fancy seeing you here...........

Well yes it has been a while only about 6 months, but who's counting. So I shouldn't really be writing this at the moment. You see It's my last week of winter term at uni and I have heaps to do, I mean HEAPS. So as you can imagine I manage to find lots of other things to do adding to my procrastination. Oops.
On a more positive note, I was listening to a lecture today for the unit I'm currently doing 'Responding to individual needs in education' and something that immediately caught my attention was when the lecturer spoke about writing, the need to write, to enjoy writing, to write for an audience, how all of these things can help to make you a better teacher. Sound familiar? To me it did, it was these comments last year that gave me the idea to write a blog in the first place. I know that I had planned on updating this much more frequently, unfortunately (or not) life seems to get in the way of the best laid plans. I think the reason I had actually left it soooooooo very long was because I was scared, nervous, guilty. I felt bad for being slack, for not being able to update a blog on a regular basis. I read a few blogs, (not that many at the moment) and they are so well written, so interesting, full of laughter, fun and inspiration - I think I felt that I had to compete and well I fell well and truly short! So I have now decided to stop being such a sooky schoolgirl, and get over myself. As how I view myself, analysing all my words, thoughts, ideas etc might be important to me, no body else actually gives 2 hoots! So I've decided to write this for the sake of writing and maybe a little procrastination. Also a little bit of a journal so that I can look back and remember not only what the heck was going through my head, but also what we, all 7 of us were doing, funny things the kids say, exciting and not so exciting adventures. Also as a way of sharing with friends and family around the world. So there we go, back to blogging.... I hope.
So a quick recap of the last 6 months:
*Uni semester 1 = done! (including prac which I loved!)
* Birthday dinner and dancing = lots of fun!
*Michelle Bridges 12wbt = 18kgs lost! (still a fair amount to go though)
* Eli's first birthday = Dinosaur party
* Girls chill out night = fancy penthouse apartment Awesome!
* Brindabella Womens Group 2011 Womens gathering = great day
* Stopped Breastfeeding = kinda sad
* Big trip to New York City = no children, a little strange but amazing adventure
* Back to reality
* Uni winter term = Sooooo Hectic
* School holidays = Harry potter deathly holidays part 2 midnight screening!!!!!!

That's about it!

Summer fun!

Well it took a while but summer finally found us! Before Christmas I had promised the kids a water fight when we got back, so after filling up water bombs for about 40 minutes, (and getting a bit burnt) off they went!
They had loads of fun and there were only 2 rules, gentle with the little girls & don't throw them at mum! Needless to say we know which one of them got broken :-)

The biggest problem with the water fight, the water bombs lasted all of 2 minutes!
Oh well good, clean fun!
I think what added to the novelty was that all the kids have grown up with water restrictions, a nation in drought. It wasn't until recently that the restrictions were relaxed, and then after the devastating floods that have demolished Qld and now Victoria the Dams in Canberra are now sitting at full. So the kids have enjoyed being able to run under a hose and we even purchased a sprinkler!

After the water bombs ran out, and I had gotten sufficiently wet mum turned the hose on the children!

And even chased them on to the trampoline.......


No explanation needed!

So a few days after the water fight we headed over to Big splash. The kids had received passes for Christmas from Santa and were super eager to use them. We haven't been since summer last year, when Kayden was to scared to go on any slides. I'm pleased to say that he did eventually have a go on some of the slides and I think he is a bit more confident, ready for the school swimming carnival!

Ash trying to convince Kayden to go on the slides.

Curtis having a ball!

Michaela Climbing up, she was actually scared to go down this time..........

Going down the slide, note to self the pool isn't very deep and not designed for adults!

We had a great time, and the kids can't wait to go again!

On a side note, I just want to ask (if anyone actually reads this!) people's opinion of my blog. You see according to my sister, and now Curtis my last post was lame, and I look like a loser! This is common from my sister she continues to tell me I can't sew (after a few, rather dodging attempts in high school), that I can't cut hair (after 1 bad job) and is always surprised if something I do turns out well. She doesn't do this in a nasty way, it's just her, but as she is the only person that gives me feedback I am being to have a little bit of self doubt.........

