It's Party Time!

Well Tom is two now and celebrations were held over the weekend. Tom had a great party with all his favourite friends visiting and lots of fun games to play. There was 'kick ball' in the back yard, a dinosaur egg hunt (easter egg hang over!), pin the tail on the dinosaur, and paper plane fun. And just the simple fact of playing with 6 other kids for a couple of hours is heaven on a stick for a 2 y.o.
Due to my 'condition', we just had a small party with four of our friends and their kids, over for the afternoon. The weather had been showery in the morning but thank goodness the sun came out later on so we could let the kids run wild in the back yard and eat cake. It was a lot of fun, especially as the Dad's were the flavour of the day, so the mums actually got to sit down for some of the time and relax!
We are having another cake at Playgroup on Friday just as another little celebration with his playgroup friends but that will be very low key and I won't have any mess to clean up - phew. This is a boy who loves being sung Happy Birthday to, so the fact that Friday will be his third time he's had it sung to him, will make for a very happy boy. You can just see in the glint in his eye and the look on his face that he feels very special that everyone is singing to him. He's so spoilt!
Can you believe I'm currently learning a lesson from Finley the Firetruck (kids show for about 3 y.olds) about not being scared and being able to do anything you want. (....in the spirit of The Littlest Engine!) It's ridiculous where I get my inspiration from these days - ahhhhhh.
Go with the flow and thank your lucky stars.

Rip Curl Pro

If any of you know anything about surfing, then you may have heard of Bells Beach and the world championship (part of the world tour) that is held there every Easter. It's a pretty amazing surf spot, very beautiful and apparently consistently good waves. I know more about the picturesque running track that follows the coastline for about 20km but it's all about surfing this weekend. Anyway, we live about 10 mins away from Bells so it's gets very busy around here at this time. Not only is it school holidays and lots of families come for a break, but you get all the surfing enthusiasts and competitors swooping on the area. There is a boutique hotel just down the road from us and quite a few surfers were staying there this year. Jim and I took Tom out for an early dinner last night to the attached restaurant and there was a bit of a dinner for a lot of the female surfers whose comp. finished yesterday. Pity I didn't know any of them, because I really don't follow surfing very closely anymore, but it was kind of a buzz to know that we were dining with the world's best female surfers anyway. The men are continuing to compete over the coming days and one of the guys, Bede Durbridge, is friends with my brother-in-law and his wife and he is going pretty well, so I'll be keen to see how far he gets. Kelly Slater, one of the best surfers over the past decade or more, is a Californian who has been coming out to compete regularly in Australia for as long as I can remember (I used to have the BIGGEST crush on him when I was about 20). He was surfing this year, but I'm not sure if he's still in the comp or not. If you are interested, here's a link to a website that can give you more info. http://www.surfingaustralia.com/
I don't know how to post photos off the web, so if you want some pictures, you can just go to the website.
Hang Ten...............

Happy Easter

We celebrate Easter with a four day weekend (Monday is a holiday also), so we have just had a very relaxing time. Aunty Caz came down and hung out on Good Friday with us. Hot Cross Buns were enjoyed as well as a great play at the park and catching up with friends in the arvo. Then Saturday we went down to the farm to see Grandma and Grandad and lots of other family. Tom had a ball exploring and playing with Dad. After rides on the motorbikes, diggers and annoying the cows and bulls it's a wonder he ever wants to come home!
Sunday lunch was a big family affair and lovely, and I had to show you all this photo. It's Tom with his cousins, Bethany, Melissa and Murray munching on a fruit platter. That's not to say some 'choccie eggs' hadn't been devoured earlier, but after much jumping on the trampoline and playing chasy, watermelon, grapes and strawberries, couldn't have tasted better. It was gorgeous.Tom had so much fun with his cousins, they all love playing together. Nicholas is the fourth cousin, he was running around when I took the photo, but he is 2 and a half and full of energy and personality. Being the fourth child, he is going to teach Tom plenty of tricks as they grow up, considering he is already riding a bike and climbing trees. But when he gets together with Tom they love playing trucks, jumping on the trampoline and riding their trikes together.
Easter Monday was 'organsing' day. We had to get all our baby gear down from storage and now I've got to find a spot for everything inside the house and wash all my newborn stuff to get ready!
Here's a photo of Jim helping Tom with dinner, note the strategic placement of the stubbie (beer bottle), I thought it looked like it was Tom's beverage rather than Jim's, hee, hee I'm such a bad mother!
Don't forget to go with the flow................

