Category: Family fun

Maisie making sure Talias hat is on right

Talia ate her morning tea quicker than Maisie did

Maisie spending some quality time with our pet kangaroo

who would have thought that keys would be so much fun!

Interesting fact to note: Talia (9 months) is wearing clothes that Maisie wore when she was 14 months… if she keeps eating like she does, i will have them in the same size clothes!

Despite the weather being a lot cooler, we have all had a great day today out in the sun. We did clothes washing, gardening, the girls and Cade went to the park and then this afternoon we washed the cars out the front on the lawn. Here are our happy snaps:
Maisie helping Cade with the gardening this morning

Talia telling everyone that she is going to be turning 1 in July

Maisie all wet after helping wash Naa’s car out the front this afternoon

here are some snaps we took today of the girls:

Moo riding out the back

TB ready for a bath

Moo (20.5 months) & TB (7.5 months) having a bible story before bed

We just got home from our camping adventure at the Blowering Dam. This is the 5th straight year that we have been, but Phil has now been going for 28 years – so we have a bit of catching up to do!!
When you are out in the open air 24 hours a day with kids it seems like a massive event just to make the littlest things happen. We had planned to do some day trips, but the timing of meals and sleeps just didnt seem to offer a lot more time in the day, so we just relaxed and tried to keep out of the sun! (sorry again tb…)
We were a bit wary of the weather, but it didnt really rain on us at all, apart from a couple of drops on one of the evenings. The girls slept really well in their cots in the tent and meal times seemed to go by just fine. We went down to the water a couple of times for a swim – I had big plans to ski, but realised on the 2nd day that it wasnt going to be easy to find time to fit it in. We also took the girls down to the creek for a bath which was a quick and rushed event.
Highlights: catching up with family and friends, only having to drive for 1.5 hours to get there, playing totem tennis, cooking outside, the shade of a tree!
Lowlights: TB getting a sunburned face after so much effort in trying to keep both girls out of the sun, Maisie spewing in the car on the way home.
Here are a few of the snap shots from the weekend:

Moo getting up on day 2

The creek

Moo & Poppy

Moo

Aunty Natskli & Moo

Moo, TB & Lisa on day 4 at about 7:30am

Moo

TB & Uncle Lukey

As part of our preparations for our 4-night camping trip to Blowering Dam later this month, we decided to go on a little mini-camping trip only a short distance from home, just to test how well we all manage. Maisie wasn’t even crawling the last time we took her camping, plus we now have Talia as well, so we were expecting things to be a little different this time.

Oura is about 20km out of town on the Murrumbidgee river. Maisie seemed to have a great time. Talia seemed fairly oblivious to it all. Maisie got a real kick out of sleeping in the same ‘room’ as everyone else. She especially loved being able to run over and give Talia a cuddle good night.

Little did we realise that Oura is in fact an aboriginal word for cockatoo – which all makes sense in hindsight as there were multitudes of noisy cockatoos intent on making their presence known at dusk and dawn – which meant the girls had a much later night and much earlier morning than usual.

There was a couple of other groups camping at the same grounds, but there was plenty of room and they were a fair distance away. We only really saw them when down at the river swimming.

All-in-all we are glad we made the effort as we both had our eyes opened a little more to how challenging going camping with a toddler can be. We will need to take lots of toys and ideas as to how to keep Maisie amused. And we’ll have to be smart about planning activities around avoiding the heat of the day. And we both have to have eyes in the back of our heads as Maisie can disappear in an instant and reappear 20m away before you even realise it.

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Yesterday, we had fun times with Bekka & Sarah over for a few hours.
Lets just say that four girls under the age of three is fun for a few hours, but long term could do damage to your hearing.
Bekka – Age 3 years & 1 month
Maisie – Age 1 year & 6 months
Sarah – Age 1 year & 2 months
Talia – Age 5 months

Maisie & Talia had a play date today with Miriam, William & Abigail.
here are the photos:

Maisie, Miriam & William

William, Miriam, Maisie in the pool

Abigail & Talia enjoying a kick on the rug

William, Maisie & Miriam enjoying morning tea

we arrived at mums house last weekend to a very big surprise – they had transformed the yard into fun play times.
they had laid turf, built a sandpit, there was a swing and a seesaw,  a chalk board, “waterplay”area with buckets and the whole area had been landscaped complete with the “roy rock” and a piece of cement from 1990 with each of my siblings handprints.
it was quite an amazing suprise to see what they had done and moo and tb had a great time playing.
we are heading home again this weekend for jades 21st and then on monday tb and i are flying to sydney for the night. its going to be a busy week!

