School holiday visit to Toby (and Collette and Hayden)

On Tuesday Hallie and I set off to Hobart to visit the Bells. As per usual it was pouring with rain and very windy, especially once we hit the Midlands around Oatlands but we made it by cranking the tunes up and singing along... or making the words up if we didn't know them.

We had such a great time down there and the weather didn't dampen our spirits.

Hayden had told Collette that she just had to take us to Daci and Daci, this amazing bakery. It was SO good. I felt like I was in one of those chic Melbourne patisseries.

We took Toby to his first movie and he loved it. It was Turbo, about a super fast snail that entered the Indy 500 and I think he loved seeing all the cars and talking snails.

Hayden kept Hallie entertained on the arcade game he built earlier in the year. I think they were getting a bit competitive (or maybe just Hayden) ;)

And Collette got us hooked on a game called Monopoly Deal. Hallie and I just had to head to Big W and buy our own pack before heading home.

And even when Collette's friend Brodie dropped around we couldn't help but play another game.

We had such fun and I very much enjoyed not having to cook or change any nappies or wipe anyone's butt - except for Toby's but he is too cute to count. It was nice to sit and chat and not have to have anywhere to be, or to rush off to, or to be a taxi and have the kids somewhere at a certain time for an after school activity like during the school term. 

Toby comes to town

At the beginning of this week, we had a lovely visit from the Bells. I hadn't seen Toby since his blessing back on the 4th of August so I was looking forward to a visit and to see how much he had grown.

Hallie was especially looking forward to them coming and had asked me to make sure Collette and H ayden were up before school finished so that we could go and meet them after school and walk home together.

The boys loved having Hayden around and Jonty especially loved it, getting Hayden to play lego with him and the wii.

Flynn also loved hanging out with Toby and was very gentle with him, although Toby doesn't look too happy in this pic.

And I can't believe that Toby's pjs used to be Flynn's.

We spent a lovely two days together, just hanging out and chatting and catching up and Toby was such a good boy sleeping from 8.30 - 6am. It must have been all that stimulation of SO many extra kids around him. ;)

We took Toby for a drive to the ETC and had a really yummy lunch.

Bath -time was especially fun.

And finally after alot of photos I got one of Toby giggling and smiling at the girls. Pity it was just a iphone quality one.

Come again soon baby Toby.

From baby shower to baby {Toby's blessing day}

{Toby's blessing day - 4th August 2013}

Back on the 25th of May, Mum, Lisa, Jess and I hosted a northern baby shower for Collette at Lisa's house. It was a beautiful late Autumn day and we had a heap of fun.

Mum running the Price is Right game.

For one of the games, we got Hayden to supply some urine sample containers (clean of course) and I filled them with  6 different yellow liquids and they had to guess what was in each container.

It was SO funny watching everybody study thee urine specimen containers.

It's a tradition at a party for Collette to have pass the parcel and this time we added in a twist. Once the music stopped (Jayme compiled a list of music for the game, from the year Collette was born - 1983), there was a little treat but also a question which had to be answered by Collette. It was all about pregnancy and labour and if she got it wrong, she had to eat a piece of bubble gum and keep adding a piece to her mouth if she got another one wrong. She was pretty good though and only ended up with six pieces in her mouth at once.

Wer had some great food.

Jess drinking some of her amazing yummy drink that she made.

Little thankyou gifts for the guests.

Them just six short weeks later fast forward to this weekend and we find ourselves heading off to Hobart for a baby blessing. And in between of course, meeting Toby Robert Bell who was born on the 2nd of July.

Simon couldn't come as he had search and rescue training which tied him up for three days over the weekend of Toby's blessing.

He was able to take some awesome pics from his three days in the snow though, so I got to see a little bit of the kind of conditions he was training in. There were about 20 police search and rescue and roughly 40 SES volunteers doing the training.

 the packs on their backs weigh about 20 kilos.

This pic looks so amazing. It looks like a big hole in the side of the mountain.

snow shoes and snow poles.

Simon thought it was cool to find a place called Flynn's Tarn.

So while Simon was out in rain and snow blowing sideways, Mum and the kids and I headed down to Hobart Saturday afternoon, ready for Toby's blessing yesterday.

We stayed next door to the Wheelers at the Treasure Island caravan park and stopped there first to dump off our gear before heading to the Bell's house, It felt even too cold to get out of the car. We had to drive quite slowly most of the 2.5 hrs, coming down as the rain was hitting the windscreen so hard but at least everybody else was driving slowly and carefully too.

At the Bell's we caught up with everyone. Jess, Kyle and Bastian had flown in from Melbourne and it was a perfect opportunity to take a photo of Mum with all ten grandkids together.

It was just kinda hard to get them all looking at the same time.

 Later that night back at the caravan park, Mum and I couldn't help but laugh because we used to stay at this caravan park 25 years a go and nothing seemed to have changed since then. There was no heating except a tiny little fan heater but the lady brought us in another one, after Mum asked her if that was the only heating we had. The kids slept altogether in a triple bunk, which they thought was a real novelty.

One good thing was the view from our cabin as the sun came up the next morning.

After Toby's blessing yesterday, we had a whole heap of photos with all the family.

Andrews

Hayden's family.

The menfolk that helped bless Toby.

4 generations

Wheelers

a little biut windy. ;)

After Toby's blessing we headed to Hayden's parents place and Hallie got to ride there on the back of Hayden's motorbike. She was grinning from ear to ear and LOVED every minute of it.

It was lovely spending some time at the Bell's chatting with Hayden's family and enjoying cuddles with Toby.

I love this photo I got when Hayden's sister Alice, was making Toby smile at her. What a cutie!!