Max at 3 year old Kinder

I had Kinder duty at Coonara yesterday. It was really weird being on the other side of the fence as a parent rather than a teacher. It was nice though, I got to have a chat with his teachers, see who the other kids were in his group and generally watch what goes on. I checked out all the lunchboxes to see who had what and how much the other Mums packed in their child's lunch.

Max was excited that I was staying for the whole time, but then he didn't really mind whether I played with him or not. No surprises...Max went straight for the cars on the mat. It got a bit hairy for a while, with about 6 boys ALL wanting the same ones. So we played a game. We had to line all the cars up and see who could find particular ones. We made a long line that reached all the way to where Lisa was sitting and then we measured how many children were as long as the line of cars. It made me miss teaching.

Outside time was fun.

It's such a lovely playground with lots of little nooks and crannies but you can still see what's going on.

Max likes the guinea pigs but he can't tell me what their names are and I forgot to ask.

They had a sand tray with dinosaurs that was very popular, although the dinosaurs spent more time in the bushes than in the tray.

But like all Mums.....no kinder day could be considered complete without....A Painting! I won't hold my breath for the next one.

Cheeky Monkeys

We had a fabulous weekend up in Charlton for Marj's 70th birthday. It was lovely to spend some time with the family and for the cousins to have a ball together. I'll come back and add some more later, but I just wanted to put this one up. Jan took some fabulous photos with her camera, they're much much much better than mine.

Summertime....and the living is easy.

Well today seemed easy anyway. It was easy to keep the kids occupied and that's what makes all difference sometimes. It was hot here in Melbourne today, hot hot hot. Luckily we have air conditioning but the kids still want to play outside and they annoy the living daylights out of each other if they're cooped up all day.

I saved some buckets of water from our showers this morning so that I could use the water in the clam shell and Jemima's water trough. Max and Jemima had a ball. We used Mima's red slide in the clamshell and had one side for sliding and the other for puddling. Jemima is such a water baby, she didn't want to wait for bathers and sunscreen and she can be so quick. Disposable nappies really do blow up when they fill with water.

No summer afternoon is complete without icypoles. Jemima savoured hers for just a little too long and it was everywhere, thank goodness for waterplay, she was clean pretty quickly. I can't say the same for the water trough though. Max has finally learnt how to push his icy pole up from the bottom. He's pretty proud of himself.

It's starting to get cloudy now. There has been thunder in the distance for the past hour. I love the smell of rain after a hot day. I'm hoping we get some decent rain. Our garden is really suffering at the moment. Hope the farmers get some good rain too.

Weddings

We had an invitation to an engagement party arrive in the mail today. Some friends of ours who have been together forever are finally getting married. I'm yet to see the ring, but I've heard it's something to take your breath away. You know, the kind of massive diamond ring that your fiance can afford when you get engaged in your 30's as opposed to your 20's. *sigh* I can't even remember the last engagement party we went to. All our friends have been together forever. We are such a bunch of old farts!

The whole business of weddings sure has changed since Andrew and I got married 15 years ago. Our wedding was quite simple and unoriginal in comparison to what some people do these days. I'd hate to be trying to afford a wedding these days. I'm actually a bit scared about how much it will cost when Max and Jemima get married...not to each other of course because that's illegal...maybe they won't get married. Or maybe the trend will be for simplicity.

One thing that I thought was kind of cute cute, and probably not a bad idea, was a little something that came with the invitation to the engagement party. It was a flat fridge magnet with a little black and white photo of Caroline and Jason and written along the bottom was 'Keep the date free...September 28th 2007'. On the one hand it could seem kind of twee, but on the other hand, when they have family coming from overseas (Jason is English) and people need to organise bits and pieces, it's kind of a good idea.

So, we have a wedding to go to in 7 and a bit months time. At least I have time to find something to wear...and a babysitter!

Beautiful Boy

I took some photos of the kids today. Max wanted me to take some of his face. Not his body, just his face. Just as well he has a gorgeous face, even when he is being crazy.

Picassos?

Max and Jemima had some drawing time yesterday. Max wanted to draw with textas because that's what big boys do...apparently. Jemima didn't want to be left out so she had her very first time with crayons that didn't involve her just eating them! Here are their masterpieces. Notice the extra embellishment on Jemima's...a lovely pool of dribble. I hope Max starts to draw more often now that he's at 3-year-old Kinder. He has such a wonderful imagination and he is beginning to tell some wicked stories. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he won't spend the entire year playing with cars, but somehow I don't like my chances.

Nooooooooooodles

Max had one request for dinner last night. Noodles. Yellow noodles. We didn't have any in the house and I really, really didn't want to drive to the supermarket to get some.

Luckily I didn't have to. My divinely thoughtful friend Steph knew of Max's request and she popped in with 2 multi packs of 2 minute noodles.

Max and Jemima were in heaven!

So was I. Easiest dinner I've prepared all week!

Thanks Steph. You are an absolute gem xx

Summer Holidays

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to have our very first family holiday...I mean all the family...Grandparents and Cousins included. We rented a house down at Ocean Grove for a week and had a lovely time just relaxing and spending time together. The weather wasn't fabulous but it didn't stop the kids from having an absolute ball at the beach. Why is it that kids just don't mind sitting in wet sand on a cool day? It's certainly not my cup of tea. Jan took some divine photos of Max and Jemima. I'm envious of her camera and her emerging skills as a photographer. She's getting really good although she'll deny that. I wish the camera fairy would pay me a visit.

I hope there are a few days over the next month or so that will allow us to take the kids to the beach again.

Jan took this fabulous photo of Max and Jemima with Nana and Poppy. It's one of my absolute favourites.

Jam Sandwiches?

You're probably wondering what on earth this blog has to do with jam sandwiches. Well, it's like this...I sat here for ages trying to of something really cool to name this little adventure, but alas, nothing came to me. Maybe it's because I'm the least cool person I know. One of my girlfriends has a blog called Eglantine's Cake. Her name isn't Eglantine and I have no idea what the cake is all about, but I like the way it sounds.

Anyway, back to jam sandwiches...I was trying to think of a way to combine our names seeing as this blog is all about us and the only word I could make out of our initials was 'jams' - Jemima, Andrew, Max and Sharon. Max had a jam sandwiches for lunch today and so developed the name of this blog. The hill part came because I couldn't register plain old 'jamsandwiches' as the address and seeing as we live on a hill, well the rest is pretty self explanatory. Maybe jam sandwiches taste better on a hill? Who knows?

Anyway, welcome to our blog. I should really say 'my' blog because I'll be the one doing all the work no doubt. I'm starting it because of something my SIL Jan said to me a few weeks ago. She said she started their blog partly as a way to keep in contact with people but also as a kind of online diary, a way to record memories and preserve a little piece of what life is like right now. I really like that idea, so here we are.

I'll be back later to try and navigate my way around adding some photos and writing a proper post.

Mwah xx