Ailish's 2nd Birthday Cake... Dorothy The Dinosaur.

Pre-party jump testing.  The 3 cousins have a bounce before the crowd arrives.

More interested in her lolly bracelet than the party games...............Party Day Girl.

 

Phew what a month or rather 6 weeks I have had & it's still going with a friend from Kal & her 2 kids arriving today for the weekend.  ..................... Suddenly I have a life ha ha ha.   It was great to see SIL Cat & the kids (Daniel 10 & Jessica 6 nephew & neice) and especially Mum of course.  The kids fought and fought and drove Mum and I absolutely mental actually, Cat (Catherine) just gives in rather than making them behave.  Mum swears they don't fight like that when she has them at the farm without a parent in sight & I believe her, they were sooo bad that I was a bit relieved to see them go, which is an absolutely terrible thing to say and to feel but they were really that bad they made the whole holiday experience a head ache and a chore.    We did walk through a cave in the Margaret River region that was chocka block full of stalagmites and tites which was quite spectacular however I had Ailish in the back pack and the way in was flat and fine, and then there was the occasional short but narrow stair case to different viewing platforms that was slightly challenging due to me having to have a toddlers foot in each hand lifting them up rather than holding the rails as we wouldn't have fit otherwise, but when we walked through to the other side with me being guided waddling in a crouched position through several sections so that our daughters head remained the perfect un scarred vision of loveliness that it is, through some incredibly low parts, then we saw it....................200 steps very steep and seemingly endless.  By the time we all made it to the top I thought the only fair thing thing would have been to have become instantly a size 8, that may have made it all worth while..... Because when we finally made it to the top of the magic pudding of staircases (they never ended) we had to cross a road & trek through the bush to get back to the entrance and our cars.  It may have been a lovely walk through the bush, I don't remember, the sweat streaming from my forehead was distorting my vision and my heavy breathing may have fogged up my sun glasses, not to mention the possibility of temporary brain failure due to a traumatic experience of enforced chronic & excessive exercise.  So here I am still a size 16-18 getting cosier with the 18, sigh, but I have some photo's of the inside of the cave before the going got too tough, which I am yet to down load off my camera due to no time.    Mum & I, after waiving the kids and Cat off at the airport decided to take the trip we made to Perth along the coast again but properly.  Cat wasn't very interested in seeing anything, in fact they saw nothing of Perth except Freemantle on a public holiday Monday afternoon when all but one shop was closed.  No kings park, no Bell Tower, nothing and no desire to see it.  We went to the Royal Perth show and that was not awful, but wow did it suck the money from my pockets, in fact the whole trip did.  I have told Brett he's not to look at the bank account because a divorce would be even more expensive, so he has not gone there.  Though in my defense I didn't spend it all on myself like like Mr spends a thousand dollars per month more than he is supposed to usually on alcohol & ciggies, every month.    Anyway Mum and I had a much better time on the re-run, and we had the luckiest break in Mandura.  For the first time in the history of caravan park stays, the manager not only helped to guide Mum into her allocated spot, BUT helped her to un-hitch the van & in the process discovered that the tow-bar was lose, so he brought it to Mums attention and then rang a tow-bar specialist in town and made an appointment for her the next morning and about an hour after we dropped it off (Ailish and I had our own car and had been following Mum and the van all over as she has a GPS that talks to her, & she had a van and car ful with cat & the kids on the way there.)    Mum gets a call and Tony the Tow-bar man, & he tells her that the tow-bar just fell off in his hand, that she was sooo lucky as it probably wouldn't have stayed attached to the car for another 10 km's.  If that had happened then Ailish and I would have been wearing a van on the loose & you can imagine how pretty that might have turned out.  So how lucky were we?! I can't really believe it.   Anyway we saw some absolutely lovely places and went on a very swayey and there for terrifying tree top walk near Walpole which is a gorgeous place, it's sort of in between Walpole and Denmark.  Denmark is full of yummy and artistic type people, reminded me a bit of home really, when the artsy fartsie's  get out and about, anyway we went to Toffee factory (a shed on a farm) and a honey ice creamery and a cheese factory (mmmmmmm, wild truffle cheese, had some for dinner the other night mmmmm), and well this is explaining why I'm making friends with size 18 isn't it ha ha ha.   Well we got home late arvo on the 15th only to get right into entertaining mode as Mums oldest (as in longest known, not in age LOL) friends were in Esperance also caravanning and about to hit the Nullabour on their way home anyway they came over 2 hours after we walked through the door after a 6 hour drive from Albany, our last over night stop.  That was fine though.  Brett got home the following night, my clothesline broke on the most perfect of washing days and we had a veritable MOUNTAIN of stuff to wash, from clothing to bedding from the van as well as the house as Cat & the kids slept in the house when they were here & as I went with them, naturally everything was just as it was left 3 weeks earlier, then we have a house inspection on the Thursday, SO, not only are we unpacking cars and van and finding places to string up copious amounts of wet washing I have to scrub the house, do the obvious windows, get the food splatters off the vertical blinds from Ailish's mangled attempts at self feeding, etc.  