Meet Sister Watson

Yesterday afternoon Alex dressed Maddi up as a missionary. The missionaries came around for tea, so it was very appropriate that she was a missionary for the afternoon.




She doesn't look like a happy missionary here!


Spotting some investigators.

Organising

This afternoon after Chloe's party, Maddi and 'Big Alex' constructed a shelving unit for the back storage room. Maddi really enjoys helping people and enjoyed helping Alex. She kept saying that they were making a playground and making a house, so that may be why she was so enthusiastic! She was really good at handing him the tools. After a few minutes she could name a shifter, screw driver and the nuts and bolts. It's so good that we now have a boy as I think 'Big Alex' will love to teach 'Little Alex' all about cars and 'boys stuff'.

"Here you go Daddy."

Now if anyone knows Alex, they will know that he is a big fan of Bundaberg Ginger Beer. He likes one other brand (Cascade), but Bundaberg is the ultimate in his eyes. When it was Grand Final day he stocked up on a case full, which barely lasted a week. The other week, I noticed Chickenfeed was advertising Bundaberg Ginger Beer 2 for $2, which was a great price. I told Alex about it, and he snapped up a carton full, as well as a carton of Bundaberg Lemon Lime and Bitters. Now Bundaberg Ginger Beer is featuring on our shelving unit!


Yesterday morning when I checked Lisa's blog, I was excited like her, to find that the decor containers were half price at Coles. I saw that they were advertising them, but I thought it was just one particular set that was half price. So wasn't that keen when I saw them advertised in the catalogue. But this was not the case according to Lisa's blog (it pays to read blogs). I raced down to Coles in hope that they still had a bit of stock. I was very doubtful as it was the second sale day and our local Coles store is not the best, as far as stock goes. However it was my lucky day! When some customers saw my trolley full of containers, they wanted to be in on the bargain.

We often have family members come and stay with us. They often get lost in the pantry and I end up helping them find what they are looking for. Hopefully that's all history now, unless we have some 'Man's Looks.'

Chloe's Party

Today was Chloe's birthday party at Eden and Steph's place. Chloe turns 2 on Tuesday.

The birthday girl
Chloe was very affectionate. Here she is giving Kelsea a kiss. I told Kelsea to give the Birthday Girl a kiss. Chloe must prefer giving rather than receiving!

We played pass the parcel, Which Noah and Lisa won. I think Lisa has all the luck!

Then the kids went on a lollie hunt outside.

The kids had a great time playing outside.

The trampoline was a hit. The girls sat back and relaxed while Oliver bounced them.

Maddi made some great friends named Hannah and Becky. They were kind, fun little girls. Their Mum served her mission in the Ward a few years back, and they are now living in the area.

I think she had a ball!

Chloe had a Nemo cake. It's her favourite movie. She gives this movie full attention when she watches it. I wish Maddi would watch a movie for that long! Steph did a great job organising the party. All the kids were given a party bag to take home. Maddi and Alex were really tired after and slept all the way home.

All About Play

This week has been a busy play week. I have been meaning to check out a playgroup at the local school for a while now, and finally took Maddi along. The kids were a lot older than Maddi but she enjoyed the structured activities and loved playing in the play corner playing in the pretend kitchen.

On Tuesday morning Aimee messaged me to let me know that there was a Teddy Bear's Picnic on at the Bluff. It seemed fitting that we would go as Maddi absolutely loves teddy bears. Her favourite teddy is Gordy of course, and most people know this as she drags him around as he is her comfort toy. I guess he's better than dragging a huge blanket around, hey Lisa?! Gordy is very real to Maddi, she treats him like a baby by putting nappies on him, makes him use the potty, gets him off to sleep and breastfeeds him. He doesn't get washed as often as I would like him to, as someone misses him too much.

Some of Maddi's other teddy bear crew consists of Bless, Pink, Ourwah, Rabbit, Princess and many others. Maddi names all her teddy bears. When she was about 18 months she named her yellow teddy "Bless". We had told her that this bear was the teddy that Perry had given her when she got blessed as a baby, and all of a sudden the yellow bear was being named Bless by Maddi.


