Happy Birthday Daddy D! THIS IS FUNNY...

Grant's off playing hockey at Berri tonight, but we've managed to squeeze in a Bed Birthday Party this morning before he left for work and Cup Cakes tonight before Hockey. Last night I realised the kids hadn't quite finished their cards for Dad. I left the cards and the pencils in their room, so they could finish them before coming in to our room in the morning. At the last minute, I had the idea of leaving them Party hats, whistle and streamers so we could have a Bed birthday Party.
I was up with Gem around midnight and while I was laying in Gem's bed putting her back to sleep, Jack woke up to go to the toilet. I told him about the party supplies near the cards. About 3.30am, yes 3.30 AM, I heard some very excited voices. I jumped out of bed realising that if I didn't act quickly, we would whistles being blowing in our ears and streamers flying around our bedroom within minutes! Sure enough, I opened their door to find them half undressed, party hats on and cards finished and ready to go in envelopes!
I was a bit unsure how I was going to go getting them back to sleep once I broke the bad news they had another 4 hours of sleeping left to go, but amazingly enough they did and this is what we were greeted with a few hours later...they didn't bother getting dressed this time, in case they were sent back to bed again!

Present time is always exciting. Jack in particular, has been thinking about his tummy again and the liquorice we give Dad each year, they look like hungry PATIENT baby birds waiting to be fed!

When Grant was in bed I hung up a big banner in the kitchen.

And these photos make my heart happy...

Can't wait for the weekend, when we can chill out at Freeling with Grant's brother's family. Hopefully Gem is feeling better in the morning. Jack has had croup during the week. She was a bit average this afternoon and I have a feeling she may have mild croup....winter sux! Jxx

Finally... some scrapbooking....

I am having a HUGE problem being motivated to scrap at the moment. My days are busy and it's freezing cold here and I just basically can't be bothered by the night time. The cruel thing is that I keep having all the ideas - just no motivation...that really sucks! A big create fest is brewing......although I did manage to finish a baby gift for my friend's little girl. I have created something similar for her two other girls. It's cut 8x10inch to fit in a photo frame, to make for easy hanging/displaying.

P.S. And how cute is that little girl....if I wasn't feeling so buggered, I could nearly and I said NEARLY, get clucky again...Jxx

Dirt and Cubby Houses...what more can a kid ask for....

After digging up some dirt to lay down some sub surface irrigation - this pile of dirt has been come the favourite place to play. Grant gave Jack and Gem some wood, carpet etc - and they made a cubby - complete with a flower garden (see below). Each night this week, we've had different versions. It's the first place Jack had taken his school mates, even bi passing the kitchen for an after school snack, can you believe!!

My girl's growing up...

Can't believe Gem will be doing Kindy visits next term. It only feels like yesterday, I was taking Jack down for the first time. She is SO ready though - she keeps telling us she is going there to make some girlfriends. She is a real socialite...everyday she asks who we are going to visit or have come to play. I was worried when Jack had his new school friends to play, she wouldn't fit it - but she's right there in the thick of it. That's my girl...This photo was taken on the trampoline Wednesday night with Jack and one of his new school mates. Popcorn and Cordial. Jxx

Cartoons and lego...

Oh....to be a kid again...Jxx

Speaking of motorbikes...

I dug these photos out to show the kids ther day. I'll have to try and find some earlier ones (Mum, if you are reading - is there any from the day I got it?) My bike is the red and blue Honda QR50. In the top photo, I'm off picking oranges with my Dad. The second photo is near the river somewhere, figure we were just having a day out, that's Mum in the background cooking the BBQ. The girl in the photos lived next door to us at Sunlands and had the white Yamaha. The last photo is Lindsay and I riding again.

Today was a good day...

Friends, kids, dirt, cake, treasure hunts, balls, bikes, go-karts, buggies and motorbikes, what more could you ask for! It was Jack and Gemma's friend Chloe's 6th Birthday. Chloe got a 4 wheeler and everyone brought their 'toys' for a play. It was so much fun. Definitely makes up my mind to get Jack a motorbike for his birthday next year. One girl there today was only 4 and going great guns on a tiny 4 wheeler. Seems so small, but then again I was riding at 5. It was such a relaxing day, we got there at 11am but ended up reheating the sausages for an early tea because everyone was having so much fun! Here's some shots from today:

Would love to share so many more, (I was asked to be the unofficial photographer so I have stacks!) but still not to sure about putting photos of other people on my blog...don't want to offend anyone. Jxx

Jack and Mum's Trip to Adelaide (for Jack's sleep study)...

