Footy update

The junior footy season has offically finished and Ben had his presentation night tonight and all the kids got a plaque. Jake's team finished 2nd on the ladder and so they are playing finals. If they beat the top team next week, they go staight into the grand final, but if they loose they have a second chance to get to the grand final the following week. It's all very excting....Ian and I went to a dinner dance fund raiser for the footy club on Friday night. It was really good fun.

WWE Smackdown

Jake had a wonderful birthday last week. He had a win in footy and then we headed off to the Rod Laver Arena to the westling. All night the boy kept saying "this is the best night everRyan, Jackson and Kathleen. It was a very late night (and an expensive one!!), but a good night was had by all.

Cross Country

Jake was very proud when he got into the cross county team and when they were competing in the district trials he got a vest from the school to wear and he was very proud of himself. He cam 52nd and was happy with his achievement.

Patchwork quilt

Well, it has taken me a long time and I am still working on it.....but here is the quilt that I put together although I haven't actually done the quilting yet......the patchwork looks good though, don't ye think?

Ben's birthday photos

Just bro's

Ben' Birthday

Never again....I know I said that the last time, but this time I mean it.....never again am I having a party at home with 10 screaming kids running around waiting for me to entertain them. We had slime races, eat the donut from the string, balloon bursting with your hat, pinata bashing....it was full on. Ben had a ball, but Ian, Kathleen and me were exhausted....photo's to follow

Footy Season fever....

We have also had an action packed few months trying to get the two boys to footy on the weekends that Ian is working, but we've managed to work it out with the help of other parents. Both boys love their footy, but Jake has really be trying extra hard to do well. He is one of the smallest kids in his team and skinny too, which doesn't help. But his coach has been great, giving him heaps of encouragement and last week he got the "Red Hot Go" Award for his efforts. Each child gets acknowledged during the year and Jake was wrapped to get his after a great game he played. He has also been nominated as team captain twice which is great for his self-esteem and he scored two goals that match so he was a very happy boy. Ben is one of the youngest on his team and you can tell, but he loves it and does a great job skipping around the ground and hopping like a kangaroo when the play is at the other end of the pitch. He is still hoping to get at least one goal this season....

Tennis mad

Well - this has been a long time coming......there has certainly been a bit of a drought on the blog front. It has been a very busy few months, with Jake playing his first game of competition tennis. He was very nervous and felt abit sick before the game but he did very well and won one of the two sets he played. They play doubles at his age and there are four children on a team so the rotate the sets. What I hadn't realised is how long it takes. I thought the game would be all over in an hour....well try 3 hours!!!! But he absolutey loved it and is going to start playing every Saturday morning from the beginning of next term, which is in mid-July. There goes Saturdays as well as Sundays....we might as well sell the van...only joking!!!!!

Funny

I have just finished showering the boys and checking their heads for nits (note came home from school that some kids in the class had them), anyway, my routine is to cover their heads with conditioner and comb it through with a wire tooth comb. I wipe the conditioner off on a tissue and check it for nits - the method always works great. Anyway, when I was doing Ben's hair I thought I got a couple of lice - but I wasn't sure, so I put the tissue to one side and when Ben was finished, we took the tissue into the kitchen and got the magnifying glass to see if we could see any legs, etc. Then we thought that we could get the microscope (thank you Aunty Jacqui) and have a look at them under that. The evidence was inconclusive.

I then went through the same routine with Jake - who was quite agitated as he claimed that I never find any nits in his hair anyway - and he was right I didn't. But he made mention of the nits in Ben's hair and I explained that I couldn't be sure they were nits/lice, to which Jake responded that he had seen the legs and it was definitely a nit. After his shower I asked him to show me the nit with the legs and he walked over to the kitchen table and pointed to a tiny little black creature that sure enough had legs......poor Jake what he didn't know it that Ben had decided that he wanted to see what an ant would look like under the microscope and he had gotten one from the back garden.....!!!!!

Gummi Ben

Ben lost his two front teeth within 2 weeks of each other. One of the cricket mums actually pulled both of them out once they got abit loose....

Enjoying holidays

Just out strolling on one of the cooler days. The boys were looking for crabs and we found alot of sea urchins on along the foreshore (they were abit on the nose and Ben made me carry 3 back to the van for him so he would have them for show and tell in school.....). I had such a great break it was a killer going back to work

Boatin' about

Enjoyed the beach most days and the boys dug tunnels, built castles, made turtles in the sand, played with the ball that bounces on water....but the most exciting thing was the new Kayak, which can actually accommodate all four of us with Ben perched on the front. It is technically a 3 seater and apparently unsinkable. It's amazing just how chopped the water can get once you go out abit, it the wind and speedboats creating snappy waves. Anyway the boys loved it and it is great exercise for Ian and I speaking of weight, I haven't stopped putting on weight since I gave up the cigs...I am 60kgs now and growing!!!!!!

Summetime 'n the livin' is easy....

Well we have had a great summer - the weather has been mixed but we got our fair share of hot hot hot days. Spent the best of my 3 weeks leave at the beach and will try to get down every second weekend over the rest of the summer. The scooters were a hit - Jake ended up buying one from money that his Nana Halewood sent.....