Up Up and Away

Jim is once again off on a business trip. I know I shouldn't complain -- he doesn't go that often. BUT -- he has managed to leave when the kids are still reeling from jet -lag (or maybe I am). This 4.20am wake up because I am hungry has got to stop -- and it has got to stop NOW!
So, Jim is spending a sun-filled three days in Singapore defending his work's plan. Or something like that. Basically he will be stuck in a hotel for Tues night - Friday morning. Not seeing much of the sights (whatever they are) and dealing with really, really exciting accounting things/people.
UGH! Wouldn't want to be him either. But, wish he was here.

Honey I Love You

Heard in the backseat of the car on the way home from swimming...

"Honey I love you, won't you give me a smile?"-- that's enough to make me smile thinking the kids love each other that much. Then I realize its a game they are playing and not necessarily genuine affection for each other.

The concept of the game is: Your group should be sitting in a circle again with one person in the middle. The person in the middle can go to anyone in the circle and say "Honey I love you, won't you give me a smile?"

The person who was asked the question has to answer back "Honey I love you, but I just can't smile" (without smiling.)

The person in the middle can do anything to the other person to make them smile except touch them. You have to be the judge as to what you call smiling.

So, I guess its more of a taunting/teasing sort of game for siblings.

Don't believe everything you read

No, we didn't get snow in Sydney on Sunday or Monday...
______________________________________________

No snow in Sydney, just hail

The Bureau of Meteorology says reports of snow falling in Sydney today are misleading.

Some residents of Lindfield on Sydney's north shore got out snow boards this afternoon when parts of the suburb were covered in ice.

But Peter Zemerski from the bureau says it was not snow, it was soft hail.

"If you look closely, it's different because snow, it falls in flakes when small hail rather falls like small lumps," he said.

Because you know, there are snow flakes and then there are ice balls. BIG DIFFERENCE. Unless you live down under and don't know the difference... Sheeeeesh!

Here we go again...

Back to school for term 3 means back to homework. The never-ending battle of homework.
Emmalee gets 2 pages in her Go Figure Maths book.... For the whole week. And then 15-30 minutes of reading a day. Based on the amount of math questions, it shouldn't be too difficult to finish up both pages in 30 minutes on Monday leaving the whole week free except for reading. And preparing the news topic for the week. But, it wouldn't be that easy now would it?
Eyes wander around. Feet wander around. Next thing we know its 5pm and only one page is done. In the meantime, little brother requests math worksheets to work on since he doesn't have homework for the night (except reading). So, off to the computer I go to get worksheets to print for him. In the time it takes her to complete possibly one page, he has done four. Not to compare, but the math just interests him. And doing the work is a breeze.
If only it were that easy every night.

Let the meltdowns begin

The jetlag didn't seem to affect the children too much. I mean, Andrew requested to go to bed Friday (OK he fell asleep on my lap during pizza dinner) and Saturday night he asked to go to bed while we still had company. But for the most part, they did really well...
School less than 2 hours after we leave the airport. All day!
Saturday running all over the place.
Then Sunday morning (Sat night) Andrew came in at 2.30 because he was cold. Then 3.30 because he was cold. Then he was hungry. Then he wasn't tired. So, after 4.30 or 5am he was up for the day. And too full of energy. I put the bear over my head and told him where the bananas were and tried to ignore him. By 6 he had woken up Emmalee and they were all giggles and energy.
BUT -- as 5pm came around (after a day of church, playing in the yard, playing at the oval and playground) I could see the crash on the horizon. Baths were finished and dinner was put on when Emmalee decided she needed to melt down. And melt down she did. I would say a full 20 minutes or more of screaming -- thru us getting dinner on the table and the first 10 minutes of dinner. Finally she 'calmed down' enough to eat. Of course blaming us the whole time for making her scream and giving her a tummy ache and everything else.
So, its 6pm, Yertle the Turtle has been read. Andrew is tucked in and Jim is reading Dr. Seuss story #2 to Emmalee in bed. Fingers crossed she will stay there quietly.

Winter Storm

This is as close as we get to 'snow' here in Sydney. There was a terrific thunderstorm this afternoon and along with it came about 10 minutes of hail. The hail-stones ranged in size from tiny to about pea sized. Luckily there was no damage -- just alot of pinging on the roof and deck.

