So WHY are the children so PINK??? Hmmmm?

When Jamie comes home from his 4 week stints at work, he has decided, obviously with everyone in agreement, that we will go on day trips all over this great big state we have adopted. Until we can afford to buy a camper trailer/tent thing-o at least. Than we can head further from home.

As you already know we have been to The Pinnacles Next on our list was going to be Wave Rock in Hyden. At the last moment we decided against it as the temperatures where predicted to be high, and with all that sunshine beaming down on a huge rockface......... well I'm sure you get the picture.

So a new destination was required and after umming and ahhing we decided to visit Abingdon Miniature Village Knowing this wouldn't take all day, we also decided to we would take the children to the beach. for a BBQ lunch.

So very early Thursday morning - but not early enough, as we were 'lucky' enough to experience peak hour traffic! - how people do that EVERYDAY!!! is beyond my reasoning!

So anyway we got there on time, even though "Serena" our ever faithful GPS guide tried to send us past it. side track here, I am pleased to say "Serena" is in semi-retirement, and has been since before Christmas. I am managing to find my way around more and more by myself, and just have her on mute to be safe - I don't need her 'hoighty-toighty attitude if i'm already in a pickle. :) So  we finally got there and assembled ourselves alongside the truck for the elusive sunscreen smothering, but before we could even attempt to find it, we were BESIEGED by mozzies! so doing that German/Bavarian dance we learned back in QLD at the Gotta Go Caravan Park we dashed across the carpark to the entrance where we had to wait, while daddy dashed back to truck after forgetting his wallet, meanwhile mummy is looking around  asking where we are supposed to get our entry tickets from, when no-one was around - completely oblivious to the lady standing almost beside me in the little entry building!!

so after she gave us lengthy instructions about where and when the children could run, she finally relieved us of our biting irritating pests - and NO, i certainly don't mean the children BOOM BOOM ;p

We asked why there were SO MANY mosquitoes, and she went into another lengthy discussion about it all, ......... mentally crossing off this suburb in the house/land hunting searches!

FINALLY, We toddled off to visit the wonders awaiting us beyond the gate :)

All the buildings are handmade and require re-painting every 6-12 months.

The Village Green
 all the little 'people' are playing cricket

The little train went the whole way around the 'lake'
Mentally realising WHY so many mozzies about with lots of stagnant ponds about!

My two BIG boys pushing my two little girls in their strollers.  naaawwwww

All the miniatures are based on real buildings in the UK, this one
apparently has a tradition of the town leaders throwing
sweet buns off the roof, to the people during celebrations.

And my almost favourite part of the park.......

It WOULD have been my favourite, if it wasn't for the fact of the mozzies swarming us again as we went through!

This is the entrance to the 'secret garden'
 haha not so secret if it's on the map
i know i know, it's reference to the story ;)

See Jamie? cheeky boy, saw me with the camera
 and quickly turned before i could snap him

This was Clairebears choice of attire for the day,
both her and Kaytie have a 'thing' for socks and sandals at the moment!
uurrgghh ;)

Last but not least before we left (there was plenty i have saved you from ;D ) was another of my favourite parts the running labyrinth (you know i THOUGHT they were for slow, meditative thoughts?)

After we finished and escaped the mosquitoes we headed under "Serena's" so called guidance, we really need to remind her about the size of our truck! We drove past all the bazillion dollar homes and arrived at Hall's Head Beach, we are definately NOT beach people, and reluctantly let the children into the water to paddle - there was NO WAY we were going up to the patrolled section as a) we couldn't fit the truck any where and b) there were too many people and not enough space! So we allowed the children to go waist deep, where they had a great time being thrown about but the waves, except Sophie, who after feeling how cold it was and seeing it 'chase' her preferred to stay clinging to Daddy's leg. Claire also preferred to stay on the edge enjoying the sand moving  under her feet each time the waves broke on the shore.

I didn't get any photos as i was reluctant to take the camera near the sand and salt water.

The water was a big change to the beaches in Cairns we are used to, though where we were wasn't as clear as everyone raved about to us, due to all the seaweed and 'junk' (not rubbish) washed up on shore. Oh and STINK!! phew! that took a while to get used to!

The other big highlight was Kaytie (and everyone) finally got to see dolphins! we saw about 3-4 surfacing on and off for about 15 mins before swimming out of sight.

We spent about 2.5 hrs (prob. more?) there, spending the last half hour or so at the playground so Mummy and Daddy could have some shade, as Daddy mainly, doesn't have a decent hat and is now as red as a lobster!

I will leave it here as again i need to clean the kitchen up after dinner as again everybody is in bed.

We have had a little (and i mean LITTLE!) rain tonight, so that has been refreshing as i sit by the window here. In less than 20 mins it will be Sophie's 2nd birthday and i will no longer have any babies in our family :( but how exciting as things are moving forward and the rhythms in our home are ever evolving.

 Other babies though, are EVERYWHERE about me, an old high school friend of mine just had her second daughter 8lb 5oz - Tabitha Eve. And we can't wait til March when big Clairebear has her 1st bubby girl also!! seems to be the season for girls? i just remembered another high school friend is due to have TWIN girls next month!

I truly must go now, next time i will tell you where we went on the Friday (the next day)

OXOXoxoxoxoxox

BJslkcs

PS now It's tomorrow!

Happy Birthday "Soapy baby" mama loves you

2 years has gone too fast for my liking Sophie Rose, I'm not ready for you to be a big kid yet :)

Finally the PROPER big reveal..... Our House :)

Have you got your cuppa ready, this will take awhile, it's a big house,
c'mon then, time for a tour.

