Only our son...

the offending seed (he has plans for show and tell tomorrow)practising the art of eating cherries WITHOUT inhaling

Today I made a mistake. I came home from a fun photo session, dropped my bag on the counter and said "ahhhhh". I had plans for a cup of tea, then spend the afternoon catching up on editing till it was time to pick the kids up. Such silly and reckless thoughts!

The phone rings. It's the kindy saying that they're not sure how, but Isaac has a cherry seed up his nose.

Right. Excellent. Fabulous.

Back into the car, back down to the kindy to find Isaac calming drawing a picture in the director's office. Steve met me there and we proceed to try and look up his nose to see the offending seed. Well, the kid must have breathed it in with one heck of a snort cause it was a good way up there. I mean I know he's my son, which means he's inherited a fair amount of my lack-of-coordination skills, but how the heck does one eat a cherry and end up with the seed in your nose? I mean, I ask you...

Steve had a few attempts to get it out with tweezers to no avail. So off down to emergency we went, suprisingly we got through fairly quickly and after a bit of a wrestle that involved us holding Isaac to the bed, a doctor that felt like a challenge and a hook-like implement, out popped the seed. Yee hah. One chocolate Billabong later and all was forgotten.

Well why not. My day was too boring anyway.

Isaac's Christmas Concert

Isnt't this just the classic "at a concert/event and mum insists on

taking my photo so lets get it over with" shot? :-)

All mums with kindy know the drill. They send home a letter in their kindy bag with details about the Christmas concert, costumes, times etc. You think, yep okay, that's weeks away, no problem. The teachers were making it simple - all girls were going to be angels and all boys were to be sheperds. No problemo.

Five thirty pm on the night in question comes and we're around at Nonna's who has taken pity on us all and making pasta for everyone before the concert.

As I dashed out the door ten minutes proir at home, I raided my material box with anything that looked slightly "sheperd-ish" whatever that may be. We dragged the kids through a bath, then I started wrapping Isaac in fabric. On short and totally un-prepared notice, I thought it came together pretty well! Nonna run a few stitches round a big piece for his coat on the machine while I wrapped his head in another bit. Hey - we even had the tie thing around his head that "all good sheperds wear" and a matching belt! I was proud of my ten minute effort and thought he scrubbed up pretty cute.

Then we walked into the concert and I caught sight of the others boys. Oh. my. goodness. They looked like they were fresh out of the stable (or at very least fresh out of the local costume hire shop). One little boy had a staff. A STAFF. These were the most realistic looking mini-shepards I had ever seen. I'm suprised they didn't come with their own flock of sheep.

Meanwhile, my son marches proudly up front with the other kids and by the time he was on the stage his delicately arranged bits of fabric costume were dangling rather haphazardly. By the time he got stuck into the actions of "We wish you a Merry Christmas" all was awry.

But still, despite his lacking in costume skills mother :-), it was a great night. The kids are just SO CUTE when they're on stage, aren't they? Sort of takes that heart sqeezing feeling to a new level to see them up there, singing their little hearts out.

Poor Cassidy would have done anything to get up there with the big kids. It was a very sad night a couple of weeks ago when we got down to the church all dolled up for her concert - and mummy had written the date down wrong and we had missed it :-( :-( So the poor darling made do with shouting "yay Isaac!" and squealing in excitement for her brother and dancing in the isles...very cute.

PS. Is everyone proud of me? I posted photos taken with flash and the bad effects of strobe lighting. I guess every kids needs these type of photos at some point though..... :-)

All you need is love...

...or as her Pa so aptly put it today - all you need is patience. If it's attitude you're looking for, look no further. We have the corner on the market in one piggy-tailed, freckle-nosed little package.

Beached out :-)

They're home and they are had it :-)

I think the beach morning and afternoon and the pool in the middle has used up a lot of beans :-) Isaac was never say die, but Cassidy, after much protesting, maxed out for two and a half hours. Don't you love it when a cranky, crying "but I'm not tired mummy" turns to this in a matter of minutes.

Isaac kept coming over for little impromptu cuddles all afternoon, saying to me a few times, "I missed you mummy".

To which I had to stop myself from replying, "Good. As long as you still feel this way when you're fourteen".

Okay, enough now...

I miss them.

They are having a whale of a time with Nanna and Pa at Marcoola. It was fine while we were busy at Mt Isa, fine yesterday while I unpacked and sorted and basically re-organised the mass destruction of the house that we left on Saturday. But today, Steve was at work and I have been working on the computer all day. Isn't it funny when the silence that starts out as peaceful very quickly makes the turn to lonely?