Last night the girls had a great time with 8 of their cousins here in Wagga for dinner. (they only have 10 cousins all up, so this was a big event!) Moo was so excited that she was still screaming with joy for most of the car trip back to our house. Tali was cuddled up by her Aunts and oldest cousins and she seemed to enjoy all the attention.
Whilst the camera was out of the bag, I grabbed some other photos of the girls. Tali is starting to improve after her week 6 struggle – she doesnt look like such a crusty head now. Moo has had a busy week with a trip to the Library for story time, lunch with some new friends and a new bible study group with a bunch of new kids to chase around after.

 Bec, Tali & Stephie

 The whole gang (minus 2 WOTNs)

 Moo showing her new smile

Moo reading her library book to me

 Tali waking up

Moo giving Tali some love 

Well, we had another very busy weekend here with plenty of fun had by all.
Saturday was filled with:
Morning Tea with Luke, Liz, Henry & Maya McPherson at their house.
Cade had a race with the Wagga Wagga Road Runners.
Dinner and sleepover with Matilda & Ebony.

The girls having fun on their sleepover

Dad and his girls on Fathers Day
On Sunday we packed the car and went to Church and then headed off for our first trip to Albury with Tali. It was a very short trip, mainly to catch up with Grandparents.

Paps and Tali enjoying a cuddle before bed

The drive to Albury is fantastic to do – takes about 1.5 hours which is great. The girls both went great in the car, we timed both trips around nap times which helped! Maisie showed everyone her new tricks and also had a fun swim at the pool with her Great Grandma Mary whilst Nanny Jill looked after Tali. Its great to be so close and the trip being so easy, Im sure we will be back and forth more than what I thought!
Next weekend is looking just as busy, with the Farmers Markets on Saturday morning, a bonfire in the evening and then the Lake to Lagoon fun run on Sunday.. and I thought our lives would slow down when we got here!

Well, due to the fact that we still do not have internet up at the new house yet – the update of the WOWs will have to be all at once. (PS – WOWs = Whitbourns of Wagga)
House = is good, apart from the internet connection still to be worked out. Everyone seems to be enjoying their new space. The girls both have their own rooms which is nice for them and Maisie has all her toys out of the box and into her own play space. The kitchen and bathrooms are brand new and the whole house has been freshly painted. It will do us fine for the next 6 months or so.
Tali = Good. Growing a lot, eating a lot and generally going well. She has had some unsettled nights, so tonight we will be trying something new.. She is now in 0000 clothes, with some of them still to big for her. She is starting to cooooo and there have been hints of some smiles, so that is very exciting.
Moo = Good. Enojying the run of the house. She enjoyed her first ice cream cone with her cousins the other night and we all enojyed watching her eat it (it took her about 1/2 an hour). As you can see from the video that Cade put up the other day – she is talking it up all the time. Her latest “english” word is Clock – and she will even show you where it is in the room (and look for one even when there is not one there to find..)
Lisa = Good (see a theme here..) Wagga is exciting to explore. Last week we walked into town a couple of times to figure out where stuff is and we had a busy weekend of eating out at different peoples homes. I am enjoying the quiet and the slow pace of things already, and the days seem to fly with Cade arriving home so much quicker from work.
 Cade = Good (i am speaking on his behalf, so i hope thats correct..) The uni is set out over a hill about 7 kms out of Wagga. He has been running out to work on most days and has caught the bus once and also rode his bike out yesterday morning. His office is overlooking bushland, and right across from the uni pool which is exciting for summer time. On saturday he went for a run with a running group which meets every week for a race.
So, overall, we are all good. We are loving living closer to family, we have had Mum and Kate (and Jenna!) come from Albury for visits, and Peter and Carole came to help us fix up some stuff at the house and we are having great fun seeing Paul and Tanya and the girls so often – Matilda and Ebs are coming over for sleep over fun this weekend which will be great.
Have to say that this past month (or three) have been crazy, and we need to thank so many people for their love, prayers and support. We have had people cooking for us, cleaning for us, taking care of our kids for us, fixing stuff for us and just being there for us. I really dont have time (or enough energy at the moment) to write and send out thank you notes – so please accept this as a big thank you from the WOWs. xox