1st week of February
Thursday, and at last the temperature has cooled down to mid 20’s and we have had some rain, the girls are at home today and Mia is delighted that she can go into the garden with her new multi-coloured umbrella that Santa bought her. It’s not worth going to the park so we did some housework that the girls love to help with, 
then some drawing and painting and jigsaws in the morning and in the afternoon, after trying on all their new shorts and t-shirts, we cleared out the girls cupboards and I now have a pile of shorts that are too big around Mia’s waist. A bit of elastic and the sewing machine soon fixes that. The Thermomix is on again, this time Tj is in cooking mode and the results are, a Feta, Spinach and Carrot Frittata and some lunchbox fritters with cheese, mint, carrot, raisins, apricot and coriander in them – with a yoghurt, mint and coriander dip – mmm yummy.
Daddy is coming home from Perth tonight after 6 days away and everyone is looking forward to seeing him. I’ve made his favourite trifle for dessert and Bob is busy with his next painting project – the garage doors. While he is doing that, 
Tj decided to take the girls out today after a day at home yesterday. So we went along to GOMA “Museum of Modern Art”, in the city. It’s raining again and the forecast is for rain all day and the temperatures are down to 20 degrees.
The main reason for this visit is an exhibition of “Illusion” which finishes tomorrow and TJ wanted to be a part of it. Everyone gets a strip of circular stickers, all colours and all sizes and you just go and stick them where you want to. I must say that I got a bit giddy and had to have a sit down but the girls loved it.
The weekend was quiet for a change, just the girls swim classes and a play in the big pool afterwards with their friends and in the evening TJ and I had a lesson in binary. It was very interesting and we learnt how to write a number in binary – well you never know when we might need it ?? Sunday we all went to Rocklea market to buy some fruit and veg and found out, that was on Saturday, Sunday is the boot market!
2nd Week
Again this week was much quieter, I think we are all tired from the last couple of months of activity and need a few days of not doing too much. Once the girls are in daycare and Kindy, Bob ran the lawnmower around the garden and TJ and I did a tidy up job in the house then we all went to meet Adam for lunch at his work before a trip to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre on the north side of the river, looking for clothes for TJ’s new job . Didn’t find much, but we had a nice walk around. Tuesday was a golf day for me, Katana Downs this time, about 45 mins drive north. The photos on the internet of it showed a beautiful, green lush course, but the realisation that that was taken some time ago soon became apparent. The price was cheap so we enjoyed the game but its a shame it’s not looked after too well now. 
Wednesday evening Adam and TJ went to Mia’s Kindy to meet the educators and find out what they will be doing in the next few months. It’s scary how quickly the time is flying, next year she will be at school.
Thursday we went to the Westfield shopping centre at the bottom of the road to take 10 pieces of unwanted clean clothing for a charity and Westfield gave you a $10 voucher! Hey why not!
Friday I’m not feeling too good so I decide on a lie in while TJ takes Mia to her SuperStars dance class. In the afternoon I felt better so I made a couple of birthday cards and Adams Valentine Card for TJ. She has a special surprise for Adam and I was keeping the secret so I can’t tell you what yet – wait til you get to February 14th to find out! ….. The girls have gone to bed so Adam is babysitting while Bob, TJ and I go to the local cinema to see 50 Shades Freed! What a laugh, as we stood in the queue to show our tickets and go into the cinema, Bob observed that its all women in the queue and says, in a not too quiet voice, “am I going to be the only male in there”, to which a young woman, with a group of friends, in front of us said “you can sit with us if you like?” well I said “you’ve pulled love” haha. Halfway through the film TJ said, “is this right, watching this sort of film with your in-laws ?”
Saturday 10th Feb is TJ’s friend Sam’s birthday and they have just bought an apartment on the Gold Coast so invited us down to use the facilities and have a bbq. We all met at the beach in the morning, it was a glorious day, hot and sunny, the girls loved making sandcastles, burying anyone who would let them and collecting buckets of water from the edge of the water. Adam took Mia out into the ocean to a sandbar some 100 metres out where lots of people were jumping the waves but Zoe preferred to stay on solid ground. Then at lunchtime we moved to the apartment. Unfortunately, the paperwork hadn’t been completed yesterday, as they had hoped, but they still had the keys for the entrance gate so we could use the pools and have the bbq.
Sunday was a stay at home day because the weather wasn’t good, there were storm warnings and my god there was a huge storm that rattled the doors and windows in the late afternoon.
So we painted handprints onto the Christmas tree skirt (the idea is to put the girls’ handprints on every year until they are 18) and we caught a grasshopper in the garden and put it in a clear box that Mia had for her birthday, so we could study it.
