For you, Joe!

This is for you Joe, because I finally took some photos of you that you liked enough to ask me to make my desktop picture.  Because you struggle every day with confidence, and because you are the most sensitive little boy soul that I know.

I love your face, I love your thoughts and dreams, I love your kindness, I love you inside and out...and I'm so happy that these pictures made you smile!

And also because your Daddy is away, and he misses you too.  This is for you David.
 
Your Son wants me to tell you that he's doing a great job looking after me while you're away and that he's taken to reading a book each night, 'just like Daddy' whilst snuggled up on your side of our bed before he goes to sleep.

If I could capture this little face and bottle these moments with my boy forever, I would!

Growing Stuff!

Summer has arrived and the sleeping garden is waking up.  It needs some work though, so David has been busy in it, pruning, cutting, tidying, gravelling, and sweating a LOT!  Hard work pays off though, it's starting to look really good and the grass is nice and green once again.

The girls are in their coop, they're loving it, and their cute little run...

 So again today, we found ourselves perusing the Garden Centres, dreaming of water features, mediterranean pots, fruit trees and exotic flowers.  And it's a funny thing, but you know you're really a grown up when you like going to places like this, instead of dragging around behind your parents..as you used to.

We ended up buying a few plants that swung both ways, which Daisy found highly amusing!

And Lucy took Auntie Ginny for a paddle in a pretty water fountain..

I think my favourite plants today were these - very Austin Power-esque! They totally floated my 'all things hippy' boat!

I wanted this - so it's firmly bookmarked for another time..

There was also enough time to view a few things small and furry, and a few more things, wet and swishy...

I could spend a long time in these places, and I really liked this little iron feathered guy..

Lucy wanted a colourful windmill...well, ok, maybe I did! ;)

Yes, I think I could work in a place like this...

Looking forward to many more days of perusing the garden centres and growing stuff...

DreamWorld Baby!

We're building up for David being away again for quite a while.  6 weeks is a long time in an 8yr old and 4yr olds life.  They feel as though there is no light at the end of the tunnel, or that the light is so far away they will never reach it.  We like to do silly little things to make it a little more bearable.  One of which is a freddo frog a day.  David fills two containers full of them, with their names on them, and they get to eat one for each day he's gone.  That way, they can see the pile getting smaller as the days go on and they get a 'Daddy treat' at the same time.   We also have Skype set up, and try to speak to him the same time most days/nights depending on where he is in the world.  Even if its just for a few minutes, it helps.  We also try to take the little ones out somewhere fun and just for them, on his last week.

This time it was DreamWorld, the Bright Lights, Big City of all little people...and where the world is full of Wiggles, Spongebob and brightly coloured SnoKones....

And where you can ride the carousel as many times as you'd like..

All the while, pretending to be way too cool for it....

When really you're lovin it just as much as they are...

It's a place where, anything is possible, including riding giant blues clues  that go up and down, around and around...

It's a place where little girls can have extra cuddles with their Daddy..

And where you can expect the unexpected..

Nothing more unexpected then David pushing the stroller, hehee!

It's a place where small boys convince their Mothers to go on big scary rides that they are far too old for..

Yeah, that was a little intense!

It's where you can get a little confused....

It's where you can buy buckets of fairy-floss...

And then, lick the sticky pink sugar off your fingers....

While getting just as much of it on the outside, as on the inside...

And where little girls dance by the water fountains,

And sit next to Koalas.

It's a fun filled, happy, sunny and chilled place to be...It's DreamWorld Baby!!

Even Puff  (the magic dragon)  had a blast...

Bye bye for now.....we'll be seeing you, shortly! :)

Biff in the Burbs

This is our second year of attending Biff in the Burbs, and it's just such a fun evening for the kids. Free outdoor cinema, popcorn, and a bouncy castle.   This year it was at our old stomping ground, the Brookfield Showground and Ice Age 3 was playing.  Huge picnic blankets were spread on the ground, yummy food was shared and passed around and kids were snuggled under blankets. 

My lovely friend Vanessa and I drove down there in convoy, dropping David off at the busstop on his way to Brissie to watch the Broncos, with my lovely friend Vanessas equally lovely Hubby, Gerard.  Hope they find their way home from the pub ok.....Mmm, maybe, I should have slipped the directions for the way home into his pocket...

I wasn't surprised when I had to leave an hour before the others....there's only so much fun a 17mth can take - and Lucy had come to the end of hers after a little while.  She did love racing around with the bigger kids though, and trying to sneak her way onto the bouncy castle when nobody was looking.

All tucked up in their beds now, and my lovely Daisy-Woo has just walked in the door, after her Yr 7 Canberra trip.  She's been talking non-stop since she flopped herself down on the sofa, and her voice is almost gone now, so I've packed her off to bed.  Night night crazy ditsy blonde girl of mine, sweet dreams! Night night tired sleepy little ones...sleep well and give your Mama a lovely lie-in will you please?