Save my tooth!

Even though I know a little secret about the Tooth Fairy, I still leave my tooth on the bench in a glass of water, hoping that a gold coin will be added to the water for me. Now I know that Tooth Fairy protocol is for the tooth to be exchanged for a coin bit I love my teeth so much that I don't actually want to give them to the Tooth Fairy, or anyone else. Instead I write a letter to request that I keep my tooth.

A note for the Tooth Fairy

I hope it works again this time,

Love Princess George 

Tricking Santa

You know that big guy in the red suit that visits all the good kids on Christmas Eve, well I really want to meet him but it seems he is pretty tricky to catch.  One year he delivered a set of bunk beds to AJ and I for Christmas and he managed to build them in our bedroom without waking us.

Last year I wanted to wake up when he snuck in to deliver presents so I tied my Santa sack to my ankle.  He managed to untie my santa bag and fill it with really cool stuff without waking me.  This year I was determined to catch "Santa" in action.  My first plan was spotted by mum and dad before I fell asleep and they were complete spoil sports, they insist that I untie the bag from my body if I wanted "Santa" to deliver any christmas presents!


I untied the bag from around my neck and waist before I went back to bed, but that wasn't going to stop me, I still wanted to trick "Santa".


It seems that my ankle tying trick of last year didn't work, this year I would upgrade my tying techniques and tie my foot into my Santa bag.


Clearly the tie worked so well that Santa couldn't deliver my presents.  When I woke up the only thing in my Santa bag was my foot, and I thought that "Santa" was pretty annoyed at me and decided that he wasn't going to give me any presents.

Luckily "Santa" is a pretty good bloke and he had been to visit, he just decided to leave my presents on the bedroom floor instead!

I don't think that I will try and trick Santa next year.
Love Princess George

Relaxing in the pool

After a busy couple of hours dragging boxes to the car, driving in to the new place and unloading everything, it was time to collect mum and Milla from Icehouse and head home.  Mum must have been just as excited about moving as we were because instead of heading home, she convinced us that we needed to head back to the new place to go for a swim!

You know, I think I could get used to this!

Love AJ Pickle

Heading Home!

Instead of heading home after school today, mum and dad picked us up and we headed home!  I know that sounds kind of crazy but what I mean is that we didn't head to our Kensington home, instead we are headed into Docklands to collect the keys to our new apartment.

Look, there is our new building complex.  In a few short minutes we will have the keys and we will be headed home.  We can't wait!

Love AJ and Milla

Going bush for Father's Day

In amongst all the crazy, we kinda almost nearly forgot about Father's Day.  Well we knew that it was Father's Day but we just didn't have time to plan anything special for the day.  When we found out that Ellen and Sarah were going for a hike at Werribee Gorge, we decided to join them after soccer, after all, the sun was shining and it is spring!

OK, all we really wanted to do was to get out and have some fun and we figured that we could show dad and the others the really cool beach that you get too by rock climbing above the river!

Of course we knew that there were going to be other great places to explore too, so first we set off up the hill.  It was steep and rocky but lots of fun.  There were some great lookouts to stop at for a rest.

Eventually we made it to the beach and stopped to have a picnic lunch.  We could have stayed there all day long but we were kind of excited o show everyone just how much fun it is climbing around the rocks high above the river.  

The grown ups were much more afraid than we were - we were able to climb the entire way without even needing the help of the guide rope!

Oh and in amongst all of the adventuring, we forgot to actually stop and get the obligatory Father's Day photo!  I guess this will have to do, to prove that we did actually have fun hanging out with Dad today. 

Thanks for being a great Dad and having fun adventures with us.  I hope we get to go on more adventures again soon.

Love the best kids in the world,

AJ and Milla xo

Moving on up

We had an unexpected adventure for Mother's Day - we HAD to go in to Docklands and sign house contracts.  Yep, that's right, we have bought a new home, an apartment in at Docklands.

This is what the apartment complex is eventually going to look like.  It is being built now and it should be finished by the end of the year.  We can't wait.

