We took the kids to a huge lake about an hour away from home in the mountains today. They swam and kayaked for hours and we had such a lovely time! Gerard and I both promised each other that we WILL take more time out this year to take the kids on day trips and spend time together. Here are some pics - notice how big my 'newborn' is getting, Felix is growing like a mushroom on that good mama-milk :)

We love a Sunday drive, and one of our favourite places to go as a family on a Sunday is the historic town of Beechworth.

It's perfect because

• all the shops are open, 
• It's only a 45min drive for us, but there is more than enough to do to fill a day - and keep going back!
• it's quaint and suits me and Tegan for browsing through beautiful little boutiques for unusual jewellery, stationary and homeware finds.
• There's the most amazing sweets shop for the children, as well as Beechworth Honey - where they can go on a live bee tour, and a gorgeous toys and collectables shop
• We can munch on Bee-stings at the famous Beechworth Bakery
• and on the way home, we can visit the Milawa Cheese Factory, Brown Brothers Winery and various other wonderful cruisy places to relax/dine/wine taste etc 

Today we strolled through the street, had morning tea at the bakery, visited a strawberry farm, went to see a waterfall in the national park, had lunch at the Milawa Cheese Factory and visited Jenny, Rob and Micheal in Oxley on the way home for an early BBQ dinner and a swim in thier swim spa!

It was glorious, and also the last time we do it with the five of us - next time there will be six!!

Here are the children and I at the falls. Four days off our little freckle being 'due'

I'm jumping on board here with Bubby Makes Three for her 'Show it like it is Challenge' where she invites bloggers to share pics of thier lives and homes as they are - without the 'magazine appeal'. This week she's posted about her Christmas Tree, and invites us to share ours.

I just happened to drag our tree out of the top cupboard in our bedroom this morning (with the help of Gez!) after Tegan remembered at 7am that it was the 1st of December and that we'd told the children last week they had to wait until December to decorate for the season!

I love Christmas - it's always been a happy and joyous time of year for me and our family, and as a child, Christmas was spent with masses of cousins, simple yet thoughtful gifts and sharing wonderful meals together. I love creating a similar atmosphere with my own children - despite that they rather lack in the cousins department!!

Our Christmas Tree holds a mixture of beautiful ornaments I have collected over the past few years, as well as the priceless home-made ones my the children have created. It's not spectacularly beautiful, and it's the same every year with the exception of a couple new ornaments added to the collection, but it is ours, and I love it - crappy tinsel and all!

Here are my babe's decorating the tree for 2010:

 
We had a crazy week last week over here! I was not in the greatest state of mind - with having to send off the forms for my income protection to see if I am eligible. I am anxious and it is coming out as insomnia and lack of patience/tolerance.
Jackson's behaviour is continuing to challenge us, and as Gerard is not having much success with him at all, I am taking on most of the temper tantrums and oppositional behaviour. He is wanting to 'dictate the terms' of everything, especially consequences, so even once I get him to have a time out/quiet time, he is opposing me about how long it will last and where it will take place. Tantrums are rife but strangely inconsistant, we just don't know when they will erupt, how long they will last, or how bad they will be/get.

Good days at home however, seem to coincide with bad days at school, and the reverse is true also. For example, last week, after two dreadful days of tantrums at home on Weds/Thurs he had a fantastic morning and went off to school peacefully and tantrum-free on Friday. By lunchtime, the teacher had called to get me to collect him, as he was oppositional, emotional and simply incapable of coping with being there for the rest of the day. She asked me if I could think of a reason he might not be coping that day,  as Weds and Thurs had been his best days for a fortnight!?!?!?

We did have a brilliant weekend with him though, and despite neither Gerard or I feeling like we wanted to go, we attended a Fostercare camp in Melbourne, where we stayed overnight with other carers, carer's kids, kids in care and workers. We visited the Melbourne Zoo on Saturday afternoon, and the day was fun and peaceful :) We loved seeing the baby elephants, and the weather was overcast, but not cold or windy,so the zoo was not too busy!

My little poser!

Mali the baby elephant - doing a little happy dance :)

My gorgeous four!! Aww bless

Telling Mama all about the lions

Me and the troublesome teen :)

Jackka wanted a photo on this little fella every time we saw it!

