Arty Amanda's Antics

Dramatic end to the holidays

2012-01-26T11:30:00.001+08:00

Had my first day back at work for 2012 yesterday. Jamie and Thomas were at Veronica's house for the day. Just as I was about to leave work at 3:30, one of the office staff came to find me with a message to call Leanne immediately. Well, in all the illness dramas we had last year, never has an office staff member had to come and personally find me! Starting to freak out now. Called Leanne, there is a bushfire on their property, a big one, the roads are blocked, their driveway is on fire, but don't panic the kids are calm (now!) and their are firemen on the property. As you can imagine the words "don't panic" did not have any effect on me at all. I hightailed it out of school, and as soon as I got onto the highway I could see the smoke, from about 40km away, a huge thick black tower of smoke!! Crap!!

Got to the Bunbury side of the fire to be met by a ranger, who quite sensibly was not letting anyone through, even though the firemen on Leanne's property had told her they would let me get my kids out. Called Leanne, the land lines are down!!! Called James in tears, called Mum in tears, finally decided to drive back out and around and come at it from the Busselton side. This took about 20 minutes and by then the thick plume of smoke was gone, but there were around 90 firemen on the site still actively fighting the fire, cutting fire breaks, 2 fixed wing planes dumping water and 1 helicopter water bomber. Crap!!!

Smoke and dust everywhere.

Water bomber about to dump more water.

Understandably I was a mess again, desperately worried about them all, but particularly about Jamie as fire is one of his autism triggers. Spoke to lots of wonderful firemen and policemen (there were heaps of emergency people at this road block, unlike the other one) ... trying to decide if I should wait there or drive the 25 minutes back home again and come back later, but I just couldn't leave. So I waited and waited and waited, over an hour. Eventually some of the trucks started to leave and there were a bunch of firemen standing around talking, so I asked them when I could get in there. They said in about half an hour they should be able to escort me in. So I resorted to more waiting and waiting and waiting. Then a firetruck came out of the fire zone and one of the men who jumped off is the hubby of one of the ladies at James's work. I called out to him. He was pretty stunned to see me there. I told him the boys were in there, told him where exactly. Everyone knew exactly where I meant whenever I said the property name because that is where they were fighting the fire!!! Anyway, he packed up his hoses then wandered off to speak to one of the guys in charge, came back and said he would go and get the boys out in his truck!! OMG I could have kissed him!!

It took them a good 20 minutes to get back with the boys. Thomas looked ridiculous climbing out of the fire truck holding his massive water pistol Andrew had given him for his birthday!! There were a few jokes from the men that he could have come and helped them fight the fire!. So over 2 hours since I got the initial phone call we were finally heading home, watering eyes, coughing, stinking of smoke, but alive. And our friend's are alive and their house and stock are all fine. We were expecting nightmares and panic attacks that night, but they talked it all out, played a few board games with Daddy and went off to bed fine. Leanne told me they (and her girls) were all very upset and scared, and she spent a lot of time hugging one after the other. Leanne had the car packed very early on and kept everyone together in the house. There were firemen coming in and out of the house talking to Leanne and the kids, keeping them updated continually, talking about the water bomber etc. They knew that Leanne was ready to go whenever they decided it was no longer safe in the house. The fire burnt all along the front of their property, down their driveway and all through the bush the property is next to.

We took them back there this morning to "get back on the horse" so to speak.

On their road, this is the bush reserve next to their property.

Getting closer.

Turning into their driveway ... it is burnt completely across the front of the property in both directions, and half way down the driveway. The house is about 100 metres from the road. Leanne and her hubby had ploughed the front paddocks only last weekend , the firemen said this was what stopped it getting to the house!! So so so lucky!!

More driveway shots.

Their entry sign is gone.

Exiting the driveway, looking on to the other side of the road.

And just to give you a better visual ... I was standing on the road where the fire zone label is, watching it all happen. Forever grateful to Leanne for keeping a calm head (even though she was very stressed and scared) and keeping all 4 kids safe and protected. And also grateful to my fireman friend for taking the truck into collect Jamie and Thomas!!!

Never ever want to do that again!

Enjoy.

Amanda

January Festival Fun

2012-01-19T11:20:00.000+08:00

This January we took a rest from swimming lessons, stayed at home, and had a plan of getting involved in the events that are on in Busselton for the Festival of Busselton. So far we have had a blast, still a few days left though.

1. Well techically not festival fun, but Henry had a cyst removed from his face under local anaesthetic. He was very brave and was rewarded with a packet of killer pythons to share with his brothers.

2. Grandma and Henry, James and I watched the boys in the pantomine. Henry was amazingly well behaved, sat still, was quiet and attentive through the whole show, except for yelling out "De" and "Toto" whenever they came on stage!

3. Veronica joined in with panto this year. She and Thomas seemed to enjoy themselves and want to go back next year.

4. Jamie was in the main cast again, but this time not in a shared role .. he performed in all 12 shows (oh actually 11, as he was ill for one of them!). In this scene he is one of the 40 thieves and is handing over his 18 carat jar to the robber leader, except it was really a jar with 2 carrots in it!

5. Hiding in an oil jar. This scene involved lots of popping in and out of the jar and dancing to an ABBA song.

6. All dressed for the closing party scene.

7. Riding the jetty train with Grandma.

8. Thanks for the shot of Henry and I, Grandma, I love it!

9. The kids book haul from the library discard sale.

10. This year there was a new addition to the Festival Program. The sail training ship Leeuwin anchored of the jetty and invited all kids dressed as pirates to come on board. Well we weren't going to miss that opportunity! Henry as very keen to be a pirate and he even one 3rd prize in the costume competition for his age group. We think it was the newspaper hat and home painted shirt that did it. Then Jamie won 2nd prize in his age group ... home painted skeleton pants seemed to be the key there!

11. Thomas and Veronica rode on the repertory club's float for the Festival Float Parade. This was a first for them (Jamie did it last year, but was very tired this year so didn't go on it). They thoroughly enjoyed throwing out lollies to the crowd, especially when one hit James on the camera as he was trying to take a photo!

12. Henry decided to measure himself as he just might be tall enough to ride the bumper cars! Not yet, sorry bubba.

13. This was Jamie's and Thomas's first time on bmper cars, and as there was no one else on the track we felt it was a safe introduction for them. Thomas predictable yelled and yahooed the whole time, Jamie had a manic look of desperation on his face as he continually chased and rammed them. I think the fact that they were allowed to ram each other was quite therapuetic!

14. Thankfully there are no height restrictions for clowns!

15. There was a children's chalk pavement art in town one day. Here is Thomas concentrating hard!

16. Jamie working on his art.

17. Jamie's finished design.

18. And Thomas's too - James and I thought they both did a terrific job.

19. Petticoat Lane - Henry had a great view of it all ... Daddy didn't appreciate the cold juice resting on the back of his neck though!

20. Gee, how nice, they both got really loud hooters in a lucky dip!

21. Jamie and Thomas riding the mega bouncy castle water slide. There has been a water fun park set up on near the beach all holidays. I took all 3 boys after Xmas, Henry wasn't feeling brave, even for the tiny 3 year old slides, but I got Jamie to look after him at one point and went down this big one myself. It is freaky!!! The park is quite expensive so I said it was a one time thing only, but then the boys got free entry as part of the South West Autism Network, so they got another "splash" at it!

So there is my busy January so far ... still a few more events to go, including somebody turning 9 on Sunday!

Enjoy.

Amanda

New Year's 2011 / 2012

2012-01-02T11:13:00.000+08:00

Even though we live right by the beach, we are not a big beach going family, love walking along it, but not so much into swimming! Except for New Year's Eve - we always head down to the jetty beach late in the afternoon, have a play and takeaway for dinner. Here are some shots from this year's adventure.

Big boys yahooing on boogie boards ... Henry yelling at the water and waves and sand.

Oooh ... couldn't resist this shot of such a cute little bottom!

All 4 of my handsome men in the water - I feel so so lucky to have such gorgeous boys in my life.

Pretty soon Henry realised it was fun to flop down in the water and splash and yell and scream.

Family portrait to end 2011 - typical Thomas just had to add his own twist to it! And then I was taking pictures of the sky and the trees, while lying on my back, when he shoved his head in front of the camera and did this! He is such a wacky boy.

Handsome Jamie - who is getting soooo tall - James and I can rest our chins on his head now, give him another year and that won't be happening any more!

Then Henry had to get into the action of leaning in over the camera too!
New Year's Day we headed down to A'Maze'N in Margaret River. This is a gorgeous hedge maze (plus some other smaller puzzle mazes), that James hadn't been to yet. He was suitably impressed - the grounds are gorgeous and the maze very challenging and well kept.
Thomas bravely headed into the maze on his own, as he wanted to test his theory that he could constantly trail his left hand along the left hand wall, and that way would get to the centre (the target for the maze) and back out again, without getting lost. It worked too. It was really funny, because he was calling out to us lots, letting us know where he was and what he was doing. At one stage he was using someone else's camera and taking pictures of that family in the centre of the maze! He also kept calling "Can you hear me?" to which Henry would yell equally loudly "I can hear you Thonas!".
Jamie wanted to do the maze the "proper" way (according to him). He also wanted to find all 8 of the decorated benches. He has an excellent memory for mazes, and as long as I stick with him and Daddy I have some chance of making my way through!.

Jamie and Henry on the crocodile seat.

Henry requested a picture of just him with the owl seat - he loves Hoot the Owl from ABC Kids so thought this seat was pretty special.

Mazes are tiring for little legs - he kept saying "I want to go outside, I want to go outside ..."

Yahoo .. we made it. Thomas was out ages before us, then Jamie raced ahead and met him, then Henry came running out to greet them.

And this was one of the puzzle mazes. This stepping stone maze has coloured pathways between the pavers, you have to follow a particular colour pattern to get to the centre. The boys and I had been unable to figure it out when we came months ago .. James had it in about 5 minutes!!

All in all it was a great day ... we love mazes!!!!!!!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

Santa

2011-12-29T14:45:00.000+08:00

We had some time to kill in Bunbury between the ENT appt and my train trip to Perth for my surgery so headed out to Bunbury Forum. Look who was there!! Henry was not at all afraid of sitting on Santa's lap and happily walked over to him. Too cute!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

Surgery x 2

2011-12-29T14:41:00.001+08:00

So, nearly 2 weeks on and my leg is finally looking a lot healthier and I can pretty much move as normal. Gets to the end of the day and is very stiff and sore, but a different kind of soreness to what it used to be like all through summer. Look away now if you don't want to see gory photos!!

Before - ugly fat, swollen veins. Before - on the day, after being marked up the the surgeon and ultrasound technician.

After - the next morning (about 16 hours post surgery) - best shot I could get, because it was incredibly painful to stand on. After - 4 days, behind my knee and all up the inside of my thigh and groin look like I have been through a beating! Incredibly ugly shade of yellow! Today, it has almost all gone, some of the darker bruises are still there and there are a few patches of hard, dense, painful scar tissue that will take some time to disappear, but so far so good.

As for surgery number 2 - the day before my op, we stopped in to see Henry's ENT to discuss his progress (or lack of) and he decided to go with my request and put Henry on the private list for grommets. Yay! Then he said he could do it in 6 days - OMG! So the Wednesday before Xmas James and Henry were up early, heading up to SJOG Bunbury for a 7am checkin. This was a hard day for me - my baby was having surgery (yes he is not a baby anymore, and yes it was a minor 20 minute procedure, but he is my baby!!), and because I couldn't drive nor sit around a hospital I had to stay home! Thankfully James took lots of photos for me and sent a lot of text messages.

Bert went along for the ride and even got a hospital tag and a surgical hat - silly Daddy however wrote Ernie on the tag!!

Waiting and wondering just what on earth this place is and what is going to happen next!

Thankfully he has got over his tendency to scream and vomit whenever someone tries to put medicine into him. **Oops, 7 hours after posting this James read it and informs me that no Henry is not over the screaming when it comes to medicine. In fact he flatly refused to let anyone near him with a syringe full of medicine, nothing was working, until James suggested that he take a picture of Henry having his medicine! "Would that be OK buddy?" "oh yes" .... what the!!!**

In the waiting area, wearing yellow "pyjamas" about to get the IV inserted. Apparently he was very brave, and the worst he did was maintain this frowny face at everybody. He also told the anaesthetist "I not having a sleep"..... funny bubba.

All done, and enjoying a late breakfast ... what could be better than jelly for breakfast!!

A ha - an icypole as well!!!
Well done super bubba - you were so brave. And amazingly, he has not stopped talking since and has been coming up with some incredibly complex sentences daily!!! Awesome!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Xmas 2011

2011-12-29T14:19:00.002+08:00

This Xmas I made the decision to not open any of my gifts until everyone else was done, instead taking the time to concentrate on photographing and videoing everyone else. It was well worth it! I have heaps of really cool photos ... so have made some collages instead of attempting to upload them all. Click on the images to see them in close up.

In this one ... Rod and Michelle, who came to Mum's house on Xmas Eve, for drinks. nibbles, a swim, dinner and then came looking at Xmas lights with us. It has become somewhat of a tradition for Rod, Michelle, James and I to buy each other board games for Xmas. This year we gave them a selection of travel games. They gave us Monopoly Live -which is an electronic motion sensored version of Monopoly - it is very cool!
Before we left Busselton we made two batches of Ninjabread men and a Gingerbread Train kit. They were delicious, however the decorations on the Ninjabread were a little wacky - Eat Him; I'm Toxic Eat Him; a blue bikini; a dagger to the throat!!
I had been busy knitting for months for Xmas gifts - 10 scarves and 2 pairs of mits in total - Mum is in the collage wearing hers.
Steve Jobs made an appearance .... and then James was presented with his gift from the boys and I - a Xmas box with at least 20 individually wrapped gifts. Some of them joke gifts (xmas sunnies etc), some of them lollies and food, and a few books and DVDs.

Henry had an awesome time this year - he really seemed to get what Xmas was all about - well to him it was about lights, Santa and presents - LOTS of presents! We opened a few in Busso before we left - one of which was another talking dinosaur - this one a big T rex. Henry loved it and spent a lovely few hours chattering away to all his dinosaurs, introducing them to each other. Visiting our friend's house to see their amazing Xmas lights and train display was another hit. There were bubbles and toys to play with, lots of things hidden in and around the garden plus the incredible train track. He fed the reindeer on Xmas Eve and then had his first night sleeping in the same bedroom as his brothers (which predictable caused all sorts of hilarity!) Xmas morning ... he got a Mater Tall Tales DVD from Santa and promptly requested to watch it, then came ALL the unwrapping. Henry likes to make sure that he has the right parcel, and checks that it says his name on it. Then he carefully pulls away tiny piece after piece of paper. Some of his favourite gifts were a Buzz and Alien knock down the wall game, a tiny flashing chicken and a magic colouring book. It was truly delightful watching him enjoy Xmas. And later watching him insist that Grandad look at and play with every one of his new toys!

As for the big boys - they were raring to go very early Xmas morning. Jamie loves to show Henry all the things about Xmas and Thomas just doesn't stop moving! Their highlights were remote control helicopters from Andrew and Eloise, plus the usual pile of Lego (which is always all built before the day finishes). Jamie really liked playing Monopoly Live and Thomas got his nose buried in a few Lego books he received.

