An introvert's paradox

I am an introvert.

And I love hanging out with people.

I love playdates, and girl's nights out, and dinner parties, and BBQs, and events, and movies, and restaurants, and just being with people.

But when things get busy, or tough, or overwhelming, or confusing or whatever, I need time to myself to refresh and regroup.  To re-set myself to take on life and the world.

Which is kind of how I'm feeling at the moment.  Life has been busy these past few weeks.  Full of fun stuff like playdates with water-based jumping castles and slides!

We've been to parties for birthdays and footy finals.  We've spent plenty of awesome time hanging out with friends.  Being the school holidays, the Little Big Fella has been home so we've had a sleepover and friends over.

It's all been absolutely awesome and fun.

And because of all this awesome fun-ness, my normal routines haven't been working for me and my most productive time of day has been filled with other things.  Which leaves me feeling overwhelmed by the mess in my house (particularly the dust!) and the long list of things that need doing that I just don't seem to be getting to!

Which, of course, has me mildly stressing because I'm supposed to start working soon and I'm wondering how that's going to work out.

The Big Fella is about to go off on a Northern fishing adventure for a week.  I'll miss him heaps, but at the same time, I'm kind of looking forward to having the chance to catch up with myself.

It's kind of funny though.  Time by myself, refreshing and re-setting normally includes a whole new bunch of "to-do's".  But because they're often craft or organising, and I can set my own schedule and pace, it works for me.

I'm working on some Halloween paper mache pumpkins, and I have some sewing to do, and a costume to create, and some balloon sculpting to practice...

Hmmm, maybe I need a holiday! ;-D

Proud Parenting

As a mum, I believe I am not alone in sometimes feeling like a complete failure.  With all of the information about what we should be doing, sometimes it can all get a bit overwhelming.

But then you get moments where you realise you can't be doing too bad a job because your little one/s show compassion, or behave brilliantly, or show you how super smart they are, or they use their manners without prompting, or remember to "catch your sneeze"!

Yesterday there was a big multi-cultural football event at the local footy oval. I was asked to help out in the canteen for a couple of hours but the Big Fella was working, so I needed to take the Little Big Fella with me.

There were rides and lots of things to do and look at, as well as the mini footy matches that were being played.  But my Little Big Fella decided that he wanted to be near me.  Given that a busy canteen/kitchen is no place for small child (you know, hot oil, sharp knives...) I grabbed one of the bar stools and popped him on it, at the side of the canteen counter.  He was really happy there and watched all the craziness of the kitchen (there were at least 5 of us in there at any one time and we were all crazy-busy!).

For two and a half hours my Little Big Fella sat there!!!  He had a bottle of water and a few snacks that I'd brought with us, and I bought him a snack from the canteen a little later as well.  And he just sat there!  Happily!

Several of the ladies commented on how well he was behaving and I was thrilled at being able to help out for so long.

When I was finally done in the kitchen we went outside and he had a jump on the bouncy castle then was happy to come home.  Of course, once Daddy got home from work I had to brag all about how well our son had behaved :-)

I love my little family.

A whirlwind visit

I got a phone call from the Big Fella just after 4am.  "I'll be home in about 10 minutes."  So began our whirlwind visit to our previous home town.

This bit needs to be read at fast speed, all in one breath.  Imagine you're reading a speedy race story to a toddler.  Ready?  Go!

Pack the last bits, get the Little Big Fella up and in the car, drive 7 hours, shopping, visiting my Grandparents, sleep, visit SuperCarer, shop, Grandparent's for lunch, clothes shopping and arvo tea with sister, dinner at Grandparent's, sleep, a million errands and shops, Grandparent's for lunch, visiting for the arvo, everyone at Grandparent's for dinner, sleep, pack everything up, breakfast, drive 7 hours home, Little Big Fella to bed, SLEEP!

How'd you do?  Did you make it in one breath???

We had an awesome time and it felt like a holiday... maybe a holiday on speed?  It was great to catch up with my family and a couple of friends (never enough time for that though!).

