Hello from sunny Brisbane!

I'll warn you now...this is a long entry!

Well, here we are in sunny Brisbane. At 4am on saturday April 14th we put the kids in the car and began the 2 day drive to Brisbane to see Jan, Col, Ella and Hudson. It was definitely worth the drive to see the looks on the kids' faces when we pulled up in the driveway. Ella was so excited to see Max that she climbed up into the car to hug him before he was even out of the carseat. Huddy and Jemima had a cute little cuddle too. It was priceless. Jan has some pictures on her blog.

The kids were fabulous on the trip up. I really think leaving super early is the key and it's much easier if the drivers get a good night's sleep the night before. We stopped the night in Dubbo on the saturday and then left at 4am again. By 4.15pm on sunday we were pulling up in the driveway and it gave the kids some playtime before dinner, bath and bed.

Last week was a very busy week. We tried to do lots of family things with Andrew before he had to fly to the US yesterday. He's not back until May 3rd, so it's just Max, Jemima and me here for now.

Monday we took the River Cat ferry up the Brisbane river to Southbank where the kids had a play, we all had a wander and some lunch and then caught the ferry home again. Tuesday we caught up with some friends and their kids at the park and after 4 hours of non-stop playground exploration, we headed home for afternoon sleeps.

On Wednesday we drove up to Eumundi to go to the market and it was fabulous. Max and Ella had their faces painted as a Tiger and Batman. Ella had never had her face painted before and I think she was absolutely thrilled with the end result. Max chose Batman, no suprises there at the moment. He was SO excited when he saw his face in the mirror.

While we were at Eumundi, Max discovered the Bungy Trampolines. We've seen these before in shopping centres but he has always been too little to have a turn. You can imagine how excited he was when he found out he was big enough this time! It took a little while for him to get the hang of having to push off with his feet when he landed, but he finally mastered. Boy was he tired when he got off!

On Thursday we went to MovieWorld. Max was excited about this visit before we even left Melbourne. Whenever we talked about coming on holiday Max had to add "...and I'm going to MovieWorld". We had a great day. There is so much to see and do and both the kids were able to go on the junior rides. Jemima went on lots with Daddy and Max was able to go by himself most of the time. He was very excited at the thought of seeing ScoobyDoo...until he came face to face with him and the rest of the Mystery Gang. Luckily for us the characters were fabulous and they got down to Max's level to make him feel comfortable. He gave Scooby a big cuddle and had his picture taken with everyone. The professional ones they take there are much better than my little snapshot, but you get the idea. He saw Batman and Robin too, and they were just as wonderful with the kids but I guess that's part of their job really. Just between you and me, Batman was very cute.

We had a photo session on friday afternoon with a local photographer, her name is Rachel Richter and she's fabulous! She took some family shots, some of the kids and some with Ella and Hudson as well. Jan and Col had a session with her a couple of weeks ago, that's the second time they've had Rachel photograph the kids. Rachel has some shots of all the kids here.

Our weekend was pretty busy, we had a huge get together with some wonderful girls and their families. I've known them since we were all pregnant with our first children and we met through an online forum. Over the years the relationships had blossomed from online dialogues to lunches, playtimes, girls nights and an awful lot of love and laughter. Each year we have a National meet up. It was in Sydney the first year, Melbourne last year and this year it's here, in Brisbane. We had a great time and it was lovely to see everyone, especially those who had travelled from far and wide.

Andrew left for America and the UK yesterday. We won't see him until next week when he gets back. Thankfully we get to stay here in the sunshine and have a break, not quite a holiday but definitely a break from the day to day stuff at home.

Happy Easter

Well the Easter Bunny paid our little house a visit this morning much to the delight of Max and Jemima. We can began a new family tradition for our Easter egg hunt and it worked brilliantly. Easter Bunny left a trail of wool for each of the kids to follow and along the trail he left lots of little eggs and a few surprises. At the end of the trail there was a special treat, this time it was chocolate rabbit, and big egg with smarties inside and a DVD to watch on our trip to Brisbane next weekend. That's a whole other blog entry!

Jemima did so well. I really thought she'd lose interest in the egg hunt after the first 2 minutes and have a tantrum over wanting to eat the eggs NOW. I was wrong. She followed the wool trail with me, through the loungerooms, out the front door, around the back and up onto the deck and picked up the eggs along the way and put them in her basket. She dropped the basket a couple of times and eggs rolled everywhere, but she patiently picked them all up again before continuing on her adventure.

Easter Bunny was very sneaky with Max and took him on quite a hunt. His piece of wool started in the loungeroom went up the hallway, out the front door, around the side of the house, down the steps, over the driveway, around the garden and up onto the deck. It took him about 20 minutes to finish his trail but he loved it. He was so excited.

It was a great way to allow the kids to have fun during the egg hunt without one of them taking over and finding more eggs than the other. I think the Easter Bunny might just do that again next year and he'll probably have to get sneakier and sneakier. One of the great things about Easter Sunday is that is ok to eat chocolate for breakfast Max and Jemima were allowed to choose one thing from their baskets to have now and save the rest for later. Max isn't silly, he chose the biggest egg he had in his basket but he did share it with everyone...even Jemima.

Mima was happy with a little egg and she devoured with absolute gusto. Gosh that girl loves chocolate, like her Mama. I don't know how someone can get SO filthy with one little egg, but Jemima can manage it.