Up, up and Away!

Grandma and Pa headed off on an overseas trip today to visit their other three grandkids. They were very excited, especially when they found out they hadn't gone over their luggage limit! Tom is going to miss them a lot considering he sees them at least weekly, usually more, but we'll be heading down to the farm to spend time with Grandma and Grandad down there which is always lots of fun too. Have a safe trip Mum and Dad, we'll see you when you get back! xxxx

Instilling a good work ethic.

I have just realised that I have a helper in the house. I have only just realised that this little boy is no longer a baby and gets a real kick out of helping me. He's been sweeping the floor for a long time now but his cleaning and helping skills are expanding, as you can see below. His little table had been outside for a few days, so had gotten dusty and I wanted to bring it back inside to use. So I put Tom to work and he loved it. We had the commentry happening to accompany the activity. Eg. "Wash table, wash chair, wash bucket". I think he was meaning, rinse in the bucket rather than wash bucket, but it was a pretty good effort I thought. He scrubbed that table as clean as a whistle and there were even a few tears when I took the bucket away, I think I could have had him going for about an hour! (Mental note: keep that in mind when I need a nap). I just have to think of other activities that I can get him to do for me - or does that border on slave labour? Hee, hee.

He very much loves his train set also. He inherited this from his big cousin, Cal, and loves it. He knows all the engines names and corrects me or Dadda if we get them mixed up. He will play on his own, but much prefers it if someone is down there with him getting into the swing of things. This was his first attempt to build the track himself and I was pretty impressed, hence the photo. He didn't work out how to join the track up into a circuit, but he did work out which tracks to use to go up to the bridge and back down the other side. I have to admit, the first time I was putting this together, it took me close to 10 mins to work that out, so I was a little put out that my one y.o. (almost two year old) mastered it quicker than me.
Hope this finds you all well..............

Oh Baby!

Well I have had a week of Baby Showers, which I have loved. This is not an overly Aussie tradition, a few people have them but not regularly. I think they are a great celebration though and felt very spoilt when I was given my showers in the US before I had Tom. Therefore, when I found out one of my closest friends was pregnant and due a week after me, I was adamant that I hold her a shower. My sister-in-law is due the week before me and she had her shower also on the weekend. I love them. There is such a good vibe and everyone is excited for the mum-to be and the talk is all baby and advice is flying from all directions; there is nothing like a Baby Shower to bring out a woman's clucky side! Especially for the first time mum - you feel so special having all your friends celebrate your pregnancy with you and the pressies you get isn't a bad thing either! My friends shower was held at my place and with six adults and eight kids it was nothing short of busy, but fun of course. We played 'pooey nappy' and 'Baby Bingo' and then I had the older kids play 'pin the dummy on the baby'. Which they thought was a real hoot and wanted to play it again, and again. We had lovely afternoon tea and just a nice time together. I also scored a gift which was a lovely surprise. My sister-in-law's shower was at her mum's with a much bigger group, so I organised Celebrity Baby and Baby Bingo, which was fun also. It's amazing how people really get into a game, no matter how silly or for how small a prize. More good food was consumed, many laughs and much chatter ensued, and it was great to see which pressies she got for her first baby to help her get set up. It also started to make me feel very excited about our upcoming arrival - not long now. It's always fun hearing what people think the sex of the baby is and take time to chat to you all about how you are feeling etc. I have regularly forgot about this baby due to having a much louder, more attention-grabbing toddler to contend with, so having some time to focus on what is about to become very much a reality is nice and has helped me get excited about it.