A visitor

We had a visit from the tooth fairy last night (finally) Alexander lost one of his front teeth and he was so excited!! On a personal level, I find wobbly and pulling out teeth rather gross, but the idea of the tooth fairy and his excitement makes it ok.

Royal wedding....

I remember watching the royal wedding of Charles and Di with my mum and dad and wanted to give the same memory to my boys. I don't think weddings are really for the boys- the big squirrel least of all!!

Edward

School and kinder are both back in full swing and surprisingly we are all comping well with the return to normal transmission. Over the break I made a few changes to how I do things so that we can be a little more organised - and start the day in a much 'calmer' fashion.

The bags all now have a home on their own hooks by the front door, and the required shoes are also lined up. Shoes has to be one of the banes of my existence but so far so good.

The first day at kinder, I also had nominated to do duty. What seemed like a good idea at the time was almost enough to tip me over after a long holiday. I survived - with the fruit cut, floors swept and swings pushed. It is a lovely opportunity to see the boys in action, but it is also incredibly draining. I don't know where the lovely staff get their energy!

Our session went really well and Benji (the one with speech issues) even got up in front of the class to talk about his camping trip! That trip was SO worth it. I was beaming from the kitchen and he was so proud of himself. He is really starting to come out of himself which is awesome.

The session ended with Edward, the class bear, being given to Spencer for the week. Spencer of course was thrilled and Benji was too. Me - not so much....

We have already had the school 'dog' for a visit and now the kinder bear - which will apparently visit us a total of 4 times this year. It is not the visiting I take issue with, it is the associated 'homework' that becomes a bit of a drag. Edward was with us for a week and we took pictures of all the events. It was a bit long and Spencer actually lost interest in him a bit. I got busy putting all the pictures together with some text for him to present to the class.

What I did enjoy about the process was the look of the pictures from my iphone with the hipstermatic camera app. Love the retro feel....

changing seasons

playing in the leaves

Last day of holidays

A great community park in Montrose was great fun for the kids - lots of areas to play - not so good for chatting as it is big and high - but still good.
Then off to Lilydale Lake, celebrating the glorious autumn weather


and a little dance to celebrate the end of school holidays for another term!!!!

Disgusting

Today a new cupboard came inside - it is not pretty - outside nor in. I have had a present cupboard but it was not just one. I had a little stash of gifts in all different spots and I have been collecting for about 15 years. When I see a little something on sale, sometimes I get one for me and one or two for the present cupboard. However, I don't always seem to be gifting these little gems on. I spent the whole day finding, sorting and of course documenting (on an excel spreadsheet - this little virgo can't help herself) all of my little gifties.

Now I have a lovely sortable list which tells me exactly where everything is, what it is and who may like it. I can even sort by category - (stop laughing Robyn!)

The other thing is I have this big ugly cabinet at the end of my bed, reminding me of all that lies within.....oh and there is a little ban on any more presents for the cupboard.

Happy Easter

The easter bunny visited our house giving books and hiding eggs around the garden.
Apart from too much chocolate I have to show you what Mr Smartypants made - I will be in trouble for this photo - the light, the wrapper, but here it is -
A chocolate squirrel - the same as on my blog header. Yes, just whipped up a little mould and popped out a few. Oh, he also made a chocolate nest with some white chocolate eggs with brown speckles. You have to worry don't you!!!

Easter craft

These little plaster easter decorations were picked up at Aldi for $3 for two, so this was more about the journey than the destination. We had fun and I will pull them out again next Easter.

Good Friday

We had a lovely family day to celebrate good Friday. Miss G made scrumptious salmon on corn cakes and we enjoyed a good meal and good company. The Take along Thomas was dragged out and the boys played happily.

Coat Hanger

Remember me making the coathanger for the friends hens party - well here is a picture of it not only finished but actually in use!! I found this on the photographers website - www.msjane.com.au

Hop

I am suffering - some kind of infection which just makes the school holidays even harder work. In the search of two hours of respite I took the boys to see Hop today. (I had some vouchers so it was only an $11 outlay)

This is a holiday movie that you will be able to roll out each easter but wont be on high rotation the rest of the year. It was nice, fun and sat nicely with all traditions and kept Easter magic alive.

I did like the soundtrack though - I didn't think I was that into drumming, but maybe I am?

Dog Day

Lsat year when we were on holidays, Spencer took a liking to a stuffed dog. It was calico and very simple, but he liked the idea of a toy dog and it had been at the back of my mind for a while. Kind of like this image from Etsy.

I had even taken a picture of this one out of a french Marie Claire.

When I found these little puppies at Dimmeys for only $3 each I knew I could cross one project off my list. Now we have to make dog beds and accessories but thats ok.

When kids are quiet...

They are probably playing with electrical tape!

Party Day!!

Two parties today. The first one was for Benji and Spencer, for twins from their class. They had a wildlife animal experience. Benji wasn't too thrilled, but Spencer would touch things and got up to hold the Goanna, because his name was also Spencer.

The birthday twins however we happy to hold every single animal, including massive snakes.

We hustled quickly from this party, into the car and off to Korumburra to celebrate our nephew's first birthday. (he is the one in the red tracksuit)

It was a kids party and they had a massive jumping castle with slide that kept this brewd of kids (and a couple of big kids) entertained all afternoon.

