Indian cousins

Found a photo taken when the Indian cousins were visiting recently. Included it to say we are thinking of them and Simon and Ben miss them.

Who said Ella was a tomboy

Yes. Ella has expressed interest in ballet lessons. We are trying to postpone them for another year...

Copying Mummy

Ben asked Mummy if he could have roller blades too like Mummy and Mummy foolishly thought he was ready for them. Once again the expectation did not match the reality.....

Great Aunt Margaret

Great Aunt Margaret came to visit and after being exhausted by Ella for about an hour or so she asked, "Does she have a rest now?" Of course the answer was no.

Future soccer star

Ben joined Simon on his first soccer camp last holidays and he loved it.

Winter hats

I know its not winter but these photos are just so gorgeous.

Outsourcing

As one of six children I always wondered how my mother managed but I think I now know the answer -- outsourcing. To older children that is. The problem with that is
that it only works when some of the children are old enough to actually help. Ours are a bit too close together and too young for this to have happened yet but
at least Simon can read to the other two now.

Happy Families

Simon has a friend in his class at school with a brother and a sister. The brother is older than Ben and the sister is about the same age as Ella. So ideally when you get them all together they would play nicely together. This is pretty much what happened when they came over for a family playdate recently.

Granny speechless

As already mentioned in this blog we had a surprise party for Granny Harris in October and it was a big success. The biggest success was the actual surprise itself and the chocolate cake.
Here are some photos.

So you think you can dance

Simon had a school disco at school today so I thought I'd publish a few of his moves.

How much longer?

How much longer can they all three fit in the bath?

The best excuse so far

Over the years Simon has produced an endless list of excuses as to why he cannot get to sleep. Last week he came up with one of his best ever:
"I can't get to sleep because my pants are moving around."

I can just see what we are going to hear in the future:

• I can't get to sleep because my heart is beating
• I can't get to sleep because I am breathing
• I can't get to sleep because a butterfly in the Amazon fluttered its wings
• I can't get to sleep because of global warming

The sleepover as described by Sarah

It wasn't all about the shopping.

It was about having no activities to organise to prevent the kids from fighting with each other. It was about relaxing and deciding "what should I do next?". It was about uninterruped television viewing on the plane. It was about not rushing. The shopping was incidental.

It was great. And we have planned another getaway next year. Except this time there'll be no shopping as befitting the forecast economic bad times we are going camping.

The Sleepover as described by Michael

This post has been delayed due to exhaustion. Last weekend Sarah went for an extended sleepover at a frend's place. Sure the friend was across the country in Perth and she went for two nights. Sarah bade farewell to us all on Friday morning and then hurried out the door to the taxi. Late on Sunday night she returned. She went with two other friends - it was really an extended slumber party. I don't really know much about what they got up to. I do know that there was significant shopping time involved. I haven't been told how much was spent although I expect that that the recession that is being forecast will probably be delayed several months in Western Australia.

On the home front I was left with three kids to look after for two days. I am only a father, looking after kids is not part of my job description. Knowing my limited capabilities in this area, Sarah organised for the boys to go and sleep at grannies on Saturday night. I thought with this arrangement I might be able to cope for the two days. However things don't always go to plan.

For the last few weeks Ella has been toilet training. This has been going very well and she is basically toilet trained. What has this got to do with a sleep over you might ask? One of the incentives offered to Ben the reluctant toilet user when he was toilet training was: you can go for a sleepover to grannies when you use the toilet. The boys had been repeating this to Ella. Well now she was toilet trained and she was going for the night as well. Great you are thinking. I would be free of all three children for the night and also part of Sunday. No! how wrong you would be!

Granny said she could cope with the two boys but if Ella came as well then I needed to come along as well for a sleepover. A sleepover with your parents how exciting!

It seems strange that you need to fly across the country to go shopping....