Wake up to Winter

This is what we woke up to on Thursday morning;Because we arrived in the dark we couldn't really see what was around us so when we woke up to all the snow in the morning we were so excited!! It was very early but we had a lot to do, we had to get our ski's fitted, Ski school booked and eat our warm yummy porridge. After making Mama her morning cup of tea we set off to get all our stuff done. Mama took us up on the chairlift to ski school while Mum took Paddy to snow creche. There was quite a blizzard going on up the top at cloud nine so we booked in for ski school then went and had a hot chocolate while we waited for mum to get up and meet us minus Paddy. Paddy had so much fun at snow creche, he did drawings and played with other little snow babies.
We learnt how to snow plough then stop. We got to wear cool helmets but coolest of all we got lightsabers, um sorry stocks to help us go faster...

The LONGEST journey

It's the winter school holidays at the moment so what better way to celebrate than to go to the snow!!! Mum packed our bags full of warm snuggly clothes and ski gear, we picked up Mama and off we went to Falls Creek for a few days of ultimate coolness.

It's a long drive to Falls Creek so Mama organised some car games and quiz's for us to play which were heaps of fun. Mama also bought us a really cool movie to watch about some Mighty Ducks, which Dad tried very hard to convince us that we wouldn't like(but we knew it was just so he could watch it)!! We stopped in Benalla, which is the hometown of our very good friend Ellen, so we did the Ellen dance, after we'd had lunch of course. Then we continued on to Mt. Beauty to hire snowchains, where we found out that the road up the mountain was closed due to a fallen tree or 29!! We thought we'd go to the supermarket and get ANOTHER latte for Mum & Mama. Paddy needed his smelly bum changed too.

After all this we found out that the road was open so we all piled back into the car and made another attempt at driving up to Falls Creek only to be stopped halfway up the mountain at the Bogong Village for yet another fallen tree. After Waiting for what seemed forever Mum decided to get out of the car and ask the policeman what was going on and he told us that it had been VERY windy the night before and that we should probably go back down and have some dinner and that it might be clear by the time we get back. So we went down again and filled the car with petrol, ate some dinner at the pub, got into our snow gear and drove back up again.

On the way up we passed lots of fallen trees that had been moved some beautiful scenery and a big doofus who didn't know how the put on snow chains and lots of other big doofus's who didn't even have snow chains! We unpacked the car at the oversnow vehicle, which was a seriously bus-type thing that had caterpiller wheels, climbed aboard and then finally made it to our lodge, Koki or Kooky as Mama called it! We had a nice hot drink, a snack and then went to bed.

skating on VERY thin ice, a tale of flips & slips

On Friday it was Auntie SJ's birthday, there's been lots of those lately, and everyone went skating, ice skating. Everyone except me that is, I stayed at home with Hannah my favourite babysitter. When Poss and Tiger finally dragged Mummy and Daddy home they told me all the stories.

It took Poss and Tiger a little while to get the whole standing upright thing, but in the end they did. Tiger finally let go of the barrier after 'practising' for an hour and a half. He slipped over lots and lots but in the end he was able to skate, slowly, but he did it! I am so proud of my big bro, i hope i am as cool as him when i get big...

Poss didn't like it as much as the others, she came home with a very sore bottom. I don't think she felt quite as silly as mum though. She was showing off and fell over and hurt her elbow and wrist and ended have to have her arm in a sling for nearly two weeks. She was skating backwards taking a photo of a couple of Auntie SJ's friends when she slipped. It was a really cool photo though!! Dad did a great job of taking care of mum though.

Daddy, Paddy, Poss & Tiger - fairies at the bottom of the garden??

Dad has this new obsession. Gardening. He's been shaping, pruning, digging, bagging, fixing everything in the backyard of late. We don't have the biggest backyard but there is lots of plants of various sizes and types. Paddy, Poss & Tiger have really got in on the act, especially now that Tiger re-discovered a set of gardening tools he was given for Christmas.

Paddy really enjoyed being outside in the garden, he picked up all sorts of different leaves and lots of other little bits too as he looked for fairies!

