iShop, iSwim, iPod

Adam had a lot of days on reserve this week, so we went shopping (yay - I love shopping with Adam) and we got almost all our Christmas shopping done - shock horror - this level of organisation is just unheard of!!

And after many months of saving and payment for doing their ad the boys all got their new iPod touch's (J got a Classic) and they disappeared into a strangely quiet world for a day or two while they loaded them all up with games, videos, music and applications. Adam, our resident expert in the field took charge and I, having just got Adam's hand-me-down iPhone, followed along happily getting lots of tips and advice from the kids on what I should put on it (thanks guys!)

I love our tropical weather! We have come to my favourite time of year with the stormy afternoons, night rain and crystal clear sunny mornings. We are trying to make the most of the beautiful weather now that we have a little less to do on a Saturday so we headed down to the wading pool with the Douglas family. It was a very windy afternoon but don't you love how kids make the most of every situation and after a long swim in the warm water they all had a "throw your towel in the air and see how far it flies competition!" (We had to do a few road retrievals!) Rob had his new kayak and gave the kids a turn in the choppy waves of Moreton Bay. We came back to the house and I helped the little kids make double chocolate brownies for dessert. YUM!

M went to her pre-prep (kindy) orientation on Saturday. She will be going to the same kindy that T and J did, for two days a week next year. She loved it and keeps asking when she can go to 'her school'!

T and J both got awards at school this week.

Encore Encore!

This week we all attended the U13 Wolves presentation dinner. This was a very nice celebration of the achievements of Ethan's soccer team. We all had a wonderful evening and it was great to have the opportunity to thank Dean and Dragan formally for their hard work in coaching. The boys of the team have been together for three years now so they are all good friends and it was nice to see them in a relaxed setting having fun together. We had a great night and Molly was particularly impressed with her party bag full of stickers and pencils!

At church we had a Ward Talent night and Adam performed a song called 'Angel' by Jack Johnson with his guitar and T played a song that he has been learning for his first piano exam coming up soon. Both of them were amazing and performed very well to huge accolades. I will try and post the videos as soon as I can work out how to get a small section as they are too long to download here.

Towards the end of the night we performed as a family with Adam and E playing guitar and the rest of us on vocals. We sang a lovely song by the Jonas brothers called "Love Bug". Unfortunately Jordan couldn't sing as he had a cold but I think the rest of us did a pretty good job and Molly stole the show by making sure she was singing directly into the microphone in the middle of us! She didn't know all the words but sang the chorus beautifully!

Here are E and M making Blu-tac dinosaurs.

This is Adam mucking around with the Skype special effects. We were all literally rolling around on the floor laughing at some of the faces!

Camps and carnivals

This week the kids went back to school for their last term of the year. 9 weeks to go for J, 8 for the other boys, then it's summer holidays, wow!

With the end of soccer season comes the beginning of Futsal and Indoor soccer (we are crazy I know!) J is playing indoor with his team and as the competition is played according to skill, their first game was against 12 year olds, much to their surprise. Accordingly they lost 6-1 but they were still pleased to have scored one goal against some much larger boys!

T is competing in a Futsal competition with a team made up with some boys from the development squad. Futsal is similar to soccer but with only 4 players per team on a smaller court.

Adam appeared in an advertisement for Delfin this week. Delfin is a Lend Lease development company selling houses at the Hyatt Regency at Coolum on the Sunshine Coast. They shot the ad over three days, showing Adam getting out of a BMW and going into one of the houses, playing golf and having dinner at the restaurant (tough gig!!) Unfortunately I don't have any photos! The ad will be on tv late November so we will be looking out for it! (We spotted the boy's Suncorp ad the other day and it is really good. You see the boys only fleetingly, playing rugby league together, but they were very excited to see themselves.)

On the weekend Adam looked after the kids while I went to the Iona Mother's Camp. This was held at the school's camp near Perigian Beach, just south of Noosa. It is such a lovely spot and we were very impressed with the camp and its surroundings. We all agreed our boys were very lucky to have such great facilities.

