Happy Easter!

The Easter bunny dropped by Chez Clements with a pile of choc loot. The monkey loves 'chockit' but was far more impressed with the pirate sword. Didn't stop him from scarfing down a kinder bunny after Vegemite toast tho.

I can't imagine he will get through his chocolate stash so I guess I will have to help?

Yawn! The things we mama bears have to do!

Easter hunt for the Little People

Today was a beautiful day for an egg hunt & lunch with friends. The little people got into the spirit of things running about the garden hunting eggs & treats - very cute

'Copters' rule

We headed out to the Southcare Helicopter Base yesterday to check out the open day & the 'copters'. The monkey LOVED it - lots of animals, reptiles, fire-trucks, balloons and of course copters. A little boys Disneyland!

Southcare do a fab job, so it's an easy thing to support their work. Even better when it involves a fun family day out. Nice one Southcare.

Relaxing later the boys had a couple of drinks (as you do) - thirsty work being out in the sun!

Oh and just coz it's so goddam cute (& features the much favored tiger beanie). Here's the monkey & waiting for his ride.

Freakin' cute!

The 'water pool'

Saturday mornings equal swimming lessons and while the monkey is prone to doing his own thing, some part of the repetitive lesson must be sticking. Yes he does seem to be 'getting it'.

Finally!

And he refers to swimming as the 'water pool' - cute huh?

We headed off to Tulips afterwards for brekky. Perfect as it has a play area for the little people. Nice one Tulips.

As you can see the tiger beanie is still running hot favorite for head wear :-)

Loving the tiger hat

The little dude got a new tiger hat this week. Suddenly it's his fave accessory and he wears it everywhere (see yesterday's post with him wearing a onesie & said beanie). It fluctuates between bring a lion or 'liner' in kid-speak, or tiger hat. They both involve a fair bit of roaring.

Pretty freakin' cute.

Miss Gracie came to visit today, and there was a point where they 'shared' toys and played nicely. Pictorial evidence that it actually happens. Ha!

Who doesn't love Mister & Mrs Potato Head?

Week in pictures

Work week is over again - yippee!

So it's time to hang out with the monkey - my favourite pastime.

Almost has to go into work today at Parliament House for the leadership-spill-that-almost-happened-but-there-was-no-challenger non-event.

Working for the media affords a certain amount of sarcasm.

Anyway back to fun stuff - hanging with the little guy, good coffee, working the onesie, princess Lola, & Titus - all good stuff!

Sunday session

We got up at the crack of dawn to go to the Canberra balloon festival but sadly the wind meant no flying - boo! Still the Lions Club does a pretty good brekky so we ate while the monkey entertained.

We did check out the Southside Farmers Market at Woden CIT, and were some of the first people there. Not as back as EPIC but still managed to fill our little trolley. Love a good farmers market!

Shopping done & dusted by 11am. Bit of a first for us.

The rest of the day was very productive as well - seriously you can achieve quite a lot when you get out of the house early!

Topped the day off with a glass of NZ's finest - nice.

Slack blogger

It's been about a week since my last post - post long weekend come down and a BUSY week has meant no time for anything other than daily life - arghhh.

Life does get in the way some time hey?

Benefits of working part-time mean it was only a 2 day work week , but negatives mean that there's just another days worth of work to cram in somewhere. Yawn - this management gig is way too much responsibility sometimes.

Anyway post work has meant watching mama's netball team in the grand final, a couple of play-dates with the little people, a birthday party, playing with some of the birthday loot and the monkey generally being the cool kid on the block.

All in a week's work!

On the plane

Eating chippies for dinner at the netball final

James & Kahu on the fort

The boys hanging in the backyard

In my cool police car from Marcus

Indoor fun & Happy cake

You would think the Sunshine Coast would mean excellent weather, and there is that QLD mantra 'one day beautiful, the next day perfect', unfortunately it hasn't been quite like that this trip. Warm but wet. So we headed off to Chipmunks indoor play land so the boys could burn off some energy, and us mamas could toss over coffee.

Kahu loved it - especially the rocking boat. So much so that he wasn't averse to pushing any other kid aside to get to the steering wheel. Yep it was a little embarrassing, so I sent the Aunty into sort him out on more than one occasion(well he does look like one of her offspring).

And he wasn't at all scared to get amongst it with the big kids- good thing cousins Ethan and Riley were there as protectors and rescuers. Nice one boys!

Owning the rocking boat, Ethan & Riley synchronized sliding

Just hanging in the ballpit

Aunty Tintin made the monkey a special birthday cake - or as Kahu calls them 'Happy Cake'. Seriously how cute is that? And correct? Happy cake indeed - yummy Aunty.

Yummy cake Aunty!!!

Off back to Canberra and Queanbeyan tomorrow. We love coming up to QLD to see the whanau but we miss Papa and Titus.

Whanau time

Hanging out with the family in QLD means lots of QT for the little guy with Nanny & Grandad. Just gorgeous to watch Kahu with his grandparents. He also has a a special spot with his cuzzies Ethan and Riley as well as Aunty Tintin. The poor monkey has a touch of croup but still loves all the extra attention he's getting.

Mum cooked a family fave for me - lambs fry, kidney & bacon. Yummo! Not everyone's first choice but I love it! Thx Mama.

Last time I was here all the family was - good times. Its rare we get together these days being spread out all over the country, even rarer we have a photo together. This one is from a lifetime ago of my brothers, sister & I. It may even pre-date the little people! (Gawd we're young!)

QLD - yippeeee

Today the monkey and I left Daddy at home and flew to the Sunshine Coast to see the family.

Kahu is 2 so he now has his own seat - just as well as my boy is no light weight! He was very well behaved, which may of had something to do with the treats I packed, but I prefer to think he's angelic (yeah right!)

Kahu loves his Aunty Tintin, Nanny & Grandy, and his cuzzies, and of course having lots of presents to open is the icing on the cake.

Were here for 5 days - yippee!! Gotta love a long weekend.

Party for Miss Lola

Miss Lola turns 2 this week and today was her birthday party. The weather warmed up & the little people danced & giggled through the morning.

Theme was Dorothy the Dinosaur from the Wiggles, so the monkey dressed in his pirate outfit - as you do!

Thanks for having us at your party Lolly - we had a lovely time.

Just keep swimming

After a long break from swim lessons we made our return today in less than tropical conditions. At least the Kings pool is overheated and crowded, so layers come off pretty quick. And because it's a weekend Daddy gets to jump in the water with the monkey while I watch poolside.

Kahu was pretty nonchalant about it all - he loves the water but not so much following commands. Loves splashing but not kicking, at least not on cue. Still unlike the little girl who screamed the entire lesson he seemed to be having fun.

We'll be back for more - and who knows after many, many, many more classes the monkey may even follow along :-)

Little People running riot

I made it to the gym today - 1st proper class since the ankle rolling incident. Just about passed out at the end but I'm back at least. Now just to keep up momentum ;-)

Leah & Grace, Julia, Sebastien & Frida & Miss Lola came over for lunch and play - chaos with the little people running about, but apart from a few incidents with sharing 'racing cars' they all played nicely & the mamas got to have a bit of lunch, some left over birthday cake and a goss. Nice!

Miss Lolly stayed all arvo while her mama did some party prep. That girl sure does have us Clements wrapped around her little fingernail- especially the monkey.