Boxing Day Fun!

Alice's Launceston Grandma and Grandpa came to visit today, and bought with them the hit of Christmas 2007 - the ride-on, push-along, plays really loud, noisy and annoying music car. She just adores it!

Happy Christmas!!

Well the kids are in bed, the pressies have been opened and all is now quiet in the house. Our first Christmas as a family of five is almost over, and we have had a fabulous day. The big kids were very excited with their trampoline (courtesy of DH and yours truly) and Alice pretty much enjoyed the wrapping paper and empty boxes more than the gifts! Unfortunately she has a miserable cold, with green gunk coming out of her nose and eyes, but she seemed to enjoy her very first Christmas, and I got LOTS of kisses before bed! All in all, I feel truly blessed to have been able to spend such a special day with my beautiful family. After several Christmases feeling very depressed about our missing family member, to finally be able to celebrate it with her was an absolute joy. Happy Christmas to you all, and enjoy the pics!

Our Handover Video

After almost two months of messing around, I have FINALLY been able to upload and share with you our handover video. The quality is not great, but I hope you will enjoy watching it.

Handover Day

As per request- the New Do

After my post yesterday I had a comment left by my mate OziMum asking for pics of the new hairdo, so here 'tis. For those who don't know me personally, I have always been blonde and never coloured my hair until my mid-20's, when the blonde began to turn darker. Since then I have pretty much maintained the light locks, but prior to travelling to China to pick up our sweet Alice, I decided to get drastic and go brunette. The reasons?
a) because I was already going to stick out like a sore thumb in Jiangxi because of my pale skin and big nose;
b) because I remember reading somewhere that blonde hair is seen as the sign of a witch, and I didn't want to completely freak out my new daughter by looking INCREDIBLY foreign.

So out went the blonde and in came the brunette, and I didn't mind it too much, but after almost three months with no hair care, I was well and truly overdue for a cut and colour. When my hairdresser suggested blonde again, I said 'Why not??' So here I am, looking dressed and ready for the kid's school picnic today. Now all I need is my grumpy and overtired baby to wake up so we can go to the beach!!

A trip to the hairdressers

Today I am a little apprehensive. Today I am leaving my sweet girl for the first time ever for about two hours to go and get something done with my utterly gross hair. I am sure that she will be fine with my mum, after all they have a mutual appreciation society set up, but I can't help but feel nervous. What if she is TOO comfortable with mum?? What if she DOESN'T miss me?? What if she screams her head off for two hours and I am not there to comfort her?? Perhaps I should just forget about the hair treatment and continue to look gross....But as soon as I have such thoughts my vanity kicks in and remembers the dreaded high school reunion which is happening in only 16 days time, for which I must try to look a little less like a tired and frazzled mum-to-three. Not that I am frazzled (tired definitely) but I do look it. I have just realised that I haven't managed to put makeup on since Handover Day. Wow - no wonder things are looking grim in the appearance department. So, my vanity will no doubt triumph over worry and I will head off to the hairdresser at 11am. I wonder if she can turn back the clock and make me look as young and fresh as I did in 1987 when I left high school. Mmmm, probably not............

UPDATE I arrived back at my mum's after the jaunt to the hairdressers, and was greeted by a huge, gummy smile and the 'I'm happy to see you' jigging-up-and-down dance. It was a melt your heart mummy moment for sure. Mind you it has taken me almost an hour to get her to sleep, even though we had a late night last night and she only had a very short, early nap this morning. Overstimulated by Grandma perhaps???!!!

Christmas photo

Well, here is the end product of about half an hour's worth of snapping and acting like idiots. DH and I did EVERYTHING we could to make Alice smile for the camera, but NOTHING worked! And when we did manage to capture a smile, one of the other kids was looking down, sideways or just plain elsewhere. I took about 120 pics, and this is probably the best, to be used for grandma and grandpa Christmas gifts. Hope you like it!

High School Reunion

I received in the mail last week an invitation to my 20 year high school reunion. How incredibly scary that it has been 20 years since I last wore that daggy brown and green tunic and had my hair permed within an inch of it's life. Twenty years in which I have been to uni, gained a couple of degrees and a diploma, met and married my husband, bore two children, worked in various jobs and adopted my third baby from China. Been pretty busy I guess, and I am sort of looking forward to catching up with people I haven't seen for a very long time. You may notice that I said 'sort of'. I am also a bit terrified. I was not particularly popular at school, and found grades 7 and 8 in particular very, very difficult. I also had an incredibly bad attitude - spent most of my lunchtimes in detention for all of year 8, was very rude to a lot of people, and basically behaved like a know-it-all 14 year old. I really hope that the majority of the people I went to school with have forgotten all that bad stuff and just remember the good (what there was of it!) I am also under orders from my friend Mark, who lives in London and won't be able to make it, that I am to go and take LOTS of photos so he can see them and check out who looks the most haggard!!! So I will be on a bit of a mission to photograph my old school buddies and see if they have aged well or not. Mmmm, could be kind fun....I did toss up the idea of dragging out the dress I wore to my high school Leaver's Dinner but decided that
a) I probably wouldn't have a hope of fitting into it and;
b) the Eighties were such a daggy period fashion-wise that my white taffeta number with spaghetti straps would probably make me the laughing stock of the night.
It's a good excuse to go and buy something new and hopefully catch up with old friends. Wish me luck!

It's Summer!!

Well, it has actually been summer for four days now, but I have only just realised. The pouring rain has not really put me in a summery-type mood either. But here it is, and in a few short days my two precious big kids will be finished school and the big summer holidays begin. YAY!!!! I am just feeling so blessed and thankful that this summer we are a family of five. Our circle is complete, and Christmas this year will be a very special one indeed. It seems not that long ago that we were putting up the Christmas tree and I was feeling decidedly un-Christmassy. Another Christmas without our baby was very difficult to bear, and I was convinced it would NEVER happen. But it did, it is wonderful, and this Christmas will be very special indeed. So to all of you out there, wherever you may be who will be enduring another Christmas without your little one, my thoughts are with you. Be kind to yourselves this festive season and tell yourself that it WILL happen, no matter how far away it seems. One day there will be an extra stocking waiting to be filled, and your house will be full of all the joy and laughter that children bring to this very special time of the year. Love to you all xxxxx