And so it begins...

Last day of daycare and first day of school.

It's been hectic! But great.

Miss Andrea is the director at the ABC Daycare. She loves the kids and they love her. Shamus spent most of his last day close to her side. She was great and took some pics for us with the camera.

The kids had a wonderful last day. Lots of games and junk food!! There was a birthday party, the cupcakes I brought in, and Miss Andrea picked up tons of treats and games. I thought I would top the cupcakes with a few different things - you can never go wrong with Smarties. And I crumbled some Mint Slices...so yummy (Mint Slices are our favorite Aussie cookie!), crumbled some Aero Cookies...yes, they have them here too, and then a few with good ol' traditional sprinkles. Well, Shamus only ate the ones with sprinkles! He loves them for some reason.

Simple, yet good.

Friday was Breagha's last day in the Junior Kindy room as she moved up today to the Senior Kindy room! Did you know that this means she is almost going to school?!!! Well, that is what it means to Miss B! She isn't happy that she can't start school yet but she likes that she is one of the "big kids" at daycare now. She has actually been moved up a bit early but she holds her own with the older kids and we think she is ready. :)

Mr Tane is Breagha's new teacher.

Miss Vanessa hanging with B and Shamus.

And so we have it...

The big day has arrived...

And I didn't shed a tear!!

Shamus getting ready this morning for New Farm State School. The hat down to the black shoes. He was looking very cute!

And we can't forget little Breagha!!!!

She couldn't wait to drop Shamus off as she loves to see the school.

School starts at 845am and we got there a bit early...didn't want to be late the first day! Shamus wasn't nervous at all and seemed quite content about the whole thing. It's really nice as there are 4 other kids from daycare that are at the same school.

Elyse is the girl that Shamus plans to marry. He told me this about 2 months ago. :) Cute. She's very sweet and coming to Shamus' party on Sunday.

Syd also went to daycare with Shamus and is a good buddy. So, I think it made a very big difference that he already knows a couple of the kids.

You know, I was making Shamus' lunch last night and getting his backpack ready, and said to Darryl, "This is it. I am officially a Mom. Everything else was a warm up. It's the real thing now. Make lunches, sending the kids off to school, driving them to practice and lessons. This is it."

I'm sending them out into the real world. It was sort of strange but that is how it felt. I hope we teach them well! And I hope they love it.

Happy Australia Day everyone!!

Happy Australia Day!

We're just heading off to South Bank for the day. We don't want to venture too far from home as Shamus starts school tomorrow morning. sniff sniff. (Yeah, I'm going to be emotional!) So, we're going to enjoy South Bank but plan to be home before dinner so we can get ready for our big day tomorrow. I'm sure we'll enjoy South Bank, as we always do. And hopefully tomorrow will go really well!!

We'll keep you posted. :)

Can't forget about the Noosa camping trip!

Last weekend we went camping in Noosa with Rej, Clo, Amy, Kate, and Morgan. Too bad for Dan - he was stuck at work...sorry Dan!! We did miss you. And of course we missed not having Steve and Cari with us. But, they're enjoying the Melbourne heat right now! :)

Anyhoot, we went to Noosa last Friday with the gang and had the best weather. We were in the water a lot of the time because it was quite hot - the sun is crazy strong here!!!!! We're very lucky that Kate can set us up with such an amazing spot. It is truly perfect there.

We started Saturday morning with Clo climbing up on the picnic table. Keep in mind she is about 37 weeks into her pregnancy! It doesn't seem to be slowing her down!

Rej and Clo made a yummy brekky for everyone and then we rested our bellies before hitting the beach.

Rej also brought some flutes...that he made from bamboo sticks. It was quite impressive! He and Darryl were a bit obsessed with this music making and spent most of their free time whittling away on a piece of bamboo! Of course Rej made a flute for Shamus and Breagha...which I hid for the drive back!

The ocean water has been AMAZING the last few weeks. Perfect temperature.

And the waves were great too!

I think the kids are finally getting used to the Aussie beaches because they spent a lot of time in the water this trip. It was very nice to see.

