Lighting of the Christmas Tree in Martin Place

Last Thursday I got the kids out of school at lunch time and headed over to Mandy's place to meet up with her and mum. We had all decided it would be lovely to take all the kids to see the Lighting of the Christmas tree in Martin Place.
My gorgeous friend Dal, takes her family every year and mentioned it to us and we thought it sounded like a great idea as we had never done it before.
Once we arrived at Mandy's we got her kids all dressed ready to go and headed into town. We parked at the Entertainment Centre cause we thought we could catch the monorail round to Pitt St which the kids would like. Well, hindsight is great. Hunter hated the monorail and screamed the entire way. I thought it was because he was in a carriage with me and my kids and not Mandy, but the return journey proved he truly doesn't like them:)
We headed up to look at the windows at David Jones which were very cute, and I remember going into town as a kids with mum and dad and seeing them, which was very nostalgic of me.
Then it was a quick trip in the lift up to the David Jones Christmas Cave, of course that just happens to be in the toy department. I knew that my two would not have their photo with Santa, but Hunter and Mackenzie were going to get theirs taken...... well that was up untill we found Santa in a cubicle! And Hunter screamed the place down (and I do believe he set the kids off in the other cubicle with another Santa, lol).... so there was no photo this year with Hunter and Santa only Mackenzie. I know have come to the conclusion that it must be the Wright gene that comes out during Santa photo times as we all seem to hate them!
As it was getting close to 5pm when we were meeting Dal, we headed up to Martin Place to grab some dinner and a spot to sit to watch the show.
We were a little early but we got a great spot right in front of the stage. I do believe we were actually on TV too, but have not seen the footage yet.
Justine Clarke was the MC for the night, which I just cant get my head around as I still see her as Rue on Home & Away, lol. But the kids know her from Playschool now. There was also Curious George and Yo Gaba Gaba and the Sydney Girls Choir. The whole show was great and then finally when it was all dark they lit the tree and then the fireworks started.
It really was a wonderful night that I shared with my family and everyone enjoyed it. I am so pleased that we went.

"Lala, this is where I'm going to wear my reindeer ears!"

And Mackenzie wearing the too

How cute is this face?

Curious George

Yo Gaba Gaba

The lord mayor of Sydney, Justine Clark and Santa

Some of the kids - a friend of Makaylahs, Shanice, Connor, Mackenzie & Nan

Hunter and Makaylah

And the tree

spitfires and blue skies

On the first weekend of this month (November that is, lol) Anthony wanted to take the kids and me on a "family fun day" to Temora to see the Spitfire fly.
Personally I dont have much interest in staring at some old planes fly around in the sky, but you know we have to do these things as a family!!!:)
So we left the farm at around 8am on the Saturday morning and drove about two and half hours to Temora. Is was long but a beautiful drive. That part of the country is just gorgeous.
We arrived in time to see the first of the three planes fly. And there was plenty of time to check out the other cool planes on display in the museum. Anthony was in his element and the kids had a great time....... I just needed coffee:)

Connor with a Tiger Moth

I've forgotten the one in the front (Anthony will know) but the one in the back is a Spitfire

And I'm pretty sure this is the Spitfire getting towed out ready to fly

Oh, this is me yacking on the phone, lol

The Kittyhawke and the Spitfire doing some pretty spectacular flying

Connor was excited cause Grandpa took a few spare digi cameras for the kids to use

double didgits

I can hardly start to believe that my monkey man turned 10 on Friday!
This photo I took of him on Thursday night and told him it was going to be last one of him at the age of 9.
He is growing up so fast and I am so proud of him.

I have lots to catch up on so I will be back tomorrow to fill you all in:)

these two today

Today this girl goes to her Year 7 orientation.......
Next year she starts high school and it only feels like yesterday that she started kindy!
I'm so proud of my big girl


And this boy said the funniest thing to me very late last night
After coming in to me with growing pains in his knees that needed rubbing only by mum, he went back to watching tv then thought about his knees growing, came back into me and said "Mum, do I look taller"
LOL

some creating

Last weekend I was away at the last Scrap Girls retreat for 2010. OMG, did I laugh, I laughed so much no noise came out! As always we had a great time.
Nic challenged me to actually scrap something so she threw some new Crate Paper at me and new Jenni Bowlin and yelled "Create!". So I did and loved what I did.

This is using the new Crate Paper's Restoration range. I really wanted to have a go making some fan flowers...... well several hours later I was really to throw them across the room, but once I figured out how to make them all stick down they turned out pretty good, if I say so myself!

