Farm stay

Every year, we go away with a particular group of friends for the Australia Day long weekend.  We’ve been doing it since I was pregnant with Hannah.  We go somewhere different each year.  This year, we decided to do a farm stay and chose Honeycomb Valley Farm as our destination.

We arrived to two immaculately clean cabins, OJ, milk, butter, jam, and bacon in the fridge, fresh farm eggs on the counter, and a bunch of different single serving boxes of cereal in a basket.  I was kind of expecting the cabins to be dusty and farmish, but they get professionally cleaned after each guest leaves, and there wasn’t a bit of dirt of grime to be found.  Our family got one cabin to ourselves, and our other friends stayed in the other one.  No one else wanted to be woken up at 6am by little kids who don’t yet know the joys of sleeping in, no matter how tired they are or how late they stay up.

One of the goats at Honeycomb Valley Farm thinks it’s a person. She even came up on our porch when we first arrived.

We spent most of our 3 days there outside.

Daniel playing in a big hole in one of the paddocks.

Each morning, guests can (but don’t have to) help feed the animals.  You can do as little or as much as you want, but we helped every day and the kids, especially Hannah, enjoyed it immensely.  Farmer Andrew started with different animals each day we were there so that we got to experience something new each time.  I asked lots of questions and learned heaps.

Selfie with an alpaca. She was very cooperative 🙂

The first morning, he took Hannah and I around some of the far away paddocks in a trailer (with a mattress in it for comfort) attached to a quad bike. Daniel was constipated (I guess he gets holiday poo shy just like me), grumpy, and didn’t want to go on the trailer, plus Aaron was minding our friends’ daughter so they could do a beekeeping lesson, so the three of them went back to the cabin for a nap/quiet time while Hannah and I had all the fun.

Chickens chasing the trailer we were sitting in

We especially enjoyed seeing the chickens that day.  One of the flocks (is a group of chickens a flock?) anyway, there are a few of them.  Andrew converts old travel trailers that were destined for the tip/scrap yard into mobile chicken coops and moves them around the farm every couple of weeks.  During the night, the chickens are safely tucked into the converted trailer that has a wire mesh floor, and during they day they are let out to free range.

Hannah with the chickens in front of the “hens on holiday” moveable coop

Hannah liked collecting eggs and watching all the interesting, unusual breeds of chickens eat the kitchen scraps we brought them.  Some of the chickens even laid green eggs!  Some eggs were big, some were small, and one from an older hen was even quite wrinkly.  All were delicious though.

Some of the different eggs we collected

We also got to see our friends in their bee suits at the bee hives.  One of the other mornings, we saw the native australian stingless bee hives and the bee motel (where solitary bees lay their eggs).  Then we walked up and down hilly paddocks with Daniel on my shoulders and Hannah on Aaron’s to get to the cows.  We didn’t have to do that, of course, but we wanted to see the cows and there were too many of us to fit in the trailer since all of us were helping feed the animals that day.  It was also good exercise, and practice for the Spartan race.  A 7kg bag of sand on my shoulders while I trek up a steep hill is nothing compared to a 12kg boy on my shoulders for at least a kilometer.

The bee Motel

The morning feeding routine takes a couple of hours (at least), but Hannah didn’t get bored at all.  When it wasn’t feeding time, we still had plenty to do.  One day we went to the dam and rode the paddle boats.  Aaron wanted to have a race but was flabbergasted when I smoked him.  He claims his boat was faulty. HAHAHAHAHA if only.

Aaron and Hannah in one of the paddle boats

We were allowed to go in any of the paddocks at any time, so we spent lots of time just running around pastures with the kids.  Daniel was quite fond of jumping up and down in poop piles.

There was also a solar heated pool to play in after all that running around, plus a swing set, balls to kick around, a fire pit and bbq area, and a kids pedal tractor, although the pedals didn’t work.  They didn’t seem to care though, and pushed each other around in it, or got me or Aaron to push them.

The kids enjoying the swingset

Daniel on the pedal tractor

They have honey and tea tastings on a big covered deck attached to the converted shipping container shop.