As for me, when we returned to Busselton, James asked what my best gift was. I had to honestly say it was the gift from Andrew and Eloise - a set of 3 candle holders from their wedding table decorations plus some beautiful pyjamas. Why the pyjamas? Well, it was clear that Andrew didn't shop for them - so that means my gorgeous new sister in law must have taken the time to find something very personal for me in the 2 days she had off work between returning from their honeymoon and Xmas.

Another awesome Xmas.

Enjoy.
Amanda

Christmas 2011 - Sneak Peek

2011-12-28T11:39:00.000+08:00

Sneak peek at some of my faves until I find time to upload them all.

Annual Christmas Light viewing.

Damn it! Uncle Andrew and Aunty Eloise just had to bring these back from Africa!!!!

Cuteness in his Xmas Hoot PJs and his matching hat.

Being super brave and not scared at all of holding a sparkler.

Enjoy.

Amanda

Varicose Veins

2011-12-18T12:44:00.000+08:00

I have had major trouble with varicose veins on my right leg since I was pregnant with Thomas. They were very painful and swollen during Henry's pregnancy and since starting work full time, they have become even worse. So I made the decision to have them operated on. Caught the train to Perth on Thursday, leaving James at home with a rotten cold and 3 boys! Mum dropped me at the hospital in the wee hours of Friday morning ... my turn came around about 1pm that afternoon. It was at this point that I quietly started freaking out. Came out of the anaesthetic to be greeted with a leg very tightly bandaged from my toes to my groin ... spent a restless, painful night in hospital. My blood pressure dropped, which is pretty common for me, but it isn't a nice feeling. Was discharged to Mum's on Saturday and spent the day on her lovely recliner lounges. The bandages are off my leg, so I have a bit more movement, but am now wearing a "lovely" pressure stocking for the next 2 weeks. Today (Sunday) Mum and Dad were on their way to Albany and the plan was for me to catch a ride to Bunbury and for James to meet me there. Disappointingly I couldn't face the thought of being in a car for 2 plus hours .... my leg hurts, I was nauseous and dizzy, and needing the toilet a lot! So have made the tough call to stay here, on my own, until they get back from Albany tomorrow and maybe then I will be more up to sitting in the car to get to Bunbury and then Busselton. I hope so, because I really want to be home .. someone seriously needs to invent a time portal, so I can get home instantly!!!
Wish me luck!
Amanda

School is done!!!

2011-12-14T10:42:00.000+08:00

We made it through the year, there were a few tears and dramas but all in all I think the decision to work full time was a good one. Henry's speech and language has gone ahead by leaps and bounds, thanks to day care. He had a speech review yesterday and is now considered to be age appropriate, although still needs encouragement and monitoring.

The highlight was the Year 3 - 6 Presentation Night. Both Jamie and Thomas received the academic awards for their class. We were so proud. Didn't get any photos though, due to some other dramas that night - 3 massive blood noses between Henry and Thomas and then Thomas being unable to participate in the year 3 presentation piece. Nevertheless they were both very proud of themselves!

Jamie completed the last piece for his Grey Wolf badge - cooking breakfast for me and himself. It was delicious!

Thomas continues with his obscure Lego adventures - this one was a Wipeout course for the Clone Troopers to run through!

Henry finally decided that licking spoons from cooking cakes is FUN!

The tree decorating was left totally in the boys hands this year - none of my decorations have even come out of the box! Henry has been very excited by anything "Kitmas" ... can't wait to see his face on Kitmas Day!

The space pod from the Year 1 / 2 presentation piece came home with us. Henry has been playing in it, eating in it and probably would sleep in it if I let him.

All 5 of us are on holidays now - which has been wonderful. Twister came out this week. James is hopeless at it, Jamie is practically the rubber man and Henry just puts his hands and feet anywhere.

We managed to get him to sit on the toilet! Nothing happened, but he was happy to sit there. It's a start.

Me with Thomas's teacher Melissa. She has been my rock this year, a wonderful friend and support as well as an awesome teacher for Thomas. Sadly she has now left BCGS and will be moving to Queensland early next year. I will miss her terribly.

Out at James's work dinner. Thomas hid his book inside the menu and had fun tricking people. Henry insisted on wearing his Kitmas Hat - too cute!

Thomas at his end of year strings concert. He has done really well learning the cello, but will stick with just guitar next year. Although year 4s also learn the recorder, plus Jamie will be learning a band instrument and is also in the steel pans band - it will be very noisy in our house!

Thomas with his amazing teacher!

At the school Carols by Candelight - it was a lot of fun sitting on the grass, chatting and eating and singing. I think next year we need to take Henry and James too and pack a proper picnic.

Enjoy.
Amanda

Henry turns 3!

2011-11-26T11:57:00.001+08:00

And in Henry's words ... "It my birthday today, I not 2 no more, I 3!" Gorgeous.

We had a small birthday celebration for Henry the Sunday after the wedding, as there were lots of family in town anyway. Henry didn't care, he has no idea about dates or when his birthday is supposed to be. We gave him two interactive talking dinosaurs. These things are so cool - once you press their buttons they start talking to each other and respond to what the other dinosaur is saying. Henry loved them, which was lucky, as there will be more under the Xmas tree.

He really got into the spirit of unwrapping this year. Meticulously pulled off ALL the paper from each present. Even after he had got to the point where the present was unwrapped and could be lifted off the paper, he kept on going ripping the paper to shreds.

Managed to snap this amidst the craziness - could they be any more similar!!

Someone at day care has taught him to say "cheese" whenever he is asked to look at a camera - it is so funny to watch.

Ganma's pop up Cars 2 tunnel was a hit, even more so later in the week, when they big boys realised it could be connected to his pop up Toy Story tent.

Birthday cake and song, and if you are Henry this is how the song goes, "Hap berday to you, hap berday to bubba, hap berday to you, hid id ray, hid id ray, hid id ray, ffffffffffffffffffffff" - yep, every time he sings it we get a big "fffffffffffff" at the end to blow out the candles. It was effective though, as he blew them out in one go.

This book and puppet came from Grandma and has been a big hit. We have had to read the penguin story every night and can't turn the page until the penguin puppet has looked at and talked about each page. Thanks Grandma!
Henry was also totally cute when it came to opening cards. Each time he carefully opened the cards first, examined them, made some kind of unintelligible comment, then very gently put it aside before starting on the present. Didn't seem to notice that occasionally he had the cards upside down and back to front.

Birthdays also mean time to measure. Henry is looking like being the shortest person in our house! Jamie at age 3, was 96cm, Thomas 93cm (which we thought was way too short), but Henry measured up at 91cm. Poor little guy indeed!

I will leave you with this little trip down memory lane ...

Enjoy.
Amanda

Bits and Bobs

2011-11-26T11:41:00.000+08:00

Few little fun moments from the last few weeks...

Thomas having the first of what will likely be many orthodontic Xrays. He has a few problem canines (just to add to the 4 legged problem canine at home!!!), that need monitoring as the baby teeth next to them fall out. Will possibly need braces in the future, way in the future I hope, we are going to need to save lots of $$$.

Jamie grabbed himself a Tic Toc biscuit one afternoon, and excitedly came to tell me that it was showing the exact time!!

Thomas is determined that we are going to have success with our passionfruit plant. This is it's 3rd summer and we are expecting fruit this time but the bees seem to be ignoring it, so he gets out there and pollinates the flowers himself.

My awesome cleaner bravely took on the task of oven cleaning this month - wow! James and I are almost to scared to use it.

Ganma was here to look after the boys over the wedding weekend. She and Thomas came up with a grand plan for a multilayered jelly dessert. It ended up being 7 layers!!!! But sadly when they upended it, none of the layers had 'gelled' to each other, so the whole thing slid all over the bench. Never one to miss an opportunity, Thomas just scooped up great handfuls off the bench and shoved them in his mouth.

Jamie setting up tents on his last ever cub scout camp. Only 2 tasks left and he will have earnt his Grey Wolf - 3 years of work has gone into this badge!

Neisha and I headed out to watch Breaking Dawn Part I - incredibly totally cheesy and very bad acting and effects, but we loved it, and will be together again next year for the final movie.
Enjoy.
Amanda

Andrew's and Eloise's Wedding Day

2011-11-20T17:28:00.001+08:00

Saturday 19th November 2011 - my little brother became a married man, and he couldn't have picked a more lovely girl!! Welcome to our family Eloise!!!

Now, are you ready for LOTS of photos!!!

How do I sum up this day??? The weather was perfect, after a miserably wet week, the sunshine and temperature was just glorious. My boys looked soooo handsome (even the biggest boy - love you babe!) and did a great job being ushers. Andrew didn't glare or groan at me once when I took photos of him and even graciously agreed to a couple of specific requests - thank you!!!! Eloise was GORGEOUS!!! OMG!! She is totally lovely and we are so proud and happy to welcome her to our family. I had a small role to play in the service - reading out a bible passage - terribly nervous but managed it fine. There were so many family members there, that we had not seen in ages. Shirley (James's mum) flew over from Bendigo just to baby sit the boys for us overnight so James and I could stay and party and not need to come home - thank you soooooooo much Shirley. Super happy with my outfit. The reception venue was beautiful - gorgeous views over the vineyard - a "little" chilly while we were mingling around outside (so much so that mum's hands were shaking so much that her champagne was sloshing out of her glass!). Andrew and Eloise chose to have 3 long tables so it was really easy to talk to lots of people. James and I were seated with some of Eloise's siblings and a bunch of their friends. They were all such lovely people. The speeches were funny. Mum and Dad managed to dish out a little dirt on Andrew that had people giggling, including some incidents that I had forgotten about. Andrew's speech was perfect - I have never heard my brother speak so much at once. I must admit I got a bit teary when he said something along the lines of "people say that your wedding day is the best day of your life, I disagree, because for me, tomorrow and the next day and the next day that I get to spend with you is the best day of my life. I love you now, I will love you tomorrow and I will love you forever" (yep, I'm getting teary again!) - who knew my brother, who generally speaks to me in monosyllabic syllables had that in him. We had a minor incident at the cutting of the cake, that prompted me to grab the microphone and utter Andrew's trademark statement as a child "Whoops, I didn't know that would happen! - note: when using a cupcake tower, it is better to cut one of the cakes on the very bottom, not any of the ones sitting on the tiers! Then came the bridal waltz - and they had been taking lessons, it was simply stunning. There was also a photo booth with costumes and props, that we all had fun playing in. Then a bus ride back to the apartments where most of the guests and bridal party were staying. The bride and groom came on the bus too - it was very cool. James went off to bed early, but I headed over, with Mum and Dad, to an apartment where my aunts and uncles were staying, for some late night chit chat. The next morning the bride's parents put on a BBQ breakfast for us all - delicious bacon and eggs on fresh rolls. Some time before the big day Andrew and Eloise had asked us if we could video the ceremony for them and put it onto DVD to send to Eloise's grandparents in England. Both of us were a little stressed about the pressure of that, but said yes. Then I thought to ask the partner of the music teacher of school if he could do that for us, as his business is videography. He was available and happy to do that and Eloise agreed, so it was all organised as our gift to the happy couple. It was nice watching Bruce do his work and see what he was videoing, knowing that this will be an awesome professional DVD that they can keep forever. I am so pleased it all worked out and can't wait to see the DVD. All in all a fantastic evening!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy.

Amanda

Later thoughts: James reminded me of a part of the speeches he found funny. When Andrew concluded his speech and was preparing to hand over to the best man he took the time to warn us all that the best man is a radiologist and as such nothing he says is to be believed because his brain has been fried by all the radiation! When the best man started his speech he replied along the lines of , thanks for the introduction Andy, but I would just like to say that this is not the first time I have been called out on a Saturday night by a surgeon! Well done Pete, nice comeback!!

Busselton Show 2011

2011-11-12T12:36:00.000+08:00

The Annual Busselton Show was last weekend - we went both Friday and Saturday so we could see everything. It was a heap of fun and Henry really got into the spirit of it.

Playing clowns - he thought this was so much fun, and laughed every time he dropped a ball in. The next day he had another go and scored one of the winning numbers!!

The three of them playing with some laser lights that were projecting over the grass. This kept them occupied for ages. We stayed late and watched the fireworks, something we haven't done as a whole family in a long time. Jamie is terrified of loud noises and struggles to control his anxiety. As a toddler Thomas saw Jamie's reactions and thought that was how you were supposed to react. This was Henry's first time with fireworks and he loved it!! He said "bang" "colours" "rainbow in sky" and smiled and giggled the whole time.

Day 2 and checking out the animals at the Fawna animal nursery - Henry said "hello" to every animal and spent a long time with each of them carrying out long conversations! The chickens with the baby chickens hiding under the mummy were his favourite.

Jamie and Thomas had a go at the bungee trampolines. Thomas was born a dare devil so he needed no encouragement whatsoever. Jamie overcame his fears very quickly and managed to get some power into his jumps and even let go!

Henry walked around the entire showgrounds holding his bag of lolly snakes he bought from the Girl Guides and his Bert he won on the clowns. It was a very big walk for a little buy but he was determined "no carry, no pram, I walk!"

There were prizes too. Jamie came first in art with a picture of Reggie he painted at school. Thomas came first in ceramics with a vase he made at school and 2nd in scuplture made of recycled materials with his Lunar Landing Module (Veronica came 1st!). I managed 3 firsts, 4 seconds and best exhibit overall in the scrapbooking section! Awesome!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Huge Catch Up

2011-11-12T12:24:00.000+08:00

Finally found some time to update the blog - what a crazy first 4 weeks of term we have had, and there are only 4 more to go!!!

Henry has decided that dressing up is great fun - Buzz is his favourite but he swings quite quickly between both Buzz and Woody (and I mean QUICKLY, like 5 costume changes in 5 minutes!!). He did very happily wear Thomas's old skeleton towel to day care for their Halloween day though.

We had fun at the latest assembly - Jamie was in the Art Wearable Art Extravaganza Item. He designed and painted this shirt - it is very cool! Then there were a bundle of awards presented for various academic stuff that had been happening lately. It got quite comical at the end as Jamie kept barely making it back to his seat before he collected another one! Thomas was VERY happy to receive his - Distinction in the Australian Maths Comp. Jamie's were High Distinctions in the same maths comp, the ICAS Maths test and ICAS English test. 2 very happy boys!

James found me this bottle of Coke - loved it, didn't share it with him though!

I went to my 20 year high school reunion. It was so much fun. I really haven't seen anyone since high school and loved catching up with the crowd I used to hang with. I did struggle to remember a lot of faces, as I really did try and be a mouse and hide in the corner in Year 11 and 12, obviously failed as they all remembered me!

Came home to these photos James had snapped of Jamie and Thomas playing in the cubby. Henry has been so good for Jamie's imagination, and Henry just adores Jamie ("Dee")

Absolutely love the photo of Henry on his own and am very impressed that James thought to take it and took such a stunning shot!!

And this photo was my take at a photography challenge, to take a photo of what you are doing on 11/11/11 at 11:11:11am. Mine is a little boring, cleaning out a storeroom at school!

