Its beginning to look…..

alot like Christmas. I will join the masses and post about the upcoming festive season. They boys sent letters to Santa this week. They told Santa they had been very good boys (mmmmmm) and then asked for the usual items such as Lego, cars, dvd etc. Riley did have one interesting item on his list, not sure how Santa is going to fill this request, it was for a BIG FAT CIRCLE ???????????????? If anyone has any idea what this might be Santa would appreciate it if you could let him know.

Yesterday they starting making some simple christmas decorations for the tree (my new tree!!).

I really love the way they turned out and as you can see they are pretty proud of their creations. Now we just need to start making them for the rest of the family. 

Not only does tomorrow mark the day the Christmas Tree goes up , it is also the first day of summer. I really love summer. As long as I can sit inside with the aircon on its great!. We are not beach people either. Declan even told me this week he wants to go to the beach as long as there is no sand in the water. I had to tell him that all beaches have sand in the water so maybe a pool would be a better option.   Give me Winter any day!.

Went to start my Christmas shopping at Chadstone today, big disaster. Everything thing I went to buy was out of stock, no longer made, wrong size, wrong colour etc etc. I got 2 tops for Tilly and some beads and that was it in 4 hours.

I received a wonderful email yesterday to say that one of my scrapbooking layouts has been accepted to be published!!!. Very excited as you can tell!!!!. Will be in For Keeps early next year.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend and Christmas Tree decorating

Helen xxx

Another Handy Tip

Dont try and clean your mirrors with bathroom cleaner instead of window cleaner (they are both blue) and then spend the next 15 minutes spraying more and more on wondering why the damn thing is looking worse and worse.

Well thats my tip for the week.

Happy cleaning

Helen.

Chillin’ Tilly

Here is a photo of Tilly just taking it easy, having a little rest on the floor. She is rolling everywhere now and not just staying in the one room.  Stop growing up girl!.

Helen xxx

First party for the Festive Season

We attended Steves work Christmas Party yesterday at Jells Park. It was a really good day with heaps of activities to keep the kiddies amused.  We were there a total of 7 hours and all came home a little sunburnt and very tired. Declan took part in most games, including the classics such as sack races and egg and spoon races. Riley was not so interested and actually hit a brick wall by mid afternoon, which suprised me as I thought he had eaten enough sugar to get him through the next 24 hours!.

As our children had been so well behaved all year (hahaha), they received a visit from Santa and got some lovely gifts plus show bags, lucky dips etc etc. I even received a few goodies. Not bad considering Steve has only worked there 4 weeks. Already looking forward to the party next year!.

 

Oh and incase you are wondering, the boys had fire breathing dragons painted on their faces. They actually looked really good but you need to see them from side on.

Roll on the next party!.

Helen xxx

Just had to share.

This is what I have to put up with everyday. What a cheeky little face. Just wanted to share these pics with the blogging world.

Helen xxx

Its nearly time…….

For the Santa tree to go up, well thats what Declan and Riley call it anyway. Wow how exciting. I am hoping to upgrade to a new slimmer and taller tree this year as we are slowly running out of room in this house!. Just need to find a spare $100 to buy it .

Well here is a little update on what has been happening around here lately. 

We had my dads birthday this week so I had the family over on Sunday for dinner.  As usual I ate WAY too much food (I am just in training for Christmas).

Riley is in the process of cutting out his afternoon nap which is not working that well!. If he has a nap he is awake until 10 at night but if he doesnt have a nap he can be extra extra grumpy by late afternoon. Some days he just cant stay awake and has been falling asleep in the most interesting places and postions such as the coffee table!

Matilda is slowly getting into eating some food. I gave up on the rice cereal and have started her on mashed veggies with much more success. I just mash them with a fork so nothing too fine but she is enjoying that alot more.  Now I just need her to start drinking some water and we will be back on track.   She is also on the move alot more, rolling around and ending up all squished in the corner of the room. 

 She has taking a liking to the chain around my mums neck, luckily it is quite thick but mum has starting taking it off when she is around because its easier. Tilly’s ginger hair is starting to show up in her personality, boy can she throw a wobbly when she doesnt get what she wants ie the chain around my mums neck!. I think we are in trouble with this one.

Declan is still loving the time he spends at school  and we are off to get uniforms next week. Steve is really busy at work and its not their busy time yet!!!!. I am still plodding along, starting to wonder how I am ever going to get organised for Christmas. I am also wondering which boxes to tick on Saturday . In my opinion its like deciding between dumb and dumber!. I dont like either choice so I am really not sure what to do.  I did Kinder duty yesterday, still not sure how the teachers do that all day everyday!. 

