Jordan's 4th Birthday

A very excited little boy came running down the hallway this morning exclaiming very loudly that it was his 4th birthday. Jordan slept in past everyone (except Dad) so we were all up and waiting for him. He was greeted in the kitchen by presents big and small and couldn't wait to rip into them.

Mothers Day at Kinder

Seb's kinder put on a special morning tea for us mamas' this morning in anticipation of mothers day this Sunday. And it was the sweetest this ever. The kids had made us cupcakes which we decorated together, macaroni necklaces, painted handprints on canvas and cute little cards.

Seb and I had the funnest time together. He ran up to the fence when he saw me pulling into the carpark and then ran to the door to greet me. He took me to the cupcake table where we decorated our cakes together. I was the first Mum there and therefore the first to decorate cakes. I almost felt a little sorry for the others as we used A LOT (most) of the decorations on our cakes. Seb was a little heavy handed when it came to sprinkling them on top. But they tasted good and we were happy so... oh well. (trust me... these pictures don't show all of the sprinkles that started on our cakes and ended up all over the table and floor.... but there were a lot).

After eating our cakes (I had to keep steering Seb away from the table because he wanted to go back and eat the icing out of a bowl with the spoon) we went outside for a play.

He showed me his cool tricks jumping off the trampoline, how he could go down the slide, how high he could swing, and then we started building a pretend fire so we could roast pretend marshmallows. I love his imagination and enthusiasm.

Seb wanted me to take this photo of his bum in the air lol.

Then we went to the outdoor kitchen and made a 'mud'cake. We had lots of fun scooping up dirt, bark and leaves to put in it.

At the end of the session, the kids handed out the little gifts they had made and read us a story called Thanks Mum. Hand made cards and gifts from the kids are my all time favourite. They are so adorable and heart felt it just makes me so happy.

My Special necklace...

Thank you for a special day Sebby. Love you so much. You make me the happiest mum in the whole world and are the light of my life.

Zac's first tooth falls out

 This morning, Zac's first tooth fell out.

After months of it being wiggly (roughly 6 months) it finally came out.

We were SO excited for this and had been talking about it for so long. During breakfast, Zac's tooth was bleeding a little bit and it was hard for him to bite into anything. So I cut up his toast into tiny bite sizes pieces which he could just pop straight in and chew. I handed him the plate and as I walked backed into the kitchen he yelled out "MUM.... I PULLED IT OUT". I couldn't believe he actually pulled it out himself. Noel had been asking if he could pull it out and Zac would absolutely FREAK out at the idea of it. So the fact that he did it himself shocked us. But we were so happy and we jumped around and got all excited for the tooth fairy to come. Seb kept getting upset because we wouldn't let him hold the tooth (mostly because I knew he would drop it somewhere and we'd never find it again). In the end i let him hold it for 10 seconds and then gave it back to Zac to put in his special tooth fairy pillow. He got $2 that night and was so excited to find it in the morning.

Zac's first (horrible) day at Aus Kick

The first day of Aus Kick. An experience Noel has been looking forward to for years. That first time when his son picks up the footy on a field with a coach and fellow team mates.... Only it didn't go as we had all hoped.

I'm not going to lie, I had a pretty good idea that today would go the way it did. Zac being the sensitive little soul that he is, does NOT enjoy trying new things, with new people at new places. Does he enjoy kicking a footy in the street after school?? YES... Does he enjoy kicking the ball around at school with his little friends?? YES!!! But put him in a new environment with people he doesn't know and tell him he has to play footy??? The walls of resistance go straight up.



We've been talking about starting footy for months now and Zac has not shown interest or excitement at all. He usually gets upset and tells us he doesn't want to do it. But Noel really wanted him to give it a go, I suspect in the hopes that his boys would love playing as much as he always did. That he would one day stand on the sidelines calling out tips and cheering every time a good kick, pass or goal occured.

A couple of days ago we took Zac to pick up his footy uniform (Geelong of course) and new footy boots. He was actually over the moon about getting his new boots and had been wearing them around the house since we brought them home.

But this morning when it came time to get dressed and put those brand new clothes on..... the tears started. Zac hated the shorts, he didn't want to go, he hated the sock, hates footy... the list went on.

We got in the car and the tears continued the whole way there. And they continued once we arrived as well. Noel and I, feeling stressed, anxious and just wanting Zac to have a good time, began to get snappy at each other. Seb started crying because he wasn't allowed to join in, Zac was crying because he didn't want to join in. It was all a bit of a nightmare.



To be honest, I wouldn't have cared if we said no footy when Zac showed no signs of interest. But I can also understand Noel wanting to give it a shot. So we persisted. One little girl from Zac's prep class (Brooklyn) showed up. I was so relieved thinking that maybe, just maybe she might boost his confidence a little. He walked over with her to the start of the line where the kids were about to do some drills of bouncing the ball and weaving in and out of poles. But when it came time for his turn, he carried the ball with an unhappy look on his face, all the way to the end where he then threw it with all his might at one of the coaches before storming back to us. I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. It was so sad but extremely funny at the same time.



