A new baby cousin!

Congratulations to James and Richelle on the birth of little "Hamish Kevin Kearney"! Little Hamish came into the world on Saturday June 20th. He was 2 weeks early and a tiny 5lb 7. The girls are both excited but Annabel is still insisting that "he is a girl baby, Mum!". Hmmm, I guess she will just have to see for herself when we go down to meet him in 2 weeks.
It has been quite an eventful weekend, it was Adam's 29th birthday on Friday, so the girls and I were busy shopping for yummy food for a birthday dinner and yummy stuff for a birthday cake. Annabel helped me make a delicious red birthday cake for Daddy, because red is his favourite colour, Annabel insisted that the cake be red! So we made it with bright red icing and covered it in chocolate smarties. Yes, I was a little nervous at using red food colouring, thinking the girls were going to be bouncing off the walls, but they handled it pretty well.
On Saturday we went to Annabel's best friend, Mia's 3rd birthday party. I was quite distracted though most of the day as Mum had rang me on our way there and told me Richelle's baby was on its way. So I was waiting and waiting to hear of any news.......and alas 2pm I got the call from my brother James to say that it was a little boy! A bit of a shock for our side of the family, because nobody has had a boy first. There is always lots of girls so it was nice to have a little boy in the family again.
So we stayed at the party all day and the girls had a great time, playing, eating, playing, eating, getting filthy, eating more lollies, playing, eating and I think you get the picture. We didn't leave til 4pm and Amelia had not had a sleep all day but she did very well! She was not cranky at all! All up it was a good and eventful day!
Now I am just anxiously waiting the 2 weeks til I can go home and meet the new arrival! I just cant wait to see little Hamish!

Play group and A Big Hairy Spider

Yesterday I decided to take the girls to a new play group. I had been going to one on a Thursday when Annabel was at preschool but decided that I should probably find one that she can come to as well seeing as though she has so much energy to burn! So we went along and the girls had a great time. They had fun playing with all the toys there and making crafts. It was nice to get out and meet other Mum's as well. I'm finding it hard these days to keep Annabel occupied, she just has SO much energy and can easily become bored (mainly when Amelia is having her nap). So I am busy trying to keep her busy!
Last night saw me getting up to the girls 4 times. Amelia for some reason just kept waking. I like to blame teeth, even though she pretty much has all her teeth, I find its always good to blame something, and teething is something that I know she cant help and I cant help so it somehow makes me less irritated when I have to keep getting up. Annabel on the other hand came into our bedroom about 1.30am telling me that there was a big spider in her bed. Normally I might think that she had dreamt it or that it was just a little daddy long legs but the day before she had spotted a spider in the bathroom, and after several times of telling me I decided to check it out and it was a big brown huntsman. They're harmless but they are big and hairy and I just don't like them. Even though Adam caught it and took it outside I thought I should go and check. So after several minutes of stripping the bed and remaking it and checking underneath everything, we decided that this "big daddy spider", as Annabel calls it, had gone back to the mummy spider and all their children. I was just hoping that this little hairy family lived outside and over the fence far away from our house. So she hopped back into bed but insisted that I kept the light on. So once again I figured its not a big deal, and if it means she will get back to sleep and I can also, then no worry's, she could have her big bright light on.
So after an eventful night we all managed to sleep in a bit, but this saw us all rushing in the morning, trying to get everything ready so Annabel could get to preschool. Hopefully tonight will be a peaceful night!

Movie World

This past weekend we decided to take the girls to Movie World. We have season passes to the three linked parks - Movie World, Sea World and Wet'n'Wild. But our passes are now coming to an end and expire at the end of June so we thought we would try and squeeze in a few last outings to get it out of our system. The girls had fun going on various rides, and watching their favourite show, the "Bugs Bunny show" as Annabel calls it. I'm pretty sure I could mime all the words to the show and be a back up dancer if ever they needed it. So the girls danced and clapped along, and had fun chasing all the bubbles at the end of the show. We stayed only for a couple of hours, but it was about the twentieth time we had been there so we felt like we had had the 'full' experience.

Weeds or Flowers?

The cold weather has finally set in here in "beautiful sunny Queensland", we actually had to start wearing jumpers (sweaters) 2 days ago! Well actually thats pretty good seeing as though we are already 2 weeks into winter. The days are still beautiful and sunny though so the past couple of days I have been taking the girls for a walk to the corner shop and to the park. Annabel's favourite thing to do is to pick all the flowers, well weeds, she can find along the way. She gets so excited picking them, and Amelia equally excited watching Annabel run around looking for them. Then once we get home they both love to go outside and replant all their 'beautiful ' flowers in the garden and pot plants. Amelia even thinks that her flowers are more important than my beautiful agave's, so she tries to rip them out so she can plant her beautiful, shrivelled, half sucked, purple, weedy treasures. Then once they have planted all their flowers they discover that the backyard is also covered in these 'lovely' flowers aswell - a reminder that Daddy needs to mow! Yes, even though it is winter the grass still grows and the weeds continue to thrive. But then again, if Adam mowed there would be no more beautiful flowers to pick. Its a bit like the messy house scenario, sometimes its just better to have things a little untidy if it means happy occupied children! How our priorities change!
Once all the 'flowers' were picked and replanted, the girls then had fun chasing each other around on their hands and knees pretending to be dogs and laughing hysterically. Annabel also told me yesterday that she would like to have "bird wings" so she can fly to Margy and Grumpy's house and help Grumpy feed the birds. And the other night while having a bath she desperately wanted a mermaids tail. And for some strange reason she always thinks that Grandma and Grandpa can just get them for her. Gee, I might have to start making some requests, like a third arm or something.

Well I thought it was about time that I sat down and started a blog seeing as though "everybody is doing it". Well, not really but I do think that it is a great way to remember all those little fond and not so fond things the kids have done and what we have done as a family. I am just hoping that I can be consistent with it and keep it up!
Annabel and Amelia are my two little princesses who keep me very busy, and I am finding that it is more mentally challenging than physically challenging as they get older. So we are past the newborn phases and all things that come with a babies first year. Now these 2 little babies of mine are little girls. Even though Amelia is only 16months old, having a 3 year old sister certainly makes her grow up alot faster, alot faster it seems than Annabel did. They are best friends as Annabel has been telling me "Mum, Meelie is my best friend!", and they play so well together. I really love how they interact and play together. They play for hours dressing up, reading books, pulling all their clothes out of the drawers and having picnics with all the towels and blankets they can find. My house at times (well most of the time) looks trashed, but what can I say, they were having fun and sometimes it is just worth it!
So that is a brief description of now and I am hoping to update frequently and consistently. Now that my girls are getting bigger and Annabel goes to preschool 2 days a week I am finding that I have more time on my hands and am often a little bored, so I am hoping that this will not only be a cure for that but a valuable record of our life as a family.