UK Trip Part 2

After 2 months we have finally make it back to Oz, just in time in fact to drive home through torrential rain. Jamie is not impressed, especially as the day after we left England has a beautiful sunny non rain day . But despite the never ending presence of rain we had an amazing 2 months in the UK.

After 4 weeks Jamie finally hopped a plane to come and join the holiday and the kids were so excited. We all headed to Heathrow to pick him up and after the kids jumped all over him and smothered him with kisses and gobble I managed to get a look in. On the way back to the car I told him about the newest addition to the family, the conversation went something like this…

Jamie: I feel really bad, I got your parents something and the kids but I didn’t know what to get you.

Me: Don’t worry you’ve already given me my present

Jamie: (Blank expression)

Me: It’s in my belly

Jamie: Oh yeah, whatever

Me: Seriously I’m pregnant

Jamie: Very funny

Me: I am, I am about 6-7 weeks pregnant

At this point there was lots of bouncing and barely contained excitement. I had to reel him back in so he didn’t spill the news in front of Dad who still didn’t know. We told my parents when we got home and my Mum promptly burst into tears. So from that point at least I could stop having to think of excuses as to why I was not 100% each morning, not sure how much longer I could have gotten away with it.

The day after Jamie arrived we spent the day at Godstone Farm with friends and little ones. Then the next weekend we went to Peppa Pig world with Glenn, Fi, Ryan and Erin. I think I was more excited that the kids. It was the best day there, despite a couple of showers and one complete brief downpour. Abi loved the roller coasters, apart from the water slide – you can see the complete fear in one of the pictures below! Jack on the other hand was scarred for life when Jamie insisted on taking him on a rollercoaster the moment we got there. After that he stuck to those little rides you find outside shopping centres and supermarkets, good thing you rode those for free or he would have bankrupted me!

Then we had the big day, Claire and Ben’s wedding. Despite missing my last fitting and flapping over my shoes tangling my dress we made it to the hotel on Friday night. Had the most amazing dinner with the Kinneys and Stevensons the night before and attempted to get the kids into bed to get enough sleep for the big day (disaster area).

Despite the rain it was such an amazing day. Claire looked beautiful and the church service was lovely. I did have to do some subtle nodding to Jamie to remove Jack from the service as he decided the wedding vows were the time to get vocal. Abi got bored and wanted to go and join Grandma and Bubba but we managed to make it out of the service with little bloodshed – but a few tears. Luckily Ben’s sister is just as bad as me so at least I wasn’t alone in my little breakdown

The venue was just next door so we all walked over and had photos and drinks and nibbles before the lunch/dinner. The kids went back to the venue with Jamie and Bubba for some quiet time before speeches. Then they spent the rest of the evening running riot with Ben’s niece and nephew. So we danced, drank, took loads of photos of the new couple and collapsed into bed just before midnight. I said goodbye to Claire and Ben the next day and drove home through a complete thunderstorm, suited my mood. I hate goodbyes.

The last 10 days of our stay were a bit quieter, especially as we realised they over the wedding Jack had broken out in chickenpox. With no more than 20 spots by Monday we hadn’t actually noticed over the weekend – great parenting, so who knows who we infected – those were fun phone calls to make! But it was pretty mild and he didn’t even seem to notice so we got off lightly. After the infectious stage we had a last NCT meeting and on the bank holiday Monday even managed to get all the kids together followed by an evening with the Lavenders. Then the last days we spent doing all the important things like buying large blocks of chocolate, half kilo tubs of marmite – not for me – blah. And Jamie got his wish and spent an oh so boring afternoon in TK Max, Abi and I slumped on the floor and whined for most of it.

So now it’s done and we are already back into the swing of things over here. It was a bit sad to come home and find Abi’s cat, Tink, missing. It’s been a week and there’s no sign so I am going to assume he’s not coming back. She doesn’t seem to understand really, her latest announcement was the she knew why Tink was missing, it was because he had gone looking for her as she had been away too long. We also have a new chick. While we were away one of the clucky chickens sat on a few hens so there is a new baby in the bunch, I will be seriously peeved if it turns out to be a rooster.

