New traditions

I've always loved the wooden advent calendars I've spied in the homewares shops, but each Christmas I've kept it cheap and bought the $2 chocolate ones instead. This Christmas I bit the bullet and spent some money on a wooden one.

This Christmas I'm starting a new tradition. Rather than the kids getting a chocolate each day, we are going to really get into the festive spirit with Christmas-themed family activities to countdown the days. Each day there will be a note in a box and I'm hoping every morning I will see excited faces, eager to find out what each day reveals. To put a stop to tears and tantrums over who gets to open the day's box, they will take it in turns. I'll be keeping the wording of each activity simple, so Henry will have to read each note to discover the surprise.

Some of the activities I've got planned are: decorate the Christmas tree; read Christmas stories; sing Christmas songs; make and decorate a gingerbread house; visit the Christmas lights; go Christmas shopping; write and deliver their Christmas cards; give to a charity; give gifts to their teachers; and wrap presents. Of course, I'm not a complete grinch and on some days they'll get a chocolate or lolly, and I've even planned a little treasure hunt in the garden.

So four more sleeps until the advent calendar makes it's appearance. I'll keep you posted on how successful it is.

One word

The other day I asked Michael if he could choose one word to describe each of the kids what would it be. His answers were:
Henry - precious
Milly - volatile
Buster - cheeky.

I've thought about my own responses too.
Henry - daydreamer
Milly - impossible
Buster - rascal.

Hope that paints a picture for you.

The Boo turns two

Our little man has turned two. And when I say little, I mean little, because he is still growing into many of his size 1 clothes. But don't think just because he is small he is still a baby. Buster has a big vocabulary and his language skills are very good. He is physically very capable and has great coordination. So to celebrate his achievements and birthday milestone we had a little get together on the weekend with my brother and his family to celebrate.

Buster seemed a natural when it came to present opening. No one need show him how to do it, he instinctively ripped open his gifts like a seasoned professional. This was a bit of a disappointment to Henry, who was quite keen to open Buster's presents for him.

I'd made Buster a train cake. He was very good a blowing out the candles and then helping himself to the lollies decorating the cake.

On the morning of Buster's actual birthday we were all woken quite early by a very excited Henry - excited because he wanted to open Buster's presents. Buster is quite used to fending off his big brother and sister and voicing "mine", and was more than capable of opening his own presents.

Funnily enough, after his midday nap the first thing he said when I picked him up out of his cot was "more pressies". Thankfully during his nap time a courier and the postman had made their deliveries and I was able to oblige Buster his need for "more pressies".

After a long day of present opening, playing and taking birthday phone calls, our little man was tired. Some cuddles from Mum ended his special day.

The toothy milestone

After watching some of his pre-school and then school friends lose their teeth Henry was beginning to wonder when it would happen for him. Finally about three months ago his first tooth started to wobble. It was just a little wobble, but it was enough to get him excited. Not much as happened with that tooth over the past few months but last week it suddenly started to wobbly a bit more and then it was barely hanging on.

It's final moment came during dinner. It was getting in the way of him eating his pasta and he just pulled it out.

We wrapped the tooth in some tissue and put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy. He couldn't wait to find out if the tooth fairy would take it away and leave him some money. I let him know that the tooth fairy often gives the first tooth back to the Mum and Dad for a keepsake, because it is a special tooth.

The next morning at 5:50am Henry woke me up to show me his $2 and tell me his tooth was gone. I told him to look under my pillow to see if the tooth fairy had left it behind for me. Surely enough, the tooth fairy had.

Living in fear

You might not know it, but Michael and the kids certainly do. I hate lizards and snakes. Sorry, I don't think I made myself clear enough. I HATE LIZARDS AND SNAKES!!!!! My skin crawls, my heart beats faster from the fear, I freeze, I flee, I panic, I jog on the spot flapping my hands. They freak me out. I can't even see the ones at the zoo, even though they are behind glass. Just being near the entrance to the reptile section of the zoo, without even seeing anything, has me rocking backwards and forwards like a crazy person. Just watching them slither about, or their scaly skin glisten, their tongues......eeeeekkk! Just typing this is giving me the heebie jeebies.




So you can now imagine how I felt when Henry announced that he found a blue-tongue lizard in the garden. I froze. Completely froze. Michael had to go and confirm it was a blue-tongue, it was alive, and it was slithering about.

Now, I know that blue-tongues are harmless and they are in fact good for my vegie patch. They eat the snails, slugs, and caterpillars. They are doing me a service, I should be grateful. But I'm not about to start a fan club or give the lizard a medal. Instead, I'm now living in fear everytime I walk out the backdoor. Worse still, I have discovered the lizard's hide out. MY VEGIE PATCH. The perfect spot for it to sunbake. Aaarrrgggghhhhh!

So now everytime I'm heading out to the backyard I'm creeping about on my tip toes on the look out for the bloody lizard.

Note: A special acknowledgement to Michael for taking the photo of our lizard. I can't even look at it.

