A very cute Mothers Day

So after my last post (titled 'A whinge') I am redeeming myself and my children with this lovely post all about my very cute Mothers Day. I did feel a little bit guilty after complaining about my cheeky monkeys, but the lovely Simone reassured me that sometimes mums need to have a good whine, and it makes other mums feel better :) If that's the case, I can think of lots of things to whinge about ;)

As gorgeous as my kids were on the special day, Job was even cuter. He set his alarm for some ridiculous hour of the morning - 5 or 5.30am, tip toed out of the bedroom (I pretended I couldn't hear him)..and quietly closed the door leaving me to sleep. It's very hard to sleep when you can hear the hustle and bustle of excited children in the house. It's one of the best sounds ever. I kept worrying that the kids would get cold as I could hear them coming and going from the house to the garage. I knew they had been working on a special project out there.....I just wished it didn't involve the cold Tasmanian climate.

They finally burst through the bedroom door in great excitement just after 7am. Job was armed with the camera and got lots of shots of them - (and lots of awful morning pictures of me too)

Here are the girls with their cute little presents. Lani painted me a beautiful loveheart at school while Sisi carried some chocolates and a small wheat bag.

                                              I got the cutest cards....everything was cute!

Then I got to see why they had been so busy hiding away in the garage for the two days prior....

After my sook about feeling unloved and unappreciated, Job thought it would be nice for the kids to pick something that they were grateful for and signpost it all around the house :) The poster above was made by Lani.

                              This is Sisi's - it says "Thank you mum for letting me sleep in your bed."

                                                                      Bennys..

and JJ's..

             And lucky last, one from Job that I didn't see until we hopped in the car to go to church...

   It was such a special morning. I was touched at all the effort the kids and Job had put into it. I don't care about presents, the cardboard posters are priceless.

As was the yummy cocopop/fruitloop breakfast :)

One of the highlights of the day was at church when the primary kids sang for the mums during sacrament meeting. I was smiling both inside and out when I remembered that the kids had been trying to keep the song a secret for the last two weeks. Everytime Sisi had began singing it at home, the bigger kids would quickly hush her up and I'd pretend I hadn't heard anything.

When we got home, I was allowed to relax on the couch while Job got some yummy chicken, rolls and salad for dinner. Him and JJ then made a chocolate cake for dessert.

So, I got completely spoiled with love.... and was reminded once again of all the reasons I love being a mum.

A whinge!

It's not often that I feel entitiled to a good whinge...... but I do today :)

..and I'm complaining about my children, so the rest of you are off the hook ;)

I'm guessing that sometime or another in a mothers life, she feels taken for granted. My turn came yesterday. Obviously it's not the first time I have felt a little unloved, but its the first time I sulked and felt sorry for myself!

For the last two days, the primary school has held their anual mothers day stall. For the second year in a row, my kids didn't buy anything (for me). I organised for them to have a few dollars each but JJ forgot to go and Lani didn't want to. Benny has been home sick so JJ was meant to get something for him too.

When I picked them up from school, they told me straight away that they didn't get anything. I joked with them a bit, pretended to cry and told them it was okay. I pushed away the tiny feeling of hurt, laughing at myself for even caring about something so little.

Once we walked in the door, I showed Lani the small pile of clothes I had put in her room for her to put away. She growled and grumbled and carried on as if I had asked her to fold the entire family pile (which on a side note is usually quite huge!) - My negative feeling started growing a little...

I noticed when I put Bennys pile of clothes on his bed that his room was a mess and asked him to clean it up before he went outside to play football. Another explosion hit; including lots of grumbling, complaining and something like "I don't like you!"  I remained calm and prepared them all something to eat.

They ate their snack and ran off leaving their plates and mess on the table. Nothing new to me but it got on my nerves this time.

The last straw was when JJ got angry with me for trying to help him correct a part of his music during his piano lesson.  - Which in all fairness to JJ, happened at the same time that Sisi was throwing a whopper tantrum.

