Prayers with Olivia

I often get to do the nighttime routine with the girls, and it's a special time of the day. Sometimes a bit too hurried at the end of a busy day and running late, but usually a lovely way to end the day with them. Tonight we went through the usual routine: read books, read Bibles, sung our two carols for the Christmas concert and then Jesus Loves Me (you can never have too many songs at bedtimes apparently) and we were on to prayers. Olivia has recently started saying her own without prompting and rather values the opportunity - tonight was so beautiful that I wanted to cuddle her for hours just to retain that special reality of a gorgeous little girl with her simple knowledge of God.

She started out as usual and then almost made an inventory of her favourite things in her room - dolls, teddys, the door that closes, the vacuum etc. and I almost pulled her up when she switched to thanking God for our house, and for food and then proceeded to list all of her favourites - apricots, nectarines, grapes, watermelon, apple, pineapple, stewed apple (there was an apple theme happening here!) and then rounded up with a great big thanks to God for evweefing!

A good reminder to me that I need to thank God for my favourite things too - instead of taking them a bit for granted each day. She focussed on what's big in her world and reminded me that I should look a bit more closely at my own. So another lesson learned from my 2 year old...many more to come I'm sure.

The closing hours

The water park was great - we didn't even explore half of it, and the girls were a little short for a number of the bigger slides, but had a good time regardless, even when the rain started to come down they splashed on while Greg and I took it in turns to try out some of the bigger slides.
The crazy trio were rather taken by this poor old chap sitting quietly on a bench minding his own business

Day at Dreamworld

Daddy the maniac dodgem driver - Ellen loved it
Olivia on her first roller coast at 2
The teacup ride in Dorothy's cup of course
Our Chauffeur around the car track - very serious about her responsibilities too
In 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'
Finally we made it to Dreamworld to use our Playpass cheap entry tickets and it was great - a super day, and it appears that everyone stayed away to avoid the potential of schoolies being there, and the schoolies stayed away too, so the park wasn't crowded, there were hardly any queues for anything and we had a ball.
Highlights included the girls patting a tiger cub out on her walk, Olivia's first roller coaster ride (the first of many judging by how it went!), Ellen's first drive of a car (and they were adamant it looked like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which increased the excitement level!), Daddy loved the bumper cars with Ellen giggling in the passenger seat, and Mummy thought that one of the slides in the water park was awesome. The girls were too short for a few rides yet, but we had plenty to fill in the day.
I planned ahead with food, drinks, prams etc. to be organised, and then of course, they only used the pram for all of 5 minutes all day, although it proved a handy vehicle in terms of carrying bags, hats, suncream, snacks, cameras etc. I felt for the people lugging kids, bags etc. around - which I'm sure would have been us if we had left the pram at home!

Four

or should I say 'Fore!' - because look out world, here she comes!
Ellen has been a BIG girl since she was about one and a half - the age she starting telling me so when I suggested that little girls perhaps couldn't do something quite yet. Olivia on the other hand, is quite happy to be a little girl, and instead sees the advantages that come with that particular label, however Ellen has always wanted to be about 10 years older than she currently is...so that makes her 14 and with the sass and attitude to go with it!
This morning kicked off with a treasure hunt to find her gifts, and then the presentation of her 'new' bike (thanks eBay!) - we couldn't figure out how to wrap that, but by the reaction that it got anyway, it seems we would have wasted the effort anyway. Suffice to say that she's very excited about the bike - it's pink and has a special bag at the front - what's not to like?!?!

Not the best picture, and the deadpan face doesn't reflect her excitement, but the shutter on our camera is so slow that she was probably on to her dissertation about the seat being too high by this point!
Took a while to find this one - hard to find anything in the playroom at the moment!

Quiet weekend - the best kind

A quiet weekend catching up with family and friends, a long swim at Nanna and Grandad's place and some time to catch up with ourselves after a busy few weeks. Ellen spent a happy hour or so making patterns with her peg board, doing her 'stiles' and keeping herself amused after her 'rest' while Olivia slept blissfully on for a huge sleep today. I was rather envious as I took the photo, a couple of hours of shut-eye today would have been nice, but wasn't to be today....

Going west

Ellen and Emily with the geese at one of the cafes that we visited
The girls checking out their bed for the weekend

We headed out to spend the weekend with cousins in Toowoomba on Friday, and had a great time catching up with people that we know - and missing a number of others that we couldn't fit in to such a short timeframe. The girls had a ball sleeping in the 'King Shed', sharing a Queen size mattress together and the delights of two slightly older girl cousins to go crazy with.
We checked out some of the local attractions (Japanese Gardens, parks and cafes, enjoying the views while the girls all burnt lots of energy in the playgrounds provided) as well as unwinding and just catching up. Went to church out there on Sunday and I ended up catching up with a number of people that I knew from Churches in Brisbane and other places from years ago, so that was great. Looks like we might be spending more time in Toowoomba from next year, so it was a great surprise and a reminder that friends (current and future) are everywhere.
Our arrival home occurred just at the conclusion of the big storm, so we were very thankful that there was no damage to our property - given the rather dubious structure that the carport currently is, we were expecting some damage, but it's obviously stronger than it looks and God had His Hand holding the roof down!

Family date at the beach

Had some fun with afternoon family date at Kings Beach last Friday. Of course we dropped in to see how the shop was doing as well and to say Hi to some old friends. Had a super afternoon - the weather was magic and there were a few waves occasionally too.

Cousins

Hard work to get them looking in the same direction - this terrific trio are starting to have lots of fun together now that little 'Lucyloo' (as the girls call her) is able to get more involved in playing. Thanks for your patience and the impromptu lunch Aunty Kathryn!