Carols by Candlelight

Yesterday was a warm humid day and the evening was perfect for Carols by Candlelight at the local park.  We had a lovely time although have discovered that Kelvin goes a bit silly when he's tired!!

Today we went to a work BBQ and my contribution was the usual Chocolate Ripple Cake (with a touch of rum).

And our calendar task for today will be to make some Lolly Holly to decorate our Christmas presents.

And our book is the beautifully illustrated The First Christmas.  The words are directly from the King James Bible and the images created by Jan Pienkowski (who did the pictures for the Meg and Mog books I love from childhood).

Childcare Picnic

Our task for yesterday was another easy one - have a picnic for dinner if the weather was fine (which is was).  It was the annual childcare picnic and it was in our local playground - there was a Christmas fairy, Santa dropped by and the kids got their faces painted.

Kelvin as a dinosaur.

Matilda, the 100th butterfly they'd painted (or at least it felt like 100)!

Santa Liam hanging with his Dad.

And our book for the day was the classic Golden Book version of The Christmas Story.  I finally found our Fisher Price nativity scene so we read the story and found the characters and played a bit before bed.

Today our book is Aliens Love Panta Claus - all about decorating your house with underpants and Santa's sack being exchanged for a massive pair of bloomers!!  And we're looking forward to a quiet day at home making a new wreath for the front door (and probably the back on too) - inspired by this one.

Another Christmas Book, Another Christmas Thing To Do!

Today is a school day (Matilda) / childcare day (Kelvin) / work day (Trev) / rest day (Liam and me) so our Christmas countdown activity was appropriately easy.  It instructed us to drop our presents under the Wishing Tree.  Which is what we did on our way home from dinner at Granma's.

But on the way to Kmart we passed a group of Salvation Army horn players tooting carols in the street.  We used to live in the area and this was always one of my favourite things in the lead-up to Christmas.  So I swerved to the kerb and hauled the kids out and we listened to a few carols and then requested Jingle Bells and then I found myself squatting on a busy street corner with a child on each knee singing carols out loud and although the weather doesn't feel like Christmas it's beginning to feel like Christmas!!

My kids have never really been toy shopping with me before - it has always been easier to do it on our own.  However, this year I decided to let them choose something each for a child the same age and gender as themselves and they were really good!

Octonauts Book & Kwazii Kitten playset for a boy who's 3.

A fairy Barbie with an extra outfit for a girl who's 5

And I chose a Fisher Price toyset for a 6 month old boy and added in some nappies, wipes and scented nappy bags and then we headed off to put our gifts under the tree.

And then fortune had it that our book for today was 25 December Lane by Helen Ward.  This book was give to Matilda by my Mum - for her first Christmas as a big sister.  Helen Ward has also dedicated this book to a Matilda and it's about a little girl who's searching for the perfect gift for a special little brother celebrating his first Christmas.  My mum has written Kelvin's name on the last illustration, along with his birthdate and I can see this becoming a book to treasure.

Two More Days, Two More Books, Two More Tasks

We're still counting down to Christmas!
On Saturday we were to visit the old fire station - celebrating 100 years of being on that site.  Enjoying the old, old fire engines, honking the horn and dinging the bell.  Pondering the no longer used fire pole.  Wondering what Hobart would have been like back when they had hand-drawn fire fighting equipment!

Sunday's task was to go to the Sorell Fruit Farm.  The heaven's opened just as we finished buckling the third kid into the car but the Oesch and Doots's were already on their way so we decided to join them!

It was our first trip to the Fruit Farm where you buy a punnet for each picker and fill it with whatever you can find. First we started with strawberries - the perfect fruit for little kids to pick (and delicious to sample too)!

Liam is not so keen on sitting in a stationary pram so Trev tucked him into his raincoat for a little bit - bringing baby wearing to a whole new level!!

 Next we headed up to the very remotest part of the farm to pick some cherries - which is when we all got very, very wet dispite our coats and gumboots!

And the only way to get at the good fruit at the top of the trees was to work together!!

We also picked just over 1kg of silvenberries (a domesticated blackberry?) which were a bit prickly but delicious too.  These were quickly made into yummy jam - a great rainy afternoon activity, with much sampling!!

And our books for the last few days?  Wombat Devine by Mem Fox about a sleepy wombat and the Mr Men Christmas Extravaganza!

