Baby Jesus and the Donkey

Thursday morning was field trip day with Kenyon's pre school. In mom terms, this means an early start to a long day with 22 five year olds and their siblings! My morning started off with an early trip to the gym and then a marathon dash around the house trying to get 2 kiddos ready and out of the door. Both kids helped mom out by sleeping in and waking up 45 minutes before we needed to leave. Ashtyn, upon hearing that Kenyon was going to be riding the train downtown, then informed me "I no go school today. I ride train with sissy and friends!" That sounds sweet, however, imagine it being said in a high octane squeal with some kicking and screaming thrown in. I have learned a few lessons in my years of motherhood...my favorite these days is to pick my battles...I chose not to fight this battle, threw all us in the car and sped away to Kenyon's school so we could catch the train. Evidently, I did not speed fast enough. By the time we got there, they had left us. Picture me with a stroller, a purse and a lunch bag racing down the sidewalk to the train station with a 5 year old and 2 1/2 year old (shoeless) racing along side of me. FUN TIMES! We made the train and headed off the St. John's Cathedral for a lovely telling of the birth of Jesus.

Mykaela, Ashtyn and Kenyon having morning tea (snack) in Cathedral Park. Notice what Ashtyn is NOT wearing.

St. John's Cathedral (Anglican Cathedral of Brisbane). The Cathedral was built in 3 stages. Work began in 1906 and ended in 1910. The second stage began in 1947 and ended in 1965. The third stage began in 1989 and ended in 2009.

2 buildings down from the Cathedral is James's office! We met him for lunch and Christmas shopping after the field trip.

Sinead (a friend of Kenyon's) trying to get Ashtyn to go sit down. Looks like Ashtyn is really listening!

Kenyon, Neeve, and Sophie taking up the pre school's offering to baby Jesus.

Mary, Joseph and their donkey, looking for a place to sleep in Bethlehem. As you can see, there were a good number of kids here for the story. Amazingly enough, it was very quiet. UNTIL...Ashtyn realized there was a donkey and yelled " A DONKEY!!!!!! I WANT TO RIDE THE DONKEY!!!!!!!"

Listening to the story of the birth of Jesus.

You would think she was listening as well...Not really...She was very intently following the movements of the donkey.

This car was parked in the employee area of the parking lot of the Church. Not sure if this is the church accountant's vehicle or what. But the vanity plates on BMW X3 (sells between $68,000 - $85,000) were amusing to me.

Train ride home. Happy girls...I bribed them with lollies (suckers). On the way home we had a conversation about the story of Jesus. Kenyon said her favorite part of the story was the big bright star and baby Jesus (he was cute). Ashtyn's favorite part...the donkey. Ashtyn then asked me if she could meet baby Jesus because she wanted to ask him is she could ride his donkey. I think we need to do some talking about the meaning of the birth of Jesus.

Walking to the car from the train station. Notice what is still missing from Ashtyn's clothing ensemble?

All in all it was a good day. We got to eat lunch with daddy...something we never get to do during the week, and we all went Christmas shopping as well. Daddy got his Christmas present. Not really sure if it counts as a Christmas present when he did the research, shopping and paying for it...but he likes it!

Caloundra

Beach weather has arrived in Brisbane! I think all of us are a little excited. Warm weather and great beaches are just two of the things you think of when you hear Australia. Thanks to the time of year we moved, we have had limited time at the MANY beaches north and south within 30 minutes to 2 hours from our house.

This past Saturday we ventured an hour North to the town of Caloundra. Caloundra is the southern most community on the Sunshine Coast. We got a kick out of some of the names of the beaches...Bulcock Beach...Dicky Beach... Despite names of the beaches, a great day in the water was had by all.

A view of Bulcock Beach.

A view of the northern tip of Bribie Island from Bulcock Beach.

My handsome Kangaroo Jack!

After a morning swim, we stopped for a little lunch at a fish and chips restaurant with ice cream for dessert. As you can see, Ashtyn was a fan of her rainbow ice cream!

Kenyon, takes after her mommy and went straight for the chocolate!

Building sandcastles on the beach.

Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Model 2023?? I hope not, but I do like the pose :)

Running on the beach.

