Tasmania Zoo

Yesterday Kobe and I braved the crazy (freezing!) weather to join Harri's class on an excursion at Tasmania Zoo. Harri was so excited about going and the night before he said 'when I see the hippopotamus I'm going to be scared'. We laughed and told him it wasn't a zoo like that, but more of a wildlife park, and there are lots of native Australian animals there, not hippos. He then said 'oh, just giraffes then!'. Funny boy.

The kids loved being able to pat the Tasmanian devil.

This little devil wasn't keen at all to though, and kept backing away from it when the man was asking him if he wanted to pat it.

Harri's teacher split the kids into groups as there were two other parents there doing parent help. Harri got to choose two friends to come in his group with him and then another child joined us. They were so funny and excited about seeing the different animals, although they weren't keen on all the noise the birds were making.

The weather was crazy and it would come out sunny for 20 minutes and be okay, and then the next minute the sky would get dark and it would start hailing on us!

We were looking at the rabbits when a peacock jumped in the enclosure and then spread out its feathers. The kids spent ages watching it and were very tempted to grab one of the feathers.

They had a great time studying the map trying to find the animals they really wanted to see.

Before going home the kids had a play. It was nice to be with the class for the day but I have to say it made me actually not miss teaching. I used to love it, but am not sure if I really want to go back to it again.

Kobe loved the attention from all the girls who wanted to mother him and swing him on the swings all afternoon.

I think he would stay at school all day if I let him. He's going to be well and truly ready for school when it's his turn.

Smile Photo Competition 2010

On the weekend I got an exciting email to say that this year I am again a finalist in the Smile Photo competition this year!!! After being in it the last two years, I thought there was no way I could be lucky enough again, especially since the competition has now changed. Instead of having a top twenty photos in each shopping centre, they now only run it so there are 100 photos nationally in the final.

I never have a clue which photos they will like, and never would've thought I could've won it a couple of years ago with the photo that I sent in of Pop, so I sent in about twenty and was excited to hear one was chosen. .

This year they chose the photo I took when Aaron was coaching his high school footy team a few weeks back. The prizes are cash prizes this year, instead of camera equipment which is great, but there are so many awesome photos to compete with (another 99 to be exact!) that it's going to be hard to get anywhere near winning.

So....PRETTY PLEASE help me out by voting for my photo. I doubt I will win, but it's still exciting to be in the running. Anyone can vote (doesn't matter if you are Australian or not) but if you do vote and you are Australian you have a chance of winning $2000. Just click on the picture below and it will take you to the page to vote. Feel free to pass this onto your friends too - every vote counts as you can only vote once per email address.

Grand Final (take 1!)

It doesn't matter who is playing the AFL grand final - it's always one of Aaron's favourite days of the year. Harri had been so excited all week about it as he knew we were having a 'footy party'. On Friday night he said to me that 'tomorrow is going to be 'better than birthdays because you have footy AND food all day!'.

Yesterday I went to the gym and came home and he had all the posters from the newspapers up on the wall - Collingwood's and the Saint's. Aaron and the boys were going for Collingwood (Noah even tipped them by 45 at school! ;) and Aaron's Dad and I were going for the Saints.

Grand final day isn't complete without a half time kick.

We missed having Chrish here to kick with this year, but the boys loved having Pa come out for a kick.


Kobe had fun playing while the boys had a kick,

and a swing with Mum.

Noah slept for half the game, but woke up just in time for the end result. During the week Aaron cracked me up as he said Noah was speechless about the Brownlow result, and I'm pretty sure he was left speechless again yesterday!

Oh boy - we just about lost our voices screaming at the tv yesterday in the last couple of minutes. What an intense game!! It's one that will never be forgotten. Aaron yelled at the end 'another week of footy!!!!!'. I did hear a joke this morning (sorry Tayla and Becky!)... Collingwood can't read or write, but they can draw! :)

Looks like it's Aaron's favourite day of the year again, next Saturday!

Nap Time

My favourite time of the day is when it's Kobe's nap time. It's nice to have the whole house quiet for the only time during the day, and especially nice if I have had a bad night with Noah (or Aaron snoring!), to know that I can sneak in a little nanna nap if I need to.

He used to sleep for up to three hours in the middle of the day, but lately he hasn't been so keen to go to bed. His sleep is getting later and later in the day, and some days he will still be calling out "Muuuummmmm!!!', an hour after I put him into bed.

During the school holidays he woke up and obviously hadn't had enough sleep as he was still grumpy and grizzly. Aaron thought he'd cheer him up by jumping into the cot with him.

At first he thought it was funny, but then just wanted nothing to do with it!

Since we have started packing to move, we have been storing a few of the empty boxes in Kobe's room so they are easy to grab when we have a minute to pack some things. Yesterday I went to wake him up from his nap to go and pick up the boys from school, and this is what I found!