How many days there are until the end of the year?

Love AJ and Milla, the soon to be Docklands residents :-)

A Day for Mum

Today is Mother's Day, so that means that we have to do everything that mum wants to do.  Luckily mum loves to do cool things.

Now most people get their mum's pretty things for Mothers Day but not us, we stocked up on some more Lego for mum.  Isn't it cool that a present for mum is something the whole family can enjoy!

An awesome Mother's Day present

After Milla's soccer game, we headed out to visit Grandma so we could have some fun and so dad could wish his mum a happy Mother's Day.  We could have stayed all day but since it was mum's choice, we headed back to Docklands to go to the hockey - Melbourne Ice were playing again.

Ice ready for action

And because it was Mother's Day, a heap of mum's got to do chuck-a-puck and mum was one of the lucky mums, along with Webby's mum and the Wong's mum.  Mum didn't quite win, but was a close second (just like Milla was when she did chuck-a-puck!) and was lucky enough to get a Melbourne Ice Chocolate Puck!

Mum's chocolate puck

After the game, which was 'freaking awesome' (mum's words, not ours!) we headed over to Harbour Town Hotel for some dinner.  Not only did we have a delicious dinner, mum was given a complementary glass of bubbles.  Not a bad way to end the day.

Bubbles for mum

Did you remember to do something nice for your mum for Mother's Day?

Love AJ and Milla

PS - this is one of the other things we did for Mother's Day, I think mum was pretty happy about it!

Old (and perhaps a little crazy?)

SHHHH, don't tell anyone, but today is mum's birthday.  

If you ask her how old she is, she is likely to stop and think for a long time before she comes up with an answer.  For ages mum told us, and everyone else, that she was 27.   I think that she was 27 for about 10 years, even before she was 27.  Once we worked out that she couldn't be 27 forever, she started to use her real age for a while.  Apparently remember what her real age was was far too difficult so now she has decided that she will be 42 for a few years.

Don't believe her though, she really is only 38, but don't tell her that we told you!

Happy Birthday Mum

We hope you had a great birthday mum and will enjoy your relaxing weekend away

Love AJ and Milla, the best kids in the world 

Junior's Christening

ready to upload

24-Feb-2012

Junior’s Christening

Mum gets to become a parent again today.  She isn’t really having another baby, instead she is becoming a god parent for Junior.  We all went to the church where the whole god-parent thing happened.

Then we went to Junior’s grand parents house for the most fun celebration ever.

There were water balloons...

and a jumping castle.  And water balloons ON THE JUMPING CASTLE... 

Seriously so much fun :-)

Welcome to our family Junior!

Love AJ and Milla

Introducing Rebel

So what did you do this beautiful sunny day? We went on an adventure, looking for love.

Our first stop was at the Lost Dogs Home in North Melbourne.  There were different cats and kittens there for us to meet this time and it didn't take long before we found love.  Before we knew it, we were waiting to take our kitten home.

The little kitten that we adopted was known to the people at the Lost Dogs Home as Ling but that was just her nickname as she was waiting for a family to love her and take her home where she would get her forever name.  As her new family, we had the job of finding her a name.

I have to say that choosing a name for a family member is hard work.  The name has to fit the kitten and fit the family.  There are so many names to choose from and Fat Amy and Leia were on the short list.  We liked those names but they didn't quite fit.  It was a tough call but eventually we found the perfect name for our little kitten - Rebel.


I think that Rebel is the perfect addition to our family and she loves to have her photo taken!

Welcome beautiful little Rebel, I hope you love to be in our family as much as I love having you in our family.
Love Princess George

A Letter to My 11 Year Old

Dear AJ,

This time 11 years ago my world changed, you entered my world.

I can't believe how fast that time has flown by, it seems like only yesterday.  Tomorrow you start Grade 6.  I know that this year will be big and exciting for both of us.  There will be so many changes and challenges that take place but know that I will always be by your side, supporting and encouraging you.  