The road less travelled.............

Well what do you know 2 posts in the same week! It's a miracle :-)

I thought I'd share one of my favourite days over the school holidays so far, a day on the river.

After our trip to Adelaide for Christmas, we headed down to Batemans Bay to have a relax, enjoy our "beach house" and let the kids enjoy the sun and the surf! As anyone from Canberra or the bay would know the road at that time of year is ridiculous, as the trip from bungendore to braidwood was bumper to bumper, I took a slight detour through Araluen and headed down the coast the long way round. It did take 3 hours, a little longer than the kids expected, and it was a windy dirt/gravel road but it was a great drive and I was very proud of myself for doing it (as I had never driven very far on a dirt road before).

Anyway after a week on the coast it was sadly time to come home, so we decided to have a detour on the way. We stopped at Moruya markets (which is huge compared to last time I was there) and grabbed some yummy fresh food, sourdough bread, tomatoes basil and olive oil. Sat down and had some milkshakes at the health food shop and cafe before heading off to the national park.

The kids loved it, they always do. Getting the chance to be free, run around, explore, climb, jump, swim it's fantastic. It always amazes me that not matter when we go, (which is as often as we should) that it's always quiet.

I mean it's a beautiful spot, and it was early January, peak season and yet there was only a few other cars there.

The kids favourite thing to do is to jump off this rock! They love it, that's all they talk about the whole way there and the whole way home. This time Kayden even managed to jump off, after a little (or a lot) of hesitation.



The little kids enjoyed it to, Michaela kept trying to *wash* Eli, and Eli just kept trying to eat the sand!

This would have to be one of my favourite photos! Seeing that cute little bottom just hanging around - I can't wait to scrap that!

And this, seeing them having so much fun together makes me smile. It makes me appreciate things a little more and also makes realise that we *need* to make this happen more often.

Things get so busy, so caught up that we forget to slow down and take the road less travelled..........Night all!

At last.............

Well where does the time go? I know it's been months since I wrote, and in all honesty part of the reason I haven't written in the last month or so was because I'd felt guilty for taking so long to write! I know that really makes sense!

Anyway I thought I'd share a few things that have been happy over the last few months, as they have been rather busy.

So I finally finished uni for the year which was fantastic! (Pretty pleased with myself actually) We had all the usual commotion leading up to Christmas, frantically making presents right up till a few days before Christmas. We also had a couple of boys birthdays, (which always make me feel old!) A trip to Sydney to meet Uncle Nick, visiting from Canada/South America, end of the school year and than a trip to Adelaide for Christmas! We always seem to be busy, and even though I constantly feel exhausted I wouldn't have it any other way!

I thought I'd share a few random photos from the last couple of months.

(I hope you enjoy the Santa photo, it took 8 trips to visit Santa to get it!)

Curtis cooking up a storm - making his speciality Pavlova!

The kids at the coast setting up Nanny's and Grandpa's tree.

Collecting vegies out of Grandpa's Garden - THE BEST VEGIES EVER according to Kayden!

Our amazing view from the apartments we stayed at in Sydney, unfortunately it was the same weekend as Oprah visited so it was a bit crazier than usual.

Ash crashed out after Christmas lunch and a couple of hours in the pool! Soooo cute :-)

Eli and Michaela having lunch in a gorgeous vegetarian cafe somewhere in the hills around Adelaide.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and new year and that your managing to enjoy the school holidays, Back soon....................hopefully.

Oops!

Okay so I've been very slack in updating this blog lately, actually since the start of September, and some how we're already into October! I know that in my last post I said I would post more often and I haven't but this time when I say that I'm going to post more often I really mean right? Right.

