Kemp Bay Camping Trip 2012

It went a little something like this.....

On December 26th, we packed up our caravan and headed to one of our most favorite bush camping spots. The beautiful Kemp Bay. We set up our campsite and then took a walk along the beach while the sun set.



We enjoyed 6 days of the beautiful beach...



and a few hours later this is how those legs looked...



Note to self: DON'T FORGET TO PUT SUNSCREEN ON YOUR LEGS YOU SILLY GOOSE!!!

Anyway... back to the beautiful beach..





Mop really got into boogie boarding again and had a wonderful time. I love this next photo - it shows just how jubilant she was after each and every wave she rode in. Her squeal of joy was a beautiful sound!


Sand castles were built...


..sunsets were admired


and each and everyday we woke up and walked outside to this...



6 days of heaven!
Daz did some fishing
I did some body surfing with Mop while she boogie boarded.
We played board games.
We read books
We rested, relaxed and vegged.
We visited the Stansbury Markets (which I LOVE)
We caught up with Bec and Nick who were over from New York.

This camping trip is just what the doctor ordered. We are all brown, rested and happy!

Next camping trip is on the horizon for Australia Day! WOOHOO!

I can breathe.... almost

I cannot begin to tell you how utterly and completely NUTTY it's been around here. Not because there has been a lot on, but because Uni was all consuming. Last week I wrapped up all my assignments and lectures and have started breathing once again...
I have an exam on Thursday, and then that will be it for a while. I have made the decision to pull out of a subject and only do 1 for a while. The stress of the work load is making my body break down and deteriorate. For those who don't know, I have a psychosomatic condition (see I did learn something this semester!!!) called Fybromyalgia - and the symptoms increase in intensity when I am stressed and overworked. I can't manage the work load of second year subjects as well as effectively manage my family. I am sad to say that I wasn't a very good homemaker and Mummy this semester. I have to put my role as Mum and wife first, and have to do what I can manage.

So... for all those readers who call me super-mum....you can see that I'm not really.

So what's been happening around here?

Mop: Sat the NAPLAN test - and loved it. Funny girl! We have had some issues with her social skills and the poor love has struggled to build relationships with the girls in her class. We understand that it's typical for gifted and intelligent children to neglect building their social skills, but we didn't want her to suffer and be lonely during her school life. So we have been working on building those skills, and it's working because she is making more friends and valuing the friendships she is building.
We had a proud moment: Mop came home from school one day saying that some year 6 boys were bullying her and saying that she was a "failure". I was pretty angry, but I kept my cool and calmly asked her if she spoke to a teacher about it. She had, but she couldn't find the boys to identify them (Mop's school has zero tolerance to bullying).  I had a chat to her about it, and tried to get her to understand that she wasn't a failure, and that those boys were cowards, ganging up on her when she was alone. She matter of factly replied: "Oh well, I know who I am on the inside and that's all that matters. Besides, they are pretty pathetic, year 6 boys ganging up on a 7 year old girl!" My mouth dropped open in surprise! What a very mature outlook. The very next day, the boys found her and started on her again, she turned around, faced her bullies and laughed in their faces and told them they were bullies. It shocked them. They haven't returned. :) Atta girl Mop!!!!



EJ: is plodding along. He is going through a very loud silly stage at the moment which drives us up the wall, but I seem to remember my brothers doing it too. So I guess it's normal.
His SPD seems to waver between good and bad. Some days he's feral, some days he is calm and copes well. We are addressing certain behaviours of his that are not acceptable and starting to crack down on them. I don't care what his issues are, he can't behave like that. Things like screaming at us in rage, hitting, spitting etc.
One really good thing is that he has finally stopped whining about going to school. Usually he would refuse to get dressed, and sit their and whine "I don't want to go to school". It was a habit. He gets into ruts and even if he DID want to go to school, he would say that. Last week he got really sick with croup and he had to stay home for three days. He was climbing the walls and by the end of it, asking to go back to school. We sent him on the fourth day.... and we have not heard one whinge or whine out of him about going to school. It's such a joy now in the mornings.
He is loving school and they are stretching him and exposing him to more and more. They take him to full school assemblies, something I thought he wouldn't be able to do for ages!! He loves them!! He enjoys his lessons and is doing brilliantly.



