A Winning Day

I studied the form for hours a matter of seconds before declaring that ‘Shocking’ was going to win the Cup.  Being the huge gambler I am, I suggested 50 cents each way would be an appropriate bet.  Man-child doesn’t do baby bets like me so bet $5 for me so I won just over $100.  It was the only bet I had for the day, not a bad result for a few seconds research!

Here are a few more reasons why today was a great day of fun in the sun, or in the shade under the trees on the soft green grass as the case may be.

Someone to serve food

Relaxing in the Shade

Girls Hiding in the Trees

It was an awesome day.  There were 5 families enjoying the day in the park.  Not only was it much more fun being in the park but they changed the camera angles for the main race and you couldn’t really see our house!

Melbourne Madness

Racing fever has hit town and the neighbourhood is alive.  Now normally it is hectic around here, but for a change it is and not just my house that is crazy but the whole area.  You see we live just up the road from Flemington Racecourse.   In fact we are so close we can hear the race calls from our house.  As you can imagine with 100,000 people converging on your suburb, traffic is always going to be crazy so we stay local.

Traditionally we would wander down to a park and sit in the sunshine with dozens of other locals who don’t want to brave the insanity of traffic and transport.  A friend drags his tv and lounge suite out to the park, we bring over our old bbq (actually come to think of it, I think it is still there from last year!), a shade gazebo and a laptop to ensure that we can keep up to date with the race odds.  It is a great day, the kids all play cricket or frisbee, climb trees and ride bikes and we all sit around eating and drinking.  Generally we are in the park from late morning and go home as the sky darkens having overindulged all day long.  We have been doing this for the past 2 years with plans to do it again tomorrow.

That was until we saw the weather forecast.   City - Shower or two. Windy.  Min 17, Max 20

That doesn’t bode well for electronic equipment in the middle of a park.  Apparently the tv in the park has been cancelled so now what to do?  We could still go to the park without the tv but being able to watch the race is what set this picnic apart from other picnics in the area.  The location is so central that many people walking to the races walk by and have been known to join in on the festivities.  The other option is to just open our house again and have everyone come over here.  It will still be fun but not the same without a park for the kids to play in.

Regardless of all the planning, the weather can change again and it probably will.  Today it was supposed to be windy and also have thunderstorms.  Now there is a slight breeze and beautiful blue skies.  There were a few showers earlier in the day but they have been and gone and it is now the perfect day outside.   I am happy to just make it up as we go along, and make any decisions in relation to moving furniture out to the park tomorrow but I think others like to have some real plans about what to do for the day.  I wonder if we could just say if we aren’t in the park we will be here and cross our fingers and hope for the rain to hold off.

Who knows where we will end up.  If you do happen to watch the Melbourne Cup, the Race that Stops a Nation look our for us.  When they are showing overhead views of the track you will see where I live.  Perhaps if we do end up celebrating the day here at home, I might see if I can get the kids all in the backyard with balloons or something equally as colourful to see if you can see them!

Birthday Parties – Breaking My Own Rules

This week I have broken most of my self imposed rules, one of which relates specifically to birthday celebrations.  I ‘don’t do birthday parties‘ for the kids every year, instead the celebrator can take a friend and go to the movies and have a sleep over (hasn’t happened yet) or we have cake in the park with a few friends (generally 3 or 4) on the day and we always have a family and friends barbeque the following weekend.  Now that seems like it should be simple right?  Well when I found out that there were only 7 girls in girl-child’s class and she was inviting 4 of them to her ‘cake in the park shindig’ and then realised that another girl and her sister would just turn up and eat cake as she lives opposite the park there would only be 2 girls in her class that wouldn’t be invited.  That was when I relented and allowed her to invite the 7 girls.  Add on neighbours, walk-bys and siblings and all of a sudden the small gathering became a rather large gathering.  It wasn’t too much of a hassle, in fact it was fun, however I did break my rules.

Then we get to the friends and family barbeque that kind of grew larger than expected.  It started just as us, my parents, Lil Sis and Billy.  Being a school girl now, girl-child doesn’t often get to see one of her oldest and best friend who goes to another school many suburbs away so we have to wait until weekend to catch up so of course we invited her and her family over.  Surprising all of us was the other Grandma and Aunt who came to visit, something that happens very infrequently.  Then of course what is a barbeque without neighbours so add a few more families to the ‘guest list’ and before we knew it the house was overflowing and a real celebration was in swing.

All the kids ate and then jumped in to the hot tub to splash away the afternoon until it was cake time.