Maddi almost 12 months old with her favourite teddies.


Maddi at the Teddy Bear's Picnic with Gordy. The day was just gorgeous when we were getting ready to go. The sun was shining and it was even a bit hot. I dressed little Alex in shorts, but it soon turned cold and windy and started to shower at the end! The event was really good. There were lots of little activities to do and everything was free. There were story sessions, face painting, a jumping castle and activities with things to make.




Listening to a story with Charlie.


The Wiggles jumping Castle was definitely her favourite. Poor Eli wasn't feeling too well, but perked up when he went into the jumping castle.


After the picnic we stopped in and visited Becky and Kelsea. Maddi and Kelsea are only 4 months apart in age, and at the moment they have a love/hate relationship. Maddi often tells me that Kelsea is her best friend, so it's nice to hear it sometimes, as I don't always see evidence of it! Becky was kind enough to look after Maddi and Alex for me while I did a few errands. I had no idea she took some photos, so it was a nice surprise to find some photos on my camera of the girls together.


Today we had our playgroup at church. We had a Halloween themed playgroup session. The kids dressed up in costumes. Maddi dressed up as a fairy and Alex a rabbit. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of them together. The kids brought a plate of 'spooky' food and played games and went Trick or Treating. There are so many kids and babies in the ward now. I love that there are so many kids and babies around the same age.

Maddi was delighted by all the lollies she got from Trick or Treating and almost ended up eating them all before we got home!

Game Day

Today we headed off to Deloraine for the Launceston versus Deloraine/ Devonport Wards football game. The Devonport boys have been playing footy on Saturday mornings and thought it would be a great idea to get together with the other wards to have a game. It turned out to be a success, apart from the injuries. While the game was in play, the families picnicked and watched the game. There were so many babies and children. It was great as the kids occupied themselves so well.


The turnout


The game in play. I must say I was impressed with the speed of the game.


Maddi watching the game with Grandma

Maddi decided that it was a good idea to check out what everyone had for their picnics. I think she decided Jayne's Potluck Picnic was the best! She was quite happy to spend the last quarter chatting with Jayne and eating her lollipops.

The sidelines.

To see some professional shots of the day click here.

After the game we headed off to Mum and Dad's for a Barbeque tea. It's great that all the girls are so close in age. Here is a shot of the three girls in height and age order. The eldest girl is on the right.


Maddi showed everyone how she can do forward rolls, or 'ducks' as she calls them. The boys thought they'd join in on the action and decided they were going to turn it into The Olympics.

Here are the Olympic Competitors lining up the hallway.

Alex has always been a ticklish little boy. Here Auntie Lisa is about to give him a tickle.

First haircut

This morning I took Maddi to the hairdressers for her very first haircut. Maddi's hair had got very long and was in desperate need of a cut to neaten it.

Before shot


We stopped by the park on the way through and had a bit of a play.




Maddi was excited that they put a Wiggles cape on her.


She sat so still and I was amazed that she did.


Not a lot was taken off, just a trim to neaten the edges up. I have hope that it will grow at a rapid pace, in time for Becc's wedding and told the hairdresser this. The hairdresser just laughed and told me that it probably wouldn't grow much in 5 weeks! The hairdresser kept a sample of her hair and made a special certificate for her. She put Maddi's hair in a ponytail and put glitter spray all through her hair. Maddi thought it was great as she was like a fairy.



Afterwards we went to Subway for lunch. Maddi was quite proud of her new haircut.

A New Man

A different man came home this afternoon. Can you figure out what's different?

Acts of Kindness

Today my Visiting Teachers dropped in for a monthly visit. They brought me some beautiful flowers for my birthday. Maddi thought they were great and kept touching and talking about them all afternoon.



While I was cooking tea, I was a bit occupied, but aware that Maddi was once again taking some interest in the flowers. A couple of minutes later I hear "Ta da!" Maddi said "Thankyou Mummy" meaning I needed to thank her for what she had done. She then told me she had done some drawings for me on the box. On all four sides there was a picture! She was so proud of herself. Normally I would be cross with her, as she knows she is only allowed to draw on paper. But tonight I had a bit of a smile.