Here's the slower version of the week:

We left our place on Monday morning, after having had the Big Fella's Aunt and Uncle stay on Saturday night.  They live in France and are having a wonderfully long holiday, including several months in Australia.  We were lucky enough to be the first family they stayed with here :-)  We had a wonderful time with them and have received an emphatically enthusiastic invitation to come and stay with them!

We got a photo of me and the Big Fellas, a first in a couple of years I think:

Yep, time for a couple of good photos of us I guess!

I won't put our photo of them on my blog because I didn't ask their permission.  But if any family members would like to see, e-mail or Facebook me and I'll send it to you :-)

After the phone call on Monday morning, I got up and got myself and the rest of our things ready.  Just before 5 I woke the Little Big Fella and told him it was time to go to Poppy's house - he was up in a blink!  Then it was into the car and off we go!

The Big Fella had worked all night and by the time we got to the first town he was ready for a break.  So I jumped in the driver's seat.  I'd only had about 4 hours of sleep myself, so 2 hours down the road I realised I'd started phasing out and did a little swerve.

I pulled over at the next little bit off the side of the road.

It's SO easy to keep pushing yourself when you're driving.  Or maybe it's just me?  But to pull over, get out of the car and walk around it a few times makes such a difference!!!  I grabbed something to eat as well and I'm pretty sure that helped too.

There were heaps of roadworks on the way down, which meant a lot of stopping.  For some reason, this particularly irks the Big Fella, although it doesn't tend to bother me a huge amount.

We got into town around midday and did a quick spot of shopping before heading to my grandparents' place where we would be staying.  I was really tired by this time, but I love being with my family!  And it is really awesome to see the Little Big Fella and Poppy together.  They adore each other and I really hope my little boy gets to remember how much, and that it's not just about the tractors he gets to ride, the playground or playing golf.

On Tuesday we got to spend the morning with SuperCarer, while the Big Fella went to the dentist.  For some reason SuperCarer and I really hit it off from the start and we became friends, so hanging out there for the morning was awesome for both me and the Little Big Fella.

My nephews and the Little Big Fella's other good friend were there for the morning so it was one big playtime!

The Little Big Fella playing with his cousins in the sandpit.

When it comes to food, these two are peas in a pod!  It's ALL about the food ;-D

It was funny watching the Little Big Fella playing in SuperCarer's yard because he's so obviously taller than the last time I watched him play there!  And taller than the other boys.

When I said "10 minutes then we have to go", the Little Big Fella's friend said to me, "I don't want him to go!  I miss him!".  They'd had such a fun time together and it really was sad to have to say goodbye.

After a bit of food shopping (gosh I miss the selection, quality and prices we had there!), I dropped the Little Big Fella back at my grandparents' with the Big Fella.  Incidentally, we'd come down so that the Big Fella could get a root canal done, but there was a slight miscommunication and they couldn't do it without a preparatory appointment. So it looks like we'll just have to go back, probably before Christmas... darn!!! ;-)

I'd planned to have lunch and spend the afternoon shopping with my sister, but she'd come down really unwell the night before.  So I did a bit of shopping on my own.  My first purchase was a new belt, because I was down to the second last hole on mine and the tail end was hanging out everywhere!!!  Gotta tell ya, that feels awesome!

Part way through the afternoon I got a call from my sister saying she was feeling slightly better and should we meet up for a coffee and a bit more shopping?  Of course we should!!!

Have I mentioned that I love my family?  I must be hormonal tonight because I've been tear-ing up as I've been writing this post and preparing the photos.  My sister and I are only 14 months apart and almost always shared a bedroom.  As you'd expect, we fought a bit but we've mostly been best friends.  I think adulthood has put a bit of a dampener on that, but I miss her like crazy (and my other siblings too, by the way).  So I thoroughly enjoyed spending the afternoon with her.

Know what else I enjoyed?  Trying on clothes and, instead of deciding if they'd do, I got to decide if I actually liked them because they looked good on me!  It was literally the most fun I've had clothes shopping in years!