As for other random things that have happened - Thomas won a DSi in a McDonalds Happy Meal Competition. Henry has now learnt the word DS!! Jamie and Thomas are in rehearsals for this January's pantomime. Jamie is sooo close to finishing his cub scout Grey Wolf badge, which is going to be a huge relief. Henry had a hearing test and passed! I sort of wanted him to fail, so I had more reasons to convince the ENT to give him grommets! Oh well. And next weekend is going to be huge. Andrew and Eloise are getting married. We have a prewedding party on the Friday, for which I have been given leave from school to attend it, then the big day and night on Saturday, and Ganma is flying over to babysit so that James and I can stay overnight. Then there is a breakfast on the Sunday and then back home for a little birthday party for Henry. He's going to be 3!!!!!!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

No exciting post this weekend - sorry

2011-10-28T13:44:00.000+08:00

Tired .. sick .. sore .. tired ... sick ... sore.

Busy busy two weeks at school (6 to go!!). I got what I thought was very bad hayfever Friday last week, turned into a shocking head cold, nausea, dizziness as well. Then I soldiered on and took 52 year 1s and 2s on school camp (with lots of other adults too of course!!). Head cold very bad, driving up and down hills and having major problems with my ears and the pressure changes and not being able to clear them. By Wednesday I was in major pain from what I guessed was an ear infection - no wonder Henry gets to cranky with them! Woke up Wednesday night crying with the pain. Took myself off to a doctor on Thursday - no ear infection but do have antibiotics to try and clear up the gunk in my nose and sinuses, BUT I somehow managed to give myself severe barotrauma in my right ear!! One very stretched and swollen and slightly torn ear drum. At some point over camp I blew my nose when the pressures in my ear had not adjusted to whatever height I was at at that point and I blew the eardrum outwards. It is now red and swollen and scarred - so will take some time to heal! Meanwhile I have antibiotics, nurofen, ear drops and a nasal spray to try and combat all the pain and swelling and infection! Blah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Nearly at the end - Boo Hoo!

2011-10-15T11:54:00.001+08:00

I love school holidays now that I work full time ... I love the down time, not needing to get school lunches and homework and school clothes organised, not needing to leave the house by 7:30am, having the time to cook more complicated dinners ... but we are in the last weekend now, not to worry, 8 short weeks and I will be right back in school holiday mode again!!! Yay!!
What have we done these holidays?? Here we go ...

Thomas made a crazy Harry Potter Cluedo game, with appropriate lego pieces in each room. Food in the dining room, Hagrid playing a drum set in the ballroom!

We watched the SMURFS in 3D - it was so funny, I totally loved it (as did Jamie and Thomas)

Uncle Andrew finally got his appreciation badge that Thomas made in class for him last term. Oh, and he also got his surgery fellowship for next year - yay!!!!!!!!!!!

Mum and I had 3 days shopping in Perth looking for the perfect wedding outfit. It was crazy fun shopping for an entire outfit - clothes, shoes, stocking, handbag, jewellery, hair accessories. I am really happy with what I have got and can't wait to wear it.

We did feel a bit like Pretty Woman, with all our shopping bags, and other people were starting to stare and comment by the end. Really wanted some shop assistant to be nasty to us so we could wave our bags in her face and say "big mistake, big mistake" .. but sadly they were all too polite and helpful!

Mum's birthday is tomorrow - we framed an artwork of Thomas's - she was suitable impressed.

A Jessie doll came home from Perth for Henry - courtesy of a Toys R Us voucher he was given at Xmas that I forgot about!!. He loves Jessie, so much so that Woody and Jessie needed to come for a bike ride on our full moon walk.

Thomas got a new bike - he has been waiting for one with gears for a while now. Managed to only crash once on his way home from the shop.

There is a new fashion accessory in our house - click a magnetic soft toy turtle onto your arm to take with you everywhere you go. This was started by Thomas last school holidays after Grandma bought him the turtle at AQWA. Henry thinks it is the coolest thing ever.

Jamie has continued to work towards his Grey Wolf badge for cubs - here he is leading other cubs on a 2 hour bushwalk.

We have also had lots of appointments these holidays. Most of them went OK, except for the veins in my leg being declared incompetent and likely needing surgery and an ENT who seemed to think that Henry's continual recurrent ear infections do not warrant grommets! Needless to say I am less than impressed, especially seeing as he is sick again now, and was sick at the appointment - the testing the ENT did showed fluid in his ears and reduced movement of his ear drums. That combined with the poor speech, inability to hear what I am trying to teach him and his continual illness should be a dead certainty for grommets! I will just need to keep fighting, but right now I want to throw in the towel and walk away!!!

I also managed lots of scrapping layouts these holidays - will scan them up soon!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

September is soooo busy

2011-10-01T12:46:00.000+08:00

September has always been a little bit crazy in our house, but now we also have sports carnival, school musical gala, primary school play, Thomas's school camp and school portfolio viewing night as well!!! Mad! So here we go on a very short, but sweet, catch up on the last 2 weeks.

James and I went to a staff party at school celebrating the upcoming wedding of our art teacher - her and her finace were both born in 1983, so the party had an 80s theme. Gosh the fashions were tragic then! And to think that I thought it was so cool at the time .... I also did a book reading session in Thomas's class as part of their read in bed day, it was so much fun. My birthday - Thomas made me a cake while he was on a sleepover at Veronica's house. The Year 2 class went on an excursion to Perth - Scitech was one of our stops and I couldnt resist having a play on some of my favourite things there.

Thomas had a school camp - he played totem tennis, but also rode a horse, successfully milked a cow and fed pigs. By all accounts he had a blast. He also had some time out at Veronica's playing on her own personal BMX track. He was nowhere near as confident as her, but soon managed to pick up some speed. His class held a strings mini olympics - Thomas played Hot Cross Buns on the cello. But the biggest thing of all was the Scrutinise the Scientist night for the Year 3 / 4 challenge and extension kids. Thomas was Neil Armstrong and has spent all term preparing for this night. He had the costume, a model of the lunar module and a model of the Saturn V rocket, a biography and birth certificate, a mission map, a light up moon, but the most popular attraction was the giveaway freeze dried icecream and chocolate lunar asteroids. He had so much fun, but especially when the principal asked him the question "What parts did the Saturn V rocket have?" (the lunar module was a question box in disguise, with preprepared questions for the audience to ask). Thomas's model of the Saturn V rocket was designed so he could pull it all apart exactly like the real thing breaks apart at different stages. It was very cool!

Henry has been getting up to his usual mischief - pinching Daddy's dessert at my birthday dinner, deciding that Elmo needed to sit at the breakfast table and taste testing apples in the fruit bowl then putting them back again for unsuspecting people to find in their lunch box some hours later!!

School holidays now - thank goodness! We have lots of appointments and cub scout catch up and scrapping catch up on the agenda. But the best bit is when I go to Perth for 3 nights, child and husband free to shop with Mum!! Yay!!!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Picasa Randoms

2011-09-17T14:35:00.000+08:00

Too many photos from the last few days, so I have made some Picasa collages.

First up ... school sports carnival, held on one of the wettest spring days I have seen in a long time! Still managed to get all the events done, except for the relays. Thomas and Jamie are both the lower end of average at sport, we are just not a particularly talented family at sport! Can't have everything I suppose! Love the photo of Thomas picking flowers, love that James thought to take it. This was my first carnival where I was working instead of being a parent. It was actually a lot of fun. I still got to see bits of the boys's events, and because we are in the same house, we could be together a lot when we were back at the bay. I also liked the organising and compiling lists and marshalling the kids into their teams etc. Need to get myself a megaphone next time though!

Some randoms - Thomas and Jamie have been performing in the school play this past week. They were both awesome. Jamie's lines were always very loud and clear and he never missed anything. Thomas was playing a gang member - it was hilarious. The other members of the gang were all year 6s, and their parts were all "dumb yobbo" parts. Thomas however was the professor - all his lines were very long, full of all sorts of tricky technical terms and he delivered them all wonderfully. All week I have had parents and staff commenting to me on how amazing he was. I was so proud I could have burst!

We also had a school musical gala night that Jamie and Thomas and I were singing in. The theme was 60s, so we got dressed up in some pretty weird clothes! Check out Jamie's flares! And we fitted in a celebration of Veronica's birthday too, at Yoganup.

Lastly, Monday just gone was James's and mine 13th wedding anniversary! Wow! We celebrated with a dinner out the night before with the boys. Henry liked to show off his spiffy clothes. Jamie and Thomas liked their huge icecream sundaes and we all had fun playing with my new touch phone which James gave me! Technically this anniversary is fur or textiles. I gave James a pile of clothes. He gave me the phone, but packaged it in a furry dog backpack. Henry has since claimed the "woof woof bag" to carry his books in. Too cute!

And this .. is Thomas's entry for a design a doodle for google competition. It is a nationwide competition. This years theme is My Future Australia. In his future Australia, there is no more drought and all our unique animals can continue to exist.

Enjoy.
Amanda

Family Photos August 2011

2011-09-08T18:56:00.000+08:00

We had family photos taken a while back, as part of a fundraiser for Henry's day care. Today was collection day. James and I are very impressed, considering the chaos of the actual day!

Super cute Henry, actually managing a vague smile - pretty good considering he was crying the whole time because he thought he was being left at day care and he really wanted to go to "socter" (soccer)

Family shot - awesome!! And what was all the chaos? Well apart from Henry crying, we had to schedule the session in between Thomas's and Jamie's soccer games. We decided to bring the dog too and she does not sit still (and the photographer was afraid of dogs!). Thomas does not sit still, James is notoriously bad at smiling and Jamie goes all stiff and odd looking when someone tries to pose him!!

Three totally beautiful boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

Lunar Landing, Wizards and Funny Falls!

2011-09-04T10:59:00.001+08:00

Yep, another totally random title to sum up another collection of random photos from the week.
Henry heading off to his first birthday party, all dressed up as a wizard. He is really into posing lately!

"Hey this is a great party Mumma, look at all my stickers!"

Walking home again after the party - enjoying his chocolate lollipop.

Funny story - his best friend from day care was at the party - Sophie. She picked a flower and gave it to Henry. He threw it away but then wondered around until he found a flower to pick, struggled to pick it, eventually managed then wondered around until he found Sophie, then gave the flower to her! It was so cute.

Thomas's model of the lunar landing module for his Neil Armstrong school project. Awesome hey!

Read in bed day at school - go to school in your pyjamas, with a bag of books, a rug, pillow and soft toy and do nothing but read and be read to all day! Fun!

Friday was the Fathers Day Big Breakfast and Tug of War event at school. James (and Henry who was home sick for his third day in a row!!) came along and joined in the fun. Kids and dads were encouraged to wear their favourite sporting colours, which is always a laugh in our family, heaven help us if Henry chooses a different AFL team from the 3 we already have!

Then came tug of war - which was hysterical! As soon as the Dads took up the tension on the rope it snapped and they all went ass over!! That is James's denim clad butt centre photo!

An older dad who said he was a sailor came and knotted it back together ... but it happened again!

After that the organisers found a new rope and the event was back on. Knight (our faction) dads didn't do too well, but the Knight kids won the kids event - Jamie and Thomas were over the moon!! After that the Dads and kids all went back to the classrooms, James played a board game in Thomas's class and then he and Henry joined in dodge with Jamie's class. Apparently Henry kept trying to grab the ball and run away with it!!

Enjoy.

Amanda

Tigers, Super Bubba and Red Riding Hood

2011-08-27T12:50:00.000+08:00

Odd title for a blog post I know, but there have been all sorts of random things happening here lately!
First up - Henry loves the story of Peter Rabbit lately, especially seeing Mr McGregor! He insists on Jamie reading it to him every night (Jamie loves reading to Henry but is beginning to get frustrated now)

Next - oh to be this flexible! "toes in ears Mumma"

The big boys each have a drawer full of all sorts of dressing up and pretend play accessories. This week they convinced Henry to wear some of them. He doesn't normally like to wear dress up stuff. He calls himself "suter bubba" (super bubba) in this get up. Ruggie as a cape, spy glasses and a gun. And he runs madly around the house making all sorts of sound effect noises.

Later in the week he modified his costume a little. Cape is now clipped on, the glasses are gone and a wizard hat has been added ("suter hat"). "Suter hat" was also worn to day care this week too!!

Third - Jamie's class has been learning about Asia. For a surprise some domesticated Bengal tiger cubs came to school. They may look just like cats to you, but they are reeaaallly long, have more tiger like markings on them, don't feel like a cat, feel more velvety like a tiger and don't sound at all like a cat! They were very cute watching them run around the classroom. Only managed to get pictures of Rampage though, the other one (can't remember his name) kept hiding.

Next - at an Astronomy star gazing night at school. Sadly there was way too much cloud cover to see anything really decent, but the boys managed to have some fun anyway.

Stargazing and drinking hot chocolate.

Checking out part of the Scorpius constellation during a brief break in the clouds.

More - Book week dress up day in the early childhood centre at school this week. I found this gorgeous Red Riding Hood cape at a local fancy dress shop. I loved it so much, loved the weight of it, the feel of it, the swish and the warmth and the novelty of wearing a hooded cape! These things should come back into fashion don't you think!!

Jamie receiving a distinction certificate from a recent maths challenge - one of only 2 primary students to receive one!

Henry grocery shopping and desperately trying to hold onto all the food he thought was important - strawberries, apricots, noughts and crosses and rice crackers.

Enjoy.
Amanda

Retreat Layouts

2011-08-13T13:30:00.000+08:00

Here are my layouts from the recent Scrappy Cow Retreat.

Soccer Season 2011. Soccer is always hard to scrap, it's the same colours, same people, same story every year!!

Henry's ambulance and hospital trip. Was trying to go for lots of groupings of little embellishments from my stash.

Jamie's 10th birthday, another hard theme to scrap - too many colours and changes of clothes and backgrounds!! Happy with the end result though.
Enjoy.
Amanda

"Mummy I need to ...."

2011-08-13T12:50:00.000+08:00

....make a mobile of the Antarctic food chain". That was Jamie. He researched it all and figured out what animals he needed, found images to photocopy, then glued them onto card and cut that out. I helped with the pliers and opening and closing chain links (because we thought a food chain mobile needed to be done with chain not string), he made the title, I figured out how to attach it to the coathanger. And here it is ... awesome hey!

...make a birth certificate for Neil Armstrong". That was Thomas. He and I sat down at the computer with a copy of my birth certificate. I showed him how to insert a table into a word document and then he typed all the section titles. Then we "surfed" around looking for obscure details like Neil's mother's maiden name, and his parents DOBs and where they were married. We were even able to make an educated guess as to who may have witnessed his birth (he was born at his paternal grandparent's farmhouse, so we figured grandad and grandma could be witnesses!!). Then he chose a design to represent an official seal on the document and printed it out. I showed him how to fold it and crumple it and tear it and stain it with tea and coffee, after all this is supposed to be a document from the 1930s. And here it is .. awesome hey!

This is part of Thomas's challenge and extension project. He also needs to;

; write a mini biography of Neil Armstrong

; find a quotable quote from Neil Armstrong (ha ha, like that is going to be hard!) and present it on a banner

; make a 3D "box" of some sort, related to Neil, which will have 10 open ended questions in it, that he has chosen and knows the answers to. He is thinking of making a model of the lunar landing module to hold his questions.

; make a timeline or geospatial poster about Neil. Geospatial poster seems to be the go at the moment, with a picture of the earth, with his birthplace, NASA and shuttle launch site marked on it, then a big fold out section with the moon landing site marked

; choose 3 artefacts (tools etc) that Neil would have used

; prepare (or have) some food samples to hand out (we have ordered some astronaut icecream)

; put all this together in a learning centre display, dress up as Neil and present to an audience at the end of term.

