4th birthday, Easter and other general catching up

Due to computer "issues" it has been a while since this blog has been updated, so apologies for that if anyone has been checking for updates... But now everything is back on track and I've loaded a bunch of pictures from the digicam and here we are :) It's been a busy few weeks so there's lots to update. The above pictures were taken at Katherine Gorge (otherwise known as Nitmiluk National Park) where they have a little children's area that you can walk through and read and learn. Mitchell was mostly keen on running through as fast as he can (because of course everything in life is a race) but he did like the little house above. Also the kangaroo, you can't really see properly in the picture, but you stand on a lever and a little joey pokes his head out of the pouch, very cute :)

Making an Easter basket to fill with eggs from the Easter Bunny

Yes, Mitchell still loves his footy. This is a local (beautiful) park where we headed down for a picnic lunch and the boys kicked the footy around (I did too a little bit but apparently I can't kick straight which is very frustrating LOL...)

Mitchell on Easter morning with his basket and some of the eggs that Easter Bunny had hidden around the lounge room for him :)

Easter Bunny also left an AFL egg, most of which is still in the fridge 2 weeks later. I think that Mitchell was more interested in the ladder on the side of the box than the actual chocolate.

These are 3 eggs that we attempted to paint. The end result was a bit dodgy but we had fun doing it, so that is the main thing.

One of the boxes that arrived in the mail for Mitchell's big number 4 birthday was these pads and gloves. Mitchell was soooo excited to receive them and of course we had to head straight out the back to give them a go. His favourite player is Adam Gilchrist (Gillie) so that is who he is :)

Massie watching the cricket - no he hasn't grown much, and he isn't likely to - but we love him, he rounds off our little family just perfectly

More backyard cricket shots

Gillie having a go at keeping (yes that's my leg and arm - for some reason I'm always England - go figure...)

These are the Crows cupcakes that we made and Mitchell took to child care the Friday before his birthday. One of the carers is also a Crows supporter and she and Mitchell are always talking about the football, so he was very excited to show her his Crows cupcakes. He was not happy, however, that they sang him Happy Birthday at the time, because he wasn't 4 yet!!

This is the water park at Leanyer in Darwin where we went for the weekend for Mitchell's birthday. It was completely awesome and pictures or descriptions couldn't possibly do it justice. That huge bucket you see on the top here is continuously being filled and when it is full it tips over with one HUGE splash. This happened once when we were at the top and Mitchell was a bit scared, but he loved to watch it splash on everybody else from a safer spot. Because of the water flowing everywhere, the slides were just like little water slides - very cool.

Mitchell going down one of the slides with Daddy watching on.

Just generally wet and happy :)

Taking an afternoon tea break

This was the view from our motel room in Darwin, how beautiful is that?

While we were in Darwin, Mitchell had the chance to spend his birthday money and voucher. We were so impressed with the way he thought about his purchases and what they were costing, that we have decided it is probably a good time to start thinking about pocket money so he can start to learn a bit more about the value of money. He bought himself a cricket helmet, a ball and box to go with his gloves and pads, and also some lego Batmobile and 2 light sabres. They are all things that he will actually use, so we were pretty happy with his choices.

We arrived home on the afternoon of Mitchell's birthday and he pointed out that he *had* to have cake, candles and "Happy Birthday" on his actual birthday. Luckily we had 6 cup cakes left over, so we iced them lime green for the Ninja Turtles and found 4 candles and had our "Happy Birthday" time.

This is the cake that we made for Mitchell to take to school on the Monday. Again lime green for Ninja Turtles (we had gone to McDonald's for lunch in Darwin on his birthday and he had a pasta Happy Meal which came with a Ninja Turtle).

Due to the reliability (or lack thereof) of the postal service in areas such as this, another favourite present arrived several days later. Mitchell is very into "people that save people" at the moment, and Superman is his favourite, so he's very happy to be able to dress as him.

We did however, have an interesting conversation today where I had to inform him that Superman is in fact not real, but made up for books and movies (he was getting upset about have a pretend chest in his costume and didn't understand why he wasn't the "real" Superman). He then wanted to know whether Spiderman was real and then was concerned that there was nobody around to really save people. So we talked about policemen and paramedics and all those people, and of course, people at Daddy's work. So now he say that his Daddy is the only "real" superhero, which is rather cute really...

In other news, for anyone not aware, we are going to be moving to Adelaide at the end of the year. Long convoluted story, but in a nutshell Michael has been promoted and they have offered him Adelaide (Edinburgh) because they don't want to lose him, which was otherwise on the cards, because we really want to settle somewhere permanent now, mainly for Mitchell, but for us too. They have also been talking about the move being earlier, initially May was mentioned and then June/July, but at this point we have no definite confirmation of this earlier move. Michael seems to still be fairly confident it will be June/July, but who really knows. We will hopefully find out more the week beginning 7 May when the "manner" returns to his office in Canberra and has full access to all his systems.

In the mean time, we are here, Mitchell is enjoying school and child care, Michael is doing well at work and I am moving along with my degree. I have also qualified now (finally!) as an ABA counsellor and have so far done 2 helpine shifts. They've been very busy but also extremely rewarding. And the weather is pretty dry these days. The "official" start to the dry season is May 1, but it hasn't rained since that last flood warning that had everybody panicking, so the weather, particularly in the evenings, is quite pleasant. It's funny though how you adjust so quickly, because you can't imagine that at 34/35 degrees it would feel too cold to go for a swim, but it really does!!! Who'd have thought. I hope the move back down South, potentially in the middle of Winter, is not too much a shock to the system!!