Bringing in the age

It has been a wonderful week. A week that has restored my love of celebrating birthdays. For a number of years now I've groaned at the thought of having a birthday party or making a fuss about turning another year older. But in the past seven days I've helped a friend turn 40 with our friends, been out to a fancy dinner with Michael and some close friends, had a surprise party with my Mother's Group, and have finished it off with a party with my family. Being with my friends and my family and sharing it all with them has left me feeling pretty special indeed.

So the family dinner was a chance to entertain. My Dad and Tracey drove down from Coffs Harbour, my brother and family drove up from Sydney, my step sister Nikki joined us from Sydney too, and Mum and Peter completed the mix.

Somehow I managed to take few photos of me and the family, but not surprisingly took plenty of photos of the food. All homemade by me and Michael. Mum made my cake.

My birthday cocktail. Vanilla, pear and vodka.


Starters.
Potato foccacia with tomato, oregano and black olives.
Mushroom, feta and thyme tartlets.


Mains.
Roman style gnocchi baked with radicchio, gorgonzola and walnuts.


Mains.
Eggplant parmigiana.


Mains.
Pear, pecorino, walnut and current salad.

Chocolate mud cake.

So here I am with Mum and Dad. None of us quite believing I've made it this far. I'm hoping (and I'm sure they are too) I last another 40 years.

Rhymes with sporty

Well I've just celebrated a birthday milestone. I've reached an age where I always thought of other people at that age as older, mature, senior. I don't feel any of those things. I still feel like I'm in my early 30s, but the person looking back at me in the mirror looks older.

I had a great birthday (and my birthday festival ain't over yet). I was spoiled by Michael and the kids, surprised by the ladies in my awesome Mother's Group, and received lots of phone calls and well wishes from family and friends. What more could a girl ask for.

Some of my birthday pressies. From Michael, a fancy pants watch that operates as a heart monitor and GPS system for when I go jogging. And a silver bracelet from my sister-in-law.

An indulgent morning tea with my Mother's Group. Check out that birthday cake.


Happy Birthday to me.

Inside the strawberry mousse cake. And yes, it tasted as good as it looks.

Mmm, my birthday dinner cooked by my wonderful Michael.

The end to a perfect day. Dinner with Michael and kids.

More celebrations to come. We are hosting a family birthday dinner this weekend. Expecting Mum to gross everyone out with my birth story.

Big day out

We recently had a wonderful weekend spent together as a family. It's not often the diary is clear of markets, sporting activities, or other gatherings and we can just enjoy the day as it presents itself with just the five of us. So we headed out to a local spring fair, then on to a massive playground, and finally in the late afternoon we went to the beach.

Buster trying to hijack a fire engine.


The super slide.

A spider monkey.

A bucket and spade.

Milly finally over her fear of the beach.

Boogie boarding.

No he's not frightened of the seagull, he's shivering.

Raiding the neighbours

One of our neighbours has a big mulberry tree that looms over our fence in the backyard. It is currently full of berries and guess who love helping themselves to the spoils?

The great thing about mulberries is the stain they leave on your face, hands and clothes when you eat them. It is the type of stain that leaves no one wondering what you've been up to. When you're a kid you can't just pinch and sneakily eat a mulberry. The evidence is there for all to see.


The lower branches of the tree get raided almost daily and when there are no ripe mulberries left Henry and Milly need a boost up on the roof of the shed to get more. Poor Buster can't reach any of the branches and there is no way we are letting him on the shed roof, so he has to rely on Henry and Milly to drip feed him some berries. Naturally he gets a bit frustrated with this, because there is nothing he'd like better than to help himself to the berries and have an adventure on the roof of the shed.



We've had so many berries from the tree. We've mixed them in ice cream, added them to a fruit salad, and I'm thinking of putting them in my next rhubarb crumble because I've more rhubarb to harvest.

One thing is for sure. While the picking is good, the kids will be picking.

Fantastic Mr Fox

During the school holidays Nanoo had planned on taking Henry and Milly to see a production of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. On performance day Nanoo was feeling a bit unwell, so we traded places (ie she looked after Buster). It was a rare treat for me to take the kids. Usually I'm rushing them to school, preschool, swimming lessons etc. It's all go, go, go. It's rare I get to do something fun with them, where I can sit down and enjoy the experience to.


We packed a lunch and joined the other punters. The play was being performed outside and thankfully the rain that has been ever present the past few months stayed away (only just).

The tree and the foxes hole. Mr Fox and Mrs Fox.

The farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean.

The feast.

The play was performed by a young drama school and I have to say it was really good. Henry and Milly were already familiar with the story having been read the book a few times and they really enjoyed it to.

Henry takes Buster for a ride

A little brotherly love.

Buster loves being taken for a car ride. He'd love to drive the car himself, but he's such a shorty his little legs can't reach the pedals yet. Which is good news for the garden, because we are sure he'd be a speed demon if he could get behind the wheel himself and he'd tear up the garden. He's fallen off the back a couple of times, but he doesn't mind. He just climbs back on board and off they go again.