Hello Hello,

we are currently on holiday! Wahoo! A road trip in fact down the east coast of Australia! I will report back on our adventure upon our arrival home!

Uh! Spaghetti Oh!

I was so angry when I took this picture. But this picture says a thousand words and I just had to record this for future years when it's a funny story.

We have really been trying to reign in screen time with Ej, and often it's the first privilege to go when he makes bad choices. I have a love/hate relationship with that privilege because it's a great way to keep him entertained during key times like when I shower or make dinner and yet sometimes I want to just cut it out for good. Well on this particular day he had lost his privilege the previous day to have any screen time. Thus on this morning I had to trust that he would play well while I showered and got dressed. Ej has gotten so much better about self entertaining but he has also is in a phase where curiousity kills him and he is always poking his nose into the pantry and drawers and whatever. So while I was showering I had one of those mother's instincts that he was into something so I called him into my bathroom. I asked him what he was doing and nothing seemed to off (although after the fact, i thought about he walked in with his hands behind his back, but when I had him put them out they seemed fine).

Well I dismissed him and didnt think too much about it. But as soon as I got out I went to go find him. So I was in my towel and found him on the balcony with finger paint all over....the table...the chairs....the floor (luckily its tile out there)...and himself. My first reaction was anger, but I knew it was funny, so I snapped this picture. You can tell I had already scolded him because he wouldn't look up and was quite sad. I honestly think he didnt see the harm in emptying 1.5 bottles of the paint around. He was just having a good time. I already can look back on it with much lighter feelings but I was pretty upset that morning.

Rocks Riverside

Mr. Moon traveled a lot in the last couple months which gave EJ and I extra time (and the car) to go spend some time in fun places. So we went to yet another park. This one we have been to a fair bit, but it's a good one for a nice warm day.

 There is a small lazy river with some pools near the top, normal playground area, a flying fox, a wading pool, bbqs and soon you will see an area where I think they are building something fantastic!

 EJ making his way to the top of the 'river'

 There is a bike path that winds up and down and around that seems like a blast. Every time we head there I always wish I had remembered to bring Ej's scooter for him but am usually preoccupied making sure I have all the sun and water gear.

 This is the area that they are building, it looks like it will be a bunch of different rock climbing style equipment. I hope it doesnt take too long too finish, so fun! We really are so spoiled here with fun places to play.

 Ej's classic head tilt that he does when you want to take a picture of him.

 walking along the top where the water comes out.

 And althought it was a warm day, it was just cool enough and with the unheated water, he had to take breaks and sit on the side to warm up. Smart cookie!

 the wading pool

 Another really cool feature at this park is this swing. It's for people who are wheelchair bound. They can ride their chair onto this and it will lock their chair on and then they can swing!

And it was the perfect day for the ice cream truck to park itself right near the entrance. We certainly partook of it's yumminess and enjoyed a sweet treat before heading home.

It is the time of year now where I start seeing all the fall decorations and cold weather things appear on everyone else's blogs. And it will bring a twinge of jealousy because fall had started becoming my favorite time of year before moving to Australia and then all the holidays ramp up and I miss my family. And as our weather here heats up you will see us in more water and beach things...so maybe it balances out? I missed out on all the Fourth of July festivities and fun summer back home so now it's my turn to play. It's a good thing I have friends here to help keep homesickness at bay! I am doing pretty good right now with that and it helps that we have a trip after the new year to meet up with family and have some visitors coming next year .... so much to look forward to!

Broadwater Parklands-Gold Coast

I so totally wish I would have found this place way sooner! I have heard about people visiting here but no huge raves or anything so I didnt think too much about it. But I can tell you when Erik have an open day and the car we are bumming around here this summer! And we didnt even get to everything! And seriously the parks around here cant beat any others around. I will really and truly miss them when we move back to the states. Part of it is liability, when you see some of the parks here you see that they obviously dont have sue happy people here like back in America.

 So this park has a giant and I mean GIANT blow up 'pillow' as it's called. It's basically a permanent blowup floor.....so cool! And another thing I love about most parks here is the sun shades they put over the play stuff. Its not always over every single bit, but often its over main parts.

 large enough for crowds, but little man just had a hard time trying to keep his balance with everyone on there.

 and most often that is what he looked like trying to run off...losing his balance some more and tripping over the sand. Little EJ is not the most coordinated of kids but he has a blast regardless. And I know its so good for his motor skills.

 We went with some friends...

 EJ enjoyed some swinging on the flying fox (zip line). And on a side note, this park is located on the beach so there just beyone the picture on the left is sandy beach with a roped off swim area. And since this location sits in a sort of bay the water is much calmer and oh so nice.

 Another part of the park we went to was the 'tide pools' water play area. The pictures were hard to take of it because it was a long, narrow play area and hard to see the different depths of the water pools and such.

 some parts were just water over the ground and other parts got knee deep on Ej. Some of the water was on timers and would spray at different times and intervals.