Milly: Has been growing up so fast!! She's really a little girl now and not my baby. She refuses to let me cradle her anymore and wants to cuddle "properly". Excuse me! I'm not ready for that!!! :) We had her down the hospital a few days ago with pretty bad croup. We had 4 nights of it and it was dreadful. Waking up every few hours, wheezing and coughing and crying. Last night she seemed to finally shake off the flatness.
Not much else to say, except she has been very tolerant of her Mama burying her face in text books and pretty much leaving her up to her own devices. She is very independent and usually goes off to play with the dog or plays some other imaginary game.



Not much else has been happening. Daz is working hard as usual, and is doing well. He has done amazingly while I have been so flat out with my studies. He's supported me and has done the jobs that I have not been able to do.

In August we are going to a Foster Care Information evening. Fostering is something that Daz and I have been considering for many years. Our hearts are heavy when we think of children who are not being raised by parents who cherish them, living in hotels and supervised by a social worker. We have space in our home and love to give and we would like to make a difference in someone's life by providing them with love, family, education and an introduction to Jesus. When we go to this information evening, it will pretty much help us decide whether to go ahead with it or not.

Something else that I have just started is getting more into photography. If you would like to see my work, I have set up yet another blog: Sunshine Lollypop photography and that's where I'll display it all as I learn and get better. I may do some photography as a hobby and a way to earn some extra cash. Depends if I get asked or not eh!?
Now that uni is mostly over I've had some extra time to start some projects that I have been wanting to do for a while. I've started doing some journalling, which you can have a look at on my creative blog: Skipper's Creative Expressions and I have really loved doing it. My next challenge is to learn to knit!!

Righto... better go have some breakfast.
xxx

My non-traditional son.

EJ to Milly while standing in the play kitchen...

"Milly, I'm making dinner. But you can't cook because you are a girl!"


YES!!! That's my non-conformist, non-traditional son!!! I love the way he thinks and sees the world. Though I'm unsure of why he thinks she can't cook, and what a girl has to do with anything.... but still. Funny as!

Crazy days!

I can't believe it's been so long since the school year started. It's been crazy busy over here as our lazy summer days have turned into a strict routine. Having an extra kid in school, even though he isn't home, is still incredibly busy. When the kids come home, it's crazy!! 2 lots of homework to help them with, 2 lots of reading, 2 lots of words, whether they be spelling or sight words. It's nuts!!

Milly settled into Kindy very quickly and as soon as she arrives she waves goodbye to me and runs off. At first I was just a teeny bit miffed... she could have at least PRETENDED to need me!! But once I saw how hard it was for mum's with kids who were hanging on to their legs, crying, I became grateful for my independent little lady. She is a social little butterfly, and at floor time, she is always in the very middle of all the kids!

Mop has had a bit of a rough start to the year. She has been teary and tired and has struggled with the long days, plus all the homework that comes home afterwards. She hasn't been sleeping particularly well either which makes it worse. She got hit in the eye by some boy (who was promptly disciplined) throwing a cricket set at her, and she sported a swollen bruised eye for a few days. Poor kid. She loves her new teacher though, who seems to be this really cool, laid back, Uncle type of guy. She comes home full of enthusiasm about all she is learning and doing, which is good!

Then there is EJ. He's taking a lot longer to adjust. He cries and whines and whinges all morning while getting ready for school. He cries and whinges and rants when you leave him at school. He settles down fairly quickly though, then enjoys the day at school. Then when it's time to pick him up, he will be melting down in the carpark (which is awful!) and he meltdown multiple times during the afternoon, until bedtime. It's hard. If he can't settle down soon, I may make an appointment with his psychologist to try and help him. He HAS to go to school - I can't keep him home when he starts up, otherwise he develops a pattern and will continue to do that, expecting me to keep him home.
Since starting school his language has gone backwards which means he is in sensory overload. Understanding what he is saying is becoming a task and a half. So EJ hasn't faired so well, poor little guy.

