Wow, what a crazy couple of months. I cannot believe it's already March!
My laptop had to be repaired last month and has only just come back, so I have spent a whole month only able to access the internet from my iphone - not conductive to writing blog posts unfortunately!

Here's what's been happening in my neck'o'the woods lately :

# Riley had a party! He turned six, and we had a fabulous Superhero party at our place :)

He invited 8 boys and 6 came, and they all had a ball playing together with Ry's gifts and running around the backyard. Lucky too, as this usually-super-mega-organised mummy was exhausted after;

# welcoming this gorgeous little guy into the world!


How lucky am I? Not only to I get to experience my own three incredible boys being born, but I also have been priveledged to support not one but two other women in birthing thier babies! Katelyn is my cousin's girlfriend. She has no family or friends here, is very young, and unfortunatly my cousin is not wonderful partner/father material. However, Katelyn is very maternal and a level headed girl, and I think she will do just fine with her little boy with some support.
It was an incredible experience and I will be forever grateful to have been part of Domonic's birth.

# Felix got BIG!!



My littlest bub at birth has turned into my fasted growing boy! He's growing at a rate of knots and all the clothes I brought him for winter are fitting him well already. He'll be in size 0 in the next month or so :(
He's the sweetest thing though, and we all completely adore him! Feeding is going well, and I am sooo enjoying our time together!

I have his birth story half done, so will post that soon. In the meantime, I have developed an icky gastro bug this weekend - perfect timing as Gerard is away at a cub scouts camp with Jackson for the weekend, so I get to look after the others and be sick at the ame time!

Back soon!

Wow, it's Riley's 6th birthday in Feb, and of course I'm in party planning mode!
I convinced He decided to have a superhero theme, and rather than going with spidey or superman (I dont 'do' licenced stuff) I found this gorgeous vintage inspired superhero party kit on sale for only $45 at http://www.tenlittleindians.com.au/ and have been searching out vintage superhero images to print as iron-on transfers to make tee-shirts for each of the kids to wear :)
I am not too sure yet what i'll do about the cake, but i'll have plenty of time to think about it after next week, when three of my four return to school :( We have had such a wonderful holiday break together, and I'm pretty proud of how i've coped with having them all at home and a newborn all at oncce, and 'm a little sad about them going back to school.

The next party to plan is Tegan's 16th!!! She wants a Mad Hatters Tea Party, which will be a lot of fun!

Jackson's 8th birthday was a rather quiet affair compared with other years, but we still managed to give him a special day, filled with love, fun and family :) He went off to school with 21 froggy cupcakes to share with his class, after a 'birthday breakfast' which is a ritual in our house, where the birthday boy/girl gets to choose whatever they like for breakfast the day before, and we all sit around the kitchen table together (much like every other day, but less rushed!) and share gifts.
After the kids left for school, I spent the rest of the day creating these cuties, and getting ready for a surprise family BBQ.

This little guy was one of my favourites - and it seems Jack and I have the same taste in monster cupcakes, as this was his choice too!

Wat u lookin at?

Hairy McScary!

'The Gang' (well, some of them!)

First view of the cake!

Jackson with his favourite Uncle Chris -About to blow out the candles!

Are you sayin' you're actually going to let me eat this? Colouring and all?

Mmmmmm...would you hurry up so I can eat it!!

So, all's well that ends well, and if you thought that the cupcakes would be the highlight of my boy's day, you've got it all wrong! When asked this morning what was the 'best thing about your birthday?' he replied by singing "You've got a friend in me"...so it seems the musical birthday card was the clear winner, and the cupcakes were purely for Mummy's enjoyment!

A gorgeous day, lovely friends, lots of cups of tea (or juice) and yummy cake!

Perfect!!!



....and now my house is tidy for when we get home from holidays on the 3rd :)

Love,
Charli xoxoxo

Wow, it's been a while since I had anything of significance to post about, so I'm here for a little catch up post.
We're off to QLD for 9 days on Monday morning bright and early. Our flight is at 7.30am, and we're 2.5 hrs from the airport in Melbourne, so we're going to stay over in Melbs the night before. The kids are sooooo excited, especially Riley, as it will be his birthday the day after we arrive (Tuesday) and we're going to Seaworld on his birthday!! Riley loves animals, so we're going to try and organise for him to swim with the seals or something similar for his birthday, cos he won't be getting much in the way of gifts.
We are having a little party for him o saturday though, so he will get a couple gifts from his friends and our families. We just haven't got the extra cash atm, so all he'll get from us is the party and Seaworld, but I'm fine with that, and he will be too.

