1017km roadtrip...

Although they didn't have a huge amount of time to explore Chris and Roberta really wanted to see some of the country while they were here. They had friends at the Gold Coast and Cairns so we decided we would take a few days off and drive up to Brisbane with them via the New England Highway, just taking our time and seeing where the road took us . . .
Well 3 days of long distance driving with kids is not easy, I'm not sure Chris & Roberta realised what they were getting themselves in for!!! Roberta must have a really short memory though - when Austy was about 2 she drove with us from Umgazana to Durban, a whole 5 hours of non-stop singing of Old MacDonald, Incey Wincey & Baa Baa. Every time we stopped singing the tears would start. . . it was a very long trip.
Anyway I'm making it sound awful when it wasn't, they were actually really well behaved and Lily was quiet and happy because I sat at the back with her and she could play with her favourite toy the entire way . . . my hand!!!

Just past Newcastle we passed an Information Centre and thought we'd better stop and get a map . . . nothing like proper planning . . . After a few hours in the car Lily was very happy to get out and run around, showing off in her new dress from Granny and Gramps.

Beer stop at a dodgy little pub in Aberdeen, which is somewhere near the
Hunter Valley (I think)

It was hard to take photos out the back window and going at speed but the countryside in the Hunter Valley region was stunning, just a pity we didn't have time to stop and visit a few wineries . . .definately going back soon . . .

Overnight stop in Tamworth. 

We sped past the 'famous' Golden Guitar on the way into town so at least I can say I've seen that, albeit very briefly . . . 

On recommendation from the butcher in St Ives (where we got our biltong from for the roadtrip) we went to the Safari Club. It's a South African themed restaurant, something you really dont expect to find in Tamworth, but it was awesome. HUGE portions of steak and ribs, perfect for the carnivore Brazilian among us!!!

2 very excited little ones enjoying the novelty of breakfast at the hotel...

Lunch stop at sleepy Tenterfield

Not much was happening on the main street but the cafe we had lunch in had a pink dunny which thoroughly amused Austy, who being a 5 year old boy finds anything to do with poo or bums hilarious.

Scary bridge somewhere between Tenterfield and Casino

Amusing ourselves on the long and windy road...

The beautiful Byron Bay . . . another place I am definitely going to return to . . .

Drawing, drawing and more drawing...he spends a lot of time in restaurants and pubs doing this . . .

The fire alarm went off at our hotel in Coolangatta and we had to walk down 10 flights of stairs . . . not fun but it was exciting for the kids and Austin got to jump in the fire truck and talk into the radio

After dropping Chris and Roberta at Brisbane Airport for their flight to Cairns we had 3 hours to spare so we went for a drive and popped into the Campos at Fortitude Valley. Very cool spot but Thing1 and Thing2 were behaving badly so we ate and ran . . .

Our hire car, a Kia Carnival, very nice as far as 8 seaters go . . .

The plane obsessed boy impatiently waiting to board . . . "can we board YET!!!"

little kickers . . .

Since the beginning of the year Austin has been going to 'Little Kickers' at Freshwater Diggers Club.
It's basically soccer training drills, they don't spend much time playing actual games, instead they do a whole lot of kicking, running, jumping etc but always practising a specific soccer skill they will use when they start playing for real.
Austin absolutely loved the lessons and has a natural kicking ability (biased I know), but the closer he came to 5 we could see he was getting bored by the class and would spend half the time pretending to fall over - which is a lot of fun on those slippery wooden floors. So we decided to finish him up and in a few months we'll look at getting him into something a bit more challenging and outdoors, and away from those wooden floors!!!
These are some pics from his last lesson.

slipping over on purpose . . .

tongue out in concentration . . .

happiness is . . .

reaching for the sun . . . owww it's too hot, too hot

cool those hands down in some ice . . .

aeroplanes . . .

one of the many drills . . .

silly jokes with his team mates . . .

squeeze that ball . . .

Little Kickers . . . yay

waiting patiently for a stamp from Coach Ev

taking lily up to get a stamp . . . such a loving big brother at times

a little baby no more....

So as much as I wanted him to stay 4 forever, our little 'Scubba' turned 5 recently. We had this joke going most of the year where I begged him to please stay 4 and not turn 5 and he would say "ok mummy I promise I wont" but then 5 seconds later he would laugh and tell me "mummy you are going to be so sad when I turn 5 you are going to cry and cry and cry". Well I did shed a tear when I watched him sleeping on the night before, but what can you do? They really do have to grow up...

 THE BIRTHDAY MORNING

tearing open his presents, so excited...

Infinity & Beyond....he has been wanting Buzz for ages so was very excited to see him...

 Daddy helping with the aeroplane Lego, still needing a bit of help...

THE BIRTHDAY AT KINDY

Austin goes to kindy on a Monday and a Thursday and was lucky enough for his birthday to fall on a Monday this year. So he got to celebrate with all his school mates, although in this allergy, OHS & fun spoiling society that we live in, we were not allowed to bring in a cake. The only thing you are allowed to bring in is water ice blocks, no dairy of course...let's just be thankful there is no water and sugar allergy...yet.  We also had balloons and bubbles, but no party horns/blowers allowed, imagine the shock horror of children sharing a blower and potentially sharing germs... Don't get me started on child protection laws and the photos of children at his kindy that I shouldn't have taken!!!

