On Holiday ...

School holidays this week, so while the little fella is sleeping (sideways in our bed!), I will do an overdue blog update!

Lyndon had booked us in for a holiday in Phuket, but on Saturday (after doing all the bookings) he realized that Aaron and Maddison’s passports had less than 6 months in them. So that was a bit frustrating for him (that’s being polite hehee). He managed to reschedule that holiday for later in the year, and then decided we could go to Penang for this week of the holidays. So that’s where we are now. We left after lunch on Monday and things started out VERY slowly … you can see in the photo the time is 2.37pm and according to the GPS we would arrive at our destination at 4.20am doing 14km an hour!! Thankfully it didn’t take us that long! We arrived about 6.30pm, so was good timing for dinner and bed for the kids!

On Tuesday after breakfast we went for a walk up the beach (which of course resulted in wet sandy clothes!).

I called a halt to the walk and got the kids into their togs and we went back to the beach to build sandcastles.

Samuel basically just ran about and kept running into the sea and several times tripped and went head first into the water … yep I laughed! :-) I was there to pull him out each time, but he did look so funny! Because he was wet he had a lovely sandy bottom!

Lyndon bought some Thai coconuts to drink.

Love the way Samuel bends over to drink!

Then we hosed the kids down and they swam in the pool for a while. We had lunch by the pool and then I took Samuel up for a sleep while the others went for another walk, swim, play.

Dinner that night we walked down to a local café. There’s lots of different types of food you can order, so you go and order what you fancy and tell them your table number and they bring it to you.

Lyndon and I had Chinese.

The kids shared a pizza.

Maddison had some trouble with the length of the cheese! ;-)
Samuel guzzled a freshly squeezed apple juice then played with the ice cubes when he thought no one was watching!!

This morning we went to the Penang Butterfly Farm. We had a tour and the kids got to see things that you wouldn’t see just going around by yourself. Maddison is pretty brave at touching and holding different creatures. Here she’s holding a caterpillar.

Stroking a millipede.

Super excited because this butterfly landed on her dress.

Aaron decided to be brave as well and held a branch with a scorpion on it.

And of course Maddison too :-)

A gecko – he got a big fright though when it moved up his arm! He didn’t like that much hehee

Samuel just ran wild and kept heading to the fish pond!! He was determined to get in there … no idea why because the fish were enormous! He would have been eaten!!!

At the end of the tour the kids were given a container with a newly hatched butterfly to release. Aaron’s flew out and landed on his shorts.

Maddison’s needed a bit of coaxing to come out.
Then it was time for an ice-cream!

Heading back home tomorrow. Thanks for visiting.

A LO

I was hunting through my patterned paper stash looking for something and found this die cut paper which I have had for ages. Even though it wasn't what I was looking for I decided to pull it out and use it (nothing like being side-tracked!). ;-)

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I don't think I have scrapped any pictures of Maddison's first birthday, so here's the first one!

The pink trim and stickers are from Studio Calico kits (available at Scrappin Studio) and the journal stamp is from Darkroom Door.

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Here's another little conversation I had with Maddison ...

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On Monday afternoon the kids had their swimming lesson and after Maddison had her shower and was getting dressed, she sat on the bed and inspected her fingers and toes.

Maddison - Look at my hands and toes Mummy.

Me - They are all wrinkly like walnuts from being so long in the water.

Maddison - Yeah ... they look like I'm a Grandma!! :-)

heheheee (sorry Grandma)

And another week gone!

This post is going to be full of random things! The days seem to be a bit of a blur at the moment and I am having a little trouble keeping up!

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A couple of weeks ago we started some extra tuition for Aaron to help him with his spelling. He's a great reader and his reading comprehension is above average for his age, but he has trouble writing and has very good avoidance tactics when it comes to that! After looking into things we found he didn't like writing because he had trouble spelling. So we are really hoping that this tuition will help him overcome his avoidance of writing :-) He has an hour in the evenings 4 nights a week. Two of those my helper comes and looks after Maddison and Samuel for me, but the other two nights I have to take all the kids. His lesson is from 6-7pm, and because of the timing and traffic we need to leave at 5pm. I have to be super organised ... been a learning curve for me hehee

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So the kids have their showers around 4pm and Samuel gets into his pj's. At 5pm we jump into the car and I give the kids their dinner in little take away containers. (When it's the 3 of them it's something that's easy for Samuel to eat like sausages and chippies, or pizza cut into squares, but when it's just Aaron and me I can do rice/veges and meat as he doesn't make such a mess!) ;-) Samuel will eat and then fall asleep!