I started Uni last week, and I'm enrolled in Sociology and Psychology - both very interesting subjects so far. The work load of psychology is a doozy, but sociology is pretty light so they balance each other out.

A few weeks ago, a friend of ours gave us a piano to use for Mop as she learns. Their friends own it, but are overseas living currently and have no plans as yet to come back to Australia. So we have it. Mop loves playing on it, and I love to listen to her tinkling on the ivories every day for her practice.

Last week I started going to a craft group - on thursdays. It was nice to sit with my quilting with a few other young mum's and have a gasbag. Last week I also started going back to the gym. Now that I have a few free mornings, I am going in the morning, and Zumba classes start up next week so I'll be attending those 2 nights a week.

So the days are filling up with all sorts of busyness - and we are starting to get into a rhythm which is nice. I dislike wasting time, and pride myself on good time management. I get asked all the time, "How do you ever fit everything in?" I just do. :)

Daz and I have been planning a trip away over Easter. Our past plans have always been to go visit Nick and Bec in Brisbane, but they have moved to New York now, so that is a bit unachievable. So this year we are heading to Canberra. We will catch up with our many friends there, see the sights and then head down to Melbourne where we start our trek home along the Great Ocean Road. I have been wanting to do the Ocean Road for many years now, and you can't imagine just how excited I am to do it!!

This weekend we had some very sad news, which has rocked our family. Some close friends of ours, which we see very often, and our children are great friends, called us to tell us some news about their son. Their 3 year old little boy (who is also best friends with Milly moo) had been diagnosed with Leukaemia and treatment is commencing today. It was dreadful listening to the father share what was happening, while he was breaking down in tears. I was shocked. Very shocked. All we can do is pray and stand with them as they walk this awful journey of cancer and chemo.  It was hard telling the children about what was going on. Milly doesn't fully understand, she thinks that he has an ouchie in his bones, and he's in hospital, but that's ok, because you get iceblocks for morning tea in hospital!  If you are a praying person, and believe that God can intervene, please pray for the little boy and his family. He is 3 years old, still a baby really, and he's facing the fight of his life. The family are struggling to come to terms with this, naturally. They need all the divine help they can get!

So life has been definitely up and down all over the place. I hope that things start to settle down as we adjust to everything.

A fresh realisation...

Yesterday we took EJ down to the uniform shop to get his school uniform. Tears pricked my eyes when he came out in his little school uniform, looking pretty proud of himself. In 1 1/2 weeks, my little boy will be a school boy. YIKES!!!

EJ-ism

"Mummy.... I need some sun-scream on"

(meaning sunscreen)

Dear Lord....

...please protect my son from himself....



... AND HIS MOTHER!!!!


EJ is going through a very annoying stage.... he's stealing stuff. We gently tried to explain that he can't just help himself to stuff, he needs to ask. But crackdown HAD to happen when he handed me an empty bottle of 100 kids multi-vitamins (previously mostly full) and said we needed more "lollies". He had gone into the pantry and fossicked around the shelves and found them, took them outside and shared them with his baby sister!!!! Oh. My. GOODNESS!!! I nearly had a heart attack. I rang health direct pronto and we went through the ingredients. Thankfully there were no ingredients that were dangerous if they overdosed.... I have no idea how he knew what they were!!! Mop is the only one who has them, and only if she is run down.

I only got 15 new grey hairs that day.

Mum thought it was funny.
The Health Direct lady was chuckling.
I'm yet to find the funny side.

Good news

EJ has finished with the psychologist!! :)
They think EJ is progressing at a good rate and no longer needs the mental health system. We are winning this battle with SPD! YAY!!! He will have a little graduation party with his speechie and psychologist in a few weeks and we will be on our merry little way. I'm so proud of him!