Honey tasting

And Hannah got to milk a goat.

Hannah milking a goat. She was quite good at it. I gave it a go, but I failed.

Usually when we go away, we have to find things to do with the kids when it’s not nap time.  Last year during the trip, we even went to a shopping centre just for something to do.  At the farm though, we didn’t have to go anywhere else.  We could have stayed another whole week and they still wouldn’t have been bored.  We did end up going out one afternoon, but only because we’d never been to a winery before, and we were in the Hunter Valley.  It would have been silly not to visit a couple, especially since they were only a couple k’s down the road.

Aaron and the kids running between rows of grapes in a vineyard

After the kids went to bed, we played board and card games with our friends.  I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of, or played Cards Against Humanity, but oh my, it’s hilarious.  I usually end up laughing so hard that I cry when we play it.  This trip was no exception, especially when I used the below white card in answer to the black one:

So wrong, but so funny. I won that round.

I am one of those weirdos who laughs at the very mention of the word fart.  Or poop.  Or anything of the sort, so with this one, I was pretty much on the floor laughing hysterically, and everyone knew who played the fart card as soon as it was turned over.

I was quite impressed with the farm in general.  Though they are not certified organic, they do farm organically, and make a huge effort to educate others about conservation and farming responsibly.  There is a huge solar oven that they make cakes and dinners in, plus a smaller one that they melt all the beeswax that they collect in. There are worm farms, a solar fridge, a shop made from an old shipping container (where we bought 3kg of raw honey), a native bee sanctuary, and they are even going to build an earthship (which I am particularly fascinated with and was shocked that they knew what I was talking about when I said something about them) shed.

Hannah riding a horse. Maybe it was a pony, I’m not sure what breed/height it was.  It was either a big pony or small horse.

The kids didn’t want to go home, and Hannah keeps saying “when we buy another house, can we buy the one on the farm?”  She wants to move there, and both kids are still talking about the farm.  Pretty much every day, Daniel says something about how we went to the farm and saw all the animals.

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

The big trip

Tomorrow, I have a test.  The very first one for my Food Science class.  I’ve been studying, making notes, and trying to ingrain all the stuff we’ve learned so far into my brain.  I also have a group assignment due for my Quantitative Thinking class, which is my online, “external” class.  In the internal version, the groups meet up and work out the math problems together.  They even have to take minutes during their meetings and submit them with the assignment.  But online?  We can’t do that.  We don’t live near each other, or have any sort of face to face contact.  There are 5 people, including myself, in the group.  Only one other person has bothered to check the group discussion board to get the ball rolling on the project which is due next week.

5 days ago, I wrote on the board that we should divide up the work, then put it on the collaborative file, check each others work, and then turn it in.  We have to turn it in as one.  We are supposed to have a group manager who takes on the turning in and filling out the cover sheet jobs.  The other girl wanted to get started but didn’t want to be manager or be responsible for dividing up the work, so I took charge, divided it all up, and am now crossing my fingers that the other three will actually do their work.  I would be manager, but I’m going to the U.S. on Friday. By myself.

Yes, BY MYSELF.  As in no kids.  No Aaron.  All by myself.  Aaron will be at home doing Daddy daycare whilst I fly to Minnesota for my cousin (who’s more like my sister) Jennifer’s wedding.  Can you feel my excitement as you read this?  Did I mention I’m going by myself?  Don’t get me wrong, I love my family more than words can convey, and I’ll miss the like crazy, but I’ll be able to go to the bathroom with the door shut and no one will bang on the door and scream because they want to be where I am.  Who am I kidding, I don’t even shut the door anymore, it’s just easier to leave it hanging open so the kids can come in while I do my business.

I can drink a cup of tea without having to put it up high in between sips so curious hands don’t burn themselves.  I can go to the shops without having to constantly tell anyone to stop running off, stop touching everything, stop jumping in the cart, stop trying to jump out of the cart, stop throwing things, stop sitting on the groceries, etc. etc., followed by tantrums on the supermarket floor with everyone looking at me.  I don’t have to worry about mountains of laundry and dishes, toys everywhere, poopy nappies, or overnight wake ups due to teething or a blocked nose for 11 whole days (including the flights).

