Family Fancy Dress up Night: Inside Out

These days if we get an invite to a party for a Saturday night well the answer is YES!

If the kids are invited and we don't need a baby sitter it's a giant fist pumping YES!

When the party is six days away and you find out that everyone is going in fancy dress and there is no theme to help you decide what you should wear, well, then it's a bit bloody stressful. Until your kids ask if we can all go as characters from their favourite movie, Inside Out.

This is such an easy way to get ready for a fancy dress party and I ended up having so much fun planning our outfits. All day Saturday the kids helped to get the outfits ready.

I went as Joy and found a long blue wig and just cut it short to be more like Joy. I also managed to find a short yellow dress and some great blue shoes. Yes, Joy wears flats, but I decided Joy also loves great shoes. Because Joy is a little orange skin toned I finished my outfit with a fake tan the day before, going for an orange glow!

Mr H went as Anger, which again is really easy to do. You just need a red tie, a red face, arms and hands and some red hair spray.

We found the red hair spray worked best for the face paint too, not soo wet and slimy.

Ms 10 went as Disgust - if you have a tween, Disgust is perfect for them. I had a green dress in my wardrobe so I dusted off the sewing machine and took it in at the seams, then just added a green wig and some easy accessories and you have all the attitude you need.

Miss 7 wanted to go as Riley, the little girl in the movie. Riley is a jeans and hoodie kid who carries around her backpack a lot. Mainly, she wears a yellow hoodie. Miss 7 got some new jeans a new hoodie and she was done.

Everyone brought along a plate of food to share at the party, and I have to admit I cheated by getting some help with the cake - but take a look at that Anger cake at the top, it looks fantastic.


We did fail to get decent photos before we left home, so if you do dress up, remember to get some photos before you hit the party and the disco ball lighting ruins your shots.

A decade of parenting

Today marks the anniversary of me being a parent for an entire decade.

It's not a very long time.

It's quite a long time.

I was so organised for parenting. I read every book available before my babies arrived. The books tell you exactly what you need to know, as long as you read as many as you can. Sooner or later you'll get the answer you want to hear.

Having a baby knocks your brain about, and your heart. It does things to your body that you can see physically on the outside but it does even more to the bit that you can't.

Over the last decade I've learnt things that no book in the world will teach you.

Like, sounds.

Kids have certain sounds that require different parenting reactions. There is the loud bang that's followed by silence. This is a bad one. If a loud bang is instantly followed by crying and screaming, it's ice pack/band aid time, when it's silence, parents manage to run faster and breathe differently.

There are noises in the night. You can hear little tiny feet scampering around the house and you can instantly tell if it's just a child running to the toilet or if it's a child sleep walking in random places.

Parents can hear the sounds of a bad day at school in the silence of the car on the way home from pick up. Parents can hear the sound of 'I need help with something but I don't know how to tell you.' There is no chapter on learning this in the books, you have to teach yourself, you won't even know that you have. One day you just realise that you know these things.

When you have a tiny baby you know you're going to do EVERYTHING to protect that bundle from pain and suffering. And then along the way, some other persons shit kid utters the words to your beautiful child along the lines of "No! You CANT PLAY WITH US." Whatever age your kid is you want to stick chewy in that nasty kids hair and spit in their lunch. But you won't. You'll slowly realise that you can't keep the pain and suffering away forever. You can't live in a bubble where your kid never ever has to deal with the world. It's at these moments when you know you have to do something even harder. You have to prepare your kid for shit times. Because they are coming. It might be shit kids in the playground, it might be that your beautiful child is not going to be attending a party that every other kid got invited to or it might be Fluffy the bunny has gone missing. One day it's going to be the death of someone they knew and loved. The pain will come along for your kids and as a parent it will hurt your heart that you can't protect your child.

It will make you breathe differently.

Then you will learn about being a proud parent.

At first - YAY - I made a baby that cries and poos and looks cute in photos will be all you need. You'll be so proud that you got that baby out of you and that you're both still alive. Phew, what an effort. So proud. The world around you will be thrilled too. It's exciting to be a part of a new life. People will send cards and gifts and food. It's so amazing.

