Easter 2013

Easter Sunday was at our house this year.  Jo, Mark and the kids came over just after 9.30 for our Easter Egg hunt.  

Seeing Jo and I were raised by the same parents, its not surprising we have very similar outlooks on the non-traditional or commercial side of Easter.  Neither of us "get" the Easter Bunny, why has that become a thing recently.  We are all for the chocolate, but getting up early to see if the EB has been and then having the kids hyped up on choc from 5.30 am just does not make sense to us.  Phew.  Finally we agree on something.

The 4 little kids all got a basket each, Sheena and Roy made theirs at school.  Sheena's was very dodgy, Roy's had structure and was actually quite nice.  My little two got pink ones from K-mart.  I'm sure they will be psychologically scarred for life.

There was a decent amount of eggs *hidden* in the grass in the backyard.  To be fair, once they'd all been collected, they went back into the collective container and re-distributed.

It was a good hunt.

Here is a cute action shot.  Ryan is running, tongue is out for added balance and concentration.

Here is our posed one.  Sheena was already inside gobbling up her stash.  Roy looks gorgeous.  

Ben is doing his "cheese" face, which now necessitates a head tilt.

Ryan is showing off his basket, and I believe also "cheesing"

Gearing up

Went though all the emails from our hotel.  Its nerve racking, hope its as we are expecting, two rooms right next to each other.  Our room looks so nice, its open to the pool, so we're going to have to be neat or we're letting the team down.

Spent the night at Nathalia with the inlaws last night.  I would be quick to call it the best trip there ever.  It was just me and the kids, it was more relaxed than other times and we achieved something.  Spent 2.5hrs shovelling wood chips to a new garden bed.  Even little Ben had a rake.  Felt so good to give something back to them.  They are always helping us.  Our dogs are staying up there whilst we go away.  They are loving it.  Get to bark at cows, have a huge area to explore. They are lazy, so they are safe.

Today was the Bush Bash - sort of an Easter Festival.  There was a Turtle Parade, all the kids dressed up as turtles or butterflys/moths and walked down the main street.  Ryan really got into it.  Ben was a little bit little for the backpacks so he carried a stick with a cardboard witchety grub on it.  Then an author read her book about a long neck turtle which was partly written in the local aboriginal language.  I would have liked to get the book , but it was $25.. a bit much I think.  There was a display of live turtles that the boys really got into it.  Mark on the other hand is all about the food, more to the point, the drinks.

Going backwards

It was my thing, my proud mamma moment, my smugness.

Ryan and toilet training.  Just before he turned 3 we decided to ditch the nappies as he was showing interest in the toilet and zoom, it was pretty much done.  Took approx 3 days, just a couple of accidents and then he got it.  After a month or so, it occurred to me that he was dry most nights too, so we ditched the night nappy too.  He never required to be reminded (yes smug), he woke himself up and then woke me up to go to the toilet over night.  It was great.  A little annoying as he woke up several times a night to go to the toilet, but I thought well he's waking up so don't complain - I may have complained a couple of times.

Then about 10 days ago.  He was drenched in the morning.
9 days ago.  Drenched at midnight.
8 days ago.  Drenched at midnight and again in the morning.
7 days ago.  Drenched at some point through the night.
6 days ago.  Purchased some pullups and explained they were undies and to wake up and go to the toilet.  Drenched - including the sheet - in the morning.
5 days ago.  Pull ups - wet.
4 days ago.  OK enough is enough, I'll wake him.  Midnight, fully wet pull up, 5am dry.
3 days ago.  Missed the midnight and drenched including sheet in the morning.
2 days ago.  Woke at midnight - wet pull up, tossed and turned in bed with me, but did not wet again until morning.
Yesterday.    Missed getting him up at midnight, wet pull up at 4.45am and then went to the loo and then DID NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP.

Get the picture?? Ok I was pretty clear about it.

Why would this happen?  I've been a little/a lot cranky lately.  The excitement of our holiday?  But he was SO good, and now is SO bad.  I've limited his milk tonight.  Will get him up as I go to bed, hopefully he'll go straight back to sleep.  And then wake him again at 4-5am and again please go back to sleep.  Its just so odd.  suggestions?  Anyone??

HOLIDAYS

I'm officially on holiday.  I have 23 days off.  The first week, is BUSY.  

 

Tomorrow is cleaning, swimming, last minute shopping.

Friday - Good Friday - the kids, dogs and I drive to my in-laws for the night.  We are dropping the dogs off for a holiday, having a little catch up time and going to the Nathalia Easter Parade.

Back home Saturday, have a quick catch up with the Dunn/Storer family.

Sunday - Easter Sunday - my sister and her kids come over for a visit.  We'll have an Easter Egg hunt and some lunch.

Monday - Easter Monday - packing, generally freaking out and probably several mad dashes to the shops

Tuesday (with no associated Easter attached to it) is fly out day.  Our flight leaves at 10.30, so I'm guessing we get there 8.30 - 9ish.  Then onto Air Asia for our long flight.  8-10 hours for a Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur, then a 4 hour layover then a 2 hour flight to Phuket.  Getting to our hotel at 9.30pm local time, which I believe is 1:30am Melbourne time.  

Can anyone say exhausting?

Walk for the Kids

Did the Walk for the Kids today.

