It’s that time at school when your child comes home playing “hot cross buns” over and over and OVER again on the recorder. God help me I thought,  then I was stopped in my tracks as a strangely familiar tune floated into the kitchen. Upon inspection I found Luke trying to teach Claire the AC/DC song “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”.  The recorder isn’t the greatest instrument for an AC/DC song but it sure shows a hard core side to the recorder that beats the crap out of “hot cross buns”.

My poor babies started school yesterday not knowing anyone and not even knowing where the toilet block was.  I had great fears as I dropped Claire off in her grade five class room because the class had already started and as she sat down the girl next to her rolled her eyes and mumbled something under her breath.  My poor shy baby, how would she cope? Next was Natalie but she was easier to let go of because there were still mothers in her class room so I had time to introduce her to other kids and chat with some mothers.  Still, I spent the whole day keeping busy trying not to think about the hurdle my girls had to jump… new school, no friends, no idea of the school routine, no idea of the school layout. MY POOR BABIES! When I went to pick them up I was tackled by Natalie with a huge hug from the side. I asked her how her day was and she just said “eeeerrrhhh”,  so I’m guessing it wasn’t too good but she survived.  Claire made a friend so that’s good but overall I think the first day at a new school was quite overwhelming for my two shy girls, let’s hope day two is a little better.

I am usually very strict with my water usage, no wastage!  However with 35 degree heat and two uncomfortable children complaining I broke the rules.  I’m not sure how much water I used but I assembled the kiddies pool and cracked open the hose.  The kids had hours of fun splashing around keeping cool and I had a walk around in the pool myself, very refreshing.  I don’t feel guilty either because every water statement I get shows our usage is way under the average with no excess EVER… so just this once I was a bit naughty.

Yesterday my big girl turned nine and to celebrate we went to Alma Park Zoo.  The last time we went was for Claire’s third birthday and that didn’t exactly go too well… I had taken loads of beautiful photos only to discover the camera had no film in it.  So this time I was determined to make up for past transgressions and take some gorgeous photos… with the DIGITAL camera.   What ended up happening though was me taking photo after photo of the children with nothing but hats over eyes and half smiles set in a backdrop of mud and barren land.  After an hour and fifteen minutes we had seen everything and then it bucketed down rain… so we left.  The kids had a good time feeding the deer, donkeys, lamas, Kangaroos,ducks etc so overall it was a good morning out.  We were also lucky enough to be there to see the week old baboon as well as the baby deer… so very cute. In the end however I always seem to gravitate towards money and I have to say…  at $85 entry plus animal feed it was an expensive hour and fifteen minutes.

Our Christmas tree is up and my youngest has done the decorating but I can assure you it wasn’t without drama.  We strung the fairy lights and plugged them it only to discover that half the bulbs were not lighting up.  Wasn’t it enough that they were in one giant tangled ball that took ages to unravel? Now I had to take them off the tree and check every bulb… all 250! I delegated the task to my kids, showing them how to test the bulbs and how to replace them but there was confusion so I had to recheck them anyway. After missing most of my T.V. show the lights were fixed and back on the tree, the kids were happy so I guess it turned out fine in the end.  However, next year I’m going to hide the fairy lights and it’s going to be tinsel and hanging decorations only!

The other day my six year old started playing with my hair, separating out individual strands.  She then said to me “wow mummy you have beautiful silver hair” to which I replied “No honey it’s gray”.  She took a closer look and then pulled a strand across my face and said ” look, it’s silver and it’s beautiful”.  I was never concerned about my gray hair but thought that someday soon I guess I had better dye it… now I think I’ll keep it the way it is… my beautiful silver hair.

You know those kids you see who swear, flip the bird and are basically rude little turds? Well after trying to ignore the fact that my nephew (aged 4) was one of those kids, I can’t deny it any longer… just look above at the picture he drew. Yes that’s a dinosaur giving the finger!  When he showed me I just shook my head, how could this sweet little boy develop such rude behaviour?  Well don’t look at me, I’m just the babysitter…  I think my sister has some explaining to do!

Last night just before bed, Luke showed the girls their new wii game… mistake!  At 4am in the morning Claire woke me up needing her asther puffer so I stumbled out of bed and helped her,  in my half conscious state I noted that both girls were awake… that was odd. I went back to bed and resumed my black nothingness of sleep, blissful sleep.  Then when it was time to wake up at 6:45am there was background noise that was not normal… another oddity. Upon inspection I discovered that my girls (at the tender age of six & eight) had spent the wee hours of the morning gaming… a school morning mind you! As a “girl gamer” myself I couldn’t help but laugh and feel a little pride… my little girl gamers.

I hate moving but alas we are moving again,  poor Claire has lived in six different houses and she’s only eight… this next move will be house number seven for her. It seems that with every move we have gained more and more stuff to cart along, I swear we have a good sized trailer load of kids toys alone! With birthdays, Christmas and a move in December we are going to be very busy indeed… at least this time the kids are old enough to help.

Have you ever bought something on e-bay and then thought… am I buying stolen goods? I just bought a Hello Kitty sock case pouch (to put mp3 players/mobile phones in) for 40 cents with free postage.  Ok, so it’s a knock off from China but how do they cover listing fees and postage and still make a profit? Either there’s a bunch of children working away in a slave labour situation or this seller has stolen goods he is just flogging off.  Still, for 40 cents I can’t go wrong!