And then. Your baby will start to walk/talk/eat/roll/sleep/read and it will be better than any other baby that ever lived. No one will care. No one will be as proud as you. Only you will see what it took for your baby to achieve that thing, to ride that bike, to conquer that fear. But you will be proud of them. When they win that race, finish that novel, play the game, attend the concert, get invited to the party, make a friend, cook a meal, ace the test, you'll be so proud, they don't need anyone else to be.

There are moments you look at them and you're so proud for that brief moment, you'll take a deep breath and breathe a little bit slower.

No one tells you the stuff that you are going to learn either. All you read about is what you should be teaching your kids, like manners, kindness, reading and writing, to be a tennis star,  a Master chef, blah blah. No one says that your kids will end up bringing new people into your life, new friends and new interests. They don't tell you that you will learn to sew sequins on outfits and to braid hair in many styles. That you will learn about every highly contagious disease and know the best way to administer foul tasting medicine to toddlers. That you'll learn the name of every dinosaur and how to play minecraft. You'll build more lego and read more books, learn how to install a trampoline in the dark of night and how you can creep on your hands and knees to ensure a floor board doesn't creak.

It's possible you'll sit up hours and hours of the night helping your child to breathe.

Sometimes, you might even hear that moment when your child can't breathe and you'll learn the tips to help a child with whooping cough or croup or asthma to catch that next breath.

A decade ago no one told me any of the fears I'd conquer just because I had no other choice but to do so.

It's surprising how much parenting you do in a decade, it's surprising you even get a chance to breathe.

Things about Santa you may not know.

Many of you know that I love reading and I also love history. This is why I have always loved finding out about Santa and how he manages to do so many things.

In a time when Hollywood movies try and tell us stories about Santa that are not really true, it can be tricky to understand how all the magic works. But once you have a look at the full picture, it can start to make sense.

1) Santa doesn't go all over the world in one night. 

Of course Santa and the sleigh can't make it around to every house in every country in just one night.

In Belgium, parts of the Netherlands and some areas of France, Santa (or Sinterklaas as they call him) arrives on December 5, leaving presents for December 6th. That's when he kicks off the gift giving for the year.

Then we have the time differences around the world, so Santa has two nights - one in the Southern and one in the Northern Hemisphere. This takes substantial pressure off the reindeer.

Plus there are many countries that Santa doesn't go, including much of Africa.

2) Does Santa really give presents to every kid? 

Certainly not.

There are millions of kids who do not receive gifts.

Santa delivers gifts to children who have Christian beliefs and customs. Every religion and culture has their own special days for gifts and special treats, if you get gifts from Santa, you are unlikely to get them when some of your friends who might be Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim receive them.

Santa also only gives gifts to children, not teenagers or grown ups, so once you turn 13 the presents stop arriving, this is because the elves can only make a certain number of toys each year.

Santa only gives gifts to people who believe in Christmas and Santa. He saves the best and biggest presents for the kids he thinks deserve them.

3) What is Santa's phone number?

When you have a baby, the midwife makes you fill in lots of forms that go to the government and organises the birth certificate. She also gives out a piece of paper with Santa's number on it. This year, Santa also has a new app where parents can just leave a message. This is used to help Santa with his naughty and nice list. It is illegal to tell your children Santa's number and if a child calls Santa, they are instantly on the no-presents list.

4) Is Elf on the Shelf watching me all the time?

No. You are not being watched by some crazy elf that has scary eyes. The Elf is a new invention. It's been invented for people who just want to celebrate Christmas every single day for December, but the Elf is just for fun. He is not watching your every move and you should relax, get back to playing without feeling like the FBI is in the ceiling. The Elf is fun, but elves can not do anything to people and they can't talk to Santa.

5) Is it the real Santa at the shopping centre?

Maybe. Maybe Not. The thing is, you will never know. The real Santa will never reveal himself. He might even make you think he is NOT the real Santa. Because if he told you, every single kid in the whole world would start wanting to sit on his knee. He would never get back to the North Pole to get all his work done and he would need a knee replacement, and that's pretty expensive to get.

It's still hard to know, but some historians believe that the real Santa makes himself look like a normal man wearing dress ups, but we just can never be sure, you should constantly be keeping a look out.

6) Have I ever seen Santa? 

No, but a friend sent me this photo a couple of years ago, she snapped it with her phone in the car. She says it was the best day of her life.

