Raea.
This is an example of how long it takes for mail to arrive. I loved seeing pictures of Raea’s graduation party on Facebook. Today we received the invitation in the mail. 🙂 thankfully they know why we couldn’t attend…

Spoon.
Thursday night we decided to mix things up and let Lily try to feed herself with a spoon. She loves finger food, and has been reaching for the spoon when I feed her. Why not? Oh my goodness – I forgot how messy it is to learn how to eat. By the end of the meal she had chicken rice casserole in every nook and cranny. But she still looked cute!

Steps!!
The teachers at daycare said that Lily had taken 3 steps!! When we got home, we were busy unpacking all of the bags and getting dinner ready. Lily was playing in the pantry. I took her hand and helped her walk out. And then she just let go of my hand and stood there, unassisted. Jay squatted down in front of her and she took a few steps to get to him. So awesome.

Anniversary.
My parents’ anniversary was on July 2. Mom posted some pretty fantastic pictures on Facebook from their wedding day. Mom looked beautiful, Rick and Steven were so handsome, Em looked like a little doll, and Jess and I, well, hmmm. Those dresses… I remember quite a bit about that day 26 years ago. Such a fun time. Steven drives us all crazy sometimes (seriously Steven…) but I am so glad he was up for the challenge of taking us all in. We lucked out with a pretty fantastic stepdad.

Independence Day.
Unfortunately the 4th of July is just another day in Australia, so I had to go to work. One of the Australians came to work in some pretty fabulous American flag shoes. Awesome! The kids and I wore some red, white, and blue clothes to show our American pride. Both of the kids did fun activities at daycare – really fortunate to have found a daycare that seems to really care about the kiddos and embraces their culture and traditions.

Raygun.
Jessi and Mark surprised the kids with a package in the mail – sweet new Raygun t-shirts. Ty had outgrown his “part-time model” shirt, so a bigger size is perfect. Do you suppose he will sport the XL when he is all grown? Shout out and a big thank you to Jessi and Mark!!

Stamp.
Speaking of mail, check out the sweet stamp that came on a piece of mail we received. It isn’t a special letter, just a note from the real estate office. Best. Stamp. Ever.

Mumps.
There is a case of mumps at daycare. Really?!?! What the heck?!? Who gets the mumps? Ty has been vaccinated, but Lily doesn’t get her mumps vaccine until 12 months (which is next week…). Praying she doesn’t get it. 😦

Noodles.
We got a call from daycare Friday afternoon saying Ty got sick. Ugh. Pretty sure it was from his lunch. He insisted on trying Chinese noodles in a box, even though he knew they were spicy. He told Jay, “I will just take a drink of milk after every bite.” His teacher said he ate quite a bit but then told her that his noodles were too spicy. A couple hours later and the poor boy was puking and laying on the floor in Miss steph’s room waiting for us to get there. She took good care of him. He laid in bed a while when we got home and then seemed to recover quickly. All good now! And no more spicy noodles. Ever.

Saturday.
We have been on the go with Riley for every weekend as long as I can remember, which was super fun, but my house was starting to look and feel a bit neglected. Saturday morning for the first time since we moved here we did not have swimming or gymnastics, so we used the time to first snuggle in the big bed a bit later than normal, and then we did a bit of cleaning.

I had a hair appointment, and since it was an absolutely gorgeous day out, Ty put on his new swimsuit and played in the hot tub. However, he started to freak out when his swimsuit got wet (weirdo) so he stripped down to his undies, then decided he didn’t want those on either. Yes, our son was skinny dipping in the hot tub in winter. What a goofball.

The boys also washed the car and started cooking a beef stew (or wolf stew as Ty called it) to put into Lily size portions and freeze. They were busy bees!!

Bull sharks.
Ty informed me in a very long winded story that he was driving his remote control car in the backyard and it went into the flowers and then went right through the fence right into the bull shark water. Ummm. That’s a bummer. And then he has the guts to tell me “so…we are going to need to buy another one.” Um, nope. It’s a hard knock life, buddy. Good life lesson. Cars and bull sharks don’t mix.

Golf.
Ty wanted to play some golf. We live in a neighborhood with an amazing golf course, but pretty sure security would be all over us if we let him use his plastic clubs on the course. So we drove I’ve to Magnolia Gardens, where Riley discovered a bunch of roos hang out. There is a wide open grassy area – perfect for hitting plastic golf balls. Ty had a fan club – the roos were very curious about what he was up to.

Milk.
We are starting to transition Lily from formula to milk, but I can’t remember how this worked with Ty. I am pretty sure he was off the bottle and on sippy cups at a year. I don’t remember taking milk with us everywhere?? A lot of the restaurants here don’t have milk – so what do I do then? Is it ok to give her a bottle with formula in those situations? Or do I put formula in the sippy cup? Fellow parents….help!

Sunday.
So maybe we did have a little bug floating around our house. On Sunday we were all dragging our feet. Ty wanted to build sand castles at the beach, so we slowly got ready and headed down the coast. Unfortunately there was a marathon along the Gold Coast highway, right where we wanted to go, so traffic was a disaster. We made a change of plans and went to a baby store to buy Jay and Lily a backpack baby carrier. We had been using a front pack but she is getting too big. Got a heck of a deal on one. Lily loved it, and so did Jays back.

We decided to go to the mall for lunch to get a burrito. It was apparent that nobody was feeling great, everyone was pretty blah. So we didn’t shop at all, except to buy a movie (Pirates of the Caribbean) and headed back home. We all laid in the big bed and watched the first Pirates movie. Jay and Lily fell asleep, so Ty and I went downstairs and played a couple games of Uno. Now he and I are laying on the couch watching Treasure Buddies. I know, really lame weekend, too much TV, but I think we are all fighting off an illness so being lazy is allowed.

Miranda.
Jay’s sister’s daughter, Miranda, is hopping on a plane on Monday and heading over the great ocean to visit us for a few weeks. She will arrive in our Wednesday morning. We are all super excited for her arrival!! Have a great week!