The parking at the tuition place is hideous! That's why we leave so early!! I double park (along with at least 1,000 others) and as soon as someone leaves, I dive into that vacated park as fast as I can! This street below is one we go along near the place and it's usually 3 cars deep on the left and cars are parked up the centre line. Sometimes people even stop in the middle while they wait for someone to get in, or load something in their car! It's rather frustrating to say the least!

Every Friday Aaron has a spelling test at school and on Friday he bought home his spelling journal - can I just say that I was SO excited to see his progress! :-) He got 8 correct but the thing that most impressed me and made me super proud was that he even tried the ones he didn't know!

Sorry this is sideways - but this is what his spelling test results usually were - he would only write the first letter (if he even bothered to do the test!).

So happy that the extra tuition is giving him confidence to try :-)

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On Saturday Maddison went to a school friends birthday party. They had face painting and a clown! (I won't dwell on the fact that she decided to go swimming fully clothed and as a result had to go home with a eco bag wrapped around her as a skirt! Or the fact that I put the wet clothes on the roof of the car (why on earth did I do that?) and forgot them and now they have disappeared! I even retraced where we went but no luck. So cross with myself. The most annoying thing was, I actually thought at the time that I shouldn't put them on the roof because I would forget them! Duh!)


Samuel was a good boy and stayed in the pram for quite a long time and then played on the scooter.
Samuel has a new hiding place! In the cupboard under the sink! I can hear him chatting away and find him like this.

Anyone else out there chat to potatoes? hehee
Sitting in there clutching some potatoes out of the vege basket!

Also want to share some things the kids have said recently.

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Coming back one night from spelling Maddison exclaimed "Mummy ... look there's Paris!"

Me - Where's Paris?

Maddison - Over there ... see ... way up high - it's Paris.

Me - Oh I see, you mean that crane looks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris?

Maddison - Yes ... see Aaron, it's Paris!

Heehehee :-)

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Me to Aaron & Maddison - What are you two playing?

Maddison - We are playing smurfs. Aaron is hiding and I am finding him in the "billage"

Me - Village, vaa vaa village

Maddison - Yes billage, Aaron is hiding from Gargamel and I have to find him

Me - Okay that's fun, but you say village with a V not a B. Vaa vaa village

Maddison - vaa vaa billage!

hehehee after a couple of times correcting her I just left her to her billages! :-) She can say it correctly now though :-)

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Samuel is saying new things every day. I have to start writing them down and do a separate post I think before I forget!

My most favourite though is his word for shower ... it's "wha wha" :-) heheee He stands at the bathroom door lifting up his tee shirt saying "wha wha, wha wha". Makes me laugh :-)

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Okay better go and do some chores I suppose. Thanks for visiting. Happy week to you all.

Some LO's

I have scrapped 3 LO's using some things from Scrapping Studio's kits :-)

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"Hosing the Truck" uses nearly everything from this month's main kit 'Story Hour'. (Except for the little tag and the paper with grasshoppers on it - they are from kits last year.) Another LO done for our 2009 holiday album!

The next ones are a double LO and apart from the background paper everything else is from the 'Stepping Stone' add on kit from last month, including the alpha stamps. The house plan background paper I have had in my stash for years, about time I used it! :-)

I will journal on these, but didn't want to blog about that :-)

Thanks for visiting.

That week went fast!

Can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted on here! We have been busy - dealing with colds, wiping up snotty noses, school stuff, swim lessons, homework, laundry, ironing, cooking, wiping more snot! You get the idea ... just general life really I suppose.

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These pics of the kids are from last Sunday - they had been playing with the hats and wore them while they had their snack :-)

Goofy kids hehee


Here's some pics of the little shoe box I altered for Janine for the tea towel swap. She likes hydrangeas and this was the only piece of paper in my scrapping stash that had hydrangeas on it! :-)
I put some paper inside as well just to make it pretty :-)

I have several unfinished scrapping things on my desk to complete and really want to get to them today, but since one of the noses I am wiping is my own, the energy levels to do anything don't seem to be there! Wondering if I sneak back to bed for a snooze Lyndon would notice hehee ;-)

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Hope you are having a great weekend. Thanks for visiting.