The zoo.

So, I really should be going to bed at this ridiculous hour, and after my busy day to town, and the weekend ahead (early weekend starting tomorrow), but I just wanted to share some pictures with you all while I had a moment.

We had to get some work done on our car to accomodate our new home, and this had to be done in town 2hours away. So this gave me an opportunity to get those last minute things and have a day with my kids. I must say it was a pretty good day, early start and all. When we got home this evening, I realised my children had been awake for 15+ hours, which is a massive effort for them, considering all we did.

We were told a while ago there is a zoo in town, so today was my perfect opportunity to go check it out. The fact it was free was even better. Not too sure about the sounds, Little Miss 3 tred carefully around inspecting everything, and listening intently to all her big brother had to say about the animals escaping! He sure knows how to tease.

Off camping tomorrow, so plenty moren pictures next week.

Sleeping dingos.

Not too sure just yet what that sound is.

This is where the Chimps got out. There were so many hand prints, the chimps apparently went all over the place!

Where's Wally?

Kangaroos were too sleepy too.

At least we got to pet these ones!

The cassowary enclosure.



Friends, family and camping.

This weekend our goal was to go camping.

Done! Yay, we had a great time.

A quiet evening by a fantastic bonfire with some easy going friends and we had a lovely time.

Though, I must say it was cold. We have not had many camping experiences to date, gear which we thought sufficient to see us through. But I was wrong. Our sleeping bags are nice and warm, but I can't recall ever using them in the middle of winter. And last night, warm is something I was not. I ended up with 5 layers on top and 3 on bottom with 2 pairs of socks and a beanie. Little Miss 3 was coated with as much clothing as me, although her sleeping bag (we thought she had a proper one), is only a kids cheapie. It was teamed with a nice warm quilt, which I had to keep getting up to wrap back around her. She often woke throughout the night complaining of the cold and pushing her blankets off. Our stuff during the night became really cold, and to touch felt like it was wet, which is why I assume she was kicking them off. Every time I put the blankets back on her she made me rub them until they were warm.

When I was not readjusting her blankets, trying to warm back up under my own blankets, she still kept me awake by chatting in her sleep. Firstly about patting the 'bucking bull', then had a giggle over feeding the horse apples, and every other hour she was chatting about something but I was too cold and tired to remember what they were about. Many more giggles is all I can remember, and one scared No shouting segment! Very cute, but extremely tiring at the same time.

Master 5 had a great sleep, and did not stir at all until the morning. As did my DH.
The morning in the camper was great, the canvas is pretty heavy and the kids stayed asleep until just before 7, it was nice and dark in the tent. Hopefully in summer the darkness will prevail and keep us cool-ish too!

In the morning we got up and stoked the fire back up to warm us while we waited for the sun to warm things up. Whilst sitting there, I noticed water start to drip rather quickly off the roof of our friends house, and then realised it must have frosted overnight and it was now melting.

Kids beds ready.

I got too tired last night to finish this blog, and it is now monday morning. Today we are having a dog trainer out to help us with our terrible puppy. It is kind of a last resort for us, to help us get him to stop chewing absolutely everything. We know it is a puppy stage, but has been ongoing for too long now, and we want it to be done with. It has been hard not too pass him on to a new home, so will see how this training goes.

Tent, set up.

Kids asleep.

Going to bed.

Children!

Well, my husband will be pleased with this post.

I have to say, it is days like these I wondered why I ever wanted more kids (no we are not having any more).

I love my kids, it is very true. We sing a very lovely goodnight song every night regardless of how mad we have been throughout the day. And today was a fine example of the madness encapsulating me.

Master 5 and full of independent attitude, woke up happy this morning, but his mood quickly changed. I don't really know why, but it has been building all year and I am pretty sure he is a tad jealous of Little Miss 3 staying home with me every day he has to go to school. So this morning before he even got dressed, it was on. All I could do (cause there is no way I can lift his wiggling bum onto his bed to punish him) was walk away and ignore him. I shut myself in my bedroom and waited a few minutes, then had to go and help Little Miss 3 get dressed for the day. I walked straight past the Master 5 who was full of attitude, and began my day.

After about 20 minutes he finally came round and did as he was aksed initially, and the morning seemed to go smoothly, for the next 20minutes.

We drove to school today as wednesday is music day for Little Miss 3 and we head straight to town from school. I had forgotten her ukelele so while the kids were buckling themselves in I ran back up to get the instrument. I came back to tears and screams and OMG I had had enough. At school I told Master 5's teacher that if he did not do his work properly this morning he was not allowed to attend soccer (an elective we have chosen, which just so happens to be held during class time, though we take home extra work to make up for what he misses). I found out he was fine today and really enjoyed his soccer. I was thinking that is great, hopefully this afternoon is much nicer.

Boy was I wrong.

Without going into detail, both children ended up in their beds for a period of time until I had calmed enough to allow them to play quietly in their bedrooms. This is where they stayed until dinner time, as I did not want to deal with anymore unnecessary bad behaviour. Needless to say, Master 5 just has a listening problem, and instead of having play time after dinner, he had a story and went straight to bed.

It feels like it has been such a long day, and now I can't wait for my dear husband to get home with a good drink!

Always something to do....

The past few weeks I have been busy.

Well, it feels like it anyhow.

Well, to tell you the truth, I have not really done that much.

I lie, I have done bugger all. Sorry.

