Westminster Chimes and a Magic Show

My gorgeous Cassidy had her first piano concert last week. She has only been learning piano for a term but she was really keen on being a part of the concert.

My mum and dad came with us to see Cassidy perform and to help keep the toddler terrorist under control!

Cassidy performed Westminster Chimes perfectly. But the poor thing looked so nervous I half expected her to faint on the stage! I was so proud of her for going through with it in light of her obvious nerves. If it was me I would have ran in the other direction as quickly as possible!

In stark contrast to this was the show that she and her friend put on for us and four of our good friends when we were out for dinner Saturday night. She was full of confidence, pulling rabbits out of hats and performing various other dazzling feats of magic with her little partner in crime Katarina.

They also provided party games such as pin the tail on the donkey and Katarina put on a beautiful performance as a butterfly, complete with flashing antennae!

Later in the night the entertainment turned to Guitar Hero, and I was feeling quite full of myself when I scored really well on "Smells Like Teen Spirit", especially since it was my first time ever!

Unfortunately that seemed to be a fluke as I sucked at everything else!

I'm not sure what is happening this weekend. What I do know is it would have to be damn good to top last weekend's entertainment!

Healthy Lunches and other stuff

Our school has a canteen which opens every day for snacks, but only provides lunch orders on Fridays. So for a long time on the other four days lunches were available from the local milk bar. The problem with this is that the children would order things like sausage rolls and hot dogs for lunch.

Of course this is probably fine if it is only once a week but unfortunately there were quite a few children that were ordering these things every day. The other problem was that often these kids had not had breakfast, and the lunch orders were not delivered until 1.15pm so the kids were absolutely starving and then eating junk.

One of my friends came up with a wonderful, healthy option for those needing or wanting to buy their lunch at school. A group of volunteers take it in turns of putting together a healthy lunchbox for those who order them everyday. In this lunchbox there is two pieces of fruit, a homemade muffin, a packet of sakata rice snacks and a sandwich.

The cost of these lunchboxes is between $4 and $5 which make them really affordable. There is a choice of four different sandwich fillings.

A parent volunteer comes in every morning to put together these lunchboxes. It really doesn't take much time as the sandwiches are already made and frozen as are the muffins. They are delivered to the classrooms by around 10 am so the muffins are defrosted by morning tea time and the sandwiches by lunch time.

The kids have something healthy to eat at snack and lunch. This has got to be beneficial to their learning and behaviour for the day.

Every Tuesday I prepare the lunches for the kids. Abbey comes with me to help. She could probably do it all by herself! She is a wonderful helper and loves to chat to the office ladies, the teachers, the students, the principal, anyone who will pay attention to her really.

After making the lunches she goes to her friend Luke's house for a play. Luke is around the same age as Abbey and she adores him. She is always telling me how Luke is her best friend. She is pretty keen on Luke's mum Heidi too. She took Heidi a flower today and often insists on kissing her when we leave!

It is so nice for her to have a special friend all of her own. I find that because of the large age gap between her and her closest sibling (it's over 5 years) that she often just tags along behind the older kids and their friends. She now loves to tell her brother and sister about her special friend Luke. So cute!

In other news there was no action on the new home front the past weekend, the ground was too wet for the bobcat so hopefully this weekend will work for us. I am beginning to feel slightly nervous as there is so much work to do and we have to move out of the house we are renting in just over three months. I hope our builder works Saturdays!

Also, sadly, my washing machine has broken down. I really do not have much luck with washing machines. I have had two rather expensive, european made front loaders over the last five years and they have broken down 5 times between them. Do these companies not realize that I simply cannot cope if I am not up to date with my washing? Lucky my parents live five doors down from us, although I'm sure Mum has better things to do than my washing.

Hopefully it will be fixed really quickly.

Plans...

Here is the plan for the existing house...



And here are the plans for the extended house...



I can't wait for construction to begin, I've never been very patient!

It's got to be wrong how much I love house plans!