I cant believe my baby boy is already 5, that it's been 5 years since I was pregnant and gave birth. It makes me think about having another little bubba, something I really have not seriously thought about much at all (after a not-so-lovely experience with feeding/PND when Riley was small) and certainly not felt any 'cluckiness' or that real 'need' that I felt when we concieved Ry. We really have not been in any situation to be able to afford another child until now, but I can kinda see it working.....Hmmm strange!

Anyhow, work is really dragging me under at the moment, and at the same time as I am absolutely itching to get away for a holiday, I'm a little stressed out at all I have to complete before I go, and making sure things get done while I'm away. We're planning to visit the theme parks while we're away, and also take a trip to Brisbane and maybe go to a market there on the weekend, as well as a trip down to Byron for a day. Really looking forward to some down time, so might let Gez take the kids back to one of the theme parks without me ;)

My fitness thing is going pretty well, and I get weighed and measured on Saurday after six weeks of working out at leat three times a week. I don't really think I'll have lost weight, but even if I haven't, I'm not stressed, cos i'm sure I'll have lost cm's, and mostly, I can really see and feel the difference in my body. I feel so much more energetic, am eating better, drinking more water and can see that I am starting to get toned. Yay! I want to try and stay healthy and exercise regularly, and am going to try to set myself little challenges.

The first challenge is coming up swiftly in March.
I have entered the Royal Children's Hospital 'Run for the Kids' on Sunday 14th March. It's a 5km or 14.6km event which you can walk or run, and a significant amount of the entry fee goes to the Hospital. I feel like it's a great opportunity to support an amazing and incredibly important cause, as well as challenging myself to keep fit. I chose to do the 14.6km course, because you get to run through the domain tunnel and over the Bolte Bridge, which will be amazing. I certainly can't run the whole course, but i'm hoping to run maybe two thirds of it. I've been doing some practicing in the evenings and can jog 5km straight, so I think I'd like to think I could run 5, walk 5, run 5 on the day. I'll write about it afterwards!

Not sure I covered everything in this post, but will be back to post some holiday pics when I get a chance to use the internet on our holiday!

This month is going to be very busy for all of us, beginning with Riley. He started Kinder yesterday, and I must admit, that I was the clingy one ;) It feels so strange sending my baby off to kinder, knowing that this is our last 'baby' year with him before school. I feel a little deflated when I think too much about this, so I've been trying very hard to distract myself! He went of as happy as larry this morning, and waved me goodbye as if he'd been going there for years. He was quite happy for Ruth to pick him up, despite having only met her once! I was much more stressed than he, and could hardly concentrate all day!

Another new thing that will be happening is our beginning theraputic care. We won't really be starting this month, as we need to wait until the panel meets next month before we can begin, but we will be making plans with our agency and starting to prepare a room in our house, which means moving the boys back into a shared room. They are very excited about this, as they will be having their bunks put up to make enough room for all their things.

They are racing around the house at the moment playing 'jungle animals' I painted their faces after Jack got home from school. Riley's a monkey and Jack a lion. I love when they play together, it makes me feel so happy knowing that they are such good friends and I can't stand when they bicker. For Ry's birthday, we have asked all his grandparents to pitch in, and we found online, this puppet theatre/shopfront, as well as this set of hand puppets and some wooden foos, such as vegetables, bread rolls, carton of eggs, lollypops and icecream cone set for the shop side! I am pleased to find something that they can both play with, and that he won't be overwhelmed with heaps of different gifts from our family. He is very excited about the party, all the invitations have now gone out, so we will wait to see who can come!

Our family have donated heaps of clothes, bedding, baby things and toys/books to the fire relief centres in the past couple of days, as well as offering a free rental house and 200 bales of hay which will be loaded and head to Yea tomorrow morning.
As well as money and blood in the coming weeks, this is our contribution to the disasterous happenings over the past few days, and I urge you also, to give what you are able. Whether it be financial support, donations of material items, caring for stricken animals or giving much needed blood for hospitals, whatever your means of support, I can only tell you that it will be greatly appreciated.

Is the only praise i'm going to get I am oft' told, so might as well make it good! lol ;)

I am very proud of myself today. Simple as that.
Last night, after realizing that; Oh.my.goodness.Riley's.birthday.is.IN.TWO.WEEKS (Aaarrrgghh) I decided that I had better get my (rather round these days *cough*) butt, into gear and organise his long awaited and anticipated party.

He had been talking about a clown party for ages, but I thought of all the work, and endevoured to try to change his little mind (Who, me? No, I would never attempt to hijack the workings of mind of my dear little offspring 'just cos it's easier'.....No...Never) It worked, and without a bat of an eyelid, we are now having a *insert drumroll here* Jungle Party!