Can't quite outrun the water.

Happy Girl!

My 2 little fishes!

After a day at the beach, we made a pit stop for James at BCF (Boating Camping Fishing). It is the closest thing we could find that resembled an Academy. Why were we searching for this store? Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and even though there is no Thanksgiving celebration in Australia...we are celebrating anyway! This entails frying a turkey. Frying a turkey means buying a large pot and a propane burner. Lucky us...these items were located at BCF! While daddy was shopping, Ashtyn located a chair and made herself at home.

2 tired girls on the way home from our day in Caloundra. They could not be disturbed from their Barbie movie to take a photo for mommy.

Stay tuned...I think I am making it a mission to hit every beach in a 2 hour radius both north and south of our house. I have a feeling there will be more beach pictures to come.

BULA!!!!!

James and I were able to celebrate our 8th anniversary with a trip to Malolo Island, Fiji. Heaven on earth comes to mind when I think of the scenery we were able to see while we were there. Think of the pictures you have seen on post cards, calendars and movies...and yes, Fiji actually does look just like all of those. The main island of Denareu is very commercialized. That is where you can find the Hard Rock Cafe, and all the major Hotel chains. We stayed one night on Denareu and then made our way out to Malolo Island via boat transfer. We stayed five nights on Malolo at the LikuLiku Lagoon Resort. LikuLiku on has 45 bures (Fijian word for wood and straw hut), so at full capacity the resort only holds 90 people. LikuLiku (means Calm Lagoons or waters) was an ancient safe harbor for the canoes during times of tribal warfare. The members of the Yara Village lived at the site of our resort until around 1940, when they relocated to a different side of the island in order for the British army to protect them from the Japanese. We did a village tour to the Yara Village, took a tour, met some of the local villagers and took part in a Kava Ceremony. Kava is a drink made out of the kava root. The roots are pounded into a powder and mixed with water to form a drink that has mild sedative properties. The Fijians will often drink the kava drink during times of story telling and socializing. The drink has been known to bring a relaxing or numbing affect to its consumers. Both of our tongues went numb after just one drink. The drink itself reminded me of drinking muddy water. No taste and kind of pasty.

James and I did a little of everything on our trip. We kayaked and snorkeled daily. Snorkeling was as easy as walking out our bure, putting on our snorkel gear and walking right into the water. We hiked around our island along the trails, we did runs on the beach, we did a snorkel around Castaway Island, (Tom Hank's movie was named for this island. He actually filmed the movie on a island named Modriki, which we could see from our resort.) we went fishing (catching only 1 fish...a barracuda), we also took plenty of time to rest, relax, layout by the pool and the ocean and have massages. One of the MANY highlights was meeting Natalie Cook. She is an Australian Olympic Beach Volleyball player. She won the gold in the Sydney Games (2000). She is in training right now for the 2012 Olympics. She was in Fiji, training the employees at our resort for a Fiji wide Volleyball tournament. She was extremely nice and played a very fun game of beach volleyball with us against the Fijians. We called in Fiji vs. The World...and the Fijians won. It was such a wonderful trip. James and I fell in love with the location, the island, the views, and the people. If we ever disappear...you know where we headed!

This was on our bed when we first walked into our Bure.

These were our personal beach chairs, on our little section of beach, right outside our bure.

The view from our outdoor daybed. We did some drinking and reading from this daybed. Very peaceful.

Thanks to the remote control for our camera...we got a self portrait with our beach behind us. We were getting ready for dinner one night.

A view of the pool that looked out onto the ocean. Can't tell where the pool stops and the ocean begins.

Gin and Tonic's on the outdoor daybed.

The sunrise on the morning of our fishing trip.

James and his barracuda. We donated his catch to our captain. Evidently the Fijian's eat barracuda. Our captain was happy to have it.

Our new friends! Kate and Sherwood (Arizona), Natalie Cook, James, me, and Sarah Maxwell. Sarah is an Olympic beach volleyball player from Canada.

Getting ready for a hiney kicking!!!

Eel! We saw this guy hanging out taking an evening hunt. We were on our way to have some pre dinner drinks and saw him in the water.