As we had the birthday party for her the Sunday before (We had 26 people 13 kids & 13 adults, I made a Dorothy Cake & we hired a jumping Castle, a friend had caught a big Snapper and we BBQ'd that in foil had party foods and Salads and games & it was enjoyed by all ages and lasted from 10am to the last guests leaving around 3:30pm I think it was.... late arvo anyway... I even got to enjoy myself) (Because she's a Christmas Day baby, we pick a suitable date any time from  June onwards & chose the 23rd of September because her Aunty Cat, Melbourne cousins and gran were here and thats a rarity)  we left, we left on the Tuesday, We had 13 kids & 14 adults all of various ages, (it was a huge success for the entire age group with the last of the guests leaving around 4pm I think it was after a 10m start, after I finished doing the necessary food stuff and running of games I hadn't thought fully through, I too had a great time) there was popped balloons to pick up and streamers and those stupid party poppers streamers (dumb bloody idea they were... DON'T EVER GO THERE!).  So I had my work cut out for me.  Needless to say not a great deal of time for anything else at this point,  Oh Ailish was also ill with swollen and very red top gums at this point, with the occasional temps............. We don't know what it was, but she ate dirt in various parts of the state, so I'm guessing she got something then.  I gave her some left over antibiotics left over from her ear infection in march last Friday and she woke up a new kid, which was a relief, as she'd gone off eating all together and lost a fair bit of weight, (not helped by that flu she only just got over a few days before Mum & Co arrived......... She seems to have become a germ magnet)  always a worry, anyway eating for Australia now, so that's the main thing.    Brett and I took off to Kalgoorlie for a mates engagement party & Brett's a groomsman, so Mum stayed with A.J in Esperance and Brett & I got an expensive motel room in Kal for the night.  Little did we know at the time that it was infact their THIRD engagement party, & this one was being held by a Born Again Church friend of his Fiance (P).  We were the only ones to bring a present (in fact we gave them 4 presents) & they didn't even bother to unwrap them so we could see if they liked them or not, we actually saw P put them in her car around 10pm when the party finished (it started at 6pm...rave on party animals.......... Oh how I could go on) and said, did you like the presents and she said, Oh I might open them tomorrow............................no thanks, no yippee, didn't even bother to fake any enthusiasm.  I hope they don't get married, it wont work out, they are not well suited AT all.   So we of course went out, with Di (and without P his intended), and his little sister whom we also know well and his older half brother Dom who's gay, so I became a fag hag for the night, which was kinda fun, he's born in '71 too and has put on a stack of weight so we felt old and fat together ha ha ha.  We did some kareoke & my Black Velvet" took the roof off, but Dom's and My duet of "You don't bring me flowers"... Completely cleared the pub LOL, oh well, you can't please all the people all the time he he he.  Anyway we got home at 3.30am and there for the beautiful double spa was spared any operating, the king sized bed was used for passing out only, no rumpy or pumpy in the slightest.  The only thing we actually got our value out of the whole $200.00 the night room, was the included buffet cooked breakfast, man was that necessary, we scoffed mounds of bacon and eggs and toast and strong coffee before hitting the road and coming back to Esperance (A 4 hour drive).  Mum left for home around 10.30am on the Monday just gone and Brett left for work on the same Monday about 2pm for nightshift.    I have been doing more washing from our trip to Kal and Mums sheets (she slept in the house this time) etc.  This week A.J. & I have been Op-shopping and to the P.O. she's had a monster 3 hour sleeps in the arvo's (I think she's having a growth spurt) &I've rung my Esperance friends whom I've not seen for a month, (if I don't keep in touch with them I may have no friends here at all LOL... Sigh!).  Wednesday morning was toddler time and Ailish only went to sleep Tuesday night because I told her after her sleep she gets to play with her best friend Shae....... Every dark haired girl up to age 10 (Shae's 4 months older than Ailish) we saw whilst we were away was "Shae".."Shae" so I think she's really missing her, she did the same for Brett & that got embarressing, she'd point to any bloke with dark hair and say "Daddy".... Yikes, did I blush a lot.  Shae and Ailish had a lovely time together & I enjoyed catching up with shae's Mummy and my good friend Dee.   I am sincerely hoping that next week is a lot calmer but as we , as of last week won a camper trailer van on e-bay this may not be the case.  Mums going to collect it for us, it's in Woollongong NSW and take it back to the farm and then she'll either tow it to Ceduna where just Brett will meet her, collect it, and return... OR A.J. & I will once again sleep in the back of our stationwagon (which is what we did following Mum etc around as her 2 berth caravan was sleeping 4 LOL) and then we'll get a  brief holiday but the one I just had and the campervan have drained the old finances just a tad, so that probably wont be the case, mores the pitty............ though Brett's not keen on spending his entire break crossing the Nullabour over and back... so you never know.  After we pick up the van we can see family & friends briefly and then come back via Broken Hill to see bretts ageing grandparents and Adelaide to see his lovely Aunt and that'll take us pretty close to the border and the "Bour "(as in Nulla-boring- bour)....................  Vans over hear are ridiculously expensive so buying over east and picking it up is still cheaper including fuel  especially in the codition and quality of the vans than buying right here..... I think I may have to start a little business and bring a few over per year..... we'll see.    Ailish is stringing 3-4 words together and learning 3-4 new words per day, being quite the little chatter box.  As soon as I get around to charging my camera battry's and up loading the pics to the PC I shall post some pics of Lil Miss Cute as a button LOL.   Well she's nearly finished her breaky & a friend just called to ask if I could do a spot of emergancy babysitting for her so I now have to jump and pop Ailish in the shower with me & hope that my Kal friend who's staying with us doesn't rock up until midday when the first shift gets picked up LOL....... hope they don't trash the place...... sigh, I'd have to hog tie them for that to happen... oh well, thats the price you pay for being a great person LOL. Just wanted to share my life with you all, I have missed the blogging part. L Chele