I went back to my grandparents' place where the Big Fella made Thai green curry with squid and prawns.  It was SO yummy!!!

While we were at my grandparents' place I read books to the Little Big Fella at bedtime, which I haven't done much at home for a while.  We both really enjoyed it, and I think he went to sleep better as well.  I think I'd like to re-implement that at home!

By Wednesday I was tired!  For some reason I didn't sleep well in my grandparents' bed and had weird dreams at the end of the night too.

The Fellas and I spent the morning running errands around town.  We had 9 stops to make!  Now, anyone who doesn't have a toddler, 9 stops is a bit of a pain but no big deal, right?  Add a toddler and it becomes... stressful.  After about 4 stops the Big Fella was getting a little angsty so we tried to short-cut as many stops as we could and only get the necessary person/people out of the car at each stop.

One thing we did pick up was a smoking BBQ, which the Big Fella is awfully excited about.  It is a wood/coal fired BBQ but it also has a smoking box off to the side, so you can cook your meat with hot smoke rather than direct heat.  Given the Big Fella's inclination towards salamis, hams and other cured meats, it's no surprise he's excited by this too.

I was a bit worried by this stage though.  We'd bought a fair bit of stuff and I wasn't sure we'd be able to get it all home, even in our awesome ute!  Never fear, the Big Fella will find a way :-)

The afternoon was taken up with visiting.  We dropped the Big Fella off at his old work shed, then the Little Big Fella and I went and visited some friends at that end of town.  We had a taste of Whoopie Pies for the first time.  They were okay but I'm not sure that I'd be super excited about them.

It's SO good to catch up with friends.  Even though I was exhausted, I felt somewhat invigorated by my visit.  You know, new friends are great, but old friends are priceless!

We got back to my grandparents' place just before my sister and nephews arrived.  Yet again, there was a lot of running!!!  My sister had brought the boys' bikes and one for the Little Big Fella and they had a ball riding around and later playing footy with my brother-in-law.

Of course, being boys and cousins, there had to be a moment of silliness ;-)

We had pizza and white chocolate caramel mudcake for dinner, as well as lovely conversation.  Oh!  And before that we had a beautiful sunset, looking out over the sugar cane fields:

And I can't resist adding these photos too:

My Poppy

My Nanna

My hubby :-)

Eventually we had to put three tired boys to bed (and the adults) so my sister, brother-in-law and nephews headed home.  Sigh.  I'll miss them.

Thursday morning we got up and packed up, had a lovely breakfast then hit the road.  We decided to take the back roads home and it was a lovely trip!  The Little Big Fella had a good sleep, and I'd bought him a new DVD so he was quite content in the back seat.

We didn't get home until just after 5pm because of a couple of extra stops.  I was feeling really tired and a bit ill.  My body hasn't had much in the way of wheat products, or much fat I guess, for eight weeks and it was seriously reacting to the pizza and mudcake I'd enjoyed the night before :-(  And I'd pulled a muscle in my shoulder/neck when moving shopping in from the car on Wednesday too.  All in all, I felt pretty shocking.

Anyway, we unpacked the car and fed the Little Big Fella (neither of us were interested in eating), then put him to bed.  After a lovely hot shower I was gone too!  Although the Big Fella slept great at my grandparents' place, I thoroughly enjoyed my own bed again.

There's no place like home!

How to revive a dead crow

For the second night in a row, the Little Big Fella is asleep within about 5-10 minutes of his head hitting the pillow.  He is absolutely worn out!


Yesterday we met some friends a bit after 9am and went to McDonald's for a cuppa, a cake and a play.  I haven't actually done that with anyone since we got here and I really enjoyed it!


We then went to Music Makers.  Friends of ours went to something similar in our last town but we never got around to it, probably because it was on a day care day.  But I thought we'd try it out here.


We turned up and the kids were all sitting down on the floor in front of the teacher, who had a keyboard and a microphone set up.  The Little Big Fella was shy and nervous because of the new surroundings and people so I got to sit on the floor with him on my lap... yay me!


