“Youth is wasted…

July 13, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

On the young…”

Now I KNOW that my Dad isn’t the only person who says this. And I’ve always thought “yeah yeah” when I hear it, catching his meaning; young people don’t know how much potential lies before them etc etc.

But I’m going to take it back a few years to early childhood, and I’ll tell you why.

My kids call out to me and I come running.

Generally I drop whatever it is I’m doing (within reason) and see what it is they are desiring at that moment in time. They don’t care about future potential! They care about instant gratification.

For instance it’s after 10.30pm and Quinn just called out to me. I rushed in to the kids bedroom (the 3 of them share so it was more out of necessity as I didn’t want the boys to wake up) and the problem?

My little angel was cold. The poor dear had kicked off her blankies and needed me to put them back on her.

And it doesn’t end there.

Ruggy lost the middle of the night? Call Mama. She’ll find it amongst the covers and sheets.

Need a drink of water? Mama will get that for you.

Can’t find something? Mama seems to have an electronic database that keeps track of every item you own. Go hit her up.

Sibling bugging you? Mama would love to hear all about it. In detail. More than once.

Hungry? Well you get the drift.

This is the stuff that is wasted on the young!

Seriously! If we knew what the whole adulting and parenting gig really entailed then who would actually willingly sign up for it!?

I know I wouldn’t have appreciated all these 5 star luxuries when I was growing up so let me take this opportunity now to thank you, Mum and Dad for always being at my beck and call.

Now it’s time for you to enjoy a little something I like to call “what goes around comes around. ” I think I can hear Darby waking up for some cuddles… lucky they are so damn cute…

Brick Event 2016

July 9, 2016 / Renae / 1 Comment

Oh wow. You know when you have little expectation of something (little as opposed to low) and you are just blown away by it!? I love when that happens. Those little surprises in life make me happy, especially when they also make my kids happy.

I took the kids to Rocky’s Brick Event this morning, along with a babysitter to help out, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever taken the kids to.

The reasons for my expectation level, is due to this event that we went to last year. Looking back, I can’t believe how little I wrote about it! I think that’s quite telling. As I did mention, I was hoping that there would be more interactive things for the kids, other than the trays of bricks at the end. That’s where this event was different.

The displays were AMAZING and had heaps of moving parts.

Retro train set! Wooooo wooooooooooo!

There was SO much Star Wars Lego. My kids were so excited.

See?

We were among the first to arrive to beat the crowds (which was my plan) and it was great as it meant I could put Darby in the stroller (he took some convincing!!) and he could still see everything without other people getting in the way. By the time we left, there were crowds 3 or 4 people deep at each display so it would have been impossible for him to see. He loved it!

So busy!

There were probably about 40?? displays, but this was my favourite by far.

I couldn’t stop watching it! So amazing.

After seeing all the displays, there were a bunch of tables for building Lego! And not just any Lego; the kids could build their own train carriage to be put on the back of a running train! The kids thought this was so awesome. Here’s Chance and Quinn’s efforts (the 2 end carriages). (Gotta love Quinn’s comment at the end!!)

There was a staff member there the whole time, taking carriages off and putting new ones on to go for a spin. All the kids were so proud of their creations being shown off like that.

And that’s not all! There were a few towers like this with heaps of different shaped Lego for kids to make their names. Quinny had some help, but Chance did his all by himself. Such a great idea.

Sooooo much Lego. Almost as much as our collection at home!

And of course, because I’m a massive softy, I couldn’t not buy the kids some Lego to take home. I had told them not to ask me to buy any, and they honoured that, so I surprised them at the end. Of course they wanted to go straight home to build it.

Quinn chose Cinderella (quite fitting, as one of her nick-names is Quinderella) and Chance chose the Ambulance rescue plane.

We were only there for an hour and a half, and if it wasn’t so crowded, I would have loved to go back and look at the displays again, but it was just too crazy and the kids were ready to leave. I’m glad I had our friend there to help with Darby as I didn’t want to just keep him in the stroller the whole time. There was a Duplo table for him to play at while the kids were building their creations, but he was more interested in running around.