Peeks at our New House

Time for some sneak peeks at what is going to be our dream home. Our keeper. No more moving. Those of you that know me well are chuckling quietly, thinking to yourself "No way that girl is going to stay put." My husband thinks the exact same thing. But I am really feeling like this is our keeper.

This house caught our eye for a few reasons. First of all I love this style of house, the post war cream brick houses. They have high ceilings but not 10 foot like the home we are currently in so you still get the feeling of space, but without the insane heating bill. They are solidly built, have hardwood floors (often under layers of carpet, lino and goodness knows what else!) and double hung timber windows.

Secondly, the block this house is sitting on is huge. Over 1300 metres, that's 1/3 of an acre in the old measurements.

Thirdly the location was right. Within walking distance of the shops, in an area we love and the kid's school is across the road. I won't even have to get out of my PJs to get the kids to school and I will never have to tackle crazy car parking at the school again!

And best of all the price was right, we got it for a bargain!

Here it is.

Sorry about the terrible photo, will try to get a better one another day.

This is the back of the house.

We are going to extend the house out the back.

This is the lounge room, it is going to stay the lounge room after we renovate.

The empty beer case did not come with the house, it's one of our personal touches! The lounge faces the front of the house.

This is the dining room which is going to become the office after renovations. It a a lovely, light room, definitely the best room in the existing house (and no, I am not talking about it from a decor point of view!)

This is the kitchen which will become Tom's bedroom, lucky bugger gets the biggest bedroom in the house!

Here is the bathroom, this is going to be made slightly narrower and then made into a walk in linen closet. Thank goodness, it sure is ugly! And tiny!

This is a sort-of sun room that runs along the back of the house. It is going to become a mud room.

Here are the bedrooms.

The master is going to stay as it is except for knocking out the built in wardrobe. The bedroom next to it will become a walk-in robe and ensuite, and the third bedroom (which I didn't take a photo of) will become a bathroom.

This is the garage. It is also going to be knocked down.

The garage has a couple of rooms attached to it that were used as offices. They are getting knocked over with the garage. Tom thinks this is a great shame, he would like to use one of the rooms for his drum kit/music room and the other as a room for him and his mates to hang out in. Umm, maybe you could use your enormous bedroom?

Here is another shot of the backyard.

So as you can see, it all needs a lot of work, it took my a while to be able to see past what is there,

This weekend work begins with the removal of the tree in the above photo and site preparation. In others words this lovely back yard is about to be transformed into a mud pit.

Will post the plans for the new house later.

Isn't she lovely?

My Abbey.

My baby.

She is soft and smooshy, deliciously warm and cuddly. Her chubby little cheeks are lovely to kiss.

She is confidant, animated and says some of the funniest things I have ever heard. She is sweet and loving, tells me I am the best mum in the world and always wants to be with me.

She is also stubborn, defiant and a little bit bit naughty!

She will only wear what she chooses in the morning. She will NOT wear jeans or pants. She will sometimes be talked into a pair of trackies, but only if we have a very good reason for her to be wearing trackies such as we are going out to my brother's farm or to the park. She mostly likes skirts and leggings, or dresses. She does not wear socks and if she had her way would only ever wear singlets and undies.

She likes to change her outfit several times a day and is very keen on dress ups. Her favorites are her mermaid outfit and her fairy dress. She leaves a trail of clothes all over the house.

Abbey is VERY fussy with her food. She has been since the day she was born. She was an awful feeder and ended up with failure to thrive at 8 weeks. Turned out she was lactose intolerant and once I stopped feeding her and she had a special formula she did better but really never got very excited about feed time.

She is still not particularly interested in food unless it contains copious amounts of sugar. She is very fond of chocolate and lollies. Other that that she will eat pretty much any fruit, cheese, bread, plain pasta, yoghurt and dried fruit. She does not eat any meat, the only vegetables she will eat are corn, cucumber and the occasional pea. When she goes to daycare they make her a sprinkle sandwich for lunch as it is the only thing they have ever got her to eat other than fruit and water.