Also EJ had his first day at primary school for orientation on Tuesday. He LOVED it!! He loves his teacher (who seems very gentle and motherly) and I'm thankful his first experience in a classroom setting was good. Over the next month or so, we will need to start putting things in place to help him cope with SPD in the school environment. The psychologist is confident that EJ will get much better with coping as he develops and matures - and school will be very good for this. I met the special needs co-ordinator and she seems really lovely. I'm sure EJ will love her too.

Professional Man-Flu-artist

This boy?

No... surely not!!??

You should hear him carry on whenever he has a small injury!! He had a tiny graze on his knee the other day, with one tiny drop of blood. You should have heard him scream!! And when I went to clean it up, he kicked me and yelled "Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" He wailed like I was about to amputate his leg, while I gently wiped with a wet cotton ball. LOOOOONG after the blood was cleaned up, he was still wimpering and complaining about it. He couldn't feed the dog.... because his knee was bleeding. PFFFFT!!!

This kid is practicing his man-flu act..... and it's kinda funny. Though for the sake of my future daughter in law - I'm not sooking him or encouraging it... I'm just laughing at it and rolling my eyes (on the inside)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

This is our tree.

:)

This year was the first year that all three children could help put it up and decorate it! A sign that our beautiful little family are moving forward from the baby stage into kiddlet stage! It was so much fun to work all together on this!



I love our tree. I could stare at it all night if I didn't have a gazillion xmas presents to make, and only 5 weeks to make them. :)





Underneath now the presents are starting to mount. And before anyone asks, Santa does not come to this house. If a fat man in red appeared in my house, I would be after him with my marble rolling pin or my dress-making scissors! I don't teach my kids that Santa leaves the gifts - but I do teach them that other kids may believe this, so we are to respect the game that their parents are playing, and it's not up to them to say anything about it. Each to their own, but this is how I do Christmas. So... the presents are starting to pile up underneath and I can see the kids gaze at them longingly and in anticipation for the big day. :) And I can't wait either!!!!

I'm hosting Christmas again this year instead of Mum and so I'll have 19 odd people here celebrating the big day. :) I've been working out the menu and have started gathering up all the festivities and whatnots that make my Christmas table special. :) I can't say too much more, because I believe my brother and SIL read this blog. (Hi Pete and Deb!) Can't give away the secrets of the day! I can't wait though for all the cousins to be together again to celebrate and play together on this special day! It's been a few years since we have all been together. I don't think we have ever had xmas day with Molly (my brother's step-daughter) because she has always been with her Dad. I think it's going to be a very special Christmas.

Life has been hectic around here.
The kids are getting tired, since life seems to get busy around this time of year. Mop had her piano recital on earlier this week, which was a late night for her. She did so well and I nearly cried with pride and joy! She has really gotten good lately, and she would make her Aunty Bec proud I think. :) Daz took Mop and I stayed home with the little ones, but he videoed it for me so I could see her. Such a tiny little girl on such a big piano.

EJ and Milly (and me as a result) both got some kind of virus that settled on their chests. Healthy has horses, until night time when they (and me) cough up a lung and a kidney. :)

EJ has his first classroom orientation day on Tuesday which will be interesting to see how he goes. I'm terrified and excited all in one go! At least then we will get a better idea of how he goes in that environment and what things we need to put in place for him for next year.
We've started to crack down on him a bit heavier now, since we know that he understands some things, and it's teaching him to self calm, which sounds dreadful I know! If he continues to whine and whinge and get himself worked up, we dock "merits" off his chart. He learned the hard way when I docked 10 off because he kept ranting. He now shuts up, and tries to distract himself - which is a HUGE thing!! Normally it's us that is distracting him to try and keep him from going into meltdown mode. This is only working for minor whines though... it wouldn't work for over-stimulating environments. :) We were also having problems with him getting up in the night and drinking so much that he would wet his bed. So we said if he wet his bed again, he would have to go back to pull-ups. "I'm NOT wearing nappies!!!" he protested.... and we haven't had a wet night since! :)

EJ has also become a bit of a sports nut. At home he plays tennis, soccer, catch and whatever else he can get his hands on. At school he plays cricket with the other kids and he loves it!! It's interesting since Daz and I are not very sporty people, how he still enjoys the games, even though he isn't overly exposed to it. I think he will be one for after-school sports activities later on down the track!

