Thursday, April 28, 2011

Grandparents




James and Sienna have 3 wonderful grandparents and you have no idea how much their relationship with my kids mean to me. I couldn't have asked for more interested and caring grandparents and I am very grateful to Granny (my Mum) in Brisbane and Nanny & Poppa Waz in Melbourne. This afternoon a big envelope arrived from Pop Waz with lots of interesting articles he has cut out of the paper and saved up for the kids that would be interesting for them. About a month ago he sent up a big scrapbook with some other articles already pasted into it and these ones will get stuck into the book as well. These kinds of things are amazing and their love for my children is wonderful. I love you Granny and Nanny & Pop and so does James and Sienna. xxxx

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter Egg Hunt






















um and Aunty Lisa came around for lunch of prawns and rolls yesterday and afterwards the kids wanted an Easter egg hunt. James and Sienna went inside while I hid the eggs and then I called them back out and they proceeded to the eggs around the backyard. It was a lot of fun and after they found them all we hid the eggs over and over again. At one stage it was James' turn only to find the eggs so Sienna helped hide them and next it was Sienna's turn and James helped hide them. I couldn't help but laugh when Sienna buried one in the veggie garden...and I mean buried complete with dirt on top. That one quickly had to be rescued pretty quickly but even as an adult Aunty Lisa and I were laughing and having fun at our silly Easter Egg Hunt.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter morning 2011











The kids woke up about 5.30 am and were very excited that the Easter Bunny had been. They went downstairs and brought up their Easter Baskets to show me. It's fantastic seeing how excited they are at 5 and 7 years old. Here's a few pictures of later on in the morning.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Visit to the local park


























This afternoon I took the kids down to the local park so they could ride their scooter and bike. It's all too easy for me to stay at home and let them play in the backyard but it's always nice when I make the effort and a change of scenery. Seriously it's a 5 min walk down there.

While we were down there a couple of other kids were on their roller blades and after a little while they left to go home. The little boy was still there and asked me if I could make a paper plane for him. I said James is the expert in making paper planes so called him over and James sat down to help the little boy which was so adorable I just had to take some photos of it. A little while later I realized we were the only ones at the park along with this little boy and I asked him who he was at the park with and he said he lived in the house up the road and pointed to it. Remember he is a little 5 year old boy, same as Sienna and here he was at the park by himself. I was just gobsmacked. I then saw his sister standing in her front driveway with a little friend and they were probably about 8 years old and then it appeared that they left her house and went to the other boys house on the other side of the park, still leaving the little brother in the park by himself. He didn't seem too worried about it but there is no way on this earth would I leave Sienna at a park like that by herself or James for that matter. There didn't seem to be any parents in the front yard keeping an eye on this kid. In my day (yes, the good old days) all of us kids rung around the neighbourhood but we were a bunch of kids probably about 10 of us hanging out together but certainly not at the ripe old age of 5.



At one stage Sienna was explaining to him about the Easter Bunny was coming tonight because her mother had told her. First she said it's Christmas tonight and then she said, oh, wait it's the Easter Bunny (EB..... for all those who have taken their kids to see HOP these holidays - cute). Both James and Sienna have coloured in an easter egg, cut it out and blue tacked it to their bedroom doors. (Di, I never did make it to Spotlight but they seemed to manage with a colouring in off the net). All in all we enjoyed our little trip down to the local park.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Happy Easter










The kids lovely Nanny & Pop from Melbourne sent up a beautiful Easter Card that the 4 year old cousin had picked out along with $15 to buy each of us a Lindt Chocolate Bunny. There are very specific instructions on buying the Lindt bunny and instructions which I'm more than happy to follow particularly when it involves chocolate and good quality chocolate at that. We bought the bunnies from Coles last night and both James and Sienna had their $5 note to hand to the checkout operator. Today's photo of the day is going to be one of the 3 of us with our yummy chocolate bunnies. We have now eaten the heads off the bunny and tomorrow we will eat the rest of them. I personally could eat the whole bunny in one sitting but I thought if they did they might feel a bit ill so I made the sacrifice and am waiting until tomorrow to eat the rest. Yes, Easter is coming a little early for us as I figure there will be plenty of chocolate on Easter Sunday for them to consume. Hope you enjoy your Easter break.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

No photos

I'm doing an Ali Edwards today as I took the kids to Rainbow Bay and left the camera at home. It was mainly due to the fact that it had been raining and wet and just wanted to be in the moment. We walked onto the soft white sand and first of all the kids jumped off a sand dune and rolled down the little hill. They did this for a little while getting sand all over them while squealing with excitement. (they were in day time clothes because their togs were back in Brisbane, another side story). We then proceeded to the water's edge and Sienna went in the surf while James and I played "noughts and crosses" in the sand (one eye on Sienna a few metres away and the other eye on the game). We played a few games and then we went for a walk. We chatted to a fisherman who had caught a small bream and he said even though it was probably legal size he would throw him back in to get bigger. The kids thought that was pretty cool and he was a rather elderly gentleman dressed in his full fishing gear and rubber shoes.

