Boulder

My boys have discovered You Tube. Mostly Thomas stuff at this stage. They love watching Rusty and the Boulder. It's quite funny to watch Squealy trying his hardest in his emerging language to warn you that Boulder is coming!

Fuzzy also enjoys watching random movies that the public have made up themselves, which are totally dodgy but hilarious for a 2 & 4 year old. Things like: "Thomas and the Mad Bomber" & "Thomas Fires the Laser".

At least it keeps Fuzzy quiet for a bit when Squealy sleeps. Fuzzy has totally given up his day sleep so sometimes you just need 5 minutes without him bothering you about something. It's going to be a long Christmas break.

Christmas Day

Here are some pictures from the day. Overall we had a great day, but it ended up being alot of work. Kids had way too much to eat. Fuzzy decided he enjoyed the punch and had quite abit of it (alcohol free!).

All three were really pleased with their gifts and they didn't know what to play with first. We tried sitting in a circle this year and opening a gift at a time. This worked really well and slowed things down a bit.

I still didn't manage to get any decent photos at all. Most of them were blurry. So it's going to make scrapping Christmas LO's pretty difficult.

Christmas Eve...

Twas the night before Christmas and three very excited children wouldn't go to bed. So we bundled then up into the car and headed off for a little Christmas light sight seeing.

We didn't have to go very far to see some fantastic light displays. Our favourite by far was to be found tucked in the street directly behind my new school in Charnwood! Wow what a display.The kids were so excited as it really has to be seen to be believed.

The good thing about this display is that quite a few of the Santa's etc all move. The kids loved the Santa who was fishing!

















The last thing to do for the evening was to put out food and drinks for Santa and the Reindeer. We had to put out carrots and 2 types of cookies, choc chip and milk arrowroot. Fuzzy insisted that the reindeer would need water, so out went a bowl of water. String Bean was sure that Santa would be thirsty so a beer would be the go! What a spoilt Santa :-)

Merry Christmas everyone!

3 Year Old Preschool Highlights

Fuzzy Wuzzy attended year old preschool this year for 2 half days a week at Noah's Arc in Giralang. He has had a lovely year and the staff and program are of the a very high standard. If he wasn't off to big school next year we'd happily send him again. Not long to go and it will be Squealy's turn!

A Day For Birthday Parties.

String Bean had two birthday parties today, back to back. The first party was a superheros theme party for her friend Sam. What a lovely party! 8 guests, apple bobbing and canvas painting. Oh and dressing up and water fights!!!
The second party was at Pink Kisses at Belconnen for her friend Georgia. Now given I had some preconceived ideas I was actually pleasantly surprised. The girls were treated to a new hair style and some glitter hair spray. They could then choose either a butterfly mask (which String Bean jumped at!), a hair extension or a multi coloured hair plat thing? ;-) She then got a minimal (hardly any) blush and eye shadow makeover. It's not really her thing though.

















They did lots of dancing, limbo game and made up either a lip gloss or some bubble bath. They all had an absolute ball. Even if she spent the entire party choosing no pink things.....was hard for her too. But she managed to find a blue bracelet, green hair clip, white butterfly mask, etc. The girls could choose five things to add to their lolly bags. Not sure if I'd personally have a Pink Kisses party.....then I'd have to explain to Fuzzy and Squealy why they weren't invited!

The First Tooth.

String Bean has lost her first baby tooth. She seems to have sprouted lately, gotten really tall and quite lanky. So I guess this is all just a part of her growing up. She was so pleased the tooth fairy came to visit, leaving her a dollar. I wonder when the next tooth will fall out? None are wiggly yet, but it can't be too far away.

Zoo visit.

Yesterday we gave into the kids nagging and took them off to visit the zoo. After getting over the price!!!! ($57 which included 25% off from the Entertainment book voucher) we actually had a great time.