So there it is or UK Trip. It was great to see everyone and catch up, felt like I had never been away so hopefully next time we make it over it will be the same. Enjoy the summer xxxxx

Sunny England

The kids and I arrived back to a balmy 9 degrees! Mum and Dad met them with thick coats at the airport but they were so excited to see them I’m not sure they noticed the cold. The jet lag took a few days, Mum was up the first night at 3am- I managed to sleep through all noise that night! Abi was bright as a button and apparently they took an early morning walk to pick flowers once the sun came up. They are pretty much sleeping through although since I spent 2 nights away on Claire’s hen do Jack has been up the last few nights sobbing that he can’t find me. I think I have emotionally damaged my children.

The first week we went to Belfast to visit my Grandmother. The kids loved her to bits, especially Abi as she let her do her makeup for her and practice putting on face powder and lipstick. A 4 yr old girl’s dream! Then we went down to Somerset to visit friends and family, and ended up on the beach with a naked child. No surprise there then.

The last week and a bit has been filled with visiting friends, the park, the library, getting sun burnt – yes entirely possible in the UK! I caught up with my old NCT guys and Abi was very taken with Noah. But apparently this is fine as she still loves Humbolt too.

This weekend was Claire’s hen do. We drove up the Milton Keynes and stayed at a YH for the weekend. Saturday was sledging, much more violent than I imagined it would be with numerous crashes and bruises. Then a party bus for an hour before heading back for Cocktail Making, pizza and games. We slept in bunk beds all weekend, and it kinds of felt like being back at school!

I’m now shattered and seriously contemplating an afternoon nap. Instead I have to practice driving the people carrier in preparation for heading to Purley tomorrow. I’ll be on the road at about 9:30 so anyone in the area be warned!!

Summer’s almost gone

Jack has given me his cold so I am using this as an excuse to stay in bed and write this new blog entry. Abi is furious that I won’t let her watch a DVD on the laptop so this will have to be quick. A 4yr old’s dark looks are chilling!

So summer looks like it’s on its way out – I’m sure you will all be pleased not to be constantly reminded that I am spending time at the beach will you slosh through the snow to work J. Before summer headed off we had the last of the Moyneyana Festival and the free kids funfair. It was just a little one on the green but Jack got to ride around with his favourite lady.

Our latest adventure was a trip to Melbourne Aquarium. It all sounded like such a great plan the day before but when the alarm went off at 4:45am I was rethinking it! The kids were pretty good despite the early morning rise, all excited about catching the train. Luckily the train wasn’t too full until nearer the end of the journey so they spread out, made a mess and generally had fun. For the last hour there was a brave lady sitting on the edge of our seats and Jack was very taken with her toenail polish. I kept snatching his hand away from stroking her toes – bizarre foot fetish in the making. We piled off the train with the commuters and I pushed my lazy child and their billion toys and books to the aquarium to meet Gusty and her kids.

It was such a fun day. They loved the huge fish tanks, where we had lunch there was a huge round tank and the kids ate nothing and spent all their time running around it trying to catch the fish. We were lucky at the beginning that there were hardly any kids around and one of the members of staff on their way through stopped to tell the kids what all the fish were.

We saw sting rays being fed and sharks, the kids got to feed some fish too and I just saved Abi from falling in head first as she decided to climb the rail and then lean over the side to grab some of the fish food she had dropped on the ledge. Be still my heart. I am pretty sure the sharks and sting rays would not have done damage but still better safe than sorry.

By 3pm Abi and Jack were flagging, so the gift shop was a disaster area. Jack fell asleep clutching his bag of rubber sea creatures and Abi burst into tears when I tried to persuade her to return one of her 3 stuffed toys to the shelves. We saw Gusty and the kids off and then went to have a coffee with Jamie’s cousin Sharon – Abi slept through the entire encounter. I then made my train with about 30 seconds to spare – last one of the day, that would not have been good to miss. I was all ready for a nap when the kids eat their burgers and found a second wind. The train was packed but their very good for at least an hour, Jack ruined it by throwing an octopus at the man opposite having a nap. He promptly levitated 3 foot in the air but luckily found it amusing.

It was a really great but long day. Probably not going to repeat that one again anytime soon. Now everything is back in play. Abi has started her 4 yr old kinder and loves it. Jack started day care and hates it so this week we gave that up. I am not built to deal with sobbing kids being peeled out of my arms. Playgroup is back, and I have perfected my play dough recipe! 4 weeks to go and I will be flying into Heathrow. See you all soon!!