After approximately 2 years of waiting Jack was finally booked into the Women's & Children's Hospital on Monday night to complete a full sleep study. Jack had always had a lot of problems with breathing and sleeping at night. At one point it was so bad that he just wasn't getting a proper night's sleep at all - and neither was I. He was always waking up and calling out, which I think happened when he was holding his breath. He would kind of startle himself. And then there was the twitching and moving. It was really insane. The poor guy was so tired most of the time. The allergist we see, Dr Quinn, suggested we try a nasal spray called Nasonex. Within 2 nights we were all sleeping properly. But if we missed it for even a couple nights he would be really unsettled. So we have been giving it to him religiously for 2 years.
We took him off it for 2 weeks before this sleep study to make sure it wouldn't interfere with the results and I was SO nervous as to how he would handle it. Especially one of those weeks being his last week of his first term of school and he was already so tired! But it really wasn't too bad, so I am hoping that his airways have opened up and grown a little, and whatever may have been causing any inflammation is no longer a problem.
Unfortunately we won't know the results of the study until the end of the month when the Dr Kennedy is back from overseas. I'm a bit unsure of how much data they managed to collect because he was awake a fair bit overnight. Cross our fingers it's enough.
Here are some photos of our trip and Jack all wired up.

I had said to Jack we could spend some time talking on the way, we weren't even down the end of Thompson St before he said, 'Can we talk about something, Mum?' I asked if he didn't mind waiting until we at least got he highway! Needless to say we had LOTS of conversation on the way.

We spent Monday afternoon at Elizabeth Shopping Centre. Jack was spoilt with Maccas and a Berrilicious Sorbet (gotta love Wendy's and their Dairy Free Sorbets!)

Then it was off to BIG W to spend 2 lots of Tooth Fairy money as well as $5 from Nanna. One big Transformer (Backfire) and 2 little ones (Perceptor and Hardshell) was what he chose. Perceptor and Hardshell had a real flogging for the next 2 days. Jack carried them EVERYWHERE, threw them and bashed them against everything and he even slept with them!

Myers had a Lego colouring in competition, so we stopped for a break. We also had to guess how many pieces went into making this huge Lion that was there, which I forgot to take a photo of.

Then it was off to Maccas for tea before heading to the Women's and Children's to begin the wiring up process, which took about an hour. Fortunately they have portable DVD players, which makes the experience a little less difficult. Jack chose Shrek 3 and Rugrats.

The toys he collected over the day kept watch...

He really was brave - it must have been a bit frightening having all those things attached to you. This was the end result.

A few more minutes of Rugrats before trying to get to sleep. An hour and half after arriving. He had a bit of trouble getting to sleep. It was about 10.30pm before he finally drifted off.

He kept pulling the plugs out his nose in his sleep, so we had people coming in out all night, machines beeping, babies next door crying and then woken up at 5.30am to start the unplugging process. Not the best night's sleep I've had. This was our room.

We had a shower and tried to scrub all the paste from his hair and sticky bits from everywhere else and we landed back outside by 6.30AM! This is Jack up on the top level of the Car park. We always try to park here but a lot of the time it's full. The view hadn't changed from last night since it was still dark - but it was pretty cool looking out over the city and the cathedral in the dark. I kind of wished I had my good camera with me- my little point and shoot didn't hold up to the challenge!

We headed to - you guessed it - Maccas for breakfast, then to Carrisbrooke Park for a run around.

Then onto Munno Para for a quick look in K Mart. Jack wangled a Bouncy Ball for him and Gem out of me, which hasn't left his sight since. If Jack had no other toys but balls at the moment he would be happy.

We then headed to Freeling to visit Mel and Joel. The two boys had an awesome play while Mel and I had a good catch up. Love these photos:

It was so nice to spend all this time with Jack. Even if it was for Medical purposes! Love my boy...Jxx

Giggle & Hoot...

Jack and Gem have been so good at keeping themselves busy these last few days. Making, creating, building, jumping on the trampoline, colouring in, making cubbies, drawing faces on balloons and playing with them- you name it. They are so good at keeping themselves occupied. Yesterday morning they wanted to draw some pictures to send in to the Giggle & Hoot Gallery (kids show on ABC2). Here's what they came up with, they both drew Jimmy Giggle and Hoot.

It made me remember how I was so proud of myself for sending in an entry to a competition on Cartoon Connections when I was a kid. I would watch every morning to see if I had won...until I realised that I had forgotten to write my name and address on the envelope! It was to win a talking dog...I can't remember what they were called but they were big in their day.
And anyone remember, waiting for their name to be called out on Romper Room. Jodie obviously wasn't very popular, because I NEVER, EVER heard it.....ripped off!

Enduro

The off road buggies are racing just out of Waikerie this weekend. We were hoping to go out and have a look at the prologue today but Grant is still working and it is really crappy weather. Hopefully we'll get out tomorrow and check out the race. We went down to the scruntineering at the footy oval last night to have a close up look at the buggies...and a run around since we have been cooped up in the house for a few days. We were meant to catch up with some friends Friday morning but Jack had been vomiting over night, so we didn't want to spread any germs. Unfortunately Grant's having a bad on call weekend and was still working when we went down.