I Will Wear A Crown...

Here's a pic of Miss A all dressed up for heaven, with a crown, a robe, and a harp (and a sling). It was taken today after a special church service taken by the school children.

Taken for a ride (on Camelus dromedarius)

On Thursday we went for our usual annual day out at Agro-trend, which was great, as always. While we didn't buy any big ticket items this year, we still had fun, the kids especially. Miss A and her cousin James went for a camel ride, which she didn't think much of at the time, but when she finally started talking to us again about 15 minutes after, she seemed fine. And now, 2 days later, she loves talking about how she went on a camel ride (as we knew she would). Last year, and up until a few months ago, Miss A's favourite animal was a camel, so we knew it would be an extra special experience for her (her favourite animal is now a penguin).

A few pictures of our day at Agro-trend:

The ride begins

It's a wee bit bumpy

And when it's all over, the camel kneels, rather suddenly as James found out

More fun on the jumping castle and mini-slide

(for those who don't know, Miss A had a new cast put on this week, a fibre-glass one. She chose bright orange, you can see it quite clearly in this photo, it's due to come off in a little over a week)

Miss A Being a Patient, Master B Being ... Patient

The past 24 hours have been rather tiring in our little household. Last night, shortly after bedtime, Miss A fell out of her bed (despite there being a bed-rail), she was in considerable pain and wouldn't let me touch her arm. L was on his way home from town at the time, kindly buying us some take-away, so when he arrived home again (well past kiddies bedtime) we all piled into the car, and off to the emergency room, where, after several x-rays and no obvious fractures showing, we were given instructions to return tomorrow afternoon if she was still in pain. At 10:30pm we finally arrived home again, where both children promptly went to sleep. We were awoken early in the morning, at around 2:45 and gave Miss A more pain relief, and then L left to go to work (yes, at 3am, believe it or not, that's sleeping in for a Sunday morning) neither L nor I got much more sleep that night. In the morning Miss A was still miserable, and we were all very tired, but she insisted on going to her friend's 4th birthday party. On the way home I bought her pizza for lunch, hoping to lift her spirits, but she barely touched it. then, after a short nap for the children, the 4 of us went back to the hospital. After waiting just a short time, we went in to see the same Dr as the night before, who decided that a back slab cast would be the best option. And so a short time later, we emerged from the hospital with one rather bandaged little girl. During the day we had to try quite hard to get any smiles out of her, but with her cast on, she is much happier, in fact since we arrived home and had a bath and some tea, she has been singing and playing and is back to her old self, without the use of one arm.

Here is some of the story, in pictures:

Miss A, sleeping comfortably in the emergency waiting room

Master B, waiting patiently in the emergency waiting room

Miss A the next morning, feeling sore and rather sorry for herself

Miss A, back in emergency that afternoon, being examined and awaiting her cast, and still very sore and miserable

Master B, very tired from a late night, and not too happy that sis is getting all the attention, but still being a good boy and waiting very patiently

Getting her cast on, and sucking on an iceblock

Master B, also sucking on an iceblock and...still...waiting...patiently...

24 hours after the drama started, and she is back to her usual, smiley, happy self

Panadol does wonders!

Kiddliwinx

Miss A having a ride on "Empress", a friend's miniature horse

*Sigh* Usually in the shopping centres I take an alternative route rather than having to deal with the endless stream of child photographers, pay TV representatives, etc., however, a few weeks ago, despite my many protests (it must take a "special" kind of person to be able to approach someone and ask to take their kids' photos so insistently and not take "NO" for an answer :@) I was convinced to have some photos taken of the children, these are the ones I ended up with.

No, they weren't dressed in jeans and underwear whilst shopping, the clothes were supplied by the photographer since Miss A was in gymnastics clothes.

Just a Little Stuck

Miss A turns 4!

She now feels confident that she can do almost anything, now that she is "a big 4". She opened her presents in the morning -
I took her to the local leisure centre for a game of bowling and fun in the play area with some of her young friends. The quality of photos is a bit poor, because they were taken on my camera phone, but they will have to suffice. At least you get an idea of the fun she had!

