First Day Photos

School and kinder resumed late last week and mother's everywhere breathed a collective sigh of relief, at least in this house they did!  School holidays are such a mixture of emotions.  Slower paced days, sleep-ins, playgrounds and other various activities are all fine and dandy but, oh, the incessant fighting between my three!  The whole Cruise Director hat I must put on to keep everyone entertained!  The picking up of lego!  The putting away of eleventy billion textas and pencils! 

 

My little people go into Grade 3 (where apparently the Real Homework begins!), Grade 1 and Four year old kinder this year.  That means for 15 hours every week this mamma has no babies at home!

 

 

Don't worry.  I do remember when they really were all babies.  Here's Matilda all fresh and new, Isaac at 2 and Oscar at 4.  It is not a lie when they say that time really does fly.

 

Photo a day in October

I am going to try and do Fatmumslim's photo a day for October. 

I did it in January and survived and managed and most probably bored you all to tears but we'll see how we go!

 

Here's the wee list if you'd like to do it too.  Just click on the image and it will take you to Chantelle's lovely blog where you can see what it's all about.

 

 

 

Day One: where you stood...

 

 

...in stinky bowling shoes! 

 

Bless school holidays and activities that always end in tears.  I have clearly not parented my children well enough for them to learn to lose 'gracefully'!

Happy Sunday!

Do you know what today is?

(The things you meet at shopping centres during school holidays!)

Today is the last day of school holidays where mumma's everywhere breathe a sigh of relief... at least in this house!  The smalls are back to school TOMORROW!  Routine is back TOMORROW!  Can I get a WOOT WOOT! 

It's hilarious that a week ago I was posting how grateful I was feeling about the relaxed ho humness that school holidays can produce.  Week 1 always makes me feel this way. 
Week 2 makes me want to stab myself in the eye.

(We go the park to play.  We end up sitting and eating non-stop!)

They have literally been killing me and each other this week with non-stop arguments and incredible fisticuffs... Matilda included.  At the park the other day my friend was asking whether the huge, gouging scratch marks down the back of Oscar's neck were due to a dog attack.  Um, no.  That would be the five year old brother.  Oscar probably looked at him the wrong way.

So busy have I been keeping them in seperate rooms of the house I've had no time for very much else.  When I got into my google reader this morning there were over 400 blog updates to look at!  What's a girl to do?

I was ruthless.  I scrolled through them.  Kept clicking on the next button.  If you didn't grab me with your opening line/picture, I had to keep going.  Ruthless I tell you but a must.  I cannot cope with a full google reader!

Best thing I have come across this morning though is this fantastic new site called

It's like Pinterest for Sewers! 

I came across it through this wonderful blog, Me Sew Crazy.

Jessica describes the site as a forum where users can freely upload and share their patterns and tutorials with the on-line sewing community, search the sewing directory, and save their favorites for future reference.

Go to the blog link above for a better description, but if you are a crafty sewing type, do yourself a favour and have a look at SewSet.

52 weeks of Grateful... Flying free

School holidays always see me torn.

I love routine, the kids love routine.  Matilda's first question to me of a morning is always about what the day is and what's on the calendar. 

We love to wake up in the morning and know our expectations!

School holidays mean there are no expectations.  Two weeks stretches in front of us with vague plans and committments about what we might do (depending on mummies finances!)

Dare I say that I have enjoyed week 1.  We've had pyjama days, we've been bowling, we've been to the upstairs/downstairs Chippie Donalds, birthday parties and the skate park.  More parties and football are on for the weekend.  Maybe a little drive to country next week.  An outdoor playground if this jolly rain stops.

We've been flying free... no routines at all.  Generally waking up and seeing how the land lies before decisions are made about what entertainment we participate in.

I'm feeling grateful about the relaxed atmosphere we have been living in.

(Did your parents ever let you fly on their feet?  I remember doing it with my sister and feeling sad when we got to big to do it anymore!)

This week I'm grateful for...

I did warn you that it would happen.

Two weeks ago I was grateful that school holidays were about to start... today I am grateful they have come to an end.  I am officially done with parks, playgrounds, lego spread from one end of the house to the other, paper craft, texta on my carpet and non-stop requests for food.

I love me some routine and cant wait to get back to it all next week!

What are you feeling grateful for this week? 

We are back with Bron this week! 

Go give her some love!

Things I dood....

So says Mr 3 anyway!

We are in the middle weekend of school holidays here and surprisingly we are still sane! I think one needs a plan to survive two weeks of three small people with nary a break to breathe - or even visit the loo on your own! We've visited friends and been visited by friends, been to birthday parties, scooted round the block screaming about cranky legs when we approach the hills and made potato heads at shopping centres. Papreplate dinosaurs have also been particulary present this week. We've only visited one park though (thanks cold, rainy Melbourne weather)! And yesterday I took the boys to Toy Story 3. Have you seen it yet? Oscar and Isaac love, love, loved it. (And truthfully so did their mummy.) Ken totally steals the show in the movie!

Got any good school holiday ideas you'd like to share?