Angelina Ballerina

As part of the girls Christmas present, Mummy and Noonie took the girls to see Angelina Ballerina at QPAC theatre.  It was a very exciting time for the girls because this was the first REAL ballet the girls have seen.  (Mummy hopes it may be the last as I am not too fond of ballet, but Noonie hopes this is the first of many!)  The girls were mesmerised by the whole experience.  Annie imparticular was taken in by the whole performance and Lucy kept asking where Angelina was when she was not on stage. 

Lucy and Annie waiting to go in to the theatre

Lucy, Mummy and Annie waiting at our seats

Noonie and the girls during the intermission

Lucy taking it all in

After the performance Noonie and Mummy took the girls for a special lunch at the Pancake Manor and then for a browse through the bookshop where Noonie spoilt them each with their own ballerina book to help remember the very special girls day out.

boys first day back

Benjamin and Matthew

This year Benjamin is in Year 1 and Matthew is in Year 3.  I can hardly believe that I have three out of four children in school.  Where does the time go??  The boys were so excited about starting back at school.  They took such a long time to get to sleep the night before but that did not stop them getting ready in record time the next morning. 

Annie's first day of school

Oh how time flies.  I can hardly believe that my baby girl has started school.  Annie was so excited and she had been counting down the sleeps for at least a week.  As Annie is in Prep, the Prepies had a staggered start to the year.  This is when one half of the class start one day (Wed), the next half goes the following day(Thurs), then they all start on the Friday.  Seeing as the boys didn't start until the Thursday, it worked out well as we all were able to focus our attention on Annie.  Annie got herself ready in no time which enabled Mummy so much time to take plenty of photos, and even have photos with Phoebe (our neighbour) who was also starting school.  When Annie arrived at school she met up with her friend Hannah who happened to be in the same class - Prep S.  Mrs Smith is Annie's teacher and she is absolutely lovely.  After doing some puzzles with Mummy and Daddy, Mrs Smith rang her bell and it was then time to say goodbye to all the parents.  Annie did not shed a tear but Mummy can't say that!!  Even Lucy cried the first week Annie went to school and asked why Annie had to stay at school with the boys and why she couldn't come home.  There has definitely been an adjustment period for Mummy and Lucy. 

breakfast with the neighbours

Seeing as we didn't have our usual catch up before Christmas we decided to have an early morning BBQ breakfast and a bushwalk with our wonderful neighbours.  It was a great morning of climbing trees, building fires, swinging off branches and exploring in the rainforest.  We even came across a trapdoor spiders hole.  It was not only fun but very educational!!

family fun

where is Daddy, Matty, BJ and Annie???

here they are!!

If you look closely in this photo, Lucy is on the new bridge in town and Stewart, Matthew, BJ and Annie are down below on their bikes/scooter about to ride under the overpass.

Lucy on the new bridge

What a wonderful way to have some family time then by having a bike/scooter/walk time in the park.  So with Matthew on his scooter, Daddy, BJ and Annie on their bikes and Mummy and Lucy walking, we all had a wonderful time exploriong the new bridge in town.  After the HUGE bike/scooter/walk time we stopped for some morning tea and a play on the playground before finishing off with some ice cream before we headed home for the afternoon sleep - which we ALL had!!

The next day Matty kept on complaining about his right leg being sore and could barely walk on it properly until we remembered that he scootered from Southbank pool to over the new bridge down to bike path all the way up to the botanical gardens over the Goodwill bridge back to the pool at Southbank.  And he was very proud in the fact that he won the race.  No wonder his leg ached!

christmas 09

What a fantastic day!!  It  all began with the girls waking up and jumping all over daddy and Matthew coming in with his santa sack all very excited.  BJ and Noonie were the only ones not awake so Matthew and the girls had the pleasure of waking them up (all woke up at a resonable hour for Smiths - 6am).  We then all went through the santa sacks on Mum and Dad's bed with lots of excitment and happy faces.  Once that mad minute was over we all headed into the lounge to open the rest of the presents.  It was so lovely seeing all the kids take turns in opening presents and then admiring with great joy the presents each other received.  The BIG present the kids received was a Wii and all its trimmings from Nooonie and Grandad and Grandma.  This was definitely the winner!!  The boys got a mixture of spy gear and toys for outside and the girls received tickets to see Angelina Ballerina Ballet at the Lyric theatre later in January.  Also the 3 big kids received a special picture of theirs framed.  They were really excited about these.  After present opening and of course time to play with the new presents it was time for Christmas breakfast with Noonie.  The table was set with all the christmas placemats, christmas plates and glasses and of course the christmas bon bons!  We all filled up on yummy fresh fruit, crossiants, sausages and eggs and lots, lots more.  For lunch we headed over to Uncle Doug's house to eat more food, open more presents, eat more food, have a swim and play with the cousins and eat more food!  Once we arrived back at home there was defintiley no arguments with getting the kids into bed as they were so worn out from their HUGE day! 

Merry Christmas!!

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.