Milly is turning three in a few weeks, which has shocked me. My baby is no longer a baby - she really is a little girl now. She has cast aside all baby things and is playing imaginative and wonderful games with little girl toys. We have bought her a massive big dolls house for her birthday gift, which I think she will love!! :) So my baby days appear to be well and truly over. Thrilling in some ways and sad in others. I love babies!

Uni is well and truly over and I can breathe again. I've already enrolled in 2 subjects for next year, both psychology subjects, and the lesser workload I think will be better for the time being.

Milly has been booked into kindy for Mondays and Friday mornings which is exciting! She can't wait to get to school. Also when EJ is in school, I'm going to start branching out and getting my life back, since it had to be put on hold because he couldn't cope going anywhere. I've found a craft group I plan on joining, and I am going to head back to MOPS (Mother's of preschoolers) and start socialising! In turn Milly will be socialising as well and having a wonderful time with little friends.

So that is what is happening in this house....

35 days till Christmas!!

Breakthough....

EJ has a pretty spectacular speech disorder. He sometimes doesn't understand a word you say to him. In the past he just stared at you blankly.... or if you were asking him a question, he would repeat the question....

This week he has recognised that he doesn't understand what you are saying, and that he needs to clarify and communicate that he hasn't understood.

"I can't hear you."

:)

Ok so it's not EXACTLY right.... but we knew exactly what he was talking about, and we were SOOOOO excited that he said that!! We were clapping and cheering and praising him for his very clever realisation!!

We are on our way!

On Monday we had a really good session with the speechie & psychologist. It's really good news - EJ is considered in such a good place that his sessions with the psychologist can now start to wrap up. They will continue to see us for a few more months, then at the end of the year, they will hand us over to a private speech therapist to deal with his language disorder.

Also they spoke to the school that EJ is enrolled in for next year, and they have an amazing special needs program in place. EJ will be taken care of by people who will understand his needs and will work with him in group sessions and one on one to make sure he doesn't not understand the basics. This is a great relief for me, because I've been scared witless about him going to school, having a bad experience and then hating it from there on. If he has a bad experience, he refuses to go. I couldn't handle leaving him there, screaming and screaming because he doesn't want to be there, day after day.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly. :) His progress is nothing short of a miracle, and the programs and services available to us haven't costed us a thing so far. We will need to pay a speech therapist next year, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Another thing - in the last week and a half, EJ has learned to put on his own seatbelt and open the boot of the car. I know this sounds really silly - a 4 1/2 year old boy doing such simple things but to us this is a big step - because normally he refuses to try new things, and cries, screams and carries on because he "can't do it". He put aside his panic, his apprehension, and tried his hardest to do his seatbelt. He did it! Then he decided that if he can do that, then he can open the big heavy boot door. He worked out a way to do it, and he's so proud of himself! Now he is saying "I'll do it Mummy!" more and more. He's a different boy! Each thing he attempts and succeeds in, is one step closer to being independent, more confident and hopefully more able to cope with new things.

EJ- dude, we are so incredibly proud of you. You are trying so hard in everything you do, and we couldn't ask for a more determined and precious little boy. We love you!! xxx Mummy & Daddy

Confidence and other matters.

It's been a while. I've honestly had nothing to write about. I've been busy but I have nothing to tell you. We've all been well and happy - but nothing to tell really.

So I'll fill you in on my nothingness... :)

EJ - I'm so incredibly proud of him! He's doing so well!! His major accomplishment of the last month is getting some confidence. He's no longer hanging off my legs at kindy and Sunday School - but confidently walking in, and going to whatever it is he wants to do. In the past I would have to prod him in and help him decide on what he wanted to do. His kindy teachers have noticed this new found confidence and are so happy with his progress. He's happy now to walk into a group of kids and join in. He is becoming more social with this confidence, I guess he is now talking better so can understood.