 I couldnt help but take a picture of the Australian flag among the field.

And a group shot of us Moms and some of the kids.

So as I am catching up with the last little bit here on the old blog you will see lots of outdoor play. Well ok, you already see lots of outdoor stuff, its just such a nice climate here. But through the winter is the perfect weather for any good duration of outdoor play because the humidity is way down and the temps are right around 70 F. So it's wonderful. As we are now in the beginning of Spring it is warming up a bit and it wont be long before we just want to be in the water to escape the muggy temps. Cause being in the mid 80's with humidity also reaching 80%ish is not so fun.

Natural Bridge

 A while back I talked to Lindsay about a free saturday that we had and how I would like to explore the region a bit more. So we headed south and went to a place call the Natural Bridge and also happens to have a glo worm cave. Since we went during the day we could not actually see the glo worms but it was so fun nonetheless.

 we got to go on a bit of bushwalk

 to keep Ej interested and moving along the path we told him that we should look for dragon's footprints and see if there were any traces of the dragon in the cave. He loves the movie, 'How to train your dragon' and so it was so fun for him to watch. In the end we found some 'prints' and had fun making up a story about where the dragon had flown off to and what he was doing.

 Ej using his pretend binoculars to look for the dragon.

 There was also a ginormous vine a la tarzan and we couldn't resist taking a swing on it. It was crazy but cool.

 Below is the top of the falls that starts the natural bridge. An actual bridge of stone (ou cant walk across it, just stay on the paths around it.

 and the falls

 me and my handsome little guy.

 Inside the cave. I am pretty sure that the reflection spots you see are the glo worms. It was not splash from the falls, so that is my guess. Pretty cool!

 we took the opporunity to take some casual family pics. I sure do love my little motor body boy. He keeps us in chuckles and always on our toes

 And what's a family portrait without someone making a silly face? EJ's personality to a T.

Mock 2012 Olympics

Back in July around the time that the Olympics started a friend of mine asked if EJ and I would want to join her and her kids for an olympic themed play date at a park. We said "oh Yeah." So she mostly got it all organized and we had a great day. We were trying to dress the kids in our home countrie's attire (They are from Canada) and her kids were dressed accordingly with shirts and some face paint. I realized EJ no longer has any american tees or anything that fit him and so he made do with his blue pants, red bandana and blue sunnies. It was chilly that day and so he wore a jumper for about half the day (too bad the colors werent right-oh well).

We started off with opening ceremonies and Jody did awesome creating torches for the kids to start out with!

 First up were some track and field events. Kids at the start line prepared to race. We used streamers held across the finish line so they could run through a ribbon!

 Preparing for the hurdles (boxes of cereal on their side). I love how they were all trying to do a starting position!

 Long jump was next. The kids loved the running races but didn't quite show as much interest in the long jump nor did they quite understand how to do it-so that makes sense. I think the longest jump was maybe a foot.

 Next up shooting. I brought our nerf shot gun and some small nerf pistols. We used blocks built up a bit as targets and the kids loved this. They had a bit of hard time getting how to load the guns and if I remember right the shot gun wasnt quite working properly....but still mighty fun!

Miss A with the big gun!

 M takes a turn with the pistol with help from mom.

 EJ took his turn very seriously. He was very focused on the task at hand....

 And after a few failed attempts he decided his best bet for hitting the targets was to get real close to knock over the blocks. I say good on ya mate-for being so clever :)

 Fencing with wrapping paper tubes was next.

 And sometimes if you get the right spot they kind of tickle!

 The sisters duke it out!

 And then they ganged up on Jody! It was quite funny! Jody has another little one that was home that morning with daddy and I am sure if she was there she would have been in on the action. She stayed home because she is old enough to toddle around but young enough to disrupt. I am sure she enjoyed getting some quality alone time with her daddy though!

 Last event was the discus with a lid from a tin container. This one was fun to watch as the kids all had their own versions of throwing the thing and there was more than once that Jody and I had to duck or catch it before it hit our faces or heads.

 And the closing ceremonies where they all received their medals.

 Wahoo!

I had one of the older kids take this photo of us hence the slightly off kilter image. But I think they did a pretty good job! We had a ton of fun and I am so glad that we have friends here to do these kinds of things with. Jody and I were running together for a while last year before the holidays and crazy humid heat striked for the summer. Unfortunately life happened and we didnt pick it up again but we try to get together with the kids. She and I are the only ones that live on our side of the river-the one that seperates the city and we have fun together. She has taught me many a things about motherhood and is someone I really admire. I wish I had as many little ones as she does but I give loves to hers all the same. Her youngest was born just after we moved here and so its been fun seeing her go through all the stages, and she is a mommy's girl but I have finally gotten her to start coming to me which has been lots of fun!