I think there is going to be a lot more "Mummy, I need to ...." happening around here!

... I need to take a photo of Reggie to day care". That was Henry and Ok he didn't actually say that, but as a result of a little learning story his carers wrote about him earlier in the week, they were wondering if he had a dog at home. So he went off to day care on Friday with photos of Reggie, his Reggie soft toy and his Reggie book. Apparently it was a hit and has all been documented in his day care portfolio! So cute.

And something funny ...

Jamie doing our Census online on Tuesday night.
And something frustrating ... there is a cheeky honey eater that for over a year now has been using my side view mirrors as a place to chat to his "friend" and then the side of my car as a toilet! While I was at home a lot in the day it was such a problem that I had to cover the mirrors whenever the car was parked in the carport. I think he has been a bit lonely lately, because now he has started flitting on to the mirror as soon as I get home, even before the car has been turned off and we are out of the car! Henry has started looking for it and yelling "birdy, birdy, birdy". Now I have taught him to say "go away birdy"

Enjoy.
Amanda

More randomness

2011-08-07T09:41:00.000+08:00

And a few more randoms from the past week ...

Thomas singing in the year 3 choir at assembly this week.

I went shoe shopping for Henry but also found the most fantastic pair of boots for me - loved the difference in shoe box sizes!

Henry telling Daddy that there are 2 turtles on this page (really there are 6, but all he can say is 2 or 3)

Thomas is now learning the cello! It is compulsory in year 3 to learn a string instrument for one semester. The other year 3 class had the first half of the year, it is Thomas's classes turn this semester. He had a choice of a violin or a cello - the bigger the better I think was his idea!

Thomas filled in for Jamie's soccer team while I was on retreat. They happened to be playing in Margaret River where I was, so sick Henry came and cuddled with me for an hour while the game was on. This is how Thomas looked when they came back again. Mud covered! He had a blast - said it was his best game ever!

Crazy boy!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

MIA .. for a good reason though

2011-08-07T09:36:00.000+08:00

Despite still (again) having a sick Henry at home, James was still OK with me vacating the house for 48 hours to go to The Scrappy Cow Winter Wonderland Retreat last weekend. It was totally awesome and soooo what I needed. Thanks babe!!!!!
Here are some piccies from the weekend ..

My car, back seats all laid down and loaded up ready to go ... and no I was not the person with the most stuff there (but probably came a close second!!). My "little" row of supplies at my place at the HUGE table.

This is what the room looked like with everyone in full scrapping mode - the decorations were amazing, there were blow up xmas decorations, a winter scene backdrop, silks and fairy lights, and xmas decorations and signs all around the walls. Plus cupcakes and goodie bags and lolly supplies on our tables!

Gorgeous cupcake - that icing on the top was the best ever! In the background is my xmas card design for 2011 (sorry for the spoiler). I spent the first 24 hours making ..... 75 of these!!

There was a LOT of cutting involved for 75 of them - 75 card pieces, 75 torn and embossed background pieces, 75 white squares to stamp on and 75 green squares to mount the stamped pieces on. Then I had to stamp the design 75 times, plus another 75 times to get the red piece. Not to mention the 75 times I stamped "celebrate" on the front of the card and the 75 times I stamped "made with love" on the back. AND I have just realised that I didn't stamp the greeting on the inside!! I also plan on adding some kindy glitz to the trees at some stage .....

There was also a costume night on the Saturday - not many people got dressed up, so I was mighty glad my table buddy Heather did! Here we are in our xmas in July finery - yes they are real xmas lights Heather has on her, and yes she had a long extension cord to plug herself in! We both won a prize for our costume too - thanks Kareena!!!

This shot looks back over the gallery that slowly built up over the weekend - it is a great idea to have room for this. Whenever you need a break from sitting it is fun to wander along here and get new inspiration from everyone's work. The 10 layout at the front is mine of Jamie's birthday. I will scan my stuff later.

And this is my "small" pile of new scrapping stash I brought home with me! Some (a lot) of it bought, but a lot of it won in prizes too!! There was one prize I really wanted to win because I could just see how I was going to use them. It was lovely to dream, knowing that my chances of winning a raffle prize that I really wanted were pretty slim .... and then I won!!!!

Here are my cow jars sitting on the ledge in the office at work, all filled with random bits of stationery. They are so cute!!

So that was my weekend - lots of laughs, lots of new friends made, lots of delicious food .. and I came home feeling mighty refreshed and relaxed. Bring on Sep 2012 The Scrappy Cow Spring Racing Carnival Retreat!!

Enjoy.

Amanda

School Holiday Mischief

2011-07-22T14:21:00.001+08:00

Jamie and Thomas arrived home from their holiday in Perth with Grandma and Grandad last Sunday. I can't believe the amount of stuff they crammed into just a few days! This last week we have kept Henry home from day care, to give them all some time to be together. Henry has loved it ... he has Jamie at his complete beck and call, we like to call Jamie Henry's personal slave (makes a change from Mummy or Daddy being that person!). We have pretty much kept to the house, the weather has been too ghastly to do much else, but as per usual, 3 boys all on holidays are sure to invent some wierd things to do that provide lots of photo opportunities. Sadly, the best one, I completely forgot to take a photo of - Thomas coming grocery shopping this morning dressed in a dragon costume Mum had made for him (she made the wings, he had the jacket and pants).

There were way too many photos to try and upload them all individually here, so I have made 3 Picasa collages instead - please click on the images to see them in larger size.

First one is Henry's latest best game. Several years ago Coles went through a stage of having little $2 figurines from all the Disney Pixar movies etc plus Shrek and Star Wars and Thomas Tank. Well the collectaholics amongst us couldnt resist a challenge so we collected the whole lot. Henry LOVES them. We used to store them all in one big crate, but now he has several little boxes on his toy shelf with each movie in a different box (and he puts them back there too!!). He loves to get them all out and act out little scenes with them all, they chat to each other, intermingle between movies, Woody rides on McQueen and sometimes the Star Wars figures get a little too mean and "pishu" everyone so that they "you die" (light saber attack them and they fall off the couch, table yelling 'aaaahhhh' and then a little voice says 'you die'). I especially liked the shots I took of him this week as he was playing with them on the bench (while I was cooking on the other side) or at the dining table while the big boys were playing Lego on there. It looked so cute, seeing this little head and hand peer up from under the table etc.

Next collage is some random photos mum took of the big boys in Perth. In 8 days they went to Scitech, Kings Park Dinosaur Playground, Kung Fu Panda 2, Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, Zoo, Whiteman Park, Sizzler, WA Museum Prehistoric Party, Perth Mint, Hockey and AQWA. Pretty sure that sets a record for the amount of things to do on the school holidays!

Last collage is some adventures from home this week. Thomas making meatballs for dinner, Henry pushing a little trolley at Bunnings, 3 boys hiding under a big rug to read books (why???), Thomas upside down at the park, Henry on Elmo at the shops, turning the dining table into a cave, riding the Busselton Jetty Train, watching the big TV at Retravision while I print photos, Daddy being made to eat his lunch on the little chairs parked out in the middle of nowhere, Thomas on the huge circle swing at the park, Henry not eating his restaurant dinner but eating mine instead and Henry and I on the Jetty train.

Enjoy.
Amanda

3 days with no kids ....

2011-07-16T12:34:00.000+08:00

Both big boys are still in Perth at Grandma's and Grandad's and Henry has been in day care for this last week, so since coming home from Perth myself on Tuesday, I have had 3 days with no boys in the house!!!! So I got productive!! ... in random order

March 2011 - sticking with my calendar theme, it's working really well for getting all those random everyday photos into my album.

Anzac Boy - featuring Henry's awesome photo that made it into the local paper.

April 2011 - more everyday randomness

Easter 2011 - Easter pages are always so hard to do because the scrapbook companies insist on making the papers pastel and spring and girly. Which is really bad when we are definitely not pastel people, certainly not in spring and NOT GIRLY!

February 2011.

Enjoy.
Amanda

School Holidays Are Here

2011-07-13T09:59:00.000+08:00

Yay ... hooray ... I'm not sure how much longer we could have lasted, with all the busyness of term time, not to mention all the damn sickness!! Henry has kindly shared his horrible bug with James and I now. James is recovered, I am still struggling with a lung breaking cough and a throat that feels like a knife, no wonder Henry was so miserable with it!

Enough moaning, here is a little photo gallery of the last week or so ... in random order ...

The boys and I headed to Perth on the weekend, for the big boys to go to a cub scout event at Scitech and for Henry and I to be spoilt by Grandma for a few days (thanks Grandma!) Henry enjoyed lots of books with Grandma on Grandma's chair with Grandma's "guggie" (ruggie)

An old photo from when Mum and Dad came down to watch soccer in May. Mum and Henry found some letters in the cement. Henry liked this letter the best!

Cool photo Mum! Thanks for thinking to take that one.

Thomas had a school excursion to the zoo in the last week of term. Mum took the day off and met them there to be a "grand"parent helper for the day. She and Thomas had a great time. It was so cool that Mum could do this. Thomas snapped this picture of Mum.

And he also took this one too - how awesome is it!!!

Jamie has been in a Science IQ team last term. He and 3 classmates have been doing online quizzes ... and they won ... came first place in the state - he (and the other boys) and their challenge and extension teacher (and me!) were all so proud!

Grandma and I took the boys up to the Western Power playground in Kings Park on Sunday. This is one of Jamie's favourite playgrounds. It has a prehistoric theme, with statues, footprints, and all sorts of information plaques scattered through the area. Henry really enjoyed it too, although he kept calling the creatures "draggys" (dragons). Jamie might have to work on him about that one!

And on Monday I took myself off to Cottesloe to visit the Knit shop - this is a Jo Sharp wool shop. I have become totally addicted to Jo Sharp wool and the creativity of her patterns. I have soooo many projects I want to do, but not enough time to do them all (at least I have the money now to be able to afford the wool!!)

Jamie and Thomas are still in Perth, they will be home on Sunday, and Henry is in day care. As for me I am going to endeavour to keep OFF the computer and scrapbook and scrapbook and scrapbook!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Scrapping!!!

2011-07-04T12:17:00.000+08:00

Believe it or not, I have managed to find time to scrap over the last few weeks ... mind you, 3 layouts in 10 weeks is an all time low for me! Anyway, here they are ...

Thomas's 8th birthday. Shadowy scan as this page is a bit dimensional. I really like the collection of different stamps I inked around the layout.

January 2011 - this is how I plan to scrap 2011. A page per month with all the random photos we take during that month. If there is a big event (like a birthday) then that will still have a separate page, but mostly it will be quick summaries of that month.

Snow White Panto 2011 - very very plain and simple page. I always struggle with these ones as there are sooo many colours in panto photos. Anyway, it's done and the memories recorded, so that is what counts!

Enjoy.

Amanda

Henry's "not so" excellent adventure

2011-07-02T10:13:00.000+08:00

We have had a very sick 2 year old on our hands these last 2 weeks (the reason there was no blog post last weekend). He has had a rotten cold, snot everywhere, fevers on and off and a killer cough. There has been LOTS of couch potato action, so much that he can just gets up here on his own now, and neatly tucks himself in!

Then on Thursday night he was coughing continually for over an hour, his chest was caving in as he tried to inhale, and he was wheezing and whooping (yep, whooping!!), so off he and I went to Busselton Hospital. Turned out to be even scarier than when Jamie had his allergic reaction a while back. We were taken straight in, and instantly had about 5 staff crowded around us, calling out things to each other, slapping on monitors, getting drugs into him. I haven't seen that much speed and intensity needed for any of my kids yet. It was a little terrifying. And the whole time Henry was coughing and coughing and desperately trying to breathe, but still managing to yell out "car, home, car, home, my car, home".
He was given a steroid, then painstop, then an oxygen mask, then a nebuliser with adrenaline in it, then pinned down to get an IV cannula into his arm. Finally all the meds kicked in and he stopped coughing and even manage to doze for a little while. Then the doctor had time to talk to me, and let me know that we were in for an ambulance trip to Bunbury and a stay overnight, as he wanted Henry closer to a paediatrician for when the meds wore off.

Showing me his "special arm" - IV cannula in, and then strapped on to a board.

In the "big car" - ambulance. They raised the back of the stretcher and strapped a car seat on to it. He thought it was pretty impressive, going for a ride in a seat on a bed, then being pushed straight into the "big car". Even more impressive was when a monitor was strapped to his finger, which made his finger glow red. Looked a lot like ET to me, but for Henry it was a very nifty light saber that needed to do battle with my finger. Of course the red saber won!

A lovely friend of ours kindly got out of her PJS, drove around to collect James and the boys so James could get to the hospital and drive my car home again. Thanks Sue!

Once at Bunbury Hospital we waited around in the ED for ages. Henry needed a chest Xray, then had to be admitted to the ward. He amused himself reading books, looking nothing like a sick child, thanks to all the drugs.

The X ray technician gave him a whole sheet of stickers because he was the only 2 year old he has ever seen sit perfectly still AND hold his breath for a chest Xray. I suspect he was also the only 2 year old he has had who has refused to leave radiology before seeing his "pishes" - pictures!

We finally got to bed around midnight, and he actually slept all night without coughing. I on the other hand was a mess ... complete stress, hospital noises, horrible sofa bed and pillow, and nurses coming in all night to do obs! Breakfast the next morning .... he really enjoyed the novelty of all that food and sitting in bed and drinking juice out of a big cup. He was amazing at picking up the cup despite his special arm!

Unfortunately the meds wore off soon and he got stuck in such a big coughing fit that all the food came back up again! The end result of his big adventure - we are not sure what he has, possibly croup, possibly whooping cough, possibly just some random bug. He has some snot culturing (yucko!) to see what grows, but it doesn't change the treatment. Antibiotics, steroids, lots of rest and fluids and copious amounts of painstop! We have been home just under 24 hours now and are still as exhausted as I was when we left hospital. Sleep is very hard to come by and the coughing just does not stop! I have 4 days of sick leave left to last me the whole year .... the joys of having a 2 year old in full time day care in winter. He just needs to get through this year and his immune system will be so much stronger!

And for something funny, this is Thomas, same hospital, enjoying his breakfast in bed after hernia surgery. He is about a year older than Henry is now. Check out the hair!!!!!

There has been some joy over the last 2 weeks. In no particular order ...

1. Eisteddfod results. Thomas in the Year 3 choir came 2nd, Jamie's year 5 choir did not place. Jamie and I in the community choir came equal 2nd, up against the South West Opera company who are brilliant. We actually scored the same amount of points as the Opera choir!!!!!!!!!

Jamie and I waiting for the community choir's turn to sing. We got home just after 11pm that night (it was a Monday!!)

2. We all headed out to watch Cars 2 last Saturday evening. Henry was stunned by the "big TV" and the "big keen" (big McQueen). He was so good in the cinema, way better than the ratty 4 year olds that were in front of us!

3. There has been some times when he has been well enough to play.

Our house is beginning to look like Andy's room in Toy Story.

"Playing" WII with Jamie.

4. Jamie received the academic award for his class for semester one, at the whole school assembly last week. Way to go buddy!!!!!

