Christmas Eve 2011

It's Christmas Eve and everything is ready for the big day - we just have to wait for Santa to come!  We checked the Santa Tracker just before the kids went to bed and he had just left the North Pole - Yay!

I'm loving that Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday as it means Duane is home to help amuse the children and help with all the preparations for the big day tomorrow.  We've had a nice relaxing day, but still managed to get lots done.  I've made mini Christmas pudding balls, a big pavlova from scratch, custard with the left over egg yolks for the trifle I'm constructing tomorrow and wrapped all the presents. 

The kids were very excited when the picked out the little note from the Advent calendar tonight as it said they could open 1 present each.  What a coincidence that we all got the same thing -  new Pj's and a candy cane!  We'd usually head out looking at Christmas lights in our new Pj's, but it's been raining all afternoon, so decided to stay in watching the carols on TV instead.

Xavier was very excited to put out his magical reindeer food that he'd made at pre-school.  Grace made up individual little plates for each of the reindeer and put them out the front with a bowl of water.

After the children were tucked up in bed and fast asleep, all the presents from us were put under the tree.  Santa dropped his off later in the night, and after I heard him leave, I snuck out and took a photo!

~~Santa's presents wrapped in red and green and the 2 stockings filled up~~

Sweet dreams my little babies xx

12th January

The rain was still bucketing down last night and today, which meant that the bridge to Duane's work went under water - Yay!  Daddy has the day off!!!

We spent the morning at Robina mall, escaping the rain and buying the last few school supplies for Grace (Eeek - only 3 and a bit weeks to go!)  Whilst we were there I ran into a playgroup Mum who is an optometrist, and she just happened to also have an opening within the hour.  I'd been wanting to get Grace's eyes tested before school, so this was a perfect opportunity.

Grace has a few friends now that have glasses, so she was actually hoping that she could get some too.  She was a bit shy with Kate at first, but did all the tests wonderfully (Kate even commented that she was doing things that most 5 y/o's can't normally do).  She is mostly fine, but is a bit long-sighted (like me), but it could just be something that she grows out of or she will need glasses for in the future.  We are just going to keep an eye on her, watching our for eye strain headaches or bringing things very close to read, then reassess.

We made it home in just in time for Malia to come over for a play.  Chelsea and Noah were off to get a haircut, and my 2 love playing with Malia, so it made sense to drop her over.  The kids played dress-ups, games, chased each other, played in the sand and pretty much went from room to room wreaking havoc!  Here they are having a picnic and watching "The great lawnmower race", with the only participant being Duane.  

Another sleeping child photo, but I just adore blissed out sleepy photos of my kids.  Xav doesn't generally sleep during the day, but if he is really tired he will just lay on the lounge room floor and have a nap.  The thing I love most about this photo, are his little fingernails full of boy-dirt.  The thing I dislike the most, is the lack of toddler chubb - he's thinning out and growing up way too fast.

9th January

Today was a lazy day at home, mostly pottering around the garden.  Duane used the fairly clear weather to mow the long lawn, something that we haven't been able to do for a while with all the rain.  We then did some weeding and cleared out all the dead palms in the front yard.  In the front garden, nestled under some lomandra plants the kids and I came across these unusually shaped mushrooms.  Xavier thought they looked like little flowers and Grace was just excited that there might be a fairy family living underneath.

The kids decided to have a "frond" fight, using the dead palm fronds that were piled up on the lawn.

First, you shake hands with your opponent.

Then you pretty much just whack each other. 

Which, apparently is a lot of fun, according to my 2.

After lunch and a midday nap for Duane and Xavier, the rest of the day was spent playing games and trains inside, as the rain (once again) came down outside.

The heavy downpour meant the sandpit was like a make-shift pool, perfect for an afternoon splash!



8th January

A very busy day today, with barely a rest in between exciting adventures!

The morning started off with adding our new worms to the worm farm.  A lot of our worms died off last summer in the heat, so this year we have put them in more shade and will keep an extra eye on them.  The kids love playing in the worm farm, naming them all and working out who is the "Mum" worm and then finding babies for her.

Next up, was our first family walk/ride leaving from our house.  The kids have been nagging to take their bikes for a ride from our house ever since they got them.  Now, considering we live on a hill, it's not the easiest of things to be doing.  We decided to give it a go, and take the dogs, cause we like the challenge!  The kids walked their bikes up the hill, and we had a few wobbly incidences when they got speed up going  down the hill, but for the most part they were perfect and loved it.  We went for about an hour, and we all came home covered in sweat.

We came home, had a shower and then headed of the the next activity.  I met up with some of my friends and their kids, and we took them all to see Tangled, the Rapunzel movie.  The 5 kids were lined up in their seats, my kids enjoying their home-cooked popcorn (to avoid both the crap in movie popcorn and the $$).  They were all wonderful and barely took their eyes of the screen for a second.  Xav was getting a bit tired towards the end and asked a few times when it would be over.  It was a really good movie though, plenty of excitement for the kids, yet still entertaining for the parents.

