Sunday Fun Day

Well we had a lovely Sunday today, Jack and I. After a leisurely sleep in (always sleep in in our house since Jack won't go to sleep before midnight lately) we packed up our brownies and headed off to meet up with Ollie and Jared and their respective elders for some morning playtime at the Botanical Gardens.

The kids have such a great time together, they are great mates. While I am very grateful that Jack is willing to keep his hat on when we are playing outside as I went through today's photos there were so many shots that would have been so great but you can't see Jack's face because it's covered by a hat.We went and checked out all the animals. How cute are these koalas all lined up in the tree? Awwww. And then before heading home we went down to the lagoon to feed the turtles. The lagoon water level was so low a few months ago but it's really filled up with all the rain and flooding we've had lately. It's a bit overun by the water hyacinth as you can see though. The turtles come right up out of the water to get the food. It's pretty cool.After our jaunt at the gardens we popped into the Warehouse to pick up a couple of things for Jack's party and then went through the car wash. At the gardens there is a particular type of bird that is hatching all their young and our car was absolutely covered in poo!! I was tossing up whether or not to just wash it at home or go through the laserwash but since Mum was coming over and I would have been both a bit pushed for time and repulsed at all the poo poo I decided on the laserwash. Good choice too it seems because it was staffed today so the poor bugger there scrubbed off all the birdy doo doos before I went through. I felt bad for him though, it was pretty gross.

Jack is at the age where he is "scared" of a few things, or at least he says he's scared of them. One of them is the laser carwash, he gets a bit freaked out and another of the new ones is driving down hills in cars. Now that one is a bit my fault. There's this hill in Rocky, North Street, and when we were kids Mum always used to hustle a little as she went down the hill. She wasn't breaking any land speed records or anything, in fact she would have probably been under the speed limit but this hill has this one wonky hump in the road which makes for a bit of a fun ride, well at least my brother and I used to think so. Apparently not Jack! I went down it the other day and when I looked in the 'Jack' mirror his face was a little worried and then today as I went down a different hill he pushed himself right up in his seat so he could see right out the front and made some comment about "that" hill. Poor little bugger.

Ok, so after we got home my Mum came over for her Sunday arvo visit and we decided to phone my Aunt Jenny to see if she'd like to come for our walk with us through the Kershaw Gardens. We had to meet up with her to look at the hall we're holding my Grandparent's party at anyway and she has mentioned a few times that she'd love to come on our walk as she's seen a few of the photos I've taken. I can't believe the difference down at the creek from the recent flooding. It has changed so much, the water course has forked off and there are riverstones everywhere. It's very interesting and quite amazing that so many stones could be moved such a distance. We only saw a couple of little water dragons today so I hope the big ones havn't been washed away. The little waterfall at the creek that they normally are at wasn't running though so I'm hoping that's why they weren't around. We had our normal big walk through the gardens checking out all the fungus's and things that my Mum always points out. How cool is this green fungus? This is straight out of the camera, the colour is just irridescent. We had a play on the swings and then headed home as it was getting a bit dark.As we were heading away from the swings I found a couple of dandelions, well thistley things at least, but they were so dry that they busted away as I was picking them but as we walked through the scented garden there was a whole weedy patch of them. Jack had a ball blowing them. I really love this photos with his big eyes and just starting to exhale and the colour contrast between the background and his pale skin and bright shirt. It'll definately get scrapped.

Well I'm off to watch some TV before bed.

See ya!

Reach for the sky...

Jack's third birthday isn't very far away and we're planning a Toy Story themed party. The other day I found a dress up set at the toy store with a hat, scarf and badge and I made a vest to go with it and here's Jack all "Woody'd" up!!

I'm going to make vests for the couple of other youngens that are attending as well. There is a costume shop in Yeppoon that has an adult sized Buzz Lightyear costume that I'd love to hire for Daddy to wear but Owen's not too keen and the shop is in Yeppoon so we'd have to drive down and back to pick it up and return it.