More Birthday Cake

So for someone who doesn’t do birthday parties I feel as if I have allowed girl-child to celebrate a little too much.  Now ordinarily going over the top wouldn’t be such a bad thing normally but boy-child has missed out entirely.  His birthday is in the week before the school year begins.  He wanted to invite a friend over for a wii day and maybe a sleep over but this ‘friend’ would only come over if another boy would be there too – another boy that I really don’t like.  Besides, what does it say if a kid will only come over if they can bring their own friend.

I had visions of boy-child being excluded and having a horrible day so we were able to convince him to postpone his celebration until school started back and he could invite new friends from his new class.  Of course as wonderful as that sounded, he didn’t really settle in well.  Before he had a chance to make any new friends he dislocated his elbow and broke his arm and became even more isolated.  By the time he recovered it was the middle of Winter, 6 months after his birthday and man-child’s birthday.  The following holidays the weather was better but he was back in hospital for more surgery so there wasn’t much point in having a party then either.

The poor boy did have a small family shindig but hasn’t celebrated his birthday with friends, he didn’t even complain when girl-child had a ‘real birthday party’.  I feel so guilty about him missing out that I know that I will continue to break my party rules and he too will have a real birthday party next year.

All the motherguilt aside, the birthday celebrations were fun, the weekend was great and exhausting.  Perhaps I need to review my set of rules, take a chill pill and just have fun.

1000+

I think my Reader is reflective of the state of my life at the moment.  It is currently reading 1000+ and chaotic.

I want to hit ‘Mark All As Read’, and then I panic that I am going to miss out on something really exciting so I am sitting here trying to multi task, skimming through my ‘must read’ folders, playing bingo with the kids and imagining that the cleaning fairies are working their magic in the mess I call a house whilst procrastinating about making dinner and wishing I were sound asleep somewhere in the sun.

Instead, I wonder what recipes Google can suggest using eggplant and rice?

Happy to be 6 or Weekly Winners #5 (a few days late)

I think that girl-child is happy to be 6!

Waking up as a 6 year old.

She was so excited to finally be 6, she couldn’t stop smiling.

Reading a Birthday Card

Instead of ripping through the presents she stopped to read a card.

ooooh, Shiny!

I bet I know what this is – I bet it is a new charm for my bracelet, yay.

Hooray!

Looking at the photos, girl-child had a great birthday playing with her friends all afternoon in the park, enjoying the sunshine.

When I tucked her in to bed tonight I asked her if she liked being 6.  I expected that she would gush about how much fun it is but instead she became quite introspective, paused for a second and then said she didn’t want to be 6.  She went on to explain that she couldn’t be everywhere when she is 6 and it isn’t fair that she has to share herself, she wants to be 0, 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 all at the same time.  Her reasoning was that if she could be all those different ages she could share herself with more people, that she could play with all her friends at the one time and everyone would have much more fun.

Happy birthday my beautiful Boo, I can’t believe that you are 6 already.  I love you, thanks for being so much fun.

Filling in the Gaps

I have had a few comments about my attire in the previous post so I guess rather than email the same story multiple times I can try and explain the history of the outfits and how they are important to me.

Outfit #1

Relaxing on our Wedding Day

My wedding dress.  I made my wedding dress and the dresses of my bridesmaids and flowergirl.  Now that really shouldn’t have been too difficult, so I had to make the whole wedding planning time more difficult by living and studying on the other side of the city at the time for 5 months leading up to the wedding.  That meant that I had to get man-child to cut out all the fabric during the week so that I could come home over the weekend and make the dresses as I tried to study.  I have to say that man-child did a much better job of cutting than I would have.  He also did a fantastic job of doing all the wedding planning that I didn’t have time for!

Oh and YES, I AM WEARING DOCS under my wedding dress, beautiful dark green 8 ups.  I did have gorgeous strappy white satin shoes with comfortable 3 inch heels that I had planned on wearing.  I packed my Docs to wear later in the day fearing that I would end up with sore feet and not enjoy the reception.  Just before we left for the ceremony I changed my mind about the heels figuring that since the wedding was outdoors my heels would sink into the lawn so I ditched the heels and pulled on the Docs.  Of course I hadn’t packed any ‘wedding socks’ so I wore white socks with blue and purple giraffes on them!  I am happy to say that I ended the day more than slightly intoxicated, with sunburn but my feet were great.

Outfit #2

Ready to Partay!

Man-child as Angus Young from ACDC, girl-child wanting to get in on the dressing up action as Tinkerbell, me as an All American Goddess and girl-child’s friend.

Now to explain the significance of this dress I have to fill you in on a bit of background, so here goes.

We have lived in this house for 6 years now and have some wonderful neighbours, people that perhaps we would never have met.  Actually if I am to be honest, I can’t imagine that our paths would ever have crossed had we not moved here.  It was one of these wonderful friends who celebrated his birthday on Friday and with whom we partied on Saturday.

