Five weeks!

In five weeks time, or in 34 sleeps we will be getting some special visitors!

Grandma and Grandpa Montague!

Last time they were here was for Lachlan's Baptism.

This time they are coming because this beautiful girls is turning 8 and getting baptised.

Everyone is very excited about their arrival! The kids talk about it every time they see an airplane fly overhead. They mention in their prayers every day for Grandma and Grandpa to have a safe trip. We spend a lot of time talking about all the fun things that we will do when they arrive.

We are planning on taking them on some trips to see a bit more of Australia. First we are headed to the Flinders Rangers. We will be camping on some private property, just outside of Hawker. When spent last Easter long weekend there and just loved it. We are able to take the quad bikes and there is lots of see and explore.

We can do some hiking and driving through some beautiful countryside.

There are also some ruins we can go and see. We will also go and visit some caves with Aboriginal art in them.

Next up is a trip to Halls Gap, which is in the Grampians, which is about halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. I have never been there but have heard lots of good things about it. Again we will be doing some hiking, driving and just exploring the area.

Next up we will be heading to the Murray River for a whole week on a luxury houseboat.

It will be nice to just cruise down the river taking in the scenery, taking the kayaks out for a paddle, relaxing in the spa or driving the jet ski. All while taking in the views.

After all those trips it will be time for Amie's Birthday Party and Baptism.

We are all so excited for them to come and to go and explore some more of this wonderful country! While we wait though there is plenty to be done.

A New School Year and A Photo-a-Day

Well, School holidays are over for another Summer and the kids are back at school. Lachlan is in Year 4. Amie is in Year 2 and Caitlyn is in Reception. They were all so excited to get back to school, mostly I think they missed playing with their friends!

It is only one more sleep until my little baby girl starts Kindy! I can't believe it. She is so excited! It has been hard for her to watch the other kids go to school everyday and she has to stay home, but not tomorrow.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my self for those three hours with no children, probably clean!

I love these goofy kids! They make my heart melt and my spirit smile! It is nearly impossible to get them to all look at the camera and smile a normal smile all at the same time!

But it sure is fun trying!

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I have been fairly slack in the blogging department lately and need something to motivate me so I'm going to try to post a Photo-a-Day for the whole month of February.

So here is Photo No. 1

Laundry. It is my constant companion. Most people sort there laundry into whites, darks and towels. I have a group just for pinks/purples. I love my girls but they sure do wear a lot of clothes!

Summer Holidays 2011-2012

I can't believe that the school holidays are nearly over. They seem to have gone by so quickly. We didn't go anywhere or do anything really special but I think that the kids have still had lots of fun. 

There have been plenty of sleep overs and play dates with friends. There have been trips to the zoo and Monarto. There has been swimming, especially in Grandma's spa, and plenty of playing at the park. There has been lots of movies and video games, balanced with lots of jumping on the trampoline and riding on scooters. All in all we have had lots of fun but had plenty of time to relax as well!

Here are just some of the pictures taken over the summer. We still have one week left and lots of plans to make the most of it, including birthday celebrations for me!

At the Zoo.

Monarto Zoo

We waited a while for this giraffe to come this close.

Buried at the beach!

Thanks Aunty Lisa for the Christmas present. They love it!

At the beach

My handsome husband!

I love this picture. She loves so grown up. This is also before she got her hair cut off!

Trying to catch some waves, but they were too small

Where have you been?

It's been so long I almost forgot how to blog! But I'm back and hopefully I can catch up a little bit.

The month of December was crazy. The kids finished school which meant class parties, Christmas cards, bringing lots of things home and getting reports. They all did a fantastic job this year.

 Lachlan really like his teacher and enjoyed doing lots of maths and science. They studied rocks and minerals at the beginning of the year, so now Lachlan has an ever growing rock collection and will tell anyone who will listen lots of interesting facts about them. He also got very interested in space so he got a telescope for his birthday and enjoys looking at the moon and planets. He is one of the fastest readers I know! He loves to read and I'm constantly looking for something new for him to read. When he went to the States with Buzz in the middle of the year he got a series called, "Tennis shoes among the Nephites." He has also been reading a series called 'The 39 Clues." Those books are a bit thinner and so it only takes him a day or two to get through each one. He already had the first three and got the rest (11 books in total) for Christmas. He is already up to number 10! I love that he loves to read! I will often find him in his room laying on his bed or sitting in his bean bag for hours reading!

Amie also did a great job at school this year. This year reading finally 'clicked' for her and she has been blazing through the reading levels and gaining confidence in her reading ability. Amie has always loved to do art and craft and that desire to create has gotten stronger this year. Both of her teachers have commented on how neat all of her work is. She is an amazing drawer, much better than I'll ever be. She won a prize around Easter time at school for the Easter egg that she coloured it. It was pretty amazing the details that she put into it. Amie is also very much a social butterfly and loves to have friends around. She has one friend at school in particular that she is very close to and I'm glad she has that friendship!

Caitlyn went from Kindy to School in the middle of the year and enjoys it a lot. She had a fantastic teacher and had enjoyed learning to read and doing homework like Lachlan and Amie! Caitlyn is my helper and is always cleaning up when no-one else will. Caitlyn also really loves to sing. She can often be heard singing in the other room and often asks me to turn the radio up in the car so she can sing along. She has missed having her cousin Zoe around for the last six months. They love playing together and having sleepovers. It will be great to see them together again!