I think the biggest difference between this expo and the last one, was this was really aimed at kids. The one in Brisbane was more about showing the design side of things, and showing off creations, which were really impressive, but not that exciting for kids after about 10 minutes. This one was all about showing what you could do with Lego and really encouraging kids’ participation and creativity. 10 thumbs up from this crew. Will definitely keep an eye out for more events in the future!

But first, coffee

March 24, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

This happened today.

Darby’s first day at Family Day Care with Quinny. Ho boy.

I needed the day to do the clean up after having all of our windows replaced. We went from casements to double hung. They look amazing but the prep work created quite the mess so this is what I’m doing for my “day off”.

Hey at least I’ll be productive. Right after I finish this cup of coffee…

Today, I win

March 11, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

If you have a partner, and have children, and one of you leaves the house each day to go to work while the other stays home with the children, you will inevitably have had the “who has it easier” thoughts/discussions/fights, and if you haven’t then you’re either a saint or it’s simmering under the surface, waiting to erupt when your partner leaves his breakfast bowl on the table yet again, even though your five and three year olds can manage to PUT THEIRS IN THE DAMN SINK!!!

Right. Where was I?

Aaaah yes. That moment in the morning, when everything is peaceful; where the children have pleasantly eaten their breakfast, are playing quietly, and your partner sighs and says “you’re so lucky that you get to stay at home with them and play all day.” You grit your teeth, because some days what you would rather be doing is literally anything else. You look at your (I’m sure well-meaning partner) and say “you’re so lucky you get to go to work and be productive and interact with other adults and not have to wipe anyone’s bum but your own and drink hot coffee and not be in this house all day because your baby boy has explosive diarrhea!”

Then there are the other days when chaos is taking over the world and your partner looks at you with sympathy and says “see ya!”

And that’s the problem. Even when the stay at home parent is victorious in the “who has it harder game” the other parent still gets to walk away, albeit the loser, but there they go. Off to work.*

So yes folks, today I win the “who has it harder” game. But the victory is fleeting, because I still have to deal with said explosive diarrhea and not go to the gym in case he spreads it (literally, in every sense of the word) which is such a drag for me because you know how much I look forward to my twice weekly fit mums class.

But YAY LOOK AT ME! I’M THE WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*you may be able to tell from my tone, that I believe I’m always the winner of the “who has it harder” game, but I let Hubs thinks he has won every now and then 🙂

When love came to town

March 2, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

Hubs and I have lived in many cities and towns together. Starting off in Brisbane, where we met, fell in love and got married, we then headed south to Melbourne. Then came Wangaratta, Mount Beauty, back to Wang, then north to Townsville, Ingham and Mount Isa, and finally Rockhampton.

Looking at this list now, I can tell you that into our lives have come kindred spirits, unexpected connections, small-world coincidences, and four top-class Godparents. We are blessed, we are grateful and I like to think we do not take these blessings for granted.

So when an opportunity comes along to see one or more of these fine people (like on our recent trip to Melbourne) we grab it with both hands.

Enter The Godfather.

We struck up a friendship with Felix in Mount Isa very early on through a friend of a friend (I think!?) I still remember the first time I met him – it was at the races, and I had no idea that this was the beginning of a very special friendship.

One thing that really draws us to people is when they are interested in doing things spontaneously and we found ourselves going 4WDriving with an hour’s notice and it was great. Then there were the Saturday morning garage sale ventures where Hubs and Felix would go and “look at some stuff” with the kids on a Saturday morning while I had a sleep in. This would be followed by brunch and maybe even plans for Sunday would be made. And of course the kids grew to love uncle Felix.

So when Darby-doo came along, it was not a hard choice or Godparents. We had already become friends with Sonia in Townsville and had all moved out to the Isa together. We were a strong support for each other, especially in this early weeks and months, and when we found out we would be in Rockhampton together I almost burst with excitement.