We were originally planning to go up there for a night, but both Steve and I are so busy with work at the moment we can't get away from here.

And now I'm ready for them to come home.

Remind me of this sentiment on Tuesday - after we go through the morning rigmorole of fighting and looking for shoes and I'm counting the minutes till kindy :-) :-)

Baby Aria

Okay, so I've been a bad blogger this past week :-)

Steve and I had a few days visiting our friends Gary and Caireen and their brand new baby girl - the divine Aria.

We had a great few days hanging out (or hanging in, it was way too hot to spend much time outide!) and I snapped "just a few" :-) pics of the missy-moo. I also had the opportunity to meet and photograph some other lovely friends of Gary and Caireen's too.

The kids are having a week up at Marcoola with Mum and Lyall (I know, they are the bestest!) so Steve and I are planning on a few quiet days catching up round here till they come home on Saturday - who knows, we may even do something romantic like go to the movies!!

It's absurd, but the thought of actually going to the movies gets me really really excited now. For those that are mummies, I know you understand :-)

Surely...

we're not old enough to have a five year old?!

Having conniptions at the moment. How can I be married to someone that just turned twenty nine (I mean really, you may just as well be thirty and be done with it) and have a kid going to school next year?

No!! I am young, I'm groovy and I don't want to be at an age that I can remember my mum being :-) Not that she wasn't cute at twenty seven ;-) it's just once you can remembering your mum doing something you are doing....well it gets a bit scary!

The Dolphin Show

On the drive down, Steve said maybe the dolpin show wouldn't be on cause they wouldn't like getting wet in the rain.

Yous see what I have to live with??

Someone left the gates of the Institution open again...

When we first got to Seaworld, that's what we all were thinking.

What.on.earth.are.we.doing.

It was pouring. Not a light little patter, but pouring. And just to add a little excitement, it was windy as well so the rain came in sideways.

Now just so you don't all ask why did we go in the first place, the weather at home wasn't too bad. Overcast but not actually raining. Once we were past the point of turning back on the drive down though, it made up for that fact by starting to BUCKET down rain. At one point, Steve and I looked at each other sideways and just started to laugh. At that point I think we realised we were truly insane. Here we were, driving loaded to the hilt with kids screaming "Seaworld Seaworld yay Seaworld", the pram and birthday gear and it was looking like cyclone Tracey outside. As we turned off the highway, I briefly considered saying to Steve, "Okay have a good day, just drop me off at Sheye's and I'll see you this arvo," but I didn't think that would have gone down too well at that point!

We got there and paid $3 each for crappy Seaworld-lets-rip-off-parents-that-couldn't-bear-to-tell-their-kids-they-weren't-going rain ponchos. It was funny enough before then, but once we put on size 200 ponchos and desperately tried to tie them so they fit, it got even better.

The kids of course didn't care less, they just wanted to go on the rides. So we walked around in the pouring rain and wind for two hours while the kids had a ball and we stood in huddled groups talking to other similary insane parents about why we were doing this. Funnily enough, we were the only semi-local people that had actually chosen to do this for the day - everyone else I spoke with were up from down south on holidays and were locked into one of those Seaworld, Movieworld and Wet n Wild passes. Hmmm.....

One particular moment that stuck in my memory was when we were lined up to go into the 4d movie. Emma, try to be optimistic for her quickly losing the plot sister, said, "oh look, I think it's brightening up". As soon as she said that, a huge plop of water came out of no-where and landed with a splash on her head. We nearly collapsed laughing at that point.

After the movie and struggling along with the pram (Cassidy spent most of the morning huddled in the pram wrapped in towels and a poncho like lady muck) we decided lunch under cover would be a good idea. As we were eating, a miracle occurred - IT STOPPED RAINING.

So we survived the day afterall - it was still overcast but cool and pleasant. I've decided puddles and wet seats are fine as long as you don't have to struggle with one of those ridiculous ponchos.

Needless to say, there were not a lot of opportunities to get my camera out so Lyall has most of the days pics on his camera...so more to come when I can get my hands on it :-)

This pic though really sums up our morning...pure madness. But on the other hand, what's a birthday without torrential rain, three hyped up on theme park adrenaline kids and birthday cake eaten out of the boot of the car? Boring I say!!

