Easter

A day at the races

This morning as we sat at the breakfast table, I asked Leigh what he wanted to do today.  We googled 'whats on in Melbourne' and found a family race day at Caulfield.   There was an Easter egg hunt, pony rides, jumping castles, face painting and of course horse racing.  Jack was convinced it was the perfect day out by the mere mention of an Easter egg hunt.  Most of the day was free, the egg hunt was a $5 donation to a children's charity.

I did wonder how they were going to manage 400 kids and parents in an Easter egg hunt. While the idea of "free chocolate" obviously got the better of some adults, it was a good, fun activity. I do have to say though, it's not a good look when an adult is fighting their way through 0- 4 year olds so they can get to the chocolate eggs first and stuff 20 or 30 eggs into their backpacks.  I know, you know, I would never condone violence, but I was heartened when Jack pushed one of these greedy parents aside so he could grab an egg or two! Jack ended up with half a red bucket full of eggs (which looked a bit empty next to the over flowing buckets and bags of parents around us) but on our way out of the hunting area the organisers and some other kids topped up Jack's bucket.  He was very happy and even shared his loot with Lachlan!

We watched a couple of horse races. Jack was very enthusiastic with his cheering.  And then of course he wanted a ride of a horse, so we joined the cue at the pony rides.  After half an hour he got his helmet and sat on a pony for quick ride.

Then I spotted the block car as well as Scott Cam and Shelley Craft.  Apparently they were shooting a challenge for the new season. We couldn't stick around long enough to see what the challenge was, but I will be watching that episode closely!  Maybe I'll be in a background shot???

Good Friday

Our annual Good Friday Monopoly game!  This year I won, which is a surprise since there are three very competitive males playing, one who calls himself 'Papa Bear'.  Maybe it's not within the true meaning of Good Friday, but it's a fun tradition.

We went to church this morning.  The pastor had prepared the service to have a lot of symbolism and meaning.  As he lifted up the loaf of bread at the communion table he said "He broke it for you", Jack in a very loud and questioning tone said "He broke it?!"  Everyone heard him and the special moment prepared by the pastor was gone!  Oops!

Train set

Term 1 done

We have made it through our first term of kinder!  It's been great, we have all loved it!  Jack has had a great time, learnt heaps and made some good friends.  His friends are Damon, Presley, Hugh (who he calls Hughie) and Jacob (who he called "the other Jack" for the first few weeks).  

This is him today relaxing with the ipad after a big day of play at kinder.  He is wearing the top he chose himself from Kmart that he calls his "Awesome t-shirt".  The decorated cup is his Easter basket he made at kinder before their Easter egg hunt.  The teacher was impressed with his gluing technique which was more advanced than the other kids in his group.  Yep, I'm boasting!

Drinks

Lachlan and his new drink bottle. His old drink bottle smashed when it was pushed off the balcony last weekend and his back up drink bottle had it's straw snipped by a three year old experimenting with scissors. 

Lachlan loves his water!  His love of water feels like a great personal achievement for me.  Jack had a great love of/addiction to cordial, which we have managed to overcome in the last 12 months.  The pressure was on when the kinder said they'd only let the kids drink water.

Anyway this new drink bottle is still in its probation period.  So far there was a lot of spillage, but maybe that's due to drinking technique?  Time will tell.  I may check out that $2 store called Daiso and see what they have offer.  Have you been there? It's quite amazing.

Nice little car

Driving home from Grandma and Grandpas house today and Jack noticed a convertible.  
"That is a nice little car.... Mummy you need a car like that.... you REALLY NEED a car like that."

How nice. Maybe he will buy me one when he is older?

The pictures are from Leigh's and my first wedding anniversary.  We hired a convertible and drove down the great ocean road.  

Woody & diggers

"Mummy, look there's a digger next door!"
"Oh that's great Jack."
"No, Mummy, I'm Woody, call me Woody."
"Ok, Woody, that is a nice digger.  Now, do you think Jack wants to get in the car, please?"