I love Book Week.

Yes, I do.

I know lots of parents find it a pain to organise costumes and some just pull out something they already have, like an Elsa dress, when we all know that's a movie, not really a book. But I enjoy it for lots of reasons.

It really makes my kids think about what books they like. They think about it for weeks, they talk about it with their friends at school, they hear about other books that they might not have read. The kids actually talk about books without even thinking they are talking about reading, they discuss likes and dislikes of characters and story lines.

This year our school organised a few guest visits too. Miss 9 walked to the car holding a heap of drawings, drawn after a presentation from Leigh Hobbs, I am not sure what he spoke about, but the drawings were great. Books are not just words, they are illustrations and art, be it the cover only or a full picture book. You should never really leave picture books behind, if you do, you will miss out on so many gorgeous stories, told simply and often with great artwork.

Immy was more than excited to learn that the author of her favourite book ever, 'All Through the Year', Jane Godwin, was coming to school to speak to them.

After school, I asked her what Jane Godwin was like. At first, she said, well, she is really different than I expected, because she has brown hair. I didn't think she was a brown hair lady. I have no idea why she had an image of what Jane Godwin's hair should look like in her mind! With the hair issue quickly behind her, Immy went on to tell me all about Jane's new book about a bear and a cave and the way it's written and how it's going to take a VERY long time to get the book here from China, but can we please please get it as soon as it arrives.

I checked out Jane Godwin on instagram and said hello, and Jane showed me the cover of the new book, then I noticed that she has a new book for Christmas this year too, so I am going to grab that for Immy's birthday in December.

Immy had been dressed as Mr Huff from a book that she only selected a few weeks ago because she thought it was a Jane Godwin book, it's actually an Anna Walker book, but Anna was the illustrator for All Through the Year...it was a great way to remind Immy that books often have someone who writes them and someone who draws the pictures, but not always.

Still, it was a good day when she had met Jane Godwin, and then Anna Walker commented on her Instagram image.

The teachers at school were all dressed as the Crayons from The Day the Crayons Quit, so that has been added to the book wish list this week too.

I am restraining myself from running to the book shop - yes, I still go to the book shop and hardly ever buy books online, I am not sure if it is because I despise paying postage or I just need things instantly, or I don't have time to get to the post office when they are not left at the door, or that I just love going and checking out all the new books.

This is only our second book week, and one of the benefits of changing schools was Miss 9 could wear the same outfit as last year, because Hermione is still the greatest character she has ever met.

Book week 2015 has certainly not been difficult, or expensive and didn't take too much effort at all, especially when I think of how it just encourages kids to think about books. And as the school captains reminded the kids at assembly, remember the words of Dr Suess:

"You can find magic, wherever you look, sit back and relax, all you need is a book"

Excursion Tales

Last week I did something for the first time.

I was the parent helper on a school excursion with around 80 or so six year olds. We were headed to one of Melbourne's most delightful buildings which contains the Immigration Museum. I really love that place, but I am only ever there for events. Cocktail partys, talks and now with the six year olds. I have once again promised myself to go back there and actually read all the fascinating exhibits.

That photo above is not mine, because a responsible parent obeys the rules and does not use their phone when they in charge of six year olds - those kids can disappear faster than an iphone swipe!

When you go with a school, the kids sit in a room where they are told more about immigration and a case study about a couple from Vietnam. It was here that Immy was desperate to join in with the other kids and answer a question.

"Put your hand up, if one of your parents was born in another country" asked the instructor.

Little hands shot up everywhere, stretched as high as they could be, fingers wiggling.

We soon got reminders that Sydney and Adelaide were actually still in Australia, so those kids should put their hands down.

But Immy was still sitting there arm up, back straight, with her best, pick me, pick me face on.

"And you" she points at Immy. "In which country were your parents born?"

To which she answers. "My Dad, he was born in Benalla".

And guess what, it might actually be in Australia, but no one else had a parent with that claim to fame.

You are a crap parent.

Sorry, but it’s highly likely you are a crap parent.