I arrived on the Saturday morning and met up with my lovely friend, Julie and some of her friends at the Eumundi markets. We had a wonderful day indulging in hours of market scouring, followed by a gorgeous lunch at Monteville, more shopping in the antique and collectible shops at Monteville finishing off with an indulgent afternoon tea and some final browsing. I don't think I have done that much shopping since L was born fourteen years ago! It was an amazing day and I got some lovely Christmas presents and knick knacks.

On our return to the camp we enjoyed a lovely dinner with everyone decked out in the night's pink theme and had lots of fun socialising. Sleep was a little sporadic as it usually is when you share a 30 berth cabin and hear every noise and snore but the next day we weren't too worse for wear. I enjoyed a nice walk to the lake with some of the girls before breakfast and then I made the journey home.

Adam had a very busy Saturday while I was away, taking kids to golf and the Spring Fair at the end of the street. Everyone had a ball but I think M enjoyed her carousel and pony ride the most from the photos Adam texted to me. Adam was exhausted at the end of the day!

And E had yet another soccer presentation, this time to award the boys with their premiership medals. The club put on a fun day as well with carnival type activities which the kids enjoyed again! Here is E, first with a few team mates, and second receiving his medal from Dragan.


L, J and T all made the most of the day!




L got involved in a University of Queensland inter-school competition this week to design a moon settlement. Together with 9 other boys and 10 girls from Lourdes Hill Girls School, the team worked hard this week to put together a proposal and are hoping to be selected to compete again over several days in January. Several of the team members were seniors who made it through last years competitions to go to NASA and compete internationally, something L is hoping to have a chance to do in senior school.

Holiday fun

While we were away at New Zealand, Grandma and Papa Barr arrived to house sit and mind Ted for a few days and visit us on our return. During this time the east coast of Australia was hit with a massive dust storm that originated in South Australia. We saw it on the NZ news and were told by Peter and Genny that even our locked up house had a fine red dust over the floor. Ted went orange and they hosed down the verandahs because they were so dirty! Sydney was hit worse than Brisbane and the photos on the TV showed everything looking dark and red! Spooky!

On our return to Brisbane aiport we were told that the Embraer our family had named had just arrived from Brazil, so the kids posed for their photo in front of "Kanga Blue."


After a good nights sleep we launched into the soccer spectacular that is the Gold Coast Cup. E's BJL (Brisbane Junior League) team competed daily for 5 days against a pool of 5 teams out of 24 other teams in their age group. After two exciting semi-finals they made it through to the grand final on Saturday only to be defeated through a dodgy referee decision and penalty kick in the second half of extra time 2-1. This was their third runners-up title in three years of competing at the GC Cup but the boys were philosophical and by Saturday afternoon Ethan was in his usual high spirits.




We were also able to sneak in a quick visit to Dave and Lou's holiday apartment at Main Beach on the Tuesday for a bit of fun and a yummy family lunch. Thanks Oscar and Aiden for sharing your pool and spa with us! It was great fun!




That night we had a bit of a fright as Molly had what doctor's suspected was a febrile convulsion because of a spike in her temperature. Unfortunately for Genny and Peter, Adam and I were at the movies for the first time in about 4 months but they handled it very well. It was relatively quick and she was fine shortly afterwards but we came home and took her to the Children's hospital to be on the safe side. They were so wonderful there and checked her out so thoroughly we were very impressed. I am sure M was wondering what all the fuss was about! Fortunately she will grow out of this tendency by the time she is around 6 and it is not harmful. Phew!

Tasman celebrated his 10th birthday in style on holidays as usual and was pleased to have the whole day to admire and experiment with his new phone and presents. Happy birthday Tas!! He requested brownies instead of a cake so we put them in the shape of the number 10. We also had a Barr family get together on Saturday night to celebrate again.



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Trip to NZ

Well I sat down to organise the photos from NZ from a few hundred into a manageable bunch for this blog. On first attempt I narrowed it down to 53! After visions of "slide nights" flooded my mind I thought I would spare you somewhat and worked it down to 26. So here goes.