Enjoy.

Amanda

Mixed Bag

2011-06-18T12:20:00.000+08:00

Interesting collection of photos from this week's events ...
Firstly, did you know that last Saturday was World Knit In Public Day? I saw it on a link on facebook so decided to take my knitting with me to the tennis club that afternoon. Something that I don't do a lot, because most of the older men tend to poke fun at me for looking like an old granny!! Anyway, this day I did, and not only did no one tease me but one of the ladies came up to me and said "Oh I am so happy that I have seen someone knitting today, I was hoping I would!" .... how awesome! Jamie snapped this photo for me.

Then on Sunday, I headed out to Dunsborough for lunch with staff from school. I took the long way there, drove along the coast and got a few shots of the windy waves that day.

Monday there was a TV crew at work making an ad to promote the early childhood centre going double stream next year, meaning that there are a lot of vacancies. I have the ad on my computer but can't for the life of me get it to play on here ... sorry.
Thomas got a merit certificate on Thursday - he was feeling super proud.

His certificate was for his enthusiastic attitude to all learning areas.
That night was also a full moon (and a lunar eclipse in the wee hours of the morning). It was wet and cold and windy and miserable, and James was heading out to tennis soon, so me and the big boys got in our dressing gowns and slippers and went on a walk down our road to check out the gorgeous moon.

Tried to take a few photos of the boys, messing around with shutter speed etc.

This was the best of the lot, because I every time I used the flash I could see what they were really doing!

Then on Friday Thomas had a school excursion to Perth and needed to be at school at 6:30am!! OMG! The three of us left home just before 6am. Jamie and I left a slightly manic Thomas with his teacher and we headed out to get some Maccas for breakfast. We still ended up at school at 7am though! We hung out in the early childhood office for a bit, then Jamie headed out to before school care and I got some extra work done.

Thomas ready to get on the bus before sunrise. He is actually posing with his friend Strauss (but I can't put Strauss on the internet). Then they asked me if they could have a crazy photo ... (note to self, say "no" next time!)

Strauss is next to him doing exactly the same thing!!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

Why I Love My Job!

2011-06-11T10:55:00.000+08:00

I have always felt at peace when I am surrounded by tall trees ... I loved living in Manjimup in the heart of the jarrah and karri forests .. I love the drive into Margaret River with the tall eucalypts .. I love the drive to school through the Ludlow Tuart Forest (the only natural tuart forest left in Australia I believe) ... so this week I have done a little photographic journey around school to show you exactly why I feel so at peace here ...

The front entrance ... lots of gorgeous natural bushland!

Front entrance to the Early Childhood Centre .. not so many trees here, but I had to include the building where I am based.

Inside Early Chidhood - this is taken from just outside our office, looking across to the Year 1 room (purple doors). Preprimary is on the right just before Year 1 and the two Kindy classes are on the left. This area is our shared piazza. It is rather cool to be in a place that talks about "piazzas" and "ateliers". Ateliers are the wet areas that are inbetween Year 1 and Preprimary as well as in between the two kindys.

A glimpse of one of the displays in Year 1 that I have put together ... this one is all about the minibeasts we are studying in science. All those photos I took for camera club over the years have come in very handy.

Looking out the art window ... this overlooks more bushland and gives a glimpse onto one of the school ovals (highway oval). There is another oval (Palmer oval) that is in the complete opposite direction and involves a lovely hike on bush tracks to get there.

And these two photos are probably my favourite view. Looking out from the balcony walkway at the library. Top picture looks left over high school buildings. Bottom picture looks forward, heading back towards Early Childhood (the blue canvas you can just see at the back is the shade cover over the P/Y1 play area.)

We see possums, parrots, blue tongue lizards, spiders, beetles and all sorts of other birds and bugs during our daily travels around the school. Such a beautiful place to work and learn.

Of course, the boys and I also get to see this most days now too ...

Seems to make having to get out of bed before dawn in the freezing cold just a little bit more worthwhile!

And this week Jamie has had 3 invites to participate in 3 different kinds of cool academic challenges. The first was Science IQ, a computer based quiz that is run over 4 sessions between now and August, ICAS Writing test which is an assessment through NSW Uni for gifted and talented children, and the Muir Factor which is a quiz show type set up based on this years books that have been shortlisted for the children's literature awards. So very very cool!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Dragons, Capes and a Wedding Too!

2011-06-05T10:02:00.000+08:00

Well, that was a shock to end all shocks, last weekend. We got a phonecall from James' brother Rod late on Saturday to let us know that he and his girlfriend eloped and got married that day! What!!!! After some initial shock and disbelief we were very excited and so happy for them both. Plus I now officially have 2 sisters (and by the end of the year it will be 3!!).

Last weekend I also finished my cape I have been knitting for a while, technically I think it is a capelet though, as it really only covers my shoulders. I love it! Wore it to school on Monday and even had one of the staff ask if I could make another one for her .... definitely, what a compliment!!

It is 5 different pieces knitted individually, then sewn together with long i-cords. What do you think??

Yesterday, I realised that I had yet to take pictures of Henry in his gorgeous How To Train Your Dragon jacket, that I bought a size too big last year, when Thomas chose his jacket. So here you go .... my two little dragons (and a control freak thrown in for good measure!)

Thomas going off for a jaunt, liking being able to strap his drink bottle onto him rather than having to carry it.

Two cute little dragons!

Hello there dragon - when he wears this in town most people think it is a dinosaur (no idea why they think my kids would be wearing dinosaur clothes!!), but today one person also called him a rhinoceros!

Jamie and Henry - these two are seriously best of mates, they look for each other, call for each other, play all sorts of things together and get quite bored when they are apart.

Group hug ... complete with Thomas doing the usual something different to add to the photo - this time it is 3 bunny ears on Henry!

Henry being crash tackled to the ground.
This week we have been working on some more talking again (still) with Henry. Trying to get him to say words like "woody", "ruggie" "mandy". Mandy is what I have been calling mandarins, his latest favourite fruit (he is a very seasonal child!). I say "mandy" really slow, used cued artic signs to signal the "m" and the "d" and Henry responds like this ..

...holding his finger out, waving it in the air in some vague representation of a cued artic sign "maaaamaaaDY"
Grrr, it's not working very well is it!!
Enjoy
Amanda

Harry Potter Lego

2011-05-29T09:43:00.001+08:00

The Harry Potter Lego has been a big hit, since Jamie received it for his birthday. Thomas had fun setting up some scenes for his blog, but I wanted them all here too, because it is just so cool!

Professor McGonagall greeting Harry, Ron (wearing his scared face) and Hermione

Hagrid with is pink umbrella

Draco, Snape, Lord Voldemort and the Dementors

Hogwarts Express

Ginny in the astronomy tower with Cruikshanks and Scabbers. Below her is the restricted section of the library. Remove the handcuffs and the doors actually open and you can take out the books too.

Luna Lovegood in the Gryffindor common room. There is a Sirius Black face that pops in and out of the fire. I love the owlery above here, complete with owl poo! Plus someone is coming up the stairs below in the invisibility cloak

The great hall, set out for dinner. Here there is Harry in street clothes wearing the sorting hat, with Dumbledore looking on.

Dumbledore's office, with revolving staircase and Harry coming up in the invisibility cloak. Dumbledore is putting away some vials and jars. He also has a crystal globe and a copy of the Daily Prophet.

Such awesome detail!
Enjoy.
Amanda

Allergy in the House

2011-05-29T09:33:00.000+08:00

Yuck!!! In one word, that pretty much sums up the last few days. James felt ill most of last weekend, Jamie started vomiting on Sunday and Thomas woke up on Monday feeling ill, so I kept them both home from school and took my turn at staying home with sick kids. Really did not feel like eating at all myself as I could just smell vomit all the time. All back at school on Tuesday, discovered that they couldn't find any relief for me on Monday, so felt doubly awful at having to stay home from school myself!
Tuesday was a pretty much normal, standard day, school, swimming lessons, soccer training. Jamie came home from training with severe abdominal cramps. He lay on the couch with a heatpack and squirmed and moaned and groaned. I sent him down to his room to moan and groan and stretch out properly in the peace and quiet. Went to check on him 10 minutes later and he was just about clawing his skin off, he was so itchy. I lifted up his shirt and he was red and swollen with huge welts all over his back and chest (and down his legs and groin). Thought he must have got something on him somehow so stood him in the shower, where he proceeded to vomit and vomit and vomit, then made a dash for the toilet to deal with the other end. He was a mess. I spoke to Mum on the phone and she pointed out to me that the welts are an allergic reaction, so off we went to the hospital. They took him straight through to the ED with no paperwork, medicare details, waiting for our turn or anything, which freaked me out just a bit. He was hooked up to monitors, given phenergan and there we waited for close to 2 hours for the reaction to ease up. Eventually went home, where he slept for a long time and then he and I stayed home from school on Wednesday too (feeling awful because I was sure there would be no relief for me again!).
We has absolutely no idea what he was allergic too. The severity of the reaction and the type of reaction indicated something inhaled or ingested within the last hour or so, which was when he was at soccer training. So I took a long shot and emailed the soccer club asking if something had been applied to the grounds that day. Unbelievably, they got through to the shire, who responded promptly with the info that a considerable amount of rye grass seed was put on the grounds that morning! So there you go, Jamie is highly allergic to rye grass seed!!!! At some point I will have to get him properly allergy tested (and probably Thomas too, as in my google research, the fact that Thomas is permanently pale, with big bags under his eyes, is usually an indication of an allergy or intolerance to something!!!) Life can't just be simple can it!!

On a brighter note, here are some enjoyable moments from the week.

Thomas loves to draw and create stories and books and cartoons and comics. We found these novels in Dymocks, where lots of the picture is left blank for you to draw and colour and design in. Thomas is in heaven, Jamie is enjoying his too, but Thomas is the one who is talking about this and planning it and walking around school showing it to his friends.

Killer Bunnies ... this is a card game that Rod and Michelle donated to us, as they didn't particularly enjoy it. Again, Thomas loves it! And why wouldn't he, he gets to kill bunnies with stray asteroids, ebola virus, irrascive cheese balls, and killer whisks! It is a completely crazy game that has us all hooked!

James has been picking up his guitar more since Thomas started lessons. Henry likes to join in too, however he won't just sit on the floor and pluck at the strings, he has to be on the correct side of the guitar. Rock on bubba!

And another Henry moment. I collected him from day care on Friday (as I always do) and he looked at me and said "Mummy pick me up, no Daddy pick me up, Mummy pick me up" ... both myself and his carer were too dumbstruck to respond!!!! How does he go from barely saying anything to coming out with that!

And Thomas this morning .... laughing evilly .. "I am up to cunning plan number 2, because I realised that cunning plan number 2 wasn't actually that cunning after all" .... What the!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Ooh and I forgot ...

2011-05-21T16:36:00.000+08:00

Henry has been talking a bit more this week and starting to combine words in his own way rather than just attempt to copy me. Here are some notable moments from this week ...

"daddy car shop, mummy car home, mummy car white, daddy car .. shop" - we had just pulled up in the driveway and daddy wasn't home from work yet, I think at the end he was trying to remember what colour daddy's car was, but it was too tricky

"bubba more mandy" - more mandarin please, as if 5 a day wasn't enough

"cool" - when I gave him a packet of bsicuits

"pishu, pishu, pishu" - making star wars figures fight each other with light sabers

He has also been working really hard on the words with different beginning and middle consonants, like "mandy" "woody" "slippy" "funny" and getting really close to correct on a lot of them.

Good work bubba!
Enjoy.
Amanda

Birthday Week

2011-05-21T16:31:00.000+08:00

The unthinkable happened here on Wednesday, Jamie turned 10!!! It is a bit unbelievable that I have a 10 year old in the house .....

Some photos from this week. There were great squeals of delight from the boys at tennis on Saturday when they discovered this in the tree Thomas was climbing

We saw this sunrise on Tuesday on the way to school

Then came home and managed to completely forget that it was a full moon, because we were so busy making these .... as well as the usual evening rush of lunches for the next day, dinner, showers, homework, guitar practice. Jamie did all the decorating, I am pretty sure he used the entire packet of chocolate sprinkles!

Jamie was up very early on Wednesday to unwrap his gifts. Two sets of Harry Potter lego from us and Thomas and Henry, plus a mirror maze book, which is very challenging!

A bit disappointed that he had to leave for school so early and couldn't start building straight away.

Getting ready to give out cupcakes to his teacher and classmates.

And later that night, with Hagrid's Hut all finished, eager to start work on Hogwarts Castle.

And boys that are 10 now have a later bedtime. He is really enjoying that extra half an hour at night when it is just him and us awake. He finds something nice and quite and peaceful today and is enjoying the humour on some of the TV shows I am watching (Master Chef and How I Met Your Mother are some of the favourites)

Today both boys were playing soccer in Dunsborough and Grandma and Grandad also drove down to watch the action. And there was definitely action! Jamie is beginning to really run in and tackle for the ball and apparently went for a huge run with the ball, while I was watching Thomas's game.

Grandad offered to cuddle Henry for a little while ... Henry looked a little surprised at first, it must have felt really high up there, but managed to crack a smile for the "pisha" (picture)

Thomas chasing down the ball. He has improved a lot since his first season two years ago. Doesnt get a lot of action with the ball but runs and runs and runs and shepherds the opposition out of the way quite nicely!

Jamie heading in for some action again.

Happy Birthday dude! We are soooo very very proud of you, of all you have achieved and all you have overcome. Looking forward to more cool adventures and achievements this year!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Giggle

2011-05-15T10:20:00.001+08:00

Had to laugh at this, that a friend shared on facebook. Too funny!

Enjoy.

Amanda

Tough Week

2011-05-14T13:35:00.000+08:00

Well, am I glad this week is finished with! That was one week I am glad to see the back of. It all started with a phone call on Saturday informing me of some controversy that happened at school after I left on Friday, that involved me. It was not pleasant and made for a very difficult week, dealing with my emotions and the staff involved with it all. I am not good at controversy and cannot help but cry, which is not the most professional image, particularly when in a meeting with the principal! Oh well ... it seems to have all worked itself out now, and hopefully we all understand each other a bit better now.

Mothers Day was interesting. I vacuumed the car, stripped our bed, did 4 loads of washing and some grocery shopping! Did manage a nana nap in the afternoon and woke to find that dinner had been cooked, dishes done, school lunches made and the washing brought in and folded! The kids (well James) gave me a travel thermos mug, now that I have become slightly hooked on coffee.

After my nap I decided to try some photos with the boys, all piled up with me on the bed. Didn't work exactly how I had planned, thanks to Thomas and Henry having their own ideas on what a photo session should look like.

Come on Thomas, just do some nice normal eyes for me!

Seriously???

Now Henry starts nose diving on the bed...

Back to the crazy eyes!

OMG!!! Thomas, what are you doing now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess my visions of a scrapbook page all about gorgeous hugs and cuddles with my boys will have to change somewhat!!
I finished one of my knitting projects on Sunday morning - the upside down cardigan I blogged about a while back. I love it!! It is so interesting to wear and surprisingly warm too, for all that it is short and knitted with a lacy pattern with quite big holes in some of the texture.

Wearing option #1 - didnt look in a mirror first though so I havent managed to sit the collar straight!! Believe me it is even in real life. Then turn it upside down and the big collar becomes a longer panel at the bottom of the cardigan.

