Reese a big sister?

Reese loves to wrap her baby and teddies in her baby blankets and play mommy (or older sister). One of her favorite toys is her dolly stroller. I hate to break it to the girl but dad has already seen Dr Snip....so no more babies at our house.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Halloween is a favorite holiday at our house so we've been looking forward to it for weeks. The kids have been drawing and coloring Halloween pictures (Nate draws an excellent bat and witch on a broomstick) all week. Plus there has been lots of Halloween crafts- from making a giant spider (the size of a trashcan) to a mobile of bats, to small spiders (red backs of course). We even paid a small fortune for a pumpkin (extortion or ex-pat tax prices...we saw some medium sized ones for $45 - OMG). Nate had decided that he wanted to be a leaf blower man and his sister a pile of leaves he could pretend to blow around. After spending three hours last Sunday searching craft and hardware shops getting all the supplies to jerryrig this costume he announced that he had changed his mind. I thought Michael was going to faint then awake to kill him but it was a true parenting moment and he rose the challenge and calmly said ok. UGH!!! So instead Nate went as the Lollipop man (school crossing man) and Reese went as a bumble bee. They both looked great and got lots of compliments on their outfits. We went over to Nate's friend Harry's neighborhood. Halloween is just starting to take off here in Sydney so we had to go to a neighborhood known for decorations and celebrating. It is nice and old fashion- a lot of homemade costumes, still safe to give unwrapped candy (of course us being American paranoid freaks threw those away). Plus you can't beat trick or treating in 80 degree weather and sunshine (plus the mom's walk around with glasses of wine)- much better experience than Seattle cold, dark and wet. We only got 4 groups of trick or treaters to our house (a gaggle of girls who screamed she's American when I opened the door...apparently they must have gotten odd reactions from the rest of the neighbors). Nate loved zig zagging across the streets so he could pretend to be a real crossing guard- he even stopped several cars. Reese loved the holiday and by the second house she had the routine down pat saying trick or treat and thank you. Then she would open her bag to show us (after each treat received :)) then run to the next house to do it again. Every time we met up with other kids she would wave and yell "Happy Halloween"- it was complete joy. I think both kids could have gone for hours (a vast improvement over last year's one house adventure).


Here are some photos: our bee & lollipop man

Nate, Ang and I made this Halloween poem:

Eye of newt & tongue of snake

mix it well with a rake

add a tail fresh from a rate

don't forget the wing of a bat

stir it, mix it, in a pot

over a flame until it's hot

dash of venom, pinch of trouble

let it simmer until it bubbles

almost done with our scary stew

add blood of Nate and Reese's poo

serve it up to every guest

hope you enjoy your Halloween fest

Mock Camping

Today we tested out our sun tent. Yes the summer sun is so hot that you need to hide under a tent at the beach. We bought the big size not realizing that the whole neighborhood could find inside. Plus it is a quite challenging to fold (sorry no photos of me struggling to fold the tent).

It made for a fun afternoon activity- pitching our tent in the front yard of our house- with our prentend campfire and smores (real). We might have to grab some sleeping bags and try it at night (of course I am too afraid of the spiders in our yard I can only imagine taking it to some campsite).

Our foursome is complete

Finally after two years of waiting Reese has picked up a golf club. Sunday night we went to the driving range and Reese took part in the fun. Of course she only hit about 6 balls then decided it was time for a snack. At least there is hope :)

Reese and her coach (notice the location of her balls in the second picture)

Happy to just watch the rest of the family and eat her snacks :)

Here are some pictures of Nate at the same age- playing the course with his dad

Backyard fun

Now that the weather is starting to get nice (sort of- last two weeks of cold and wet weather aside) we've rediscovered our backyard. The kids love the trampoline and so do . It is contained and safe and a great way to get out the sillies and use energy. We bounce, sing songs, and play duck duck goose. From there it usually goes down hill and resembles WWF cage wrestling. When you are bored sometime check out a satellite map of Australian suburbs (like Curl Curl)- every house has a trampoline in the back yard. Brilliant.

check out these funny trampoline hairdos:

testing me???

It has been a hard couple of days on the parenting front. The kids are adjusting to being back in Sydney. Between the odd sleep patterns and a strange bug affecting their digestive system (Reese now has the nickname Reese 9 poops) it has tough. Plus we've gone cold turkey on the binky. Reese only used it for napping but was addicted and it was starting to be an issue. So instead of a quiet nightly routine of sucking binky and going to bed on her own she now screams and tries to leave her bed. It truely tests both your will and confidence when you have to stand by the door (to manually keep it locked) and endure the crying of your baby. I am really hoping that this only lasts a couple of nights. Especially since Michael is away and I might be tempted to cave in. Tough love sucks.

spring time- watch the clocks.

FYI- we changed our clocks here in Sydney this weekend. We sprung forward 1 hour. Making the us now only 5 hours earlier (plus a day) from Seattle. Slightly easier to call us (hint hint).