The Photos are all a mish mash over various days/weeks and are mostly 'au naturale' so brace yourself ;P

The Front (no?? really???)

Through the front door

To the left of the front door is the front room
AND the Perfect spot for my craft desk...........
now i just need time to use it! :o)

The Children's play area - it WAS our 'formal dining area (HAHA!)
but the afternoon sun comes through those blinds and *sniff sniff*
completely warped our handmade table with the dry heat.
It has been almost fixed.  But was very traumatic for Jamie,
so i didn't take photos of how bad it was to remind him more. :(

OH I am SOOO loving the packaging from our IKEA visits! we have made some awesome things from it all.
You can see their shop/puppet theatre. we also have the cubby house outside (on the side bar then and NOW photos) We also made a jellyfish out of plastic packaging for our vacuum box tortoise to eat! There are so many other things, but they are the best ones :o)

So next up, walking through the door opposite the front door is our lounge.

the door i was talking about is opp. the white wall.

see the space behind the lounge on the white wall?? it's real weird, it's a planter box with tinted mirrors ceiling height behind it. maybe if we PUT plants in it it wouldn't look so odd. LOL
Oh FYI, the children are all watching an AUSLAN dvd and are doing sign language, we are using AUSLAN as our LOTE requirement for the year. (LOTE stands for Languages Other Than English)

the door to the right of the tv is back into the front room.
and yes that is Jamie's beloved wobbly  almost level table

to the left of this space is the 'schoolroom', i'll get to that last ;P so forward ho through the 'blue' door is the L shaped hall to the childrens bedroom, and laundry and main bathroom.

Oh hang on, the kitchen

Heh heh Clairebear 'washing up' for me

not particularly informative, but really it's a pretty boring layout,
which doesn't work overly well? oven to the left, pantry
 and fridge space to the right. oh and door behind me to the garage.

 The Children's Bedrooms

this is was Kaytie's room, it's now Lily's and looks a lot different.

see what the darling "cherub" drew on her bed
into the varnish! I am now torn as to
whether we DO sand them back and re-finish them?

I seem to have left out Lily's bedroom?, but that was probably because she will get a "new" decorated bedroom for her birthday in 3 weeks. We have had a big bedroom shuffle with the girls, Lily is in Kaytie's room above, Claire now shares with Kaytie, and is in Lily's old room and Sophie now is alone next door to us at the front of the house. but anyway.....

This is Samuel's room, bet you NEVER would have guessed :)

It now also looks completely different, so
I will update you all after Lily's Big b'day reveal.

Now back to the very front of the house and off the front room on the right is to Sophie's and my bedroom which I also seem to have forgotton about? probably because my bed was unmade :), i did however get my ensuite, which opens up into the room... outside that screen door, is my own little "retreat" space - though it is very bland, looking at an empty garden bed full of dirty sand LOL

I think Sophie's favourite place in the house
is IN the spabath, no water, just her or with a couple toys.

and what is now just sophie's  closet room,

Sophie has her cot back now as we bought lily a new bed ($59 from IKEA!!! ) as part of her room makeover, but she(sophie) will have to 'tough' it out in the travel cot a bit longer as i'm going to makeover the cot too, i think i will give Soph a room makeover too for her 2nd birthday this weekend :)

So if we go back to the main living area, where the door to the patio..... oh alright i'll show the 'school room' before we go outside :)

It has 4 stages we are in stage 3 at the moment

1st stage - i.e the week we moved in.

ok it's more like the 2nd week we moved in, as the 1st week
EVERY box for the whole house was in this space!

2nd stage

3rd stage - where we are now :)




"au naturale"



This is after an afternoon of 'school', as i told the children we have 'started' already. Jan 5 to be exact Mwah ha ha haaaaaaa ;p I am still waiting for curriculum to arrive from various places as they have ALL decided and want to do more bookwork/schooly stuff this year, which is hard as i now have to find stuff for Claire to do which is similar but not the same, as there is only so much colouring in a girl can do, even if i tell her that's what she'd be doing if she went to  kindy :)

Do you see my rug! I LOVE MY RUG!!!!! it's my favourite and my best!

we still need a few tweaks before stage 4, but i will go through it all when we get there :) oh i'm excited :)!!

So if we turn around and go out the screen door behind us we will be on the patio.

This is at the very end of the patio (d'uh lol) you'll have to excuse our washing on the line, as if we turn to the left you will see the full extent of our yard, and at the end of the yard you will see the pitiful excuse of a clothesline provided with a 5 bedroom house!!

you see it up there on the shed?? how about a close up?

?????????????      Crazy, I guess the people
who put it in must use the dryer alot?
It doesn't even fit a single sheet across the width!

this is down the other side of the house,
my 'retreat' is right at the end at the fibro fence. :)
The children have been banned from coming down here
(mainly for the neighbour's sake ;p) there is also a
BEAUTIFUL frangipani tree down here in constant flower!

Well that's my house hope you enjoyed the tour, you'll have to have another cuppa now... and how about a choccy bikky or cupcake?? 

I will leave you with my "entry" photo for "mother of the year"!

You see her little arms;and nose;and cheeks; and legs; even the tops of her feet! :( (ps, she was dancing in this shot lol) We saw an AWFUL lot of sun yesterday and today, and guess who forgot everone's sun cream? everybody is a horrible shade of pink, but brightside is, no one will complain next time the sun cream comes out!!

As for why we saw so much sun and are so pink........ next post sorry, i have a kitchen to clean as everybody has gone to bed.

OXOXoxoxoxoxox

BJslkcs