I had grand plans of finally finishing the book series I’ve been reading for the past two years, but never get time to sit down and read, watching movies on my iPad or the screen on the back of the seat in front of me, or even catching up on sleep during the plane ride.  Instead, I’m going to write my orange juice report for food science. Maybe I can do all the leisurely things on the way back.

So if I don’t write for a while, it’s because I have a test, an assignment, an international flight, and then bridesmaid duties.

And all the while, I’ll be missing Aaron and the kids like crazy.

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Copyright 2013 Sheri Thomson

Jamberoo

The other week, we had the hottest day on record in Sydney.  Now it’s pouring down rain and we’re all wearing jumpers.  I’m glad it’s not so disgustingly hot, but the rain was most unwelcome over the weekend.  Why?  Because we were on holiday.

Don’t get me wrong, I love holidays, but when you have two little children, not very many toys, and can’t go outside because it’s nearly a monsoon, holidays become quite hard.

The weather was perfect the first day.  We drove down to Jamberoo Recreation Park, which is basically a big water park in the middle of nowhere, built on the side of a big hill.  As soon as we entered one of the kiddie areas, the kids were smiling so big their eyes partially closed.  Daniel has never been in a pool, unless you count the little blow up pool in Grandma’s yard.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

I think he may be part fish.  He splashed and splashed and had the time of his life.  When lunch time rolled around, we took him out of the pool and he screamed and threw himself backwards in a horrible tantrum.

We brought the pram so he’d be able to have his usual 12pm nap, but he just wanted to swim.  After rocking him for an hour and a half in the pram, whilst he screamed intermittently, and people near and far gave me strange looks, he finally went to sleep.

I left the pram next to a kiddie pool with my pregnant, and therefore not allowed to go on the big water slides, friend watching over him, and playing with Hannah. Daniel was not about to waste too much time sleeping, and only gave me 40 minutes of kid free sliding time.  But oh did I enjoy it!

The next day, we got sprinkled on as we walked from our car to the beach.  By the time we got there though, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  I think the Sydney weather has been taking lessons from Seattle.  Rain one minute, sun the next.

Hannah spent almost an hour digging a hole in the sand and then running to the water, filling up her bucket, running back to the hole, pouring it in, then running back to the water again.  Each time she came back to her hole, all of the water was gone.  Poor girl never got her hole filled up.

And then the rain started.  I’m not talking about a little sprinkle.  I mean a deluge.  There were no more trips to the beach.  We couldn’t even play on the swingset outside.

We stayed in our holiday house (that we rented with 5 of our friends) until 2 when we’d had more than enough and went to a shopping centre just for something to do.

Still, we had a fun holiday.

Thanks to GetYourGuide.com, which offers tours and activities online at the best price, you could be the winner of a $50 gift voucher to use on GetYourGuide.com, valid for one year, so you can have your own (hopefully not so rainy) holiday.  They have tours and activities all over the world, so the competition is open to adults worldwide.

To enter, all you need to do is comment below telling me your most memorable holiday experience.  It can be funny, horrible, good, bad, ugly, or anything in between. The winner will be drawn at random and their voucher will be emailed.  Contest ends at 8:30pm on Tuesday, 12 Feb, 2013, Sydney time.

*I did not receive any money in exchange for this post.  I just thought you guys might like to win something 🙂

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Copyright 2013 Sheri Thomson

Planning European Holiday Adventures

If you were to head on a big European adventure, where would you go? Would your chosen destination differ if you had the kids in tow? Europe, and Britain in particular are perhaps destinations that are creeping more firmly up people’s ‘to-do’ lists after the recent Olympics. But if you are going to trek all that way, is it better to hit multiple destinations, or to try and pack in as many adventures as possible? Here are a few ideas for those considering hitting three of the region’s top tourist destinations; England, France and Spain.

