Santaland at Myer

The highlight of our trip into the city was a ride on the Santaland train in Myer. They have a lovely display of Christmas decorations and this train ride that the kids loved. Afterwards we went to McDonalds for dinner then up to King George Square with about 2million other people to see them light the big Christmas Tree. Throughout all of this, the kids were way more patient than I was.

Looking at the Myer Windows

A big store, Myer, is famous at Christmas for their special window display that they do every year. This year was the Nutcracker. Ella, as you can see, was super excited by the display. Alex not quite as much.

Rudolf Rides the Train!

Ella in her Christmas get-up. The rid into town was very exciting for all three kids and maybe a bit annoying for anyone that shared our carriage.

Double Protection

There is no way this ship is going down! Charlotte is ready to go swimming with her water wings on and her floaty ring. Too bad she doesn't like to actually get wet.

Bowling Babe

We went to a ten-pin bowling birthday party today to celebrate our friend Piper-Lee's 5th birthday. Alex and Ella had a great time rolling big, heavy balls down a waxy alley. Alex scooped the win in the last frame with a strike. He beat Ella by about 2 points.

Mess? What Mess??

Friday, at Playgroup, we did a group canvas painting. The kids squirted paint onto the canvas on the ground then used their hands, feet and in some cases bottoms, to spread the paint around and make a very colourful ... mess.

Hand Painted

Ella getting right into the spirit of the idea of painting with every part of your body.

Hands Up... Or We Shoot

Charlotte and our friend Joe with spray bottles loaded with paint. This picture was taken at the beginning of the painting mayhem, before everyone was so covered in paint that we had to strip them off and hose them down.

Decorating Time

It's not December yet but the temptation to decorate the Christmas tree got too great for my mum. The kids had a great time. Alex is convinced this is the most beautiful tree in the world. I tend to agree with him.

Christmas Elves

My mum invited us over for dinner today and the kids got to decorate the Christmas Tree at her house. Some of the comments: Alex "We are the luckiest kids in the world because we get to decorate two trees - one here and one at our house"; Ella "Can I put the star on the top? Can I put the star on the top? CAN I PUT THE STAR ON THE TOP???!!!"; Charlotte "Look Nana, jingle bells"

Townsville Tourists

Today was wet, wet, wet! We decided to go to the Townsville Aquarium for the morning where we had convinced Ella that we could go underwater without getting our eyes wet. We walked through the glass tunnel and saw sharks, stingrays, a sawtooth shark and lots of Nemos and Dorys. It was lots of fun. Today is our last day in Townsville. We start the two-day journey back south tomorrow to see Bill for the first time in 4 weeks.

Turtle Treasures

Not the best lesson for my kids, I guess, but riding this turtle was a bit of fun.

Fishies, Mummy!

Charlotte was speechless. This dosn't happen often. She loved looking at all the little fishies.

Under Water Withough Getting Wet

Charlotte, Ella, Alex and Nanna making friends with a friendly grouper.

Poser on the Jumping Castle

I think Alex is a bit used to being asked to "Look at me and smile".

Ball Pit Pandamonium

This big pit full of balls was in the play area for 0-3 year olds, but Alex is never too old to hang out with his little sister (at least one of them).

More Far North Fun

Today we went to Lollipops Playland with Shannon and her two little boys, Nate and Lincoln.

Learning A New Game

Aunty Brenda taught Alex how to play Patience without using a computer. It's easier to cheat.

Playing Outside

On a warm humid day in Townsville there is nothing more fun than harassing the dog in the back yard. So that's what the kids did. Alex liked to throw the ball for the dog while everyone watched.

Sharing Cousins

This is a picture of Charlotte teaching Lincoln to share. He might need to get a second opinon about the rules of sharing, though. I'm not sure Charlotte got it right.

So Much Fun

Ella always has a smile for the camera but today her smile was extra extra big. We all had a great day playing at the lagoon at Airlie Beach. They have a great kid's pool with sand for building sandcastles! By the time we were done a lot of that sand was in the pool.

Won't Wear Swimmers

When we arrived at the pool, Charlotte refused to put on her swimmers because she didn't want to go into the water. Funny how quickly she changed her mind.

Smiles A Mile Wide

Alex had a great time splashing in the water.

Serious Business

Building sandcastles is serious business with our kids. There is planning involved, organisation or labour (mummy must help) and appropriate safety equipment must be worn. Love the new sunglasses.

She Loves Wearing Gobbles

Charlotte found these. She won't get into the pool much less put her head under water but she insists on wearing her 'gobbles' at every opportunity.

101 Things You Can Do With Chalk

Personally, I don't see the appeal but the kids had fun today 'painting' themselves with chalk.