Tea party for one

Jump like a butterfly

Yesterday we had a play date with our good friends Jenny and Carly. Carly is 6 months younger than Jack and Jenny and I work together. Jack and Carly enjoy each others company immensely.  Last year they were seeing each other about twice a week but this year with kinder and different routines we can only manage once a week and sometimes that doesn't work either.  So it had been a few weeks between play dates and Jack in particular was missing his friend.  On Thursday he made up a spare bed in his room for Carly to come and stay.  

This photo is Jack dressed up in Carly's butterfly costume.  The costume actually comes down to Carly's knees so you can see there is a height difference between the two.  For two such good friends there are a lot of differences.  Carly is petite, careful, articulate, loves everything pink and dressing up in tutus.  Jack on the other hand is tall, boisterous, loud, physical and changes his favourite colours between red, blue and sometimes green.  And as you have seen he is less into tutus and more into dressing as Woody, Superman or Buzz Lightyear. But they love each others company.  They often play hide and seek and while they sometimes have arguments over who is playing with what toy they are generous with each other too.  Jack is often quite the gentleman helping Carly off the trampoline and pushing her on the swing.  Jenny and I hope that Jack and Carly will be good friends for a long time, epecially since we love our catch ups over cups of tea!

Treasure time

Jack had 'treasure time' at kinder yesterday.  Back in my day it was called 'show and tell'.  He chose to bring Buzz.  He was very excited about showing his friends one of his favourite toys.  He was practically falling over himself shoving Buzz into everyone's faces, introducing Buzz to everyone whether they were interested or not. And then treasure time actually happened and he demonstrated the buttons and answered his teachers questions.  He was very cute.  I had organised to be on kinder duty on the same day so I could watch his first public speaking engagement! :)

We are all fond of Buzz and the Toy Story movies in our household.  I like the friendship themes.  Today in my grown up world it is this Buzz Lightyear quote from Toy Story 2 that particularly resonates with me.

"We have a friend in need, and we're not going to rest until he's safe in Andy's room! Now, let's move out!"

Painting a rainbow

He walked!

I haven't got photographic evidence so you'll just have to take my word for it.  I stood him up in Jack's room and he took two steps towards the bed! He was so proud of himself, giggling with me. I tried to get him to do it again, even tempting him with a bottle of milk.  But no, he was too tired.  My boy is growing up!

Romance

Romantic night in doing work together.

Life

I drove into the city yesterday to try on a bridesmaid dress.  I'd just come from Jack's kinder picnic, which my group on the committee was responsible for.  It went well, people appreciated our efforts.  So I was feeling good.  My sister is getting married, we found a dress and paid a deposit!  We will look good!  Very classy!  As I was driving, I thought, "Wow, I'm happy with life at the moment."

Sometimes life is funny though, you have an "up" day then a "down" day.  So yeah, not so "up" today.  The good thing, though, is that all is well with my family. 

Saturday night movie night

Artistic flair

It's a worm with a shell and a pen in it's head.  Can you see the eye and mouth detail?  Genius!!

Peanut butter

How beautiful is my pantry?  Love it!  So much more space than in my old one. I am particularly proud at how neat it is at the moment.  But let me draw your attention to the peanut butter in the middle shelf of the pantry.  A strange thing happened this morning.  

We were in our normal Thursday morning routine.  I'd come back from my brisk walk with a friend.  We have kept up our 7am commitment to walk together on Thursdays, not only is it good exercise but it's therapeutic as well, as we share what our households have been up to and brainstorm work issues!  

Anyway, I digress, everyone was eating breakfast before we headed out the door for work and kinder.  That's when Jack asked for toast with peanut butter, but not just peanut butter he wanted jam as well.  Not that strange? Well the strange bit is that he wanted them together!  You know, like Americans have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!  Who taught him that?  What does he think he is, American?  Weird! All I can put it down to is that he is taking after his Grandpa who used to have bread, jam and cheese together!  Yuck!!!

Hat

We went for a walk yesterday - yes this post is a day late, I got distracted reading a book last night - anyway we walked to the post box which is a good distance from home.  Well actually I just looked up whereis.com.au and it's only 800 meters from our house and should take 9 minutes by foot, but maybe it wasn't accounting for the hills, which are steep!  And I'm sure it wouldn't be considering the resistance you get when pushing a 10kg child in a pram.  So lets just agree that it wasn't a big cardio work out but I'm sure it helped with strength and toning!  