Hope everybody had a Happy Easter. xx

My Girly Girl

I knew my Jemima would be a different kettle of fish to her big brother Max, but it's amazing to see the differences between the 2 sexes at the same age. When Max was the age Jemima is now, 16months, he was already obsessed with cars. He would point at them in the shops, drive them along the floor and say 'broooom'. The obsession hasn't ended, he just has a bigger collection.

A couple of weeks ago, the kids went to a birthday party and came home with a bag each absolutely filled to the brim with treasures and treats. Max had monster finger puppets, a spiderman figure, a toy car, a rubber ball, lollies, a punching balloon, a rubber snake, honestly it was more stuff than I have ever seen in a 'lolly bag'.

Jemima had a bag filled with just as much stuff, but Girly stuff. Plastic bangles, little pony figures, rings, lollies, glitter glue, bubble mix and a string of beads. Pink plastic beads. Now I don't wear jewellery apart from my watch, a bangle and my rings, I'm just not a bling person. I don't even change my ear-rings. Jemima on the other hand, has shown already that she is a Girly Girl and she loves bling. When we got home, the first thing Jemima pulled out was the string of beads and she put it straight over head and around her neck. Next, she put the bangles on her wrist and she spent the next half hour or so prancing around the house with her wrist held up so her bangles wouldn't fall off. It's so funny to watch her. The string of beads has become a favourite and 'Missy' puts them on every morning and she wears them all day.

For Christmas, Steph and Keely gave Jemima a gorgeous little back pack with Play School's 'Fairy Jemima' on it. For the last few days, Jemima has wanted to wear it. She puts things inside and then hands it to me so I can put it on for her. It's very cute. Today she had a spoon, 2 Peekablocks and a hairclip inside and she had a ball taking them out and putting them back in her bag.

Tonight after her bath, Mima came out of her room in her pyjamas with her favourite pink beads around her neck. She found her backpack and wanted it on and she then spent the rest of her evening wandering around the house with her beads, her bag and a fairy wand. I think she's going to be a Girly Girl

What a shame...

I just came home from grocery shopping and bought another tub of ice cream. Unfortunately I didn't have room for the new tub in the freezer so somebody had to finish the old tub to make room. Jemima is fast asleep so sadly, Andrew and Max had to be the ones to suffer through eating the rest of the ice cream all by themselves. Poor boys. Max wanted to make sure poor Daddy didn't have to suffer too much, so he bravely ate as much as he could. The things we have to do....

Going...

Going...

Gone!

Happy Birthday Grandad!

It was Dad's 75th birthday yesterday. Max was very excited about Grandad having a birthday and he was adamant that Dad should have a cake. A birthday cake with Smarties and sprinkles and candles. So bright and early yesterday morning before swimming, we made a cake and when it had cooled, Max decorated it. Jemima helped by picking up Smarties off the floor and eating them.

After swimming, we popped into see Mum and Dad but being the social butterflies that they are, they weren't home. Max waited all afternoon for Grandad and Grandma to call us and say they were home so that he could go and sing Happy Birthday to Grandad...and have cake. Finally, we were able to go over after dinner and help Dad celebrate what was left of his birthday.

Happy Birthday Dad

A Rarity

A photo of me with Max and Jemima!

Steph took this one of us at the Playschool concert today

I think we all hate photos of ourselves, well I do anyway. The sad part is that I avoid it so much that I have hundreds and hundreds of photographs of the children and of them with other members of our family such as Daddy, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles etc... and I have literally a handful of photos that include me. Part of that is because I'm usually the one taking the photo but part of it is I hate having my picture taken. It's sad really. If anything were to happen to me (heaven forbid and touch a lot of wood) there would be very little photographic evidence of me for the children to look at in the future. I have worked hard on their scrapbook albums to preserve some memories of their childhood but I've neglected to include me in it. I really need to rectify that and try and include more family photos and more photos with me. *shudder*

Open Wide, Come Inside....It's Playschool!

I took Max and Jemima to the Playschool Concert today with our friends Steph and Keely. Keely is Max's bestest friend and Steph is Jemima's Godmother. To fit around all our other commitments during the week, we booked tickets for the Frankston show at 12.00 today. A bit of a drive from here, but that's part of the adventure. So with 3 carseats loaded in the Discovery, we headed off for the day. The kids had a ball. Jemima was very excited and only wanted to run and run and run when we got there. She was like the proverbial 'sack of weasels' until the show started and then she was mesmerised. So much so that she fell asleep on my lap during Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Max and Keely each chose a little toy to take home. Keely chose a little 'Jemima' doll and Max chose 'Humpty Dumpty'. Jemima got a gorgeous book about Jemima the doll dressing up. It's handy having a daughter with the same name as a character, she gets personalised books! I don't think Max sat down for any of the show, he stood and watched intently, joining in with the songs when he knew them and calling out at appropriate moments. It was gorgeous.

After lunch we took the kids for a picnic lunch at a fabulous park on the foreshore where we tried to fend off over-zealous and hungry seagulls. The kids had a play on the equipment and soon it was time to head home. It was funny to turn around when we pulled in the driveway to see 3 sleeping children in the backseat. If my camera hadn't run out of batteries I would have taken a photo.