Ben Lomond...........Brrrrr

Today we went to Ben Lomond for the day. We decided to gatecrash the Young Adult activity thinking "the more the merrier." Sadly to say once we got to the top of Jacob's Ladder and into the village there was not much snow - more just icy muddy slush. But Oliver had never seen snow before and Hallie could not remember going last time so it was fun just to see their reaction to it.

Simon hired a toboggan from Launceston Sport and Surf which was only $15 for the day and well worth it for all the fun sliding we did down the hill. Some of the Young Adults brought big tyres but they did not tend to go as fast and as smoothly as the toboggan.

Oliver surprised me the most getting right into the swing of things. He would get someone to carry him up to the top of the hill and then would roly poly all the way to the bottom. After spending about two hours sliding and throwing snowballs (Daniel Reid and Paul Travers - thanks for the beauty in the leg) the kids started to whinge, wanting to go back to the car. Once in the car we changed them and had hot chocolate and chocolate biscuits - easy to please my kids. About two minutes into the drive back down the mountain Oliver was fast asleep, all tuckered out from his adventures in the snow.

Hallie said she liked the snow but did not want to go back in a hurry. I didn't blame her as I found half of Ben Lomond's snow in her gum boot when I took it off and her feet were as cold as ice - excuse the pun. Pity there was not more snow but we still had a fun family day together.

Told you there was a lot of mud up there - looking forward to cleaning it Simon?

After school activities

With the cold rainy weather continuing I thought I might show what my kids get up to when they cannot play outside. Sarra and Hallie love playing dress-ups and one of their favourite games is Mummys and babies. Sarra is always the Mummy of course and today she had a baby in her tummy - no don't worry - it is not a reflection of her own mother. Oliver of course is not that interested in dress-ups so I've showed him in his favourite possy in the chair nearest the fire watching a movie. His relaxed pose is two fingers in the mouth and one up the nose. AAhh boys what can you do with them!


This room had better be spotless before you go to bed laments many a mother

Oscar comes to play

Yesterday Oliver's second cousin Oscar, came over for a playdate. It was a perfect day as outside it was cold and miserable and Oscar's Mummy Toni, is due to have Oscar's baby brother or sister tomorrow. Oscar had never been away from Mum or Dad (other than grandparents) before so I was a bit worried he might not have a good time but he loved it!! Oscar and Oliver hang out in nursery together and Oscar calls Oliver "Ober" which is really cute. I hope they will stay good friends as they grow up together.

Here is how the day unfolded.......................................

First we started off with Bob the Builder

Then we moved onto trains

Thomas the tank engine was a hit

Don't tell Jaron but as you can see in this photo our next activity was playing with dolls.

And more trains.............................................

After all that playing our little troopers were quite hungry so lunch was chips, fruit and a sandwich - in that order. Dessert first of course Mum!
After lunch we went next door to say hello to Gabriel. He is 16 months old and nearly ready for nursery too. They all had a lovely little play together before Oscar decided he had had enough time away from the TRAINS. We even got to see a real train go by the window which Oscar thought was a real treat.


Oscar had a great time playing with Oliver and Hallie. He did not cry once or ask where Mum and Dad were. I think he has decided that playdates are quite fun and will most definitely come again, particularly if it involves trains!!!

Baby Owen James

On Friday July 6 at 4.44am, Penny gave birth to Owen James Bingham. He weighed in at seven pounds, four ounces and was 49.5cm long. His sister Ella likes to call him Elmo and big brother Sam I'm sure will love having another boy around to play with his Thomas trains. Penny and Chris of course live in Canada so we are sad that we cannot just jump on a plane to give Owen a little cuddle. Now I have this blog, everytime Penny sends me photos I can post them on here and have a record of their adventures as well.

A lovely family shot of Chris, Penny, Sam, Ella and their newest addition, little Owen.

A Day at the Beach - Not!!

Today we came back from our weekend in Launceston and would you believe it, Westbury had a beautiful winter's day that started out very foggy and miserable and then turned into a glorious day that produced sunshine that actually had a kick to it. Once Oliver discovered it was not THAT cold outside he decided to get into his sandpit and have a play. Simon built it last summer and we invested in the good quality sand so they would have lots of fun in it and spend countless hours amusing themselves outside. Oliver got his trucks out of the playhouse and built sandcastles and moved the sand from his dumptruck into his wheelbarrow. He looked so cute because he was concentrating so hard on his 'job' that he had his tongue stuck out. He often does that when he is putting alot of effort into something.

