Playgroup Christmas party

Last Thursday was our Playgroup Christmas party and each year my boys go as "Wisemen".  Seeing as Ethan graduated from playgroup last year it was left to Toby to uphold the tradition.  My plan was to get him dressed up then quickly take the photos before his interest waned and all the gear comes off.  Well Toby was quite happy to get into his outfit, he even said "cheese" for the photos, but I'm afraid our little Wiseman wasn't so wise during the Nativity scene and songs.

He got a little bored.......

then ditched baby Jesus' gift, his cape and crown..........and proceeded to jump down the stairs....repeatedly......at least two or three stairs at a time! Unfortunately that is when my camera stopped working and died, so no "after shot".  However, this is what Toby's preference was over the Wiseman outfit....

"Supercool guy" instead!

The Crazy Season

The boys are getting excited about finishing school this week and starting the holidays, not forgetting to mention that Christmas is around the corner.  There's a certain tension in the air, excitement, craziness and alot of kookiness.  The boys were doing the dishes last night and things were getting out of hand .

Have you ever seen a wider mouth...... dentists delight!

The dishes were washed but not much drying got done!

Crazy! Who's crazy?

Aaah... you've just got to laugh, bribing with chocolate didn't work!

Christmas Smells & Sounds

I've been in the kitchen baking christmas star cookies with the boys.  We've been listening to Christmas carols and hanging some christmas lights in between oven loads.  After two weeks of rain and thunderstorms in Sydney, the weather is hot again and the cicadas are chirping outside.  While standing in the hot kitchen with the oven on for the past few hours i've been listening to the sounds outside, cicadas, cockatoos screeching and then some warbling magpies, I am now feeling that Christmas time is beginning and summer is here.  With the smells of the cookies, the carols and the sounds outside I can feel a warm Christmas coming on and it brings back alot of memories. Childhood Christmases in Kenmore, Hervey Bay and later in Redland Bay.  Yes it would be nice to have a white Christmas again, but I also remember a wonderful wet Christmas in Rockhampton.  Just as we were sitting down to Christmas dinner on the verandah the heavens opened and it started pouring...... just magic. Now if only that would happen at Laidley!

Jedi Photo shoot

The photo shoot for our Blog site started like this........

...and then the battles began......

Jedi Battles

Let the battles begin. Samikin, Queethan & Tobyone were in battle mode from the moment they changed into their jedi outfits.  The battle between Samikin and Queethan was on.  Tobyone tried everything he could to join in, but it was just too intense.

Poor old Queethan copped a tough blow from Samikin.

Yet he lives to fight another battle, unlike Qui Gon Gin who never made it to the second episode of Star Wars.

Ethan's Friendly Monster

Ethan drew this wonderful picture at school yesterday.  He called it his "Friendly Monster".  He has wheels with monster mouths on them and he is holding a blue light sabre. I just love the size of the drawing and all of the colouring in, especially the big sharp toothed grin.

Sam's 8th Birthday & Baptism

It was Sam's 8th Birthday in November and boy was he excited about it. You see in our church when you turn 8 years old you get baptised. On the Friday night after Sam's birthday we held the Baptism at our church. Donald was able to baptise our first born and what a special occasion it was.

So the Walker clan & Jan came down to help celebrate. It was quite a house full!

Sam also had a birthday party on the Saturday to share with his friends and he chose to have a "Y-Wing" fighter cake (from Star Wars).

Donald did a magnificent job on the decorating too! Sam thought it was the best cake yet!

This year rain or shine, thunder or hail, we were having a jumping castle for the party!  The castle came with a rain cover and it was half slide, half jumping castle.  It kept the boys entertained for hours. The kids had so much fun and so did the big kids.

That same weekend it was Waynes birthday, fortunately almost everyone was still staying with us so we got to celebrate with a BBQ.  Alister made this spectacular chocolate cream cake with strawberries as well as some yummy burgers.

Halloween

We had a little Halloween celebration around our neighbourhood. Our house was decorated with spider webs, scary spiders, witches and jack-o-lanterns. Ethan & Toby were fierce, but gorgeous pirates, moustaches, scars and swords. Sam was the freaky but friendly ghost & Lisha the pirate queen. We had a few trick or treaters come visit, and we visited a few neighhbours...... we took them some treats this time.
After trick or treating we went up to our church car park for some "trunk or treating". It was new to us, but some Canadians from church sent the idea around that you decorate the trunk (boot) of your car and trick or treat around the car park.  The kids had lots of fun and there were about 10 cars that turned up.  We played some "Monster Mash" from our car stereo while the kids ran around.....lots of fun!

The Monster Mash!!