Christmas party

We had our christmas party on the weekend at yummy Buca di Beppo.

Storm and Al.

 Kerri and I.

 Joy, DV and their son, Vaughn.

 Now we had 6 adults and 8 kids in our party. 7 of them girls. Luckily we had this little area that they could kick back in.

 Oh, to be a teenager and too cool to sit down with the littlies!

Rockin' the piggies

Kendall won't let me do her hair. That is why she (and Sydney) have helmet hair. I decided that I'd had enough of helmet head so I put the hair in piggies and tried to keep Kendall's hands busy.

They looked so cute! (And they managed to keep them in the majority of the day. I only had to replace two bands and re-do Kendall's a couple of times. Success!)

See the chrissy tree behind Syd? It has a tide line of ornaments and decorations as the girls have taken anything and everything that I put up there. Oh well. Maybe next year....

Fun at the park

We've had a really interesting start to winter with only one real week of cold weather (enough to give me the poopies mind you!) and even though it's been raining the past couple of days (hey we live in a desert so I will take very drop that actually makes it to the ground) we had a couple of beautiful days in between. It gave us some time to get the girls out at the park and me some time to practice with the camera.

Kendall.

 A close up of Sydney. Now before anyone calls CPS because my kids look dishevelled I would like to offer the following in my defense. We gave the girls vegemite sandwiches to eat during the walk. Sydney is obviously a messy eater as the vegemite on her shirt rivals the vegemite left in the jar.

 That (the vegemite) and also the fact that she has discovered that she likes to slide down on her belly. More about that in 2 piccies.

 Yes, she was hamming it up for all and sundry (and having a good time as well!)

 Look at those delicious curls.

 Aw, my handsome, hairy hubby.

 Sydney discovered that she loves the slide down the slide on her belly. She did this all by herself with no prompting at all by either of us.

 And back to start it all again!

 Kendall is not so brave.

 Nope. But is it brave or stoopid she asks?

Opportunity Village

Every year November/December, Opportunity Village (a charity that provides help/training/work for the special needs members of our community) has The Magical Forest. They transform their grounds into a festival for Santa and lights and all things christmassy.

Storm and I went there years ago and promised that when we had kids we would bring them back. Guess what? We've got the kiddies now so we headed there to show them the lights.

The night wasn't that cold so I was happy to have them out and about that night so we lined up keeping some young girls in the line entertained with the twins. Yes, it appears that the girls thought it would be funny to grab every cheerio that I had in my hand and stuff them in their face (Sydney) or eat one cheerio out of my hand like a horse would eat a carrot (Kendall). So glad we could entertain.

I knew that the girls were not fans of Santa but didn't expect to have Kendall react so badly to a lifesize plastic Santa! Yes, it appears that Santa's have to be smaller than our little cherub.

Anyway, here are the piccies.

At the entrance. (Sorry - must apologize about the blurry. It was night and the auto focus focussed on the wrong thing - the sign). See Kendall checking out the lights? She loves them.

 Giant candy canes! Mmmm...I get a toothache just looking at them.

 Kendall can walk but chooses to hold our finger (lacks confidence) so you'll only see piccies of her leaning against something. We're working on her confidence.

 Sydney walking down the small slope. She is so good at walking and maintaining her balance on flat so she has a bit of fun when it comes to a slope.

 Told you about the Santa. A not-so-happy Kendall in white.

 She cheered up for the little house (it was a half-hearted smile for the camera!)

 But freaked out when it came to posing in Cinderella's reindeer drawn carriage. She was starting to get Syd down by this time.

 I stopped pointing out Santa so it became a matter of getting her to look at the camera. Didn't happen.

 Sydney was quite happy at this stage to touch (absolutely) everything and wander about.

We went out for dinner afterwards and had a great time dancing in our seats at Applebees. Yes, Applebees, the friendly neighbourhood restaurant, was rocking out the dance musak. Kendall loves a good beat and can amuse a table or two with her dance moves!

Aussie kids are weetbix kids!

There are a couple of items that are iconic to Australia.

Vegemite. Fosters. Shrimp on the barbie. Koalas. Kangaroos. You get the idea.

Something that is lesser known outside the country but equally iconic within our borders is Weetbix, the breakfast of champions. We can't buy it in supermarkets here so we have to order it {along with a few other Aussie faves} online from a company in the mid-west.

I've started giving it to the girls for brekky. It's a little messy but they're really getting into it now that the weather is cooler and that makes it nicer to have with warm milk. Yummmmm........

Yes, it's fork {I couldn't find the spoons!} but the tines are only small and the girls can still get a fair amount on it into their mouth...and their faces too.

Santa train

Last Sunday the Galvins joined our family for a ride on the Santa train.

Now I don't know if there has ever been a passenger train through Vegas or if it has always been cargo but down at Boulder City a wonderful bunch of volunteers man the "Santa train". This train goes about 3 miles towards Las Vegas and then goes backwards back to the station. It's not a long ride, nor is the view spectacular but it is the first time the girls have been on a train so it was special especially when Santa and Mrs Claus were involved!

Now I don't have any pics of Santa with the girls as they weren't exactly cooperative {the girls that is not Santa and Mrs Claus!}. Kerri did manage to get one of the girls sitting in our lap next to Santa {I still have to get it from her so cannot post it here now} and Kendall was still freaking out about him despite our presence! I'm kinda disappointed that the girls are having the "man-in-the-white-beard" reaction as it would be nice to have piccies of them every year in his lap but it seems kinda mean to put them through such a moment {especially Kendall} just for a photo. So we'll keep trying...maybe next year we'll have better luck.

Anyway, here are some pics of the train ride.
Who is that wonderful family? Oh, what joy, it's us!

 The Galvins {Lauryn was scared of Santa too so I didn't feel so bad about the girls not liking him}

 Daddy and his girls.

 Mummy and her girls. The volunteers decorate the train too and you can see a little of the deccies behind me. They must have spent some serious time hanging individual ornaments from the roof all the way down the gangway. It looked nice and helped give a "christmassy" feel. The ornaments also helped entertain Kendall who was most fascinated by their movement with the train. She was quite happy to lean back.

 Landree and Lily.

 Posing in Santa's sleigh that he most graciously left behind whilst visiting the kids on the train.

 Pity the girls can't write otherwise we could have posted their letters to Santa!

Is this the reason?

I haven't been sleeping well lately. I don't know why. My grandmother is worried that I've got too much on my mind. I admit that I do think a lot about things but I don't think that that is the reason.

This might be though -

There's not enough room! {Yes, that's Storm squashed over in the background!}. Both boys on my side of the bed and I know that they have no inclination of moving. Should I put the covers over Oscar? He's practically in the right position for a good night's sleep.

And don't forget that when the girls wake in the morning they usually come and hop in with us as well.

Two adults, two kiddies and two furbabies - that's a lot for a queen size bed! There are times when Storm and I end up in either corner going "What the?" {We've got to get a king once the house is built! That's a no-brainer..}

So cute though.

Note: Two things. 1) Rudy opened his eyes briefly when I came in with the camera but I had no response from Oscar. So nice to be noticed. Sigh.
2) The dogs are kicked off before lights out but somehow get back on during the night. Sneaky buggars. Mind you it only happens in winter with Rudy - he gets cold on the carpeted floor {poor buggar - {read sarcasm please}}