The happy birthday girl, at the top of the slide

The view from the top

Two friends on the jumping castle
So much fun in the ball pit!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

For those who don't know, we are currently experiencing "the great wet of 2010". We are 8 days into the month of March and have already received more than double the monthly average rainfall for March. During February we had over 18 inches. L has been frantically pumping and siphoning water out of his fish ponds and into the big dam, which has been well and truly overflowing for weeks now, in fact, the bottom end of the dirt road that runs down the side of our property is underwater.L taking the kids for a walk down the road

At least Miss A was wearing her gumboots :) even if they are full of water
Nothing to do with the water, just a snap we took when we came back from the walk of Master B's big cheesy smile

That night, L had to go and help some friends who needed a back-hoe. He contacted some friends who own one and borrowed a truck to go and pick it up. However they didn't even get the truck out of the driveway before getting bogged.I guess it's no wonder with 8 tonnes of back-hoe and a very soggy driveway

And then on Sabbath morning, L went down to the shop, only to discover that the dining room area was flooded. Then he came home to see if we would be able to get the car out of the driveway to go to church. Alas, we pushed it through the mud for 20 minutes, before it finally succumbed to the mud and became thoroughly bogged. These photos are from a few days before, when we could actually get up the driveway.

L pushing the car through the mud

all that way, took about 15 minutes + to get there (and that's only half of the driveway)

We spent the remainder of the morning siphoning water from ponds.

On Sunday morning L spent a few hours desperately trying to stop the shop from flooding. These photos show the amount of water around the place.

L and his dad spent hours on the dozer trying to drain the water away from the shop

L's dad reckons the last time he can remember there was this much water was in '74, and before that, in '42
We are "over" the water and mud!

Mud! Glorious Mud!

Hmm, well perhaps "glorious" is the wrong word, especially when you're bogged in it. During the week, whilst trying to leave for Miss A's gymnastics session, it took me about 7 minutes just to reverse a few metres. However, boys will be boys, and Lindon thought slip-sliding down our extremely slippery driveway was awesome fun. Until this morning, that is, when we were trying to leave for church, and it took him a whole 15 minutes to move the same distance that I did in 7 (There'll be no more critical comments of "women drivers" in our house, lol)!Our usual parking spot, we won't be parking there for a while!

Nice and deep :)

Making mud pies!
Our very slippery drivewayanother part of our very slippery, and very muddy, driveway

We went for a walk down the dirt road beside our block this afternoon, which I will do another post on in a day or two. Our "big dam" has overflowed onto the road, so we walked down to see what it was like.
And we found a worm...a dead worm...but a worm, none-the-less.

Can you see it?

Verbal Communication

I often think that at the end of each post I should put something funny, or cute, that Miss A or Master B has said throughout the week, but I usually write the blog so late I can't think of what I wanted to put in it. This week, however, it is the focus of the post, so...
Yesterday Miss A asked a question out of such childlike curiosity I had to put it in, I thought it was so cute "what is over the end of the ocean?" So innocent that her world is small enough to have never worried about what is over beyond the horizon, and the way she asked implied that the ocean dropped off like a cliff, cute! :D
And today she brought a book to me from the bookshelf as a present. She placed it gently in my hands and whispered "there you go, it's not much, but it's yours now", very sweet.
And as for Master B, his milestone this week was finally deciding to say "Boo!" when playing peek-a-boo, instead of just laughing hysterically.
Ahh, such joys.

1 Month of Events

Christmas:- A nice relaxing weekend, but a pity about the camping trip that never was. Loads of pressies :)

A new bedroom:- We've spent the last few months (yes it really did take the long :@ ) fitting out and preparing a new bedroom for the children to share. So far they love it, as it also has all of their toys, which makes it a tight squeeze :D they have so many toys!

Great-nana's 100th birthday:- A trip to Gympie to catch up with long lost relies, and an enormous gathering of friends to celebrate the 100 year-long life of B's great-nana.

A visit from the Brisbanites:- L's oldest sister and family came up for a two week long visit, which was lovely. They have a boy that is just a month or so older than Master B, very cute.

Master B's first "real" haircut:- In the past he has had the odd "fringe cut", but never the back or sides. I had to hold back tears as they cut off my golden haired boy's beautiful locks. Well, they were getting a bit too "beautiful", he was getting mistaken for a girl on a regular basis *sniff* I find consolation in knowing that his hair will grow back very fast.Master B's beautiful golden locks before his 1st "real" haircut

8th Wedding Anniversary:- We went out for a nice meal at Sizzler to celebrate our 8 happy years, the kids thought it was so exciting to go out.

Well, it might not seem like much, but it has kept us busy :)