Mummy's birthday

What a great day!  It was filled with lots of laughter and good times.  The day started out with Mummy receiving some great presents and some wonderful homemade cards.  I felt so special and loved to have received such precious birthday cards.  Once the present opening was over, we all headed into the city by train for what has become our traditional Christmas Eve outing.  It all starts off with a train ride into the city to look at the Myer windows, visit Santa and explore Santa land in the Myer Centre.  The Myer windows theme this year was from the book series Olivia.  The kids favourite window was the one where Olivia's brother threw up his blueberry pie!  Once we looked at the windows we headed upstairs to Santa land.  This year Matty was too tall to ride the Christmas Express train so instead he was designated photographer because this was the first year Lucy went on the train.  Once the kids had their train ride they lined up for the free face painting, so while they were waiting they were able to do some colouring in and also write Santa a letter.  Matty chose to write Santa a letter and all it said was "To Santa, I hope you have a Merry Christmas.  love Matthew."  Some parents were amazed that he did not write a list of toys that he wanted.  After we finished at Santa land it was time for some lunch before we got back on the train.  Once we arrived home it was then time to get ready for the early Christmas Eve service at church which is followed by the birthday dinner and homemade ice-cream birthday cake made by Noonie and all finished off with one last visit to see Christmas lights.  Then once we are all back at home it is time to put out the Santa sacks and get the snacks ready for Santa and his reindeers.  It was such a huge day and a day we will definitely do again next year.

december babies

A great way to start celebrating the 'silly' season is by celebrating all the birthdays in December.  We have four birthdays in the space of eight days!!  This year was a big birthday for Thomas who turned 18!!  He has finished school, got his drivers license, got himself a carpentry apprenticeship and is now an adult.  What a big year for Thomas. 

two birthday girls

Grandad and his baby granddaughter

december babies

A great way to end the night was for five out of the ten cousins to play cards - scumbags and warlords was the game of choice.  This is the card games that Kate and Nick taught Matty last time we went camping. 

Laura, Thomas, Matthew, Kate and Nicholas

christmas lights

We all love the christmas lights, especially Daddy, so we waited for him to return home before we started on our nightly adventures.

the kids with Santa at one of the houses

Daddy and kids admiring some lights in a front yard

my beautiful girls

At one house inparticular, the lady read the kids the story about Santa visiting Australia and then handed them all a lollipop at end.  The kids loved this story and thought it was very funny!

On one particular night, Lucy thought all the lights were too bright for her so she insisted on wearing her sunglasses!! 

We have such wonderful memories of our Christmas light adventures that we usually talk about them for months after the fact. 

my baby is growing up...

Happy Birthday Lucy

I can hardly believe my baby has turned 3.  Lucy had a very BIG day for her birthday celebrations and it was quite confusing for her.  The day started off with Mummy waking all the kids up at 1am so we could surprise Daddy arriving home at the airport.  This was a huge surprise for Daddy as he expected to see the kids in the morning when they all woke up. Once we got home at 3am the kids were so wide awake that they wanted Lucy to open her presents, so after the kids woke Noonie up it was time to start celebrating her 3rd birthday.   Lucy loved sitting on the couch while her brothers and sister handed her the presents. 

After the present opening timeMummy and Daddy thought it was a great idea to head back to bed for a little more sleep before we tackled the rest of the day.  So off to bed we all went for another 3-4 hours.  When we all woke up again we sang 'happy birthday' to Lucy but she kept on saying that it wasn't her birthday anymore.  She did not understand that it was still her birthday!!  When we came to do her birthday cake however, she finally acknowledge that it was indeed her birthday.  I don't know if that was because she finally realised it was or that she thought it was the only way she might get some cake!!  We love you so much Lucy Goosey!

getting ready for Daddy's return

with only one day to go til Dad comes  home it was time to get our sign ready!! 

the sign was the first thing Daddy saw when he arrived home at 3am in the morning.

Best Buddies

Matthew and Jack at the church christmas carols

Matthew and Jack have been friends since Prep but Best Buddies since Year 1.  These two are such great friends who act as 'old men' at times with their converstaions and emailling back and forth.  Eventhough they have not been in the same class for two years, they have there meeting point at morning tea and lunch so they can sit together to eat and then go off and play.  These two will be friends for a very long time to come.