Happy 2012!!

I started this just after New Year’s Eve and then got distracted by the hot weather. So a little late but better than never – Happy New Year!! Well after all my worrying about cooking Christmas dinner turns out I was not needed, bar pulling up some carrots. Ho hum, there is always next year.  So Christmas was a blast, Jamie came home and we hung the kids Christmas stockings by the fireplace – such a cliché but it had to be done. We put out a carrot, milk and cookies and finally persuaded them that Santa would not arrive if they stayed up and Abi did not need to make one last check to see if he had already been.  Christmas Day dawned and we were allowed a lie in until 7:30 before Abi woke us and then it was a battle to make her wait for Jack to wake up before we went in to see what Santa had brought them. The most adorable thing was they were both so excited about the stockings they completely missed the mound of presents under the tree. It took Abi a good 5 minutes before she bothered to glance over, her face was a picture.  So we did a few presents, spent 10 minutes building Jack’s new carpark and that distracted them while we got on with getting ready.

Jamie had been up at 4am to start his smoker and it did look pretty amazing. Mum took over in the kitchen so I just decorated the table and played with toys until everyone turned up at about 1. It’s a hard life I know. We had Linda, Peter, Pauline and Sharon for lunch with our lot.  Jamie’s smoked a beautiful pork, 2 chickens (not ours) and a load of corn on the cob. The only down side was Abi’s tonsils, or lack of them, started to play up. Apparently day 5 – 7 is scabs coming off day – lovely, and it meant she was a little teary, wouldn’t eat or drink anything bar a little bit of milk. The only plus side was we had lots of presents to distract her! Jack learnt a new phrase, but refused to use it correctly – ‘Open one more, and that’s it.’ Despite repeating it continuously he just kept demanding to open presents.  It’s hard to explain to him that he has to wait for everyone else, cue lots of tears.

Emma and Liam arrived with their load of gifts – a well used pool and playdoh table. And the kids promptly stripped off and hopped in, good distractions.  Chris and Robbie turned up a bit later on, and then Jo and Steve who had gotten stuck with a flat tire for hours – not a great start to Christmas. So we had a massive present opening session, a second dinner, my attempt at a chocolate fountain which failed miserably and 2 very over tired and cranky children. But it was the best day, especially as we got sunshine without too many flies!

The next big day was New Year and Jamie was once again the Bendigo Pig, sweating buckets in 30+ heat even at 8pm at night. I think he even looked thinner when he took the suit off he lost that much fluid! Pauline bought the kids sparklers, and Jack practiced his phrase again – ‘One more and that’s it’. We had dinner at the back of the motel, beautifully barbequed by my Dad, he’s going native. Then we hit the main street only to realise that the kids were too young and we were too old for the crowd. Everyone I turned there were slightly drunk 16 year olds and lots of girls squealing and hugging each other. Ahhh, I remember those days. We danced a little, bought bubble machines and the kids powered through to midnight to watch the fireworks. By which time I think they were so tired it all started to blur. So we threw them in the car and drove home, bizarrely enough through the thickest fog I have ever seen. I ended up doing about 20ks an hour until we managed to get through it. No clue where that came from and a bit freaky when you can be sure there are probably a load of drunk drivers on the roads.

Mum and Dad enjoyed their last week of sunshine and in fact the day they left the temp dropped to under 20 and it has rained every day since then. I shouldn’t complain, we desperately need it, and now it is beautiful and sunny again I’ve done nothing but whine about it being too hot.

So the countdown is on until we fly home, 9 weeks to go!

Merry Christmas to all…

…And to all a good night. One of my favourite lines. It’s Christmas Eve but I could not resist another blog entry. Things have been pretty busy the last few weeks and Christmas seems to have suddenly appeared on my doorstep and is battering the door down. But apart from one missing Amazon package and a bit of fabric I think I might actually be ready. I have never done a Christmas lunch before so it could all end in tears but we’ll see.

Mum and Dad arrived on the 11^th to lots of screaming and a classic Abi request of a surprise before they had even put their cases down. I think Mum lasted a while week of fairy stickers and whatnot before the novelty wore off! Dad went straight back to chopping things up and sticking stuff up, it’s as if they have never been away.

