Our Australia Day

For those of you who don't frequent Woolworth's as often as I do they have a fruit flag made of banana,  strawberry and star fruit handing in the fruit and veg section. Jack and James have been hassling me to make it, it's obviously computer generated and I was worried about how we would do it, especially since the floods we were struggling to find strawberries anywhere. Luckily they were pretty easily convinced we had to use something else, so this is what we did:

Blue jelly anyone? Our base of the 'flag'

Ta-Da! Mini meringues for the stars, red licorice and banana slices for the(dodgy) union jack. Not amazing but we enjoyed it.

Birthday!

Link

I know I'm hopeless. Its my birthday and I'm blogging. But I have been instructed to do nothing all day so yes I'm blogging about beautiful things. There's something about pink that makes me smile so I'm sharing some pink love, because if you cant do it on your birthday when can you? 

Perfect

You know you have those days where things just go right?

We had one of those days.

Love

This is what Michael an I do at spackdonalds. Exactly. When I saw this ad I admit it made me a little teary. Then I had to show Michael straight away. I know its only an ad and I'm sure there are millions of people around the world that eat their spackdonalds like this but I still feel special and like we'll still be eating our spackdonalds like this in 40 years. I hope so the pickles are my favourite : )

Organised? You know it!

As big part of my 20 in 2011 list was to be more organised. That means sending people Birthday/Christmas presents well before they need to be where they are going. Making sure I know where everything is ALL THE TIME.

While Michael and I were writing our list we started planning a box of stuff to live in the car so were never stuck saying, 'Geez I wish we had ...with us' I wish we'd done it years ago but really it would never have worked til now, now we have the luxury of space. I still plan to pack the nappy bag properly and hopefully we never have to use this but its there just in case.

So here it is minus a few things I haven't put in yet.

S this is what we've got:

Towel

Toilet paper

Thongs for Jack and James

Spare set of clothes for all three kids

Spare undies for Jack and James

Socks

Blanket

Bib

Hat

Sunscreen

Insect repellent

Plastic bag

Nappy sack

Nappy

Disposable Change Mats

Hand Sanitiser

Things that will go in once I get them:

Snacks (muesli bars, sultanas, shapes etc)

Wipes

Bottle of water



This is where it lives in the car.

Once the lid is down you'd never even know it was there! I love my new car, have I mentioned this?



Mooo anyone??

I'm sending my children to school in style this year.

James is off to Kindy next week, he'll go 5 days a fortnight, 2 days one week 3 days the next and so on. So to a 4 year old that cant read his own name what do you do when they have to find their lunch/bag/stuff ?? You make it so coordinated he'll be able to recognise everything that's his by the picture.

I searched around for matching bags and lunch boxes but the only one I really liked that I knew would suit James was Mooo's dinosaur collection. Not wanting to leave Jack out I got him to have a look and he picked his own. Space theme for his labels and a star on his bag and lunch bag. I'm happy with that.

Our Mooo loot

I spent a small fortune but we should have enough labels to last this year and next year. I'd like to say James will be able to take his bag to prep but I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming. The kid hasn't taken his bag off since we got it I cant imagine it will last 2 years.

Mooo did not give me anything for this post. I just wanted to share, although if anyone from Mooo is reading all donations to my childrens education is appreciated.

New Baby

You didn't read new baby and think there was going to be bump pics did you? Not going to happen here again. I'd have to change the name of my blog that would be so inconvenient.

My new baby is my very first laptop. We had a secondhand one and I've used Michael's lions laptop once or twice but this is mine and its pretty.

Isn't that pretty? Love the top, I keep running my hands over it.

It's so cool it even has a finger print scanner. That's right I am seriously spy worthy.

Bubble screen saver? Yes thanks!

I love that the keys are separate, I have a tendency to type like a crazy person and I found with other laptops the keys being all together makes me look like I'm drunken typing.

Next job on my list is to get rid of our desktop computer and the mess that we call a computer desk. When I can get a filing cabinet I will do a before and after post. Look out 2011 I'm gettng organised!