I'd had enough, I went to my room, lay on the bed and sulked until Job found me. I also felt like being angry at him too but couldn't find a good enough reason ;)

I told him I was feeling unloved and underappreciated by the kids. He decided that during dinner (once I had finished my time in self pity) we would have a family meeting. That way the kids would be trapped around the table so we could fire away at them and demand that they stop acting like spoiled brats! - well, that's what I imagined but we ended up having a chat instead. I tried my best to be patient and loving while I explained to them that they had all hurt my feelings that day. I think they were a bit suprised to learn firstly that I had feelings....and secondly that they were resposbile for hurting them. The funny thing was that they all said in unison "It's because of the mother's day stall isn't it?" I laughed (and lied a little) when I said no.
It only took them a couple of seconds each to identify what they had done and how they had each behaved. They were very cute as they all apologised and promised to try harder.

Then the conversation took an unexpected turn and Benny and Lani took turns telling me how sometimes they felt like I don't love them. Hang on a sec - I thought this was about me!

Realising that my brief encounter in the 'me' spotlight was over as I took a deep breath, put my mother/nurturing hat back on and listened as they explained to me where I was at fault. JJ and Sisi are quite secure in my love for them. JJ found it a little comical that Benny and Lani couldn't see the all the evidence. The whole conversation taught me once again that each of us interpret 'love and acceptance' differently. When I asked them how they knew that I loved them, Benny said "Because you carried us for nine months.....and then you fed us." Lani said "Because you suprise us on our birthdays and sometimes you clean up our rooms for us." 

I was hoping they'd notice the more day to day things, but maybe I'm expecting too much at the moment. I was up with Benny who was feeling sick until 2am this morning. I slept next to him on the longeroom floor and settled him on and off throughout the next 4 hours sleep that I had. I am not going to hold my breath that he noticed!

Maybe next year they'll remember to get me something from the mothers day stall and then all will be right ;)

Little Water Bug

Sisi has started swimming lessons this term and she absolutely loves them. She's the first one out of our kids to have proper lessons. With the older three at school, she felt left out. We thought swimming lessons may be a way for her to learn vital skills as well as having something special to look forward to each week. She now has a few activities each week to keep her busy. She has started pre kinder for just over and hour on Mondays (which she also loves), her swimming and then shopping are on Tuesdays, she has a playday with her cousin Archie on Thursday mornings.. and Friday mornings she has speech therapy at St. Giles (post to come) She is a busy girl!
In between there is lots of time to hang out with her mum ;)

                       So this is what she looks like each Tuesday morning after the big kids go to school

As soon as she gets into the pool, its all smiles - from start to finish. She loves the water so much and often gets into trouble for not sitting still. I just watch from the the sideline and laugh quietly to myself. What 3 year old can sit still at the best of times, let alone in a swimming pool?! Her swimming instructor is really good and very patient with her. I love the way Sisi is completely oblivious and just enjoys herself.

Each week the instructor pours water over the kids heads and then gets them do it to themselves. I laughed last week when I watched Sisi pour it on her instructors head instead of her own.

The half hour lesson flies by and I enjoy watching her learn and enjoy her lessons each week

Once I have her showered and dressed, she loves to cover herself with the ink stamps they have in the reception area. (Yes, I meant 'cover') Back of her hands....front of her hands.....

...and her legs...of course.

As much as I enjoy watching her in the pool, listening to her sing Beyonce's 'Halo' on the way in the car, is pretty

darn cute too.

 

House fit for a Pig!

I stumbled out of bed early this morning partly delirious from a late night with the Rogers, into the kitchen to be greeted by Benny who says "Mum, are you going to clean the house today??"

I tried not to choke and gasp in response to such a ludicrous question. I snapped back something like "what do you think I do all day Benny....sit around watching movies?!" Then I opened my eyes properly and remembered how I'd left the house the night before..