It’s true. It most likely started during your pregnancy but in the interests of time let’s just start at the birth of your child. I hear you didn’t do it right, that is unless you went out behind a tree and birthed by yourself in a forest devoid of any pollution so that your baby entered a world of peace and cleanliness without INTERVENTION from anyone who THINKS they know what is best for you. You see, women have been birthing babies forever and they never needed any help before, shame on you. Let us not be swayed by those other facts, you know, the ones that indicate women forced to birth without assistance or intervention actually die way too often. The WHO report gives a 15 year old female in sub-Saharan Africa a 1 in 40 chance of dying during childbirth in her lifetime, but still, you could have probably done better at the birth of your baby.

After birth, you probably did any number of the following awful things risking your baby’s future. Co-slept, fed to sleep, used a dummy, used a bottle, drove around in the car to get your baby to sleep, had a glass of wine and then breastfed, had a glass of wine and then bottle fed. Allowed your child under 2 to watch TV, had a Grandma who put food on a dummy, swaddled for too long, swaddled the hips too tight. Used a cot bumper (actually that is crap parenting), used a baby bath seat, turned your car seat too early, used a bassinet for too long.

Perhaps at some stage, you also decided to go back to work. OMFG!

If you didn’t go back to work, well, bigger fool you because your children are now stuffed, the research says the children of mothers in the paid work force are all better off.  

But maybe you stayed home and made home made lunches and cakes and protein balls and your child’s lunch box never ever saw a piece of processed food. Plus, the rest of society kind of relies on your unpaid hours to keep the rest of us afloat. Imagine our community with no parents at home at all, that would be rather shite.

Everyone knows that one in five children are now obese and this is a really bad state of affairs, one that really, can probably be blamed on mums who are low on time and using processed foods, hang your head in shame you working mothers, who cares that your kid might be better off with you working, you have still failed! I bet you even allowed LCM bars and tiny teddies in the house, probably even blamed the kids, saying that somedays that is all they will eat!

Some of you may have cried when you ‘had’ to leave your kids at crèche. The guilt was the sign that you are clearly a crap parent, totally unworthy of such fabulous children. Then again, research shows that kids in crèche have more books read to them and get exposed to more social interactions than those at home having babycino’s with Mum, supposedly doing all the craft activities on Pinterest to help with fine motor skills, but really just playing iPad.

Perhaps you didn’t take your child to swimming lessons and now they will only be average at school, because kids who do swim lessons before age five are better at language, numeracy and literacy skills (apparently).  It could be you missed music and mummy classes so now your kid is never going to be able to be good at maths.

I have listened to people sighing and ohhing over the desperately sad idea of children going out for dinner and using iDevices at the table. Boo hoo, what will become of the children? Clearly those kids have crap parents.  The same sighing people will then rave about a new educational app that your child just must have, it will save them from falling below average.  You see, the trick is to never let anyone see your child using the iDevice, only crap parents allow that to happen. Again, that’s probably you, failing at this parenting gig again.

And how are your school lunch box skills? Have you mastered the piece of art that your child deserves to receive each day? Are your wholegrain organic spelt sandwiches cut into dinosaurs? You do know that the option of triangles or squares is just not enough mental stimulation for young growing minds. No wonder your child isn’t eating their lunch if you are providing them a piece of fruit, it’s your job to get out those cookie cutters and be original. Excite your child at every opportunity. Anything less is just another sticker on your crap parenting chart.

Raise your hand if your child has never ever tasted fairy bread. Now, those of you with a raised hand, you are a crap parent. Every child has the right to experience the joy of fairy bread. 

Now let’s get serious. Schools. If you are at a private primary school, well that is a total waste of money that you could be spending on your child in better ways, just proving again you are likely a crap parent. (Don't read too far into the research as you my find it slightly skewed).

As for high school, well if you didn’t enrol young Bernie on to the waiting list before they were six weeks old, you get another crap parent sticker. What hope does Bernie have if you can’t even get the forms in on time? If you have a flicker of hope it will be that you are living in the postage stamp sized boundary of the select entry school.

There are other ways to confirm your crap parenting levels too. Have you ever:

• Raised your voice in anger at your child?
• Sighed loudly when they needed to go to the toilet just as you and your weeks worth of groceries got to the check out?
• Been too lazy to cook dinner and used the Macca’s drive through?
• Used a babysitter who did not have a police check and CPR certificates?
• Sent the kids to bed in the clothes they fell asleep in, without cleaning their teeth?
• Missed going to the dentist?
• Thought a runny nose was a virus, which became an ear infection in the middle of the night?
• Missed library day at school (two weeks in a row)
• Missed an assembly when your kid got student of the week?
• Have failed to take your children for a cultural diversity trip overseas? (Bali does not count)
• Have failed to take your children camping, outside of a caravan park?
• Don’t have a pet?