So en route to his new soon-to-be home town of Orange, Felix decided to pop in and stay for a couple of nights. It was so nice having him around to play with the kids, and they fell in love with him all over again. And I just loved having one of our little crews back together, albeit only for a moment.

Honestly I’m just feeling so grateful right now for all the incredible people in our lives.

Holding an ice-cream-eating toddler while wearing a white shirt? Now that’s love. (And Napi-San a couple of hours later…)

Offering and being excited to come to playgroup, AND getting crafty with the kids.

Getting the Godparents back together in the same town again!

Coming to watch Chance get his special prep award.

Reading at storytime (so I don’t have to.)

Buying a completely adorable outfit at an op shop.

For these reasons and so many more, it has been a simply marvellous couple of days around here. I look forward to the next reunion!

Quinn is 3

February 22, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

Did you catch that? Yeah, it surprised me a little too. I mean, remember this little munchkin?

Well her hair kind of grew, along with her sass, and now she’s more angelic than ever.

Don’t get me wrong. She still loves to be Captain Underpants.

But her tastes have certainly changed over the last year or so. To commemorate this auspicious occasion, I was adamant that I wanted to re-create the little garden tea party that didn’t quite go to plan at her Baptism. Except, it seems that our little girl is somewhat of a rainmaker, and for the few days leading up to the party, it rained incessantly.

I made the call the night before that we should have the party indoors, and since our house isn’t exactly “open plan” we arranged the rooms into “food room”, “general toy room”, “Duplo room” and “all kids Lego room” and I’ve got to say, it worked an absolute treat!

Here’s the “food room” aka our dining area/back sunroom:

See Tammy Turtle the cake in the background?

So much awesome delicious fooooooood!

Then there was the Duplo room

And there was also the Big Kids Lego Room and the General Play Room.

Hard to believe our little chatterbox is 3. Happy birthday baby girl.

Your endless chatter and running commentary of our day to day life keeps me so entertained.

The way you look after your brothers and give us lots of kisses and cuddles delight us in every way and I love how you only ever want to eat the icing and not the cake. This tells me that you’ll always look for the best in life, and you so deserve it.

We love you so so so much. Always remember that xxxxx

My big boy

January 27, 2016 / Renae / 2 Comments

Chance started prep today. He was so keen to get into his uniform this morning. He asked me if he was the most perfect prep boy ever.

He wanted a Star Wars backpack but all the ones I found were cheap and rubbish. So Hubs and I decided to hit up the Army disposal shop in town for a black canvas backpack, then it was off to Spotlight for the fabric. And hey presto!

I also love that it’s a one-off so he’ll always know which bag is his. I think he likes it.

And the books! Oh the covering of the books! I secretly love it 🙂

Since Hubs is home on study leave, he took some time out this morning to be a part of Chance’s first day which was lovely. The kids crammed into the pram and off we went on this stinking hot morning.

We were obviously hanging around too long at drop off time, as Chance very politely requested for us to “please leave now”.

And the verdict? “It was even better than kindy!” And let me tell you, this kid LOVED kindy.

A five hour block

January 7, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

Last night it happened.

It’s been, at a guess, months since I had five hours of uninterrupted sleep. Months I tell you. And I gotta say, today I feel like a million bucks. Never in my wildest childless dreams would I ever have considered a 5 hour stretch of sleep something to celebrate. And then, as a bonus, after tending to Darby (still in the process of weaning!) I got another two or so hours. And it was all in the comfort of our king size bed with just Hubs and I, as Chanbe stayed in his big boy bed all night long.

The phrase “fresh as a daisy” springs to mind.

