Micayla's 6th Birthday Party

On Saturday 28th October, Micayla celebrated her 6th birthday with a disco party. We decorated the garage with disco lights, ball and had a smoke machine. There was a total of 26 kids but thankfully I didn't have to feed them lunch. The party was from 2.30 to 4.30pm and they nibbled away on party food till it was all gone and drank coloured lemonade. They couldn't believe how I could make plain lemonade turn orange, blue, yellow, red, purple, pink or green just by pouring it into a cup. We played, musical statues, limbo, pass the parcel and smashed away at a pinata as hard as they could, but still it wouldn't break. They had so much fun dancing to all the latest Top 40 songs (and so did Mel and I) and also did the Macarena, the birdy dance and the hokey pokey (and so did Mel and I). We ran out of time to to do the conga line. They were also given glow sticks at the beginning of the party, which they made into bracelets, necklaces and earings. They were glowing everywhere. Micayla's birthday cake was ice cream and decorated in sugar crystals and stars, which I made all myself. Micayla said her party was cool and she loved celebrating it with all her friends. She was also very lucky to have Kealy stay over for a sleepover and they both slept on the air mattress together on the floor in her bedroom. The first thing they did in the morning was play with Micayla's dress ups. Her room look liked a bomb had gone off.

Even though the pictures don't show it, it was dark in the garage and the disco lights and glow jewellery lit up the room. One side of the room was decorated with black sheets and a purple sheer cloth with glitter spots all over it draped in front and the lights glittered off the glitter.

Mum's 70th

On 21st October we went to Ballarat to celebrate Mum's 70th Birthday. The party was at Rochelle's house. It was just a small group of family and friends of Mum and Dads from the past 40+ years. It was a great day although very cold. Mum and Dad really enjoyed having their friends and family around.

This photo is of Mum with her kids. Left to right, my brother rohan, my sister Rochelle, Mum, my brother Geoff and me.

What birthday wouldn't be complete without a photo with her grandkids. Left to right Kieran, Liam, Taylah, Micayla, Lachlan and Bailey in the front.

Kieran and Taylah belong to Rochelle and Mark, Liam and Lachlan belong to Rohan and Wanda and of course you know who Micayla and Bailey belong to. Dale and Wayne belong to Geoff but they couldn't make it to the party.

We had a spit roast and salads and as usual there was way too much food. But it was all very delicious. It was great catching up with the people I haven't seen in years. Some of them were parents of kids I went to primary school with. And of course as it is every party I make the cake for, it's heartbreaking to put the knife through the cake.

The kids had a lot of fun together and their Uncle Geoff took them all for a ride in the back of his ute. Micayla and Taylah were calling him "funny Uncle Geoff". Geoff is a big kids himself.

I WON AGAIN!!!!

I can't believe the luck I'm having this year. I am someone who never wins anything and so far this year I have won 4 different things, including this one.

I received a surprise parcel yesterday morning from Scrapbooking Memories. It's paints and mediums and kindy glitz from the Matisse range. I did the 25 words or less thing from Vol 8 No 1 and actually WON! Yeah!!!! I so wanted this stuff too.

So it is true, you can actually win with those 25 words or less comps. Sorry can't offer any tips. I can't even remember what I rattled off. All I can say is you've got to be in it to win it! Keep playing and one day it will pay off.

Whooo Hooooo!!!

This is what I won!

Bailey's now in K1 Swimming

Bailey had his first swimming lesson today in K1. He swims at Kings Swim Centre and their independant swimming lessons are graded from K1 to K12. He is just tall enough to go in the shallow end on his tip toes and have the water just under his lips. Micayla was at the same height when she went in by herself for the first time. Micayla is now K5, almost ready for K6.

I've been swimming with him in the parent and child class since he was 14 months old and Bailey turns 3 next month. Boy am I glad I don't have to get wet anymore. I also did it with Micayla from the time she was 10 months old until she was 2 months off 3.