You don’t have to admit it out loud, and I am sorry to be the one to highlight your failings to you, but as you can see, chances are you are a crap parent.

There is a way to fully redeem yourself and protect your child from your parenting fails.

Just love your child with all your might and protect them from harm at all times. 

Hug them, cuddle them, laugh with them, talk to them, listen to them. Keep them warm and snug, and feed them the best you can. Read books together, take selfies together. Sing badly in the car and share TicTacs when you get petrol.

In ten years your baby won’t care that you had an epidural or you missed music classes. 

Just love your kids.

Don’t hit them.

Don’t let anyone else hit them.

Do stuff together.

The rest is all gonna be ok.

P.S. My blog eats comments very regularly and I hardly ever see them, so I have now turned them off. Join me over on your favourite social site of choice Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to chat more. Thanks for reading.
xx

iCamping

So I went camping.

AGAIN.

I don't know who I am anymore. I don't even like camping, and when I say camping, I don't mean in a nice park with shower facilities and power. No, no, no. I went real camping, I am the next Bear Grylls at this rate.

Why do I do this to myself? Same reason I do pretty much everything else these days.

For my kids.

They just love it. Every single minute of it. They don't even complain all that much about the smell of the drop toilet.

I asked them what they love about camping so much and they couldn't even tell me. They weren't sure if it was just doing what they wanted, riding bikes, Easter egg hunts, playing in the bush, sitting up late around the fire, sleeping altogether in the tent, sleeping in sleeping bags or catching yabbies.

They also loved making iMovies.

We had no wifi or phone coverage but they still had their ipads and I am so glad they did. We didn't ration screen time at all and just let them do what they wanted and the iDevices really came in very handy.

Making an iMovie with your cousins requires a lot of work. You all need to negotiate about the story, the characters, who is playing which part and who gets to do the filming. You need to learn about how the sun impacts upon the picture and change scenes when required. It takes hours of playing together to get a few minutes of the story and it provides a beautiful recollection for everyone afterwards.

As we sat around the fire each night, Arabella was asking where certain constellations were. We tried to point them out until someone brought out their phone and showed us the SkyView app. It's fantastic and if you are out in a beautiful starry night (we had a full red moon too), you will love the way that this app 'draws' the images for you of the stars right above you.

The kids spent time each night riding bikes by torch light, they put their head torches on and ride in the bush, add a few glow sticks to your wheels and it's a fun sight. But when the torch batteries go flat, heading to the drop toilet in darkness isn't pleasant...so just grab a phone and use the torch. If you don't already use it, the torch on your smart phone is just as handy as the clock/alarm.

You can also use an iDevice to take lots of photos of all the things you are doing, like all the ones in this post.

Bush camping can be fun (and filthy and lots of work for parents) it's not something I plan on doing every holidays, and I do struggle with it a bit. But if you go camping with your kids don't think you can't take technology with you, new stuff is exciting and wonderful and can provide you with extra special memories of your time away.

There is a change going on at parks around Australia

Last week we spent some time playing a game of off ground tiggy.

All you have to do is keep off the ground when you are playing. It was pretty fun because we were in a paddock with some really big rocks so we had to jump to keep from getting tagged.

The view was pretty good too and we sat for a bit to just soak it all in and be thankful that we are not restricted to the plastic slides of small suburban stamps of grass that are the standard parks of modern Australia.

Then I keep seeing people at the new Royal Park play area at the Royal Children's Hospital. Today the weather was a perfect autumn day. Bright and sunny, the very day that you can not waste indoors.

The new play area is built where the old Children's Hospital once stood. When the hospital was demolished, the area was reclaimed to be used for open space and an area for kids to really play.

And play they do.

There is not a scrap of plastic at this park. There are ropes and wood and trees and grassy hills and water and sand and metal.


It's the kind of park that doesn't have a safety fence and encourages kids (and their parents) to take greater risks. Not everyone will like it.