I love it!

Thomas had a little French visitor stay with him for the week - Flat Leonie, who is actually from Belgium, but speaks French. His job was to take Flat Leonie on a little tour of Busselton and then photograph and write all about her adventures.

We think Flat Leonie enjoyed her adventures at Busselton Jetty and the beachfront. Hope she enjoys where-ever she ends up next!

As for the rest of the tough week. Henry got sick again and needed to stay home from day care for a couple of days. Thankfully James did that task, although with the dramas at work, I probably could have done with the time out. Then Jamie got sick as well, so he stayed home and missed the first day of NAPLAN. Not that it bothered Jamie or us, but he is not the child that the school wants missing NAPLAN! He did get better and managed to catch up on the tests he had missed.

Looking forward to a better week - it will be better from Jamie's perspective as he turns 10 on Wednesday. That means James and I have exactly 4 more nights left of 7:30 bedtime, as of Wednesday Jamie is allowed to stay up until 8pm. I feel it is the beginning of the end of our peaceful evenings!!

Enjoy.

Amanda

Mandurah and back to school

2011-05-07T13:25:00.000+08:00

We had a lovely weekend in Mandurah to end our holidays. James's parents, brother and partner and us rented a holiday home right on the beach for 2 nights. We have stayed here before and loved it ... and loved it again.
Thomas just had to get into the pool, even though it was FREEZING!!!

Michelle and I took control of the television for many hours to watch this! Wasn't it beautiful!!!

I took these photos of the TV coverage .... this picture I snapped just as the TV changed picture, so I ended up with a ghost like image of Will and Kate holding hands, superimposed over a wider shot of the whole scene. Pretty cool!

The big boys had some fun yahooing on the beach - these waves were very huge and very fast and very loud - it sounds like constant thunder rumbling in, day and night. Naturally Thomas "accidentally misjudged" the water and got drenched within 5 minutes of getting on to the sand!

They had fun racing the waves to build castles and trenches and walls, then screaming when a particularly strong succession of waves came along and wrecked it all.

And it seems I now have two little boys who like to do tricks for the camera - "watch this Mumms, take a picture"

Henry doing upside downs.

Thomas standing on two soccer balls.

It has been a bit chilly here this week, we have been rugging up in jackets and I have been wearing scarves to work. Henry has learnt a new word "jacket" and likes to choose his jacket for the day. Friday he wanted a scarf too, so off he went to day care dressed like this.

And look at those feet - yes they are running!!!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

In the News

2011-04-27T17:56:00.003+08:00

Following a friend's suggestion I submitted my fave picture of Henry at the ANZAC parade to our local paper. Unfortunately I was a bit late and they had run out of space, but they kindly put it up on their website. Go here http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/regional/southwest/galleries/a/-/article/9265999/image/3/anzac-commemorations-in-busselton/
to see it again!!

The other local paper had an ANZAC spread today and they took a picture of the cub scouts with their flag bearer - go Jamie!!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

Lest We Forget

2011-04-25T11:13:00.000+08:00

Anzac Day Parade in town today, which Jamie and Thomas march in as part of the Scout group. I was debating whether to get Henry ready to head down there or not as he has been very sick all weekend. In the end I thought the change of scenery would be good for him (nothing like getting outside when you have spent days lazing around with a cold, cough and a temperature) ... so glad I did ... cause look what I got!

He really enjoyed being out of his pram and able to wander around waving his flag. This was the first time we have given him a flag and he got really into it!

"Hold it up high bubba"

This shot made my heart melt, until I got this next one ...

Are you melting too now?? Does it not just sum up the whole reason that our men went off to war, so that little kids like Henry could grow up free and proud to be an Australian.

Then along came another awesome moment - Jamie was chosen to carry the cub scout flag! How proud does he look!! Thomas brought up the rear with his Aussie flag. Well done boys, great marching!!

Enjoy.

Amanda

Noisy Easter Bunny!

2011-04-24T09:50:00.000+08:00

Well that was one very noisy Easter bunny who hippity hopped across the sky last night. At one point the thunder and lightning was directly overhead and scared the hell out of me (and Thomas who came running up and jumped into bed with me - which he has never done in a thunderstorm before). Only Henry slept through it all - which was bizarre indeed as he has hardly slept at all the last few days because of a shocker cold.

These are the easter baskets I made for the boys last year. We put them out on the table on Saturday then while they were at tennis I put out the PJs Grandma had bought them - she very cleverly bought the same colour as the baskets!!

Here they are in their new PJs. I told them to say "easter eggs" which Henry was more than happy to yell out too!

Henry and "Toto"

Henry and "De"

Easter Bunny filled their baskets then hid the baskets in the house somewhere, leaving a cryptic note on the table. Thomas's read "I like your guitar, I had a little turn" - and then his basket was underneath his guitar stand. Jamie's read "wow, you sure are passionate about dinosaurs" and then his basket was on the shelf with his dinosaur books. Henry's read "I had fun reading all your little books" and then his basket was hiding on the shelf with his little Bob and Thomas books. They were all quite excited to find them!

Happy Easter

Enjoy.

Amanda

Boys holidays so far

2011-04-23T10:08:00.000+08:00

Whilst I have been scrapping the boys have been entertaining themselves quite nicely. Henry has been in day care, but is now on holidays with us so there will be getting stuck into more school holiday stuff from now on.
Here are some snapshots so far.

Oops that one isnt school holidays, that is a photo from Jamie's recent school camp. Look at him .. on a horse ... grinning!! Wow, that boy is getting seriously brave lately!

Thomas has been working on his cub scout photography level 2 badge, the above shot is Mr Cow demonstrating a low aperture number, and below Mr Cow is dancing while demonstrating a slow shutter speed!

There was a gorgeous sunset during the week. I grabbed the camera and raced down to the beach to get some shots before it all disappeared

Henry saw me using the camera one morning and wanted a "pishu" too. This is the face that he held when I told him to smile! Seems he is officially into the wierd smiley face when someone tells you to smile! Bugger.

Jamie has been working on part of his cub scout gold boomerang badge. This one was scientific discovery - showing how sound moves better through a solid object than air. Try this yourself. Tie some string to either end of a wire coathanger, hold on to the string while someone bangs it with a metal spoon. What do you hear? Now keep holding on to the string but press your fingers gently "in" your ears, hit the coathanger again, what do you hear? It is really quite impressive!!

And more scientific discovery, cutting an apple in half, painting one half in lemon juice and leaving them out for a day to watch the effects of oxidisation.

Henry had his speech review on Thursday. He was super chatty and social and friendly to the speechie which was a big relief. He has made up A LOT of ground in the last 3 months, but still has a long way to go. Right now we are focussing on words ending in "y" that have different consonants at the beginning and middle, eg "bunny" "potty" "teddy" "golly" instead of "mummy" "daddy" "baby" that have the same consonant. Tricky stuff for Henry as he always changes the consonants so they are the same sound, but he will get there eventually!

Enjoy.

Amanda

Mummy's holidays so far

2011-04-23T09:58:00.000+08:00

So far my holidays have consisted of scrapbooking, followed by a bit of scrapbooking and then just for a change some more scrapbooking! I photographed the layouts this time instead of scanning ... think I will stick with scanning in future!

New Year's Eve 2010 - traditional play down at the jetty beachfront

2010 McGregor Family Awards (see this post for details about this idea)

2011 cover page (is a bit brighter than this in real life). This page I put together while spending the day at The Scrappy Cow yesterday.

Full Moon album cover page (yes I know that is not a full moon, it just looks better this way!)

One of the pages for the full moon walk album (I did 8 pages in total, but have only photographed one)

2010, Spending time at Grandma's house - I have been holding on to that clock overlay for soooo long, glad I finally found somewhere to use it.

Final page for 2010 album - looking at xmas lights. The little diecut with the ribbon in the bottom left is actually a little flip out album with more photos in.

I headed down to The Scrappy Cow yesterday, originally just for a "little" spending spree, needing to restock on lots of supplies, but ended up staying for the whole day. It was so much fun to sit in the shop and chat and eat and drink and scrap ... oh and shop! Look at the length of that docket!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy.

Amanda

Scrapbook Pages

2011-04-16T12:56:00.000+08:00

U2 concert from last year - love how this page turned out, it feels a bit more eclectic and lavish and arty than some of the ones my tired brain has come up with lately. (Hoping that my new friend Nikki pops in for a look, cause I think she will like this one too)

Thomas's adventures in taekwondo last year. I fiddled around with hand drawn borders on this page - like how they turned out.

And a page celebrating Thomas and Veronica's friendship, with some of the adventures they had last year.

Enjoy. Amanda

School holidays are here!!

2011-04-16T12:40:00.000+08:00

Yeeehaaahh!!! As much as I love my job and I can't wait to go back, my body is in desperate need of some rest .... and some chocolate, which shouldnt be too much of a problem considering that Easter is in one week and this ....

...is the pile of chocolate my gorgeous students gave me over the last week! I was completely stunned by their generosity and thoughtfulness!

Last weekend was James's 37th birthday (ugh, that means in 4 months I will be 37!). We gave him his very own giant lego set.

Here are Jamie and Henry getting ready to hand it over to Daddy.

James hard at work, about an hour in to his 9.5 hour lego building marathon!

Close up of the completed model - way too many gears and cogs and tiny connections for my liking!

The completed model - looks impressive!

School had cross country this week - everyone from preprimary to Year 12 competed on the same day, over the same course (Yr 3s and under had a smaller distance to cover). It was hot and dusty and very long, but they both did so well. Thomas ended up 15th out of 20 Yr 3 boys, Jamie 27th out of about 30 Yr 5 boys.

Yesterday we had the Easter Eucharist service. The whole school was there, and the community choir was singing ... on stage ... I was so nervous, and actually had a sore neck afterwards from the tension of being nervous and trying to sing well. I will have to figure out a way to prevent that from happening each time. Thomas asked later why he didn't get to go up and sing with Jamie and me!! I pointed out to him that he decided choir was too hard and didnt want to be in it, his response "oh, well can I change my mind back again and come back?" Yay - that was why I was doing choir in the first place because I thought Thomas would like it - so thankful that he saw us sing and changed his mind!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Dreaming of knitting ....

2011-04-10T11:27:00.001+08:00

The knitting bug has completely caught me again, after I lost it during the chaos of job applications, Xmas, pantomime, january holidays etc... I recently finished a gorgeous crop cardigan and wrap made from bamboo wool, that feels sooooo soft on my skin (will photograph them sometime soon, for now you get the images from the book)

Bamboo wrap - I made this with the left over wool from the cardigan below - the colour I used is a sort of creamy tan tone. The pattern and wool and needles mum gave me for my birthday last year - thanks Mum!!

, and now I am dreaming of these patterns...

This bolero jacket that is designed so you can wear it upside down!! Yep, thats right. One way it has a gorgeous oversized collar and is a short crop jacket, the other way the over sized collar becomes a looser flowing part around your waist and the original short crop part becomes a tighter neater little collar. Cool idea hey!!

And this cape - isnt it stunning!! It can also be work as a skirt overlay on jeans or pants or even a plainer skirt.

And this sweater - this one I have changed the colours to a deeper purply pink sort of tones.
Sigh, I need more hours in the day (and lots of dollars to fund this as it is all Jo Sharp wool which is NOT CHEAP!) ... if Henry would let me knit when he was awake that would be awesome too, as it is I have to wait until after 7pm at night, so I only get about an hour in before my eyelids are drooping.

Enjoy. Amanda

Playing with Dolls and Dress Ups

2011-04-09T11:37:00.001+08:00

This week Henry suddenly decided that he wanted to play with dolls or "babies" as he calls them. He drags all my childhood dolls I have kept, out of the spare room, takes their shoes and hats on and off and lines them up on the couch, telling them to "sit chair". And sometimes he pats them and kisses them. It is really funny to watch and started me wondering why he was doing it. Jamie and Thomas showed no interest whatsoever in dolls, so I figured it must be the full time day care influence on Henry. Then I asked his carers and they admitted that the girls involve Henry in their doll / baby play ... I commented that he was playing it at home, so must be enjoying it, when the carers then somewhat sheepishly said that the play at day care involves the girls treating Henry as one of their dolls, laying him down under a rug with the other dolls and patting him to sleep!!!!!!!!!!! Oh Henry, just what are you letting them do to you!!!

Playing with Victoria - a very old, very precious doll, that has since been put up on a high shelf and substituted with other less precious dolls.

Sally, the Cabbage Patch doll - nice to see her getting played with again.

And then the pretend doll play got really pretend and Henry climbed in with them all!

He has also started expressing his own ideas as to the clothing he wears. I bought him a bargain dressing gown on Sunday - gorgeous soft lush Toy Story gown for $10! Tried it on him for size at 11am and he refused to take it off until bathtime later that night - had his afternoon nap in it and spent a couple of hours at the tennis club in it too!

Thursday the heat wave and lack of rain we have been experiencing for some months now finally broke, and broke in mighty spectactular style. We were at school and the big boys were in chapel (I was in the reading book room which is a tiny windowless cave), they were in the middle of a prayer and had just finished the line "Oh God of power of might" when the biggest thunderclap we have ever heard crashed through the sky with no warning whatsoever. Everyone in the chapel was completely awestruck, especially when it was immediately followed by torrential sheet rain that also came out of nowhere. Jamie, whose reactions are always slightly off, thought it was the funniest thing ever. As for me in my little windowless cave I admit to jumping and yelping, thinking the roof had fallen in!

Then on Friday it was Harmony Day at school, where the kids and staff were encourage to dress in clothes from another country. Jamie and Thomas dont have any international costumes as such but they do have a lot of shirts from other countries thanks to travelling relatives, so they just picked out a nice shirt. As for me, I summoned some bravery from somewhere and went to school dressed like this....

I was very embarrassed and nervous at first, but once I got over that, it was a hoot shocking people. The amount of staff, parents and kids who took a step back when they saw me was hilarious. I got changed at lunchtime though as the habib (head scarf) was really tight on my head!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Laughs and more laughs

2011-04-02T09:58:00.000+08:00

There has been a lot of funny moments this week, as well as the typical tearing our hair out type moments too!!

Thomas had his assembly item on Thursday. He was told to come dressed as a nursery rhyme or fairy tale character. He decided to be Old MacDonald ... with a typical Thomas like twist! Here he is ...

Can you read the sign?? It says Old ~~MacDonald~~ McGregor E I E I O. Plus his over the shoulder sheep bag, with a dog, pig and cow shoved in there for good measure!

Earlier in the week Henry decided it was time for a little scrapbook room clear-out. Usually when he plays with the scrap paper he actually sits there and plays with it, examines each piece on by one, comments on it, then moves on to the next piece. This time he grabbed a drawer, tipped it all out, moved on to the next drawer, tipped that out, etc etc then ran away. He did come back for "picshus" (pictures) and to help tidy up though.

Then on Thursday a friend at work gave me a huge bag of hand me down boys clothes. I needed to amuse Henry while I was cooking dinner so I encouraged him to look for some shirts. He spent a long time examining each "shut" (shirt) and "shuts" (shorts) one by one and trying to put them on. Then came great excitement when he found a pair of "shsh" (shiny) "bu" (buzz) "shuts". What an adventure. We put on the new shorts, he found a shirt he liked then ran off to show "de" (Jamie) and "toto" (Thomas).