Entertainment -- Airport Style

WORDLE

Catching Fireflies

Tonight we let the kids stay up a bit later (???) and go outside to catch fireflies. Evidently Australia isn't the only place that doesn't have them... Oklahoma doesn't either.

Grampy punched holes in the lid of a jar and out they went. Uncle Phillip was a master catcher. By the end of the night, even Claire had caught one and dropped it into the jar.

I think we had about 2 dozen caught, not counting the dozen or more that escaped to freedom in the process of adding fireflies to the jar!

We brought them in to illuminate the dark bathroom and then set the jar on the step so they could rejoin their families after the kids went to bed.

Post Chase Face

Isn't he the cutest? (even as a sweaty mess!)

Ring Around the Andrew

Ring around the Andrew
Pocket full of nothing
Ashes Ashes
Claire and Maddie fall down



After dinner, the kids decided to have a bit of a workout. Andrew ran in circles, zigging and zagging like a football player to avoid Claire and Maddie swift attempts to catch him. They must have done it for 20 minutes or more.

Thru the Looking Glass

Guess who got glasses today? And loved the 1st pair she picked out...

Can you tell they are pink? With a bit of purple on the sides.

And she couldn't believe how much clearer and darker things were looking. So, I guess it was about time.

Chatty Claire

Here is Claire telling the story of what happened during the kids' picnic at Grammy and Grampys tonight when they got to sit on the floor and eat dinner.
Major players in the story are Connor (Bill & Heidi's youngest), Claire (narrator), Andrew and Max (listeners)

Andrew reads to Claire

Dunesland Flowers and Grasses

Dunes Walk

This morning we joined mom's garden club for a dunes walk thru Illinois State Beach dunes and prairie land. It started out warm and just got warmer and warmer.

Funny thing is I thought we left these things behind in Australia!!!

Max, Andrew, Claire and Emmalee at the beginning of the walk.

Claire and Emmalee and Andrew at the return point of the walk when we got to the beach. This is taken just before Claire literally 'jumps in the lake' and has to do the return walk in soaked pants and shirt! Our kids were wise enough to stay away from the lake water and only go on the sand. He he he he he he!

Monday Afternoon Swim Session

With the warm weather upon us (upper 80's), we are taking full advantage of Cindy's pool. We all hopped in (Yes, me too!) and splashed around.

BUT, not before there was the congo line of sunscreen to make sure all the kids were protected!

Things Your Aunt Teaches You

After many many attempts to teach Andrew how to shoot a rubber band -- on a moving train, this is what happened...

Cirque Shanghai

The main event of the day was the Cirque Shanghai acrobatic performance.

As you can see, the kids were on the edge of their seats the WHOLE time.

This guy balanced this metal ring on his head, while making it spin AND while the girl did all sorts of acrobatic impossiblities. At one point she even was riding on the top of the circle with no hands while it spun!

The plate spinners had Emmalee's favorite outfits. Like something out of the Jetsons.

And then there were my favorites... the performers who fly around on the lengths of fabric and do amazing things. This was shot just before the pairs went back up and the men spun the ladies from a loop around the ladies necks. One of the ladies passed out after two rotations -- you almost couldn't tell that anything happened when they brought themselves down, expect she just laid out flat on the ground and then they closed the curtain.

But the show went on. No word on the outcome, but she never re-appeared at the finale, so I am guessing she wasn't doing so well.

Cutie Commuter

I think you could say Andrew enjoyed his first Chicago train ride...

Trip to Navy Pier

Today we hopped the train at 8.56am in Winthrop Harbor to head into the City. We had a whole day planned for all nine of us -- Us three, Grammy, Grampy, Uncle Jim, Auntie Becki, Aunt Marci & Jaeda. Quite a troop!

Got into the city and hopped the bus to Navy Pier. Very easy. While dad went and got our tickets for the day, the rest of us reclined on a semi-circle bench!

First we rode the Ferris Wheel (yes, even I rode it -- teeth gritting the whole time). It takes 7 minutes to go around and you get a good view of the city, skyline and lakefront. The kids loved it.

Next we had lunch and then took the 1pm shoreline boat cruise. It was a 30 minute brief tour of the Chicago shoreline. Mostly was nice to just be out in fresh air and sunshine.

It is a pretty skyline isn't it?