You have grown to be an amazing young guy.  One who is caring and understanding, brave and smart,  perhaps a little lazy but very cheeky and definitely easily excitable.  I look forward to watching you grow even more.  It won't be long before you are bigger and stronger than me.  Already we can share shoes and some hockey gear.  You love ice hockey and have been playing for a few years now.  This year you start development league and you will get to play real games.

I love that you still like to curl up on the couch next to me for a snuggle.  I love that you are not too big to want to hold hands as we walk together.  I love even more that you still want a cuddle-kiss every day when we say goodbye to one another and again at bed time.  Somedays I wish you would cut your long scraggly hair, other days I would be happy if you would simply drag a comb through it so I can see your gorgeous smiling face!

AJ - I loved you with all my heart then and I love you even more now
Love your very proud Mama xo

Growing Up

Do you know what the coolest thing about growing up is?  It is actually growing UP, and by that I mean getting taller.

Almost as tall as Nan with my skates on!

I am guessing that this time next year I will be taller than Nan.  Look out Pop, it won't be long before I catch you too!

Thanks for coming all the way to Melbourne to hang out with me for my birthday.
Love AJ Pickle, the birthday boy

Almost 11

Goodnight my cheeky monkey.  Sleep well and see you when you are 11  :-)

Christmas Eve

The sooner I go to bed and go to sleep, the sooner Santa can deliver presents to all the good kids. I've been good, even AJ has been pretty good so I guess he will be at our place soon.

I hope you have all been good and that Santa visits your place too.
Love Princess George

Christmas with Crazy Cousins

Yippee it is Christmas time, well almost Christmas time.  Really it is Christmas Eve and that means that it is time to celebrate Christmas with my crazy cousins, aunts and uncle and of course Grandma.

We ate a delicious lunch together and were all on our best behavior so that we could open Christmas presents!

Dad and my littlest cousin played Santa and together they handed out the million presents that were under the Christmas tree.


We played nicely with our new presents but then had to go out and run around to burn off some energy.  OK, we may have been eating some chocolates and lollies as we were playing!

The parents decided that it would be a good idea to get a nice photo of all of the cousins together.  Getting 6 kids to all look in the same direction at the same time and not pull crazy faces was next to impossible.  Here are some of the nuts photos that mum snapped.

I'm not ready for a photo yet!

We do love each other :-)

No hope!

Gangnam Style!

Clearly mum missed out on getting a decent photo of us all, better luck next year mum!  I wonder if anyone else managed to get a decent photo?  

I hope you all get to have a great Christmas with family,
Love AJ Pickle

Sing

Growing up in the country was great but there was limited exposure to the amazing opportunities that my kids have.  During my childhood, symphonies and operas were something that was on TV every now and then, even then we would skip over those channels and run back outside to play.   Thanks to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra,  conversations about going to the symphony, enjoying a ballet and now listening to opera is something normal for my kids

Last year we were lucky enough to be invited to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) perform with dancers from the Australian Ballet.  It was an awesome program so when Alison from MSO contacted us to see if we would like to head along to another performance we jumped at the chance.

The MSO website promotes SING as being a program that features one of Australia's pre-eminent conductors and a passionate advocate of the importance of singing in a child's life, Richard Gill, and singers from Victorian Opera, joining forces with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to lead a stimulating musical program for children which will explore the joy of singing and inspire aural imagination through song.

So that is the official spiel, what it really was was a fun filled musical program that had us singing, clapping and dancing in our seats.

On the edge of their seats, enjoying the performance

Normally, I am sure that if I asked AJ to sing a nursery rhyme he would laugh and walk away.  At SING he was singing along, yelling out answers to questions being asked about the orchestra and having a great time.  Milla and her friend were acting out all of the instruments and having a great time. They particularly enjoyed singing, so much so that Milla has decided that she will re-join the school choir next year, and maybe even audition for an extra-curricular choir!

Even someone like me, completely tone deaf with no musical ability at all was singing along.  In fact I have been singing one of the tunes all day long and actually enjoying it.  At one stage today, as I was wandering through the park with Milla, we both began singing ding dong, ding-y ding-y dong in rounds.