Doing his nervous 'hop hop hop' (which he does whenever he is nervous) before handing out the iceblocks, can be such a shy boy at times...

Handing out the iceblocks one by one and choosing the order...such a power trip!!! His teacher told him to give them to the children who were behaving but I think he just gave to whoever he liked best...

One of the teachers collected Lily from her classroom downstairs so she could join in the fun...

Austin's teacher Penny, such a warm and beautiful soul, he loves her to bits...

THE BIRTHDAY CAKE

After school we sang happy birthday and blew out the candles on his cake...I was hoping enough time would pass before bedtime for all that sugar and colouring (mummy was slightly heavy handed!!!) to work it's way through...

 THE BIRTHDAY SCOOTER RIDE

And to end the day a ride on his brand new 2-wheelie scooter (no longer a baby with 3 wheels). So what does the crazy speed demon do? Races off down the road and crashes really badly after about 10seconds, TEARS TEARS TEARS, luckily he had jeans on, and hopefully it taught him a bit of restraint for next time.

 HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY GORGEOUS BOY, YOU BRING SUCH FUN, LAUGHTER & HAPPINESS TO OUR LIVES AND AS YOU WOULD SAY WE "LOVE YOU MORE THAN ALL THE FISH IN THE SEA, THE LEAVES ON THE TREES AND ALL OF THE ANIMALS IN THE WORLD"

the kitten with no name...

After a couple of weeks of complete animal overload at his parents and brothers house Steve returned from his last trip to South Africa absolutely determined that we were getting a pet!!!

It's been 3 years since our beloved boy-dog Spanner passed away and nearly 3 since we had to leave our beautiful baby girl Alaska behind in SA, and to be honest the sadness we felt was overwhelming and we vowed we would never have another pet. But time heals, as they say, and we don't want Austin or Lily to grow up without animals around them, so although we dont really have the perfect house for an animal at the moment, well not a dog anyway, we decided to just go for it and deal with the consequences...

Originally Steve was determined to have a marine fish tank, not the easiest thing to keep, or the cheapest as we discovered after looking around... After realising we'd have to take out a 2nd mortgage to buy anything half decent we laughed it off and decided that if it couldn't be a dog, then it would have to be a cat.

So we settled on the breed and colour we wanted, googled breeders in Sydney...then a few weeks later drove halfway through Sydney to pick up our gorgeous 2 month old Burmese kitten...who 3 weeks later we still don't have a name for...

 

happy birthday aunty berta...

Today in honour of our aunty Roberta's birthday we painted Brazilian flags...

 Austin did a brilliant job...

Lily not so much...

 Happy Birthday Aunty Berta...

We love you and miss you...xoxo

Happy Birthday Chica!!! Hope you are having an amazing day with your family, lots love and big hugs....xo

bye bye front tooth...

A year and a half ago Austin was mucking around on the couch, fell and knocked his front tooth quite badly. It ended up with an abcess and took numerous courses of antibiotics, endless visits to the dentist, endless dentists bills and eventually a root canal to save it and get it to re-attach. We could have taken it out then and there but we just couldn't face the thought of our little 3 year old without his front tooth. Well its been fine for the last year or so, apart from getting a bit darker and obviously a bit weaker, because it eventually cracked straight down the middle - while eating a Smartie cookie at Zubi - "see mummy was right, those biscuits are bad for you..." 

Steve tried to take it out with a piece of gauze but the tooth was going nowhere and he only succeeded in breaking the other half off - I had to hold him back from getting the pliers out!!!
So off to the dentist we went...again...

waiting in the dental chair - last pic of tooth

injection time - our brave little boy

 tears from injection - those palate ones really sting...

laughing again while waiting for anaesthetic to work...no idea what's coming...

The tooth was actually pretty tough to get out because there wasn't much left for the pliers to grip, but Austin was so brave, he only cried a little bit. I mean the feeling of a tooth being pulled is horrible for anyone, but even more so when you are 4 and dont really know what's happening. We were so proud of him.

milkshake afterwards...he was so excited, kept smiling at us (much to our horror - its quite strange to see your little boy suddenly have no tooth) and looking at himself in mirror and talking about the tooth fairy coming...

putting tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy

sleep tight our brave little boy

the tooth fairy came that night but apparently she wasn't generous enough...austin came through in the morning all excited "mummy, daddy, guess what, the tooth fairy came, she came - but she only left me $1" 

...kids these days...



sou afreeka book...

Lately Austin's drawings have been the same thing over and over - big houses with lots of windows - "like our old house which was big and had a treehouse and a backyard to play tackle with daddy and kick balls in..." - talk about major guilt trip!!!
But the other day while he was drawing, he asked for a stapler because "I want to make a book". So I gave it to him and left him to it...a while later he came through to the bedroom and showed me his "sou afreeka book".

 

"this is me walking to the spaceship to fly it"???

"this is a zebra eating some grass"

"this is a spider with 8 legs"????

"this is a lion trying to eat a bird"

He asked me how to spell "sou afreeka" and "the end", wrote it on the front and back, then read me the story. I love the way he puts his fingers over the 'words', just like I do...