England

The Olympics placed London firmly in the spotlight, but there’s plenty going on in the North of England too. If your little ones are Harry Potter fans, you should consider checking out Alnwick Castle in Northumberland where many of the scenes from the movies were filmed. It’s a lovely, scenic town near the coast and the perfect antidote to a busy life. However, if you are planning for far off in the future and it’s an action-packed holiday you are after, you might be interested to learn that Paramount pictures have unveiled plans for a new theme park in Kent (see, here). This would be very conveniently placed for anyone who fancied doing a double destination trip and hopping over the channel to France.

France

Visiting as a couple, Paris is usually at the top of people’s to-do list, along with a trip up the Eiffel Tower and a look round the Louvre. Of course, the capital has plenty to offer families too, and Disneyland Paris is an adventure in itself. That said, for a longer but still fun-filled break, there are cheaper options. Camping holidays in France can be very rewarding – particularly in the South, where the combination of good weather, good wine and family oriented holiday parks is a winning combination.

Spain

Spain is a well-trodden path for package holidays, but there is also a wealth of culture to be explored. If you’re thinking of having a family holiday in Spain, a trip to the Catalonian capital of Barcelona has something for all of the family – good food, great beaches, beautiful architecture and of course, lots of opportunities for learning – like a visit to the Picasso Museum.

This guest post is published in association with www.keycamp.co.uk, the family holidays and camping holidays specialist in the UK.

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

When is Christmas?

Me: “Guess what Hannah?!?!?!”

Silence.  She was probably giving me a funny look, but I was driving at the time, so I can’t really be sure.

Me: “Tomorrow is Friday, then there’s Saturday, then Sunday is CHRISTMAS!!! It’s almost Christmas!!”  Ok, maybe I’m a little more excited than she is, but I can’t wait to see her adorable little face when she opens her presents.

Hannah: “No. Not Sunday, MONDAY.” *giggles*

Me: “No, Christmas is on Sunday.”

Hannah: “No, Monday. hahahahahahahaha.”

Me: “No, Sunday.”

Hannah: “Monday.”

Me: “Sunday.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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Toddlers don’t need chocolate for Easter

I’m sure most of you know that we don’t give Hannah junk food.  If we did, I’m very sure that is all she would ever eat and wouldn’t get any sort of nutrition into her what so ever.  It’s hard enough to get her to eat as it is!

Anyway, yesterday the older Greek gentleman who lives next door and adores Hannah came over with an Easter present for her.  As soon as she saw the little Easter print gift bag, her big blue eyes lit up.  She knew it was for her.  And she wanted it.  I casually looked inside to see what I was getting myself in to and thanked the neighbour.

I figured she could play with the contents of the bag for the afternoon, and then I could hide it when she went to sleep.  I didn’t want her to eat that much chocolate!  Or any for that matter.

She opened the bag and pulled out the gold wrapped delicious Lindt bunny.  “Bunny!”  She said excitedly.  Yes…my plan was working…

“Chocolate bunny!”  She exclaimed.  My smile faded.  Oh crap.  I’m sorry, but how does my child, who has never even seen a chocolate bunny in her entire life, know that it was a chocolate bunny?  And not even by playing with it until it opened a little, showing her the chocolate,  but by merely seeing a little bit of it’s head emerging from the bag?  Did I miss something?  Seriously, how does she know that?  Do all children have chocolate radar no matter what?

There was no way I was going to let her eat said bunny, so I had to take it away.  Since she knew what it was, and she knew that it was hers, I planned to give her a tiny bit after dinner.

“Sorry sweetie, you can’t have this now, but I’ll give you a little bit after dinner.”  At the time, of course, I thought she was over her tummy bug, but that’s a whole different story.

“Rabbit goes in the bag!”  She said over and over, getting increasingly frustrated to the point of crying.  I hid the rabbit.  She saw me.  She didn’t forget about it the whole night.  She wanted the rabbit in the bag.  She wanted to eat the rabbit.  She wanted to unwrap it, play with it, eat it some more.  I stuck to my guns, and she didn’t get that annoying little rabbit.

Of course we appreciate the the thought of the gift, etc, but FYI people, you should ask before gifting/giving someone else’s small child junk food.