As I was dishing up tea I looked up and this is what I saw!

This was a first. She was so proud of herself and wanted to keep feeding Alex even though her tea was ready. Now that's pretty selfless for a two year old!

Sickness and Birthday

Today is my birthday. I won't say how old I am though. I remember while I was in my teens thinking that this age was quite old. Yesterday, Alex always planned to take the day off to celebrate my birthday, as he already had some commitments today. He said I could do whatever I wanted. So I thought about what I would like to do, and thought it would be a good opportunity to get a professional massage done, as I've never had one before. But... My body thought otherwise. I woke up like I had been hit by car with aches and pains and felt just rotten! I had come down with the flu for about the 5th time for the year. No exaggeration either! I almost feel that people must be sick of hearing that I've been sick and it's become a bit of an embarassment.

Ever since I've become a Mum, I've fallen sick on days of celebration. On my first Mother's day, Maddi was about three weeks old, and I got Mastitis. I was in bed all day with a fever and had really bizarre dreams. Then this years Mother's Day I was sick once again with the Flu and unable to go to church. This episode of the Flu took almost a month to get over. Also to mention another episode of the flu, I got a sinus infection, and I reckon the pain was as bad as labour or if not worse. As it was constant for hours on end and nothing could ease it. It was good in a way because it made me have a bit of empathy for my brother Chrish who was recovering from a painful operation at the time. It was lucky that I had two good carers (Mum and Dad) to look after the kids as Alex was away on business at the time. Anyway I am harping on about my aches and pains a bit, I must be getting old! Alex's work offered flu shots for employees and their partners at the beginning of the year, so I reckon next year I won't be missing it. I also have some daily homeopathic drops, that I will dilligently take from now on!

It was lucky that Alex was home because I would've had to really push myself to look after the kids all day, and I reckon things would have got pretty haywire very quickly! When Maddi woke up she came to me at the bed very concerned and said, "What's the matter Mama?" I explained to her I was sick and she then said, "You need an ambulance!" Ha ha! She certainly made me laugh. I stayed in bed for the most of the day and rested, while Alex looked after the kids, he took the kids to McDonald's, (or ''Busy McDonald's'') as Maddi likes to call it. Maddi was pretty happy about her walk to Busy.

By 4.00pm I started to feel a lot better and decided that we would go out for tea like I originally planned, to my favourite Mexican restaurant The Prickly Cactus in Launceston . We stopped into Mum and Dad's on the way through and left the kids with them for a few hours. Mum and Dad had been to the show for the day and had taken Harri and Jay there. Mum brought home the girls all a Fairies show bag and Maddi was very excited by her fairy costume. Thank you Grandma!


At the Prickly Cactus we got our favourite regulars and tried some spicy mushrooms for entree. Alex got the 'Big Man's meal' of Pork ribs. I had a Chicken burrito, which I struggled to get through. The things I like about the Prickly Cactus is you always get a nice big meal and quick service. We were out of there within an hour. There was no way we were going to fit dessert in while we were there, so we headed to Westbury and stopped and got some Andy's Gelato.





Mum and Dad reported that the kids were good. They had KFC for tea, so Maddi had takeaway twice in one day! (Not something we do very often). Mum and Dad were surprised at how quickly Maddi went to sleep on Mum's bed, and without protest. Maddi absolutely loves Mum and Dad and often asks to go and visit Grandma and Grandpa, so she feels at home at their place.

This morning being my birthday, Maddi helped me open presents. Maddi and 'Little Alex' gave me some Peanut Butter Cups, which are my favourite. Alex made pancakes for breakfast and a nice tea of some of my favourite foods. I absolutely love seafood. We had barbequed scallops with bacon, a mango and avocado salad and ocean trout. The scallops were marinated in a nice sauce and even though I couldn't taste things that well, it was delicious!







Maddi has always been such a good eater and enjoyed the meal just as much as us!

I must say I felt very spoiled, especially since my birthday celebration lasted for two days and I spent yesterday resting.