Poss & Tiger really took the digging and sweeping part of the job seriously. Tiger was particularly interested in getting between the cracks of the brick paving and making sure that it was neat and tidy, brick by brick....
What a great job they all did, next week it's the front yard!!!

Tiger, AJ & Paddy rock the Beena arena

On a chilly Saturday afternoon what better thing is there to do (apart from sit next a warm fireplace drinking hot choccies) than to watch dad play footy for the mighty Beena. I decided to ask my bud AJ to come along and cheer dad on. As soon as we drove up AJ spotted the awesome play equipment at the ground and i knew where we were going to spend the next few hours!!

The Beena did really well and we won, YAY! AJ and I ran on to the field and played a few games of kick to kick at each quarter time, we even had our picture taken for the local paper as they thought we might be future stars (mum says that she's not sure if they meant footy stars??) Mum cuddled up with Paddy and watched dad play footy, do you like the picture i took of them?

Love from Tiger

Dad - he's so old...

Dad turned 30 last week. That is so old. For dad's birthday we had a special party, it was lots of fun, mum made really nice cupcakes for everyone.

We, the kids, did not stay at the party long (Boo, Aj, Poss and tiger) We had a lemonade each, Boo and i had a boogie and then Mum and Del took us home where Hannah, our babysitter/party host was waiting while Paddy slept the night away.

While the adults had a party to celebrate dad being so old, we all watched a movie that you might know called Monster Vs Aliens, that another friend lend us (they got it from bali)
then Hannah told us it was time for bed. We think we had a much better time at 'our' party

In the morning when we got up we walked down to Lime Bar and had some brekky and daddy told us he got home very late.

Poss
xx

Time for woollies

The weather in Melbourne has just turned cold, really cold. It's hard to believe that only eleven weeks ago we had our hottest day on record, which sadly ended with one of the most tragic days in modern history. Some of the hardest hit areas are now experiencing great snow falls, what an incredible turn of events.

With a few other parents, I visited Christmas Hills back in March with some items that families of Tigers school had donated. I think i will remember the ruins we saw on that day for the rest of my life. It's not difficult to try and put yourself in the shoes of the parent fleeing with their children. Even now, eleven weeks later i still find it very emotional to think of each family along Skyline Rd having to do that. Everybody on that road survived, thankfully, but as they were fleeing the flames did they know that they person sitting next to them in the car was going to?

A return visit to Christmas Hills is planned over the next few weeks to hand over a few more items that are still wanted as the need continues. I am very much looking forward to seeing new growth, maybe a little of the white stuff but hopefully some families will have returned to start the process of rebuilding.

I've looked forward to this weather for eleven weeks now. With a little luck a bumper snow season will encourage more people to visit the lower laying towns that are nearby to the snowfields for a little economic relief.

Juice

Saturday sillyness starts

Here we go! Hockey & footy rule our Saturdays for the next 18 weeks. Tiger and Poss were so excited that they were dressed and ready to go, mouth guards in by 7am. We didn't need to be at Albert Park until 9.15, but that was OK, they were EXCITED!! After driving through crazy traffic and a little jaunt around the Grand Prix track, it's OK mum drove VERY carefully around the corners, we finally got there in time to warm up, everybody was clapping when we got there, i think they thought we weren't going to get there! Tiger ran and ran and ran! Poss was great, she's really getting good at hockey and is becoming a great leader. We didn't win but it didn't matter, we were back at hockey and it feels great!

It won't be too long until Paddy is playing...



Next up we had to head over to Carnegie to watch dad play footy, It's cool watching dad play footy because, really, we actually go and play on the playgrounds next to the ovals!! When the siren blows for quarter time we run on to play kick to kick with mum. 'The beena' won this time and dad played really well, he even got his name in the paper for being in 'the bests'. SO COOL!!
At the end of the day we were exhausted but we had lots of fun and mum and dad took us to have Taco's afterwards, YAY!!!