So I thought I'd share a few of the reasons that I haven't been blogging, apart from the regular chaos that is my life. Newest reason is that I have no computer, :-( I didn't realise how dependent I had become on until it died. So alas there are no photos in this post. I have also been a little busy with Uni, I just finished writing up an assessment (for the 2nd time as the computer took the first one with it when it died) and had an exam a couple of weeks ago. Add to this that my baby girl miss Michaela turned 2, which meant cute little lady bug invitations HAD to be made, with a get together in the park and a lady bug cake. The kids also finished term 3 at school and had lots of things on including a performance at floriade and Curtis participated in a debate at a nearby school. We also took a quick weekend trip to Brisbane and caught up with some great friends and had a look around, trying to get a feel for the area and where we might like to live when we move up!

Ok so now I have written it down it does look like as much as I thought. I should also mention that the big kids have been on holidays for the last 2 weeks. I love school holidays, no rushing around of a morning, no trying to cram things in between 9 and 3, no need to wake up sleeping babies at pick up time. Not to mention the extra time spent enjoying my 3 big kids that seem to grow up way to fast! We didn't do alot these holidays, we spent some time down in Batemans Bay with Nanny and Grandpa, and than I came home with only 1 child which was a rather strange experience! The kids had a ball down there though, going to the movies, enjoying the beach (even though the water is still freezing!) and riding scooters. Whilst they spent time down there having fun I started ripping up tiles in the bathroom. I will upload some photos later (when I have a computer!).

So that's about it, there has also been lots of creating happening as well, but I will save that for tomorrow!

Have a great week!
Rachel

From the mouths of babes.....................

Well obviously I haven't been posting as often as I would of liked but I aim to get better! We'll see :-)

The last few days I've been thinking a lot about what the kids say, they often say the funniest things and often at not the best times! Recently with Michaela talking more and more, (she is almost 2, just ask her!) she has me laughing all the time and I have to admit that I've never taken the time to write down some of the things that the kids have said. So I thought I'd share a couple of them on here, so you might have a laugh and I have a record of them.
Friday night we were watching the football when Michaela tells us that they all "hug and fall down", we tried to explain it was a game but to her it was hilarious that all these men hug and then fall down on the ground! On Sunday night when I was getting the bath ready for Michaela and Eli she informs me that she is a "pretty girl" (She had been dressed up for the day and had on her fancy boots) I asked her who told her that and she said "dad me pretty girl, not mum, mum me dag!" Oops what a great mother I am, Dad tells her she's pretty and I call her a dag! Which she now calls anyone that falls, slips, does something silly or makes a mess. I do have to say that although she makes me laugh frequently the older kids still get me giggling on a regular basis. On Tuesday morning we were at the kids school for a BBQ family breakfast, Curtis was having a warm milo when he sat down and spilt it on his leg. His first reaction was to yell rather loudly "TAXI". What a fine example in front of his teachers. In my defence although I often say it when someone spills a drink or breaks a glass alcohol is rarely involved, to the point that I had to explain to the kids why you would say taxi if someone spills a drink. However I think the worst was a few years ago when Kayden was about 3, I often say crap, I don't swear but that is my frequently used word when something goes wrong, and Kayden had started saying it. I told him it wasn't a nice word and that I'll try and stop saying it as well. A couple of days later in a shopping centre full of people I dropped something and said 'crap' Kayden in all his wisdom and at the top of his lungs shouts out " Mum you said the C word, your not allowed to say the C word" Needless to say I got numerous bad looks.

Well I better go, I'm currently working on miss michaela's birthday party invites, she is having a lady bug party! Hopefully I'll get them done and be able to share tomorrow night!

To follow up .............

Just a quick note about my last post. After posting that on Monday night, I went to uni yesterday and during my promoting positive learning environments lecture, we discussed the science of giving. Here is a quote from the lecture,

"Giving reduces mortality signifcantly, even when you start late. Dough Oman of UCB followed almost 2000 individuals over the age of 55 for 5 years. Those who volunteered for 2 or more organisations had 44% lower likelihood of dying. This is a stronger predicitor than exercising 4 times a week (30%)."

So apart from making me feel like I'm giving back to my community, now I don't need to exercise! Have a great Wednesday!