We arrived in Christchurch NZ on Sunday the 27th September. The next morning we took our fabulously spacious 12 seater van on the road to Queenstown. Passing by some of the most spectacular scenery we had ever seen (this probably accounts for about 100 of our photos!) we stopped at Ashburton so I could get my fiber (as in wool) fix, passed by beautiful Lake Tekapo, and saw more snow covered mountains than we had in our lives! It took us about 6 hours with stops but the journey was wonderful and the kids were so excited to see so many different sights.

The next two days we decided to explore Queenstown and it's amazing surroundings. We went to The Remarkables and Coronet Peak where we all did some snow skiing (including little M!). We were blessed with fresh snow falls at night and comfortable weather by day so we all had a great time and could have stayed there all week!

Our good friends the Douglas family arrived the next day and we set off together on our journey to Milford Sound. Ally and Rob had a van for their family as well so we had 12 kids playing musical chairs between the two vans! It was a lot of fun. We saw absolutely beautiful sights along the way and spotted many "Lord of the Rings" locations as well. Here is Adam and the boys recreating the "hiding from the Ringwraiths scene"!

After spending the night at Milford Lodge we took a cruise around Milford Sound and Mitre Peak. It was high overcast and cold but everything we had hoped for. We saw penguins and seals, the most amazing waterfalls and the kids had an exciting ride on the swell of the Tasman Sea. In the afternoon we all went on some beautiful bush walks.

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Following this wonderful experience we journeyed back to Queenstown again. After spending the night at one of Rob's family's holiday houses we awoke the next day and decided to take a ride on the Skyline gondola and experience the glorious views over the town and Lake Wakatipu. It was the most spectacular view I have ever seen! Here we all went for a few rides on the Luge and Adam went paragliding(!) In the afternoon a relative of Rob's had his jet boat out on the lake and he kindly offered to take us all for a ride. It was a lot of fun!

That afternoon we travelled across to the coast near Dunedin to Rob's family's farm. We were warmly welcomed and fed by Rob's parents and slept in the "Stonehouse" built long ago from hand cut limestone. Later that night we sat around the cosy fireplace with Ally and Rob and a warm Milo, reminiscing on the weeks events while the kids slept peacefully. The next morning we all ventured out to explore the family property and its 4 or so holiday houses and the kids were able to do some sheep herding (we saw some lambs that had just been born!), stone skipping in the river and target shooting. (The boys loved it - especially the big ones!)

After a great day at the Douglas' and a trip to the Moeraki Boulders we headed for Christchurch and our flight home early the next morning.

This was truly one of the most memorable holiday's we have ever had with the kids. They were wonderful ages to enjoy it and were very enthusiastic about everything that we did. We really enjoyed the spontaneity of our activities and will never forget the absolutely glorious scenery (or the Perky Nana's hey J & M!)
Thank you Douglas family for sharing your holiday with us, it was great!!

End of term

I had great plans to have everything organised by the time we went off to NZ but there are times in life when something has to give and this blog entry was one of them! So back we go now to the last week of term three which was busy, busy, busy!

L started off the week well and was very happy with a distinction in the national science competition, earning him a place in the top 6% of students. Well done L! He was doubly happy when asked by the Head teacher of the Commerce/Aviation department at Iona to assist at a teacher’s conference on Aviation Studies in October. Lachlan and another boy from the senior school will be demonstrating the fight simulator’s capabilities in front of approx. 25 of the top schools in Brisbane.

J was the latest in the line to take Ted to school for Show and Tell. Fortunately Ted had recently returned from a visit to the doggy beautician and was looking clean and white for a change so A and I agreed. Ted lapped up all the attention and was very well behaved (thank goodness!) J beamed with pride and told everyone that Ted normally looked a LOT hairier, luckily he didn’t say he was normally a lot smellier!! Ted was paraded around the room in front of his adoring fans and cuddled by every person there!

The boy’s have piano lessons every Wednesday afternoon at our home with their teacher Ruth. We have seen steady progress this term and less protestations from Ethan and Lachlan so things seem to be going well! Tasman has decided to do exams and take piano through to year 12 as an additional matriculation subject, so he is very keen. Here are some videos of J and T practicing in the morning.