Hope you all have a great week/weekend.

Helen xxxxx

Exhausted!

I know that its now nearly 11pm but I am trying to chill out a little before I head off to bed. Its been such a busy week. Its taken me till today to catch up on the sleep I missed whilst we were away and then I go and work all day/evening and ruin all that rest!.

I did manage to sleep in till 8 this morning (after getting up at 3:30 and 6) which was lovely but then it was all go.  I spent the day doing nearly all the housework and mowing the lawns plus all the usual bits and pieces that need to be done. Now I am exhausted but happy that atleast those jobs are finished. How nice is it when your house is clean and tidy?.  I wish I could bottle that feeling because it doesnt happen very often around here and when it does, it only lasts a short while before the house looks like a bomb has gone off in it again.  Its something I stuggle with on a daily basis.  I live in a world of clutter and I hate it!.  

Well thats enough about housework, here is my tip for the week - ”Dont let your 3yo carry your handbag around a busy shop, just to keep him quiet, because he will soon get bored and put it down and you wont realise until you get to the checkout to pay for your goodies!” (thank goodness there are still some honest people in this world)

 And here is a quote that I just loved from the one and only Victoria Beckham – ” I have three boys, so I think it’s less about parenting now for me and more about crowd control” – I believe that this applies if you have 2 or more children of either sex!.

Enjoy your weekend

Helen xxxxx

Bright

We have returned from our 4 day trip to Bright (and Matilda’s first holiday). Bright is such a beautiful place its a shame its such a long drive, well not really that long but with 3 kids, a hot day and no aircon believe me it seems like a long drive! I shouldn’t complain they were really pretty well behaved. 

Anyway the Chev ran like a dream and we had a great but exhausting time away. Riley was not well for most of the trip, running a temperature and just generally being grumpy (you know how males get when they are not well!).  He even managed to wander away on Sunday and go missing for around 15 minutes. I tell you I have never been so scared in my life.  Eventually he appeared out of the crowd, without a care in the world. Steve carried him around for the rest of the day, too afraid to let go of him.

We saw many nice cars, a few new ones too. There were around 1000+ cars this year so as you can guess, my boys were in heaven!!!!.  Declan and Riley already have all these grand plans about the cars they are going to build. I really hope we win lotto before they reach that stage because we are going to need a HUGE garage to accomodate them all.

We made it home around 4 yesterday afternoon and Steve had to go straight out and fix my car. The water pump had gone, luckily he is pretty clever with things like that so after a quick trip to Repco it was fixed a couple of hours later. 

Back to the real world today, Steve did a 12 hour shift and I did 5 loads of washing.  Now thinking about where we might go next year for a holiday, Steve has suggested Fiji though I was thinking somewhere a little closer to home!.

Helen xxxxx

Can you believe it?

How wonderful is all this rain?. So far we have had 49mm and its still pouring out there. The kids keep telling me “mum its STILL raining!” LOL.  Of course as soon as they were dressed, (after I told them to hurry up in the shower to save water) , on went the boots and raincoats and they headed outside to play.

Steve has headed up to Warburton today to ride his bike. Now thats dedication for you.  He just called to say he is very wet and sore but on his way home.

Riley had his actual birthday last Wednesday. He got very spoilt with lots of goodies and a trip to McDonalds after swimming for a sundae.  Now that he is 3 his temper tantrums seem to have gone up a notch! Oh well they shouldnt last for ever ( I hope).

Matilda is not going so well with regards to solids.  She does not seem to be taking to it at all. If she could absorb it through her skin she would be alot better off!.  Tried her on Weetbix mixed with Rice cereal and she ate a little more than usual so maybe is just the taste of the Farax putting her off.

I finally got around to scrapping last night YAY!!!!!!. I did a page for Declans 3rd birthday (only 2.5 years after the fact!). I have decided I seriously need to get out there and buy some more paper and cardstock. Steve doesnt seem to think that I really need anymore but he’s a boy and they dont understand do they.

Friday night Steve and I headed out to see Operator Please and guess what?, we were not the eldest people there!!. The bouncer was older than us as well as the parents of the band members so that was OK.  The band didnt come on until 11:15PM!. It was a really good show and the crowd was very entertaining as well. I still dont get the whole Emo – fringe in the face – look. That would drive me nuts!.

Hope you all back a winner in the Melbourne Cup. I am putting my money on Master O’Reilly (for obvious reasons) and Blue Monday (title of a very cool New Order song).

Have a good one, 

Helen xxxxx