Finally!

After a full year of owning a caravan we FINALLY put up the annex which came with it! The Prismalls are hopefully going to sleep in it tonight so let's hope it is weatherproof.

Christmas Eve

We had a fantastic Christmas Eve this year with our friends: Kate and her three kids, and Tina and Shane and their three.  It was BBQ sausages for the kids, followed by roast lamb for the adults.  Champagne was drunk, the kids went nuts on the trampoline and in the sand pit and were barely recognisable at the end of the evening, but it was fabulous.  It is wonderful to have such great friends.

Jack's Kinder Concert

After a fantastic year at Kinder, Jack's Christmas concert was on my birthday.  It was a great show.  A nativity scene, followed by presentation to the parents of all the kid's kinder work for the year, then a visit from santa (one of the kids dressed up!), presents for all the kids, and I won the raffle!!

In the nativity scene, Jack was one of the three Kings:

First BBQ of the Summer

A week ago we had a fantastic afternoon at my friend, Tina's place.  A nice hot day, a ridiculous amount of food, 3 families with 9 kids between us, a shady deck, big lawn, and a sprinkler.  The perfect Aussie summer celebration...

A Visit from Pop

We have just had a lovely 2 day visit with John.  He has been really busy this year so we haven't seen as much of him as usual and so it was great to catch up with him again.  He arrived late Saturday night, so the kids stayed up to welcome him:

On Sunday, John took the kids (and Justin) shopping for birthday / christmas presents, and then they all went to the movies.  That afternoon was spent playing with said toys.  Lego for Jack, a matchbox car truck for Cooper, and a helicopter for Justin.

Today it was more playing with lego while Jack was at kinder:

Then a quick tour of Jack's kindergarten before a visit to Mum and Dad's and then home again to Canberra.  A flying visit, but good fun.

Christmas Lights

We have a neighbour up the street who goes all out with his Christmas Lights each year, and we have always intended to take the kids to have a look.  Unfortunately in other years, I have either been pregnant, or at home looking after the baby when the lights go on - at about 8.45pm because of daylight savings.  This year we finally made it there as a family!!! We had a good chat with the guy who puts it all up - he runs a generator to keep the lights aglow.  The kids thought it was fantastic!

The Garden

Well, after a lot of time being put off due to higher priorities (such as a mudpit backyard), we have finally been able to finish beautifying one of our front gardens.

We.... (actually, Dad - thanks Pa!) ... removed the ugly old water fountain a while ago and the garden has been a mixture of dirt and weeds since, so on the weekend Justin did a few Bunnings runs, chose plants and mulch, did some serious digging to remove most of the old plants, and the end result is fantastic.  It is mainly Australian natives now including a few different varieties of Grevilleas.

Little old man...

The other night, when I told Jack and Cooper to visit the toilet prior to bath time, Lachlan announced that he needed to do 'POOS'.  I let him leave the bathroom still wearing his nappy, assuming he would return with the other boys. 

He didn't.

I went to find him about 10 minutes later, to discover him extremely comfortable, having collected his 'Thomas' book prior to his toilet visit:

Day of Visitors

On Tuesday we had a visit from our old neighbours.  Allyson was down from Cairns and she came with  her son, Roman (on Allyson's lap), Norm, Julie, and Warren's son, Jack.  We had a fantastic morning, a few scones, and a very relaxed chat.  It was great to catch up.

Tina from Mother's Group took this photo.  She and my other friend Kate came from lunch time until about 3, so we had 8 kids between us running through the house.

Then at dinner time, Justin arrived with another two visitors - James (aka Bushy), and Drew:

They both stayed for dinner, and Bushy stayed the night.  It was wonderful to see them both again.  Jack and Cooper took no 'warming up' time at all.  It was straight into tickle fights and silliness.  After great hilarity and excitement they were particularly reluctant to go to bed that night!!

Visit to Grandma

I have been visiting Grandma every Monday (health of my crew permitting).  I drop Jack and Kinder, and then off to visit Grandma with the younger two.  Today was no exception.  Grandma seems well and very positive in herself, and had visits from Noel and Pam, and Sue and Sam over the weekend.  Paul and Allira had also sent photos of Greg's kids and grandchildren, so she had a bit of info to share.  Lachlan and Cooper are very relaxed around Grandma now, and show her their latest book/toy/iPad game!!

Sunday night relax...

I have been accused of letting the family standards down in my blogging regularity so I thought I would have my first attempt at a 'from the ipad' blog. We have just finished a very relaxed family catch up at our place which ended with the kids all watching the movie 'Shorts', (which my boys insist on calling 'that movie 'Pants''!

Dad has taken the required photos so refer to his blog for updates in on that front!

Jack had his last school transition session on Friday. We are all done with school stuff now until he meets his teacher for a one hour session just before my birthday. The school info night was on Thursday and there are 83 preps and 4 classes where they are keeping the kinder groups together so Jack should know a good 10 kids in his class including his 3 best mates. All in all I am a very happy Mum! We bought his school bag yesterday which he was impressed with because it weighs 'much less than my kinder bag!'. We had to explain the concept of a full bag versus an empty one! A few months more and I will have a school boy. Yipeeeee!

Big School Boy

A few days ago we had a big day out when Mr Jack got all ready for school next year.  Yes, his mother did have a 'moment' when she saw him in his big school outfit!!

Now we are Bloggers!!

After watching with awe the gloriousness of our family bloggers, we have decided to join in, and here is our first one!

The Badger Creek Caravan Park of our youth has been upgraded with a new swimming pool, jumping pillow and new play ground.  We had a fantastic weekend away.  The kids rode bikes and scooters, we went for a tour around Healsville and the local farmers market, and then came back to the caravan park to have a relaxed time enjoying the facilities.

Here is evidence that I did get in the water with my boys at Badger Creek.  It was a glorious afternoon, beautiful hot weather, perfect for caravanning and playing with our kids.

Lachy wasn't as keen on getting completely freezing, so Justin and I took it in turns paddling with him in the kids pool.

Fantastic time had by all.