The last week has been pretty busy with the last Rhyme time of the holiday, which meant Santa pictures, tree decorations, chocolate and attempts at Christmas songs. Then I had a day to get ready for the final playgroup. We had a little Christmas party, and Santa (AKA Dad) came. Half the kids screamed in fear and the other half were slightly worried but willing to accept a present. Abi was not the slightest bit fooled, and the conversation ran something like:

Santa: Ho Ho Ho. Hello little girl, and what’s your name?

Abi: (With eye roll) Don’t be silly Buba

Apart from that blip it was a great party, all the kids had a blast. It’s nice to be able to show Mum and Dad what happens with life when they are not here as well.

The sun came out and we spent some time at the beach, the kids were clothed for all of 2 minutes before once again becoming the only naked kids on the beach. Apparently we are heading for a blazing Christmas this year, it’s been lovely the last few days so hopefully a BBQ won’t be the wrong choice!

Friday was Abi’s last day of 3 yr old kinder. They gave us a little booklet of with entries for each week and what they had done, with photos. Plus a little collage of Abi’s shots during the year. Can’t believe how much she has changed. They also put on a little concert, the entire Langley clan came for that, and Abi was a Christmas Angel. It was so sweet, although probably only to parents and family. For everyone else it was probably completely out of tune! I will attempt to upload a video of it once I have worked out how to turn it sideways.

We also managed to get a tree and some decorations. It’s our first tree ever, so I got a bit excited. Jamie spent a good half an hour trying to work out how to wind 22 metres of lights over the tree but he managed it. Then Abi helped add the rest, Jack was banned after he started throwing baubles at people. He’s a bad influence on the cat who also spent some time trying to declutter the tree and is now banned from the living room without supervision. We also filled our pond with fish, thanks to our next door neighbour and a water trough. We had to empty most of it to get at the sneaky little buggers but I think we picked up around 20, they have now disappeared into the slightly cloudy pond but hopefully they are still there. And Jamie has created his masterpiece – a smoker for Christmas Day. He has worked so hard on it, sometimes night after night until late. I’ll let you know later how it goes on the day.

The big thing for us was Abi’s operation on Monday. I spent most of Sunday night pretty nervous and we tried to explain it a few times to her but I didn’t want to freak her out. She was pretty good at being woken at 6:30, and happy to natter away in the back seat. The nurses were lovely and although Abi got a little shy she was fine. The only time she got upset was when they could not find a vein in her arm to add the IV. Personally I would have preferred they knock her out as it upset her a lot and she’s got a huge bruise on her hand even now. But they gave her a little sedative and let me come in and hold her while she fell asleep. I think they must be used to emotional mothers as everyone steered me in the right direction, took off my rather fetching gown and returned me to Jamie with limited input from me. Jamie and I had breakfast at the local McDs and then went back to wait. Once she was awake I was allowed back to see her and she was very out of it still but had a few bites of a lolly. Apparently the nurse in recovery said she sat up bolt up in the bed when she woke up and asked if her tonsils were out yet. She took a few hours to wake up properly but pretty soon she was almost back to normal. She drank a load of leftover coke, ate 3 chocolate spread sandwiches and was pretty chipper. The Dr popped by and said he’d see what she was like in a few hours to be safe. Then a head nurse came through an hour later while she was tucking into a cheeseburger, fries and a vanilla shake and decided she was probably just fine to go home. Since then she has almost been back to normal bar a bit of weepiness and clinging to Mummy a lot. I think we got lucky, we left one girl hysterical in the next door room and the one in ours pale as a ghost and eating nothing. She’s been spoilt rotten all week now with pancakes, ice cream and whatever she desires. Think I might be creating a monster when the special treatment ends.

But all in all I am just glad we are all ready for Christmas. Almost all my presents are wrapped – just Abi’s quilt to go. Jack’s will have to wait as the post has eaten my last piece of fabric but I’m sure he won’t mind. The milk, cookies and carrots are out, the presents ready to go and the stockings have been hung on the mantelpiece with care…. So Merry Christmas everyone, hope you had an amazing day!

Pre Christmas Cheer

Hello Peeps.

