News on the homefront.

Wow! I can't believe that it's been nearly 2 weeks since we have arrived home. Lots of things have been happening.... where to start?

We'll start with Razzle Dazzle Daz.
He's back at work now and starting to prepare for the moving of his workplace from the current plant to a bigger, better and most importantly closer place. There has been a bit of a shakeup with job titles, redundancies - so has had that to deal with.

Milly Moo is happy to be home and her language skills are going OFF!!
She now says "Ar-ee" for Charli.
"Don't do that."
"Nose, eyes, hair, ear, tith (teeth)"
"Gone"
"more" (which I must record and show you because it's soooo cute)
I am sure there is more but that's what comes to mind.
We have also been weaning her off the dummy - so the nights have been a tad rough. Never mind. It won't last forever.

Mop is back into the school routine, and is happy to be back. She will be doing football as part of the after-school sports program and she is looking forward to that.
We got her report card and we are really happy with her progress. She is doing really well. :)

Also Mop's big news.....






On Sunday she said she wanted to get her ears pierced... "TODAY"... so off we trundled. She was forewarned that it would hurt. My old boss got the gun ready while we picked out some earrings. Gold with a clear stone. Mop sat bravely in the chair. Another woman came with another gun.... one. two. three. POP!
Mop looked at me horrified!!! Then big tears welled up in her big blue eyes and started to flow. She howled. She refused to look in the mirror, she just cried and cried. I hugged her and cried too. It's tough being a woman. LOL
She perked up when her ears stopped hurting and now she is proud as punch of her bling bling.

EJ is settling back into home routines and he loves it. He's such a homebody! He has been a bit depressed because it's been raining so much and he couldn't go outside and play - but today, he's happy as larry because the sun is out and he gets to play allllll day outside!
He starts pre-school again on thursday. He will be very excited to go back again.
Speaking of the E-man. Look where I found him sleeping today...



And me...
Same ol.
Nothing to tell.
Been sewing, cleaning, sewing some more.
I've even started getting ready for Christmas. :)

Righto, better make myself presentable and head off to pick up Mop from school.

Another Journey, another road....

:)

Hiya! We are home!!
We have just spent the last 2 weeks doing our annual Brisbane Trek. We had an awesome time! It was very relaxing and very fun. We spent 11 days with my best friend and her husband. It was really good to have a good catch up time and a "proper play".

These are some of the cool things we got up to!

Brisbane is great for the kids! We went to a really cool playground.... well the DH's took the kids while I sat at home and did lectures, but Bec and I met up with them all later on.

We spent a few days on Stradbroke Island in a really awesome little unit. We just chillaxed, spent time in the pool and on the beach and enjoyed the in-house movies.







The beach was lovely! Clean, white sand, lovely warm water and lots of sunshine. (one of the only sunny days we had!!)







The waves were not exactly kid friendly, but we all paddled at the edge, and if we hung onto the kids while the waves crashed onto the shore and rushed back out again, all was good. Milly was a bit fearless, which worried me, she loved being knocked about by all the waves, and I had to hang onto her very tightly, otherwise she would have gotten dragged back out to sea.

We ate in a lovely beer garden on the second night and enjoyed wine, good chats, lovely views, a golden sunset and whingy kids who really wanted to be in bed. LOL







The next day after we checked out, we went to see the Brown Lake. Which is what it says it is. Brown.



It looks like a lake of Coke. Quite gross looking really, but the water is clean and fresh and is quite something to look at.

Then we got on the Ferry and went back to the mainland.



Bec and I went on a Girls Night - we spent the afternoon shopping which was nice, then we went out to a movie. We watched 17 Again. Very cool movie, and I think Zac Effron is the new Brad Pitt. Very cute!

While we were there Bec got me hooked on High School Musical, so now I am compelled to go out and buy them all. :)

The boys did a Boys Night - they went out for dinner, saw a movie and went to see Sons of Korah (very jealous). Nick gave Daz some CD's and I think a DVD for his birthday (we did belated birthday celebrations for the boys!!) so I get to enjoy their music too. :)

We did the obligatory trip to Sizzlers, which was lovely, and then spent the rest of the afternoon watching the kids play in the water at the beach lagoon in Redcliffe. Very lovely spot. So lovely we actually returned a few days later to let the kids swim again there.









We did our annual trek into Golden Circle Factory and bought up big. We are up to our eyeballs in juices, cordials and tinned fruit. We love it there.

We went to the Ginger Factory for the sake of Mop, who loves it there. We went on a train ride which E loved - he called it Thomas alot. He kept asking everyday after that if we were going to go back to "Thomas". We stocked up on our favourite ginger items, and visited a nut shop for the first time in 6 years - more about that later.













We took the kids to Southbank to let them play in the water there and they had an amazing time. They always do!! The kids grew very confidant in the water as our holiday went on. Mop even started putting her head under the water.













We spent the day at Mount Tambourine - which I must say will be an annual trek too because that place is so lovely and we barely touched it. There are lots more things to see and do there that we will have to do over time.



We did a walk in a rainforrest, my very first time! I cannot explain it, the place was divine! Lush, green, moist, full of lovely plants, rushing creeks and waterfalls gushing over rocks. The place was so wonderful!






















We went to see some glow worms in a cave, which was very lovely too. Mop loved that and wants to go back again. E didn't cope so well with that. He really freaked out about being in that closed space and cried the whole time he just wanted to leave. I tried distracting him with songs and showing him the glow worms. He was fine once we left.

Something we found out while we were away is that Mop has outgrown her allergy to nuts. She was never anaphalactic, but she certainly had horrible reactions. Our Doctor said she would probably outgrow it around school age and she has! We found out by accident, because Nick forgot about her allergy and gave his son peanut butter. Mop didn't react to that. So we gave some to Elijah and watched. No reaction. So the next day I put a smidgen on her toast - and we watched... nothing. So I gave her full peanut butter on toast the next day and there has been no reaction. :) We are stoked!! Which means Peanut M&M's are back! We were able to visit the nut store at the Ginger Factory too, and Mop delighted in running her hands over the packets of nuts.

When we got home I found a pile of returned exams and essays on the table. :) I got 2 non-graded passes (which means it's either a pass or a fail) and I got 2 distinctions!! :) I'm so proud of myself!!

Check this out!! Someone we met on the road up to Brissie!