Summer of Love

After Emma spent the night here on Monday night, both her and Elliot went home to her house for a sleepover on Tuesday. Which meant that when her mum and dad and brother came to pick them up and have dinner it was a rather lively and chaotic affair. I always start to feel a bit claustrophobic and panicky when our house is full of people, because it's quite a small living area and also quite closed off. Add to that 4 kids pulling out every toy in the house, then yes, the jitters start to set in. Where Emma is quiet and studious, her little brother is a destructro-bot, a loud bundle of energy and laughs. At one point it all got a bit too much for Ivy too, and she started throwing a tanty about something (not unusual) and pulled her standard cranky face at us. When all the other kids joined in, it was too good a photographic opportunity to pass up. So even though the photo is crap, using onboard flash etc, it's pretty much a perfect moment to me.
And that, right there, is Ivy's ANGRY FACE.

School holidays usually heralds some kind of catch up/sleepover with Elliot and Ivy's big cousin Emma. Emma is a big school girl, so often the activities that the kids engage in are a bit more grown up than what they are used to, and almost always involve "a Show" at some point. Rigorous planning goes into every detail: making tickets to sell, setting up a shop to sell flags and badges, as well as the cafe where you can buy food for the show. The one thing that is almost always unplanned is the show itself. Which means that by 7:50pm when the show went LIVE, they just ran around like goons.

One of the other games that Emma quite likes is playing school. I remember doing that as a kid too, and I wonder if it's a girl thing? Anyway, Elliot quite enjoyed it too, he was the PE teacher, teaching the kids how to kick goals ;-) and then marking them off on his sheet. Suits me down to the ground when they play schools, as it usually means they are quiet.

Elliot is OBSESSED with football. Those of you who know him can well and truly testify to his obsessiveness. He is a tragic Collingwood supporter and is perpetually running out of black textas due to his Collingwood pictures (that never seem to end). Because of that I ordered 24 black ONLY textas for him from the States (via Brooke's mom, yay!) which makes him, and me, happy.

However, because he is so obsessed, he insisted that we go home from the beach past Kardinia Park/Skilled Stadium in Geelong. We left the beach late, everyone was tired and hungry but we went to KP anyway. And Mummy (who is a Geelong supporter, but hasn't been to KP for over a decade) got an awesome surprise when we discovered the new(ish) Premiership Stand and it's display of premiership cups that are viewable from the OUTSIDE!! Yay!!!!!!!!!! I made Elliot pose with me, but he just looked frightened of Mummy's excitedness, so you can just have photos of me instead.
(Actually I think Ivy looks kinda scared too.)

Sometimes it really pays to know your limits. And when you know them, then respect them. In my case it pays to know my children's limits because their limits are consequential to mine.

I dragged my kids out to Heide today, a place none of us have been to before. I know many photographer friends love the surrounding gardens, but I had no expectations. I invited myself to tag along with my little sister and Mum and Dad for lunch and then maybe, maybe, take a stroll through the exhibition. I'm a bit of an art bogan... but I like to think I'm fairly open minded when it comes to art, especially because my sister is an artist and I dabble in the odd photography ;-)

When the first thing you see as you walk in the door is something that looks like handwriting by a 6 year old, and your almost 6yo asks what kid wrote it, I should have known what to expect...

I'm bored.

I'm hungry.

I'm tired.

Why can't I touch anything?

This is boring.

When are we going home?

So I took the kids outside for a wander. We didn't go far, just outside the door really. But the kids had a run. I lay on the grass looking through the canopy. Ivy also lay down next to me, and for a moment everything was still and happy. And then she was all: shoes off, shoes on, hat off, hat on, my feet hurt, my tummy's sore, I'm not sleepy anymore, I want to go that way, Mummy you come too................ ETC ETC.

Then I hit my limit. I was over it. I said that's it, we're going home. But we'll just go back inside to say goodbye to Nanna and GD and Aunty Jenna first. On the way back inside Ivy took her shoes and hat off again, and ran away. And then after we said goodbye and we walking back to the car I discovered that there actually was some nice looking garden with more sculptures. Just 5 more mins I said to the kids. We'll go and check out the tin cows. It was further than it looked from the path. When we got there the kids wanted to turn straight back around and go back to the car. Elliot's drink bottle was empty. And there was a hill between us and the path leading back to the car. Halfway up the hill Ivy sat down and wouldn't get up. And then took her shoes off. Again.

Today's story is not so much of a blessing, but a reminder. Sometimes it really pays to be a bogan parent and not try to instil any culture in your kids whatsoever. At 5 and 2 years of age, they don't get it or respect it.

And the moral of the story - know your limits! Gah!!!!

NYE
Hot
Really hot
Kids paddled in their pool
Adults had some beverages

Fun
Happy New Year!