We arrived just in time to see the monkeys being fed by the keeper on Monkey Island. The kids loved seeing them mucking around and doing lots of tricks. When asked if anyone had any questions, String Bean asked the keeper if she could feed the monkeys.....please! The answer was no but he took the time to explain why and she didn't mind at all.





We then walked around the whole zoo. The highlights were seeing the penguins being fed by another keeper and watching the brown bear eat a block of ice full of sardines! Fuzzy had a great time 'trying' to get close to the kangaroos in the petting area. He had minimal success. Squealy loved everything especially the giraffes and the 'crocs' his favourite animals.

Pity about the entry cost. The kids had such a great time it is a real shame we can't visit more often.

End of Kinder Disco.

String Bean had a school disco before the end of term. All the kinder children turned up and had an absolute ball, dancing up a real storm. It was weird being at school and seeing everyone in their best party frocks and outfits. What a lovely end to the school year for the kids.




She's now finished for the year which is a real relief. No trying to think of creative school lunches for my fussiest eater. Now I'm on the countdown till I finish on Friday!

It's all over for another year.

Look what my little String Bean came home with on her last day of school. A gift that bought tears to my eyes. She put so much care and thought into this picture of me, doing my thing as a teacher. I have it framed and on my desk. Something to treasure always.

Not quite sure why I am lassoing an elephant while jumping.....hehehe. I really am a multi-tasking teaching professional! I'm also wearing my two favourite colours: pink and purple!

On a more serious note I have received my offer for next year and happy to report that I'll be teaching at Charnwood/Dunlop School. Which has a fantastic reputation now. So very happy here.

Santa photo

Fuzzy, Squealy & String Bean with Santa.

We headed out to Brand Depot this morning as we had it on good authority that this was the place to get a quick and easy Santa shot. I had also heard that the Santa was really friendly and put the kids at ease.

We were first in line and walked away with 4 5x7 shots for $15. The photos were $5 each with the first one free! The kids really enjoyed the experience although we couldn't get either of the boys to smile at all. 6 shots later we gave up. String Bean of course looked radiant in all the photos!


















This afternoon we were treated to a rare visit from Uncle Ant and Aunt Bec. They bought along the adorable baby Olivia. The kids really enjoyed playing with the baby and Squealy even decided to share his toys with her! Cluck, cluck, cluck......;-)

The tree is up

Tonight has been the first chance we've had to set up our Christmas tree and decorate the house. The kids had so much fun. Squealy helped Fuzzy set up the mini tree (which will be placed on our dining room table). After he went to bed we started the big tree.


The kids were a fantastic help. They were able to follow instructions really well and hung most of the ornaments. I'm wondering whether Squealy will leave the tree alone? I guess we shall see tomorrow.

He got sad....

Captured the moon and his little pals again this evening. But instead of a smile it is now a frown! Too cool really.

Smiley Moon.

Wow. A really rare occurrence: a smiley moon. A crescent moon with Venus and Jupiter adding the eyes. Thanks to Steve and Lisa for reminding me to get off the 'puter and go outside to see this. I'm amazed my camera captured it so well!

Family catch ups.

All six playing beautifully together. Was fantastic to catch up with Lisa and the kids. Had a great chat and got some goss. Got to love family get togethers!

We could play lets spot the blanket and finger sucking! Squealy. Or who isn't going to join in the photo? Fuzzy Wuzzy.

Card Stack

Cards designed by Nicola Denny!

I caught up with an old friend who was visiting on the weekend. She is a Stampin' Up demonstrator and we participated in a Christmas Card Stack night. It was pretty frenetic and fast paced but I learnt quite abit of new technique and got some lovely cards to send to family and friends out of the evening. A really fun evening with friends.

Love To Stitch layout class with Ainslee McCallum

On a sadder note Scrap Junkie closed it's door for the last time on Sunday. Sob where will I go now to find all the pretty things? and avoid postage too? and get good customer service? :-( Just so sad that things didn't work out for the lovely Ainslee. Just seems so unfair. But Canberra doesn't seem to be very kind to scrapbooking stores in general

I was fortunate to book into the very last class that Ainslee taught last weekend and completed a gorgeous hand stitched layout. I will always remember the fun times and the lovely Scrap Junkie shop when I look at this layout.

