The late edition of the weekend report

It was a very wet Saturday in Sydney. We had to empty the pool for the second time in the week because it was over flowing. Luckily Simon went to see the new animated movie “Cars”. He was very kindly taken by his friend Chris’s Aunt Lirie. He had a great time and is now requesting merchandising from the movie for his next birthday. As usual he was rebuffed with “yes…. maybe…. it’s a long time away you know”

In order to prevent the rest of us going stir crazy we decided to also head out. Michael Sarah, Ella and Ben went to Kids Central – “The shop that always ends in tears”. For those that don’t know Kids Central is a toy shop with a small café inside it and also a fenced play area. The play area is situated close to a large display of Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise. Ben does not like being confined and had a great time running around outside the fenced play area and finally settled in front of the Thomas stand. This was also a favourite haunt of Simon. When it was time to go he was not happy to be leaving without an expensive Thomas accessory. Well at least we got out of the house and had a bite to eat.

Sunday Lisa and Immie came to visit. This went better than expected as Lisa was worried about Imogen’s sharing issues. Happy to say there were no sharing ‘incidents’. In the afternoon we went to visit Arthur and Rhonda’s for a family BBQ and to show off Ella. As usual everybody loved her. Then Michael went off to the rugby with the Boyd boys. A very cold night and a bit of an uninspiring game. Sarah was helped out at home by Eliza, Francesca and Angela. They helped serve out the dinner and bath all 3 kids. Eliza also helped hang Simon’s artwork – several pictures of the main characters in Bob the builder in assorted poses.

Monday was another hectic day for the family. We caught up with uni friends in the morning at Lane Cove National Park. Most of us had kids so we congregated around the park and the café with complementary toys. Sensing a trend here? We managed to stay out for several hours with Ella having a short nap in the park. In the afternoon we went over to see some more cousins Leanne, Mark and Kayla. Kayla had plenty of toys to amuse Simon and Ben; the big hit with Simon was the baby with real bodily functions. However the nappy was missing so Leanne’s carpet got a bit wet. Gareth performed his usual impressive babysitting duties.

Later that night Lizzie (aka the Craft Nanny) came around to get her last Uni assignment typed – a sociology essay about youth subculture. Sarah quite enjoyed learning about it but was given a stern look by Michael about even considering anymore Uni study.

Coming up in later editions – An in depth investigation in children’s sleep habits – We blow the lid on some common theories.