And here he is returning to get a different shirt.
Does this photo just melt your heart???? He was full on running here, and I was so lucky to snap the shot just at the perfect moment.

More shirts.

And then Thomas made the best find ever.

A signed West Coast Eagles guernsey - he was VERY impressed!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Full Moon and Some Awesome Maths!

2011-03-27T10:09:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday was the full moon, so we headed off on our regular full moon walk again. This night was no ordinary full moon though, it was officially called a perigee moon, which meant that the full moon coincided with the moon being at its closest point to earth in its orbit. So the moon was bigger and brighter than it normally is. It sure was bright!!
We decided to walk on the newly finished jetty this time, which was Henry's first time being on the jetty and he did look a little bewildered about it.

Of course the sun was still up while we were walking, so I got some sunset pictures too.

Looking out to sea on the jetty

Looking back towards land.

Crazy noisy boys ....Thomas has to find some inventive way to walk anywhere!

Me trying to get arty self portraits of all of us ... didnt manage to get us all in one shot, but still like the shots I did get.

We saw fish in buckets, fish being hauled in, fish trying to escape back to sea, squid in buckets, squid in hands and even one squid eject its ink everywhere (that was a highlight for Thomas!) and then we saw dolphins too.

The moon, when we got home - very bright!

Now this is crazy Thomas again - He was having some problems with his Mr Noisy soft toy being too noisy while Henry was sleeping, so he stacked lots of other soft toys on top of him to keep him quiet!!!

Henry takes after Thomas - he decided his Little People car garage was a ride on toy!

A little while after that I noticed him actually playing for real with the farm animals, putting the man up in the hay loft, and a horse up there too eating the hay. Well that's what I thought he was doing, after it was all nicely set up, he grabbed the lever for the hay and ejected both man and horse out the sides of the hay loft, crashed them on the floor and giggled!

A tantrum earlier in the week when I was being nasty and wouldn't let him have a 3rd muesli bar for the day - mean old mumme!

Jamie and 5 other kids from school were entered as a team in a maths competition in Bunbury yesterday (yes I have the nerd child who thinks dressing up in full school uniform to go and do maths for 3 hours on a Saturday is awesome!!)

There were 4 rounds of 8 questions each, with a 4 question tie break round too. Their team worked in pairs, delegating questions to each pair, then helping each other out if a pair finished their questions before the 20 minute time limit was up. I was sitting close enough to Jamie's team that I could hear them working things out and telling the leader the answers. In hindsight I strongly suggest never ever sitting within earshot of your child's group!!! At one point Jamie was standing up, leaning over the table, gesturing wildly at the leader, telling him the answer (which I knew was right as I had the question sheet too and had worked out that answer). The leader was not believing him and didn't write down Jamie's answer. As expected they lost a point there, but did apologise to Jamie AND Jamie handling it all very diplomatically and politely. At that point I decided if nothing else came out of the day but that experience then it was a worthwhile day.....

...but there was way more excitement than that! They came 2nd (well equal first actually, but lost on the tiebreak). So now Jamie is the proud owner of a trophy for Maths! He is understandably quite chuffed with this one!!!

The tension when they were reading out the final scores was unbelievable!!! It was read out one by one in ascending order, they got to announcing 4th place and my heart was racing. Then when they didn't get 4th, we knew they had a trophy! Then 3rd place was announced and it still wasn't them - how excited did they all look!!! Roll on next year and the year after and the year after and so on!!

Here are a few of the questions that Jamie was delegated to answer and he got them right.

How old is the school principal on her birthday this year? She is over 30, and last year her age was a multiple of nine, while this year it is a multiple of four.

In the country of Loonyunits, length is measured in Glubs, Globs and Glibs. If 1 glub = 5 globs and 1 glob = 5 glibs, how many square glibs in a square glub? (this was the question that the leader didnt listen to him about)

I am thinking of a number. If I multiply it by 6, subtract 4, then divide it by 4, I finish up with 11. What number did I start with?

Jill's mother was four times as old as Jill. Four years later, Jill's age was 1/3 of her mother's age, so how old was Jill at this time?

Cool questions hey!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Cub Adventures and a Merit Certificate too

2011-03-20T10:12:00.000+08:00

Received some photos this week of the kids latest cub scout adeventures. There are some very cool pictures in there, and it was awesome to get a glimpse into a part of their life that I don't see much of.
First up, Cubtiki last weekend. There is where cubs from all over the region get together and build rafts, then race them down the Leschenault Inlet. Jamie was the only cub from his pack going (again!) so we joined him in with Lescehnault cub pack again. Here is our rafter.

And here he is on his raft, which came 3rd! Excuse the smudging of the other kids faces, needed to preserve anonymity.

And now some pictures from the Neverland Camp over the long weekend.

Jamie and Thomas strapped in together to head down the flying fox (aerial runway). Really not sure about the wisdom of strapping these two in together!!

Thomas is clinging on to Jamie sooo hard!

And this is what the flying fox looks like (not one of my boys in this photo) - high hey!

Jamie about to go down on his own , looking very brave and excited.

Not so brave now!!!

Camp visitor - with a joey there too!

Thomas on the blind course. I'm guessing they had to navigate it without spilling the drink?

Jamie on the blind course

Now on to the confidence course - like one of those crazy army man challenge courses

Thomas navigating the tire bridge.

Jamie on the bridge - he used to be terrified of moving bridges!

Thomas about to leap off this climbing frame.

And here is the rock wall climbing - there weren't any shots of Jamie and Thomas on this, but they assure me they gave it a go. There was also archery too.

And crate stacking - some wierd sport that I thought was only a scout thing, but I have since seen it on the agenda for Jamie's school camp this week. Here is Jamie trying to stack crates.

And Thomas.

And a great action shot of Thomas.

Thomas at school assembly, receiving a merit certificate for his "persistance at the swimming carnival to succeed which was an inspiration to us all" How awesome was that!.

He was sitting across the other side of the assembly hall to me, but got up and walked the long way around just so he could high five me. Crazy child.

And Jamie gave us one of those classic moments this week when we knew that he had definitely been given the right diagnosis! There is a girl from his class who is also in the community choir. He commented that she was the only girl he likes. When I asked him why, this is what he said ...

..."Well it's not that I like her, it's just that she doesn't talk much, but she wasn't in my class last year, so I don't really know her yet so I haven't been able to classify her as anything yet"

What a scream!! Who talks about classifying their friends!!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Scrapbooking by Jamie and Me

2011-03-13T12:50:00.000+08:00

Have had a couple of layouts sitting waiting to be scanned for a while now. Today is the day!

Xmas layout from last year. Decided to not focus on one photo in particular, but to have lots of little photos, which then worked really well with the title letter blocks. I really like this one!

One about Henry learning to walk. After all the wait it deserved a layout all to itself!

And this is Jamie's scrapping project. This is his 3D art project for the assignment I mentioned in the last post. The idea was to chose a medium / technique that you are good at, it could be anything as long as it was 3D. He was most eager to have a valid reason to be messing around with my Cricut! The topic was The Goldrush, and he needed to choose a group of people who were involved in or affected by the goldrush. He chose the Aboriginals. Here is the finished project - a bush scene, with a miner's tent in the background, and a miner handing a bag of flour to an Aborigine. The miner has secretly put poison in the flour to kill the Aborigine and his family. Then at the front there is another Aborigine grieving at a grave. This would have to be the most morbid scrapbook project I have ever been involved in!

Full scene.

Close up of the miner and the aborigine .. there is a little green bottle of poison just near the miner's foot.

Grave site.

And a peek inside the tent - he even has some gold nuggets stashed in there!
Enjoy.
Amanda

No Photos!

2011-03-12T13:30:00.000+08:00

OMG, I took no photos this week!!! That is appalling! Must make the effort to fix that this week.

Life goes on at its now somewhat normal hectic pace. Some random thoughts from this week...

1. My cousin Danial and his partner Kylie welcomed their second baby boy this week - Jesse Danial. Totally gorgeous. Just happened to be the same day that my year 2 teacher also welcomed her third grandchild too.

2. Jamie has been invited to take part in a maths quiz style competition in a fortnight - one of only two year five students that will be attending.

3. I gave my year 2 teacher's storeroom a touch of Amanda magic this week - she hasnt seen it yet, was away at interschool swim carnival and then unwell at the end of the week.

4. Jamie and I have been practising our singing because we recently joined the BCGS community choir. We have a performance this Friday night in Bunbury at a book launch. Our 3 songs are Bought Me a Cat, Under Southern Skies and For The Beauty of the Earth. Under Southern Skies was sung by Nikki Webster at the Sydney Olympics. For The Beauty of the Earth is a religious song, very high pitched and quite difficult for Jamie and I to sing well. Bought Me a Cat is hysterical, lots of crazy animal noises and clapping and stomping. Henry has even picked up some of it and joins in when we practise.

5. Just finished off my last jobs as scout treasurer - breathing a huge sigh of relief that someone else has stepped up to take over this job.

6. Big boys loved camp last weekend - came back completely grotty and sunburnt and tired but also on a high. They loved that Henry now speaks in 2 and 3 word combinations. Within 5 minutes of arriving home Thomas had Henry saying "Toto fart" over and over again!

7. Jamie is working on a big assignment for school about the goldrush. He has a powerpoint demonstration to do, a 3D artwork to make and a 2 minute talk to present. Scary stuff!!

8. James has been meeting with a financial advisor trying to sort out our superannuation, life insurances, income protection etc. Upshot of it all is that my just opened BCGS superannuation account will be closed and rolled over into a new account. Looking forward to retirement and all the money I have been told to spend minimum each year!

Enjoy. Amanda

Ready Set Go

2011-03-05T12:38:00.000+08:00

Ready Set Go .... let's race. James, Jamie, Thomas and I all headed off to the school swimming carnival this week. This is the first time we have ever been involved in a swimming carnival. It was seriously fun!!

Here we are in our Knight faction sports clothes. I wasn't able to see the boys's races as the carnival started at 9:30am, but the year 1s and 2s don't arrive until 11am and then they are in the smaller wading pool doing all sorts of fun events. The best part was that I was able to get in the water with them and help them with their races (not so sure about all the parents taking photos and videos, with me in their wearing bathers!!)

James watched the main carnival and videoed it for me, but couldn't take photos at the same time. I might have a go at getting some stills off the video at some point. But for now, you just get the results;

Jamie - 5th out of 8 in backstroke, 2nd (!!!) in breaststroke and 2nd (!!!!) in freestyle. These were all D division races but we and he were so excited that he earnt some place ribbons!

Thomas - 1st in kickboard race, despite stopping to put on his goggles. Last in freestyle, but was then put in the U9 freestyle relay as there were only two Knight boys in that age group. He put up a valiant effort, as you would expect a knight to do, but the team ended up coming last. I was mighty impressed that Knight faction still cheered him on and gave him a big well done when he had finished.

Me - first in the staff versus students relay! This was hysterical. There were 10 staff in one team and then about three teams of year 6 students. It was a boogie board relay, so we had to work in pairs on the board, swim 25 metres, then hand the board off to the next pair. Before the race started the phys ed co-ordinator informed us that the staff never lose, that he didn't care how we cheated as long as we won! So we started on Set instead of Go, didn't wait for the pair to touch the wall before we took over and then the phys ed co-ordinator was in the water crash tackling the kids off their boards. Hilarious!! We won of course!!

Ready Set Go ... lets all blow raspberries. Well thats what I found the boys doing on my bed on the weekend, in front of the mirror

Ready Set Go .. lets get 3 of 4 boys in this family out of the house for the long weekend!! Jamie and Thomas left on a cub scout camp after school on Friday, will be back late Monday afternoon and James is working and playing in a tennis tournament all weekend, so it is just me and Henry, which is very lovely indeed.

Ready Set Go .. lets talk. I have been making an effort each evening to spend some "quality time" with Henry to make up for the fact that he is in full time day care, but badly in need of speech therapy. I think it might be working. He is still very hard to understand but after 5 weeks of this intensive half hour each night, this is what he has said to me since Thursday evening;

- bye daddy

- woody's hat

- daddy's pants

- white car

- beg your pardon

- shaky go

Two word combinations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At last!!!!!!!!!!! And everytime he says one he looks at me intently with a very big grin, waiting for his clap and kiss, so I even think he consciously realises what I have been trying to teach him. Happy happy mummy!!

This morning he was shaking a balloon on a string around so I got out the ribbon sticks, which he hasn't played with yet. He loved it. Was giggling and dancing and yahooing and then started saying "shaaaaaaaaaakyyyyyy ..... go!" and madly shaking them again. Very cute!

Starting to get very carried away now!!

Ready Set Go ... hmm, can't match this photo in with the title..... we planted sunflower seeds this summer and look what we have .. beautiful!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

New Toys

2011-02-26T12:03:00.000+08:00

It was a week of new toys in our house .. and not for Henry (well sort of not for him!!).

We bought Thomas a guitar last weekend for his very own. He had his first lesson on Thursday and has learnt 2 notes - G and A, which is two more notes than I know on any instrument!!!

Being shown how to count the frets.

Doesn't the grin just say it all!!!! He is so happy to have his own guitar. Can't wait for him to learn a few more notes!

Have to share a funny story from this week. Thomas complained that some kids in the playground were teasing him and calling him Thomas the Tank Engine. I told him he could either completely ignore it and they would eventually get bored or he could tell them the truth, that he is Thomas the Tank Engine and his big brother is James the Red Engine and his little brother is Henry the Green Engine. He wasn't too impressed with either of those suggestions, so the next day when it happened again he came up with his own solution.

Kid: ha ha you're Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas: Yep. choo choo, and you're on the tracks and the train is coming, get out the WAY!!!!!!!

Hilarious! Had me, his class teacher, the year 2 teacher, the christian ed teacher and the year 6 teacher in stitches! Way to go Thomas.

And the other new toy of the week - James gave me an iPad on Monday morning, which was the 14th anniversary of us starting to go out together. I am in love .... with the iPad! (and James of course). I have found so many awesome apps, some for me, some for the big boys, some to use in my classes at school and of course some for Henry.

Here he is playing the baby chords app - lets the kids make all sorts of somewhat interesting and loud music!

And with a sounds app - here he is listening to the frog sound.

And choosing a helicopter sound to listen to.

He also likes the baby flashcards app and actually tries to copy the words. I swear his vocab has doubled just from playing with this. I am seriously tempted to pay the $30 price tag on a speech pathology app I found, to see if it will correct his speech sounds too!!!!

Gotta go, iPad is calling!!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

P.S. Jamie asked me today what my favourite word is ... I answered "probably chocolate", Jamie's answer ... "etc" !!!! Wierd child!!!!!!

Bumps and Cuts

2011-02-19T10:48:00.000+08:00

Henry had his first trip to the emergency department for an injury this week ... come to think of it he IS our first ever trip to emergency for an injury (Thomas's broken arm didnt involve the ED, all 3 of them have been there for croup, pneumonia type stuff but NO injuries - that must be a record for someone with 3 boys!!)

Anyway, back to Henry, he fell off a chair at day care, hit his chin on a table and bit straight through his lower lip, teeth cutting through to his chin underneath his lip. Looked pretty nasty. Totally panicked me as I missed the phone calls from day care because I was travelling back from Bunbury at the time, so I got there to collect him only to be told that James had just got him and taken him to hospital!! Ended up not needing stitches or glue, just steri strips and some fixamol, but he was a pretty cranky bubba for a while there.