Its part of the RCH Good Friday appeal, which is held every year here in Melbourne Town.  Supposedly they raised $2million.

We were in the "short course" of 5.5km in the white zone.  White zone is for walkers, prams, wheelchairs etc.  I went with Jo and her friend Keri.

Despite all of those people.  We were last for 85% of the course.

We had to stop for the other two to go to the loo, the line up was big, and there were only 3 toilets at this spot at we were at the back of the line, so 20 minutes later, we re commenced the walk.  Not another person was in sight at this stage.  Once we hit past Birrarung Marr, on a tollway road, a car was backing along the road.  Weird the roads were closed for the FunRun.  The bloke in the car said "ladies, anyone behind you"  Nope we think we're last... he said, that's a shame I'm meant to be last.  And then he super slowly followed us for 4km!  It was excruciating.

So many people cheered us on.  Some teased us for having an ambulance behind us.  Then we overtook a woman with what I'm guessing to be cerebral palsy and we ended up being 2nd last.  Managed to chat the entire way and it was very pleasant.

At the end we were part of the tens of thousands that were milling around The Myer Music Bowl and the atmosphere was happy and sweaty.

Afterwards Jo and I went out for brunch and that was also quite delightful - despite no butter.

Caught the train home.

Books and bedtime

I was a naughty mother, not a fan of reading aloud.
Recently I sang my little heart out.

The last two weeks, the boys have been obsessed with books.  Ryan has memorised some of the books and can "read" them himself.

They laugh at the jokes.  Make up side story lines.

So at bed time, we are reading about 4 books, two songs (the favourite being Humpty Dumpty), kisses goodnight,  they have their milk and then I do the blast off.

Stand at the door, hand hovers over the light switch.

Five

Four

Three

Two

One...


Blast off.


Light goes off, mum leaves the room.  Thanks for playing, we're asleep now.

Long day

Hi!

Just thought I'd share my day... you know, with myself.

Up to have a shower before the little boys wake up, who am I kidding?
Both boys wake up at 6:55 and need a cuddle.  Put Mickey Mouse Funhouse on my phone and they both hang out on my bed watching that whilst I have my shower (this is a normal start to the day)
Wake Marko up and kick him out of bed, didn't want to get up today.  Even Ben says to him "in the shower" in a very bossy voice.
Ryan and Ben want Weetbix and thankfully they pretty much feed themselves.
Open the garage door for Jamie to come home.
Have the coffee machine ready for Jamie to make me a latte :)
Little boys want a hot chocolate, so have to make them for them, in Mark's special double walled cups.  Awesome milk moustaches in tiny faces.  Teach them to use the cloth napkins that I have made to wipe their faces.
Mark sees that hot choc is on offer, so make one more!

Just to let you know.  Ryan is naked for all of this.

Get two little boys dressed whilst they think they are playing a game of chasey - its challenging.

Make my lunch, convince Mark to make his own lunch (I do interact with Mark as well, give him a morning cuddle and then turn bossy).  Put the dishwasher on, take all of the recycling out and then put all the kids in the car to head off to work.

Drop Mark off at the shopping centre and he walks the a block and a half to school.  Head to childcare and drop of the littlies.  Ben's class was already outside and Ryan's class was learning about opposites (using flash cards)... when I picked him up I asked him "how did you go learning about opposites" the reply "oh mum, learning is hard"

Work was busy today. Lots of health assessments, careplans, flu vaccines, trying to put some order into the recall list, I feel I'm losing the battle with the recall list, not sure how much effort to put into it.

After work, picked up the kids and then dropped in home for a change of nappy and some spare clothes, then off to Connie & Paul's for dinner.  The boys love playing with Toby and looking/cuddling Zahli.  Had a super delicious dinner of schnitzel with a cornflake & parmesan cheese crumb, it was the best schnitzel I've ever had.  We ducked out for icecream and the boys were covered in chocolate creaminess.

Finally home at 7.45pm.  Boys went into the shower and Marko played his xbox. They are metrosexual kids, they like body wash of the puff rather than soap!  Then it was another game of chasey whilst getting them in their pjs.
Read three stories

 

Sang the usual songs - Bananas in Pyjamas, Twinkle Twinkle little star, Humpty Dumpty, If you're Happy and you Know it.

Milk for the fellas and then they went to sleep.

THEN... 4 loads of washing done and hung out. Marko emptied the dishwasher. I attempted some Easter craft, don't think it'll work, so I think it'll be a papermache basket for the Easter Egg hunt.

Of course I've also been Facebooking and writing this mammoth blog post.

Things I notice about today - no Jamie.  He came home from work at 7.30am, I left at 8am.  He left for work at 5.30pm, I got home at 5.35pm... yeah that works, thankfully that only happens on a Friday.

Now its 11pm, I forgot to have my Sifrol at 8.30, so the Restless Leg Syndrome is starting to kick in.  We are at day 6 of a heatwave, and its not due to break until Wednesday or Thursday of next week... every day over 30 degrees and its March.  I for one am sick of it.  Insomnia is easing, but I'm still not sleeping very well.

Ryanisms

"I'm not happy"
"I need a big milk"
"I need the blue one" in regards to the colour of his cup
"Benny needs you"
"I don't like it" in regards to anything that resembles healthy food.