Now to celebrate his birthday in style we, the guests, were asked to dress as someone we admire.  Now when the invitation arrived that seemed like an easy thing to do, but then when I sat down and thought about it, it wasn’t that easy.  Sure I could come up with someone I admire, but they wouldn’t be people anyone would actually recognise or that I could feel glamourous being dressed up as.  Then I found out that a bff of the birthday boy ws planning to fly in for the party.  Now this bff is also a good friend of mine, a former neighbour and someone that I truly admire.  I don’t want to tell here story here, it isn’t mine to tell, but I can fill you in on little bits.

You see this former neighbour is originally from Chicago, fell in love with an Aussie and moved here.  Illness and injury in her family caused her to move home.  In her time here she was involved in performing and pageants and I helped to create costumes and gowns for her to wear performing.  The gown that I am wearing in the photo is one that I re-made for her.  She didn’t like the original make of the dress, she felt like a foofy bride so I pulled it apart and re-made the skirt entirely and modified the bodice.  She took the gown over to Thailand to have beaded before I finished it.  If I do say so myself, the finished dress is quite amazing.  So amazing in fact that she won 2 major pageants wearing the dress.  I decided that I should go to the party as her, as I admire the the person that she is and the journey that she has followed in order to find herself.

This is what the dress should look like on!

PS – I am not as tall as the owner of the dress so even with 3 inch heels it was a little too long.  I really wish that I could have worn Docs – my feet were killing me and I ended up in bare feet for part of the evening.  Luckily the dress hid the classiness of my bare feet.  I am also not as voluptuous either so I didn’t have much to hold up the bodice!

Throughout this journey I have discovered that I really enjoy dressing up, now I need to find an excuse to really dress up again.

Weekly Winners #3

Well this has certainly been one of the craziest weeks I have ever lived through.  Not since the days of living in the sleep deprived world of a new parent have I had so little sleep, but for so many different reasons.  First there is the general insanity of school holidays to keep a person awake, then there was the puke bug that set up temporary residence here.

Next there was this wonderful distraction.

Barely 14 Hours Old

Closely followed by remembering and celebrating this wonderful day.

Going to the 'Chapel of Love'

And then partying in style!

The Fanciest Dress

It has been an amazing, eventful and exhausting week full of events that deserve a post all of their own.  For now the few photos will have to do, sleep is calling.

The Happiest Day of the Year?

Apparently Grand Final Day, a day of national importance, is the ‘happiest day of the year’ or so I am told by man-child.  For me?  Not so much.  It is always a fun day of catching up with friends that sometimes is the only day of the year that we actually spend time together, eating drinking and catching up.  Typically the die-hard fans sit outside and watch the game on the ‘Wii TV’, the family followers sit inside in a slightly more kid friendly environment whilst I normally sit around in the courtyard enjoying the company of other friends who really don’t care about the football but care about the company.

Today the weather was conspiring against us, it was cold wet and windy with patches of hail!  Instead of spreading out, almost everyone was inside.  When I say everyone I should mention that it was a ‘quiet’ GF day with about 35 adults and 20 kids ranging in ages from tiny (adorable) babies to 11 year olds.  The kids ignored the game and spread out upstairs on the middle floor.  The top floor was off limits – it was a retreat for the cat and also for babies in cots.  With so many people from so many different background, with worlds colliding you could see so many styles of parenting or lack thereof in action.

As much as some parenting styles did my head in, I don’t want to use this space to be a sancti-mummy.  I will say that days like today make me realise just how awesome my kids are – they rock!

The middle floor of the house looks like a toy shop has exploded in it.  A shelf was mysteriously pulled from the wall and a gigantic tub of beads was tipped down the stairs.  Then we move downstairs where a poker game is still continuing.  I think that tomorrow is going to hurt…

A Looooooong Day

It has been a really long day.  The kids didn’t get back until around 11, giving boy-child a chance to show us how well he can do pushups and giving us enough time to get a few toys and colouring books thrown into a bag before heading into the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Push Ups Before Surgery

We arrived at noon and paperwork was filled out and then the waiting began.  After a short wait we met with the anesthetist where boy-child was told about how he would be given medicine to make him go to sleep for the surgery.  He was told that they would put cream on his wrist so that he wouldn’t feel the drip being inserted and then he was given a choice of flavours for the sleeping gas.  He chose strawberry!  Then it was back to waiting again.  The waiting room was packed and we were expecting a huge wait.  Man-child and girl-child went to the market to stock up on food, and to get some food for a late lunch – girl-child hadn’t eaten since her early breakfast at 6am stating it wasn’t fair for her to eat when her brother couldn’t.