The class was a real eye opener!  Here are these 3 year olds attempting to do things in time with the teacher and each other, learning musical terms for very fast (presto) and slowly (adagio), how many keys a piano has (88), how to hold, strum and identify parts of a ukulele, dancing, speaking and singing into a microphone.  I mean, what a great start for these kids, not only in terms of music but also in public speaking, movement, following instructions... a great start to a whole bunch of things that they'll come across in life!


By the end of the session the Little Big Fella was definitely enjoying himself, but was still a little shy, especially of the microphone.  So now the question is whether we go back, or just go to Playgroup (which is on the same day/time), or do a little bit of both.  I'll probably let the Little Big Fella decide :-D


Our little friend came back to our place for a bit of a play before her parents came and we all had lunch.  Apparently a cous cous, chickpea and roasted vegetable salad, while tasty, is not a complete dish to serve to guests (or even perhaps just my husband).  Who knew???  ;-)


I really enjoyed having a couple over and all of us getting along really well.  Between one thing and another, the Big Fella and I have mostly had separate friends for almost our whole married life.  To have husbands, wives and children all happy to hang out together was such a nice change!  Although working out a time that suits everyone (because of different shifts) might be a bit tricky, I'm looking forward to more of this!


After the Big Fella went to work mid-afternoon, the Little Big Fella and I went to the park for a bit more play and social time.  After school it's pretty rare to go to the park and not find at least a couple of mums with their camp chairs having a chat, watching the kids ride around the skate park, kick a footy or playing on the equipment.  It's a key social part of our little town and I think it's fantastic!


Today we were up early, trying to be quiet while the Big Fella slept after his early hours finish.  We were also looking after a little boy today so I had a challenge on my hands to keep two 3 year olds mostly outside, mostly away from the bedroom window, and mostly quiet!!!


But!  I had a plan!  I'd prepared a bunch of little things to do that were easy, outdoors or off-site, and I was pretty sure both boys would be at least partially interested in.


We started with bubbles (always a winner!), using a bubble solution that I'd made up.  But, for a bit of a change I'd grabbed a handful of drinking straws and showed the boys how to blow bubbles in the bubble mix, rather than blowing the bubbles into the air.  They loved it!  Who'd have thought???


I did a couple of things while the boys were happy, then decided it was time to get away from the house and give the Big Fella a good chance to sleep, or at least rest.


We grabbed a couple of buckets from the sandpit, brushed the sand off and went for a nature walk up the road.  Being boys, they mostly collected rocks and sticks :-D  However, in my role as childhood educator (for the day) I made sure to point out seedpods (and explain how they work - basically), flowers (including "what colour is this one?"), and feathers (textures, colours, spots etc).  We even had the joy of coming across a dead crow, who they wanted to revive by giving it water, but happily left it with a blanket of dry leaves.


When we got back we made a little pile of our recovered items, collected a few things then went for another walk - to the post office then for a picnic at the park.  Some of our friends were there and we got to meet the children of the guy who used to drive home with the Big Fella when they were training to be train drivers.


After a while we had to go to the shop for some milk - the Big Fella would need a coffee or three when he woke up and there was only enough milk for one, or maybe two coffees!  Of course, the kids got to have a lolly too :-)


We went home via the park again (I'd left a few things there to collect on the way home that were too heavy or awkward to have to carry extra distances), played with some other new friends, then made it back just in time for our little friend's Nan to arrive and take him home.


I made the Little Big Fella's sandwiches for lunch, then a chicken and strawberry salad for the Big Fella and I.  I came across the recipe through Angela from Grocery Shrink, who initially interested me in Fit Yummy Mummy. The Big Fella liked it well enough, but I love it!  I probably won't plan to make it when he's around though.


We had a little trip to the next town for a few bits and pieces and, I have to say, I was rather frustrated.  I know it's just a small town, and I know our supermarket is pretty dodgy, but I'm not travelling a minimum of an hour away when there are birthday parties and such to buy presents!  I had to find something for a boy turning 5, and also for a baby shower.  After a bit of stress I did find suitable items, but it was a horrible process.  I'd even thought of getting practical items for the baby shower - newborn nappies, muslin wraps, Bonds Wondersuits, even maternity pads - and couldn't even get those in the supermarket!!!  Rahhh!!!