I took lunch over to my friend Charlene today to visit her and her new baby girl, Aeron. She is oooooh so very tiny and cute and sweet and I left feeling extra-ordinarily clucky. The beanie I made is a little bit big and would probably engulf her little face so I might have to have another go since it was so quick to make.

I took a couple of photos of her cute little feet and hands and her is my favourite one.She acutally has quite long feet and the most beautiful full pouty lips just like her Mum's.

Not much else to tell I'm afraid. Owen is off tomorrow and we're having lunch with some friends and then my Mum and Aunt's are coming over to go over some plans for my Grandparent's upcoming 60th wedding anniversary party.

Ok, catch you on the flipside. :)

Ready for a laugh?

Look what I scrapped!

Can you tell what it is? That's right, it's my cars tow ball cover. Isn't it cute. I've got to modge podge it first and I don't know how long it'll last but you never know.

And while we're looking at funny things. I got an email from a girlfriend the other day that just cracked my up so I just had to share it. I sent it to every woman in my address book. Check it out.

This one is my personal favourite.We headed down to the beach for the afternoon on Saturday. Here's Jack, Daddy and Great Grandma Jean at the beach.Jack paddling in a rock pool. We headed back to the beach house where my nephew Joe and his mate were playing soccer so Jack went out and had a bit of a kick around.Here's my brother Kev, my Mum, my Grandma and my Aunt Jenny sitting out watching the boys play. Just like old times!!Here's Jack cute little happy Easter face (and his rock star guitar jocks), just after his egg hunt. He has eaten soooooooooo much chocolate.And this is the yummy yummy Cappuccino Panna cotta with coffee sauce I made. As I said I've been watching Top Chef and I'm all inspired to cook now. Speaking of panna cotta I'm going to plate up some now and grab a cuppa. Ciao!

Happy Easter!!

Well it's the Easter weekend!! Jack and I have made an Easter basket and a bunny mask. He's going to be excited tomorrow when he sees all his Easter eggs. I'm going to put some little eggs around the house for him to find as well. Last night we went to the riverside playground for a BBQ dinner with our friends Kim, David, Jared & Charlotte and Erica, Pete, Lauern & Hayley. It

was a fun night. The kids just love that playground. We took a couple of bikes for the kids to ride around the tracks too. Jack dosn't quite seem to get the gist of peddling, although it may be a ploy to get pushed, he can't seem to co-ordinate which leg to push with. Not that he gets many opportunities to ride though I guess. He woke up last night with leg cramps though so he must have worked pretty hard, poor little bugger. Owen had to get in the shower with him at 4am to try to soothe his legs, shit nights sleep for our household in other words. Jack, Jared and Lauren having a play

Jack on the slide.

Here's Jack bunny mask that we made the other day. It's a bit glam! but the kit was on special at spotlight the other day.

Brenda showed the beanie she made for Ruby on her blog the other day and I thought I'd have a go as well since I'd bought some ultra cheap needles at spotlight the other week. I'm not a very good knitter. I can make scarfs, that's about it. I used to knit when I'd quit smoking to try to keep my hands occupied. So anyhoo, here it is and it's not too bad.It would probably look a bit better on a baby's head rather than a wicker ball LOL. I made it for my friend Charlene's new baby girl, Erin. I'm not sure if it'll fit though, we'll see. After I finished this one I went and bought some more wool to make one for myself with a matching scarf to take to the Scraptacular retreat since they're saying that it snowed there at about the time of the retreat last year. I hope it does snow, I've never seen snow before.

My Mum dropped off a little gift for Jack for Easter the other day. She got him a little bunny rabbit bag with an Easter egg in it and this cute little fella that someone she works with made. Isn't it cute.