At least he finally went to sleep - box on the head and all! :)

Footy Colours Day

The boys always love footy colours day at school. They love being able to wear their Hawks gear, and what's even better is they get to have a sav (or two) in bread for lunch. Kobe didn't want to miss out on the fun so he dressed up as well :)

Noah had no clue how silly he looked this morning, as he still hadn't woken up when I dropped him off at school! Before I had left scholl this morning, all the girls had plaited all his dreadlocks for him.

Harri refused to wear a long sleeve top this morning even though it was quite 'fresh'. He said he wants to be like a 'real' footy player.

Jalen isn't as crazy about the footy as Harri is, but is always keen for a bit of fun at school.

There was a lot of cheering and booing around the school this morning, as the kids saw which team their friends were supporting.

My New Gym Buddies

When it is your birthday our gym gives us a little present of a free week for a friend (good way to get new members), plus a gift voucher to spend on their merchandise. We thought the school holidays would be a good time for Aaron to use the free week.

Aaron said he would never want to do classes, but I talked him into coming to a class with me which was 'Blue Core' - a CORE class which was to raise money for prostate cancer. Everyone was encouraged to donate a gold coin, wear blue and prizes were given out during the class.

He came along and said he hated it - actually I think the words he used was the 'it was digusting' (because it put him through pain) but decided to stay for another class with me straight afterwards - my favourite class ever... ATTACK. I really didn't think Aaron was going to like it at all, but he came out saying he loved it and couldn't wait to do it again.

Within the next week he came back and did another CORE, ATTACK and SPIN class with me and was hooked. He was so disappointed when his free week was over and was saying how good it made him feel, so we talked it over and he decided to join up at the gym as well. So now I have a new gym buddy - at least once a week when I join him after school. He is hoping to do a couple or early morning classes a week, before school and one night a week after school. Jalen is so excited as it means he is also allowed to join in on the classes with us. This morning he was complaining that his 'abs are stuffed' and that he thought he was getting a bit of a six pack! If only we could after a class or two! :)

This morning he went off to the 6.15 am 'Footy SPIN' class. Everyone was encouraged to dress up in their footy colours which Aaron of course wasn't short of.

He came back very pleased with the prizes he won for being one of the best dressed.

It's nice to have a couple more gym junkies in the house.

The Feast

Over the weekend I helped to run our multi-stake Youth Convention after months of planning. It has been such a huge job to organise billeting, activities, food, workshops, a formal dinner/ dance, and a fireside for just over 70 youth and 30 leaders from all around the state. The theme of convention was 'The Feast' which was taken from the scripture in 2 Nephi 31:20 where it talks about 'feasting upon the words of Christ'.

It was a feast in more ways than one. Lisa was our amazing catering person, who helped us feed 100 people over two days and did an amazing job.

The first morning we started off with some workshops. One of them was a musical workshop where they learnt the theme song for convention 'Famine or Feast' which was written especially for convention by Matthew Pawson. It was a beautiful song and it was so cool to hear the youth finally sing it.

Aaron and I were both there the whole time, but it was strange as I still felt like I hardly saw him all weekend as I was so busy. It's nice to have him there though. Mum helped out and came and stayed for a couple of days to look after the boys.

We then had time doing fun activities including 'Minute to Win It' challenges which was very funny to watch.


We then headed outside for some team games using waterbombs (thanks Simone for helping me by filling them up!!).



While all the activities were going on different leaders were back at the chapel setting up for the formal dinner/dance. Toni had some awesome ideas for decorations and a dessert bar. Some YW and YSA helped her to make the decorations and during the week we puffed up the pom poms and then finally got to put them up.



After sprucing themselves up, we then went back to the chapel for a standards panel, and then the formal dinner/dance. Aaron was the MC and had lots of fun on the mic. entertaining them (or trying to!) with his corny jokes.

Aaron wasn't keen on MCing at first as it was preliminary final night and said he would only do it if Hawthorn wasn't in the preliminary final. I knew we would be pretty safe with that, but that didn't stop him, and others from watching the footy during the dance. They set up a TV up on the stage and had it hidden away so they could keep their eye on it all night. Aaron would give them score updates regularly. These two were particularly interested in the scores. Tayla was very excited by the end of the night!

The youth loved the dessert bar, where they had icecream topped with lots of different lollies and toppings.




The next morning we headed to Noah's (special) school for a service project. First of all Angela and Ryan spoke to the youth about what it is like to have children with special needs. What they said really touched a lot of youth and I could see a few tears as they listened to them.

The youth were then split into groups and went off and cleaned different areas of the school. The school has recently had some renovations done, so everything was covered in dust.


After the service project we got to hang around the school and use their facilities.

We had a play at the park across the road, and then a BBQ lunch.



Some of the youth tried out the Liberty Swing, before we headed back to the chapel for a fireside and testimony meeting to finish convention off.

It was a busy, but good couple of days. It's always nice when the youth get together, to hear their testimonies, and see the love that they have for each other.