I had another Bad Mummy Moment last weekend - I noticed EJ was more clumsy than usual, constantly tripping over his own feet. Then I noticed that his slippers needed replacing since they were falling a part. So I replaced his slippers with the next size up - and was a bit surprised to see that his toes were jammed up at the end. Surely these slippers were a small 11. Oh no.... not at all. His feet had exploded sometime, and in his old slippers his toes were smack bang up the end - and he had grown 2 sizes. He's now a 12. Bigger foot than Mop! I felt terrible! Poor kid, how long was he uncomfortable in those shoes?

Mop - turned 7 and is now mustering up all the attitude she can to keep us on our toes. She had a great birthday party sleepover thingo... The girls all had a wonderful time. On her birthday morning we did a treasure hunt for her to find her presents - and all her little girl-friends helped her. She loved hunting all over the house for her gifts - each one getting bigger and bigger. :) In the afternoon family came round and wished her happy birthday. We had a small cake and then later on Grandma bought round cupcakes... so we got more cake. She got a few really lovely things, but I think the highlights were her scooter, all the bling that we and Marie gave her, and a little sewing machine that was given to her by Nanny.



Milly - is just too cute. She is talking so much more and the things she comes out with is hillarious. She finds it a bit tough of Thursdays and Fridays when both EJ and Mop are at school, and she is all alone. She gets lonely easily and wanders around miserable for a little while. I usually start her doing something, and then she gets into the swing of things. She's happy when it's school pick time.

That's all folks...

Really... told you it's a bit boring around here.

And we start it all over again....

School holidays are over. I'm quite disappointed. We didn't get as much done as we wanted to. In fact we did nothing. No trips to the playground, only one play date.... it was pretty sad. Why did we do nothing? Because every single one of us were subjected to a winter lurgy of some description for the entire 2 weeks. And I was subject to three of them! I got better, then got hit with another one, got better again and was smacked with an even worse one. I am now sitting here, my mouth just recovering from ulcerated lips and cold-sores. I have been utterly miserable. :(
I got my lovely naturopath friend to give me some help to boost my immunity up so I can survive the rest of this winter! So I'm on a concoction of amazing things that hopefully don't make me smell as bad as they do. LOL

Mop enjoyed being at home for the entire time. I think she's a bit of a homebody - she likes to be surrounded with her toys, her family and her Wii. She said to me "I can't believe I'm half way through year 2!!" Well me neither kiddo! Where did my little girl go???

Mop turns 7 on Saturday and she is going to celebrate it with a sleepover with a few of her friends on the Friday night. Also on Friday Daz is booked in to get "the snip" - so exactly 7 years after we became parents, we make the permanent step to stop at three. In my heart I am a bit sad. Being pregnant and having babies was so much fun - but we have to stop sometime! After the debarcle with EJ and Mop's birth, I just don't think we can do this anymore and not have some serious consequences. We were told to stop after EJ - but Milly came along. If we want to have more children later on, we will probably go down the fostering path. But no more babies will be born from my womb. Too bad eh? I make beautiful babies! :)

Uni begins again next week and I am looking forward to the challenge of three subjects and the thrill of learning again. I got my final results for my last subject I did last semester and I am so proud of myself. 82.8% - which is a distinction! :) It's so encouraging to get good results and know that I CAN do this.

EJ's speech therapy has been coming along well. This fortnight we were focussing on male/female words. Him, her, he, she, boy, girl. I thought he was doing so well, that I would try and trick him a bit and make it a bit more difficult. I pulled out a Bible Story book - the ones were the boys and men are not wearing jeans/pants. The men and boys have longer hair as well which means he would really have to think about it and look closely. We went through the entire book and he did not trip up once!! Clever boy!!! I'm so proud of him!

And I think I've prattled on long enough....

xxx Skipper

Some good news.

The Speechie and psychologist both consider E calm enough to start doing an intensive speech therapy program. Which means I will only have 1 appointment every 2 weeks!! :) This is good news! EJ is in a really good place psychologically and in a really good place sensory-wise. They think he's at a place where he can learn well and they are going to devise a program to really attack his speech issues.