Secret Men's Business

This week has been crazy, I can't believe there is one week left of school holidays. Next week I will have two whole days of just Charlie time. Such a strange concept!
Anyway Michael has been doing insane hours at work and has only been home for a couple of days so while he was home he wanted to have some Daddy and son time. He dragged the boys outside to wash his car. Now for those of you who don't know my darling husband lost his license drink driving 14 months ago ( 2 months to go!) so there's no reason for his car to be dirty.

I snuck into the boys room to take photos from the window

Doing a great job cleaning the clean car

I think Daddy just wanted to play silly buggers with the hose

I'm busted!

I love watching the boys with Michael  they have their big boy voices on, I even heard Jack swear! There is no way he would do that if I was around. I love that even at this age they are already learning how to be gentlemanly in front of women but can still be silly gross boys with their Daddy.


P.S. If you haven't already you should head over to Suger Coat It and vote for me in the blog make over competition, I promise I will love you heaps for it xx

All Good Plans~

I had great plans for today, a little housework followed by some serious kitchen time. I planned to make ham and pineapple muffins, BLT risotto, orange and poppyseed cake, chocolate crackles, and a roast chicken for dinner.

Unfortunatly my plans were disrupted by this:

After reading Danielle's post about Aidan throwing whopper tantrums, as all toddlers do, I realised that I don't really ever post about the devil side of my sweet boys which shows it self often enough, especially Charlie at this age.
I had the audacity to walk away from him this morning and put a load of washing on. I know I am a bad mother. He carried on rolling around on the floor crying, looking up occasionally to see if I was still watching.
I don't usually give in to tantrums but the last week he has been sick, and he's just a molar and I can feel more trying to get through so I understand he feels yucky. I tried to cuddle the tantrum out of him, we sang we danced, I gave him a drink, we went for a walk outside, nothing worked. In the end I just had to put him down and let him get it out of his system. Once he was winding down I asked him if he was done yet and then he gave me a big cuddle and sloppy kiss.
I was tempted to hang the washing out but I don't know if I'm game.

Polly Dolly

This weeks Polly Dolly is Reality V Dream.
Along with all the crazy sad weather that's going on around the world there has also been a lot of sadness in the blogging world. Apart from Danielle from Hello Owl supporting her husband through chemo treatment, Lori from Random Ramblings of a Stay at Home Mum this week lost her husband. I hadn't ever read her blog before Melissa from Sugar Coat It tweeted about Lori and I stumbled over to her blog and started reading. I can't imagine how heartbreaking and awful she is feeling right now. I feel very blessed to know so many beautiful women that want to help others and in turn the ever lovely Danielle has a widget on her blog to donate to Lori who has just lost the sole provider of their family of four.
Lori recently admitted she is a anti fashionista so this week's Polly dolly is dedicated to her.

Reality~My reality is my staple everyday outfit. I own about 10 sundresses, some maxi some knee length. I attempt to get up earlier than the boys most days, shower and get dressed before the day starts, I feel comfortable in a dress it hides my waist line for one, and living in central QLD its hot all year round. I wear thongs always, and while I'm growing my hair out I have it pushed back with a headband 99% of the time. I wear comfy old lady undies and sensible 4 hook bras. My wedding rings, pearl studs and Pandora bracelet are my staple jewellery items and my suitcase  handbag is always on hand. I feel like I have a bag from Alice and wonderland sometimes, the stuff that comes out of it....

Dream~
Ah what a beautiful outfit. I want it. I have absolutely no where to wear such a stunning outfit but I still want it.
In my dream I have a incredibly stylish glamorous job to match my ever so stylish minimalist apartment and model boyfriend (I may or may not have been watching to many re runs of The Hills) which requires skinny jeans, a $3000 top, gorgeous jewels that are custom made for every outfit, perfect amount of natural makeup, uncomfortable shoes that look bananas, matching bra and undies that don't have any support, hair flower added after stylist makes my hair look amazing (obviously) and last but defiantly not least a bag that contains only make up, phone wallet and perfume without a side order of muesli bar or nappy sack.