Bailey did very well. He was happy to be in the water on his own. Didn't always do what the teacher told him though. The photo where he is walking with the board, he is actually supposed to be flat in the water kicking. The other photo where he is against the wall of the pool, he is standing flat footed and the water covers his lips. He's ok if he walks on his tip toes, which is what he does. By the end he was jumping in to his teacher, but this is something he shouldn't actually do unless asked to. Luckily there was only 1 other boy in his class who was quite competant in that level and she was able to help Bailey out a lot.


When he finished he got is K1 certificate.

Micayla's School Sleepover

Micayla spent last night sleeping in the hallway of her school. It was her prep class school sleepover. She was so excited to get to school and lay out her bed next to her friends. They had an evening of activities and their dinner was party food. She said that ate party pies, chips, sausage rolls and had ice cream. Apparantly they got to sleep around 11.00pm and they started popping their heads up off the pillows at around 6.00am. Then it was breakfast of wheat bix and toast. Micayla said "I didn't eat my wheat bix because they were cold and you know I like my wheat bix warm". The morning activity was making their own lunch to eat at lunch time. We picked up the kids at 1.pm because the kids were supposed to be tired but I think the teachers had had enough by then was more to the point. When I picked her up everyone elses beds and bags were packed up ready to go, except of course Micayla's, hers was still spread everywhere and her bag half unpacked. This is typical. Micayla then went to play at her friend Paige's house.

It was weird only tucking in one child to sleep last night. Every night before I go to bed I go and tuck the kids in some more and give them another kiss goodnight. Last night I tucked Bailey into bed and then looked into Micayla's empty room and I missed her.

Silvers Circus

On Wednesday 4th October we took the kids to see Silvers Circus. They were amazed at the magic and the amazing acrobats they performed. Adrian and I have been to see Cirque d'Solei and found this circus just does not compare, but the kids loved it. They've never been to anything like this before. I thought Bailey would've got bored and start running around chairs etc as a normal 2 year old would do, but he too was in awe of it all and either sat in his own chair or on our laps with his eyes peeled on the performances, clapping when he saw something he liked.

Aarrrgghhh!!! Kids - Who'd 'ave 'em!!!!

Sometimes our toilet button gets stuck and I could hear the toilet water still running so I went to investigate and release the button, only to find the ensuite flooded. Bailey had stuffed about 2/3 of a toilet roll down the toilet. I had about 2 inches of water all over the ensuite floor and spilling out over the carpet. So now I have a mopping up/drying out process of carpet to do. Aaarrggghhh!

Luckily though the worst of it was all over the tiles and only a small spillage onto the carpet. Heater drying on it now as I type. LOL

Grand Final Day

We really weren't interested in the Grand Final this year; again! We are the typical Victorian supporters who don't like interstate teams in the Grand Final. So instead we went shopping. We called into Olympic Fitness, where my brother Rohan works because we are going to buy a cross trainer. Then we went to Impact Blinds and purchased timber venetians for a bathroom, toilet and ensuite windows. This is something we have wanted on our window since we built the house 9 years ago and finally did something about it. The plan was to hang them on the windows the same day. We also went to Bunnings and spent a voucher Adrian received from my parents for his birthday back in January. We bought some plants for the front garden. They were also going to be planted the same day. Just as we pulled up in the driveway Adrian got a call from his mate Darren; who was already drunk from being at a Grand Final Breakfast, inviting us around for a BBQ at Mel's parents place. Not wanted to knock back a fun day out with friends we accepted.

When we got there we couldn't get in the door before Darren came out showing us his new car. A VE SSV. What a HOT car! We went for a drive. Adrian drove, while I sat in the front passenger and Darren in the back. Boy does that car go. I could not believe the short distance it took to reach 110kph. I was just itching, I just had to have a drive. It is certainly not like the commodores we have come to know over the last few years. This car is in a league of it's own. I have never driven a car that handles anything like this one. WOW!!! is all I can say.