Abbey's favorite things to do are to play with her stawberry shortcakes, draw, cut and paste and she loves playdough. Just yesterday I got her playdough out for her to play with while I did some work on the computer. She was so quiet, so amused. I was sitting in the office marvelling at what a wonderful, well behaved little girl she was being. I finished my work and came out to see what wonderful play dough creations she had made.

This is what she had made. Raspberry ripple cake, with real raspberries out of the freezer.

She is the smallest member of our household. She is the ruler of the roost. Her brother and sister dote on her. She knows she is the boss.

Her favorite books are Charlie and Lola. She loves Lola. It is not unusual for her to tell us that something is her "favorite and her best" and that she "is not sleepy and will not go to bed". Abbey also loves "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Stella, Queen of the Snow".

Abbey is a water baby. She loves the beach and asks to get on a plane and go to Noosa at least once a week. She is a great little swimmer and in the summer launches herself into the pool, goes under and then pops up with a huge smile on her face. She then swims to the side to do it all again.

Abbey goes to kinder next year and she cannot wait. I had to drag her out of kinder kicking and screaming on open day. I am looking forward to having some time to myself after having kids at home for nearly eleven years.

I will miss her smooshy little kissable face like crazy!

Too Many Balls...

Today has been a funny kind of day.

On one hand it has been fantastic, I've reconnected with a couple of school friends and really surprised myself as to how happy it made me feel! Who knew? It was great to hear about their lives, where they live, how many kids they have etc.

And on the other hand it has been a really trying day emotionally.

At the moment there are just so many things going on in our lives. We have bought a new house that is in an area we love, on an enormous block and needs major renovations. By major I mean REALLY major. The existing home is 13.5 squares of pretty much unliveable space. We are going to totally gut that and then build on a 17 square extension.

So realistically we are building on an extension the size of an average home. Oh, and did I mention that we need to have this done to a level that we can live in by November because the gorgeous house we are renting has sold and our lease is up in November?

Oh, and yes, we are going to manage the project ourselves, get all the quotes, hire all the tradies, oversee the work and do whatever we can ourselves. While David works interstate four days a week. Easy peasy!

David and I are also both trying to run our own businesses, mine needing lots of work as it evolves, and he also has a business project on the go with his dad that he needs to spend time on.

And on top of all this Cassidy has decided that she is no longer sleeping.

Some child at school told her about a stupid urban legend where you say this dead lady's name five times while looking into a mirror and she will magically appear behind you and slit your throat. Very nice.

So Cassidy, being a very literal child has taken this to heart and can no longer get to sleep at night. Or stay asleep. Or get back to sleep. The time that she is actually asleep she spends sleepwalking because that is what she does when she is anxious.

She will also no longer go in the bathroom by herself, so she needs an escort every time she needs to wash her hands or have a shower or brush her teeth. And she can't go to the toilet by herself because it is so close to the bathroom.

She was trying to deal with the stress by creating complex routines at bedtime where her door needed to be completely open, her wardrobe doors needed to be completely closed, the bathroom door (which she can unfortunately see from her bedroom) needed to be closed. She then needed the hall light on, her lamp on, her fairy lights on and Taylor Swift playing on volume level 34.

Then it was still taking her hours to get to sleep.

We thought that maybe if we put her in a bedroom with Abbey she might feel more secure and sleep better. This has improved things a little, she doesn't get up as much during the night but getting them to settle down to sleep is an absolute nightmare. I seriously thought I was going to pop a blood vessel putting up with their nonsense tonight!

So tomorrow we are back off to the paediatrition, and then no doubt back off to the psychologist. I think the paediatrition will be able to retire early due to our family frequenting his practice. In fact, I think it is time we got our private waiting room we have been there so much with our kids.

They could call it the Hilder wing.

I am hoping tomorrow will be an easier day, less phone calls, less demands, better behaved children (just the girls, Tom is so easy) and that the paed will have some suggestions.

Fingers crossed!

Sweet

This is my two girls snuggling and watching tv together this morning.

I love photos like this, they remind me that it is not all bickering and rivalry, and that they really do love each other.

Even though it is out of focus, this photo melts my heart just a little