A Night on the Town

On Saturday night I went out for tea with some Mums from Sarra's school. Sarra and Hallie slept at their Wheeler cousins' house for the night and Oliver and I slept at Mums as Simon was working doing night shifts. We went to Flavours restaurant in Charles Street which is just down from the hospital next to Sporties on the corner. There was about eight of us and it was lovely to have a night to ourselves to relax and enjoy each other's company without kids dragging at us after school, throwing bags paintings and newsletters at us before running off to the playground - as if they have not had enough of school already. Westbury is about 20 minutes out of Launceston and has a beautiful 'village' feel to it. The town even has a Village Green full of big beautiful trees and a play area. It is lovely to sit there in summer under the coolness of the trees and watch the kids play - but I digress. Westbury Primary has approximately 180 students which is perfect because it is not too big and not too small. A wonderful balance for Sarra to make plenty of friends and still provide a good teacher/student ratio. Sarra's grade 1 class has a wonderful group of Mums so I jumped at the chance to have a bit of downtime away from the classroom. We had a wonderful night chatting and laughing uproariously. Hopefully we can have many more nights like this before our kids enter highschool and the real fun at home begins...........ahhhhh!!!


The girls - Jenni, Tracey, Kerry, Katherine, Brenda, Katrina, Karen and Donna

This is me and Brenda Stubbs, Mum of Sarra's best friend Naomi posing with Katherine and Katrina. Their girls' Josie and Maddison are in Sarra's class.


Family Reunion

On Saturday afternoon my cousin Annie Zammit who I Had not seen since high school which makes that.... what say 18 years, has moved back to Tasmania with her two children Brittany and Cody. Brittany goes to Queechy High with my nephew Jayme and Cody goes to Norwood Primary with Rohan and Emily. I had lunch with her a few weeks ago but had not met her kids yet. It was wonderful catching up. The years melt away and its like no time has past at all. We spent alot of time reminiscing and laughing about growing up and spending time at Nanna and Pop Lanham's house at Beauty Point. There used to be a tyre swing near their house that we played on all the time and often we would sail so high we would scream with laughter until we could not stop. It will be great spending more time with her now she has moved from Sydney.

Dancing with the Stars

On Thursday night Sarra had her school disco at Westbury Primary. It went from 5.30-6.30 and all afternoon she was very excited. As soon as she got home from school she went to her cupboard to figure out what she should wear - a very important decision. Then every 5 minutes she kept asking if it was time to go. When we got there it was very noisy as you can well imagine. Children from kinder to grade 3 and loud music - I think alot of parents were reaching for the panadol when they got home. Sarra got a prize (lollies) for the best dancer to one of the songs played. They even had an air guitar competition which was a real hoot to watch. Sarra's best friend Naomi was there too and they had a marvellous time doing the 'Chicken Dance'. Sarrra's favourite dance song was 'The Final Countdown" - to all those people who remember that early 90s hit. After the disco we had to head into Launceston for my basketball game at 7.30 so by the end of the night Sarra was officially pooped and fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Sarra with her best friend Naomi - they are inseparable and do absolutely everything together. Sarra decided to get right into the swing of things in the air guitar competition.
Gee what do you think this song was - that's right "The Chicken Dance"


Finally these girls decide to take a rest while Dr Hallie checks to see that they have not overdone it.

Winter Woollies

With the weather hitting -2 degrees becoming the norm at the moment the kids are having to really rug up. During the day it has been only reaching ten degrees - so luckily Oliver has been blesssed with a Great Aunty who is an amazing knitter. She has knitted him about four jumpers which he wears almost everyday so today I got Oliver to model some for me to show my appreciation for her amazing talent and keeping little Oliver nice and tosty during this brrr weather. Thanks so much Aunty Pam. Pam is my Mum's sister and she lives in Devonport.

Hallie took this photo - can you tell?? A budding little photographer. Only thing is she is always hogging my mobile to take photos and using up all its memory.


Hallie loves winter jumpers too but her love at the moment is this spiderman belt that Aunty Jasmin gave her for Christmas last year. She wears it all the time no matter what kind of outfit she is wearing.

A day at the raspberry farm

On Saturday we headed to the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm to celebrate Mum's "dare I say" 59th birthday. It was a glorious winter's day, you know the ones we get frequently in Tassie where it is so cold but the sky is bright and blue with not a breath of wind. The sun was out so once we had ordered lunch we herded the kids outside to the play area and settled in for a good old family gasbag. I think it was nice for Mum to have her 4 girls take her out for lunch. Sarra absolutely loves raspberries so she thought we picked the restaurant for her because nearly every dish had some sort of raspberry slant to it. It was good to catch up with everyone. With everyone being so busy it is hard to see each other as much as we would like. I think Tyller, Jessica's boyfriend and Simon handled an afternoon with us girls okay. It might take them awhile to recover. We do talk alot. After lunch we all came back to our house and had some birthday cake and Mum opened her presents.

Oliver kept blowing out the candles before Mum and he looked very pleased with himself - maybe he thought it was his birthday instead.