Then tonight, the kids were exhausted and in bed at 6pm, so Duane and I decided to call up our babysitter (the wonderful Mil) and see if she'd come watch them.  Lucky us then got to double date (and crash their anniversary date!) with The Dews.  We headed to Anand Sagar first, which is our absolute favourite Indian restaurant, then we had a little hiccup before heading to see the new Fockers movie.  The hiccup was that we had Duane's parents car (Wendy didn't want to leave it out the front of our house, so said we should take it), and when we parked for Indian, Duane decided to put the steering lock on.  So, then when we tried to leave, we couldn't get it off.  Anyway, after a very funny and frustrating half hour it was finally worked out that we were using the wrong key and then it came off.  All the non-drivers had enjoyed a few beverages over dinner and so some smart alec comments were being made, which combined with the a frustrated "driver" made him mention some "F" words, something that very rarely comes out of my husbands mouth.  This just made us laugh and giggle even more.

All was good though, we made it to the movie with plenty of time to spare.  Could have quite easily missed it though, it certainly wasn't anything to rave about.  I think all the laughs had been used up in the first movie.  It was still a good night out with great friends though!

I just want to end on this photo I took of Xav today.  I was trying very hard to get his profile in focus, but being the non-cooperative child that he his, wouldn't stand still. I really love it though, not because of anything technically "correct", just because it captures his sweet little profile.  Ski-jump nose, lovely lashes and he has yet to loose his toddler cheeks.  But, the thing I love the most is his little half-smile/smirk - it's just so him.

7th January

Today was another stay at home day.  The weather has been terrible, and normally my kids go crazy being cooped up for so long, but they are having so much fun!  I'm on an organising bender, so I'm happy to potter about.  The kids are just happy to play with all their new Christmas stuff and are being ridiculously well behaved with each other - I'm hoping that keeps up!  They've always played well together, but nothing like now.  Sometimes, I barely interact with them for hours.  Ok, I know that kinda sounds neglectful, but what I mean is they are so engrossed with each other and their games - I'm left out.  I'm just the one they come to with that wonderfully whiny voice saying "I'm hungry, what can we eat"  But after loading them up with picnic plates for their latest camping/birthday party/sleepover game, I'm redundant again.  Suits me though, means I'm getting lots of organising done and catching up on whatever I want. 

It's kind of sad now though, knowing that this incredible little twosome is about to be split 5 days a week. 

This afternoon the kids and Duane had a hair appointment, mainly to de-shag Xav and Duane and just to give Grace a "heading to school" trim up.  Man, I can't believe how much the boys have to get their hair cut, they  easily spend more money/time getting their locks tidied than Grace and I.  Xav's hair seems to grow in time with the grass, and with all the rain we've had lately both are growing rapidly!

It's a fight between the kids who gets to go first.  Xav absolutely loves someone playing with his hair, it sends him into a trance and he nearly falls asleep.  I usually place myself within catching distance, as there have been a few time's he's nodded off and slipped.   Back when he had his first hair cut, I was all for keeping "length" and his curls, but now I just tell her to go short as she can without looking prison-like. 

Gracie on the other hand, has only had 3 haircuts in her life.  It's something she's a but bummed about, being the girly-girl that she is, getting your "hair done" is a necessity.  She just had a little trim, getting rid of the fine, wispy ends.  Grace has the most gorgeous coloured hair, it's the exact colour I'd love my hair if I could be bothered keeping up with the maintenance of dyeing.

 

Our hairdressers cat had kittens 5 weeks ago, which could quite possible be some of the cutest things I've ever seen.  Xav took a real liking to one little kitten, and judging by the way he sat with Xav the whole time, the feeling was mutual! I don't think the kids have patted or played with little kittens before, so there was lots of begging and pleading to take 1 home.  Duane's not a cat person at all, so that is never going to happen.  We do have chickens and dogs, so I guess he has a point.

Speaking of chickens.  Ours have been very sporadic with their laying over the last week or so.  Last Monday I spent the morning pacing up and down out side the laying boxes, waiting for another 2  eggs to add to the pavlova I was making.  Not one came through with the goods.  Then today, we saw a random egg up the side of the chook-house.  After closer inspection, we stumbled across a muddy pile of stashed eggs - 19 all up!   Damn chooks had found a preferable place to lay.   On the upside, I've got a ton of eggs to make yummy omeletes and maybe even a big pavlova!

And, just another cute photo to end on.  Xav has become a big lover of mango sorbet.  I bought a tub the other day, but he couldn't eat any as it stung his mouth.  So now he is catching up on all the sorbet he missed out on!  Lucky the tubs only small and won't be replaced for a while.