We then checked out the surfers and the big waves, climbed up some big rocks to the pathway and walked around to see the "green painted frog/rock" and again the kids climbed up onto these huge boulders put their hands up and shouted "I'm the king of New York"..... I have no idea where this came from but Sienna was copying her brother on another rock complete with huge smile.

They jumped off these big rocks and climbed back up and then we headed back the same way we came and we looked in the crab holes for crabs but couldn't find any. Sienna collected a heap of shells along the way and washed them in the ocean before we headed back to the car. The weather had been raining and miserable and it would have been just as easy to head straight back to Brisbane but I really enjoyed my one hour at the beach with the kids. The look on their faces of pure happiness made me feel warm and fuzzy inside and appreciate how amazing my 7 year old and 5 year old are.

On the side note, back in Brisbane when I was putting one bag into the car which included pj's, towels and togs my mobile phone rang inside so I dropped the bag and ran into to answer it. After I finished with the call the kids got in the car I grabbed my handbag, camera and left. Half way down I didn't recall putting the bag into the boot and you guessed it I didn't. I have worn the same clothes yesterday, then to bed and then today. The kids had packed their backpacks with pj's toys and clothes so their were okay but you know, these things happen and it's not the end of the world. James particularly wanted his togs for the water but I said he could just get his shorts and top wet as we had a change of clothes and he wasn't that keen. Sienna couldn't care and she went in, in her shorts. That was our little overnight stay with my beautiful friend at Rainbow Bay.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

During the week








The totem tennis games got better and everyone worked out how to play. The kids have been getting up at 6am and going outside and having a hit. Here's a few other random photos from the week. The chickens having a rest, some craft James got for his birthday last November which he sat down and did. One of our lettuce plants growing nicely. The kids having dinner while Aunty Lisa was over.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Kids are kids


Some days the pleasure is in actually buying the new $20 toy from Coles and not from watching them play the game!!!!!! In my head this is not what envisaged when I brought home a gift for them. Nonetheless, after I said come inside for afternoon tea, eat something and then play nicely they did work out how to play together which was much better than the picture above. (click on the picture the expression is priceless) This is life, this is reality, some things don't go the way you planned. Ain't that the truth!!!!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Backyard Fun







It was a beautiful sunny day in Brisbane today and Sienna got stuck into watering the garden and playing with the chickens. Here's a few pic's from today.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art)
















This afternoon my mum, sister and the kids and I went to the Gallery of Modern Art to see a display of "finches" and "coat hangers". Yes, you heard right, little tiny birds called finches and the wire coat hangers that you get from the dry cleaners. They had a room which had a limit of 21 people at a time and each person had to wear a tag with a number on it when you went into the room. It consisted of 4 main sections of coat hangers attached to each other hanging down from the roof. When the finches would fly and land on one of the coat hangers the coat hangers would move thereby setting off a chain reaction of each coat hanger touching another coat hanger which sounded like music. It was a very interesting exhibition and the birds are so cute. When I was growing up I had a couple of finches myself and loved them. The 4 sections were divided up into seed, water, nesting baskets and a different type of nesting area. Who would have thought of such an exhibition is beyond me but it was very interesting.


After that we went to another section where we had to wait in a queue for about 10-15 mins to go into a black room which had a little walkway surrounded by water and these amazing glowing balls hanging everywhere. I think is supposed to have something to do with infinity. It was weird and when you are in there it's like a disco and your clothes are very bright. I had time to take 4 photos of which 1 was blurred and then next minute the doors open and it was time to leave. I think you get about 1 minute in there - not long. I don't even know what it was called but the kids loved it and we did as well. Around this black room was a huge display of what looked like bowling balls in silver which is quite effective.


The kids wanted and ice cream after all the good behaviour at the museum so of course there were sprinkles involved and then we walked back to the car and went home.


We would normally park directly underneath the GOMA building however since the January floods all the underground car parks there are still closed because of the water and damage. It was a bit of a trek to get to another car park a few blocks away when normally you'd be straight underneath the building. Hope you enjoy some of the weird and wonderful photos I took this afternoon. You'll see me in a few of them with the camera up to my face!!!