Using new Jenni Bolin...... have a thing for banners at the minute! It's a fad I' know I'll grow out of quickly. It was funny when Nic and I were doing our layouts and sharing papers, our layouts started exactly the same and we weren't looking at what the other was doing

Using up some yummy left overs from MME Lost and Found. Love the sparkly glitter, but it get everywhere!

And using up left overs of Sassafras Lass Indi Girl.

4 weeks old

On Wednesday we had a little person come over for a sleep over on a school night!

Hunter had the best fun hanging out with his cousins. Shanice played the mum role and Connor was playing the joker and making him laugh the whole time he was at our house.

Mandy just needed a little break from this very busy boy and the aunty just loves the kisses!

I cant believe that little Mackenzie was 4 weeks old this week and she still is so tiny.

Being the only girl on both sides of the family for so long shanice wasnt ready to let in another girl and was very anti-mackenzie since she was born, but this week shanice came around and had her first cuddle. Now she cant get enough of the cuddles and playing mum.

Hunter loves to ride GoGo's scooter

Shanice and Mackenzie

She is just so precious

week 2 of our family holiday

Anthony had to work the second week of our holiday, so we spent 3 nights in Balina. the hotel we picked was fantastic, shame it poured with rain for the entire time we were there and the kids were couped up inside cause the grounds were beautiful and beach was just across the road.
But thankful for the rain I did enjoys spending Sunday watching Bathurst and was over the moon with the results!
Tuesday saw us driving via Lismore and down the inland road to Coffs.
finally the rain stopped! ant had a few stops on the way down to look at...... I'm really not sure, but there was power line and towers!
We had a free day on Wednesday so we jumped in the car and headed up towards Dorrigo. The country side was just gorgeous. We had a great pub lunch and took the kids for a walk in the national park and to check out some beautiful waterfalls.
Thursday we decided to head home a day early, but we had to go to a site visit first. Well, that was an adventure. Supposedly we were on a marked road but i dont think the overgrown vegetation knew that or the washed away road. It was starting to get a little hairy when Ant stopped and took a walk to see how far it was out, it was only 400m, but in that short distance we got the ute bogged! We took the Territory into town to try and find a 4WD with a winch to help us get out, but the local loggers pulled us out! It was certainly a fun filled morning!

Here are a few piccies from our day up at dorrigo.

One day I will get a photo of the two of them being nice to each other:)

Dorrigo Falls

And a nice (yet windy) family shot at the national park.

the count down is now on for our next holiday

sunny QLD here we come..... part 2

so where was i up to.....

Tuesday - 4th October
The boys were booked in for their quad bike ride up in the hinterland, so us girls and the kids decided to spend the morning shopping in Coolangatta. Well, by the time we got ready the boys were already back! So we all went.
Down the end of the road we found the BEST shop ever, we were all in our element. And the fabulous name for the shop "That Shop". I got some great new Tuk shoes .

OMG! they are so hot

We went into Surfers for dinner that night and had a great time even though it was pouring with rain. After dinner we ended up at Old Time Photos and had a great laugh getting some gangsters and moles photos taken. It's something we'd never done before and I'm so pleased we did.
A good thing timezone is open till midnight cause we were in there next. By the end of the night the shoes were off cause I couldn't walk in them any longer.



Wednesday - 5th October
Seaworld here we come! The weather was great, not to hot and not to overcast and raining!!!
The kids had a ball, which was the aim for the day.
I do believe the best part of the day was the end when we were up at Castaway Bay. They have these pirate ship boats that go around a track in the water and you can shoot water from them and people "on land" can shoot water at the boats. The bigger kids had disappeared up onto the climbing frames, so i grabbed Zoey and took her on the boats. I knew I would get wet, but I was seriously soaked with not a dry inch left on me! I do believe the dads on land were enjoying spraying the water guns more than the kids. I laughed so much and it was TOPS!!!
Starting from the end of the day, here are the pics:)

Zoey didn't want her picture taken so she hid behind the dolphins tail

Connor, Brittney and Shanice exhausted from a great day

Soaked after the pirate boat ride..... where are their swimmer..... oh, in the bag next to me!

And here are the boats themselves with Connor, Brittney and Shanice on it

If i can insert a speech bubble it would say "Hurry up Connor, all sharks look the same!"

Every time we have been to Seaworld I have taken a photo of the kids under this Buoy, I cant wait to put all the photos next to each other and see how my monkeys have changed

I was going to lighten this picture in photoshop, but i love it the way it is. This is Connors favourite shark, the Tiger Shark, coming straight for him

They decked out the Sesame Street rides all in Halloween and Connor couldn't resist getting in amongst the graves - cheeky kid!