Ding dong, ding-y ding-y dong, ding-y ding-y dong, the cat is gone 

Ding dong, ding-y ding-y dong, ding-y ding-y dong, ding dong!

Thanks for another wonderful opportunity Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Meeting the talented  Jeremy and Kirilie after the performance

Disclosure:  The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra offered us tickets to the show, the opinions expressed are ours.

The Christmas Crazy Begins

It seems that the Christmas Crazy has begun.  We have our first Christmas get-together tomorrow and so I had to get busy making a treat to share with our friends.  I wanted to make something that looked good, tasted great but was super quick and easy to make.  I have seen about a billion different variations of mini-plum puddings, do you like what I came up with?

Now normally I hate plum puddings but these are delicious.

Mini Plum Puddings (that actually taste great!)

The other good thing about making these is that all of the ingredients are delicious - Chocolate Royales, Jaffas and Mint Leaves.  Even the splodge of icing tastes OK.

I wonder what Christmassy treat I will make next?
Love Princess George

70 x 2

Friday was a pretty special day, it was the day that our Nanna Pat and her twin sister Aunty/Nanny Bette celebrated their 70th birthdays.  We know Aunty/Nanna Bette isn't really our Nanna, she is our great aunt but since they are twins and they look so alike, sometimes we get confused and we just call them both Nanna!

Aunty/Nanna Bette and Nanna Pat - 70 years and 1 day old!

The nannas didn't know about it, but the kids, grandkids and some of the nieces and nephews had a surprise planned, we had organised to all go out for lunch together and then to a winery.  First we had to get everyone there.  Now I guess most people would just meet wherever we were going but this is no ordinary family, this is a family that likes to have fun, so we all caught a bus out to lunch!

I am pretty sure all the trouble makers are up the back!

We headed out to Byramine Homestead for a great lunch and birthday cake, as well as an explore of the area.  The kids got to have a party lunch - can you imagine just how crazy it was with so many of us hyped up on junk food and fizzy drink!

Some of the boys, replenishing the energy supplies.

Most of the adults didn't mind, they were enjoying some of this!

Drinks for the grown-ups

Even when we caught the bus back to town, the party wasn't over.  Really, it was just beginning.  There was more food, more cake and more fizzy drink for everyone.  I think there were some pretty tired and grumpy party folk this morning!

Thanks for sharing your special day with us Nanna Pat and Aunty/Nanna Bette,  we love you.

Love AJ and Milla

My family is great because...

Did you know that tomorrow is the International Day of Families?  Well it is, and it is the perfect reason to celebrate all of the reasons that our families are great.

Our class wanted to celebrate this special day but as I am in Grade 3 I, along with pretty much all the other grade 3 kids in the entire country, will be preoccupied doing something other than having fun at school.  We didn't want to miss out on celebrating the International Day of Families so we invited our families to come in to our class today for some fun.  Mum came to school and together we played board games and built things, it was great.

We were also able to share our thought gallery.  This week we finished the thought "my family is great because..."

I am so glad that I was able to celebrate this day with mum.  Hopefully we will celebrate International Day of Families next year too.
Love Princess Geroge

Mother's Day Treat

Well normally for Mother's Day, AJ and I would want to make breakfast in bed for mum but since mum is pretty fussy about what she has for breakfast and doesn't really like us cooking bacon and eggs on our own, we usually end up going out somewhere nice for brunch.  We really wanted to do that today but we couldn't because mum and dad weren't here, they had a wedding to go to yesterday that was really far away so they had a sleepover instead of driving all the way home.

We were lucky, we had a chance to spend the weekend hanging out with Grandma until mum and dad got home this afternoon.  Then it was time to get busy in the kitchen and make a special treat for mum, and for all of us too.

I made a chocolate torte from a box, I didn't have enough chocolate to make it from scratch.  To be honest, it was delicious and it tasted like it was made from scratch anyway.

Happy Mother's Day mum, I love you
Love Princess George xo