Happy Birthday Stan!

Stan had probably the most anticlimactic birthday EVER! When I woke up to make him breakfast he had already left early for work :-( 

On the up-side, Stan did come home early (7:00pm) which was just enough time for us to blow out some candles before putting the kids to bed! Happy Birthday Stanford!

 Stan blowing out his candles on his plate full of cherries :-) Nothing healthier than fresh fruit!

This year for his birthday Stan got a hammock for the backyard and a rash guard for this summer!

Sports day!

Last week Thomas' Early Learning Centre (ELC)/ preschool had a sports day! Thomas was on the stripes team (so he was able to forgo the school uniform), and he was very excited as the parents came to cheer and support their child during the athletic activities!

 Thomas running the hurdles!

His form is notable :-)

 Arthur and Thomas

 Going in for the soccer kick...

Year 5 boys on the left (they are buddies with the ELC kids) in the normal uniform

Thomas on the mat. Here they can do any trick they want- We got a stylish jump!

 And of course a medal to finish off the day! 

Good work Thomas!

Thomas' art work!

Am I the only one who thinks this is hilarious?

Duck 1: everyone else in the class

 Duck 2: my beautiful son...thomas' duck :-)

Weekend down at the coast!

This weekend was a long weekend due to the Annual Melbourne Cup horse race (which here in Melbourne is a bank Holiday.) Stan took time off work on Monday (the horse races were Tuesday) and we decided to head down to the coast for the long weekend!

Here we are visiting the light house in the mornington peninsula 

 It was a bit of a hike but beautiful once down by the sea

 

Looking for sea life

 This beach was unusual because there were giant black rocks and no sand...made for a tricky walk with the kids!

Miss Mary!

Stan helping Mary walk back. Mary adores Stan!

The lighthouse!

  Picture shoot with Mary & Mummy

 Here we are at a lookout point saying good bye to Melbourne!

 

Before the hike down to the lighthouse we were also able to go through a giant maze and take a run down some slides. The kids had a great day!

 Stan and the kids going down the slide

 

The gardens were beautiful!

 This giant metal dragon would growl when you would walk by- the kids loved it! All in all- it was a great weekend!

Stan is back from the USA!

So last month Stan was in the USA for 3 weeks! We missed him but he called everyday so all was forgiven.  Stan was up in Massachusetts to help train some new recruits at Bain. On his way over from Australia he had a layover in Dallas, Texas (where his sister lives) - Here he is with Staci and her beautiful girls! Thanks so much cousin Colette for all the pet shops and cute little birthday bucket for Olivia, she loved them!

a few days later he was also able to stop over in DC to see his parents and other siblings for a few days; he had a great time! 

Here he is with his mom at the monuments!

Thanks Grandma Sue & aunt Cori for even MORE pet shops and treats...my girls were very very spoiled and were SO EXCITED!

When Stan came back we were so excited to see what goods he had brought from AMERICA (the land of everything is half price to Oz). The anticipation had been building up as his luggage had been lost :-)

 

 First, a Hershey's candy bar, we all ate a piece :-)

 Second, the girls received jewelry from Jill! Olivia got diamond earrings and Mary got some sapphires. THANK YOU JILL!  Long story short, when Olivia was three years old we lived with Jill for 1 year. Olivia used to go upstairs and talk with Jill in her bathroom and play with all her jewelry. Jill said she would give it to her when she died and so far she continues to give it to Olivia piece by piece (yes it is real).  Jill is one of the most amazing people I have ever met and cannot think of without my heart filling with gratitude and my eyes getting moist.

 Stan also picked up the game "Candy Land"- which has been an imaginary place that we use for bedtime stories. Our kids couldn't believe there was actually a game after it!

 And last of all Stan brought over a bag of all his childhood toys which he was able to pass down to Thomas. 

May the force be with you Thomas!

Best present of all was having daddy home again!

Halloween!

This year was our FIRST Halloween trick-or-treating in 5 years! It was my first time as a parent trick-or-treating with my kids and Olivia is 9 years old*(tangent at the bottom). I was so excited and it was kind of emotional because I didn't think I would ever get to do it. I thought, that vision of future parenting would be missed and it would be something I would have to explain to my kids while watching ET (or other American films).

 This year I didn't expect to do anything. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. There was no church "trunk-or-treat" the schools weren't doing anything, and although I had Halloween decorations in my storage... I didn't put them up. To top it off, I didn't try to explain the Halloween concept to anyone. I was tired of putting so much energy into Halloween every year, with getting results nothing close to my desired outcome. So, this year I was not going to mention it to my kids and just miss it :-)... Then the day before I got some phone calls.

First, Thomas's Aussie friend invited us to come trick-or-treating with them as their neighborhood does it, and we were American so they thought we would be interested. Second, Olivia's friend from school called and said they knew a nearby neighborhood that also trick-or-treats, and would we like to come along? THIRD- a friend from church mentioned her street does it... WHAT? Three neighborhoods? WOW! I said sure, locked up my house and once the kids got home from school we had 30 minutes to find a costume.

  Thomas used his PJ's (Skeleton)

Mary used her dance costume as a dog and we gave her some scary teeth. 

Olivia recycled her tap-dance costume (I bought pom poms) and she threw on some runners and we had a cheerleader 

Here are the kids at their FIRST HOUSE! 

*Note: this is Mary & Thomas' first time trick-or-treating (Olivia's last time was when she was 3 years old in 2006...we moved to England in 07 just 3 weeks before Halloween. After Oxford we had 3 years in Sydney with little to no Halloween, and last year was in New Zeland with no Halloween).

Knocking....So CUTE!

We went to three neighborhoods (we started at 5:00 and finished around 8:30). The kids got "a ton of candy" OK- maybe 30 pieces total...which made me smile. The neighborhoods that "do Halloween" all have different agreements. One neighborhood had rules that participating houses would put an orange balloon on their mailbox. Another street had an agreement about porch lights being turned on. It was great to see everyone try to work together to celebrate a holiday that is not their cultural norm.

 Here Mary is with her "ice block"...I am not going to say a thing about the Easter candy, money or Popsicle that were handed out at some of the doors :-) Because I am so happy we got to trick-or-treat!

Thomas' school really tries to celebrate all the holidays of various ethnicities. The teacher called me about wanting to carve a pumpkin on Halloween with the class. I was delighted because that is the most proactive activity I had ever heard of since living abroad and I really appreciated her efforts.  I talked her through it and introduced her to the idea of roasting the pumpkin seeds...She had never heard of it. Unfortunately Thomas was unwell on Halloween so he missed school, when I asked the other mums how it went they said they couldn't find a pumpkin so they carved a watermelon instead! 

Happy Halloween Australia!