street parties and more

heres some of the things from our first country family christmas.
Our lovely town held a street party. it was provided free by our local business group and council. it was a blast. local bloke dressed up as santa arrived on motorbike with presents for all the children in town, there were christmas carols, rides for the kids and dinner plus entertainment in the form of whip cracking, u really know your in the country when thats the entertainment. next year we will take chairs! i tell u CHEAP family fun. it totally reminded me of a eaiser time in life many years before it took more money than sense to enjoy the season.

i sometimes wonder if things r difficult for my little miss. never allowed to go in the jumping castle all for obvious arm reasons, but still it makes me sad that she misses out on some things she would dearly love to do. lucky for us there was plenty of iceblocks and popcorn around to make her smile. i think i will scrapbook this so she knows that we knew it wasnt fair, but that we couldnt change it either.
heres lilly life of the party enjoying said iceblock and popcorn and nearly losing it to the camel puppet she didnt even know it was there lol

and on the bucking bull ride. she was scared stiff (in a good ride way)and all i could do was laugh she was so funny. almost lost her top at the end. its nearly 8pm in this photo if u can believe it...we r still not used the whole day light saving thing, dont think i ever will be, but we do enjoy being outside later into the day thats for sure. we went home not long after this to get ready for the big man to come visit our house. lilly was excited by the chimney thing. and wonder which he would pick, the one in their room of course so thats were the milk and cookies was left. lol (yes we have more fireplaces than sense. 5 of them! all working open style each with their own hand carved mantel)


christmas morning. i love watching the kids on christmas morning, they r both so different and so funny in approach. lilly is in one and all ripping at presents and opening until the pile of boxes and paper is bigger than the pile of presents, Emily is totally and i mean totally different. she opened each one slowly looking and paying attention and stopping to play with each item. it took her forever to open the presents. we were all desperate for breakfast by the time she was happy with her opening.
if i can just point out the hobby horses. on the dress up rack there. thank you my very lovely friend daisymum(who made them), the girls love them. they r a big hit around this house.
here she is taking her time. funny little thing she is. all her presents were all picked generally because they had to be manipulated with two hands. all secret she doesnt know shes doing it therapy! this wooden velcro fruit set with cutting board and knife came from http://www.entropy.com.au/ its a charming little toy shop with a shop front in townsville. they were FAST, toys were wrapped and reasonable with prices and range. it was a fantastic shopping experience. we will be using this store again. they stock mostly your traditional educational type toys...i wont hide the fact that i dislike most things found in target, kmart or big w as a waste of space and money!!!
we also bought some wooden eggs in carton to add to the kitchen and some wooden threading blocks for emily (great therapy for her again this last one).

thanks nanny and pa. the girls love the climbing frame and emily hangs from it with two hands just as we had hoped she would. More therapy for her arm gifts! im not sure why they have the trampoline there, maybe because the no shoes thing? we could do with some more rain clearly!

edited to add:

wedding anniversary today

9 years

eeek i nearly forgot!