There was mess everywhere....a lot of it from the morning before. There was no bench space to make school lunches, no clean bowls to make breakfast, barely any floor space to move around and you can't see it, but one of the kids had knocked textas all over the kitchen floor. Then..while struggling to find room to eat her weetbix at the table, Lani added insult to injury with a whole litre of spilt milk all over the floor. Needless to say, most of the textas ended up in the rubbish bin.
You know when there's mess everywhere and you don't know where to start?! I began with the project of moving and shuffling mess back and forward to get through the breakfast and lunch making. I then got the kids and hubby off to school and work before returning back home with Sisi and getting out the camera ;)

Luckily for me, Sisi was happy to watch most of 'Barbie, a fairy secret' while I got stuck into the kitchen area.
Eventually (meaning it took me nearly all day in the end) the house went from this:

                                                                          to this:

                                                                             and this:

       
                      It probably wouldn't have taken quite so long if I had have kept Barbie on replay ;)

               The house was ready just in time for all the little monkeys to come home and watch Scooby Doo

                                  Here's what the girls room looked like this morning. It went from this:

                                                            To this: (I think it got worse:)

                                                Oh well, two out of three rooms aint so bad, right?

My girls

                                                               I'm glad I have two girls.

I'm a mum who would have been quite happy to have five boys. But I my girls are my precious little treasures. I remember finding out I was having a girl when I was pregnant with Lani and wondering what to do. I had no idea how to raise a girl - and I'm still learning :)

            I'm a bit more of a tom boy at heart so my girls help me to dig deep and find my inner princess.

 I am so grateful for the both of them and today I fell in love with them all over again as I spent the morning getting them all dolled up for church. I take 5-10mins to get myself ready. I pull my hair back in a pony tail or finger comb it and leave it down, throw on some clean clothes, put a bit of eye liner on and some lip gloss. Often I do it all while the family are getting into the car. Getting the girls ready however, takes a bit longer. There are dresses to co ordinate (they usually like to wear the same thing) hair to do, a bit of lip gloss to put on if they catch me with mine.. and more often than not, nails to polish.
This morning they wanted their hair crimped. Thank goodness for afternoon church  - I never brushed my kids hair last year when we started at 9am ;)

Lani was also extra excited this morning as she could finally take out the studs she has had in her ears for the last 6 weeks. She had her ears pierced and needed to leave the original studs in up until today. She chose some little flowers to wear to church.

I don't know if others agree but I think my girls look completely different from eachother. Lani is fair like me with straight hair while Sisi is dark like Job with curly hair. I took these photos today as I think its gorgeous how they try their best to look the same.
                                                              I think they are beautiful xx

Swimming carnival 2012

I can't believe its been a whole year since the last swimming carnival.

I can't believe its been a whole 4 months since I've blogged! There are a couple of reasons why I haven't, but lets put it down to being incredibly slack :)

So yesterday was the school swimming carnival for grades 3-6. Job and I were very proud of JJ as he swam the length of the pool this year (25m)
                                      
                                                He came a very close third for his freestyle

                                                                    The scores and ribbons table

                                                                           JJ and Callum

Charlotte also did well with her freestyle - especially as this is her very first year in swimming sports. She also snatched up third place.... (that's her with the white cap)

                                                               ......and a kiss from mum

I found some funny looking spectators - wonder who they came with??

Time for backstroke. JJ came third again behind his good mates Lewis and Callum

                              

                                   Charlotte took a nice big gulp of water before starting her backstroke...

                                ...and came third :) Must be something special about the number three

                       While JJ and Charlotte competed in the novelty relays at the end of the afternoon...

                                             
                                                  ....this little chickadee found ways to amuse herself.

              
Once the boys were changed, I snapped a few shots of them together. Unfortunately we couldn't find Sam or  Jordan (a couple of the other boys that belong in the bunch)

JJ is really lucky to have good friends. He loves Lewis and Callum and the best thing is that they all live a stones throw away from eachother. JJ never wants to move from this house :) They get along really well.

                                                                             Can you tell?