Cheeky baby tigers - just like my two...soon to be three Arrghhh!

On Sunday we ventured into the city by tram, took a stroll along South Warf and visited the pregnancy, baby and kids expo at the exhibition centre, followed by enormous gelato's on the river-bank. it was nice and chilled out, and the closest we got to a tantrum with Jackson was when we were at the expo, and the noise and crowd were too much to handle and he started to wander away from us (to find somewhere quieter) once we left he was fine though (just took a few mins and lots of distraction to calm down) and we went on our merry way incident-free.

Of course, we copped it when we got home, but were prepared for that, and were so glad we went, it was good for all of us, and I am certainly more relaxed heading into this week.

For the first time EVER, the kids woke up early, and excited. Usually they might wake, notice the eggs and then go back to sleep till 7.30 or 8.30. Not this year lol! This year, we were up at the crack of dawn (daylight savings ending didn't help much either lol) and outside hunting eggs...

Charli xox

Yup, we've been to the beach. There's nothing quite like it I think for bringing family closer together and truly relaxing, right down to one's core.

My Aunt and Uncle live in Mt Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula, so we left bright and early after my fitness class on Saturday morning for the long weekend.

It was just lovely, the kids and their Mama and Daddy were all so relaxed, and had a great time spending time together and with our cousins :)

Much more to my taste was afterwards, when we all chilled at a little hotel and enjoyed a beer, crunchy chips with mayo and some great music, while the kids played on the grass!

My Aunt has recently had her fourth child, a little girl (Imogen) after three boys (Mitchell 11, Joshua 9 and Thomas 6) and it was great to spend some time getting to know my baby cousin and having some girl time with Julia. They have a huge house, with a pool and tennis court, so the kids had planty to do and we could relax at home.
I missed fitness a couple times, so I went for walks through the hilly area they live in to 'make up' a little.

On Monday afternoon, Gez took the kids home, and I stayed for some time with Julia, Dean and the kids on my own before getting dropped into Forest Hill to spend a couple nights with my girlfriend from school Kirsty. We went to the Big Day Out festival on Tuesday, and I had a great time hanging out with my girlfriends for a day :) I love that I have such great friends, and that I am lucky enough to have Gez letting me spend time with them doing fun girly stuff!!


Speaking of Gez, I'm just adoring him at the moment, he's just so good to me and the kids and such a great help with the kids and around the house. I've been a little cranky lately, and struggling a little with my relationship with Tegan, but he's been great and solid support for both of us and help us both learn from our mistakes.

The thing with Tegan and I is probably born from the amount of time we have been spending together, as she has been comeing on a lot of my youth school holiday activities. We've not had much time apart, so I think that it will sort itself out when school starty back next week. I have been tired and my tolerance levels for teenage crap has been a little lower than usual!

My baby sis left for Sweden for a year..Yes, a whole year..on exchange on Friday. I'm going to miss her sooooooo much, we are quite close. To top it off, my brother left to travel overseas as well for five months or so :( I'm feeling quite lonely being the only sibling in Australia. Thankfully, Rachel has started a blog, and we are able to talk occasionally on Skype.

Better get to bed now, back soon

Charli xox

Oh wow, I keep promising not to neglect my poor little blog, but somehow life just keeps getting in the way and before I know it, a month has whizzed by!!
Been flat out. Work was crazy before Christmas, but we had a lovely time on the peninsula for a few days in mid December. The weather was really crappy so the kids didn't get to do much beaching, but it was nice and relaxing to be away together anyway.

Christmas was good, we went to my parents for lunch, and Gerard's for Tea. Lunch was lovely, Tea was awful...and I'm not talking about the food...entirely.

The kids were spoilt...well Tegan was anyhow! She got a new bed, doona cover, converse shoes and clothes. The boys got some lego and woodworx kits, and a slip'n'slide for the back yard, which has been a total hit considering we have been on water restrictions since they were babies, so they don't even know about sprinklers!

My birthday was on Sunday, and I got very spoiled. Gez got me a Pandora charm bracelet with two charms, and my brother and sister got me a charm each too! I love it, and chose gold and silver. I mostly wear gold, but the gold charms and bracelet cost a mint, so we went for cold and silver mixed. My mum brought me a gorgeous heart pendant which is also gold and silver with a diamond. I felt so spoilt!!!We went to Beechworth which is my favorite place to visit for lunch and a wander about, and then came home for a BBQ with friends.

