Monday, July 27, 2009

Fun Differences

It is funny how different 2 children from the same family can be. We have always had the rule that if they don't eat all of their dinner, they need to go to bed. Paige hates this rule, she will fight against it if at all possible. She will sit at the table eating tiny bits of cold food just so she will not have to go to bed. Eventually we put a time limit on her and she has to go to bed if she is not done when the time runs out. Even then, it results in a barrage of tears and "but I want to finish". Charli on the other hand, dinner unfinished, gets up from the table and says "I go to bed now" and off she goes upstairs and puts herself to bed, not a peep to be heard for the rest of the night.

Totally different, but both gorgeous.

What Fun

I saw this on Mamamia's blog today. It was posted a few days ago, but I only just got to it. I love because not only is it good fun, but it gets across the real joy of a wedding that you don't normally experience. This couple and video has become somewhat of a sensation and you can definitely see why.



As was written about it in the Washington Post:

"this ceremony went deeper than behaviors. It elicited all the right feelings, in the way that good dancing transfers energy and emotion to its audience. In the way they moved -- and were able to corral their friends and family into the act -- the couple told us a lot about themselves, and about their bond.

This didn't look like a reluctant groom being dragged to the altar, nor a micromanaging bridezilla who had locked down every detail. They were open to music and movement and untucked shirts and sweat, and they gave to their guests what had to be the best party favor of all. An actual party.

Maybe we'll see the Heinz ensemble next on "So You Think You Can Dance." Maybe Jill and Kevin will go on to choreograph for the Vikings cheerleaders, or start up a wedding-planning business. Maybe not.

Whatever their future, they did with that performance what great dancers can do. They pulled us all into their story."

Puffing Billy - The Epic

After a bit of a slow start (needed to buy myself and PJ a new jacket) we headed off to Belgrave only to discover that we had neither the Boy's GPS nor a Melway....oh dear. I used the WhereIs directory on my phone only we ended up a little lost. Thankfully, the Boy is pretty good at finding where to go and we got there without too much of a "being lost" delay. We got in line to buy tickets for the train which goes to the end of the line at Gembrook. The timetable was such that the trip each way would be 2 hours and the time spend there would be almost 2 hours and we would be back to Belgrave at about 4.30ish. Patiently standing in line, only to miss out on the train by 2 people, they had to cut off the people getting on as otherwise the train would be running too late. At first there was much grumpyness and talk of just packing it in and going home as the next train was not for an hour.

Eventually I decided to ignore the grumpy's and get back in line for the next train which was heading to Lakeside. The Lakeside trip was an hour each way with about 40mins at the stop. We got tickets for this one and off we went. We all had a great time, the girls in particular who kept declaring "THIS IS AWESOME" so I could safely assume that they were having fun. In the end, it worked out really well as it was FREEZING, even with lots of layers, a scarf and a new toasty warm jacket. We were very glad that we went on the short trip and short stay rather than the long one as we might have all turned into human shaped ice cubes rather than just taking 2 hours to defrost when we got home. At least it was lots of fun.







Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Introducing

My posts are now, more often than not, brought to you by my new favourite toy.....


Thanks Babe!!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Birthday weekend

The Boy always takes a day off for his birthday, it is a tradition. This year his birthday was on a Friday so he took the day off, Paige got the day off school and we enjoyed a long weekend. The Boy spent Friday with one of his mates while the girls and I went shopping ...mmmm retail therapy, fun. On Friday night, a wonderful friend watched the girls for us and we headed out to dinner and a movie, also a birthday tradition.

We were going to go to a chinese restaurant in Doncaster that we were fond of, but after not being able to get through to them on the phone, we decided on a drive by only to find out they were no longer in operation, oh well. We headed for Crown which is were I had booked tickets for the latest Harry Potter as all the other theaters near us were sold out. While we were waiting in line for the tickets, I saw a restaurant advertised called Sho. It is a new noodle bar in the Crown complex and as neither of us are huge fans of the other restaurants, we thought we should try it out. We found the place with a little help from a kind security guard and the food was delicious and eased the Boy's craving for Asian food so all was good. The movie was also excellent and we had a good night.

On Saturday we had decided to take the girls for a trip on Puffing Billy and this is another story all on its own. We had a great day after a rough start and everyone came home exhausted.

On Sunday, the Boy took Paige to see the latest Harry Potter movie which wound up their Sunday afternoon movie trips. He made sure before they went that she knew there would be one bit that she would have to close her eyes for as it was a little too scary. It was not gross scary, just gives you a bit of a fright. Anyway, of course after such a busy weekend, someone fell asleep during the movie so instead of telling Paige to close her eyes, he just snored (quietly) at her. She only "jumped out of my seat a little bit" but it was all good and she enjoyed the movie and he enjoyed his sleep.

Now I think a quiet weekend is in order to recover from this one.

School Holidays

It is hard to believe that we are already into the second semester of school, it wasn't that long ago that we were thinking about how grown up PJ was starting in Prep and now it is already half over. Wow, that went fast.

The mid-year holidays came and went and unlike the last lot of holidays which flew by and before we knew it we were back at school and had done not really anything, this time we fit quite a bit more in.

For the first four days of the holidays, we did not much, relaxed at home watched movies, played games and got whinged at. The girls were pretty good and did not engage in arguing as a favourite passtime, thank goodness. Our fun started on the Friday of the first week. Daddy took the day off of work so that we could spend the day together as he was not going to be around for the following weekend due to a work trip to Tasmania, although when I say work, I mean it in the way that work was paying for them all to go to Tasmania to drink the state out of alcohol....