3rd Week
This was the result of the storm last night, we woke to find the tree outside had lost a couple of large branches.
Tj starts her new job next week so while she did a trial run this morning, to daycare and on the train to the city, Bob and I did a clean through the house. In the evening Tj had bought us tickets to go to a Thermomix demonstration. It was so interesting, they gave us lots of tips and tricks and all the food they cooked we could sample at the end. Then they had a ticket draw and TJ won the Thermomix serving bowl as a prize – she was sooo delighted as she had been wanting an extra one since she bought the thermomix !.
Tuesday morning 
we didn’t have the car so we walked to the shopping centre and I had my nails done. In the afternoon, all fired up with the information and recipes from last night I began cooking, at the end of the day I had made meatballs for dinner, citrus salt, some mayonnaise which looked nothing like I had tried last night and some brunch bread (see pic) which was amazing.
Its Valentines day, the girls have to wear something red for daycare and Adam is going to get his surprise …. 
Over breakfast TJ hands Adam an envelope with his Valentines card in it and something else inside …
Really, a Cruise, just the 2 of us? Wow!
He was amazed, TJ has never done anything like this before, they were going on a long weekend cruise in 10 days time, out into the Pacific for 4 days, just the 2 of them, with nannie and grandad babysitting. He has been working very hard lately and Tj thought a trip away would do them both good.
Bob and I went off for a round of golf and lunch at Shingle Inn was my Valentines treat. It was TJs official last day at Parmalat so she was out for her leaving lunch with the office staff.
Thursday morning Tj had booked a trampoline trial lessons for Mia, unfortunately, Zoe isn’t old enough but it was easy to see why. There were only Mia and her friend Malar at this trial session which ran for about 45 mins. The older girls really enjoyed it, although there was no air con in the building and it was 35 degrees outside so we all melted a bit. Zoe and Malar’s sister Sera were allowed to join in the stretching exercises part of the lesson, they sat and listened to the teacher but they didn’t do any stretching so it was easy to see why they have to be 3 to join in properly. In the afternoon I made some choc chip cookies for snack time. Daddy isn’t supposed to get the girls excited just before bedtime but sometimes he does !
Tj is looking at schools for Mia and Zoe, today was a tour of Mayfield school. We met one of the teachers and she took us around the school, it only has just over 300 pupils and the staff were friendly and enthusiastic about their teaching but the school itself was somewhat scruffy I thought with a poor play area for the Prep children. Tj said I was biased as I had only looked at a public school before with lots of money and resources and this was a typical state school. It did have its own swim pool but that looked dirty to me and there wasn’t much outside space that wasn’t concrete. I am going to see another state school next month so I will have something to compare with.
The weekend and we are free ! our friends Laureen and Mike have invited us up to their house about 45 mins up the coast for the weekend. We drove up in the morning and after the tour of the house we sat in the garden and had lunch and a drink. The Olympics have started so we watched some tv and then went out for a drive to Scarborough on the coast. Apparently, there is a great place for fish and chips here. We sat on a bench overlooking the ocean and watching the sun go down with our fish and chips and a bottle of bubbly and orange juice – life can’t be better than this can it?
Sunday morning after breakfast and reading the newspapers we set off for Bribie Island. We had lunch in a pub, steak sandwiches and salad and then we joined the many other people on the beautiful beach for a couple of hours. The sun was hot and the surf high so there was lots to watch. After a while of jumping the waves, Laureen and I sat on the edge of the water, having a “putting the world to rights” conversation but when I went to get up my swimsuit was full of sand! I tried to extricate it but it has one of those “holds you in” swimsuits so the lining was too dense to get the sand out, I walked to the showers with a “bag of sand” weighing down my swimsuit – looked like I had had an accident lol ! 
On the way back we stopped at the Sandstone Hotel for a drink before waving goodbye to our friends after a lovely relaxing weekend.
While we were away, Adam and Tj allowed Mia a sleepover with her friends on Saturday night, apparently it was noisy but they all had a good time. Sunday Adam escaped for a park run ……………..
4th week
We started the week with a trip to the fruit and veg market at Rocklea, buying for the whole weeks baking. While Bob did the lawns – they grow so quickly here – and cleaned the cars, Tj went to get her eyebrows done and some shopping. I turned the Thermomix on and made some strawberry jam in the afternoon as we bought 15 punnets for 4$, then some strawberry yoghurt icepops and an apple and rhubarb crumble for after dinner. Tj did a chicken tikka curry from scratch but not having used star anise before, she milled it. She had a thought and asked me to check if star anise was ok to mill – when I looked it up I realised that it is poisonous to actually eat it milled – good job she had a feeling or we might all have been poisoned!