We have another extra at the moment, he's 19 months, and with us for a week on respite. He's awfully cute, and has attached himself to my leg almost 24/7!! Looking forward to catching up with our friends Charmaine and Leigh tonight for New Years.

Today was crazy! I don't usually have Mondays off, but swapped with Wednesday as I have a meeting in Seymour on Wed that I have to go to.
So, first of all, Ry and I went to see Angie, a fellow foster carer who has had little "J" for two years. "J" is two and a half now and has just been diagnosed with an Autism spectrum disorder, which is difficult for his carers, but more importantly, and he also happens to have been Our very first placement! We had J for a wonderful week, until he was moved to this more permanent placement with Angie and her husband. I am lucky enough to have a little contact with them, hence, I get to see "J" grow and develop with his foster parents.

After our lovely morning visit, Riley and I decided to go visit Oma and Opa (my grandparents on Mum's side) for a cup of Dutch coffee and a chat. It was just lovely, as we don't often get a chance to see them, with them being almost as busy socialising as I am working! lol

Riley wanted to go to the playground, so we picked up Daddy from work, and had greasy fish and chips at the park, then came home for a rest til Jack finished school.

If all that wasn't enough, a friend who has boys the same ages and in the same class/kinder group as mine, invited us for a playdate and dinner, so after school, we set off to thier house, which is about 20mins out of town. It was lovely, and the kids all got along like a house on fire, which was great, and she cooked us a yummy dinner! I will have them here sometime soon, it's nice to finally have a "school mum" friend, as my work has made it difficult for me to socialise with the other school mums.

Well and truly ready for bed now, so will wrap it up here :)

Love Charli

...is where we are headed! I just booked flights for the four of us, for a short trip (5 days) at the beginning of August, and I can't wait!! It is so nice knowing that we have a little break booked, so that it doesn't get held off because of work...money...time etc. We're going, and everything else will just have to work around us :)

If you know anywhere special in or around Hobart, please feel free to offer your insight as we have never been before.

Talk again soon,

Charli xox

...Stands for 'Last Minute Change of Plans'! Our footy weekend has been dumped for bigger and better things....the ticket auctioned off to a friend on Facebook lol.

What could be better than a family trip to the AFL?

SNOW!!!

Yep, Mt Buller was invaded by my two keen little skiing offspring yesterday, and did they ever have a ball! We learned that Buller was having an earlybird open weekend due to the cold snap last week, which delived a rather large dump of snow to the montaintops. Lift tickets were $20 and kids ski hire only $15!! We decided to take advantage, and ditched our AFL tickets for a day of snowplay, as well as the offer of free corporate tickets to the Winton V8 Supercars today.

Here are some snaps of my clever little boys on thier skis! You can click them to make them bigger. Isn't the view just gorgeous? The last pic is Riley, throwing an exhaustion induced tanty at the end of the day! It's hard work learning to ski, and Ry fell asleep in the car before we reached the bottom of the mountain, after a warm milo and cookies! The had a great time though, and we're hopeful that they'll open next weekend too.


Off to Winton now!

Love Charli xoxo

I/We have had such a HUGE long weekend!

While we were in Thailand, my brother booked us tickets to see Coldplay live in Melbourne. The concert was on Thursday, and Gez and I took Friday off work. We dropped tho boys in Lilydale, where they didn't even bat and eyelid at being left with Amanda and Josh overnight! The concert wasd FANTASTIC! We knew almost all the songs, and they were just captivating the crowd. We both absolutely loved it, even Gez who wasn't so keen at the start :p
I was a bit unsure as well, I must admit. I have always avoided live music, as I have for some reason, a very sensitive ear, and If the singer is slightly out of tune, It completely puts me off, and is all I can hear. Drives me crazy! Anyway, I needn't have worried at all, because they didnt put a foot wrong! On Friday, Josh dropped our boys into the city in the morning and we went to the Melbourne Aquarium which the boys loved, and then to the Museum. It was lovely to spend the day together and share experiences with the boys. They had thier first tram ride too, which they have been talking about ever since, and now Riley pretends he's taking us for tram rides on the couch!

