelter led us to the florist-cum-baby wear shop and a gorgeous little pink hat. After a brief morning tea at Pippy’s, we hit the road for Coraki – a town of about 500 people inland by about 25kms – where we had seen a Country Music afternoon at the Coraki Hotel. Goodness me.
The bar lady was lovely and when I ordered two lemonades for Josh and Sammy, leant over the bar and asked if she could give me some advice. Curious, I leaned forward and was told that it was cheaper to buy a bottle of lemonade and she would keep it in the fridge for us till it was empty. And the price for the family shout? $8!
The photos tell a story all in themselves but it was a lovely few hours spent in the company of a couple of dozen local pensioners. The food was good country fare and amazingly good value. Angie had gone up to pay while I got the drinks and happily handed over $10 for what she believed was two sausage sandwiches and two steak sandwiches – about the price you’d pay at the canteens at early morning kids sports days. When it came time to eat, however, there was a full on buffet with mountains of locally produced food and I got into trouble from Angie for taking more food than we had “paid” for. I promised to make amends but was rebuffed by the organising lady who said, “That’s the price dear”. They were sad when we left as I think we brought the average age down by about half!

Coraki Hotel was having a music festival.

From there it’s only a 15 minute drive to the big smoke of Lismore and the local Bunnings, Big W and K Mart for a bit of shopping and then home to greet the Coombs clan for dinner.

Out at a local pub for a sing-a-long with the kiddies.

Sammy at 7

Sammy loves at the moment (in no particular order)
singing up made up songs to Isabella
getting cuddles
playing dress-ups
being a mum to her dolls
writing letters to Brittnie
getting letters from Brittnie
going to bed with her dog
doing her own hair
picking flowers for me
going to river beach
jumping in puddles
swimming in the ocean
picking up Isabella
annoying Josh
learning to ride her bike with no training wheels

Joshua at 9

Joshua at the moment loves (in no particular order):
dogs
spaghetti bolognaise
The Simpsons
reading stuff about himself as a baby
earning money by doing odd jobs
spending his money
staying up late reading (we love this!!!)
The Simpsons
riding his bike and doing skids on our gravel driveway
making Isabella smile
telling us how much he loves us
receiving letters (although we’re still working on replying to them)
The Simpsons
having very short hair
telling corny jokes
teasing Sammy
playing outside in our huge backyard

Isabella at 4 months

*eating rice cereal with boiling water and breastmilk. Loving it!!
* reaching for a teething ring while on her tummy today. A first!

Coffs Harbour

Today we woke at 7, got dressed, ate breakfast and then were out of the door at 8:09am. I thought we made great timing considering Isabella usually lives by her own rules. Two and a quarter hours there and a little shorter on the way back. Luckily the kids were glued to their DVD players on the way there and Isabella slept (for once) like a baby. On the way back the DVD players ran out of juice after an hour and then the ‘are we there yet’ started. It just goes to show what a godsend technology is on long trips!! Isabella was on her best behaviour today and slept most of the way back too!!!
We visited Jane (daughter of one of my mum’s friends) and her three children, Nathan, Phoebe and Brooke. We got there just in time for morning tea of home-made doughnuts (yummo!!) and the biscuits I bought (shop made NOT home made unfortunately). We stayed for lunch and then left about 3 for the long trip home.
The kids played together really well all day, with Josh falling in love with their soccer-playing dog. I think if Jane had wanted to find a new home for their dog Josh would’ve put his hand up straight away. I mean, not only was this a DOG (which is very important at the moment!!), but a dog that plays soccer!!
Sammy was very sweet with Phoebe and Brooke and read to them and played nicely in their room for most of the day. She wasn’t quite as popular as Isabella was when we first arrived, but once we explained to the girls, only 3 and 5 years old, that Sammy was really far more interesting than the baby, they decided that they would like to play with her after all. When we first arrived they wanted to touch Isabella, hold her, poke her ,prod her, touch her some more, ask lots of questions about her and watch her very closely. Isabella didn’t do much at all other than look at these two little girls with great fascination.
Jane and I got to talk about the big move to the far north coast, which they had done quite a few years before, how they had coped, how they love it now and of course all about building houses, which they’ve done. We also talked babies of course and our shared love of craft and scrapbooking. Jane very kindly gave me some hints on how to finish my baby quilt and gave me an old quilt that she doesn’t use anymore. Its reds and blues, very busy and great for hiding vomit!! We really had a wonderful day together. As soon as Dave got home I got to tell him about this amazing house I’d been to that would just be perfect for our family AND has the much wanted bullnose verandah attached. I’ve already told Jane that I would be inviting myself over on a weekend so that Dave could have a good look at their wonderful home.

River Beach

This is our beautiful River Beach.

Tuesday 17th we decided to pack some things so that we could go to the river beach. As the name suggests its a beach at our local river, Evans River. It’s best to go at low tide when you can almost walk across the whole river bottom and great for catching yabbies using a yabbie pump, which we’ve promised to get the kids. Unfortunately we just missed low-tide by going there at 5. If we had gone an hour earlier we would’ve been able to walk quite a long way out on the sandy flats. We got our swimmers on, took towels, put on our thongs and of course took the baby bjorn too and then we were off on the long 3 minute drive to pick up Dave.
We picked up Dave a little late from work. It was 5:10pm, still light outside and he was finished for the day!! What a change of lifestyle for us! We drove down to the beach, oh, a long 2 minutes drive from Dave’s work, parked, got Isabella sorted in the baby carrier and then had a wonderful walk along the sand.

Running along the beach.

Running along River Beach.

The kids loved running along the beach and of course Sammy managed to get her clothes wet, jumping in the shallow water. It was a bit too windy and cold for them to swim on this day and a bit awkward with Isabella in the carrier, she started gasping for breath from the wind and had to be covered up. Josh and Sammy had a great time keeping her entertained by playing peek-a-boo, which she loved. She is always in total awe of them and everything they can do. She loves watching her big brother and sister do anything and today was no different.

Isabella in the baby bjorn.

Here's our beautiful Isabella.

Hey Daddy you surprised me!

We went back a couple more times during the week and also for a swim at main beach with Josh and Sammy’s new friends, Patrick and Izabelle. No photos though.

Our trip to Brisbane

A family photo in Brisbane.

I needed a bit of city smog and so we packed up our stuff and headed off to Brisbane for a bit of retail therapy.
‘Was the Easter Bunny going to find us in Brisbane?’ Sammy whispered.
‘Of course darling’, mummy said with as much conviction as she could muster.

The view from our hotel room.

Sammy and Josh breathed a sigh of relief. Imagine being away from home and the Easter Bunny not knowing where we were going to be!!
We stayed in a lovely serviced apartment in the heart of the city with views of the river and stunning views of the city all decked out in its finery at night. Dave took some great shots of the city lights.

See how strong Sammy and Josh are. Te he he...

Climbable art!

We’ve included some of the photos of our weekend away. We hope you enjoy!

How does a pulley work?

I can do it too Josh!

Posing light.

Checking out the Brisbane River.

How cool am I!

I'm cool too!!