Well the whole day was shot then. Adrian drank his beer all a little too fast to "catch up to Darren" and he suffered. Poor "Chucky" was not well at all when we got back to Darren and Mel's. I had to take him home and he was in bed asleep I think by about 9pm. But I do have to say, even though I wasn't interested in the Grand Final this year, what an awesome last quarter to watch. Even I was screaming at the TV. All I can say now is Go Dons! I know they had a crap year, but maybe next year we can do better.

Ballarat

On Thursday and Friday we all spent a couple of days visiting Ballarat. It was the first time the four of us all stayed at my parents house in Ballarat together as a family. Adrian visits them when he goes to Ballarat to see customers and drops in to see my parents or stays overnight if he has to do an overnight trip. I took the kids in the last September holidays when we visited Sovereign Hill with Krista from Holland. But this time we finally went together. I used to go with Adrian on every Ballarat trip but it's very difficult now the kids are all at school, it makes visits very few and far between.

I also spent a lot of time around at my sisters. Micayla just loves to play with Kieran and Taylah. Taylah and Micayla love to dress up and play shops and Kieran was entertaining Bailey a lot of the time. Bailey just loved it. I got some excersise by walking around to Rochelle's, then Adrian picked me up when he finished work. We watched the Footy Show Grand Final around at Shell's house, but as usual Mark fell asleep on the couch. Rochelle and Mark have a treadmill that is mostly used for the kids to play on. Bailey was hanging on to the handle above his head while walking on it and then he'd drop to his bum and slide right off the end. He was having a ball on it, it was very funny to watch. Micayla cried when we had to go home. She really misses Kieran and Taylah and can't wait to see them again. She never gets this upset when leaving anywhere else. I guess she knows she won't see them again for a while and she wishes she could.

More on the Melbourne Aquarium

I don't know why but these photos wouldn't load up on the last post so I'm adding another post just to share these photos. I especially love this one of Bailey and Adrian with the Ray in the background, I'm really happy with how this photo turned out, if not for Adrian looking in another direction (trust).




And I just had to share a photo of the shark so close to Micayla's head.

Melbourne Aquarium

On Sunday, 24th September we took the kids to the Melbourne Aquarium. We were supposed to meet Hilbert, Virginia, Ellouise and Jeremy (Adrian's cousin and his family) at the Melbourne Zoo, but the weather turned nasty, so we decided on the Aquarium instead. Just as well, cause as we hit the city, the outside temperature (according to the car's reading) was only 10 degrees.

It was the first time we had been there. It looked like everyone else had the same idea. Must have been quite at the zoo, they were all at the Aquarium. We had a great day, it was just very stressful trying to watch the kids. We lost them a couple of times. Not lost enough to make an announcement over the loud speaker though. The kids duck in between peoples legs to get close to the tanks and then you can't see them through all the people and sometimes you don't see them come back out again and they head off to the next tank and get lost before you realise. It was a great display of fish. Lots of different styles of tanks and unusual looking fish. I think you got to see anything and everything you would see under water. It really was fantastic. I was in awe when we reached the tank where the sharks and rays etc were swimming over the top of you. Where else but deep sea diving would you experience seeing a shark from underneath, or the eyes and mouth of a Ray (well at least that's what I think I was looking at) also from underneath. And they were only inches away from us. I got some great pics, check em out:

These bubbles were inside tanks. You could walk under the tank through an opening and pop your head up inside these bubbles to get 'A Fish Eye View' of the tank. Here is Micayla, Ellouise and Jeremy doing just that. It looked really funny because it made their heads look so much smaller.


Here is Micayla feeling what a Starfish is like to touch.










Bailey is standing in front of the Coral tank. Lots of pretty colour in this tank with the coral and little colourful fish. The photo just doesn't do it any justice at all.