I got to work making invitations tonight, all very cutesy and sweet as it's probably the last time I'll get away with it, next year he'll be 'a big boy' wanting a Spiderman party or some such 'boy' thing lol! So, printed all the invites myself...only to realize that they wont fit into envelopes unless I fold them. Hmmm, what to do...

I had a brainwave (of course) and did what any desperate party planning mama would do at 11pm....made my own envelopes(!!)
Yup, seven of them, and with a matching border on the front to boot!

We even compromised on a suitable cake as follows, and I must say I'm sort of looking forward to it now, much easier than Jack's Pirate party! Just going to hang a whole lot of green streamers all about the patio area out the back of our house, and some cut out leaves etc. Ry has heaps of stuffed jungle animals, including a crocodile, leopard, baby lion etc, so I will also hang these from paper chain 'vines'.

Not too difficult methinks, so now just gotta think of a pressie for the boy.

'Scuse me for all that self praise!

Love Charli xoxox

This is what really caught my attention when thinking about my biggest boy's sixth birthday on Sunday! I really hadn't thought about the age thing too much, not like other years, where I have been unable to comprehend the fact that my baby was "already" one, or two or three years old. This year, I have been so busy with work, and planning the party and our trip, foster care last weekend etc.....Until Riley pointed this out to me on Sunday morning, while we were all laying in bed waiting for Jack to wake up!

Ry - "mum, how many is six?"

Me - "this many!" (holding up 6 fingers)

Ry - Holds up six fingers...

Me- ......realization suddenly sinking in rrriiigggghhhttt.....abboouuuuttt.....NOW!!...
"Oh my goodness!...Gez!! (adressing the sleepy hubby next to me)
SIX he's actually six!!...do you know what this means? He's more than half way to ten...ohhhh"

THE PARTY!
We had a lovely day, He absolutely LOVES is robot, and spent half the morning following it around the house. The night prior, when asked, he ordered fruit loops for his "special birthday breakfast", so after the morning ballons and present and singing happy birthday ritual, he devoured a bowl of the horrid sugary cereal (uughhh!) and then Charmaine and her boys arrived at about 10.30am. At about lunchtime, she took him swimming until the party, so I had a chance to decorate while he was out. The backyard looked gorgeous! Gez has been working really hard for several weeks to clean up the yard, prune bushes and get the garden looking pretty. All except one or two children, everyone arrived for the party, and I had decorated the BBQ area with balloons, a pirate flag and banners. The kids looked for "treasure" in the garden (plastic gold coins!) while the guests all arrived, and once Jackson had opened each of his gifts, we played a game of musical islands. This went very well, and the next game we played was three leg races...sooooo funny!!! I'm sure you can imagine! After this they were getting pretty crazy, so we all sat on the lawn on a mat and made little parrot's out of poly balls and feathers/pipe-cleaners etc. The treasure hunt was heaps of fun, and I had different colored clues, with keys attached. The clues led them all about the yard and finally to a big wooden treasure chest which Gez had wrapped in chain and padlocked so the kids could unlock it to get their party bags. By the end of the two hours, we were all absolutely exhausted, but satisfied, as the children were just lovely, and the whole thing ran so smoothly :)



JACKSON,
You changed my world in every way from the moment I discovered your imminent arrival. You helped me discover who I am, and what I stand for, and you gave me a reason to strive to be that person. We have shared so much together and you are only at the very beginning of understanding the depths of our bond together and our beginning, you and I, and how it fits with our life now, with Daddy and Ry.
You have always craved closeness with those around you. You love cuddles and kisses, and since we started caring for other children, your empathetic nature, and your willingness to share has blossomed. I have to almost drag you away from babies at the moment, and we mustn't watch Telletubbies, as you will almost certainly sob in my arms at the end because "the baby in the sun is gone". It brings tears to my eyes seeing you so sensitive and vulnerable, and yet this is your strongest quality, and it makes me so proud seeing you with the children we care for, and knowing that you will treat them like a sibling, even knowing its just for a couple of days.
When I lose direction, I always look back to our time together just the two of us while I was pregnant, and until you were 14months old. I think about the strength it took to get through, and how I strived for your life, and my success as a person. I think about how we succeeded against everyone's opinions and expectations. I now know how important it is to believe in yourself, and aim high, and I hope to instill the same qualities and resiliance in you. You are happy and cheeky and loving. We love you just the way you are. To the moon and back! Happy six years possum!