But I have had the opportunity to play with my little girl. Little Miss 3 is growing up so quickly and having been in our situation the past few years and needing to work I do feel I have missed out on a bit with her. It is reallly haunting me the fact she goes to school the year after next.
The past few weeks I have not been required to look after our friends children so have had more time than usual to ourselves.

So I have been taking time to play. And just hang out with her. We jumped on the trampoline the other day, invited friends to music makers last week (which she adored), and have had time to build some leggo contraptions.

I am finally feeling more like my old, responsible, self and am making a concerted effort to ensure my house is clean (since I hurt my back, my cleaning gene has disappeared). It is still not perfect, but I can only do so much around the sleep shifts which happen in our household.

We have been loving our bonfires, collecting sticks and burning up empty boxes. It has been a bit of a challenge keeping our beloved Rusty dog away from our sticks, there are plenty around the yard, but he has seen fit to take from our collection and redistribute them back over the yard.

I took the challenge (it was not too hard actually) to read my first novel in about 5years. Took me about 2 weeks, but done and dusted, now I am thinking about what to read next, but not too willing to jump in to something else as I have trouble putting a good tale down!

And I have been getting our next garden bed ready for planting. Am not sure if it will be a potato garden yet, but it is almost ready, just need to fence off the last corner to keep the chickens and dogs out.
Today I fenced off a corner of the yard which I have been clearing out, and it is now ready to be sewn with grass seed. I have a bay leaf tree which is going in this corner, so I need to keep the dogs and chooks away from here too, to keep my grass growing.

My DH picked up some wood a few days back, and I plan on making some sort of bench which I will turn into a makeshift greenhouse, so I can grow seedlings safely away from that beloved puppy whom seems to get into everything.

And finally, this weekend will see us take out our new camper trailer for the first time. We are pretty excited, but totally anticipating no sleep due to the cold weather! But it will be exciting all the same! I will make sure I charge the camera batteries and hopefully have some pics for you all next week.

Adios!

A nice day

I have recently added to my family 2 little boys on an occasional basis! I babysit a friends boys during the week as she begrudgingly, has gone back to work. It is nice to have the distraction from my everyday tasks, caring for another persons children I am more in tune to do kids things. This week I have not had the boys, and today has been my first day in a long time I have not had any plans and my DH was at work.
So it was just Little Miss 3 and I.
Not sure what we would get up to, we dropped Master 5 off at school and strolled home. She determined the route we walked, and it was nice to go a different direction.
We did not get up to much, she watched movies on a portable DVD player at various places around the house (I love seeing her chill out and laze about to watch a movie as her attention span does not usually last that long!).
I attempted some laundry, sweeping, just the usual. Around mid morning I decided (since the sun was uncharacteristically shining) to air the bedding and wash sheets. Together we stripped my bed of its covers and proceeded to have fun jumping on it together, and I realised how much I had missed laughing with my children. Since my girl was little I had to work, so she was in childcare, and I have realised that I missed the early years of her development unlike my son. So I am really getting to know her now. And I have to admit, it was fun to jump on my bed!
After sorting out the bedding, Little Miss 3 asked to do some painting, so without hesitation I got out the painting pallett and off she went. A lovely love heart today, and more to come tomorrow.
After lunch we had a sleep in our freshly made-up beds (without blankets), and I accidentally snoozed until 1pm. Missing my chance to mop the floors (so I thought), I decided that some reading was in order (after the dishes), and to my surprise Little Miss 3 slept until it was time to get our boy from school. I had hoped for a rendezvou to the shop for a snack, but time was ticking so off to school we went.
A quick detour to the local park for a play before the masses stopped in, saw us invited to a birthday party (at the park), and we ended up staying until dinner time (about 5pm). It is days like these I am thankful for my overcooking and frozen meals!
What a great day, hope yours was good too!

Totally pooped.

So, I took my 3yo daughter on a date this morning (maccas for a baby cino). We had a lovely time giggling (like girls do!) and enjoying our little treats. She then informed me it was not a 'date' unless we went to the shops. Since our grocery delivery was short some strawberries (her favourite), I decided that could be our excuse to stop at the shop.
I was very good and all we purchased were the strawberries!

Getting back to my 'pooped' story, when we left maccas all refreshed and ready to go, I noticed some horizontal scratches down our car door, 6 to be precise.

Not happy, sooooo totally not happy. Our car is only 2months new.

Did I mention I was not happy? Seriously, it looked like someone had dropped their bag (or something similar) down the side of our car, not once but twice. I mean how rude can people be. I make a super effort to ensure my kids, my car, and my belongings do not touch other peoples cars, and I get abused like this. It is as if doing the right thing does not pay.

Oh well, it had been done and the only thing to do was move on. Disappointedly, we went home. I decided to try and polish out the scratches, so a car wash was in order. Little Miss 3 was happy with that and enjoyed spraying the hose everywhere (whilst I was out of reach!). Once dried, we parked the car under the house and went upstairs for some lunch. When my precious girl had gone to bed (I do still enjoy a lunch time rest period, but not today), I proceeded to polish the door which had the offending scratches on it. Luckily they were only surface scratches (probably couldn't scratch past the dirt on the car!), and most disappeared pretty easily. There is still one scratch which was a little deeper, hopefully it will come out when we have the car detailed at the next service.

The only problem with polishing one door, it looks funny, so I had to do the other 3 doors, and the bonnett. The car looks pretty shiny now (will see how long it lasts), and I am totally pooped.

PICTURES!!!!!

A long time in between but here are some pictures.

 A day at the Weir.

 Our bonfire.



  Our girl.

Scenery from Rockhampton going west.

And again.

Nearly home.