I know, who am I kidding of course I wouldn't trade my reality but its nice to dream...

Ah Kismas!

Remember a few weeks ago I said I'd show you our Christmas card once everyone had received them? Well looks like they are floating down the Fitzroy river in Rockhampton. Its been three weeks since they were posted and they haven't turned up. I don't think its going to be a Christmas miracle, so I'll just show you.

This is my favorite photo of all the pictures we had taken back in November. After all this crazy flooding calms down I'm going to get it blow up and put on a canvas.

This is the end result after I played with picnik a little. This year I'll have to post them before December starts.

Lounge Room~Before and After

 Now I realise that there are far more important things going on in the world at the moment and I'm struggling to drag myself away from the updates and news its unfathomable to me. BUT One of my 20 to do in 2011 was to decorate the house and I'm making a start by rearranging our lounge room, although its not technically decorating it made me feel better.
For Christmas I bought the boys their own little lounges and they love them, I knew they would only problem is I didn't really think about where they would go or how they would fit in the room (talk about retail coma) and as we have three door ways 2 sets of windows and a TV that cant be moved I was pretty limited.

Before:

View from the corner of the lounge room towards the hallway

From the kitchen

From the hallway towards the corner.

After:

The view from the hallway.

from the kitchen, the boys enjoying the fruits of my labor!

From the front door.

Although it makes the room feel smaller, we seem to fit better. The baby gate isn't quite so accessible to Charlie and we don't have a corner dumping ground. Always a good thing!

later in the year I'm going to do a bedroom re arrange.. Jack turns six in April and we've decided he gets his own room. So trouble one (James) and trouble two (Charlie) will be in together, I know I will be kicking myself when we do it, but Jack needs it. 



Home again Home again

Thanks to Amy for letting me know I hadn't done a post about us coming home from our 'second honeymoon' now were home it doesn't seem so bad, but at the time it was pretty horrific.

For those of you who weren't bombarded with my facebook updates or tweets, Michael and I went away for one night which turned into NINE.
It all seemed perfect at the time, Michael and I were invited to a friends wedding, mum was still visiting and she offered to have the boys for the night. Sounds good right? Well it all went horribly wrong when we attempted to get home only to be flooded 80kms from home. There were three roads that were cut between us and home.

This is not my photo but this is Comet Bridge. Not that you can see the bridge only the train bridge which before this was under water also. Comet is 35kms from home and it was the last hurdle we had to get through before we could get home. I think it was the longest 35kms I've ever driven.

The biggest bridge in Emerald once it was down enough for us to drive over. What the water is covering is a park that we often take the boys to, can't even see the top of the swings. Crazy.

A train bridge between Emerald and Capella.

While Michael and I were waiting around to get home we went for a sticky beak at the lake at Emerald. This is the picnic area our table is under water.

We made it to Emerald on Monday. A whole week after we'd left the boys, we were told that they were going to open the big bridge in Emerald that morning, and I got so excited! Then we found out that Comet was still bad, that's when I saw the aerial photos and knew we weren't getting home that day. So Tuesday morning we went out to the road closed sign to quiz the roadtek guys, after all they are on the ground and know whats going on, they said it should be open that day but they needed to do some serious work on the road. After a few hours and phone calls we were told there was no way anyone would be driving over it.
By this stage I was so upset I thought we were never going to get home. I was probably being very over dramatic but I was really feeling that bad.
So Wednesday I had no hope that we were going to get home but we went and bought a few supplies to take home, visited some of Michael's family one in particular who is quite high up on the main roads who told us that afternoon to go out to the road closed sign and ask nicely if they would let us through. Thankfully we didn't need too as they were just about to open the road anyway! 
After nine days being trapped away from our crazy boys I forgot how loud and smelly they were but it was so nice to talk to them face to face and have big cuddles. Jack and James were quite happy to hug us both, Charlie saw me and started walking backwards, broke my heart but really after nine days away I'm not surprised. Luckily it only took him half an hour to give me a big cuddle and squezze then he became my shadow, every time we leave the house he holds my hand and gives it a squeeze like he's not going to see me again even if I'm just hanging out washing.
Never going away ever again!