One thing that was very cool in a small town-ish kind of way was that we went to the bank to give the Big Fella internet banking access to my accounts, mostly because our savings account is in my name.  We walk into the bank and by the time we get to the "wait here" sign, the lady who did our car loan has come out, greeted us and asked if we were trying to link our internet banking.


The other lady behind the counter was at a party I went to last week and I'd asked her what we needed to do, so she'd obviously remembered and passed that info on.  We sat down at the desk to do it and the loan lady remembered our names and a bunch of things that meant all I had to do was produce my card and it was all done and dusted!  Isn't that cool?  Even in our last town, where the bank tellers recognised me, there was no way that kind of thing would happen.


In our 10 minutes of communicating the nitty gritty of daily life this afternoon,  we realised that I'd double-booked myself!  (Seriously, I have a much mor full social life here!)  I was going to help out with the canteen at the footy on the weekend but we have people coming for dinner (and this is after the 5 year old party in the afternoon).  I think I might need to start using my calendar a bit more!


It's raining tonight so I'm hoping the Little Big Fella will happily play quietly inside tomorrow morning, while Daddy has another sleep-in after a late shift.  You never know, it could happen...

Sad, shopping, boys

I'm doing my post earlier today in the hope that it'll actually get done :-D


This week has been pretty average in a lot of ways.  The biggest thing being hormones kicking me in the guts then beating me around the head while I was down!!!  I don't recall ever being so affected by hormones!  I think I cried (as in bawled my eyes out uncontrollably) 3 or 4 times in one day.  And pretty much the sole content of my thoughts were along the lines of one of the following: I'm fat, my clothes suck, I'm a terrible mum, I'm a rotten housekeeper, I'm lazy, I'm a terrible wife, I'm a horrible person... and probably a couple others in there too.


Now (Mum, this is especially for you) even in the middle of this horrible emotional self-beating, I was aware of the fact that it was the fault of hormones and that I'm not a terrible person, mother, wife etc.  But being aware didn't make any difference at the time.  All I could do was hope it would be over soon.


And it was.  I texted my best friend, got a big hug from the Big Fella when he woke up, got a chance to clean up the bomb fallout in my house, and ate a delicious dark chocolate Cherry Ripe!  Mmmmm, chocolate!  Even when you're changing your eating habits, sometimes chocolate is necessary ;-)


So yesterday and today have been much better and the hormones will give me a break for at least a month (I hope!).


This morning I decided we needed to drive to the major town an hour away.  We had to return the DVD player that won't communicate with our TV because it's not digital.  We also have two birthday parties to go to this week so I thought I'd combine the lot and have a quick trip out with the Little Big Fella while the Big Fella was still at work.


It was a good trip actually!  I got nearly everything done (I forgot to fill scripts, but that can be done nearby), got a new DVD player that does talk to our TV, presents for the parties, a Superman outfit for the Little Big Fella to wear to the parties (they're both superhero themed and he likes to dress up), some stuff for the Big Fella, a new jumper (sweatshirt for my USA friends) for me, and some seafood from the awesome big, new supermarket!  That was a big sentence.  Sorry.


When we got back the Big Fella was already home from work and had gone out for a quick ride on his motorbike.  He and the Little Big Fella have had a definite boys afternoon.  They've done the first stage of making jerky.  They've washed the motorbike.  They've gone to the tip.  They've gone out to check the sights on a gun.  They're currently out helping a guy and this evening they'll go to the local footy together (I'll be selling stuff in the canteen).


I love when they spend time together doing "blokey" stuff.  It's so good for both of them!


And I get time to do the dishes and write a blog post :-p

The continuing pandanus saga

You may remember a bit over a week ago we started pulling out the pandanus plants in the backyard?  You know... the day I got bogged and then fell in the skip (thank you for that extra laugh, I know you needed it!).  Well this morning the Big Fella decided it was time to try to pull the rest of the roots and such out (now that we have our gardening tools back - yay!).