Anyhow, we kind of gave up trying after that moment. Noel and Zac kicked the footy between them for 10 minutes before we decided to just head home early.

I have no idea what will happen next week. Whether we encourage Zac to give it another go, transfer him to Emerald where his friend Ryan is doing Aus Kick or scrap it all together and see if we can transfer his membership to Seb who seems more than willing to jump in and play. I guess time will tell.



Zac, if you're reading this one day... just know that I don't care what sport/hobby you decide to do as long as you're happy. I'm sorry today wasn't a great experience for you but hopefully when you're a bit older you won't mind trying new things and playing footy. Even if it is just with your friends at school rather than on a team. I think after this season has finished we might try something new. You sounded pretty interested in BMX riding when I mentioned it earlier so maybe we try that next. Love you buddy.

Fun at Melbourne Zoo with little friends

The first term school holidays are coming to an end and whilst I'm a little sad to get back into the school / kinder routine, we have had a wonderful break together and got to do some fun things, including a trip to the zoo a little over a week ago with some of Zac and Seb's friends.

We've been super blessed to have such amazing weather so far into the Autumn season and this Friday in particular was a warm, sunny 26 degree day. The perfect day for a trip to the zoo. Unfortunately about 5000 other people had the same idea and we spent a good hour driving around looking for a car park before we actually got inside. But once we were safely parked and through the gates, everything just went right.

Zac's friend Tash and her little brother Mitchell (who goes to kinder with Seb) joined us with their mum Nicky. First on the agenda was a trip past the lion keep for Tash who is currently obsessed with the tv show The Lion Guard. We rocked up right as the zoo keeper was beginning a talk about the lions they currently have there and it was packed. We managed to position ourselves along the side of the glass enclosure and started listening. We initially thought we were going to be out of luck and unable to see them but they ended up roaming over to our side and stopped directly against the glass in front of us. It was amazing. Even I, after all these years of going to the zoo, had never seen them that close up. I'm pretty sure Tash's day was made in the first 20 minutes of arriving (Super sad I didn't get any photos of this part).



Next up was a trip to the reptile centre for Zac who has a scary obsession with snakes. I honestly have no idea where this love for snakes comes from and I certainly hope that he understands how dangerous they are out in the wild (I've certainly tried drilling that message into him plenty of times). After viewing the first 3 or so snakes, Zac became more excited about running around with Tash that the rest went mostly unseen. The two of them began a game of switching prams (we bring the pram every time now after learning the hard way that little legs get tired pretty quickly at the zoo) and this game continued between the 4 little people for the rest of the afternoon. Nicky and I had to keep trading off who would push the heavier kids up the hills. We ended up taking a break for lunch, ice creams so that Nicky and I could rest while the kids explored nearby and played in the trees. Zac has decided that he doesn't like ice cream at the moment but Seb and I certainly enjoy a cone each.

After lunch we headed to the butterfly enclosure. The last time we came to the Zoo we all loved it so much but kind of rushed through it. This time, Seb was so excited to go through it that we really took our time and I am so so SO glad that we did as it was incredible (and the highlight for my day at least). I've never had a butterfly land on me at the zoo but they were in full swing that day and all of us had butterflies landing on us multiple times. Zac was a bit scared and unsure about the idea of having one land on his hand but he did have one on his hat and one stage. It flew off right as I pulled my camera out so I missed that shot BUT... I did get quite a few of Tash and Seb with them. They were so excited they were just about bursting.

The trick to getting a butterfly to land on you is to stand super still with your arm up in the air and use the back of your hand as a landing platform. It usually takes a few minutes (and you will most certainly have a tired arm by the end of it) but once they land, you can carefully pass them to one another. They sort of just hop from one hand / finger to someone elses.



We spent a few hours wandering around and looking at the elephants, monkeys (another highlight... there is always this one monkey who swings over and sits right up on the window and stares at you), giraffes, zebras etc. We were just about to call it a day and head towards the exit when we walked past a window that allowed us to see some big beautiful fish under the water. Mitchel has a fascination with fish so we decided to stop to let him enjoy it. What we didn't realise until about 10 minutes later, was that directly behind us was another underwater window that had hippos in it. Once we discovered that little gem the kids went nuts and just loved watching the hippo swim right up and past the window. It was pretty cool and something we hadn't seen before.

Seb took up the Zoo map and led us on a journey to the exit. He called it his treasure map and brought it home with him. He keeps telling me that we have to go back to see the "giant tur-twoss" (tortoise) as we still haven't seen them. I bought us all an annual Zoo membership so we can go back as many times as we want so I'm planning to take him back there in a couple of weeks when Zac is at school. I don't think Zac enjoys the Zoo trips as much as Seb and I so I don't think he will mind missing out every now and then.



All up, it was such a great day and it was a really fun experience going with friends. However I think we will save ourselves the stress and not go during the school holidays next time.