She's so clever, we didn't even tell her that they go in the bucket

I don’t mean that they shouldn’t get to join in the Easter festivities, you just have to think outside the box a little.  For example, I went to the cheap shop (dollar store) and bought some plastic eggs, some little things of bubbles, hair clips, and a few other trinkets to put in the eggs.  This morning, we hid them around the front yard, and Hannah had a blast hunting for them and then opening all the eggs to see what was inside.  And you know what?  All the plastic eggs and fun things to go inside only cost me $13, that’s less than most people spend on the chocolates.

She couldn’t eat any chocolate at the moment anyway because she has gastro, but that is not the point….

Disclaimer: I don’t care if other people give their kids junk food, each to their own, this is just what we are going with Hannah.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

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No one says no to a pregnant woman

Yesterday Aaron and I had to (by had to, I mean volunteered to) put postcards outlining all of our church’s Easter services in the mailboxes of people in a specified area around the church.  Normally, this is a rather easy task, but I’m really starting to waddle (that happens when one is 24 weeks pregnant), and Aaron is training for a half marathon, a distance he ran that very morning.  Needless to say, he was stuffed.  Proper stuffed.  Could hardly move his legs.

But yesterday was the last day we could do the letterbox drop.  Aaron gets home too late to do it on weekdays, it’s already dark when I pick him up from the train station.  I could do it by myself, but pushing a stroller filled with an impatient toddler on the grass while waddling along behind it probably wouldn’t work out too well either.

Aaron pushed Hannah in the stroller on side of the road (no sidewalk in some parts), while I walked on the grass putting the flyers in the letterboxes.  No problem, good exercise for a pregnant woman.  Some people, though, were out in their yards, watching us as we neared their houses, wondering what we were stuffing in mailboxes.  Crap.  Letterbox drops are easy when we’re just sticking the paper in the box.  A lot of people don’t really want or like getting flyers, especially religious ones, in their mailboxes, let alone in their hands in their own front yards.

I walked up to the first yard-dweller with a nervous smile plastered on my face.  “Would you like me to put this in the mailbox, or give it to you?”

I was expecting a “No Thanks,” accompanied by a grunt and scowl, every single time.

Instead, they all smiled at me and took my little flyer.  Maybe I should take up door to door sales whilst I have this big belly.  People see me waddling around, feet all swollen, red-faced and sweating, making an effort to put things in their letter box, and they can’t say no.   How could someone say no?

Hannah started getting bored.  We gave her some flyers and Aaron wheeled her over to a mailbox.  She reached up as far as she could and deposited a flyer with a huge happy smile.  “More mailbox!”

Hopefully people will remember the cute little toddler putting flyers in their mailbox, and/or the waddling pregnant woman and come to one of the Easter services, so they can learn about the true meaning of Easter.  I mean, chocolate eggs are nice (especially for someone who is pregnant…), but that’s not Easter.

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Bacon for my birthday

“Hannah, what are you going to get Mommy for my birthday?”  I asked Hannah.

“Bacon.” She said.

Me: “Bacon?”

Hannah: “Mmmm” (yeah).

Me: “Ok, how about we go out to breakfast on my birthday and you can get me some bacon with my breakfast?”

Hannah (very excited, bouncing up and down and smiling): “MMMMMM!” (Yeah).

Today is my 28th birthday (well, if WordPress knows I’m in Australia it is, otherwise yesterday was my birthday).  As you read this, I will be on holiday with Aaron and Hannah, enjoying my breakfast that includes bacon, probably with a view of the beach, hopefully in the sunshine.

In honour of my birthday, my Mom, Lois,  is doing a guest blog, about (you guessed it) ME!

Enjoy!

Sheri’s First Birthday

For some reason that I cannot fathom, Sheri was a pudgy little baby.  Like a number of other relatives, she was quite a picky eater.  In fact she ate so little I had to wean her earlier than I wanted because she didn’t even nurse enough to keep the breast milk fresh (note from Sheri: EWWWWW).  Quite unlike her brother Chris, who ate everything in site and always thought he should have a second dinner when we ate even though he had already had his dinner.  And yet he was never a fat child.