More Pictures

After the last two blogs both Alex and Ella have gotten the drawing bug. They wanted to draw a picture for dad and here they are.

Alex's Quiz

Alex wrote this quiz today "Is the ball going to go into the hoop? Yes No" Charlotte had to take the quiz and she answered "No" which was the right answer.

Artistic Ella

Ella did a drawing tonight of her family. She has drawn Alex, Mummy, Charlotte and Daddy. I asked her where she was and she said that she had gone off to school. You can see where she has written her own name and tried to write Mummy and Alex. Another genius in the making!

Ella's Favourite Thing

With both Alex and Charlotte having a much needed nap today (we all stayed up late last night) Ella and I found time to sit on the floor, uniterrupted, and do some colouring in. Ella says "Colouring in is my favourite thing. I love colouring in."

Nature vs. Nurture

Notice the sandals and socks. I'm convinced that this particular need to combine sandals and socks is encoded into Alex's Canadian DNA. Bill dosn't do it and NOBODY in Australia has ever thought that if it's too cold to wear sandals it's ok to just wear socks with them. If your feet are cold then wear closed-in shoes! Anyway, with no encouragement from his parents nor having seen his friends wear something similar, the only explaination for Alex's sock/sandal dress sense is an argument for nature.

Three Points!!

Alex got a basketball hoop for his birthday. The Wii has had some lingering effects. One of his favourite games on the Wii was the sports games which has meant that Alex has shown an interest in these games when he's outside too. He loves playing basketball and every time the ball goes through the hoop it's "3 points!", unless he's playing against me. I only ever get 1 point.

Alex's New Bed

For the past 3 months or so Charlotte has refused to sleep in her cot, so all three kids have been sharing a room. Alex would sleep on the top bunk and the two girls would sleep in the bottom bunk which is a double bed. This mostly worked out ok. Early mornings were becoming routine as one kid would wake up the other two and then they would all come in and wake up me.
So, having had enough of playing 'there were four in the bed and the little one said' at 5am, Alex has finally gotten his own bed and bedroom. He loves it. And the best bit, I think, is that the first night he went to bed in it he said to me "... and tomorrow I can wake up and play by myself. Quietly." I thought he would miss the company of the girls. Apparently I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Happy Birthdays All Around

Birthday parties are exhausting. As Alex and Charlotte celebrate their birthdays so close together Ella feels very left out and hard done by because she does not recieve any cards in the mail or presents. I have explained the reasons over and over again but she still complains. So, next year I'm going to have one huge birthday bash in October for all three kids. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see if I'm over this one by March next year.

And... we're back!

Bill is away again for an extended period and he has internet access so I thought it might be a good time to start up the 'ole blog again. No promises, though, on how regular this will be. I'll aim for every couple of days, though.
Alex and Charlotte celebrated their birthdays on Sunday with their (and my) closest friends. It was a lovely day, hot and sunny, and filled with sugary treats. I've been eating cake for over a week now. My mum made a lovely barn yard birthday cake, half of which is still in my kitchen but disappearing piece by yummy piece every night.

What's That Smell?

Trying to get a normal picture of Alex or Ella these days is almost impossible. They like to screw up their noses like they have smelled something particularly stinky. This picture was taken at our friend's 2nd birthday party last weekend. The other little blonde girl dressed in stripes is Ella's best friend, Piper.

Veggie Patch Kids

We had some friends over today for a playdate. Joe and Charlotte decided it was time to harvest the cherry tomatoes off my plant. Unfortunately all the tomatoes they picked were green. They also tromped all over the carrots that are trying desparately to grow in my overcrowded vegetable patch. Que sera sera. They had fun - at least it looks like Charlotte did. I'm not so sure about Joe.

Are We There Yet?

I can't type... I'm laughing too much! This is Charlotte on the go-cart with Joe. Mum and Dad took the kids camping and they got to go tearing around the camp ground on these little carts.

Hope She Dosn't Fall Off!

Ella going go-carting with Ruth. Luckily Ruth is a 'safe' driver and Ella didn't need to use her ill-fitting helmet.

Hope the wind dosn't change direction

I don't know where this face comes from, but we see it every now and then.

What Kindy Does To My Kids

It was 'Shave for the Cure' day a few weeks back. If you don't want to shave your head you have the option of colouring it. Did you know that blonde hair will hold spray-on hair colour for quite a while? It's been about 4 weeks since they did this and Ella still has a greenish tint to her locks. Alex has a blue patch on his scalp that won't wash out. It looked terrific, though.

We're Back!

We celebrated a friend's 5th birthday at Wet 'n' Wild on Sunday. The kids had a great time, so did the grown-ups. Alex got to go on some big-kid rides because he's a big kid now.