a home a day.
Today we did the groceries. Cassidy bought her pram with Baby in it to the shops. I think she likes to do this because everyone smiles at her, says aren’t you beautiful and what’s your baby’s name. She whispers “Baby” while batting her eyelashes and keeping up her angelic front.
We came home and I ironed while she coloured in. We cuddled on the lounge and watched a movie. We cooked dinner and made cupcakes and she wore bunny ears. The latest obsession seems to be various headdresses. Last time we went shopping she wore a white glitterly halo suspended above an Alice band. This was obviously deemed a success as the “aren’t you beautiful” comments became more frequent. Now she rarely leaves the house without some sort of look-at-me head accessory.
This afternoon she said, “it’s nice to be a-home-a-day isn’t it mum?”
Yes, it is. I will miss our home-a-days next year 
let it snow. at last.
I know this post has been a long time coming. When you come home to fifty million happy snaps on three different cameras that got dumped at random times onto various storage devices, it gets a little off putting. There’s a lot of photos, most of them happy snaps. Brace yourselves.
The trip started with a huuuge day in the car…15 hours driving to be exact to get to our friends in southern New South Wales (or as we put it, the middle of bloomin’ nowhere). Dave and Renata and their four gorgeous kiddos have a beautiful property near Temora. We stayed two nights with them and our city kids had an absolute ball. Here they all are, doing what kids do on farms. Climb gates.
Nata and the kids gave us a guided tour around the farm which was lovely. The kids threw rocks into the dam (as you do), fed the cows (because, you know, they might have trouble feeding themselves) and chased around what I think may be the cutest puppy in the world, Snowy.
The cows are rather attracted to Snowy too. Well, who wouldn’t be. I wanted to take him with us.
Three of the four afore mentioned beautiful kids. I don’t know how Isaiah evaded my shooting rampage 
Here is the camera shy Ellie, Elijah and Judah. I won’t try to be smart and tell you which twin is which because I can’t. I only feel okay about this because their own mother used to confuse them until a little while ago…..hey Nata? 
Ellie and Cassidy didn’t like each other much. Neither did Isaac and Isaiah.
The boys got the special tour of the Temora Aircraft Museum because a certain daddy happens to work there. They don’t let just anyone sit in a Spitfire you know. Isaiah and Isaac were in little boy heaven.
We left Temora and drove to Albury where we picked up Em, Steve and William and did a spot of grocery shopping before heading up the mountain to the SNOW!!! Words can not express the bird like shriek that came from Cassidy when she spotted the first bit of snow as we drove up the mountain. There wasn’t much snow where we were staying for the first few days, but we prayed and the snow came and it snowed solidly for two days. I realise my Canadian and American friends that read this blog think I’m completely nuts, but I just love it. Then again, I don’t have to live in it for 7 months of the year either
Isaac. Ah, the little photographed “other” child. Unfortunately this holiday did not help in the photo area. From the first day, he took to skiing like a tounge to an icy ski lift pole. He had one day in ski school, and then was racing us down all the green and blue runs. At one point, he whizzed passed me right as I’d impaled myself in an enbankment calling over his shoulder, “you right there, mum?” When I relayed this to Steve he told me he thinks that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I didn’t find him very comforting in my time of feeling old and uncoordinated. Here’s the snow boy himself.
And here’s how he looked for most of our holiday.
Then there was the miss. Here she is with her snow dog, Bella. (Don’t ask).
Cass had fun in the snow and tabogganed a lot, but also appreciated the benefits of a heated coffee shop and hot chips. Fine dining at its best.
Cass also appreciated Nanna and Pa who were always ready with a hot chocolate and pikelets at a moments notice.
Behold the pretty-ness.
Behold the holiday random-ness.
Behold the chubby cheeks. (William’s not Em’s )
Behold the igloo. Was it not an architectural masterpiece for our first attempt? The kids had red cordial snow slushies in there which they spilt on the little table Steve made which made it look rather sinister….
Do not, however, behold our smooshed car One night in partculary snowy weather both the Steve’s and Em and I decided we’d go out for some night skiiing. Unfortunately the landcruiser driving in the opposite direction didn’t know this and hit our car. No-one hurt. Radiator did not like the landcruiser hitting our car. Car spent better part of a week at the bottom of the mountain getting fixed. Steve and Kate decided to build a bridge and get over it and stay for a few extra days. The only hiccup in a fantastic two weeks. The kids cried when we left and I almost did too.
Now if I can just make myself delete the snow reports from my favourites and stop inwardly counting the weeks till next year, we’ll be all set.
saturday night fever.
Or should that be Sunday afternoon fever. Cassidy was invited to a birthday party on Sunday afternoon with a disco theme. Now, I doubt the child has the slightest inkling of what a disco is, only that everyone at kindy had been talking about it and she’d come to the conclusion it must be fun.