I made some White Chocolate and Pistacio truffles yesterday to take to the park last night. They're very yummy!!I was called into the bedroom by the boys the other night to see what they'd made...a tent on the bed. Jack thinks it's great. Daddy hides under there on my laptop and Jack watches DVD's. Boy time!! I've been watching Top Chef, I love it!And "Pink My Ride" has started!! I put my pretty pink new wiper blades on the other day and then when I was at K-Mart the other day I found some pink tyre valve caps!! I was so excited, I'd seen them on eBay but they were about $8 + postage and these ones were only $4.something. Cute hey. I'm going to scrap my towball cover and then modge podge it. LOL!! I doubt it'll last very long though but we'll see.OK, I'm getting attitude from Owen to get my butt moving. We're going down to the beach for the afternoon.

See ya!!

Aye, to be sure, to be sure and begorah!!

Well tomorrow is St Patrick's Day and after a conversation with Kim the other night I decided to host an irish themed dinner for my Mums/Bubs group friends. We feasted on Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks with Champ and cabbage with bacon and then for desert I made a White Chocolate and Bailey's Cheesecake. Unfortunately Owen and I didn't quite make it to desert...Jack had an accident. I don't really know what happened as I was in the kitchen at the time but Jack fell off the back of the lounge chair and landed on his head. Poor little bugger, it was a big thump. He screamed and screamed and cried and cried and then he was all sleepy and acting a bit confused so after a call to 13HEALTH and a conversation amongst the group off we headed to the hospital. My Mum had stayed after her Sunday visit to have dinner with us so she let our guests out and cleaned up while we were away. When we were driving across the bridge to go to the hospital Jack pointed to the crane that's at a worksite on the river edge and called it the "big doctor" even when we corrected it he still said the same thing so I think he was a bit shook up but by the time we got in to see the doctor he was okay. We were given the option of staying overnight in hospital or going home (since we're only 5 minutes away anyway) and we have to keep him up until midnight (4 hours from the bump) and then we have to wake him every 2 hours to make sure he's okay, which chose the latter. He seems okay now though, just complaining of a sore ear every now and then. I hope poor Owen's not too tired for work tomorrow.

So anyhoo, have a nice St Patty's Day everyone.

Oh how I wish I could dance...

I missed this weeks "So You Think You Can Dance" because we were away and I've just watched it tonight and it just absolutely blew me away. There were three routines that I watched over and over.
Rhys (who is one of my favourites) and Jemma's hip hop routine just rocked!! It was so cool especially the start with the whole butt thing. Just crazy!!

Henry and Vanessa's fabulous african samba that was choreographed by Jason Gilkison was just magnificent. Very funky!! It's fantastic to see this kind of thing on TV because it's really not what you expect from ballroom and I really think it will entice a lot of young people to try ballroom dance.

And the comtemporary routine by Graeme (my other favourite dancer) and Kate was just sublime. I've just watched it over and over and over and every time I've watched it tears have welled in my eyes. Just magical.

Just beautiful.

We're home...(warning-lots of photos ahead)

...from our little trip away and we had a fabulous time.

We flew to Brisbane on Saturday afternoon for Jack's first ever plane ride. I kitted him out in his Jay Jay the jetplane shirt and Grandma gave him an airplane sticker book for the flight down. Take off was a bit frightening for him the poor little bugger. He was gripping onto our arms and burying his head crying and started to get all hot a sweaty but after we were up in the air and the sticker book came out he was okay, although he didn't really want to look out the windows. Landing wasn't too bad though. As we were turning to come into the airport he was "Wooooo, woooo, woooo"ing as the airplane tipped but he was okay. We saw the big cranes at the docks as we were coming in which was very exciting apparently because Jack started calling out, "Look look everybody!! There's cranes over there!! Look!!" He gave our arms a bit of a squeeze on landing (which was a bit bumpy I might add) but so did Daddy.

Our wonderful friend Michael who we stayed with while we were there came and collected us from the airport which was great and we headed back to his place and grabbed some dinner, had a chat then bunked down for the night.

Sunday morning we were heading off to pick up the car that we went down to buy. We caught the train much to Jack's excitement. His first ever train ride! While we were standing at the station he was asking if it was going to be a deisel or a steamy which I thought was so cute. He enjoyed the ride although 3 stations before our stop he said he had to go to the toilet but luckily he held it until we got to our stop. We went and bought the car and then headed off for Dreamworld, my first time driving on the motorway!!