6th January

Thursday's are fun days!  It's the day that Duane gets to come home from work still in the morning time - 11am!  It's probably not that fun a day for him, considering he's left the house at 4am and probably would prefer to come home and rest.  Sometimes we do this, or we make the most of family time and head out.  Today, with Xav still suspiciously contagious after his mouth ulcer incident, we stayed home!

Thursday's are also fantastic as it's the day we pick up our wonderful fruit and vegetable box from Food connect.  The kids and I always have a fabulous time unpacking this weeks produce, of course taste testing a bit on the way is mandatory!  We chat about what each fruit/vegie is and how we use it.  There's always something unusual in the box that requires a little extra researching, but it's great for the kids to be introduced to such variety.  They were a bit upset that this week there were no apples, but that took us on to the topic of "seasonal" produce and how some things don't grow in certain weather.  We always get a newsletter in our box, all about the different farms that the produce come from and any problems they've had this week.  This week the farmers were all badly affected by the torrential rain and flooding we have had around this area.  A lot of crops were damaged, with produce not fairing very well at all.  Some of ours stuff had a bit of water damage, but nothing bad - plus, it's nice to know that the farmers are still getting paid for their crops.  Unlike the hoops the farmers have to jump through for the major supermarkets to take slightly blemished stock. 

Anyway, as were were unpacking the corn a little caterpillar crawled out from inside.  Grace and Xav were over the moon and immediately set up a plastic container house for their new pet, which they had lovingly named "Marco."  I've got absolutely no idea where that came from.

So Marco spent a few hours being traumatised cared for, by 2 eager little pre-schoolers.  He was fed blades of grass and they got some leaves to make a toilet and kitchen in his house.  Xav told us all about caterpillars turning into cock-oons (that sounded slightly hilarious!), then turning into butterfly's, and he was eager to get the show on the road.  So, Marco was set free in the fairy garden, where he crawled off into the basil bush, under watchful little eyes who were expecting something more exciting to happen.  After barely saying his goodbyes, Xav started screaming that "He didn't turn into a cock-oon, why didn't he Mum"  The child was mightily annoyed that he didn't get to witness the dramatic transformation immediately!  Lots of discussions later and he settled, and was happy that it would happen eventually - just not whilst we were watching!

 

It was a rainy old day, the only kind we have here at the moment, so perfect for a movie and rest.  Both kids fell asleep on the lounge room floor, cuddled up under Grace's blanket.  Gosh, my kids are so adorable xx

*I just want to point out that yes my kids do have clothes!  It's just we have had a few "home" days over the last week, mainly because Xav may have been contagious, but also because we haven't been able to have "Pj" days for ages - so I'm getting out quota in! 

**Also, how cute is Xav's singlet!  It's one he tye-dyed himself at pre-school!  Yay for Hippy schooling!

4th January

~~Summery, water fun!~~

Today was a lazy day at home, except with an extra little person joining us.  Jasper was hanging out with us for the day, however he wasn't his usual cruisy self.  Trude said when she dropped him off that he had a bit of nappy rash, I then checked his hands and feet (as I had my suspicions about a rash on Ruby the night before) and was 99% sure that he had hand, foot and mouth.  His little hands and feet were beginning to develop the tell tale blisters.  I figured my kids had already been exposed over the last week (it's mostly contagious before the blisters appear) so didn't mind looking after him still.  Trude had insisted that I call her if he was too upset and she'd take the day off, but I remembered from Xav's first day of having the spots that he'd slept a fair bit so was hoping Jasper would do the same.  He did end up sleeping for a good while, but the times he was up were a little "challenging".  He constantly wanted to be on my hip, and if he wasn't he was very grizzly.  He also struggled to eat anything, which is understandable considering he would of had a mouth full of ulcers, but enjoyed some ice and banana smoothies that we made. 

My kids were fantastic and helped out so much with Jasper.  They spent the whole day playing together and not getting up to too much mischief.  There was a fair bit of body painting happening though when they were left unsupervised with the paints whilst I was attending to a sad little baby.  After the main heat of the day had left, I set up their outdoor sink and lots of water fun was had.  There was also sprinkler play as well as a hose/dish washing liquid set-up on the slide, which proved to be a hit although it did turn the grass at the bottom into a giant mud puddle!

3rd January

Long, hot summer afternoons and water fun in the backyard with friends  - could it get any better for the kids?

Apparently yes.  Slurping on delicious rainbow Paddle Pops, makes the day practically perfect.