Thursday - 6th October

Joh and Nev had booked into get their tatts which was going to take all day, so I offered to take Brit to the movies with my kids. Anthony somehow got out of it and I ended up taking them to see Despicable Me. They loved it.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out on the roof top pool.

Friday - 7th October

I had a little moment which was to be expected on this day (Dads birthday) and wished I could have spent it with mum and mandy, but i do tend to organise holidays and forget about dates!

So, it was my turn for a tattoo. I knew exactly what I wanted and I LOVE it. Six nautical stars around my right wrist.

I got picked up after it was finished and we headed back to That Shop but the one at Burleigh to show the lovely lady there all our new ink as we talked her into getting her first one 2 days before. I got a gorgeous new handbag which is to die for and goes very well with my new shoes.

We headed back into Surfers for dinner and then it was off to the Shooting Gallery. I opted not to shoot real guns as its not my thing so i took all four kids to Timezone:) Anthony has been told his is never to get a gun cause his aim was scarily good - hours on the playstation has paid off me thinks.

So there ends our last night in sunny Queensland.

From Saturday on Joh & Nev headed back home and we were off to Ballina and Coffs cause Anthony had work and meetings to go to. What a shame, a second weeks holiday

sunny QLD here we come.... part 1

Saturday - 1st October
Saw us waking at 4am and on the road by 4.15am heading to sunny Queensland, well, Coolangatta actually! We had the normal few stops on the way up and even a 1 hour break and walk around the shops for lunch at Coffs. We arrived around 2ish, so that was a pretty good run.
Joh, Nev and girls arrived some time after us which was great for the kids and good for us. We were all on the one floor so the kids had a ball running between the two apartments.

Sunday - 2nd October
What a CRAP day!!! It was absolutely pouring with rain. No swimming, No beach, so the kids were devastated. What to do..... go shopping!! And didn't we just.
We ended up at the surf shop outlets and spent a small fortune but saved an absolute bucket.
When we got home we checked the weather report for the rest of the week and they reckoned RAIN nearly all week, so our plan of attack was on the first sunny day hit the theme parks

Monday - 3rd October
And that was everyone elses thoughts too!
We opted for Dreamworld. Thank god Joh had pre-purchased our tickets cause the queue to get in was ridiculous and we just walked straight in. But that was the end of the short queues I'm afraid.
The log ride was first on the agenda..... one and a half hours later......
I started to regretting wearing jeans on this overcast day cause I was soaked! Nothing as attractive as looking like you've just wet your pants, lol.
We headed around the back of Dreamworld to the animals on our way to wiggleworld were we had lunch. I took the kids on the Big Red Car ride and while we were in the queue the boys snuck off to go on the motorbike rollercoaster..... let me just say I was just a little dirty bout them not waiting for me!
Next it was around to Nick Central were we spent the rest of the day. The kids loved it! I took Connor on the rollercoater and Avalanche (not called that anymore) and he thought they were TOPS.... I thought he'd get all scared. Shanice went on the Spongebob ride with me too.
Just before leaving at closing time we were in the shop and the lovely lady in there gave us a great bit of info about when the rides close, so me and the kids ran round to the rapid ride to quickly get in the queue before they closed, and we were lucky, we were the 3rd last boat.
And may I just say that by the end of the day my jeans had only just dried!

Me, Connor, Britney and Shanice on the rapid ride

Britney and Zoey with Dora and Diego

Woo Hoo the Big Red Car Ride - Me, Shanice, Britney, Zoey and Connor

The two biggest children on the motorbike rollercoaster - Nev and Anthony

Me, Joh and Zoey

Connor, Nev and Anthony

The girls wanted to be all grown up and go on by themselves - Shanice and Britney

In WiggleWorld - looks like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Hanging with the Koalas

Connor, Zoey, Britney and Shanice right after we went on the log ride

Part 2 coming soon

Welcome baby Mackenzie

On Thursday 30th September I was very honoured to be at the birth of my beautiful new niece, Mackenzie.
I think I was supposed to be there to support my sister as she was being induced 2 weeks early but as her labour really started and she started to cry, so did I. And then once little Mackenzie was here I became blubbering mess for 3 days - what an emotional rollercoster it is being on the other end!
She is so perfect. Weighing a tiny 2.7kilo (5 pound 15 in the old scale) and 49cm long.
Thank you Mandy for letting me be with you to share this special moment

Mandy and bub about 2 minutes old

Proud Nan

Very proud Aunty

Connor cuddles Mackenzie almost as much as I do

And big brother Hunter meeting his new baby sister