 This is my pre Christmas blog since pretty soon I am going to be up to my ears in parents and presents. Apparently Mum and Dad have done a first pack and have exactly 1/3 of a suitcase for clothes; the other 1 and 2/3s is presents. I don’t even want to imagine what it would be like if Mum stopped holding back each year – her claim not mine.

 Anyway we have been busy since I last blogged on. Ha ha, man I am tired and hot. So since last time we still have not quite booked flights home but apparently Jamie is on it now he has built his water feature and refilled the pond. Take a look at the photos, I have to say I am very proud of him. He worked his butt off and it looks amazing.

Have taken a little video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w9rcBT2ihc

The kids keep asking if they can go swimming in it so we’re having water safety chat. It is quite a bit deeper than before so I will have to keep an eye on any visitors. Jamie’s little helper, Reece, has been clearing up the garden so now I have to try and fill up all the newly weeded patches. Slightly harder than it sounds as the chickens love scratching in freshly dug dirt. Which means every time I plant seeds they scratch them all up and eat them. We’re up to 15 eggs a day now and our little ones have moved in with the biggies, although they don’t venture further than the gate and still run chipping madly if I look at them sideways.

We had a week of birthdays over here. Peter is the 28th, Peter’s Dad the 1st, Linda the second and I’m the 3rd. So we had a family gathering in a slightly windy, overcast and occasionally spitting Port Fairy. But it was a really fun day. We went to see Emma’s school in their Christmas Parade in the morning, made some Christmas tree decorations and Abi sat on Santa’s lap. Jack refused point blank and lay on the floor instead. Then we spent the afternoon at the party, although Abi started running a temp and spent most of the party wrapped in a blanket on my lap. She was fine the next day so I guess she just needed some extra sleep! It did mean I got just sit and request Jamie bring me drinks and food :)

 But Christmas really feels like it’s on its way now despite the sudden rise in temp and the sunshine. Every shop has their Christmas songs going, I’ve got my hands on a Santa suit for our playgroup Christmas party next week and my cupboards are starting to look like Santa’s grotto. I cannot wait to put up a real Christmas tree in our house for the first time and get it all ready for Santa. This will be our first Christmas tree ever; usually we just gate crash Mum and Dad’s. But this year I get to decorate my own tree, eat Santa’s biscuits, drink his milk and chomp some carrots. In fact I am off to make mince pies in a bit, yummy. So hope all is well wherever you all are. Will be thinking of you when I am on the beach later with my mince pies! .

Summer’s Here!!

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Although now as I write this the clouds are rolling in and I am wondering whether I was a bit premature in my announcement. Having said that it has been a lovely few weeks with a couple of 30s and clear blue skies for days on end. Fingers crossed tonight’s grey is just a blip that will soon move on; otherwise I will be having words with Jamie!

So what has been happening? Well my gorgeous boy turned 2 at the end of October – thank you for all the happy returns, cards and presents. I can safely say he had no clue what was going on! At one point during his little party his friend Martha chased him around the table attempting to shove her present into his arms and when he refused to take it she stomped back to her Mum, I can’t blame her. Although ever since Jack did open that present he has been hammering and sawing everything in the house, which can be a little irritating when I’m trying to get 5 minutes of quiet to get rid of a headache. We just had a small gathering in the local park with a couple of friends, then back to the motel to open more presents. I then put Jack to bed and Abi played with everything blissfully happy until he woke up.

We gave him a Little Tike’s Coupe Car, one of those red and yellow bubble roof ones that he adores. Occasionally he’ll insist on taking it to Port Fairy with us and driving it around the town, which is very sweet but means everything takes 3 times as long, including crossing the road which at times has proved a mite bit dangerous! He also uses it to make the long and arduous journey from the living room to the front door on occasions, such a useful toy J. But now he’s 2 he’s growing up in leaps and bounds. He repeats everything, although not always very clearly or correctly. He’s taking to calling Abi a ‘naughty boy’ as that’s what she calls him. Singing Jamie’s version of 3 Blind Mice, which replaces ‘she chopped off their tails with a carving knife’ with ‘da dad a da’.  And I have to stop Abi exclaiming in pleasure over whichever plate she gets for lunch, as as soon as she does Jack is wailing to have ‘piggy one/elephant/butterfly’ too. He’s also currently addicted to Diego. For those of you with no kids or grown up kids Diego is the cousin of Dora the Explorer – a cartoon girl who speaks half in Spanish, half in English and goes about the place rescuing baby animals, finding lost treasures and whatnot with the aid of her trusty monkey sidekick Boots. Diego, also an animal rescuer, has a baby jaguar, a magical backpack and ‘Click the Camera’, who I swear sounds exactly like Rosie Perez. So as Abi ended up counting in Spanish, no doubt it is only a matter of time before Jack starts repeating words in Spanish too. Hopefully my GCSE Spanish will stretch to understanding him.