Nanny's Birthday!

For the first time in a long time my mum and I got to spend her birthday together. Although I wasn't organised enough to make a cake or a special dinner (I know I suck) we still had a nice day. The boys made her a special card and we dragged her out for dinner even though she didn't want to go. My mum decided a couple of years ago she was 49 and there was to be no more birthday's, that all well and good but it may get weird soon. This year as my sister turns 36, just don't count.

Giving Nanny her card.

Showing us the duck face. You crack me up lady!

Mumma and me. Mum with her serious face trying to see where she's meant to be looking without putting her glasses on.

I'm not adopted but you can see why when my sister told me I was when I was little I believed her. 

P.S. Did I tell you we made it home? No? A bit late sorry about that!

20 To Do in 2011

Last year I was fascinated and inspired by Melissa from Sugar Coat It and her 20 to do in 2010 so when she posted her 20 to do in 2011 I knew I wanted to have a go as well.

1.  Lose 20kgs (Melissa we have to help each other!)
2. Take the boys fishing/camping at least once a month. (Hubby's suggestion)
3. Go to Tasmania.
4. Save enough to buy a house.
5. Stop watching movies that we've seen before.
6. Start watching movies we haven't seen.
7. Be more relaxed with the boys. They are little boys it's OK for them to be little boys.
8. Stop stressing about everything.
9. Do more craft activities with the kids.
10. Buy and READ more magazines that are for me.
11. Get more ink.
12. Be more organised, know where everything is.
13. Help Michael quit smoking (I better not be putting this on my list for 2012)
14. Teach the boys how to play age appropriate board games.
15. Make Saturday's new recipe day.
16. Finally finish reading Anna Karenina (or get the audio tape)
17. Have more friends around for dinner.
18. Have more 'Mummy and Daddy' time
19.  Do some more decorating in the house.
20.  Go away and experience stuff together more often.

So what's on your list for 2011?

New Years Day. What The.

If you had told me twelve months ago this is how Michael and I would be seeing in the new year I would have called you a liar. But here we are.
If you haven't picked up on it this week, I'm not in a very good place emotionally.
I've been crying like I do when I'm pregnant (I'm not pregnant). Randomly and in waves. I'm having the worst case of separation anxiety I have ever had.
In six years I've never had time to myself like this and now I am so glad that Michael and I are parents. It keeps us in a good place. We eat better, drink more water, exercise more, try our best to be better, without even realising or making a decision to do it.
This week I've had a sneak peak at what we would be like if we didn't have children and it's not pretty. I'm very thankful that we never had the choice.
I'm also very grateful that we can spend this much time together in a very small room without killing each other. We haven't snapped once and we are defiantly both under a bit of stress. Last night a few locals told us that were now part of the community and they want us to come back with the boys. We even had a look at a few houses for sale. I don't think we've ever been welcomed into a community quite the same.

So have you ever....

This is the sign Michael and I were joking about on our way to Mackay. Serves ourselves right.

Road closed sign between Capella and Emerald.

My honey bun showing me how the electric windows work.

All these cars were empty. it took us a few seconds to realise all the stranded people that we met that had been choppered out of here would obviously have left there cars here. Was very eerie.

So close yet so far. So rude.

I have become a crazy weather watcher I have a million websites in my head. RACQ, 131940, CHRC (Central Highlands Regional Council) , weatherzone. The list goes on. At the moment I know the river has peaked and is now falling, in the last 24 hours its dropped from 16.4mtrs to 15.6mrts.The water is 1.2 mtrs over the bridge and there is no way we'll be home before Monday if not Tuesday. BUT there is light at the end of the tunnel!