Paul's iPhone

The other day I was goofing around on Paul's phone and found all these awesome photos hiding in there from throughout the year. Here's a couple of them.

Ollie and Grandad chillin' on the couch.

Ollie trick donkey riding on our camping trip.

Elliot doing some creative laundry hanging.

Clever Paul's idea for a bubble bath al fresco while I was in the States.

My gorgeous boys all dressed up for Rebeka and Rhiannon's
18th birthday party. Wish I could have been there!

Ollie fixing his mower so he could help his Daddy with the lawn.

Elliot introduces Tobias to the wonder of the Aussie meat pie.

Happy Thanksgiving

Another year, another Thanksgiving dinner missed.

Lucky for me, I get to spend Xmas in the States with these gorgeous little kids. I can't wait.

"I did a wee!!"

Ollie's finally found the inspiration to do some of his wees in the toilet. And all of us couldn't be more excited, especially Ollie who sprints from the toilet yelling, "I did a wee!!!" for his victory lap of hugs and high fives.

A couple of weeks ago, we booked tickets to see the local community theatre's performance of Peter Pan. Being a clever mom, I chose seats as close to the door as possible so that if Elliot had a last minute emergency we could make a quick dash to the toilet. But it was Oliver, who half-way through the play leaned over and said, "I've got to do a wee."

Paul quickly took him to the toilets, and a few minutes later, the theatre doors flung open and Ollie screams, "Mommy, I did a WEEEEE!!!!! The play stopped, and the audience (and a couple of the actors) burst out in laughter.

It was awesome!

Another book club sleepover

A few months ago, we girls in the book club decided that we always hated having to run off back to our real lives so fast when we got together. So we decided to do a book club sleepover, and it was so much fun, we did it again a couple of months later. And we're quite lucky because we get to stay in these adorable neighbourhoods in beautiful houses that Amanda house sits.

This last one was in a cottage in Guildford and the next morning we wandered around all of the antique shops and boutiques in the area. And here's me pretending to be a Thai princess with a very heavy hat I found in one of the shops.

Can't wait until February when we get to do it again!

Cousins

The way Aine, Jareth, Cailey, Jessica, Elliot and Oliver have known each other since just a couple of weeks old and the way they play and fight and hug and scream at one another, we moms decided that they are much more like cousins than friends. And given that all of these kids' cousins live overseas, it's really special that they have one another.

And I just loved this photo. Would you believe that they all squeezed into that little car on their own? We just happened to catch it on film.

Musical chairs for one

I peaked out my bedroom window the other day to check on the boys and noticed Oliver curiously setting up the kids chairs in a row on the verandah. Intrigued, I kept watching as Ollie got out his little kiddie boom box, turned on the music, and started playing musical chairs with himself.

I ran to get the video camera, but when I got back to the window I found that the chairs were abandoned. I guess musical chairs isn't so fun for one. But it sure was adorable to watch while it lasted.

The Color Run

100 babies takes passion

Not so long ago, Elliot asked me if we could have another baby brother AND a baby sister. He explained very matter-of-factly that one could sleep in his room and one in Ollie's and that he would help to take care of them except for the feeding and diaper changing. And I matter-of-factly explained that another baby is simply not in the cards.

A few days later, Elliot informs me that he's going to have one hundred babies.

Me: Wow, Elliot. That is a lot of babies. Who are you going to have all of those babies with?

El (coyly): Aine

Me: Y'know Elliot. It's going to be awfully hard on Aine to be pregnant a hundred times and have a hundred babies. You might need more than one woman to have all of those babies. (I know probably not the most appropriate thing to say to a four-year-old, but you might be surprised to know that I sometimes say things before I think them through).

El: Hmmm.

Me: And it probably wouldn't make Aine feel very good if you had babies with other ladies. Maybe you could just have like 13 babies.

El: No, I want a hundred. (long pause) But first I need to find the passion.

WHAT?!?!? Passion? I may be a bit too honest with anatomy and human nature and all that, but I can assure you that Elliot and I have never discussed passion. Where does this kid get these things??

My little monsters

This year, Elliot was dead set on being a vampire for Halloween. Too easy. A vampire costume became the reward for his poo chart that week, and El got to choose an awesome one off eBay.

Then Ollie decides he wants to be a mummy. Finding a mummy costume for a two and a half year old is pretty near impossible, even on eBay. With a bit of persuasion, we convinced him that Frankenstein would be an awesome thing to be (and with the size of his head, the costume would certainly be believable).

I think they looked pretty cute and definitely SCARY!!!

CANDY!!

I want to suck your blood!

Frankenstein's big muscles

The boys with Aine the good witch all ready to hit the streets Trick-or-Treating