What Book Today?

Our Christmas Countdown Book for today was Melrose and Croc a Christmas to Remember. I was lucky enough to win this in a giveaway last year and it's a sweet book about a dog and a crocodile who feel lonely at Christmas time and crash into each other whilst ice skating and the illustrations are lovely and a little bit retro in their muted colours.

And our activity for today was "To have a photo with Santa"!  And we had a reasonably successful trip into the city.  We didn't have to queue for a photo, there weren't too many toilet stops required, the kids chose some lovely presents to give to their Wishing Tree recipient, and the big kids both chose new sandles for summer without too many tears from anyone (including me!).

Advent 2011

It happened again - I totally forgot that there are only 30 days in November!  So at 9:30pm last night Trev and I were wrapping books so that we could have a literature countdown to Christmas Day (totally inspired by Dana)!

We already had 16 Christmas books in our collection so we wrapped them up in butchers paper (using the Christmas sticky tape) and numbered them and have lined them up along the window).  Our book for today was I Love Christmas by Anna Walker - love her illustrations!

 We also have a "things to do" countdown too.  It's just 25 bits of card bluetac-ed to the window.  Don't tell the kids but only one of these had an activity on the back - we're going to see what's happening tomorrow and write something on each evening!! 

Today's activity involved cooking playdough and chocolate cake with our friends - courtesy of Holly the Tupperware demonstrator.  I was roped into hosting a demo last week and I can really recommend the Kids in the Kitchen party, although the Flaming Pineapple party would be tempting!!

It's summer and we're officially counting down to Christmas at our place!  I wonder what we'll do tomorrow?

The Graduate

This has been sitting on my dining table overnight.  It arrived yesterday.

I now have a Masters Degree.  I didn't attend the graduation ceremony, but opening the postpack tube at home seems like a bit of an anticlimax after a decade of work.

I might spend a bit more time baby gazing!!

Sunshiny Day

After feeling a bit down about being the size of a house and people only being interested in talking about the impending arrival of our new baby the spring sunshine over Hobart proved to be the perfect antidote.  We jumped into the car and went to Richmond (for ice cream) via Sorell (for lunch at a cafe - we missed the market!!).

Fortunately we didn't take bread with us to feed the Richmond ducks because there were great slabs of bread floating in the river where the ducks had rejected the offerings!

It was a perfect spring day for eating ice cream, doing rollipollies down the hill...

...and making daisy chains.

I also couldn't resist snapping this picture.  Do you think he might have the skill set to become a plumber one day?!?

Unplanned School Holiday Adventures!

Well, today could have been a disaster.  My car wouldn't start this morning - the battery was flat.  So instead of worrying about it we walked the few hundred metres down the hill to the local shops for Matilda to get her haircut ready for a new school term.  We were 5 minutes late but they weren't busy and Matilda was happy with her haircut, braid, sparkly hairspray and a couple of chocolate freckles.

Then we went down to the local bakery for a babycino/latte and a little sweet sustainance for our journey home.  But while we were sitting there we decided we didn't fancy the walk back up the hill and caught a bus instead.

Although we could see our house from the bus stop, there is no direct bus home so our trip took an hour and involved two different buses - one of which didn't go the way we thought it would which always adds to the joys of using public transport!

So we then rang the battery man who came and started the car for us and then we had to go for an extra long drive to recharge the battery.  While we were waiting for the battery man Matilda did attempt to find an appropriate sized battery from the stash - that's when I showed her under the bonnet of the car!  And it was lunchtime so we decided on chips from a remote McDonalds (because we could do drive-thru and wouldn't risk the car not starting again).

A trip to Bunnings for some more storage boxes to tidy up the sewing/guest room (as well as something for Trev's upcoming birthday) and a bit of a play on the playgym.  Fortunately the car started again when we got back to it - and if it didn't, I'd have bought myself some jumper leads and begged for a jumpstart from a passing friendly stranger!!

We then dropped off three bags of stuff to the nearby Vinnies.  Matilda had her first real experiance of wandering in the treasure trove that an op-shop can be (I usually go in my lunch hour at work rather than dragging kids around) and we found some amazing stuff.  I convinced her we didn't need the big plastic dolls house but we did find a Barbie motor scooter and two Barbie pushbikes (as well as some great fabric for me).

