Rainbow Beach

Last weekend we went to Rainbow Beach with some friends. I really liked it. It's funny because we kind of forget sometimes that we live in beautiful, amazing Australia. BUT, then we go to a beach like Rainbow Beach and I remember, "I'm in Australia!!!" Rainbow Beach looks and feels like Australia should - lots of waves, beautiful sand, and surfer dudes! We have been to a few beaches now but this is only the second beach that I thought, "This is what people picture Australia as". Apparently it is one of the best surf spots in Australia, with big competitions each year. And I love when beaches have BBQ's and playgrounds too. It makes it a perfect day for the family! So, we had a wonderful time. It was also the first time in a long time that Shamus enjoyed the ocean. He's getting comfortable now and it was fun to play with him in the water.

We also saw our first blue sea slug (thanks to Rej for finding out what it was!!) They were all along the shore.

(...and yes, I'm trying out some fonts, font size, colour....hmmm, which do I prefer?)

http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/MarineInvertebrateZoology/Glaucusatlanticus.html

The kids enjoyed climbing the rocks. And the warm little pools between all the rocks.

"Ah, it was worth the hike Shamus. Let's just chill."

"Let's go Dad. You're almost there!"

The view was beautiful.

We stayed and had dinner and then drove back to Brisbane that night.

It will be very difficult to leave Queensland. We better get lots of visitors when we go back! :)

Very Happy ;)

Yes, I'm very happy.

Anyone that I've been chatting with lately will know that I can work some long shitty hours. No pretty way to say it but that. I like my job but I have the "working Mom" guilt as I don't get home as early as I would like most days. Sooooooo, I spoke with my boss about going part time. :)

Beginning next week, I will be working 4days a week -

Tuesday to Friday.

Me Happy

And hopefully by January I'll do 3 days a week.

Me Very Happy

Anyone that I've been chatting with lately will also know that Shamus starts school in January. So, I want to be able to bring him to school and pick him up as much as possible. It's not like when I was growing up - get dropped off by the school bus and then play before school starts, and then play after school until the bus picked you up again. I don't know if it's a city thing but Shamus will start school at 845am each morning and there is no play time before school starts. The parents stay with the small children until the bell rings and school begins. There are no supervisor's like in my day!! School will finish at 3pm and Shamus must be picked up at this time or go to after school care. During all this Breagha will be at daycare. She is not too happy about Shamus moving on without her. The daycare director said that they have a Red Flag Alert on Breagha during this time as they don't think she'll cope too well....she hangs with Shamus and his buddies most of the day.

Soooooo, I personally think this long day, busy day, school day, after school, daycare, work, blah blah, stuff is not going to cut it! I want to be more involved so I need to cut back on work. I would love to be able to bring Shamus to school and pick him up right after school a couple of times a week. And then Breagha will get to hang with me during the day too. And luckily Darryl's work is flexible so Darryl will bring him to school the other days and he'll do after school care 3 days a week. Hmmmm, hopefully this plan of mine will work! It's always about juggling but we are getting to be good jugglers!

And call me old fashion but I also like the idea that I'll actually get to cook a meal a couple of times a week! Poor Darryl does most of the cooking as he is home first.

Thank you for being so wonderful Baby.

And this is why I'm so happy! I can keep working but get some time at home too. A great balance I think. I hope it all works out! My boss is pretty good so I'm optimistic.

I'll keep you posted on whether this plan is still so great in the new year!!!!! Fingers crossed.

Brissie Baby!!!!

Hooray, look at me! Two posts in one week! Well, that's because I have the place to myself!! Oh yeah! Darryl is out on the town with the boys, the kiddies are in bed, and I'm just finishing up some baking and laundry and now I'm posting on the blog! You can get so much done when you're on your own!

Hmmmm, so Brissie. Well, we still have our family of possums outside. It's pretty fun to go hang the clothes on the line and have the possums climb down for a visit.

They're SO cute!!!

I love how the baby lies on the Mom's back.

What else has been going on in Brissie?

Well, we are always super busy with work and the kids!

Darryl, being the best Dad, and being so creative, recently made a volcano for Shamus and Breagha which they loved!

Getting ready to erupt!

And there it goes!!!

And Darryl is great to draw with the kids. He draws them as superheros, or he draws them dinosaurs....he is great to entertain them!

And we also try to get out lots with the kids.

I love getting out for walks.

If I'm on the ball I take the camera with me but that's not too often! :) New Farm (our suburb) is so great. It's mostly along the water, there's a perfect park with a playground, and there is a really nice walking path along the water.

A few pics in our neighborhood...

The trees here are amazing.

I have to say, I'm taking a liking to the birds. I have never been a bird fan but the Aussie birds are wonderful.

This little magpie is just chillin' out.

Sooooooo, now I'm done my little post. I may do some sewing or I may just crawl in bed, with some wine and popcorn, and watch Sex And The City! Oh yeah!

Some Halloween Fun!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Ok, first off, I just can't find the free time lately to being posting on the blog. I'm not sure where all the hours in a day go but there doesn't seem to be any free time! So, if I do find some extra time I just don't feel like sitting in front of a computer. Hmmmmm, which makes it difficult to do a post! I will try to do one post a week but no promises! :)

Anyhoot, we were very into Halloween this year and it was great! We've had the house decorated for a few weeks now and the costumes ready. This week I baked 6 dozen cookies and 3 dozen cupcakes for work and daycare. The daycare had all the kids dress up on Friday and it was really cute to see them so excited. We brought in Halloween tattoos, and rings, and treats for the kids in Shamus and Breagha's class. And then I brought in goodies for my coworkers. Luckily Darryl is artistic - I came up with the ideas and he put them all together!