Hooked

While camping we were tutored in crocheting. To practice I started a scarf based very loosely on Myrtle and Eunice's scrappy scarf. See, very loose. I did make it a bit long, in fact over three meters - whoops. At least it makes for good wrapping.

It was a little belated birthday gift for Kirsty, who we met in the renovated Dorset Park today for a play.

Even her little man got into to things- along with a gazillion other mums with the same school holiday idea.

Talk to me.....

Last year we started seeing a speech therapist with Benji. It has been a difficult road. Not the actual sessions, but knowing where to go, who to see and what to do.

Initially I started enquiries with the kinder teacher when I felt his speech was slower than that of Spencer's. At first the kinder teacher said there was nothing to worry about, but in about third term she felt it wouldn't hurt to get him assessed.

His actual speech sounded jumbled. It sounded like a sentence, but one that many couldn't understand. He used the correct intonation, but with only some words said clearly. Overall he was happy enough, yet would have terrible tantrums and storm off if he couldn't explain or understand.

We started the process and I found a local therapist and booked an assessment. It was August by this stage. Her assessment suggested he had an auditory processing disorder - not a delay. What she explained was that his speech patterns had developed irregularly, so some portions of his communication were age appropriate, but others weren't. He could label things, but not always create a grammatical sentence. With Fiona we started to work on some basic areas, but with a holiday and then Christmas, we didn't carry on any more.

This year, the boys started 4 year old kinder and I think the problem was more pronounced. The teacher didn't really understand, and with 4 sets of twins in the group was focused on them socialising, rather than any other issues. Spencer is more advanced in his speech, and as such Benji uses him as either his interpreter or takes him away from the group to play individually. Neither is helping him learn and participate but it is a difficult situation. We have continued private sessions, which cost $120/hour. She has also been out to assess him at kinder and this has really helped his relationship with the teacher as she now has a better understanding of him.

What we didn't know was there are a whole load of community services available to preschool children in different areas. We live in Monash, and within MonashLink they offer speech, OT, psychologists and other services at a greatly reduced price - try $8 per hour. Big gap in price but not in outcome. The boys were again assessed and while they are improving, there are still issues. We are going to continue for a period with the community group and switch back to private when our sessions expire.

We were referred to this by our kinder teacher, but even when we were there, they were asking about our paediatrician, and PSFO, neither of which we have. We have driven this ourselves and imagine there must be many other people like us. Benji's problem isn't huge, but it is certainly an issue. Having said that the early intervention has helped tremendously and as such we have seen great improvement over the last few weeks.

Now we are starting to think and worry about school. I know it is still a fair way off and a lot can change. Being december boys and twins at that, there are both pros and cons for sending them or holding them back. My preference would probably be for sending them- but I constantly flip flop. Most recently the speechie has said that sometimes children with disorders can benefit from the structured learning at school, as opposed to the play based learning. I don't know whether they lack maturity to deal with their language issues yet and would another year help them? I suppose I have to wait and see.....

Easter Tree

Easter got a little bigger this year. I have been collecting decorations for a few years now, and each year buy more as gifts and also one each for the boys. I was looking for a twig to put them on, but ended up cutting down an overhanging tree branch- so I used all the decorations and got into the spirit.

When my baby,

when my baby smiles at me we go to Rio - to the movie

at the cinema. Where it costs a lot of money to sit in the dark, not in the park.

Stop singing now. We took the kids to the movies (which even on a Tuesday is not cheap) but it was a good way to spend a cloudy day. They loved it and it was better than I had expected. Visually it is colourful and vibrant. It is in Rio with the carnivale. The story is predictable, but no more than usual. There are some funny characters and some lovely moments. Worth a trip if you have some school holidays time to fill.

Bike

Since we were home but all still on holidays, we decided to make the most of it and go on a ride. We had bought this tandem bike attachment for the holiday but the twins were not so interested. The idea is that they get used to the idea of riding with no training wheels and gain the skill and balance before they take off on their own. Our idea was they would make Spencer fast enough to keep up with the group. On rides he seems to move his mouth and not his legs.

We took all the bikes and rode as far as school where we stopped for a play. There we coerced spence onto the bike and we were off. We tied his bike up and went on a long ride, had lunch and came back again - all happy and tired.

Camping

The kids have been talking about sleeping in a tent for what seems like forever, so we finally packed up and went camping. The whole family went in tents to Inverloch and we stayed at the Big 4 caravan park.For non-campers, and the big squirrel is certainly one, the first time is hard work. Collecting and packing all of the stuff you may need. I found the clothes the hardest as it was going to be hot and cold and everyone needed changes. We did manage and packed it all in the back of the station wagon.

The kids made friends in the park which was lovely and we hardly saw them. There is a pool, playground and jumping pillow and roads to ride around.

We did wus it and pull the pin early. Saturday night rained so hard and so long and the strong wind felt like it would lift our little tent away. Some stuff got a little wet, but not too bad. I just didn't want the kids only experience of camping to be a wet and boring memory. As it is they are looking forward to the next adventure. (But they desperately want to sit by an open fire- which is not allowed in caravan parks)