Next we met with a surgeon who discussed explained exactly what they would be doing – making a small incision along his existing scar to remove the 2 screws.  The surgeon drew an arrow on his arm pointing to where the surgery was to be.

Fix this Arm!

He thought the procedure would last about 30 minutes and when it was done his arm would be bandaged and he would be required to rest.  I actually laughed at that point – how am I supposed to keep him still and quiet during the school holidays?  Boy-child wondered if resting meant he couldn’t do pushups and was disappointed when he was told no pushups for 2 weeks at least!

More waiting.  Next nurses weighed him (he checked in at the hefty weight of 24.90kg) and put anesthetic cream on his hand and elbow.  We were told we were second on the orthopedic surgery list and the first person was currently in surgery so the wait shouldn’t be too much longer.  We filled in time by playing Uno and watching movies in the waiting room.

Finally we were called through.  Boy-child put on his hospital gown and climbed up on to a gurney and snuggled under a heated blanket.  His tiny little body was shaking with nerves but he was being so brave.  Luckily it wasn’t long before the anesthetists came by and the boy was wheeled through to the prep area.

Awesome Medical Staff (Fiona and Jonathan)

The anesthetist and nurse were fantastic posing for a photo and keeping the boy-child distracted as they inserted the drip.  Once the chemical cocktail was introduced to his body and he had two breaths of the strawberry flavoured sleeping gas he was out cold.  I gave him a quick kiss goodbye and then it was back to waiting again.

Strawberry Sleep

It was over an hour before the surgeon came in to tell me that they had just finished the surgery.  All went well but it took longer than expected to remove the screws and the washers that had fused with the bone.  The incision they had to make was larger than they anticipated but they were able to stitch him up and bandage him without the use for a plaster or backslab.

It was another half hour before I was called through to recovery and he still wasn’t awake.  We had to annoy him awake only to have him tell us he was tired and wanted to go back to sleep.  It wasn’t much but he was able to wiggle all his fingers when requested and he was responding to questions, even if it was with a request to sleep more or for more drugs for pain relief.  Extra drugs were administered to help with the pain then it was time  for him to be moved back to the day surgery area to recover more and eat icy poles.

Man-child and girl-child were there waiting as he was wheeled in to the day surgery area so his spirits lifted pretty quickly.  Slowly his appetite was returning.  He skulled 2 glasses of juice, ate a jelly cup and an icecream.  He even managed to snaffle a piece of my chocolate bar and get to play man-child’s iphone.  At this stage of the day I was exhausted and forgot to take photos of the success.

Finally, 5 1/2 hours after arriving at the hospital it was home time.  Boy-child was tired and fragile and very disappointed that he couldn’t keep the screws that they took out from his arm.  By the time we arrived home he was really hungry and scoffed 3 bowls of pasta, the first covered in vegetables the second two bowls covered in a tomato based sauce and cheese.

My brave little boy was yawning all the way through dinner so I promised him that he could lay in the study upstairs and watch a movie.  That was 3 1/2 hours ago and he is still awake and hungry.  He has just had some more panadol and another banana and hopefully will fall asleep soon.  That said I am about to head back upstairs at his request, to snuggle with him so he will get some sleep.  I am so glad that today is over.

Celebrating Life

After a day of madness where I felt like I was either snapping and grumbling or running around in circles but not actually getting anything done, it was great to get home from work today.  I had just enough time to drop the car at home and walk up to school to pick up the kids and enjoy the beautiful sunshine.

I am glad my mood had improved by the time we returned home, we had an evening out planned – we were heading in to Alexandra Gardens for Light the Night.  We were there to remember and to support a friend who lost his father after a long battle with Leukemia.  We were also there to celebrate man-child’s sister who has been clear of Lymphoma for over 5 years now and also a friend who’s young daughter has just just finished her treatment for Leukemia.  Most of all we were there to celebrate and to provide hope for all of those currently in treatment for blood cancers.

It was a beautiful night in Melbourne.  Alexandra Gardens was filled with families and groups of friends remembering and celebrating.  There was laughter and tears, there was remembering and there was hope and celebration.

Light the Night

At just this event over $200,000 was raised to be used for support of families in treatment and also for research into blood cancers.

Girl-child wanted to wear a sticker to celebrate the life of her email friend who has just finished her chemo treatment, this one is for you Bianca!

Smiles for Bianca

As night fell, thousands of balloon lights were turned on and we all began walking along the banks of the Yarra River and through Southbank.  It was a beautiful night to be out with family and friends, celebrating all of the wonderful things we have in our lives and supporting those who have had a more difficult path to follow.  It was great knowing that just by attending this amazing event not only are we raising much needed funds for the Leukemia Foundation but we were also raising awareness of a very real disease in our communities and providing hope.