We didn't get to Dreamworld until after 12 but we still had enough time to see everything (except the chocolate shop that I wanted to see but that's probably a good thing). We started off at Wiggle World but the lines were a bit long so after having a photo with Captain Feathersword we went to check out the animals first. Jack got to pat a kangaroo and we saw the koalas and tassie devils and some birds and snakes and things. We went for a look at the log ride but decided not to go on it. Again the lines were really long and it's a pretty big drop at the start and you get a bit wet. We headed off to check out the Nickelodeon area and have a go on some of the rides there like the carosel and the plane ride. We went on the Dreamworld train ride and then headed back to Wiggle World and had a go on the teacup ride and the big red car which Jack absolutely loved!! To finish off our day we had an ice cream and then we headed back to Michael's. We forgot to go to Tiger Island (doh!!) which was a bummer.

Sunday night Jack woke up crying in the middle of the night (we were all sharing a bed, Michael's bed in fact which he kindly gave up for us). Owen and I both sat half upright asking Jack what was wrong (he had earlier said his tummy hurt, that should have given us a clue right) and then Jack vomited all over Owen and the bed. Poor little man, that's the first time he's ever been physically sick. We're not sure what was wrong, I think maybe a bit of dehydration coupled with rides that go round and round and round and round. We had a bit of a restless night but after some panadol the next day he was right as rain (unlike Michael's pillow, which of course we replaced with a new one).

Monday after a bit of a GPS detour (have no idea what setting we had it on, wild goose chase maybe?) we headed down to Seaworld. Again we didn't get there until lunchtime (we're not really known for our puctuality :P) but we still only missed out on seeing the dugongs, well we didn't see the polar bears either but that was because they weren't in their yard. We watched the Bert and Ernie stage show first which was fantastic, the costumes were just superb. Jack really enjoyed it and was dancing away up on Daddy's shoulders. Then we went and watched the sea lion show which was great as well. Jack was just awestruck and his eyes were just glued to the stage. After that we headed down to the dolphin show which was just spectacular. I had tears in my eyes at the wonder of the dolphins. They are just magical animals, so strong...just beautiful. After the dolphins we went and watched the 4D Planet SOS movie. Jack nearly pooed his pants. It's a bit scary for little kids but it's just incredible how good the effects are. After that we went and checked out the rock pool area and the underwater shark aqaurium, then the penguins, then tried to spot the polar bears and then we hit the rides. Daddy was the lucky one that got to go on all the rides. The props in the Sesame Beach area are phenomenal. It is the best display I've ever seen, so bright and colourful and genuine looking. The rides were great too although I'm not sure if Jack particularly enjoyed the Big Bird Bounce.The poor boy beside him didn't enjoy it at all and the ride had to be stopped because his eyes started rolling back in his head, poor kid. When it started back again Jack started to get a bit scared but luckily there were some older girls on the ride that held his hand which I was very thankful for since I was on the ground crying for my poor baby. When he came off the ride though and we asked if he wanted another turn he said yes. Cheeky kid. We finished off the day with and ice cream and then once again headed back to Michael's.

So that was our little weekend away. It was just great. It's nice to get away from home, it makes you feel like you've had a real break. We're planning on going next year again but staying longer obviously so we can check out the zoos and movie world as well, and maybe squeeze in a bit of shopping.

Our trip home went really well. We bought a power thing for the laptop to plug into the car so Jack could watch DVD's on the way home and he did really well considering the length of the trip, about 8 hours. The car went great too which is good. It's a 1993 Holden Rodeo, so it's a bit older but the engine and the cab look in great condition, the back is a bit dinted and had a bit of surface rust but Owen has plans apparently. I'm excited too because now that he has a car the Magna is now "my" car so it's about to get girlied up with some pretty pink accessories and eventually a respray with some new pink pinstriping.

Well I better go do some washing and clean the house...back to normality.