Box Construction

Fuzzy Wuzzy came home with this from preschool last week. He is so talented in his own way. So carefully put together. With two eyes and four white wheels on the sides! He is really, really ready for school. He seems to have a really good sense of where things should go, as the wheels were all places exactly where they needed to go!
He is also enjoying his birthday present that Abi got him: some scrapbooks and a couple of sets of Brush Paint Pens. His Daddy helped out with the train outline but he did all the rest by himself! Love the sun and the clouds above the train!

He doesn't get much

He loves his tractors!

blog time. Felt the time was right for him to have a blog post all to himself.

So here is Squealy at 2 years 2 months old. Looking way too grown up all of a sudden. He is still sucking his fingers and will still only sleep with his 'blankie'. It's strange as the older two never really had an attachment to anyone particular object and never had a dummy or sucked their thumbs. I'm wondering how we will ever get him to stop?

He is completely obsessed with anything related to transport. Most of his vocabulary is based on transport words. At least now he is adding some describing words to his running commentary. Esp. when we are in the car, it's truck that, bus the other etc. He nearly wet himself with excitement when he saw a group of tractors mowing the edges along Kuringa Drive.

Squealy is totally the terrible two at the moment. He is still squealing, esp. when he doesn't get his own way or want to eat what we've served for dinner. His favourite tricks include running away with no nappy and weeing on the lounge room rug or pulling out all the nappy sacks and nappy wipes stored in his room!

He loves 'reading' books, but they must be Bob the Builder or Thomas. Anything else and the squealing starts or he just throws the book away.

Ah two year olds!

The wheels on the bus

Today playgroup headed out on an Action Bus to go on the bus wash excursion. The kids get picked up driven round the interchange and then a visit to the bus depot. They got to see where the 'sick' buses get repaired, sprayed with water by the mechanics and then through the actual bus wash.

The boys had a great time. Poor Squealy didn't want to get on the bus at all and I had to drag him kicking and screaming onto the bus. Although once we got moving and I gave him a snack it was all good. Just as well as the excursion takes just over 1 hour.

Movember

Husband Deluxe has decided to go for it this year and grow a mo for Movember. This photo was taken 3 weeks in and as you can see a pretty good effort so far. He finds it prickly and itchy so I'm thinking come Dec 1 he'll go back to just sporting his traditional goatee.

Still totally love the goatee! Not too sure on the mo though.

Canvas Art

12X12 painted canvas.

String Bean's school had an art show on. This is the canvas that she painted for the exhibition. Using her favourite bright colours. She loves yellow and orange. All the warm colours really. Pity that yellow makes her look so washed out. I never buy her any clothes in yellow or orange!

Initial sketch and story.

Following the design, make and appraise approach. The kids planned their art work (see above), then painted the canvas' and when dry added extra bits in. String Bean put glitter glue all over her hair. You probably can't see it in the photo. She also used texta to draw in extra details.

Two together.....

is great. Works well.
Add in the third child, esp. when you are trying desperately to get a photo of all three together and it all falls to pieces.

This seems to be the case all round usually. Going anywhere with two of the kids seems to work. Add the third into the mix and it is on for young and old ;-)

Popopoly

String Bean received a game for her birthday from us. Junior Monopoly. Except she can't quite say it right.

We've had the following versions:
* Popopoly
* Nonopoly
* just Opoly

String Bean's got it now. They love the little cars, the money, using the little houses.....everything really. Even paying to see the fireworks ($2 into the loose change spot) is a cause for much merriment.

String Bean is quite the property tycoon. She ended owning nearly the whole board. But in her true caring style she became most upset when she thought that her Daddy was going to loose a second game. She then started playing not to win, but to loose. "It's OK Daddy, you don't have to pay me." What a little sweetheart.