Today we had a pot luck patio party at the Dews, first just for the sake of it and secondly to celebrate and ohh and ahh over their newly built patio.  The kids had so much fun frolicking in the backyard, taking turns being squirted and the squirtee with a squeezey bottle.  They played tag (tiggy?), kicked balls, dressed up and did parades (Malia & Grace) and then all took turns in the bath.  I got a bit of time to take some gorgeous pics of the youngest member of the clan, Miss Ruby. This little sweetheart has the most stunning blue, sapphire eyes that are such a pleasure to photograph.  They look so amazing from any angle, very photogenic little girl.  It was a little hard getting a smile out of her though, which the reason became obvious the following day when she came down with Hand, foot and Mouth disease - poor little thing.  Jasper also came down with it, and Xav got ulcers in his mouth which I don't doubt is related.  Now just the wait to see if any of the other kids succumb.

I also managed to snap a nice shot of this cheeky little boy - Noah.  He's a very hard little person to take a photo of as he barely stops still for more than a second.  This is such a "typical" Noey look, so I'm rather pleased I managed to capture it. 

5th January

Today was spent comforting a sick little boy who has a mouthful of ulcers.  We all had a horrible night last night as Xav spent the majority of it miserable, crying and writhing around in frustration at the pain in his mouth.  I was woken at 5.30am to the sounds of him vomiting, and lucky there was a towel in close reach otherwise I would have been wearing it.  I'm hoping that the ulcers are the extent of the illness and it doesn't develop into hand, foot and mouth that is being currently shared around our group of friends.  Xav had it about 18 months ago, and I was under the impression that you normally only got it the once, but google has since told me otherwise.

Grace and I have been playing nurse all day, whilst Xav has layed on the couch alternating between watching play school and napping.  He's managed to fit in a few bowls of jelly and custard, (nutritional no?) but was rather peeved when his favourite mango sorbet irritated his mouth and so he couldn't eat it.  Grace has been refreshing a cold washer for his head, making sure he is drinking lots of water and playing with Xav's hair, on his request.

Grace has spent the day amusing herself whilst I did all the washing (nothing better than getting all your washing done, dried and put away on the same day) cleaned out our room, finished organising the study and a general clean up.  She does have a slight obsession with board games at the moment, so the day was scattered with games of trouble and guess who.  We also made a beautiful crusty loaf of bread to accompany the mostly organic roast pumpkin soup we made for dinner.  It was beautiful, and the bread was even more delicious as it was topped with butter that the kids and I made yesterday - Yum!

Xav perked up towards the end of the day, even venturing outside for a play.  His appetite never really returned though, but he was happy to suck on ice so must be on the mend.  Tomorrow will be another quiet day at home, which I am actually really enjoying.

~~The ulcer on one side of Xav's tongue and another under his top lip~~

Christmas Eve 2010

The kids are tucked up in bed after a busy day of preparing for the big event tomorrow.  All the shopping was finished on Wednesday after a mammoth 9am-7.30pm (with a couple of hours break at home) shopping trip.  The morning was just me, tidying up the loose ends and grabbing some extra stocking stuffers.  The kids joined me in the afternoon so they could purchase their presents for each other and also for a present to put under the K-mart wishing tree.  The night ended with yummy burgers at Grill'd after a play in the park.

Today we baked, cooked and prepared all the food for our "cold meat & salad" picnic that we were planning tomorrow, weather pending.  We roasted chickens, cooked roast beef, made trifle, chocolate log, coleslaw, potato salad and real mayonnaise.  The kids were busy with zip lock bags of milk arrowroot biscuits and mallets.  Then they got all sticky and gooey as they made copious amounts of mis shappen truffles.

The last of our advent calender notes were opened tonight, with instructions to open 1 present each from under the tree - carefully chosen by me.  Surprise, surprise - everyone got a new pair of Pj's!  The kids were in matching Christmas patterned boxers and singlet, whilst Daddy got a stunning pair of red boxers and I got some spotty Pj pants and singlet.  After a bath we headed out in the rain to view Christmas lights from the shelter of the car, however one house was way too magical to miss and so we braved the rain to see it.  The kids were enthralled with all the trinkets and the amazing train set set up in the garage. 

Grace was upset as she wasn't sure how she was going to be able to fall asleep once she got home, she was too excited about tomorrow.  The

excitement must of made her sleepy though, as she fell asleep in the car on the way home.  Which left Xav all alone to ponder the big questions.  Duane and I were a little taken back when we heard "So, is Santa real or 'tend (his way of saying pretend)"  coming from our alert little 3 y/o.  Hoping that he won't need therapy for his parents lying to him, we answered "Of course He is real sweetie"

Once home, Grace was carried to bed and it was up to Xav to get everything ready for the special visitor.  The reindeer food that they had prepared at school was scattered throughout the front yard and a plate of truffles and biscuits was left out for the fat guy.

I love Christmas with the children.  It is so much more exciting and magical sharing with such innocence and belief. 

Merry Christmas xx

~~Santa has been!~~