Baby Gabriel's tent was put to good use last weekend! It is a nice break from the sun. I don't know how we have done 2 years here without a beach tent!

Shamus did a great job riding the waves in. And when he fell off, he didn't panic. I think swimming class is starting to pay off!

Saturday night Kate taught Breagha how to properly start a campfire. Breagha did very well until it was time to let go of the lit match. She didn't let go. :( A bit of a burnt finger!

Morgan brought his kite board and equipment. I was really surprised to see how big the kite was. I've seen kiteboarders in Montreal (Pointe Claire Village) and here, but I didn't realize the kite was so big.

Unfortunately the wind didn't want to cooperate so Morgan lost that battle.

Another flute? Coming up! Rej even managed to make a saxophone out of the bamboo! I think Rej is the new McGyver!!! Just give him a match and thread and he could make a booby trap! I do have to say it was quite impressive.

And no trip to Noosa is complete without seeing camels on the beach.

As usually, we've been quite busy. It seems like there is always lots to do/get done. This weekend is a 4 day weekend for me...off on Monday, it's Australia Day on Tuesday, and I do half a day on Wednesday as it's Shamus' first day of school! Darryl and I are both going to take him to school on Wednesday, and pick him up. And then we're taking turns doing half days for the next week and a half...to ease him into school before he goes to After School Care.

Then it's Shamus' birthday on Friday/Jan 29. I haven't decided if I'll do anything at school for his birthday. We are having his party on Sunday/Jan 31 so that may be enough for me to plan!! And he already celebrated at daycare on Friday. He's last day at daycare was one big party! The director went all out. The kids had a blast. So, I think we have enough going on!

A little bit of this and that

We're super behind with the blog! It's just been so busy since before Christmas. I can't believe January is almost over!

WHERE DID IT GO???

Well, either way, I'm here to catch up!

I've been really enjoying my Monday's off. Each week the kids and I are off doing something different. We've tried out a couple of new parks, spent hours at the South Bank beach/pools, and play dates with friends. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep my Monday's off after mid February so I'm making the most of them for now. It really makes a difference having that extra day.

So, a couple of weeks ago we had a surprise baby shower for Clo. Amy suggested high tea and I thought this was a great idea as I haven't done the "Aussie high tea" yet!! For the Canadians - high tea is basically a morning or afternoon of eating fancy little sandwiches, biscuits with cream and jam, and yummy deserts. With tea of course! (No, I haven't started drinking tea - I stuck to the orange juice) It was too bad that some of the girls couldn't make it but we were happy to have surprised Clo!!!!

We had a great spot outside along the Brisbane River. It was very nice.

Clo got a beach tent from a couple of the girls....Kate and Clo decided to see how easily it could be set up.

Very easy.

It did take some help from Christie to get it back in the bag though!!! :)

And a little belly comparing going on....Kiri is due about 4 weeks after Clo. But, the bellies are darn close in size! Good luck to Kiri and her new baby.

We had a great time and Clo received some wonderful gifts. I think her and Rej are almost ready for their little baby boy!!! Only a couple of weeks to go!!!

...i can't wait...

********************************************************************

I thought I would include a couple of pics of Shamus and Breagha enjoying a new park we checked out last week. It was really big and it also had a little wildlife park so we spent the whole afternoon here.

Shamus and Breagha are typically siblings - they fight. But, I have to say that most of the time they enjoy each others company. It will be sad to see Shamus off to school and Breagha on her own at daycare. sniff sniff. Let's not think about that right now. sniff sniff. Even though it's next week. sniff sniff. Isn't Shamus too young for school????

They both loved the ZipLine. Oops, I was corrected by a little girl at the park when I called it a ZipLine. Apparently it is called the Flying Fox...which is what the Aussies call bats. Either way, the kids loved it. I took a couple of videos. Again, we will post some videos some day!!

We've started to let Shamus take a couple of pictures here and there. He's getting the hang of it! At least there is some proof that I actually live here! There aren't too many pictures of me lately. I actually have to tell Darryl to take a picture of me sometimes or I wouldn't be in any!