On Saturday night Julianne came over, and we went out for a lovely dinner at a nice restaurant in town. We shared a bottle of wine, and lovely meal and had a great night catching up. We planned to have a girls weekend soon in Albury, and visit the day spa etc, which will be divine! We also talked about having a family weekend over easter, camping and fishing with the two boys and two girls! I cant wait. Gex and Mark will enjoy fishing with the kids too, so if it works out, it will be great.

Yesterday I had to work all day. I cant really complain though, cos I spent my day at a music festival, getting double pay, and listening to some great new Australian music! The Pushover festival is a drug, alcohol and smoke free event for young people, and while it's not really my scene personally, I was excited to see this singer live, Kate Miller-Heidke who i've been listening to for a while and LOVE her voice. She's Opera trained, so she has amazing range and her tone and pitch is close to perfect! She was as good live as on my cd (which I got autographed!). The beautiful and very talented Kate Miller-Heidke, live in the flesh!
Left home at 8.30am, and got back at 12.30am though, so I was absolutely stuffed, and had a little sleep in today :)

(As a side, the other day, after spending half an hour refreshing my screen at work, I got tickets to Lily Allen in June, which Im stoked about, so I have another great concert to look forward to!)

Glad to be home with my boys today, thay are just the sweetest little things at the moment, and Im wishing I had an excuse to stay home with them instead of working!
Made a lovely luch of grilled pesto cicken on a yummy mixed salad with sundried tomato balsamic dressing. Craving good food and wine at the moment, so brought things for a feast of Roasted tomato and basil Bruchetta for entree, and a chicken, mushroon and Asparagus pasta with creamy white wine sauce tonight. I also got a sweet Brown Brothers champagne to try (Gez wont drink dry)

My aunty and uncle came up on the weekend from the mornington peninsula, and brought thier three boys. The boys are getting so big now, Mitchell is 11, Josh 9 and Thomas 6. They are going to become big brothers again, as Julia has just found out she's pregnant! I am excited about getting a new baby cousin at the end of this year, but also worried for her as she has had pretty bad post natal depression with the last two children. I hope that she'll be ok this time, now that all the other kids are at school, but am worried about if it is another boy, as she's desperate for a little girl. Jackson will be ecstatic, he adores babies, and Julia's kids will be such loving big brothers!

So, this weekend, it has been soooo hot! Heaps of people are complaining, and I am one of them lol! Actually, I kind of think there's not much to complain about, I mean, it is summer after all. Our Air cons (the stuck in the wall kind) are struggling in the afternoons, and if they are on for too long, they give out completely.

Yesterday Julianne called to see if we wanted to spend a day in Beechworth, and we decided to brave the heat and head off.
We had a lovely day, first of all looking in the lovely shops like Red Hill Clothing, who sell gorgeous kids clothes and accessories, and the Beechworth toy shop, where I convinced Gez to buy me this gorgeous rag doll and vintage looking dolls pram!It's not likely I will ever have a daughter, but I fell in love with them, and decided that they will be lovely to hand down a niece or grandaughter one day, and in the meantime, she looks very happy in front of the fireplace in my room!
....the kids had fun in the toy shop too by the way lol!

We then had a yummy lunch at the famous and original Beechworth Bakery, followed by Icecreams at the Beechwoth Icecreamery!! YummoIt was starting to heat up, and the kids needed a break from being dragged through shops, so we headed to the Lake for a paddle. Gez couldn't resist, so he hopped in with the kids! Elyssa didn't want to touch the bottom with her feet, and the poor ducks got chased around a little ;)
When the kids started to get tired, we hopped back in the car and headed to kid's heaven...aka the 'Beechworth Sweet Company'! The kids had a ball looking aroung this amazing shop, which is adorned with all things 'child'. There are handmade teddies and golliwogs everywhere, as well as colourful mobiles hanging rom the ceiling and, of course...lollies!!! Decisions were made, changed and re-made, on what they were going to choose for themselves. Mine settled on these gorgeous big lollypops, while Amelia and Elyssa chose a bag of giant smarties!On the way home, Gez wanted to check out aircon's in Wangaratta, so the boys and I went to the playcentre for a little while.

We had such a nice day!

Charli xox