Poss gets up VERY early everyday. While we were in Pt. Fairy mum and dad had to get up very early too as Paddy decided he needed to be out in the lovely, but cold, world. Mum & dad's eyes had that scary look about them so Poss remedied this by starting a new kind of hunt... A coffee hunt! We walked through the gardens, NO COFFEE! Over a bridge, NO COFFEE! Past some boats, NO COFFEE! Through a market, NO COFFEE(well, maybe there was but they turned their noses up at it) until we got to the main street. Hallelujah!!!! We found the hub. Mum and Dad pounced on the waitress, "one weak latte and one regular, Puh leeze!!" they almost yelled. Poss too had started to get that wild eyed look so mum and dad ordered her a not too hot choc. Even Paddy got in on the action with some raisin toast. After devouring the treats, mum & dad each got a latte 'to go' and headed off to explore the market properly, where they found colourful weavings & delightfully stuffed pigs, sewn together from old wool blankets, which had already been sold. Mum was very disappointed, she likes pigs!

We walked back over the bridge across the Moyne River and saw the sun reflecting on the water, it looked just like fireworks. It was so pretty!! After finally going back through the gardens we got back to the tent to make egg & bacon sandwiches for breakfast. YUM! Fuel for more walking ahead!

Off to the coast...

After a big morning Easter egg hunting with our friends in circle park, we set off for the south west coast. We made it all the way too Pt. Fairy without mum yelling too much, High school musical kept us well behaved on the long journey. We stopped at Lismore and had tea and biscuits with the nice SES volunteers while mum fed Paddy. It's so much fun having a break in Lismore, free bikkies are the best!!

When we finally got to Pt. Fairy, Nanna and Pa were there to meet us, dad set up one tent and opened the bag to unpack the next tent and found out that we only had 'the fly'! OH NO!! Papa must have loaned the tent to someone, not mentioning any names, who forgot to put it away... Thankfully Nanna and Pa had their caravan so we could stay with them. (secretly we wanted to stay with them anyway) We ate soup and toasties for tea, Yumbo!!! Then we watched a video with Nanna and Pa while Mum and Dad took Paddy off to their tent for bed. Sleeping in a caravan is pretty cool. We knew that we needed some sleep for our weekend adventures...

Dad has started playing footy again!

We packed up the car and drove out to Airport West to watch dad play footy for the 'mighty' Murrumbeena lions. There was lots of food there but Poss wanted sushi so we had to call into westfield and pick up some 1st, I'm sure that it didn't have anything to do with mum wanting to check out another shopping centre. We didn't stay at the shopping centre for long, it was sooooo boring! We wanted to see dad play footy!!!

We got there just in time to miss dad kick the 'beena's 1st goal of the game, everyone was cheering for him. We couldn't understand why but then we checked the scoreboard. 'Beena was getting, as mum said, thumped! Dad was leading goalkicker for the game at 1.1, oh dear... That was the reserves game. Between Reserves and Seniors dad came running over and said that he had to play seniors too, was that ok? We thought it was great, we really wanted to play on the cool park that was there and mum said that we could. Tiger thought it was awesome because after having had a broken arm for ages he could finally play, as long as he was careful! We played kick to kick with mum, who was told she could have got a game with the 'beena, In fact i think we all could have! Maybe even Paddy...

Nanna and Pa were there, it was great to see them. We ate lots and lots, crunchy bars, pies, hot dogs, dim sims, mum even said we could have soft drink!! The day was so much fun, apart from the final score. Let's just keep between you and me the fact that the 'beena got beaten by more than 20 goals in the end.

Tiger loves to dance, Poss loves to play the drums and Paddy loves to bathe!! Our kids are each very different. They all enjoy what the other does, maybe not Tiger, who hates to bathe, but they've kind of taken ownership of their chosen activity. It's not really a case of who got there 1st but who dreams about it most. Paddy is obviously too little to have a favourite activity but at the moment water seems to make him happiest. He loves the noises made by water, he even has a toy teapot that makes a pouring water sound when you push a particular button(or throw it.) Tiger learns Ballet, Tap, Hip Hop and Jazz Dancing, if you asked him if he had a favourite genre of dance he would change it everytime but he loves to dance. He tap, tap, taps all over the house, he recently learnt how to do a jazz turn, now he's trying to perfect it and do doubles and triples. Wow! Poss has great rhythym, she loves playing any type of percussion. She mostly plays the practice pad but at any opportunity will play the glockenspiel and play rock around the clock!! It's the cutest jam you'll ever hear!!