One of the beautiful sunsets seen while having drinks before dinner.

On the trail!! Taken while we were hiking around the island. What you climb up, you must also climb down.

View of our pool while we were kayaking around the lagoon.

Looking down on our resort from our hike.

7:00PM nightly tiki torch lighting.

We took over 500 pictures on our trip. I am in the process of putting a digital photo album together. We will bring the album with us when we come home in December. I am still having dreams of our little vacation in paradise...until next time!

Number 5 is Alive!!!!!!!!!

I had to reach far back into my movie trivia to come up with a title for this post. So think Short Circuit circa 1986...

We had Kenyon's birthday party this past Saturday. I think a good time was had by all. For the fifth year in a row...I swear that next year's party will be smaller and less stressful!!! Now...someone remind me of this come next year! The birthday prep actually began on Thursday, with grocery shopping, list making and errand running. Friday at 6:15 AM began cake making time. Mom was oh so excited!!!! By the time I took Kenyon to school at 9:00 AM, both cakes were baked, but not decorated. However, by Friday evening at 10:00PM, cakes were finished, items needed to take to the park were organized, girls were in bed dreaming of cakes and pinatas and mom was exhausted.

Saturday loomed early with our trusty alarm clock (Ashtyn) waking us up around 5:30 and Kenyon quickly following at 6:00. Lucky for us, both girls got a nap in before the festivities began. At 3:00, I dropped off James and Mario at the park to reserve our table and grill, and returned to the park at 3:30 with both kids and JoAnn. Party began at 4:00. Kenyon invited 30 of her friends and 25 came! All the kids made for a good time. James manned the grill, churning out about 50 sausages (hotdogs). We added some veggies and Ranch Dip (real ranch dip thanks to our visitors), cookies, chips, lollies (candy), fruit and marshmallow kebabs and some cake. Got the kids nice and sugared up before we sent them home for the evening! The kids had the park to play in. Then we played a game of pass the parcel. The kids sit in a circle and pass a wrapped gift around. When the music stops, the kid with the gift, unwraps a layer of wrapping paper. The game ends when the last layer of wrapping paper has been removed. After pass the parcel, we all ate and then let the kids beat the crapola out of 2 pinatas. The pinatas were a huge hit! A donkey for the boys and a butterfly for the girls. We ended with a serenade of Happy Birthday to the birthday girl, cake, and one last play in the park. It was dark when we left. We had a very happy girl! Her party was a success!

Our birthday girl on our back porch right before we left for the park.

Little picture with the birthday girl. Ashtyn was napping.

Sitting in daddy's chair. SOOO ready to get to the party.

The girls coming to the picnic area after having a play in the playground.

Kenyon tried to open all of her gifts as her friends arrived. That did not work. We ended up loading the gifts in the car for her to open that night.

Pass the Parcel. My kids NEVER wear shoes outside anymore.

Pass the Parcel.

Kenyon and Ella (her ballet partner) under the girl's pinata.

Passing out the bags for the kids to collect their pinata goodies.

Ashtyn taking some whacks at the pinata.

Trying to get Kenyon to beat the snot out of the pinata. We ended up with one STRONG pinata.

Daddy had to get after the pinata...and in about 2 more picture you will see what happened.

The kids knew excatly what to do once we finally got the pinata opened.

See the monkey in the tree?? Yup....that would be James. His busting of the pinata ended up with our rope stuck in the tree. He showed off his climbing skills to free the rope. The kids thought he was pretty funny.

Blowing out her candles. Butterfly cakes, butterfly candles, butterfly table cloths, napkin...I think you can figure out the theme. I asked Kenyon if next year, I could just make her a circle cake with white icing. She just gave me a look that leads me to believe that will not fly next year.

Kenyon, unwrapping her loot after a bath. She got some GREAT gifts. She has made some really nice friends here.

Kenyon and her friend Annaka and their monster. Kenyon got a monster making kit as a gift.

I can't believe that our first born angel is almost 5. The time passes so quickly... too quickly I think sometimes. She is amazing to watch. So full of life and laughter, so easy going and kind hearted. Having her has made me a better person. Happy Birthday Kenyon. Mommy and Daddy love you more than words could ever express!