Different Kind of Date Night

Well, it's Friday and I'm sitting at home with my two little guys watching Despicable Me (again:) while my hubby has gone on a date with three gorgeous young ladies!
Let me explain, our oldest daughter is a comic book nut, (her prized possessions include her 3 Deadpool t-shirts that I ordered from the US for her and her Marvel Comic Encyclopaedia) and her two younger sisters are following in her footsteps, so being the wonderful mother that I am, I went to the cinemas, bought 4 tickets to see tonights 6 o'clock session of The Avengers and organised with hubby to get home from work early to surprise the girls with a date night!!!
They were suspicious as soon as they saw Dad pull into the drive a lot earlier then usual and the look on their faces when they saw the tickets were priceless.
So with lots of squeals, thank yous and "your the best mum in the world's" off they went to spend some quality time with their Dad, something the four of them don't get to do very often.
And while I sit here with my nice hot cup of tea watching my two little boys laughing at the minions I have decided that Daddy and daughter date night is going to become a regular event in our family, I really think it will be something they will all look back on and smile. They will have wonderful memories about the times they got to spend together, just the 4 of them, Dad and his girls.

Where the Girls Went

Last year in September we went on our first big holiday as a family of 7. We headed down to Melbourne to see the Tutankhamen exhibition, as our oldest daughter is a bit of an acient history buff. The exhibition was amazing and I'm so glad we took the kids to see it, it was definitely a once in a life time sort of thing. But the one place I really wanted to visit was Cristina Re shop/cafe "Where a Girl Goes" to have high tea. I've been a huge fan of Cristina Re and her business for a very long time. I use to stock her gorgeous papers when I first opened my scrapbook shop in 2005 and she has always been a inspiration. Our first morning in Melbourne was predictably a little chilli but we got up early, got a "little bit" dressed up and caught the train into the city. From there it got a but trickier, we jumped on a tram and got a little but lost, no actually truth be told we got a big bit lost and after wondering around for another hour we finally arrived at our destination. Daddy took the boys to have a wonder around the city and the girls and Iwalked into 'Where a Girl Goes' and we were not disappointed, the shop was stunning, from the mismatched chairs to the wonderful shelves full beautiful papers it is a gorgeous place. The girls and I were taken to our table and our high tea was served. There was cupcakes and macaroons, handmade chocolates and English breakfast tea served in beautiful gold rimmed cups and saucers. We all felt a little bit fancy, the girls kept speaking in funny English accents and poking out their little fingers when they picked up their tea cups.

the gorgeous table where we sat for our high tea

Macaroons, cupcakes and scones...Oh my!!!

The bright red, handmade chocolate made a fun photo prop...kisses anyone?

Me with my beautiful Sofia

My two baby girls. I love the smiles on their faces, even though Madelin is hiding her behind her fancy cup of tea :)

                                         

The girls took over the camera and took this shot of me.

My 3 favourite girls in the world.

 After we finished our high tea we had a wonder around the shop and walked out with some beautiful notebooks, a pile of stunning papers, some divine smelling soap and some fancy gold rimmed tea cups so we can have our own high tea at home whenever we feel like it!!

I'm going to use some of the paper I bought down in Melbourne to make a gorgeous decoration for Madelins room. I will post pictures when I'm done!!!

The many faces of Oliver

Oliver, Oli, Oli-boo, Oliver Boliver Butt are some of the names that Oliver answers to!! Oliver is the oldest boy in our family and he is a complete clown!!! He likes to keep his sisters on their toes (if he is not getting his way he will come out and tell me that his sister is 'a breaking his heart' at which point said sister usually gives in and Oliver gets what it was that he was after!)
I took the following photos a couple of days after my wonderful husband bought me my new Canon digital SLR camera. I took the boys down to a local cafe where they like to play while I sit and have a cuppa, I bought my camera along to get some pictures of them playing but as I was taking photos Oliver said to me 'take some pictures of my faces Mum' so that's what I did!

Olivers worried face

Olivers 'very' happy face

Scared of 'a monster'

His excited face

This is his sad face, he had a bit of trouble trying not to smile :)

This is one of my favorites....crazy face!!!

And this is one we are seeing a bit too often, his cheeky face...

This is my very favorite one, my beautiful angel faced boy. It really is no wonder his sisters have trouble saying no to our little Oliver Boliver Butt!!!

I love being a Mum

Being a Mum can be hard and today started off as a very hard day. I dropped the Oli & Jas off at preschool. Oliver went off a happy young man because hes cousin goes to school with him on Mondays but Jasper was another story..he screamed and screamed and screamed. I gave him a big kiss and cuddle, told I loved him and then gave him to his favorite teacher, but today not even Miss T could calm him down. The girls and I could still hear him crying when we got in the car...I felt so horrible for him but I had promised the girls a 'girls day out' so we left for our favorite cafe for some yummy hot chocolates.
We were sitting around the table & the girls could see that I was upset but they kept telling me to relax, after all Jas had been going to preschool for about a year now, but that was not going to happen until I called the preschool to check on him, so that's what I did, I called to see if he had calmed down, and of course he had, (apparently as soon as the car was out the driveway!!!) I mean I should have known but isn't that always the way. All my children have done the 'being dropped off at preschool' tantrum in an attempt to make me feel bad (who am I kidding it's not an attempt because it works!) but it still, even with baby number 5 I still feel guilty when he does it.
The rest of the day was so lovely and relaxing, I loved spending time with just my girls. We went shoe shopping (sneakers with sequins!) and bought some cosy winter pyjamas. Then we went and played arcade games for an hour, we had a ball!!
After our great day out the girls and I walked into the preschool to pick the boys up. We walked into Oli's room and nearly got knocked over by the big hug we all got, but while Jasper was happy to see us, he decided he wasn't ready to come home yet because he was to busy playing with the puzzles...really Jasper? But I had to laugh, because when I said 'well I'm going home then' and he ran to me as fast as he's little legs would take him!!
I love being a Mum even on the hard days:)
Fiona xx

Looking for Sleep

Well today was...exhausting. Jasper just won't sleep and he's temper tantrums seem to be getting worse and more frequent and the whole thing is extremely frustrating so I figured I needed to talk to a professional :)
So, I dropped Madelin off at school (I offered all the girls a day off because they are feeling tired from Jaspers sleepless nights but only Sofia & Grace took me up on my offer, Madelin insisted on going because her class was having an end of term party with lots of junk food and a movie!) and I took both the boys to see the early childhood nurse this morning. I thought I could get Oliver's 3 year old check up while I talked to the nurse about Jasper's behaviour.
The nurse I talked was so lovely and not judgemental at all, which was a nice change, alot of people presume that because I have 5 children, number 5 should be a breeze...I wish!
Jasper was so unsettled when we were with the nurse and then he decided to show her what one of his tantrums look like. There was nothing I could do to get him to calm down, I think the nurse felt a little sorry for me :) At the end of the appointment we hadn't managed to get to Oliver's check up so that's going to wait till next week & the nurse sent me home with some questionairres that I have to fill in as I watch Jasper during the next couple of days then I need to go back to see her next week so we can come up with some strategies that will hopefully help Jasper become a more settled little man.
On another note I'm so happy that the school holidays have started, it's going to be so nice to not have routine for a couple of weeks and maybe even a little extra sleep, hey a Mum can dream can't she :o)