Haylie has grown up so much in the past year. She went from being a toddler to being such a grown up little girl. Since all the other kids are at school all day she has been my little buddy. She loves to go to the shops, visit Grandma and help me around the house. She is such a cute little character. She says the funniest things and has such a funny attitude. She loves to have time with just me but she looks forward to playing with the other kids after school each day! It is going to be really weird for me because Haylie starts Kindy in February. She starts with just one morning a week until May and then she will go four mornings a week. It is going to be really weird to have all this time to myself each day. Haylie is really looking forward to going to Kindy. She got a new bag for Christmas and she also got a choose a new lunch box and drink bottle like the big kids. She asks me every day if it is a school day today. She is going to be really upset when the kids go back to school on a Monday, but she doesn't start until the Thursday!

We are looking forward to a fantastic new year with lots of adventures, changes and new things to experience!

Halloween Cookies

Last night for Family Home Evening I thought that we might try our hand at some cookie decoration. I found the idea here, but instead of making the cookies I cheated and used store bought ones instead. The kids didn't care though and they had lots of fun.

We used Milk Arrowroot Biscuits, chocolate chips and white chocolate for melting. To make the ghost ones I put the melted chocolate in a small deep bowl so that they could just dunk the biscuits in, let it drip off a bit and they lay it on the baking paper. They then used the chocolate chips to make faces, or as Haylie did just put they wherever you want. It was easy enough to do though that Haylie did it all by herself.

For the mummy biscuits I melted the chocolate and then put it into a ziploc bag and sniped a small bit off the corner. We stuck the chocolate chips down first with a bit of melted chocolate and then the kids just made lines across the biscuits.

It was lots of fun and was quick and easy enough for the kids to do by themselves so I was driven nuts trying to help everyone at the same time! Now to try of a way I can use the same type of idea for Christmas!

School Holiday Fun

So as I sit here and type this the kids are all tucked up in bed, sleeping, ready to start school again tomorrow. We have had a fun two weeks, but I'm happy to be getting back to our normal routine again.

Over the last two weeks we have been quad biking, celebrated Lachlan's Birthday, played with cousins, had sleep overs, played at the park, had picnics, gone swimming, seen Yo Gabba-Gabba, celebrated Tilly's 1st birthday, gone to a play cafe, played with more cousins and had more sleepovers, gone to the big rocking horse, been to the chocolate factory and gone to the museum.

Wow! When you write it all down like that it seems like we have been super busy, but there has been plenty of time spent at home watching movies, playing and jumping on the trampoline!

Here are a few pictures of our visit to the big rocking horse and the museum.

I wasn't going to let them climb it but they all wanted to and I couldn't let the older ones go up by themselves so we all went up. The stairs are the easy part. Then it comes to the ladders. I stayed right with Haylie but she wasn't scared at all and she was a very confident climber.

It was pretty windy up there! I thought that they might chicken out and not go to the head but again they all wanted to do it, so we did!

It was a bit scarier climbing down, but they all did a great job and we made it, very slowly!

We also went to visit the museum. The kids love looking at the 'dead animals', we also looked around at the parts of the museum, last time we went some of the levels were closed so it was good to be able to see a bit more this time. 

Lachlan is very into rocks so he loved the gem and mineral section. Haylie really loved this purple rock and wanted me to buy it for her. She was very upset when I explained to her that we couldn't buy it and that it had to stay in the museum for other people to see.

She finally decided though that ice cream was more important than rocks and we were able to move on without a full tantrum!

All in all we have had lots of fun over the school holidays. I can't believe that it is only one more term of school before the big christmas holidays.

Quad Biking

When we asked Lachlan what he wanted to do for his birthday he didn't hesitate in saying, "Go Quad Biking!" He loves going quad biking and he has only ridden his new quad bike once.

Everyone else in the family had things happen so they couldn't make it but we still went with Mum and Dad. We left bright and early on Monday morning for the two hour drive to Port Victoria. It was a beautiful sunny day, with clear skies and just a slight breeze. This time we decided to set up our spot on the beach. This way the girls could run around and play in the sand and in the afternoon they could play in the water.

It was a fantastic day. Lachlan had a great time riding his quad bike. His thumb was very sore by the end of the day.

Buzz having some fun!

Caitlyn modelling (waiting for Poppy)

Lachlan on his new quad bike

Buzz playing in the seaweed

Lachlan ready to go again

Buzz showing off for the camera!

Lachlan heading off with Poppy down the beach

Caitlyn building a sand castle

Haylie making a sand angel (like a snow angel) It was very funny though because she couldn't get her legs and arms going at the same time.

Grandma taking Haylie for a ride. By this point my hand was sore and so was my butt from riding so much, but Haylie still wanted to go for more rides so Grandma took her!

Amie was there too but she was never around when I had the camera out so I didn't really get any pictures of her. She was there though and had a great day. She spent a lot of time in the water.

It was a great day. We left in the dark and didn't get home until after dark. We can't wait to go again!