Altered yellow trousers were dropped off for the skinny cousin/nephew and I managed to score a cuppa and homemade brownies before heading home.

Coles delivered my groceries for the second time today.  I somehow managed to place two online orders for delivery today (I blame placenta brain but it's more likely dyslexia in reading 12pm as midnight not midday but don't tell anyone).   Fortunately we didn't really double up on anything so all is good.  And the big order arrived in plenty of time for me to use it to cook dinner.  In nearly a year of doing my groceries online this is the first time I've stuffed up and I can't recommend it enough - much more pleasant having my groceries delivered to my kitchen bench than dragging kids around the supermarket or having to go out once they are in bed!

All in all, a pretty good day! Just finishing off now with a banana split (thanks to the extra bananas we ended up with) and an evening cuppa.

Spontaneous Sunday Snow Trip

One of the good things about living in Hobart in the winter is you can take a spontaneous trip to the snow.

Within 30 minutes of leaving the house we were trudging about on the top of Mt Wellington!

We timed our arrival perfectly - no queues up the mountain, no waiting for parking, not too many people at the top, space to enjoy the snow and the views.  I think it was partly because we left home reasonably early and because it was the second weekend with snow on the mountain so the hoards had visited last weekend!

Trev had the forethought to throw the boogie board into the car before heading off and the kids enjoyed scooting around with their dad.

There has also been a lot of bike riding this weekend after finding training wheels and properly fitting helmets for both the kids.  Needless to say there have been early nights and sound sleep from our little ones this weekend!

Counting Down

Well today marks three calendar months to go until our #3 baby is due to arrive - the day after Trev's birthday and the same week as my mother-in-law turns 60.  So I'm sincerely hoping that this little one arrives a bit late - like both his siblings did.

And yes, I did say "his" because we found out some time ago that we're having another boy.  Kelvin is happy to have a brother and Matilda doesn't mind, since Kelvin is OK and another one like him would be alright!

From here

We didn't find out the gender with the other two kids but this time around I have been feeling like doing the complete opposite of nesting and really want to declutter cupboards and get rid of outgrown clothing and toys.  Knowing that this little one will not be requiring "pink or frilly" means that plenty of space will be gained through the donation of 4 years worth of "pink and frilly" to the new niece.

However, this 3 month milestone also has me thinking we need to get the cot back at our place, find where all the 000 growsuits and singlets are and think about how and where we're going to house this little man!

From here

A Rainy Weekend in Melbourne

We had a quick trip to Melbourne on the weekend to meet a new niece / cousin and play tourist!

But before that, I had 24 hours away from the kids to accompany my mum to see her old school friend perform with Andre Rieu!

We had fabulous seats, in the middle of Centre Court at Rod Laver Arena...

...and Mum got to catch up with Gary (although it was brief and the whole time he was being hounded for photos by adoring fans).

It was a great concert and we enjoyed ourselves but I really don't understand the mass-hysteria surrounding Andre.  Nanna's screaming in adoration of Andre, much as a 13-year old girl might do for Justin Beiber - quite surreal!

Trev bought the kids over the following day so I managed an afternoon of shopping at one of the big DFO's and was very pleased to have found a good raincoat for Kelvin - otherwise he would have been very wet over the weekend!!

New raincoat from Kathmandu, grumpy face is models own!!

We stayed in a great hotel off St Kilda Road - can highly recommend it and if you book far anough in advance you can get great room rates.  It's away from the inner city hustle and bustle, close to the Botanical Gardens should energy need to be expended by little ones, right on a busy tram line and the comfy rooms included a little kitchenette.  The only thing we'd do differently next time would be avoiding the cafe at breakfast time - the business suits did not appreciate hungry hypo pre-schoolers!!  Needless to say, Weetbix and milk were purchased for consumption in our room and everyone was happy.

Mirrors on the ceiling of the lift provided entertainment everytime!

We met our new niece / cousin, Maisie.

Caught lots of trams.

Went to the Zoo in the rain.

And had pasta on Lygon Street.

We also got to catch up with Pa (my Dad) but didn't really manage any decent photos!

It was a fun weekend and despite the weather I don't think we'd have done anything differently if the sun had been out.  I love Melbourne as a place to visit but I also love being home and we lapped up the sunshine on Sunday once we were home.