'I miss Daddy'

This week has seen Simon away on more Search and Rescue training so I have filled my days with catching up with people and getting things done that have been on my procrastination list. The kids have missed Simon as he is the fun one that does wrestles, horsey rides and jumps on the trampoline with them. I am the boring one, that is always ruining the fun with 'tea-time', 'bath-time', 'clean your teeth time', 'pack up toys time', 'bedtime'.

On Wed night, Hallie was saying her prayers and saying that she missed Daddy and then the quiver started and a few tears ran in crooked little waves out the corner of her eye. Thursday was her rest day home from Prep so she made up for missing Daddy by spending time with me. Hallie said at school she thinks about me and I asked her what she thought about, wondering what an earth a 5yr old thinks about when they think of their mother at school, and she said 'cuddles'.

This week Mel and I caught up with Sarah Young and her gorgeous little boy, Isaac James. He is now 7wks old and weighs 8 pound 3. My goodness I said, Jonty weighed nearly a whole pound more at his birth, let alone 7wks on.

Tyren has just turned one and started walking. He is such a cheeky little man.


On Tuesday night my friend Jasmin Reid came out to stay until Thursday. The girls were very excited to show her our baby chicks that have recently hatched.


It was lovely having Jasmin stay as I got to go to school without getting Jonty in and out of the car, especially if he was asleep at 3pm. Such a crime to have to wake them just to put them in the car for the 5min it takes to get the girls from school. When I got home on Wed after school, Jasmin had brought in the washing and folded it. Maybe she can come more often. :)

On Wed night we had Rikki and David Wilson come for tea. He had a ball with the kids on the trampoline. They played outside until it was dark. Rikki and Jasmin are friends so it was nice for them to catch up.


On Thur morning, we went for a walk with Katherine around Westbury. It was a real pram brigade with Katherine walking with Gabriel and Niamh in the pram, Jasmin walking Jonty and Oliver and Hallie on bikes.

Notice here, Oliver is riding Hallie's old pink bike with no training wheels. Must be a product of beign the 3rd child - 1. pink hand me down bike (all the Mums at school laugh as he rides into the school) and 2. he decided to teach himself to ride without wheels as it would take 'i'll be there in a minute' Mummy forever to get round to helping so 'problem solved - teach myself' with encouragement from sisters.


Notice how very dry Westbury is............ lovely views though!

Visit from Pop

Yesterday Mum and Dad Triffitt brought Pop around for a visit. I don't think he has ever been here before. Luckily we only have a few steps for him to climb to get into the house. His memory is so good as he asked me if Simon was still planning on doing the Kokoda Track later in the year with his Search & Rescue crew.

I think it was well before Christmas that Pop found out that Simon was interested in going. It would take on a whole new meaning for Simon seeing as Pop served in Papua New Guinea during World War II.

Pop kept thanking me over and over for having a hold of Jonty. I love holding babies too as long as they're not crying or doing a poo!!

'Just google it Mum'

Yesterday Sarra came home with her first piece of homework - to find out one fact about dolphins. I was thinking out loud where Sarra could find out some interesting things about dolphins and she said, "Mum, Mrs K said to just google it".

So on the computer she sat and googled 'dolphins'. Did you know that the common enemy of the dolphin is the bull shark, great white shark, tiger shark, dusky shark (whatever those are) and of course humans.

These generation Zers are taking over. It's scary how much they know about technology.

Oh and can you guess who chose this cover for her school books? And she made sure she wore spiderman undies for her first day.

Three months

Today Jonty turned 3 mths old. Where does the time go??

Ssh...... it's quiet at our place

Wow going from four to two children is AWESOME! The house is clean (well as good as it gets), Oliver is quietly playing with lego (until Jonty starts crawling and wrecks it all) and noone is fighting me for a turn of barbie.com on the computer. Woo hoo I am loving this. Oh no it is nearly 11am. Only 4 hrs of freedom left. Ha,ha!! This morning went very smoothly for the girls. I wondered how I was going to get them all ready and at school on time and fit a feed in with Jonty but I actually had to wake him to take the girls to school so he had a feed when we got home.

When we got to school, Hallie was a little shy but as soon as she saw her kinder friends from last year, she was happy. This year Hallie is in a Prep/1 with 21 kids, a big jump from 10 last year but she has Sarra's old Gr1 teacher, Mrs Walker and she is fantastic so we are pretty pleased. We found Hallie's bag hook and it was on the top and she could not even reach up to put her bag over the hook. It was so funny - maybe Mrs Walker will move her name to the bottom row.

See how they wanted the same hair styles...

Sarra was very excited to be in Gr 3, (composite 3/4) a bit like Jalen was last year as finally, they are starting to be one of the big kids and she said that this year they were doing heaps of Art and Science with Mrs K (Kleinig) who is also a fabulous teacher.

I met Hallie's student teacher too today and I was asking her a few questions and she said, 'oh are you a teacher too?' I laughed and said 'no, but my Mum, 2 sisters and bro-in-law are'. I guess I have picked up a bit listening to them talk at family dinners. :)

Oliver starts early learning again some time this term and is very excited to know that this is his last year before kinder. He is 4 on March 4th so is one of the older ones so I know next year he will be more than ready for kinder. Look at me, already getting excited about next year when it's only the first day of this year. ;)

Who Wants to be a Movie Star!!

On Thursday night, we held a RS activity at Kit's place. We called it our "Who wants to be a Movie Star" night. Kit is famous for her homemade pizzas so she made about 6 bases and we asked each of the sisters to bring a pizza topping. We had fun decorating them, especially as we were hearing different ones say, "oh yuk I don't want pineapple" or "no onion on this one".

Maureen Handley

While the pizzas were cooking we watched the new Emma Hale Smith movie. It was fantastic. We stopped halfway through to eat the pizzas and then finished watching the movie. After dessert, Mel took us outside for some star gazing.


Mel first explained the Aboriginal story behind the stars, then the scientific make-up of stars and then finished off by reading how the stars were formed out of the book of Genesis. She then showed us we can use the stars to find south during the night. It was fascinating as I had no idea where I would be at night, not having the sun to rely on, and now next time I get lost in the bush, I can find my way out. :) You should have seen the torch Mel had. I have never seen one so big. It had like 15million candle wattage.

Kit had put out some flames on sticks outside to help set the mood. It was very lovely. We jsut needed some marshmellows to roast and we would have been set.


Look at these two cheeky second cousins Lachlan and Jonty Monty.


To spend some time star gazing really puts things into perspective and I am so glad we don't live in a smoggy built-up city where it would be almost impossible to see the stars. Thankyou too Kit for hosting us at your lovely home.