Isaac and Eb

This is Isaac and "his girl" Ebony :-) taken on our almost disasterous trip to Seaworld for his birthday (to be blogged soon!)

They have been friends since Isaac started kindy as they've been in the same class. When I told Isaac he could choose a friend to take with him to Seaworld, his first choice was Eb :-)

She is such a sweet, serene little blossom - I don't think we heard a peep out of her all day! She and Isaac are so incredibly cute, they are always giving each other little cuddles and having chats about things. On the drive down, we passed a quad bike on a trailer and Eb proceeded to fill us in on quad's and pee-wee 50's. I think I can safely say, Isaac's adoration was only further cemented at that point :-)

I remember last year I was chatting to one of Isaac's teachers about the pair of them and he said, "nice choice mate!" and I'd have to agree...she is just gorgeous. In a few years I think her daddy better get himself a big gun :-)

I know I will treasure that photo of the two of them, Isaac and his first special girl :-) Won't it be nice to look at in a year or so's time once he's at school and the girl germ stage sets in!

Five minutes with Isaac

After photos with the Taylors, we headed to the Spit for fish and chips. As we were parking the car, I noticed the sun setting over the fishing trawlers and dragged Isaac out with me...

Some special people

the Taylors :-)

miss Annaliese



Fi and Duncan

miss Bella

some gorgeous chicks hanging round down there... :-)

I love this one of Heid and the girls...

A beautiful (albeit rushed, it was getting dark, windy and looked like it was going to rain!) afternoon at Maloolaba aiming to get a few Christmas card shots :-)

Everyday Events

They wake up and fight over each other's toys in their bedrooms.

They fight about which bowl they will get to use for breakfast.

They fight about which chair they will sit in for breakfast.

They fight about what time abc kids gets turned off.

They fight about who gets to clip the lunchbags onto their kindy bags.

They fight about who gets in and out of the car first.

They fight about what songs to sing.

They fight about what we're having for dinner.

They fight about who's brushing their teeth first.

They fight about saying goodnight to each other.

But some days, they will spend a good half hour to an hour playing a game that they invent together with out one cross word spoken. Maybe they love each other after all....

Are you ready for this?

This is Cassidy's latest. Whenever she wants to show me something, demonstrate something or tell me something she starts with "mum, are you ready for this?"

It could be anything from attempting to copy Isaac doing a somersault or to show me her fifteenth drawing for the day.

I am coming to realise that NO, not now and not even before she was a twinkle in her daddy's eye were we EVER "ready for this".

I don't think she's the sorta girl you can prepare yourself for...it's more of a seat of your pants kind of thing :-)

Fifty Years plus One :-)

Fiona was on door patrol...

some of the crew waiting for them to arrive...

I think they were suprised :-)

the girls that make it all happen :-)

she is not really this demure...

everyone loved the photo book

this is one of those blurry photos I just can't throw out...

Father and Mick

Smoodging with Daddy

old friends :-)

Lyall didn't take his job as bartender very seriously!

Nonna and the always lovely Jan

some of the girls :-)

saying a few words...

Moog and Rett

Rett doing a very good Martha Stewart impersonation

I think we have more photos of Cassidy with Uncle Steve than we do with us...

Isaac thought the cake survived the year in the freezer just fine!

the cake

aren't they cute :-)

One year ago, it was my grandparent's fiftieth wedding anniversary. We had a huge bash planned, an even huge-er cake made :-) and everyone was very excited about the party we had planned for over a year.

On the afternoon of said extravaganza (to be precise, about three hourse before!) my grandfather had a stroke and was taken off to hospital. We were all stunned and went into emergency mode. We called the 100+ guests and told them the sad news - that the party was cancelled and we hoped to re-schedule, but at that point, no-one knew what was going to happen.

So after a tough twelve months for both Nonna and Father (as he's know to all of us, started when I was little as I couldn't say grandfather :-) here we are a year later. Without telling them, we sent out invitations for anniversary bash round two :-) and planned an afternoon tea.

The cake was defrosted and fared pretty well...that made me happy :-)

The photo book we made was passed around to be enjoyed by everyone.

After much panic beforehand, we had enough food (suprise suprise, mum).

But best of all, Nonna and Father had a ball catching up with everyone and celebrating the amazing occaision of fifty-one years of marriage.

Congratulations Nonna and Father. It may not have turned out the way any of us originally planned, but I am so glad we had the party we all wanted so much for you both.

We all love you both very much xxoo