Adelaide Christmas Pageant

Yes I am a little slow in putting this blog up especially since the Christmas Pageant was 2 weeks ago now, but spare time with 2 young children is difficult to find sometimes!!!

In Adelaide we are lucky enough to have a wonderful Christmas Pageant every year, which every South Australian child looks forward to whether that be watching it on television, or by lining the streets of our wonderful city and watching the beautiful floats in the anticipation for Santa arriving to his Magic Cave.

A month ago I promised Harrison that I would take him to the pageant and have a wonderful day with just me and him, a month ago, I could not have anticipated the hottest November on Record ever.

40 degrees was the forecast, and if it wasn't for that promise I made, there normally would have been no way we would have left the comfort of our lovely home!!!!! I am so glad that I left Mitchell home with Graham, because I could have never taken him out in such horrendous heat!

We got up early and caught the train into the city with Rachel and the kids, and one of Harry's kindy friends, we were lucky to have secured some VIP seats in erected scaffolding stands - its a shame though that there was no shelter from the blistering sun.

Here are just a few of Harrison's favourite floats:

And then of course along came Santa:

Some of us trying to avoid the sweltering heat from our spot in the stand:

And then our attempts to get cool after it all finished, was to jump in the fountain in Victoria Square - the only way all the kids (and adults) were able to cool off! It was so hot that I got in as well and how wonderful that cool water was :-)

A new little hobby.....

I have found a new little hobby to do with my boys that involves us getting out and about to places you wouldn't normally go to. It is called Geo-caching and the only way I can describe it, is that it is a suburban treasure hunt.

Basically you go to the website (http://www.geocaching.com/) look for where the items are hidden in your neighbourhood and you go and search for it. Most people use handheld GPS units to find the treasures, because you are given coordinates to point you to exactly where the items are located, but me being a little poor these days, I am using 'Google Earth' and printing off maps for each location. Some are easily found and some are not.

The photos below are from Harry and I finding a cache called 'Civil Cults', with this one you had to work out a long division maths sum, which gave you the actual coordinates of where to find the item.

I say treasure hunt, but really most of these contain little junky toys, Harry found a packet of Domino's in this one, but you can be lucky and find special coins that are worth a few dollars or 'travel bugs' which are items that are meant to travel around the world - so when you find one, you take it and put it into another cache in the hope that everyone keeps it travelling. There are websites that follow their movements.

Most of my friends think I am a little crazy for doing this, but hey maybe this takes me back to my Girl Guide days, but I love it - think ill have to hint a little harder to get a GPS for Christmas.

Harry's day out with Thomas - 20 Oct 2009 - AEC

Well since there is a familiar trend in my previous posts on how much Harrison loves every thing about Thomas the Tank Engine and all of the other engines on the Island of Sodor, I thought it was only fitting that I blog about the day Harrison got to see Thomas live on stage.

I thought it would be good to have an outing out with just me and Harrison, so I arranged for Mitchell to spend some time with his Nana, and then it was time to go. Harry was excited, but I don't really think he knew what he was in for. He knew it was something to do with trains but had no idea that he was going to be within a few metres of the 'real' Thomas :-)

We arrived at the Entertainment Centre, had a look at the over priced merchandise which I of course gave into the pressure and bought Harrison a flicking Thomas light that cost $20 - honestly how absurd - it is obviously suckers like me who keep those companies in business.

In Harrison's age of innocence, it is really hard to describe just how great Harry made me feel when the curtains opened and Thomas gave a 'toot toot' and came out on stage. His eyes lit with excitement, he looked at me and mouthed the word 'THOMAS!!!!' then pretty much sat there star struck for the rest of the show. It really was a priceless moment that ill cherish.

We had great seats, we were in row H, which was only 8 rows from the front. There was no flash photography allowed during the show, but I did manage to take a few great shots with my flash turned off. Here are a couple of photos from the show - how great does this look!

When the show ended, Harry asked if we could stay for the next show and watch it again - to be honest I think he could watch it 20 times and not get sick of it! The below photo was taken at the end of the show - check out the look of satisfaction on his face, he was pretty impressed with himself.

Pink Concert - 10 August 2009 - AEC

I thought it was about time to be a paying patron at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for a change and check out the 'Pink' concert.

It is funny even though I work there, and this is I think the 5th concert that Pink has done here in Adelaide, I have always worked front of house and have not got to see even a small snippet of the show, so hearing how good it was, I thought it should be my turn to be 'tickled pink'!

I went with Tash, Courtney and Rachel for a bit of a girly night out. I had a great time mostly because firstly it was the first time in ages that Tash and I have had a chance to catch up, it was one of many that Rachel and I have planned to do, and it was special for Courtney as this was her first ever concert - man they grow up way too quick, doesn't seem like that long ago I was giving her big baby cuddles and now here I am going with a gorgeous 12 year old to a concert!

'Evermore' was the support act and were really great, they played for just over half an hour and did a mix of the their old and new stuff. I have seen them live now quite a few times and enjoy them every time.

Then after interval Pink (Aka Alesha Moore) came on and ohhh what a show - I say show because this was so much more than just a concert! There were dancers, theatrics, artistic stage set ups, gymnastics and more costume changes than Carrie in the Sex in the City Movie!

this is a photo of her grand entrance

We were in the general admission standing area, and were at the end of the runway, so when she was on the main stage there was a little bit of distance, but when she was on the end of the runway we were only about 2-3 metres away from her.

Photo taken at either the right or wrong moment - you be the judge :-)

Pink sang a great cover of 'Queens' hit Bohemian Rhapsody, it was brilliant, the stage and blow up clowns were also amazing!

I don't know how she can physically do so many shows, the gymnastics and acrobats she uses throughout the show must be so exhausting - it is amazing to watch, but that woman must be so tired!

First Day of Kindy

Well turning 4 means Kindergarten, and after a few sessions of pre-entry, Harry is now in full time Kindy, spending four half days per week there. So far after one week, he has loved every minute. He comes home with paintings, he tells me about using tools such as hammers and nails, he loves story time and every thing else that comes with it. Here are a few photos of his first day:

Harry turns 4

Well Harry my beautiful first born has just celebrated his 4th birthday - where oh where has the past 4 years gone, this is going to sound mushy but every second with my children is so precious because I know that this age of innocence will only last for so long.

Harrison celebrated his birthday over a couple of days, on Sunday he invited some of his little friends and went to the movies to see 'Ice Age 3' - in fact 18 children in total came to his party, which seems like a moment of insanity on my behalf, but it actually worked out really well. Each child had a lolly bag, drinks and chips and all of them sat and watched the movie without any dramas, then they were picked up by their parents at the end (no mess - no fuss). Harrison had a great time and felt very special and important being the centre of attention of all of his friends.

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Then on his actual birthday we just celebrated with family, I made something resembling a Thomas cake again (seems like dejavu from last year) for dinner we had chicken nuggets and chips as per Harrison's request.

Thomas the Tank Engine is still the object of Harrison's attention, in fact in Harrison's eyes there is nothing more important on the planet than Thomas and his friends - it is really adorable, he talks to his trains, sleeps with them, and obsesses over every train he sees. As you can imagine the theme for presents for his birthday pretty much revolved around Thomas and my son has so much Thomas merchandise that we could start up a display museum!

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HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY HARRY - WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH XOX