Here's what it looked like when we started cutting it down:

And after we'd cut it all down and left it to dry out a bit:

So we started with burning off the dry bits of the one on the far right (so that we could see the root system).  Then hosed it to stop the fire.  The Big Fella then started hacking into the root system and trying to remove it.  He had his crowbar and saw and shovels out, but the plant is actually quite soft and he was having a really hard time of it.

Then came the brilliant idea of looping some chain in and around the plant, and hooking it up to the Rodeo via a snatch strap!  That would make it heaps easier!

After the first attempt the chain pretty much cut through the roots it was tied around.  Attempt two pulled the root ball out (with a few tugs and some tyre tracks in the grass) and we were very pleased with ourselves.

We pulled out the rest of the roots then moved on to the biggest - the one in the centre.

After the successful use of the ute and snatch strap, the Big Fella decided to go straight to that idea and hooked it all up.  A couple of pulls and I thought it looked like it was just going to go through the top of the plant, not grab it properly so it could pull it all out.

Just after that thought occurred, the chain snapped!

Thankfully it just went under the car and didn't seem to do any damage.

We unhooked the chain from the plant and saw that it had pulled through some of the roots so decided to try again.

You guessed it!  The chain snapped again!

Not willing to give up, the Big Fella decided to have another go but this time when the chain snapped it swung up and hit the back of the tray and took out the number plate and the little lights that illuminate it at night.

We decided not to continue with the ute at that stage.

Here's the dint in the tray after the Big Fella had pushed the number plate back in place (can you see that little bit of yellow paint under the stick?  That's from the shackle at the other end of the snatch strap!):

We decided to do another burn and get rid of the dry material so that we could see the roots properly.  After the burn and hosing we did a bit of hacking and the Big Fella used his crow bar to pull out a little sleeper log that we discovered (I'm guessing that didn't help our cause earlier).

Perhaps stupidly we decided to have another go with the snatch strap.  The Big Fella found a bigger chain and hooked it through the root ball a bit better. After several attempts it finally sounded like it was moving and then... success!  It was out!  Yay!!!!!

We were both knackered by this time so we did a little clean up and decided to leave the rest for tomorrow... or another day ;-)

After a little rest (and a chat on Skype to my mum) we decided we needed to do some baking.  A week or so ago the Big Fella heard about red velvet cake and wanted to have a go.  So I got the ingredients then he didn't want to make it.  So today we got around to it.  It didn't have enough red so we added some more :-D

Here's the Little Big Fella enjoying the fruits of our labour:

And the Big Fella tried some too (which is weird because he doesn't normally like cake much).  Notice the spot on the side of his mouth?  He didn't and I left it there for about an hour before I mentioned it (tee hee hee).

And here's the end result with some orange cream cheese icing.  The recipe had us cook it in two round tins and then we were supposed to stack them on top of each other with a layer of icing in between.  We decided to make it as two separate cakes so the Big Fella could take one to work and we could have one at home.  I think it looks better than the photo shows.  I was surprised that it didn't taste more chocolate-y given that it's basically a chocolate cake with red colouring.  It was yummy though :-D

   

Well, the baking didn't end there.  The Big Fella asked me to make some scones using the leftover buttermilk.  I did a bad job of them though!  Not enough liquid so I over mixed them and they came out pretty tough.  Oh well! I guess I'll have to try again tomorrow :-D


And then we'd decided to make pies for dinner using some leftover beef roast that the Big Fella put through the mincer, mixed with some veges and leftover gravy. So I made the pastry and rolled it out and didn't think it was that great.  They turned out yummy enough though - especially because the Big Fella made the filling quite delicious :-D


And then (because the day wasn't full enough already), the Big Fella went to work and the Little Big Fella and I went to our first local footy match.  We rugged right up because it's starting to get a bit chilly around here at night (down to about 5 degrees C).  He loved it!  To start with he wasn't interested in anyone or anything else - he just wanted to sit down and watch the match.  He was fully engrossed in it!


