The Countdown begins

We have less than seven days now until our trip.  This time next week, we'll be high above the pacific.  I can't wait.  I've been doing all my last minute jobs this week, organizing travel insurance, getting the mail put on hold, and making sure all our documents are in order.  It's no small task I can tell you, and I haven't even started packing yet.  But of course it will all be so worthwhile.  I don't have a lot of news to share, but thought I'd post some pictures of the kids from today.  We got a lovely fine day, so after school we had some fun outside.  Enjoy!!

My 365 project

Here are the pics from my first 2 days, I LOVE the bubble one.

And I forgot to mention, Kingston has Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.  Ugh, it started with just a couple of blisters on his thumb, then they were all over his hands, feet and now in his mouth.  Poor baby, he's been a bit miserable.  I guess it's better he get it this week, than next week.  I'm not sure where he could have gotten them from, maybe either Mackenzie's Kindy, or the Doctor's office.  My guess is the latter, we always seem to pick up something, and we're there often enough.  I'm keeping my finger's crossed that the other two don't come down with it as well.

1/365 - A family of Gumboots

2/365

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day, we're a bit sad because we have no father's to share it with.  We'll talk to them over the phone though.  I had been promising the kids if it was fine today that we'd go to the beach, so after breakfast we headed out to Mission Bay.  It was a perfect day, although a little windy and lots of people were about.  We had fun collecting shells, playing in the water and walking along the beach.  This week has gone by so quickly, which is a good thing, and we leave for the States in 12 days!!  I've decided to start a project, I stole the idea from a friend, and I have to take a photo everyday for a year, I hope I can do it, I figure it'll get me good at using my camera and should be lots of fun.  Here are some pictures I took of the kids yesterday, it was a lovely spring day, and what could be more fun than chasing bubbles?

September Update

Yes, it's September 1st! 

Thats the first day of  Spring for us down-under.  And perhaps it's just a tease, but today was sunny and fairly warm.

We had Craig home for the weekend, well sort of, he arrived midday Saturday and flew out on a 5am flight this morning.  It was so great having him here, but it was way to quick, and I miss him already!!

Our first 2 weeks without him went by pretty quickly, and without too much drama, besides the usual 'sick kid' scenario.  Craig however wasn't so lucky, he managed to somehow seriously hurt his back.  The Dr he saw thinks it's a crushed disk.  So he had a few days where he could barely walk, and is keeping himself doped up on painkillers.

Saturday was Hunter's last game of league for this year, all the team showed up very excited for their last game, and you wouldn't believe it but the other team didn't even turn up.  It was very disappointing.

BUT the team end of season party was planned for that afternoon, so the boys got over their disappointment quickly.

The party was Wonderful.  The Uncle of one of the boys, has a movie theatre, which he let us use for the party, so all the families got together, and we had a very tasty barbeque, then the kids went into the theatre to watch the new animated star wars movie while the parents relaxed and chatted.

Then came time for the prize giving.  Each child was called up, had their season stats read and was given a trophy with their name engraved on it to keep.  It was really neat, and there were smiles all round.  Then came time for a special trophy.  Craig was awarded the great supporter trophy.  Craig had diligently photographed most of the games, then turned the pictures into a dvd which the parents were able to buy.

Everyone loved the dvds and it proved to be a great fundraiser, which enabled such a great party and the trophies for the kids.  He was pretty surprised, but really happy with his trophy.

Then the kids had cake and dessert and played outside until it was time to leave.

We're still marking the days off on the calendar, just 18 days to go until we leave for the states!

I think we're ll starting to get really excited now.

Challenge Week!

Hunter and Mackenzie are doing swimming lessons this term.  It's through a programme called Swimsation, and we just go down to Peninsula Primary School, where they have a fantastic heated indoor pool.  

It works out great because it's literally 4 minutes away AND there's no battling traffic.  Their instructors are excellent.  

Strict yet fun, and both kids are coming along in leaps and bounds, it's great watching their progress  from week to week.  

They certainly have become super confident.  One of the things I like about the Swimsation      programme is that they hand out ribbons for achievement.

This week was challenge week and if the kids passed the goals in the lesson they got a ribbon.  

                                                                                 Hunter has been working on his arm strokes, and he really improved 100% from the previous week, his teacher is Sue.  

Mackenzie was able to float on her back like a starfish all by herself!  I think it helps that she's pretty much been the only one in her class for most of the lessons.  Her teacher is Rod.  

How do you tame a monkey??

We've always called Kingston, Monkey.  And now it's official he really is a monkey.  Since he started walking about 6 months ago, he's been a climber.  No surface was safe, he'd climb onto the coffee table to dance, or use the chair to climb onto the dining table, and then into his high chair.  

He'd be so proud of himself, clapping his hands and saying "yay".  Then he started taking it to new levels, using the kitchen stool to climb up onto the bench and get the phone, he LOVES to talk on the phone, then he wasn't content to just climb onto the coffee table, he realised he could push it around the lounge and use it to climb 

wherever he wanted.  I know what you're thinking, just take away the stool and the coffee table, oh if only it were that easy! When we took those away,  he then decided he can push the dining chairs all around the house, and climb with those too.

Today was quite a day, Im ready to put the table and chairs in the garage and put an end to this climbing once and for all.  

First of all, while I was making hunter's lunch for school, I hear "stuck, stuck" coming from the computer room.  

Oh yes, my monkey can climb up but he can't climb down again.

He often climbs on the chair and sits at the computer, but today he decided to climb up onto the table too.

So rescue number one over with, the computer room door is now shut.  Surely, it's safe for me to go and make the beds.  While I'm down in the bedroom, I hear "hello, hello".  Uh-oh I know what that means, yep sure enough there he is sitting up on the bench talking on the phone.  Luckily he hadn't dialed an actual number!  So the chair gets put back at the table, he gets put back in the lounge with the kids.

Do I dare go and get dressed?  Well he seems to be happily playing, and it'll only take a few minutes to get ready.  So I finish getting dressed and head back out to the kitchen,  and there he is again.  Only this time, he's at the stove, all elements turned on, and trying to cook the spray & wipe bottle!  Are you kidding me?  So I get him down again, turn off all the elements, put the spray & wipe back into the cupboard, move the bread basket, which now has a nice burn mark on the bottom, and put Kingston in the car and strap him  into his carseat - let's see him climb out of that!  Then I get the kids in the car so we can take Hunter to school.  I have the feeling it's going to be a long day.  Did I mention it wasn't even 8:30 yet.

August already??

Wow not only is it August, but we're already halfway through the month.  That means we now only have 31 days until we hit the states, it's so exciting.  Craig left for Sydney yesterday, to start his new job today.  It was a sad goodbye, but he will be back home in 2 weeks for a quick weekend visit, then he'll be here again just in time to leave for our trip.  

We had my brother Kellum over from Brisbane last week, he stayed for 5 days.  It was fun to have him here, and as usual he ate from the minute he arrived until the minute he left.  You just can't beat the food from home.  We were fortunate that the rain held out long enough, and he was able to go along to watch Hunter's game on the Saturday, I bet that brought back a lot of memories for him, of playing when he was Hunter's age.

I've really been enjoying watching the Olympics, it must be exciting for those athletes after training so hard to be rewarded with a medal.  The kids have been learning about the Olympics at school as well.

Kingston and Kenzie were both sick for all of last week, they both get asthma, and they had a bad week.  Kingston had a double ear infection too, just to change things up a bit.

It's still raining!  That's one good thing about the move to Sydney, at least it'll be drier there!