Tuesday was cleaning, washing, ironing day – it has to be done! Tj sent us a photo of Zoe at daycare and then Bob took a photo of the girls as they arrived home in the evening.
Bob and I went to golf at Riverlakes Wednesday where I thoroughly beat him even though I still don’t like the course much, there is far too much water for my liking. Tj had hoped to have this week off work but they were struggling so much that she offered to work an extra week so her leaving day is now today. They will miss her and her boss said if she ever wanted a job or changed her mind about the move, she would be welcomed back with open arms – can’t say any better than that can you?
Lynne and Alan arrived this morning from Sydney, normally we try to fly down to see them but as they have a couple of weeks from grandparent duties, they had decided to drive up to Queensland and visit a few friends. They arrived late morning and after lunch and the girls had gone down for naps we drove up to Mount Gravatt to take in the views. Although it was a cloudy day it was surprisingly clear up there. We had intended having a coffee there too, but the cafe was closing up at 3.30pm so we drove back down the hill and found a coffee elsewhere. As soon as Adam was on his way home we walked across the road to the leagues club for dinner. 
We had hoped there would be music on tonight for the girls to have a dance but there wasn’t so we set off for home, realising that it was thundering and raining hard. 
With the girls story time done and in bed, we sat down to watch some tv and POW! the electricity went off. Apparently, an electricity station had been hit by lightening and there was a small explosion. Not knowing how long it would be before power was restored, we all went to bed by torch and candlelight. At around 11.30 in the evening the power came back on and surprised us all as lights and tvs sprang into life ! lol
The next morning, although power was restored, some internet cables were not repaired so we had no internet. This was very annoying as today Adam and Tj were going off on their cruise at lunchtime and Adam was going to work from home, however, no internet meant no working from home so he had to go across the city to work. Tj had put the girls in for an extra daycare day and Alan and Lynne departed to continue their journey around 10am so I helped Tj packing bags. She discovered that Adams black shoes had the backs out of them so sourced a new pair and dashed out to buy them for him. She also packed a lot more for him than he had for himself – better to have everything than not have something, especially when there was no luggage weight restrictions. At last all ready, Bob dropped them at the port, wishing them well and not to worry the girls would be safe with us.
Saturday morning Zoe is awake at 6am but Mia is still sleeping so I took her into Adam and Tjs bed and we watched tv.
After breakfast we took the girls to their swim classes, we had said we would all go in the big pool afterwards but it was pouring with rain so we went home instead. We made tents in the lounge with blankets and after naps we Mia made biscuits and offered to do the washing up while Zoe did some colouring in.
Both girls went to bed, good as gold but Bob and I weren’t too far behind as we were tired from the full on day.
Sunday was a much better day, the sun was shining so we promised water fun as we couldn’t go in the pool yesterday. We drove out to the coast to Wynnum where they have recently updated the park with a water play area and fountains. We played on the swings and chased the crabs on the beach, we had a picnic lunch and then into the water play area.
Before we left we had icecream – oops sorry mummy !
We went home for naps but had to wake Mia after 3 hours ! must have worn her out this morning. In the afternoon we played in the garden, dressing up as princesses, did some chalk board drawing and some painting, then trampoline and obstacle course racing – Mia can run the width of the garden in 6.8 seconds!
Zoe rubbing all pictures out !
Well we survived the weekend, Adam and Tj tried to call us on the phone but they didn’t have a good signal but the girls went to bed again happily, knowing that mummy and daddy would be back in the morning.
5th Week
I was awake before 6am, Adam called to say that they would be off the boat early so Bob drove down to the port to pick them up at 6.15am while I got the girls up and breakfasted, ready for daycare. They were so happy to see them but Adam had to be off to work and the girls to daycare so business as usual, out the door by 7.45 am. I had an appointment with Apple to have the battery changed on my iphone at 11am so Tj dropped us there and picked us up after she had had her hair done. She starts her new job tomorrow so she wanted to make a good first day impression. At 5 pm Tj went to pick the girls up but Zoe isn’t well, she has a temperature of 38.5 but there is a 48 hr virus going round apparently. Tuesday morning, Zoe still not well – its Tjs first day so I said leave her off daycare I will look after her. She was quiet – not like Zoe – her temperature went up and down all day but she rested and slept so she seemed much better Wednesday and went to daycare. So much to do today, packing, a trifle to make, a pasta sauce for tomorrows dinner and shopping list to make as tomorrow we are off to Tallebudgera on the gold coast for a long weekend trip with Tjs mothers group friends.
You will have to wait for March blog to see all the pics and stories from our long weekend away. So for now, hasta luego xxx