At half time he kind of realised that his friends were there and they had lollies so we went and bought one for him.  We ended up finding our next door neighbours and the people who puppy-sat for us and spent the 2nd half of the game with them.


Besides being cold and needing our beanies, it was a good game!  Our local guys played against the guys from the next town so there was some obvious rivalry in it.  And our boys played well!  There was one young fella who really booked it a few times and raced down the field!  It was very exciting :-)


About 7 minutes before the end of the game the Little Big Fella started to get seriously tired so I bundled him onto my lap and hugged him and rocked him.  When the game was over I had to carry him to the car - he was so tired!  He was asleep by the time we got through the 3 minute drive home!


But then the puppies got all excited about us being home and woke him up a bit.  They ended up coming inside and jumping all over the place and finished up on his bed with him.  They definitely won't like it when they have to go out when I go to bed, but I guess them's the breaks when you're a dog!


So there goes another big, productive, fun day!


I'm finding it amazing that we're busier and much more social in this little town than we were before in a larger town.  I think it has a fair bit to do with living with the Big Fella again, but I think it's also the flavour of this place too.  On the one hand there's not much to do, but people have created a great community atmosphere and everyone joins in with what others are doing.  I love it!  It feels like the way community ought to be to me.  Everyone living life together and helping one another through whatever happens.

Under 8's, shopping and Origin

What a day!  You know how some days just seem to drag out forever (yesterday) and some days seem to be so full (today)?


This morning the Big Fella was sleeping off a night shift and the Little Big Fella and I headed around the corner to the Primary School for their Under 8's/Biggest Morning Tea/Book Fair morning.  At first he was quite shy but he eventually got into it and had a ball.  I think it was when he started recognising people from the park that he really started to enjoy himself.


They had a great set up!  Lots of activities, crafts, music, playing, play dough, stories, water troughs with coloured water (a HUGE hit for the Little Big Fella and the little girl from next door), magnetic stuff, police and fireys...  it was awesome!  Add the CWA with plates of cakes and sandwiches and tea or coffee, plus the Book Fair (always one of my favourite times of year in Primary school) and it was a huge hit!


When the morning was over, the kids from the school were having impromptu races along the race track around the oval and the Little Big Fella loved joining in and having his own personal races too.  Yes, there were tears when it was time to go home.


After a little interval at home, we decided it was shopping day so drove over to the next town.  The Little Big Fella fell asleep on the way so the Big Fella dropped me at the supermarket to get started while he went to collect new jumpers for work and some home brew stuff.  They met me in the supermarket when I was three quarters done and the Little Big Fella was so much happier than he'd been before that (thank God!).


At home I lost the plot slightly.  The puppies and the Little Big Fella were under my feet while I was trying to get two weeks of shopping put away.  Then the puppies found the bags with the meat in them and I lost it.  Big yelling, cranky Mummy!


Puppies went out, Little Big Fella disappeared downstairs with Daddy and Mummy cooled down a touch (thank God!).


This evening is State of Origin football.  For anyone who doesn't live in New South Wales or Queensland, that means pretty much nothing.  But here it is everything!  I felt so out of place today because literally everywhere I looked, everyone had their State's jerseys on!  Seriously, I'll be purchasing them for at least me and the Little Big Fella before the next Origin match (there are 3 in the series each year) because otherwise I'll be a social outcast and people will possibly never speak to me again :-).


So, in the spirit of Origin, we had pies for dinner.  The Little Big Fella totally crashed so the Big Fella and I had a plate of bikkies with plum paste and blue cheese (it was so good - we ate the whole thing!!!).  I had 3 large glasses of wine in just under an hour so I'm... let's say I'm a little tipsy given that I rarely drink and when I do it's 1 or 2 glasses over a whole evening.  The Big Fella has been on home brew scotch and is quite relaxed :-)


So, overall (except for my meltdown after shopping), it's been a great day!


Can I go to bed now???