Sheri didn’t grow very fast, probably due to the lack of nutrition since she wouldn’t eat much of anything.  She wore newborn size clothes for nearly six months.  Her feet on the other hand, they grew like weeds.  She always needed new shoes.  She wore little patent leather shoes with her frilly little dresses.  And the pudgy little tops of her feet puffed out all around the straps of her shiny little shoes.  There weren’t a lot of choices on shoe styles though, so that’s what she got.  She kept up her poor eating habits until she went to Australia as a foreign exchange student her senior year of high school. She left with her famous last words, “It’s only for six months.” (Note from Sheri: Well, you said I could go if I paid for it.  Should have known better!!!!)

Not wanting to insult her host family, she tried all sorts of things she had always insisted she didn’t like without ever trying them.  What do you know, she liked a lot of them after all.  All those years she could have eaten better if she had cared about insulting me.  But no, she turned her nose up at my cooking and ate turkey wieners or macaroni out of a box.  Except sweets of course, she did love sweets.  Her first Halloween, she ate everything as soon as she got it.  Chris went home with a bag of candy.  Sheri went home with a tummy ache.

Sheri’s first birthday rolled around. In those days I had the time, motivation, and energy to actually bake birthday cakes.  Not just any cake, I had a book on cut-up cakes that showed how to make all sorts of animals and things.  For her first birthday I made her an elephant cake.  I couldn’t tell you now why I chose an elephant all those years ago, but it does seem fitting for a fat little baby.  With all those cut edges of cake exposed, not just any frosting will do.  I made a fluffy white 7-minute frosting in a double boiler.  White cakes also worked best for this in case any crumbs got into the frosting.  Except once when I made a castle, then all the chocolate crumbs mixed into the white frosting made it look a lot more real than plain white ever would.  Back to the subject though, she had a white elephant cake covered in pink-tinted coconut.

I don’t remember whether she understood the concept of blowing out her candle or not.  At least in those days she would have gotten the chance to try.  When the kids got older, their dad freaked about all the germs people blow on a cake and made the kids wave the candles out with their hand.  It is kind of gross when you think about it, somebody blows any germs they might have all over something that everyone else eats. A little spittle here and there to top it off, yummy. (Sheri’s note: Wait a second, I thought YOU were the germ-a-phobe Mom?)

Sheri loved that cake.  She stuffed it into her mouth with her pudgy little fingers.  She grabbed great gobs and smeared it all over her face.  She needed a bath by the time she finished eating her cake.  What’s this?  After washing all the cake off her face, a bright red rash appeared.  Whether it was the cake, the frosting or the coconut I don’t know, but for her first birthday we gave her a big red rash.  Well she got presents too, but all these years later I don’t remember what was in the boxes.  The rash I can’t forget.  Good thing it wasn’t permanent.  Whatever her gifts contained probably wasn’t nearly as nice as what Hannah got for her first birthday.  We didn’t have a lot of money when Sheri was little.  Our vacations at the time consisted of camping in relatively local areas.  We lived in a single-wide mobile home, so its official, Sheri is trailer trash.  No wonder she ran off to Australia as soon as she possibly could.  (Sheri’s note: I went to Australia because I always felt I was supposed to, like there was something there I needed.  I wasn’t running away.  And look what happened, there was something here for me, Aaron!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHERI, WE STILL LOVE YOU!!!

guest blog by LB, Cruise Ship Blogger

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A hot New Years day

New Years day was stinking hot.  Ugh, grossly hot.  Turn-on-the-air-conditioner-and-it’s-still-way-too-hot hot.  39.1 degrees celsius (102.3F) hot.  Needless to say, we didn’t really want to stay in the house (or play outside) for fear of melting.  Instead, we went to Bunnings to check out BBQ’s.  They have little trolleys for kids to push around which Hannah loved.  They have an indoor playground, and lots of display cubby houses and slides that you’re not really supposed to play on, but everyone does anyway.  Hannah had lots of fun there, giving me a good excuse to try out my new little pocket digital camera that Aaron bought me for Christmas (that just so happens to be purple).