The outfit of choice was of upmost importance. She also seemed to understand that sparkles should be involved. As strange as it may seem, I’m not in the habit of stocking my almost-five year old daughter’s cupboard with an abundance of sparkles and spandex. In the end we went for more of a layered/hippie/Elton-John-in-the-seventies ensemble. We curled the hair, we overdid the eyeshadow and we sprayed glitter hairspray on anything that didn’t twinkle.
Our main issue was her footwear that apparently “was not sparkly enough” (this was aided by the fact that she’d planned to wear her red glitter shoes and put them on only to find they were too tight). She was less than impressed that her plain red, and very un-sparkly shoes had to do. What’s a girl to do when there just ain’t enough glitter to go around.
Here she is; her attitude making up for the lack of sequins.
The “disco” was a darkened garage with heaps of moving lights, music, a mirror ball and the expected amount of giggling and shrieking girls. She thought it was just the bees knees
little nessie.
I know, I know…I haven’t blogged the snow, but can you blame me for letting this little one jump the queue? Steve’s brother Brad and my sister in law Karli brought Vanessa over today for a session. Due to my lack of knitting and crotcheting grandmothers due to their high falutin’ caravan-ing accross the countryside, I couldn’t guilt my Nonna into knitting me a cocoon like I wanted for Vanessa. One of my knitted hats had to do.
Isn’t she smoochy.
Long legs like mummy.
Maxed out on daddy’s shoulder.
Snuggle bugs with mum and dad.
Congrats Brad and Karli from all of us…she’s boodiful. xo
feels like home.
I don’t think it matters how wonderful the time away is…it’s always good to be home. Even after a wonderful holiday, I still inwardly go ‘ahhh’ when I walk in the front door…and yet another ‘ahhh’ when I lie on my very own bed. The snow holiday extravaganza post to come soon.
What made coming home even better was that our new niece, Miss Vanessa Anne, saw fit to wait for us to be almost home to make her appearance (somehow I don’t think her mummy felt the same sentiment being a week overdue!) Here’s a few of my sister in law Karli, looking rather glow-y and pregnant-y just before we left.
We had a quick stop in to the hospital when we got home to meet the newest princess in our family. Cassidy is rather tickled that she now has blue AND pink baby cousins to smoosh. Isaac continues his Babies Can’t Touch Me stance but scratch the surface and he’s all smoosh himself.
I’m looking forward to getting my camera onto our new little sweetie soon. It’s good to be home. xo
one more sleep!
Till we’re on our way! The kids are hyped to the max and we’re about to put them in the car for 15 hours. Hmmm.
Two weeks at the snow and all that it entails. We can’t wait. We are tired. The last time we went on a proper paid for holiday was when I was pregnant with Isaac and we went to the snow kid-less. Now we get to go with our family. I can’t wait to see the kids in the snow….I can’t wait to have a rest, drink hot chocolate, do some tabogganing and read the rest of the Twilight books.
Isaac seems to think he is going to be Mr. Incredible on the slopes. I’ve tried to break it gently to him that it is rather slippery and he will fall down. A lot. He looks at me with a “yeah okay-mum-who-is-also-a-girl-therefor-you-don’t-know-much” expression.
Cassidy is in it for the pink snow suit and purple boots alone. I give her five minutes to realise the snow is slippery, wet and cold and she’ll be inside drinking hot chocolate with Nanna and smooshing baby William (or baby Will-Yum if you’re Cassidy).
Here they are, trying on the gear looking rather over-heated.
So we’ll see everyone in a couple of weeks! I’d say there’ll be photos xo
rock ‘n’ roller.
4pm
Cass “Look mum, I did a drawing! It’s a map! You follow the path, all the way down to the bottom until you get to Cassidy’s World”.
Me (intrigued) “Oh really? What’s in Cassidy’s World?”
Cass (firing up) “Well there’s lollypops and a ferris wheel and one of those chair go round things and those cars that we bump into each other and laugh..what are they called mum?…yeah, dodgems…and ice cream and a merry-go-round and……”
Me (under my breath ‘and unicorns that eat butterflies and poop rainbows’) “I think I get the picture Cass”
Cass (sighing) “Yeah. it’s much more funner”.
7pm
Me “Cass, tell Dad who came to your kindy today?”
Steve “Who came Cass?”
Cass “The fire truck”.
Steve “Wow! What did the fireman say?”
Cass “That we need to stop and rock and roll” (this statement was illustrated by her standing on the spot and gyrating her hips back and forth and playing air guitar)
Me “is there any chance they told you to stop, DROP and roll?”