I'm so pleased! It's been a long road, but he's doing so well and progressing brilliantly!

So up to 3 appointments a week, we are now looking at 1 appointment a fortnight! :) VERY happy!! And EJ is very happy too, and that is the main thing!

Proof that I have the world's most beautiful children.

Milly: I love you EJ!

EJ: I love you too Milly.



Nawwwwwww..... don't that just melt your heart?!

Reading...

By George! He's done it!
After months and months of knowing the sounds of letters, he now can put the sounds together to make words.

"B-I-N. B-IN. Bin! Bin! Mummy, that says BIN!"

You can imagine my shock as I heard this as I was loading the last few dishes in the dishwasher. I peered over the breakfast bar, and he was running his fingers over the word BIN on the storage bin.

Hmmm... was this just a fluke?
So I pulled out Dr Seuss and consulted him. No. I didn't. I'm kidding. I pulled out Dr Seuss and started to read to EJ. I would stop every so often to let him have a go at sounding out the words. I kept it simple, and didn't get him to try all those wonderfully whacky made up words that Seuss is famous for. We got to the end of the book and EJ was very confident in sounding out the letters and reading small words!

I'm so proud of him!! Perhaps this will help his speech along??


Oh and another thing he did.....

At night time, it's his little ritual that when Mummy/Daddy need to leave EJ after saying goodnight, EJ counts down and says "blast off" so they can "fly" out of his room like a rocket. The other night I was kissing him goodnight, and he asks if he can countdown. I said that he could.
Imagine my shock, surprise when he said "69. 68. 67..."
I started to laugh (on the inside) and waited for him to get stuck.
He didn't get stuck. Without missing a beat he counted backwards from 69 to zero!!

I was stunned!!

What a smart kid!!

Easter 2010 holiday

So in-between drama, we did have some fun. Here's some proof!

This is the only shot we have of the car in working mode.



TROPICAL FRUIT WORLD
(Northern NSW Coast)





Yum yum! We got to try all these amazing fruits and learn of other ones that we had never heard of before!



Feeding Koi Fish.



Feeding the animals



Train ride on Treasure Island

THE ROCKPOOLS
(Hunter Valley NSW)





The water was absolutely freezing but the kids went for a wade in it. They were in undies or naked, so for their safety I have omitted those pictures.





The most ginormous toadstool I have ever seen. A horse could sit on it.

SOUTHBANK


I LOVE LOVE this picture of Milly Moo



This is our son Gilligan... aka EJ.



J practicing his trumpet blowing.

THE DISH
(Parkes)





GINGER FACTORY
(Sunshine Coast)





RAINBOW BAY
(Gold Coast)




SOMMERSET DAM
(Somewhere in the Hinterland??)

We had a BBQ and bummed the day away! It was so much fun!! We drove through an amazing rain forest to get there and it was such a beautiful drive... apart from the winds, turns and hills. :)

NICK'S WEBBER MASTERPIECE

This is the reason for visiting our friends :). Seriously the best cake I have ever tasted. I feel utterly ill after eating it... but I still go back for more. YUMMM!!!

HUNTER VALLEY ZOO






Milly patting Charlie the Wombat.


Feed the birds, tuppence a bag!



Milly patting the Koala


Mop and her mate


EJ loves animals and he's so gentle and tender - he spent about 15 minutes petting and talking to this lovely gentle grey roo.

COCKINGTON GREEN
(Canberra)









MISC PHOTOS


These two were thick as thieves, and lead each other astray. This boy is the only child Milly will allow in her personal space. :) Very sweet little friends. Bec has already decided to be the feral Mother in Law. :P


Here she is... one of the most dear people in my life and I love and miss her like one thing. Oh and the cute bundle in her arms is J-man. VERY cute little darling boy.


So that's pretty much it in a nutshell. We did so many kiddy activities, and the kids LOVED it. I think they had a wonderful holiday. I think Daz and I need another one to get over this one. :)

Not to worry. :)