Hannah hung out with me in the bathroom while I got ready to go.  Unfortunately, she found my stash of tampons and decided it would be a grand idea to take every single one out of the box and open it.  I would have stopped her, but it was hilarious, so instead, I got the camera out.

In the afternoon, Grandma, Hannah, and I went to the club (Penrith RSL club), which isn’t really a toddler place, but it’s big, air conditioned, and has plenty of room for rambunctious toddlers to run.  “Can’t someone make that girl be quiet?”  A rather haggard looking oldish man said to me.  “No.”  I replied. He looked annoyed.  His friend smiled and gave me the thumbs up.  She wasn’t even being loud, she was just running.  Eventually she slipped, hit her lip on a table, and bled a little.  Time to go.

Next stop Kmart.  Again to look at BBQ’s.  Only they ran out and didn’t even have any display models.  We grabbed a large ball and I gave it to Hannah.  Kmart of course, is an awesome place to kick a ball around if you’re a tiny toddler in need of lots of space.  She also enjoyed the pets section, particularly the dog shampoo which had pictures of “dog-dogs” on the front.  People probably thought I was mad letting my little girl kick a ball around Kmart, but whatever, I don’t particularly care, she had a great time.  Plus it was nice and cool in there.

It finally started getting a bit cooler when we got home, so Hannah helped Daddy wash the car.  Give her a task to do and she is in heaven.  Actually, we didn’t ask her to help, she just started helping.  That is Hannah.  She helps me put all the clothes in the washing machine, she washes up any spills she makes, she helps sweep the floor, she tries to clean the bath tub when she is in it.  She just loves to clean.  She gets cranky if I don’t let her help.  Despite the disgusting heat, we had a great day.

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Aussie Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving.  The warming food, family, unlimited bread rolls, pumpkin pie, and of course, a day off school or work.  I haven’t actually done Thanksgiving since last time Aaron and I were visiting my parents at the right time, however long ago that was (a long time!).  Mostly because I couldn’t be bothered cooking such a feast for just Aaron and me.  Now we live with Grandma, and The Jess and Jim live close by.

This year, I thought I’d go the whole 9 yards.  Ok, 8 yards.  Turkeys are expensive here, and I’m cheap.  Plus, cooking a bird for an entire day seems like far too much effort when the end result doesn’t taste nearly as good as a chicken that I could roast in a mere two hours.

Unfortunately, canned pumpkin doesn’t actually exist in this country, so I had to make the effort to buy, chop, boil, and mash my own.  Did I mention that I’ve never made a Thanksgiving dinner before?  Luckily the trusty internet was on hand to give me traditional recipes.

Just my luck, it was 32 degrees celsius (98 farenheit) here on Thanksgiving day.  I pressed on and cooked up a storm anyway.  My feast turned out rather delicious, but on such a hot day, I probably would have preferred to eat a cold sandwich and salad, but what the heck, it was Thanksgiving.  And you know what?  I’ll probably do it all again next year.  After all, I am American.

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Now if only I could find my Christmas decorations, I’d put up our Christmas tree.  It’s my family’s tradition to put the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I’ve searched the linen press, the bedrooms, the shed, the garage, under the bed, the living room, EVERYWHERE, and they are nowhere to be seen.  Doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but my Christmas ornaments are not your average ornaments.  I have been collecting my ornaments since I was a little kid.  There are no plain baubles in my collection.  All of my pieces are unique, and often something I’m interested in.  I.E. there is a camera ornament, lots of horses, cats, dogs, etc.  The stocking that my Mom made for me in infancy is in that box.  The stocking I hand sewed for Aaron is in that box.  Hannah’s baby’s first Christmas ornament, and our first Christmas together ornaments are in there.  Losing that box would be like losing a part of me.

So, I’m devastated at the moment, but hopeful that it is somewhere safe.  Somewhere that I just can’t remember at the moment.  I never would have thrown it out.  I’m just worried that we forgot it in that odd little cupboard above the stairs going into the laundry room at our last place.  The Christmas stuff is all we kept there.  I found the tree though, so I would think that we got the ornaments too.  *Sigh* my fingers are crossed.