It got me thinking, what else I could achieve in an uninterrupted five hour block. This is what I’ve come up with:

I could unpack from our Christmas holiday and find a place for everything;

I could tidy my whole house, vacuum and mop the floors;

I could write a meal plan for a whole month and shop for it;

I could bake up a storm and cook up a bunch of meals to freeze;

I could hit up all of the op shops in town;

I could meet a friend for a movie and a meal;

I could get a good start on the photo books I’ve been wanting to print out;

I could build a LOT of Lego;

I could watch 7 episodes of Nashville;

I could get all my paperwork ready for the four weddings I have booked so far this year;

I could ring around and set up some meetings with builders about our renovations;

I could have another sleep.

Oh I could go on but this is just off the top of my head. Five hours may not seem like much but oh the things I could achieve!

Happy birthday boys

December 10, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

We celebrated Chance’s 5th and Darby’s 1st birthday last weekend, and what a celebration it was. There was meat. A lot of meat. And kids. Many many kids. But the thing that there was the most of, was presents. So. Many. Presents. Chance was absolutely beside himself! Thanks to everyone who was able to come along to celebrate our boys birthdays!!

My beautiful big 5 year old boy. A number 5 racecar track cake as requested.

Gran & Darby in their matching party shirts.

My beautiful family. I’m feeling so lucky right now.

The obligatory cake-eating photo. You can see Chance’s here and Quinn’s here.

Chanbe offering the cupcakes around, and sneaking a few in here and there.

My little Darby-doo. Thank you for being our little spark of joy every single day. No matter what adult-related-rubbish is getting me down, I just have to look at you and everything is okay in the world. You love to get down and boogie just like your Mama, and I hope you never lose that desire to move to the beat. Our little angel.

And Chancey-pants how you make me smile. You are so inquisitive and really are starting to work things out for yourself. I need to remember that you’re not a baby anymore, and that everyday you are looking to learn something new. Help me to remember to be curious as well, and remind me to have fun more often and not be so serious. You inspire me to ask why. Never stop asking why, my dear boy.

What’s the happy-haps?

November 25, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

A friend warned me about this. Her words went something like

“Make sure you keep blogging even though you’ve joined facebook.”

“Of course I will!” Was my reply.

But I have been somewhat neglectful of this space. To be honest, I’ve really found our lack of decent computer set-up partly to blame. We don’t have a PC set up this year that I can just plonk myself down in front of, and start typing. I do most of my blogging on our Surface Pro laptop thingy, but by the time I find it, realise the battery is dead, plug it in to the charger at the desk, scrounge around for the keyboard and mouse to plug in, the effort is a bit off-putting.

The last 6 months have been a bit of a blur to be honest, and the next 2 months aren’t going to slow down for me either. You see, Chanbe turns 5 on Friday. I’ll let that sink in for a minute, but it can’t be that long since this happened. My darling first born has put in an order for a Dusty Crophopper cake, which I’ll do my best for.

Remember this? This is Chance at about 2 months old.

And this is Chance at almost 60 months old 🙂

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????

And 10 days after Chance turns 5, my baby Darby-doo turns 1. I was feeding him today, and just soaking it all in. He may well be our last baby, and I’ll stop breastfeeding him soon, and that makes me sad because I’ve loved feeding my babies. I’m going to miss this post-feed contented look.

And this is Darbs at around 2 months as well.

My boys are so delightful. They absolutely adore each other.

They’re going to be such great pals when they’re older, I’m sure of it.

As well as 2 birthdays, I’m also doing my first wedding expo on Sunday (so nervous!!), we have 2 kindy break-ups (it has begun), I’m ankle-deep in my Christmas card making (I only started a few days ago when inspiration struck! I was going to forgo them this year, but I once I got going, there was no stopping me!) my parents are coming up for a week (so many yays), there are 2 end of year hospital functions to attend (one of them is a child-free all day catamaran cruise around Great Keppel Island. So. Excited.) and then we’ll be heading south for Christmas. I’m so excited to be having Christmas in Brisbane! My mum’s side of the family will almost all be there and it’s been years since we’ve had Christmas day with them.

So yeah, another random post for you to ponder over. I don’t even know how to end it, so I just did.