His skeleton cupcakes were quite funny. He even did a Spiderman pose for my coworker, Dan. Lots of Halloween food this year!

On Saturday around 5pm we had the kids ready for Treat Or Tricking. We took them to a couple of our neighbors and then headed off in the car to visit friends!

Batman and Supergirl were ready to roll!

Breagha decided against her princess costume...I think she is just as into the superhero's as Shamus is. She loves them.

Time to hit up the neighbors...

After going to the neighbors we headed to Dan and Amy's place. We were in for a surprise when we saw them all dressed up...very scary! Great costumes guys!

Shamus wasn't scared of them but Breagha wouldn't go near them. We couldn't get her to go into the picture. It was kind of funny...she just kept staring at them.

Now off to Kate and Morgan's house!

Morgan made a caramel treat and it was...

sooooooooo good!

I had 5 slices!

Last stop was Rej and Clo's! Their house looked great! And it was quite exciting as there were kids in the neighborhood Treat Or Treating! Felt like home.

More treats for Shamus and Breagha. Ohhh, they had alot of junk yesterday!

More Halloween food! Darryl was quite creative with the snacks. They turned out really well. And Clo and Rej made tons of food! Pumpkin cake, roast pumpkin seeds, squares, halloween treats, Morgan's desert, and more and more. Oh, we ate too much!

The best part of the night for the kids - going through the treat bag. So good!!

We had such a great Halloween this year. It was really fun. Thanks to everyone for letting us bring the kids over. It reminded me of when my parents used to drive us around Rankinville so we could fill up our pillowcases with treats!!!

I hope everyone at home has a wonderful Halloween! Post the kids costumes!

Lots of birthday cheer!

This weekend was another busy weekend for the MacPurdy's. Saturday morning was swimming class, and then I had my sewing class in the afternoon. I hope to have my skirt finished next class!! So far, so good. While I was at my class, Rej very kindly picked up Darryl and the kiddies and brought them to their place. Clo had her birthday BBQ which meant lots of food and great company! Thanks for the wonderful time guys. It is always so nice to catch up with the gang. And Rej and Clo had their friends from Canada visiting so it was nice to hear so many Canadian accents in one room!!! :)

Happy Birthday Clo! Hope you had a wonderful day. Your belly is super cute!

Ah, well done Amy. The cupcakes were yummmmmmy!

And then we had another birthday party on Sunday!

Breagha was invited to a 3rd birthday party for one of the girls in her daycare class. It worked out nicely as Cassie (the birthday girl) has an older brother that happens to be in Shamus' class! Shamus and Harrison (Cassie's brother) are best buddies so Shamus went to the party too.

The birthday girl.

The girls getting ready for the birthday cake! They wore their princess outfits!

Present time!!

The kids had a really great time.

So, lots of birthday fun!!!! We had another super weekend!

Did you know we live with Superhero's?

Oh, it's true!!!

Here is supergirl! She fights the "baddies" (Aussie slang for bad guys) and saves earth! Breagha is happy with the dish towel tied around her neck and a superhero mask! Off she goes to fight the bad guys!

With her side kick..."Stop, you baddie!!"

Now, we don't only go around with the dish towel tied around our neck....we have the full costumes! Batman and Supergirl live in our house!! We're very lucky to be protected by these 2 superhero's. :)

Poor Dad had to be the bad guy and was tossed around by Supergirl and Batman. He was sent to jail for robbing our pillow.

Look out bad guys...we'll find you!!

The kids love to play superhero's. I don't know what it is but Superman, Batman, and Spiderman will never get old.

Boy, do we live for the weekends!!!

We really do. It's kind of sad but true!! Darryl and I are both happy with our jobs but the days can be busy and long so we are always glad to see Friday roll around! (especially Darryl because his office has Friday beer!) Shamus understands that we work from Monday to Friday so he also loves when it's Friday!

We had a wonderful Brissie weekend. The weather has been sunny almost everyday for about 2 months. A bit of rain on one or 2 days but that is it. It's been wonderful. I will really miss the weather when we do leave!

Saturday morning was swimming. The kids are doing really well. Shamus can now swim a bit on his own so it's quite exciting to see his progress. And Breagha is great at putting her face in the water. They both are so happy during the class and that makes us so happy! We were hoping that we could transfer the swimming class in the pool to the ocean but it hasn't happened yet! We went to the beach on Saturday afternoon and the kids still don't show much interest in the water! They just like to play in the sand. I did ask my coworker about it today (her daughter is 5) and she said her daughter is the same. And they're Aussie so I guess it's normal!

Sunday we had Dan and Amy over for a BBQ and it was great to catch up! And to hear that they set their wedding date! Verrrry exciting! Then we all went down to to New Farm Park to burn some energy off the kids! :) I think Shamus talked the ear off Dan. (For the record - Shamus talks...alot) We are very lucky to have friends that can handle being around kids! And our friends here are all so good with Shamus and Breagha so we are thankful for that.

Sunday evening was spent with Purdy and 30 Rock. Ah, that's a funny show!

That is basically a typical Purdy weekend. This weekend is my 2nd sewing class. I'm making a skirt and hopefully it will turn out looking like a skirt! So far I'm really enjoying it. And Breagha has a birthday party to go to on Sunday. This is Breagha's first party invite from a daycare buddy so she's pretty pleased about it. And it's a princess party so I need to find an outfit for her!