Summer again

We have had some beautiful weather the last couple of weeks which has made going outside fun again.

Last weekend we went to the Newmarket Pool which is just up the road from us.  It's a great place for little kids.  There are waterslides and lots of fun water activities, and a playground and picnic area.  The boys (and we) had a great day and went home tired and happy.

Liam's on his back at the bottom of the slide and James is in blue to the left of the slide!

After exhausting all options in the kiddies pool, the boys graduated to the bigger waterslides.  Liam was brave enough to go down by himself...

James went tandem with Dad.

The boys have been spending quite a bit of time with Frederick and Timothy (on the left) - Fred is two days younger than Liam and Timothy is a few months younger than James.  They are all "best friends" (whatever that means when you're four and two).  

Well, after months of delays and problems, they finally started filling up the pool on Tuesday!!!!  We now have a beautiful pool to swim in.  Zane couldn't keep the smile off his face and said that first dive in was magic.  The boys are pretty keen on it, too.

The pool all ready for pebble-creting.

It took a lot longer than I thought.

The big truck with all the concrete bags out the front.

Zane keeping an eye on things.

The boys have been busy, busy as usual.  It has been nice to see them getting into more imaginative adventures around the house as James gets older.  There have been plenty of rescues, mysteries to solve, exciting explorations and super-hero activities going on.

Liam has been surprising me with his problem solving skills, he really likes to figure out ways to improve things or fix things (he must get that from his engineer father).  The other day he built a seaplane with his lego - I didn't even know he knew what they were!

 James has been keeping us all entertained.  He is definitely the clown of the family!  He's a very cheeky boy with a real spirit of fun and adventure.  He absolutely adores Liam and follows him around all day, copying everything he does.  Liam is very patient with him!  It's hard work having such an adoring fan... 

James's speech has really come along and he has turned into a real little chatterbox.  Sometimes it's hard to get a word in when Liam's around, though!

Liam had his first day at kindy last week and thoroughly enjoyed it.  There were no tears (from me or him), so I think he is going to have a great year there. 

James also had his first gym-tots class, which is a junior gymnastics class.  He navigated the obstacle course they had set up within the first couple of minutes and then decided to shimmy up the parallel bars and swing from them, much to the alarm of the teachers!  He is a little monkey.  If there is something to climb, he's there!

Now, don't say I didn't warn you - I am about to bombard you with Ella pictures!!  There were so many gorgeous ones I couldn't choose between them, so I'm going to put them all on!!!!

This is Ella in the gorgeous party dress that the O'Dowds sent for Christmas.

All ready for the party.

Kicking back in the play gym.

A close up.  Those chubby cheeks are so kissable!

A different angle - same gorgeous smile.

This dress was a present from Aunty Penny and Uncle Brent.  I think it's one of her favourites.

Having a chat with Mum.

Getting excited!!

We had a nice Australia Day on Wednesday.  We popped over to Paul and Jacki's for lunch and a swim as Paul had brought Mavis from her nursing home to spend the day there.  Chae loved spending time with Ella - she is very happy that there is finally another girl in the family!!

Ella has more chins than a Chinese phone book.

This is very poor quality as it was taken on Zane's iphone, but it must be noted for the record -

Ella's first swim!

 

Brisbane Floods

Hi Everyone,

Well what a horrible start to 2011!  I'm sure anyone who reads this blog already knows all about the floods that devastated Brisbane over the last week, here is a link to some before and after pics if you want to check it out:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/qld-floods/beforeafter.htm

Our street was initially on the flood map so we were quite worried about what would happen, but after further investigations they took our street off.  It ended up coming nowhere near us, thank goodness. 

Zane joined the gumboot army at Yeronga on the weekend to help with the clean-up, here are some pictures of what he saw on his way there:

That's a pretty good snapshot of what a lot of Brisbane looks like at the moment.

Thank you to everyone for your concerns, it was nice to know that people care!!

Life with three small children must go on in the middle of a natural disaster - strangely they have no concept of other people's suffering!! 

Liam had his first day back at day care last Friday.  This year is a little different to last year as we now provide the lunches and snacks.  It was very exciting for Liam to have a new lunch box ... not so exciting for me as I am new to the world of school lunches ... very time consuming!!

Here's me packing my first ever school lunch.

In other news, James's friend Timothy turned two.  He had a lovely party which my boys thoroughly enjoyed.

Lawn update:  we have "Army Grubs"!!  They are so named because there are literally thousands of them and they marched with purpose onto our lawn and proceeded to munch their way through most of it.  Zane swung into action and after a quick google search, did his own marching with purpose into Bunnings to find something to exterminate the little blighters with.  Mission: accomplished.

A Sunny Day!!

We had a brief respite from the relentless rain last Friday when out of the blue we woke up to clear skies and sunshine. Zane was so excited he took the day off work and we popped down to the Gold Coast to spend the day with Paul, Jacki and Chae.

Blue skies .. woo hoo!!

Soaking up the sunshine.

Liam and James checked out Chae's new boat that she got for Christmas.

Lunch time!  (Shortly after this was taken James decided to vomit all over himself.)

Our Beautiful Girl

Ella has been delighting us with some beautiful interaction, when she smiles her whole face lights up and it  makes our hearts melt!  Everyone works very hard to get a smile from her, as they are not easy to come by, and the boys go to great lengths to entertain her with songs and silly dances. 

We can't believe she's 6 weeks old already.  She's off to the doctor tomorrow to have her first needles :( ... wish her luck!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all impresed - it is only one week after Christmas and I am already getting the blog on!  I must be some kind of domestic goddess. 

We had a great Christmas - very low-key with the day spent here at home with the Masons.  The boys woke up at 5.30am to find a Santa sack on the ends of their beds and calamity followed, with great shrieks of excitement as the presents were unwrapped and little feet stampeded around the house as new toys were road-tested.

Zane and Ella on Christmas Eve, checking the night sky for Santa's sleigh.  (Leigh mentioned on her blog that there was no Santa at their place this year .... not true!!  He is real!!!!!!  We know this because he sent the boys a Christmas video.)

For the first time ever, we cooked a glazed ham.  Oh alright, Zane cooked it, but I enjoyed eating it!

After a simple brekky of weetbix (to leave plenty of room for our Christmas lunch), we had some more pressie opening. Then at about 10am the Masons arrived and we had some nibblies while more pressies were opened.  Thank you everyone for the great pressies for the boys, they loved all of them!  We are now all set for water toys ... if the pool is ever finished .... and Ella will look beautiful with her new dresses.

Liam with his new big boy scooter - only two wheels!!

 

James got one as well - a three wheeled one - very cool as it has flashing lights!!

Thank you for the water toys!!

James in his Woody pyjamas opening his Woody talking cowboy, who has since not left James's side.



I'm not sure how to rotate these pictures - can anyone help?



This is the only pic of me on Xmas day - taken by Liam (if you're wondering why half my head is missing)

James checking out his new boogie board and snorkelling kit

Kerrie cutting up the ham

The gorgeous Ella joined us for lunch.

Uncle Rick was always on hand for cuddles.

Liam was very excited because he got two Christmas crackers.

The obligatory shot of everyone at the table!  It was all too much for James by this stage - he had retired to his room for a little (3 hour) snooze.

Unfortunately it rained all day but it didn't hamper the Christmas fun.  We still got out in the afternoon to stretch the legs and road test the new scooters.