In the water play area if your kid is the type to run when they were told to walk, well, they might find out pretty quickly what it feels like to fall on wet concrete. The rope climb is at such a height that you won't be holding your child's hand if they make it up there. The slide is metal, old style, so it's possible little bums might feel the heat, but it didn't bother any of those whirling down it today.

These things didn't bother any of the kids I saw today and the only issue my girls had was when we told them it was time to go. We spent two hours there and they would have happily stayed another two.

This nature play park is the way I notice more and more parks are going. We are slowly moving away from the highly regulated slides and climbing frames that are a regulation number of centimetres off the ground. We are accepting that kids have enough crap in bright red, yellow and blue at home and not enough trees, grass and bugs. If your kids are beyond the preschool years, this is even better.

If your bigger kids have been getting bored at the local parks, it's time to take a trip to Royal Park.

Have you noticed a change to the parks in your neighbourhood?

What you need to ensure you can make friends with parents at a new school.

When you start your kids at a new school, making friends with new families can take a little while.

You can try all the usual ways of meeting friends, you know, like the normal people. Such as introducing yourself at the school gate at pick up/drop off times. You can pester your kids for the names of new classmates and try and arrange catch ups out of school, you could even volunteer to be on the canteen roster to meet other parents.

Or, you could try the following little tip.

Ensure you have your jumper leads in the back of the car.  Yes. That's all.

This week as I was leaving school a little bit late due to a catch up with a teacher, a friendly man approached me asking if I had jumper leads in my car. Um? I had no idea. I said I would go and check and drive back. But he told me it was for another parent, he was just trying to help her out.

Due to my extreme organisational skills, I did find jumper leads in with the spare tyre, so I whizzed down to help out.

No one likes car trouble so the poor Mum, with a car full of school kids was looking quite stressed as her car sat there with no chance of getting her home.

A couple of minutes later and the Dad had it all sorted, but during that time teachers, handymen, other parents, kids who knew my kids...all came to check if all was ok.

BINGO.

Just met more families and was the hero who saved the day.

That stressed out Mum didn't actually thank me at all or even ask my name. But hey, I am taking it as a new friend anyway!

Long live the jumper leads.

Beach free summer

Are you a beach lover?

I am torn between loving the ocean and the waves. The sounds of the water, the natural beauty of a beach that just can't be replicated by humans no matter how hard we try.

But I also struggle with the hot hot sand and the absence of shade. When you go to the beach it is never just a five metre stroll from the car, and you seem to have to pack so much stuff. Then there is the sand that comes home with you.

Yet again this summer I find we are heading inland to spend our days. Places where it is hot, but there are also trees to sit under, rivers to wade in, pools to dive in, wineries to dine in.

Another summer holiday and it's another inland town we are heading to.

Just like humans can't replicate the ocean and the waves, they also can't bring the peace and contentment that sitting among the trees, by a flowing river with great food at your finger tips can give.

Going inland rather than coastal means you travel to more towns, check out more cafes, visit more places and see things that others just never do.

I like it.

I like it a lot.

The beach will always be magical. It will always remind me of teenage days of coconut oil, burnt feet and skimpy bikinis. However the lakes and rivers of Australia can show off pretty nicely too, and it's time we spent some more time with them. Plus, there are ponies, lots of ponies to ride.

Are you into lakes, rivers, beaches or pools? 

Letter to the world - fifth edition

Hello world. It’s my yearly blog post time, which means just one single thing. I am a year older.

The year of five was flat out. I started school and left Mum home on her own all week. This was the first time in eight years that she had time to herself. The question to ask is, exactly what did she do with that time? I don’t know the answer, but by the end of the year Mum got herself a personal trainer, that wasn’t so much fun because she complained a lot about having sore legs, then arms and then she ended up crawling on the floor unable to walk when she hurt her back. Anyway, that was the end of personal training.

Earlier in the year I got whooping cough. Mum didn’t talk about it here because she couldn’t be bothered with the conversations about vaccinations. I was lucky, I had been vaccinated so my cough wasn’t as bad as some of the babies who haven’t had their needles. I also got to sleep with Mum and Dad for two months because the whoops are really bad at night time. Mum and Dad said it was like having a new baby in the house again, but it didn’t seem like that to me, I would love to have a baby sister. I ask for one every week, but still there is no baby here.