One last little picture of beautiful Breagha.

That's my one quick update. I'll post some pics of our camping trip next. I have the house to myself right now. Darryl is out with the guys, the kiddies are in bed, and as usually this is when I get most of my stuff done! :) I'm going to make some cupcakes for Shamus to take to daycare tomorrow. Sort of to celebrate his birthday...it's not until next week but tomorrow is his last day EVER at daycare. sniff sniff. Let's not get into this again. It's too hard for me! Anyway, I'm making some, "It's my birthday and last day at daycare" cupcakes. So, lot's to do!!!!

Quick post!

Hi all,

Just a quick post as we're heading to Noosa today, camping. Thought I should give an update as I haven't talked to my folks in a while...Mom may be wondering what we're up to. We're going for the weekend, back on Sunday night. Can't wait!!

Lots to update but we'll have to do it next week!

The last little odds and ends of 2009!

During the Christmas holidays, we had company for about 2 weeks. Who you might ask? We had Squeaker and Moccasin stay with us! They're Kate and Morgan's cute kitty cats!! The kids really enjoyed having the cats at our place...and so did Darryl and I.

Breagha really enjoys wearing her mittens and Shamus' winter gloves so she went around the house wearing her mittens on her feet, Shamus' gloves and a funny looking hair band.

I think she has Amanda'a flair for fashion!!!! :)

Oh, Breagha is also quite the dancer these days!

We had lots of rain and thunderstorms over Christmas but we did manage ONE trip to the beach. Mind you, it started to rain on the way TO the beach! It wasn't looking good but things did clear up quickly and we were able to enjoy the afternoon.

The boys tried out a new Christmas gift from Mike and Mireille -

water pumps!

They can shoot quite far and the boys had

an excellent time squirting each other.

The waves were great so Darryl and I took advantage and did some bodyboarding.

Some waves can be huge but it's lots of fun!!

Aussie life guards...Purdy hittin' the waves...


We went for a nice walk down the beach with the kids but by this point it was starting to cloud over...AGAIN...and we figured we better start packing up! Luckily we did because about 15minutes after we left...guess what happened? It started to rain again!

Hopefully the weather will start to improve soon. It's a great break from having the sun beat down on you all the time and the rain is always needed here.

But, enough already!

Bring back the sun! The humidity is still high

so let's at least have the sun shining!!

More Christmas fun!

So, I wanted to add a few more pics from our holiday season!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year! We had a great time and are enjoying our last couple of days at home.

We didn't get very good weather over Christmas/New Year's but we kept ourselves very busy.

Some hair colouring...

My Mom and Dad bought Breagha some pink hair spray for Christmas and she loved it.

Darryl would make a great hairdresser, wouldn't he? It was a bright pink but looks a bit red when it's in the hair.

Darryl did a few strips of hair and Breagha was very pleased with the results!

Breagha also got into the fashion world over the holidays...

Who knew 2 dish towels could make such a trendy outfit!

We also ventured off to Ice World...

Where Shamus skated on his own! He was a bit shaky but it was definitely skating, not walking on ice!

Maybe it was the new Maple Leafs sweater!!! Or maybe he was inspired after watching Canada play in the World Juniors! :) Go Canada Go!

And we can't make a trip to IceWorld without the boys sneaking in a game of Air Hockey...

Ok, time for a little break!

Breagha wanted to be a figure skater and had quite the moves. We've been doing a lot of videos lately so we'll have to post them someday.

After IceWorld we headed over to Rej and Clo's for a movie and dinner...

We got there to discover Rej making cotton candy!!!!!!

Verrrrrry cool.

And Clo looked too cute with her belly and surfin' Mum tshirt!

Darryl and the kids have also been enjoying the "Zoob" blocks from Grammie Shirley and Gunka. 250 pieces to make the monitor lizard below...

Very cool gift for the kids...

Shamus whipped up these dinosaurs in no time flat!! It's pretty neat - there's a booklet to show you how to create lots of different things. I stuck with 25 pieces or less section. But, Darryl went straight to the 250 piece section!

And that's just a few more things from Christmas 2009!