Cass “No! It’s in the little book they gave me! “Stop and rock and roll!” (insert more hip gyrating here)
Steve had to get the ‘little book’ and read it to convince her that’s its considered safer to get low to the ground in a fire rather than do a bad Elvis impersonation.
fete-tasia.
Isaac’s school fete was today. You know the mothers that arrive at the fete with mountains of baking and crafts items, then spend the entire day manning half of the stalls single-handedly?
I wasn’t one of those.
Instead I made one measly batch of cupcakes the night before and tried to make myself feel better by making them cute. The theme of the fete was “Let your colours shine” with a rainbow in the logo, so I went with that. The cupcakes were rainbow inside too (I wish I made a spare so I could have got a photo of a cut one!) The cake lady seemed rather excited when I dropped them off and said they would flog them for $3.50 as they were “boutique” cakes. I felt like saying, ‘Honey, if you had seen me at 1am this morning, you would realise there’s nothing boutique-ish to see here’. More like the end of day special at Woolies.
There nothing like seeing your baby in a song and dance number to get the mummy juices flowing All the grade one’s were split into different colour groups and they sang songs for their colour. Isaac was in the Purple People Eater group and was rather delicous swinging his little hips.
The rest of the time was spent trailing around after kids hyped to the max on lollies and adrenaline. The giant slide was the number one attraction. Must say, I found watching kids with boundless energy run up stairs whilst I sat on my derriere with my hot chips a tad unsettling. Cassidy was a bit unsure but after one trip down the slide on my lap she declared she “could handle it” and made approximately 257 trips up and down. Instead of her usual 3000 word essay tonight at bedtime, she was out before her head hit the pillow. Thinking of re-designing the backyard to include a giant slide….
baby, its cold outside.
I’ve been a bit slack on getting photos of the Will-Meister lately. Today Em came over for a visit and we decided to put his chubby bits on display…..after all, they should be shared It really has been freezing in Brisbane the last couple of days, so we kept him inside with the heaters raging.
Look at him, sitting up in a high chair like a big boy. Where did our little baby go?
I wanted to get some more of him on the doll bed that I used for his newborn pics. He doesn’t fit on there quite as neatly anymore. Check out those man-boobs
I dare you not to melt at that smile.
We tried to keep him covered with blankets for all the shots because of the cold but had a hard time keeping them out of his mouth. Apparently 100% cotton is delicious and nutritious.
Aunty Kate loves you beautiful boy xoxo
blog in a fog.
A antihistamine induced fog that is. On the weekend the cough and cold germs that have been flinging themselves around our house with abandon for the past two weeks caught up to me. Thinking it has something to do with the amount of times I’ve been up close talking to the kids and they’ve sneezed directly down my breathing passages whilst I’ve had my mouth open in the middle of a sentence.
My sister unfeelingly said to me today “so when are you going to blog again”. Not “I’ll come over and make you tea and crumpets”, NO. Just “when are you going to blog again”. Granted she has a baby and we don’t want Will to get sick ya di da ya ya but what about meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…………
So basically I’ve been catching up with work in front of my computer and coming up with as many excuses as possible not to get dressed. And reading the sequel to Twilight, which my friend Liss gave me to pass onto my cold and unfeeling sister but I started reading instead, became a tad obsessed and now I’m trying to figure out how I can get the next couple of volumes off Liss without her realising because I horrified her by telling her I didn’t think the movie was much chop.
Oh, and seeing as we’re leaving for the snow in two weeks, looking at the Mt Hotham webcams has become a new, if slightly left-field, obsession as well. Isn’t it pretty?
The house we’re renting for ten days is just out of sight on the top of the kids practice slope in the first photo. The kids have never seen snow before so they’re getting a tad excited. I heard them talking about sleeping in their ski suits the other day. They don’t seem to grasp that it will be quite warm inside and they don’t need to be fully equipped in ski gear 24/7. Isaac seems to think he’s going to be some sort invincable ski-ing power ranger and I have spent some time trying to convince him that there may be quite a bit of crashing into guard rails before the invincible power ranger skills kick in.
In other news, Cassidy referrred to me the other night as I was putting her to bed as “slapper mummy”. I have no idea where this came from but it tickled my fancy and I had to exit the room. Steve took over by asking her in a stern voice, “What did you call mummy?” To which she replied, “ummmmmm…………Mr. Mummy??” Steve did the mouth twitchy thing he does when he’s about to lose compsure, but managed to hang on until we both kids were in bed. We then looked at each other and said, “slapper mummy?!?!” and collapsed.
We had the local paper contact us last week about doing a story on the photo booth for this week’s local paper. That came out today so I’ve been trying to answer the phone without soundling like I’m high on cold and flu medication. Last time I was sick I made the mistake of buying twelve hour Polaramine instead of the six hour and I was slurring my words for a week.