On Thursday we were talking to the girls about the fact that Daddy was staying home from work on the next day and what would they like to do. We ended up coming up with Sovereign Hill in Ballarat or going to the Museum. We looked them up on the internet (what a wonderful invention) and explained what they both were and then gave the girls the choice. Paige picked the Museum as her preferred destination which was not really a surprise as they just happened to have a dinosaur bones exhibit on and she LOVES dinosaurs, I think I may have touched on this once before. Anyway, we traipsed off to the museum and the girls got to see the dinosaur bones and were suitably impressed by how large they were. We also saw the Pompeii exhibition which was mainly for my sake and I loved it. Paige and Charli also enjoyed looking at all of the jewellery and such from such a long time ago and of course the little 3D movie of the exploding volcano. They did have some body casts, but we only looked at that briefly....bit too freaky.

Also, much to my surprise, Paige decided that she wanted to see the spiders....so off we went to the insects and bugs....hmmm. Funny that once we got there, she got all creeped out and wouldn't go within 2 metres of any of the "live" spider...hehe, Charli on the other hand had her face pressed up against the glass of the tarantula enclosure with the actual live tarantula about 10 centimetres away from her. She thought it was great, the rest of us...not so much.

The rest of the weekend was quiet apart from the Paige and Daddy trip to Harry Potter on the Sunday afternoon which was a 6 week standing date as they were playing all of the old movies leading up to the release of the new one.

On Monday we went to the Scienceworks with some friends who live down that way, being near the coast on the other side of town. The kids had a great time and we finished it off with icecream at McDonalds before making the trip under the Yarra to pick Daddy up from work. The girls thought the "really long tunnel" was cool. On the Tuesday we caught up with some other friends for dressing up and more McDonalds, lots more fun. Wednesday was a much needed rest day at home with not alot going on, although Paige seemed to think that there must be someone we could visit. Thursday we caught up with some new friends we made thanks to their cat, a whole other story. We went off to bogan park to play on the equipment that remains after some idiots thought it would be fun to set fire to and melt the new $400000 park....again I say IDIOTS!!! Friday we met up with a family from school at the Eltham North Adventure Playground and again followed it up with....you guessed it, McDonalds. Then videos for Friday night while Dad was in Tasmania.

Since he also wasn't back in time for Harry Potter, Paige got to go with her "boyfriend" from school. Apparently they had a good time and there was lots of hand holding and cheek kissing involved....a little worrying, but then they are only 5 and both affectionate children so of course there is nothing to it but them being friends and having fun together. I must admit I am looking forward to the "boys are yucky stage" rather than the "I have 5 boyfriends and Ben kisses me all the time stage."

All in all, it was a pretty busy school holiday and I think Paige is still struggling a bit to get back to her normal well rested self. I am just trying to get her in bed at a decent time every night although that can be difficult when they sleep right next to each other and insist on whispering so loudly I can hear them from 2 rooms and a flight of stairs away....oh well, at least they love each other.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Sitting on Ducks

This morning The Boy and I had a good laugh. When he came downstairs this morning, both of the girls were sitting on the ducts or ducks as they are known. Paige on the one at the bottom of the stairs and Charli on the one by the window. Chester had been relegated to the duck under my desk and he was not very happy about it either. The thing that was funny about it was that we both remember sitting in front of gas wall heaters when we were kids. In the middle of winter when the only heater in the house was a gas wall heater in the lounge room. I remember we would get out of bed and run to the lounge room to sit by the heater or after having a bath and getting dressed in front of the heater. Mum would put our clothes in front of the heater to get warm before we put them on. And of course, Mum, who was always standing in front of the heater to get warm.

It is amazing how to girls being funny and keeping warm can bring back so many memories. We don't have a wall heater, but they do the same thing, just differently.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Works Like India

Tonight we were discussing the fact that there is a boy in Paige's class that she gets along with particularly well. His mother has previously suggested that maybe it was due to the fact that his brain works a little differently, just like Paige's. They are both prone to coming up with facts and information that seem completely out of left field. This is something that is not unexpected with our girl considering who her parents are, but in the middle of the conversation, Paige piped up from the couch:

"my brain doesn't work differently, it works like India"

at that point, the conversation ceased whilst we both dissolved into laughter.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Santa goes to Africa

On Sunday as we were driving to Church Paige asked me an interesting question that I have been thinking about ever since. It came completely out of nowhere and I am not sure that I answered it all that well, but apparently it was enough for her as she has moved on....unfortunately, I haven't.

Paige: Mummy, does Santa take presents to all the children in Africa?
Me: Um, I guess so.
Paige: So then they have toys and stuff to play with but no food?
Me: Well, maybe Santa brings some water or some food instead of toys.
Paige: OK

This was almost enough for me to break my own rule about telling her Santa is not real. A long time ago, I made the boy promise that we would let them believe in Santa for a few years, he was all for telling them from the start that Santa was make believe. Not only did he want them to know the truth, but he thought it would be funny at school. I totally disagreed and made him promise not to tell them which he went along with. Now I am finding myself increasingly of the opinion that Paige at least is old enough to understand the truth about Santa and that no, he doesn't bring toys to the kids in Africa, they mostly don't have toys.

She is very concerned that he brings them toys as it is not their fault that they are poor and/or orphans and that they didn't get that way from being naughty. How do you explain to a 5 year old who believes in Santa about how it is in Africa.....I think, I might need to think about this some more.