So we got to the post box, posted my letters and then realised that Lachlan had pulled off his hat at some point. Lachlan doesn't like wearing his hat so this wasn't really a surprise but still annoying.  Jack on the other hand loves hats.  So back we tracked on the look out for the missing hat.   Found it not too far from the turn off to the park and with Jack saying "Please Mummy can we go to the park? Please? Please? Please?!"  How could I resist?  

At the park we met another little boy, similar age to Jack.  This little boy had one of those soft padded helmets on because six months ago he bumped heads with his cousin and was knocked out and had concussion!  If that's all it takes I'm surprised my boys haven't had a concussion yet!  

So after a good play in the park with this little boy and his very protective grandpa we went home.  Of course, once we got home Lachlan didn't want to take his hat off!

Up late

Just home from a kinder committee meeting.  Oh my!  I can hardly think of where to begin!  

Well for now I'll hope my Panadol and cup of tea soothe my mind.

Hot, hot days!

More slip 'n' slide today!

Slip 'n' Slide

The neighbours came over for afternoon drinks and our homemade slip 'n' slide today. Two of the men folk had a slide with the 6 kids. After they left Jack and even Lachlan kept sliding away!  

Sleepy heads

By the looks of this photo you'd think they'd had a big day, but all they did was play with their cousins.  I mean if they'd gotten up at the crack of dawn to try on bridesmaid dresses, check out a mother of the bride outfit, drink champagne, encourage their siblings to spend money, help in-laws move house, assemble ikea furniture, hang washing, change sheets, cook dinner, feed and bath children... then maybe you'd say 'yes, no wonder they fell asleep in the car'.  

Puppy love

Aunty Fiona and Uncle Biff have a new dog.  Lachlan wanted to give her a hug.

Another climber!

While Jack was at kinder today, I decided that it was a perfect chance to catch up on last nights episode of The Block.   Lachlan was happily playing, he loves having free rein over the toys!  Anyway, I look over and there is Lachlan on top of the table!  The kid can't walk, but he can scale a chair and climb the kitchen table!  He is becoming more like his brother... watch out!!

Playdough

Our last lot of playdough went slimy so I made some more today.  At first he wanted green, then blue, then purple, then finally settled on blue.  He happily played with it for over an hour and this was one of his creations for me!  xx

The Onesie

These crazy folk are four of my eleven students, that I have in my communication subject.  They were off to boot camp this morning.  So of course they decided that wearing 'onesies' was the appropriate attire.  My initial reaction was not positive.  I see enough onesies at home and can't stand the fact that Peter Alexander actually sells them as Pj's for adults.  It's just wrong that an adult wears infant pj's complete with toilet access.  Wrong I tell you!  

But they are young and excited and I sound old and grumpy.  I'm sure they will have a great time away over the next three days.  Part of the time away is for bonding, it seems they have achieved this already!  They are an energetic and fun group, I do enjoy teaching these guys.

They will thank me

Remember in an earlier post I was outlining my hopes that Jack & Lachlan will be great at household chores, so much so that their future wives will be thanking me?  Well, this was today at playgroup! Yay!!

Mud

A boy is Truth with dirt on it's face,
Beauty with a cut on its finger,
Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair,
and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket. -Unknown

Breakfast in bed

Leigh left early this morning to go to the air show with some friends.  I aimed for a sleep in, but compromised with breakfast in bed when Jack woke up a bit after 7am.  Lachlan on the other hand stayed in bed until close to 9am.  (I'm glad someone read the memo).

Pretty pink

My life with boys means I don't get to buy the pretty pink things very often.  So when my niece has a birthday I like being allowed to shop for pink things!    I don't think this photo does it justice, it looks better in real life. But this top will look great over leggings or jeans or with a little cardigan.  She'll look sweet!  Hope she likes it!!  Leigh said, "Is it the right size?  It's a bit short for a dress."  Ahh... boys...