Abi is being a very good big sister, singing songs to Jack at night and dragging him around her kinder so he knows where to go. She’s been accepted to her 4 year old kinder, starting 2 days a week next Feb – I still cannot get my head around the school year over here. She’s also been helping out with our newest batch of chicks, which are now almost 3 weeks old. She checks on them every time she goes to the loo and fills up their food if they look hungry. We have 24 of them this time around. We had 25 but one of them was born with a deformed leg so we had to put it to sleep. I say we but neither Jamie nor I could do it so I drove around to the neighbour’s parents’ farm and sheepishly asked if he could do the deed for me. He was very nice about it, despite his wife and me screaming at him and flapping our hands when it looked like he was going to snap its neck at the breakfast table. It was over in a flash and I took the little one home to be buried, I figured it was a good thing for Abi and Jack to be part of it. That was probably a mistake as Abi burst into tears when I started to bury it, distraught at the fact that she would never see it again. I managed to distract her with the thought of all the chicks that needed her and now she’s completely over it. There is another chick – Hoppy – whose feet a little twisty and we put plasters on him to try and straighten them out but I am not sure it’s going to work, we’ll have to wait to and see. But since then we have lost 2 more of the older chickens and Jamie and I have managed to get to them first and pop them in the bin before she has noticed. I think the older lot are getting to the end of their life so they might start dropping like flies. With this in mind we went to the local battery farm as they were selling 45,000 of their 18month old layers and bought 20 of them. They are pretty wretched looking, a lot of them missing huge amounts of feathers. On the way home we had them crammed into boxes in the back and half way through the journey I suddenly heard Abi cooing and there were 2 little heads poking out having a look around. When we arrived home we realised one of the boxes had popped open and there were 6 chickens tucked against the back door and a lot of chicken poo – Jamie was not impressed. The first few days they spent most of their time hiding in one of the 2 coops but now after a couple of weeks they are starting to travel further afield. Hopefully they will start to grow their feathers back too now they are free ranging it. So we currently have 3 grown roosters, 3 14 week old roosters (don’t ask what we are going to do with those I’m not sure I can think about it yet), 28 ISA brown layers and 1 random little black hen who produces teeny eggs and finally 24 3 week old chicks in the brooder. And then 2 cats, 1 budgie and 9 cows. It’s just the way I imagined life would turn out when I was 5 J

The rest of the news is Jamie is in the process of building a water feature in the pond, after lots of false starts he is now cementing the back wall of it, hopefully it will all be done in a few weeks and we’ll have a tranquil waterfall – and a pond for that matter. My Mum and Dad are out in 3 weeks which will be lovely, especially as Abi is having her tonsils removed on the 19^th Dec. I am very nervous but I know it’s for the best.  Hopefully she’ll be alright for Christmas Day, which is at our house this year, with lots of Langleys about it will prove to be chaotically fun. Plus it’s the first Christmas we will have spent in our own house so I will be buying a tree – for the first time – and starting my decoration collection. I know its November but I am just a little bit excited.

Finally best news is that my sister in law – well technically Cousin in law but let’s not be picky – has given birth to a beautiful baby boy called Cooper. I am so excited, so after March I will be an Auntie 3 times over. Jamie is crowing because he has correctly predicted the sex of the last 5 babies – ours and friends. So if you are pregnant and want to know the sex drop us an email! Anyway I cannot wait to spoil him rotten with plenty of kisses and cuddles. So completely broody at the moment it is not funny. Right I am off to take my pill. Kisses to all you lot, cannot wait to see you in March – note to self must book tickets.