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!

Announcing the next Margot Fonteyn...

Our adorable little prima ballerina took her first CSTD exam yesterday. CSTD stands for Commonwealth Society of Teachers of Dancing. CSTD began in 1933 and was founded to establish Examination Standards and to raise the standard of dance in Australia. After weeks of practice on both Tuesdays and some Saturdays, as well as practicing at home,Kenyon took her "tinies" exam. I am pretty sure that mom was more nervous than Kenyon. I was not allowed in the exam room with her. I had to wait outside and listen to the music. If ballet turns into something special for Kenyon, I am going to end up being a very nervous STAGE mom.

Kenyon hamming it up in the practice room before her exam. No nerves here!

Kenyon and her partner Ella doing a little practicing in front of Mrs. Marilyn prior to entering the exam room.

Kenyon "got" air!!!!! Who says white girls can't jump?! :)

Last minute prep work before entering the exam room.

Mrs. Marilyn does wonders with these girls, so patient and always giving a little extra to the dancers. This was my last picture before the girls made their way into the exam.

Immediately following the exam. Such happy little faces! Mom and dad are so proud of our little dancer. We don't yet know the score of Kenyon's exam, but we have every confidence that she did great. Will keep everyone posted. If she did as well as we think she did, then she will receive her exam medal on December 4th, the evening of her first recital.

Life's a Beach...

Or in our case, several beaches and an amusement park! The Australian school system works year round, 4 terms with approximately 2 week breaks in between each term. Except for the break that starts before Christmas, that break last 4-5 weeks. With the girls off for 2 weeks, my neighbor and friend (Jen) and I thought in would be nice to take her girls and our girls to Coolangatta for part of their break. Reservations were made and great little place with 1 bedroom apartments for each family...women and girls left on Wednesday and the men folk came down on Friday after work. Overall we saw some beautiful beaches and scenery, ate some great food, had some TERRIBLE weather, experienced a few firsts (more on those later) and had a great time!

Kenyon in one of the pools at the Resort. What you can not see in this picture is her blue lips and shivering body. Weather was mostly cloudy and/or rainy and cool the whole time we were there.

Ashtyn and her friend Evana in the wading pool at the Resort. Cold weather did not seem to bother these girls. Mean while, Jen and I stayed warm by wrapping ourselves in towels and sitting on the side of the pool (s) watching the girls swim.

One of the "firsts"! My girls eating their first Thai food! Ummm... not sure it was a hit. It was a good thing I had brought some peaches and oranges along, oh... and a granola bar. They were troopers though and at least tried the food. They thought the rice was pretty good. This meal was followed by an after dinner snack of strawberries and popcorn. I think it may be awhile before they eat Thai again.

Sleeping Beauties. Another "first". This was the first time our girls had shared a bed. They did pretty well. Except that when Ashtyn woke up, she insisted on waking up her sister as well.

Breakfast in bed. Now mommy did not get breakfast in bed, but our two little princesses were served cereal and fruit in the comforts of their fold away bed.

Evana, Ashtyn, Annaka, and Kenyon having Kit Kats and Baby Chino's for their morning snack. We had to bribe them to get some shopping in. BTW, baby chino's are marshmallows and the foam from cappuccino's.

We live in the state of Queensland. Coolangatta is on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. So, I have 1 girl in New South Wales and 1 girl in Queensland. BTW, I hope you like their jackets and Kenyon's pants...thanks to the weather, they had to wear the jackets the whole time we were there. I had to go to Target and buy Ashtyn some pants because it was so cool.

This was the Coolanagtta beach, outside our hotel. There was a break in the clouds for about 15 minutes one day...YAY! Sun!

Ashtyn's favorite part about the beach is the sand. She can do WITHOUT the water. She does not like the waves.

Night #2...MEXICAN FOOD!!!!!!! My margaritas were great, food was OK, however, it took care of my craving.

Getting ready for some fun in the sun...make that fun in the rain! On our way to play in the "warm" pool.

SURFER GIRLS!!!! Bought the girls some boogie boards. The boards were a huge hit

Big "A" climbing some rocks on the beach.

Taking a look back at Coolangatta beach.

Just our luck...a little amusement park was in town while we were there. And wouldn't you know it...our kids saw the thing before I could direct their attention elsewhere. Kenyon, Annaka and Ashtyn waiting to get on the jumpy castle. This was the 2nd night we were at the amusement park. The first night ended as soon as it began. We had been there for 5 minutes when it started to rain. The girls got soaked, and then cried the whole way back to the hotel. Night #2 was much better.

We even fell for the amusement park games...

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!

What big sister does...so does little sister...

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!

Pilot in training.

YAY! Bumper boats!

Even Ashtyn gave the boats a try...and LOVED them!

On Saturday, our friends (Jenn and Matt) took us to Byron Bay. We did a scenic drive, and drove through this little town. James and I loved this sign, so we had to pull over and grab a picture. No...we did not stop for wee wee's, but should have!

Byron Bay! James and I got up the nerve to take a swim. It was about 66 degrees outside, windy, cloudy, and rainy...but we joined the swimmers and the surfers and braved the water. Byron Bay is a wonderful little hippie town! San Fran...only smaller! No, more like Haight Ashbury. Great shops, great character and great places to enjoy the surf. While we were there we saw a pod of whales. It was my first whale sighting.

Picture taken from a scenic look out above Byron Bay. Australia has both the male and female world champion surfers (at the moment). Both the surfers are from Coolangatta, where we stayed. Byron Bay is very popular with the surfing crowd. We also learned that Byron Bay is the eastern most point of Australia.

That would be a Bush Turkey. So.... I am thinking we head back to Byron Bay around Thanksgiving and make this guy our dinner??

Another glimpse of Byron Bay.

Now, I did mention that this trip held some "firsts" for our family.

1.) First Thai Food for the girls

2.) First time the girls slept together

3.) First time Kenyon said a full fledged, big time CUSS word!!!!

Oh...did I not mention that Kenyon has obtained the mouth of a sailor?? It was such a proud moment for me...I thought for sure I would have mentioned it...

So...day 2...we are getting ready to head to the beach. Jenn and her girls are in our room, we have loaded up towels, sand toys, boggie boards, water, and we are on our way. When Kenyon breaks out with a word that rhymes with suckers, puckers, muckers, duckers...catch my drift??

To be exact, the sentence was something along "Come on you F@$&ERS"...

After I picked my mouth up off the floor, Kenyon and I had a discussion about certain words. She denies having heard the word from anyone (I tried to blame dad, since he was not there.) She said she had NOT heard the word from mommy, daddy, any of her friends, or on TV. She told me she made the word up. Hopefully this first will also be a last!

Overall we had a great trip to the beach. Girls are very excited about going back, and the whole family is ready for some beach weather! Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie...Oui, Oui, Oui!!!!!