Last night was another full moon so we all headed out for a walk again (in summer it is too hard to stay up late to actually see the moon!!) We just went on a small walk around the block and then played in the park for a while.

James used his muscles and pushed both big boys on the swings at the same time!

Henry wanted high fives the whole way around.

And even tried to high five the camera!

More high fives

Being a big boy and playing independently on the play ground equipment. He seems to not want help with anything lately! Has been climbing up to wash his hands on his own, wants the lids off the cups to drink like everyone else, takes his shoes off, opens the side door and goes out on his own, puts my shoes away!!

But not yet brave enough to go down a slide on his own.

Earlier in the week he found a new hat in his hat pile (actually an old hat of Thomas's) - a french beret. It has been worn around a bit over the last few days!

And on the school front - everyone still very happy. I can hear Thomas yahooing around at recess and lunch and when I am in the year two classroom next door to his room I can hear him interacting and volunteering info in class. His teacher is seriously in love with him - she admitted to me that she really likes the kids that think just that little bit differently from everyone else - ha!! Thomas must be her ideal child then cause he sure thinks differently to us!!

Thomas is very excited as I have enrolled him in guitar lessons, starting next week. BCGS conducts private instrumental lessons within school time. Parents pay extra for it, but because it is in school time there is no running around for after school lessons. Kids have their lesson on the same day of the week each week but at a different time so they dont always miss the same subject. We bought him a half size guitar yesterday. He was super excited and looked so happy, until Daddy tuned it, not very well and snapped a string!!!! Anyway it is all fixed today so hopefully I will have some photos soon!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Flying High

2011-02-13T10:50:00.000+08:00

Another awesome week at school and day care for us all. I have the coolest timetable at school for someone like me - I get to go to art classes twice and don't have to go to sport at all!!! Hee hee hee ... this is just like what I did in Year 11 and 12 when it was no longer compulsory to have sport class! Thomas has settled in very well - I noticed during the week that people are starting to call out his name when he arrives and leaves school. Jamie seems happy too, he has had a few meltdowns over homework but that was happening last year too. Really it is something that he just has to get used too. Both boys sat a music auditory perception test this week, and they both scored 100% (there were only around 4 kids in each class to do so) - not bad for people who have really not had any musical education! Henry is happy at day care, still eating 2 serves of lunch every day. He is often pretty cranky when he gets home but soon gets over it, especially when Daddy takes him out on his bike to give Reggie a walk.

Last weekend was the Jetty Opening - we did not hang around for the fireworks, partly because they were on quite late and we couldn't keep Henry up that long, but also because fireworks usually involve dramas of Jamie being terrified of the noise. I really should make an effort in future though, as it is not particularly fair on Thomas.

Anyway, the boys found some adventure to occupy themselves with - Thomas was the one who was badgering me to go on this, and Jamie decided he may as well have a turn too.

Jamie flying high - he was not particularly good at using his legs to push off the tramp whenever he came down, his legs kept buckling and then not getting any lift, but the operator was great at lowering the height of the bars holding the bungee cord so that Jamie could get some extra leverage with his legs.

Thomas on the other hand was awesome at it. He flew through the air and was having a great time kicking the tops of the trees.

They also both tackled the rock climbing wall that the scout group had set up. This is not a high wall so there are no need for harnesses. It is made as a huge box that the idea is that you climb horizontally around the whole thing. Great idea for kids that are not so physically competent.

Looking forward to the school swimming carnival in a couple of weeks. This is the first time we have been to a school swim carnival as there were strict age and capability limits at Busselton Primary. At BCGS everyone from preprimary upwards goes. They have swim trials in the weeks leading up to the carnival, so they can figure out who is best at which event, and which division to put kids in. They also apparently have lots of fun events like kickboard race etc for the kids who can not swim a length of the pool independently. Should be a lot of fun!

Enjoy.
Amanda

One Week Down

2011-02-05T13:41:00.000+08:00

That title sounds like I am counting down .. which I am not .. we have had an awesome week!

Firstly - Henry - first week of full time day care, not a problem in sight. Happy to go there, happy when he is there, doing lots of painting and water play and sand pit play and eating double serves of lunch everyday ... and happy when he gets home, no tears or clinginess or anything .. totally awesome!! Hope the bubble doesn't burst too soon.

This is how he came home from day care earlier this week! Too cute!!

Jamie is happy with his new class and teacher. He did comment that she growls a bit more than his last teacher but does lots of interesting stuff so thats OK. The whole primary school has been going through some standardised testing this week (and next week), so far I only know Jamie's spelling results - he has a spelling age of 16 years old!!

Thomas has coped really well too. We were expecting a few tears and moans this week about changing his mind and not wanting to go to BCGS anymore. There has been none of that. His teacher was raving about him to me by recess on the first day - apparently he did some excellent writing and then proceeded to help the others at his desk! He also topped the class on his spelling assessment! So glad they have both got my spelling genes and not James!! (sorry babe!). He feels like he hasnt made any friends yet, but has been playing dodge at recess and lunch with some of the boys so I think he will get there eventually. We are so proud of him.

They both go to before and after school care at BCGS now too. It is held in the early childhood centre where I am based and is free for staff. We get there about 8am and they head off to play and then leave for class at 8:30, without needing to come and see me for a goodbye hug (which bothers me a whole lot more than it bothers them apparently!). All in all, we have all adjusted very well to the new routine of two fulltime working parents. Again, hope the bubble doesnt burst!

I grabbed the opportunity this week to shamelessly show off my scrapbooking passion with a poster I was making for the year 2 class.

The class representative is the student who does all the odd jobs for that day - taking up the role, lunch orders etc. The kids names are all on separate laminated pieces of card, that will stick to the poster right where the monkey is, so it looks like he is holding on to the name. Then I created the paper dolls and school bus to look just like the BCGS uniforms and bus.

Needless to say the Year 2 teacher was a tad flabbergasted, as was everyone else. Later the primary principal was in the early childhood centre so I did some more shameless boasting! But guess what I am doing this weekend ... yep .. . making more posters for my year 1 teacher!!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

New Job

2011-01-29T14:00:00.000+08:00

Man ...I am totally loving my new job so far. Started on Tuesday. I am working in the year 1 and the year 2 classrooms. So it will be tricky in terms of time management and organisational stuff as I will be flitting between the two classes a lot and be responsible to two teachers. And both these classrooms have needed setting up from scratch as there was some shuffling going on in the school holidays and they have had to shift rooms. The early childhood centre is huge and airy and well lit and the staff are so so friendly and very dedicated and passionate and work hard. Very different from a state school where sometimes there are staff that are not so dedicated etc....

The last two days I have been at a professional development conference, in Busselton (very handy that was!). There were some really interesting workshops and some duds but the time in between these (morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner) was well worth it. I have had the chance to talk and chat and eat and drink (well watch them all drink and get merrier and merrier while I just laugh) and learn everyone's names and their positions. I have the whole primary staff all worked out now, know their names 100%. Have had a chance to chat to the boys's teachers for the year and give them a quick rundown on the kids. Very happy with the passion their teachers have shown me so far.

Went to my first Eucharist. Sang lots of songs and hymns and then participated in the baton exchange. They have a heap of wooden batons that are made from the first tree to be felled on the school grounds. Whenever new staff arrive they are handed a baton by the previous person to hold that position or by their mentor and make a pledge. It was pretty awesome to be a part of.

And the mentor thing. All new staff are allocated a mentor, someone in a similar role to them, who is there to guide them for 12 months. It is basically someone who looks out for you at staff meetings, Eucharist etc, whispers in your ear about what is to happen next, and is also someone who you can go up to anytime, as much as you need, guilt free and ask questions, LOTS of questions. It is a pretty cool system, and I am even sort of looking forward to when I can be a mentor!

The kids all start on Tuesday next week, so that will be exciting. Need to find the IT department on Monday and get my username etc for their computer systems. Heard a rumour that I get my own laptop?? Will wait until Monday to see whether that was true or not.

Really looking forward to the year!!!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Falling behind!

2011-01-29T13:46:00.000+08:00

I started work this week (totally awesome by the way!!), and as predicted I am falling behind on editing and uploading photos and blogging and facebook - ho hum!

It was Thomas's 8th birthday back on the 22nd. He had a small celebration at home, with Grandma and Grandad visiting for the day and then we headed up to Bunbury Swimming Pool the next day for a pool party. It was a fun filled weekend!

We gave Thomas lots of very cool books. A Complete Visual Dictionary of Star Wars, Standing Small (30 years of the lego mini figure) and The Lego Book (Complete History of Lego). So far Henry is the only member of the family that hasnt been pouring over these 3 books!

And a HUGE lego set - a no longer available Lego Agents box - this one had 4 instruction booklets!!!!!!

Building away - he managed to finish it in around 4 hours.

Opening his card from Grandma - she made a peek a boo card, with a picture of him inside it - very cool Grandma!!

Seriously ... what kind of child pulls faces like this!!!!

Later that afternoon, we headed down to the fun fair at the beachfront. Thomas managed to nab a turn on this bouncy castle / slide - all to himself! He counted - he went down 25 times.

At the pool party we hired the tunnel / slide for an hour of private use (only $40!!). It was definitely worth it, the kids were able to go up and down hundreds of times and not worry about strangers or big kids or rude kids getting in their way. Thomas, naturally, screamed and yahooed his way down the slide!

Veronica was a little bit calmer!

And Jamie got very brave and tried all sorts of ways of going down, even going in a chain with the party guests. Plus there was one of the kids younger siblings (Andy is 4) having a blast as well. Jamie ended up going down behind Andy a lot of the time and helping him to swim back to the edge for another shot - well done buddy!

More birthday cake!

And this was an awesome present Veronica made Thomas - photos and star wars and space themed pictures - it is very impressive.

Happy Birthday buddy!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

Henry's 2nd birhtday layout

2011-01-19T12:36:00.000+08:00

Henry very kindly gave me a Toy Story cricut cartridge for xmas ... so I had some fun with it on his birthday layout!

First came Woody - I was very impressed!

Then Buzz - suitably impressed again!

And the final layout .... slowly getting pages and projects crossed off my to do list!
Enjoy.
Amanda

January Scrapping

2011-01-16T09:38:00.000+08:00

Normally I totally power through the scrapbooking backlog in January - not so this year .... swimming lessons, pantomime, very energetic 2 year old ... ho hum. Hopefully I will catch up soon, cause there will be little time for scrapping when school starts!

This one was created some months ago for The Scrappy Cow Design Team - using some old photos of Henry from a baby photo competition he was entered into. One of my favourite layouts of all time!!

Andrew's and Eloise's engagement party - very nice to scrap something other than the kids for a change!

Double page layout so it is tiny on here - Jamie's 2010 soccer season. I had fun finding all sorts of bits and pieces of embellishments to add to this layout.

And Henry's first haircut - see how far behind I am - he's had 2 more since then!!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

January 2011 so far Part II

2011-01-15T11:21:00.000+08:00

Some more randomness from the last week.

Henry is into leaving little toys lined up all over the house. Sometimes its Toy Story figures, or Cars vehicles or Thomas the Tank Engine trains, today it was Bob the Builder vehicles.

Enjoying some home made icypole deliciousness.......

Jamie reading a novel at pantomime. In between acting and singing he manages to finish 2 novels each night! He has been keeping track of all his reading over the entire school holidays as part of a competition at the local library. So far, with 2 weeks still to go, he is up to 105!!!!!!

Thomas has been creating awesome spaceships with this design and build your own spaceship kit that Grandma and Grandad gave him for Xmas. He has come up with some pretty spectacular designs so far!

More Pantomime news - Jamie's first scene in the dwarf cottage is set up with a window in the back wall, that shows a forest scene out the window. While the scene is running obviously no one can walk behind the stage from one side to the other or they will be seen at the window. This shot was taken behind the window, in between the cottage wall and the forest board. Jamie ends up in the wings on one side of the stage and his boots end up in the wings on the other side of the stage, but for his next entrance he needs to have his boots on , so every night he does this (to avoid being seen through the window) - wriggles and commando crawls his way across the floor underneath the window to get his boots. It is so funny to watch!

Working his way back again, sliding his boots along the floor in front of him.

This afternoon the Festival of Busselton Float Parade is on and the Repertory Club is entering a float. Jamie and I will be on it - we are very excited. It should be awesome fun!

Enjoy.
Amanda

Snow White Pantomime 2011

2011-01-12T09:13:00.000+08:00

Jamie and I are now just over halfway through the pantomime season ...4 more shows to go (2 for Jamie). Mum watched the show on Sunday and took a heap of photos of the both of us ... here are some of them.

Jamie is one of the 7 dwarfs - he is Bashful. Bashful has very few lines (2 to be exact I think!), but lots of acting, namely running away and hiding whenever he is in view. Here the curtain has just opened, Bashful sees it, gets scared and runs off stage, kicking his chair over in the meantime.

Later he comes back on stage again, only to hide under the table to keep away from the Dame.

And here is me - a Palace Pizza girl. Here we are singing Voulez Vous, which involves lots of jumping - Mum caught me mid jump!

All 7 of the dwarfs - L to R Brasso (a bit dim!), Banjo (horrible singer), Blisters (never does any work so he never gets any blisters), Bambi (a little dear), Backfire (don't ask!), Broadside (fat) and Bashful.

Bambi and Bashful trying to get some comfort from the Dame, as Snow White has been poisoned (with a poison pizza) and they all think she is dead

Rejoicing because Snow White is alive and the Prince has asked her to marry him.
It has been a fantastic show!
Enjoy.
Amanda

January 2011 so far

2011-01-08T11:20:00.000+08:00

Putting makeup on my 9 year old son! Wierd I know, but all part of the fun of being in pantomime. Jamie is a dwarf - Bashful - he is VERY good at being bashful too!

Henry has this wierd trick we call "stunt (whatever)"...it started as stunt crawling - crawling with your eyes shut, then progressed to stunt bike riding - riding with your eyes shut (which is actually fairly safe as he isnt the one controlling the steering), and now we have stunt walking - yep, walking with your eyes shut, and sometimes even stretching your arms out in front like a zombie. It is a complete crack up to watch, thankfully he must be keeping his eyes open a tiny crack because he hasnt caused himself any major injuries yet, despite walking straight into a stool at Grandma's house over Xmas!

We have headed to the local pool every day for the past 2 weeks for swimming lessons. Henry has being having a blast floating around in his ring. He has got very confident in it and wants to hang out in the deep pool all the time, using his legs to spin himself around and bounce all over the place.

Thomas amuses himself with styling his hair while he is waiting for his turn during his lesson time.

Thomas showing us how he can dive - NOT! He landed feet first!

Veronica managed to get her lesson time the same time as Thomas, so they have been totally enjoying themselves playing beforehand and then having their lesson together. This shot is all 3 of them doing bombies, and yes I got totally drenched getting this shot!

Henry's picture of Jamie - he likes to sit on the edge holding the camera, aiming it at people's faces so he can watch them on the screen, then every so often I press the shutter button for him.

Henry's self portrait!

Henry's picture of Thomas and Veronica

And some more hooded towel cuteness!!
Enjoy.
Amanda