One day I split my chin open when I fell up the step at school and I needed a trip to be stuck back together and then I split the back of my skull open on my bedhead. That was an interesting Saturday night at the emergency doctor, they used my hair to tie my skin in place and lots and lots of glue. Everyone wanted to look at it.

Other than injury I have also been very busy dancing my way through the year. I have done disco dancing at school and I can sing Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Japanese. I was probably the bestest ballerina on stage at my dance concert, that’s what Nana told me.

When I grow up I am still going to be a vet to baby animals. I am not so sure about fish anymore though. When we went to Singapore, Mum and I went in the giantist reef you have seen, it was good for a bit, but those fish came a bit close to me and I had to go on Mums back for the next 50 metres around the reef. Mum’s snorkel kept filling up with water when I was pushing on her head. I don’t think Mum liked it very much, she seemed happy to reach the end.

It took awhile but I have mastered the art of scooter riding and now I’ve got it, I really like scootering very very fast. So fast, that my leg sometimes aches the next day from too much scootering.

Being five has been pretty good for me, I went on an overseas trip for the first time and got a passport. Then I went to all the worlds in Queensland. Plus I climbed some really big mountains when Dad took us bushwalking. I learnt to read so fast that I surprised everyone when I just started reading big girl books with no pictures.  I even have days now when I don’t insist on wearing a dress. I still LOVE playing with my baby dolls and my toys, I love making cakes, but only if I get to lick the spoon AND the bowl. Actually I don’t even really want the cake., just the mixture. Actually, isn’t this just what ‘raw food’ is…cake mixture?

I don’t know everything yet, but if being six is as good as being five, the year ahead is going to be awesome. I am going to have swimming lessons again, I might start karate, I will have a think about riding my bike without training wheels.  I will be climbing trees and swinging off monkey bars, wearing out all of my shoes faster than I can grow out of them.

I have been five for a really really long time so come on down six, I am ready and waiting to explore every second you got.

Being fabulous is not good for blogging

Fabulous Poppy. 

My blog posts are getting fewer and fewer. There is no denying it. Not because I am not happy here, quite the opposite. I love this blog.

Writing has never been my strength in the marketing world, but the answer to improve your writing is to just keep writing, try to write every single day. Just like reading or maths or cartwheels. If you do them every single day, you just get better and better.  Writing is something that I know I need to keep working on, and I am really happy to use this space to do that.

At the same time, I want to be fabulous as a mum and a wife and a friend and an employee and attempting fabulous can cut into my time quite a lot.

Being a fabulous Mum means different things for different families, it doesn’t mean being the only person available at every second of the day for your children, that would be crazy, but it does mean realising when you need to sacrifice time on something you want to do because your kids need you that bit extra for now. Some weeks it seems that I need to do this more than others. A blog post can wait, but childhood waits for no Mumma.

There are many benefits in building real life friendships in the community around you, but this takes lots of in real life effort too. It’s not hard, in fact once you start to get a group of people around you who make you laugh, share their stories, entertain you and are good fun, you just want to go be your own type of fabulous with them more and more. It could provide great blog fodder, but instead you are off having lunch again with no time to write the blog post.

I am on school council and committees and have duties as a taxi driver for the girls’ activities. I am also working more and more. I am lucky to have family who visit from near and very very far and when we are all together we eat lots and talk lots and have good times. Even the kids now take off with the ipads and make iMovies of their days together. Fabulous stuff.  Fabulous little clips that I love.

When you have a job you enjoy and an employer who is flexible enough to embrace your crazy working mind and the ideas that just flow from it, you can sometimes get really busy and have to change the whole week around. Being busy is fabulous. Doing stuff is fabulous. Writing about work things is not allowed, but I do write a blog at work, so somedays I get home and I might have written up three blog posts already. 

My back has recently gone bezerko and had me gulping great quantities of medication just to be able to stand up. This is not so fabulous. This is actually very much another f word altogether. But it has given me a few days to sit and stare at my blog and think about what is going on with it. It’s changing, but it’s not going anywhere, well, not anywhere that isn’t fabulous that’s for sure.

May your week be good and remember to always protect your back.