Merry Christmas

The Crane girls are sound asleep, waiting for Santa to come and deliver all his presents. Tonight an old shoe box turned up under the christmas tree which Courtney announced was for Brooke. Mum and Dad took a sneeky peak. It contains Courtney's fairy ornaments and some of Mum's hand cream - Sweet really.

Merry Christmas everyone. We are thinking of you all and we hope you have a wonderful day.

An important life lesson

We've all learnt it at some stage and now Brooke knows as well.

"It really hurts when you walk into the tow ball on a car"

Dad thinks it (seems to) hurts a lot less when you get struck in the thigh and not the shin.

Christmas Lights

Dad and the girls went on the hunt for some the best Christmas lights display tonight. The first one we went to was the best. They have over 25,000 lights, Santa displays, elves in the garden - all sorts of things.

Some people really put in a big effort - maybe next year Dad and Pa can combine forces for a half decent showing.

7 More Sleeps

Last night it was back to the greyhounds to catch up with Dad's friends, including Mr Burke - as in "Mr Burke's Farm"

The girls had a great night playing games, drawing, playing with puzzels, getting their face painted, blowing bubbles etc.

We didn't get home until about 11:30pm and the girls slept in until about 11:00am.

This afternoon the girls did something special. Running around the back yard under the sprinklers...

Tongight Aunty Kirstie took Mum and the girls to Christmas Carols and fireworks.

She's a spoon

Okay, so it's the middle of December (almost), it's cold, wet and windy in Perth and because Brooke and Dad have a touch of the cold, we spent most of today, quietly in side watching television and playing on the computer.

Yesterday, the girls suckered Dad into buying them a new Barbie DVD, in which there were pairs of 3D glasses.




Would you believe that one of the rolly bugs that Brooke caught was also issued a set of 3D glasses so he/she could watch the movie.

Last night we went to the greyhounds with Dad's friends for a little bit but the kids activity room was closed and it was too cold outside so we didn't get to stay too long.

HI 5

Courtney took a majority off from her last day from school today because we all went to see Hi 5. It took the girls a little while to get into it but they seemed to enjoy themselves. As always there was no great effort on their behalf to get up and dance or anything, the girls were content to sit back in their seats and watch as if it was a giant television.

A big congratulations to all the Burswood share holders. What a great idea! Close off all the free parking spaces, put up barricades leaving everyone the only option of taking the $5.00 parking area. Sensational.



As mentioned, Today was Courtney's last day as a year one student. School holidays are on! We're still trying to work out if that'll make things easier or harder on Mum.

Forgot to mention

Last night when we all left Sizzler, Brooke forgot to pick up her "nigh-nigh" (blanket). Mum saw it and picked it up but didn't tell Brooke. After a while at home, Brooke noticed it was missing. Apparently there was a huge amount of tears and Brooke even woke Courtney up to help her look for it around the house. A while later Mum gave her nigh nigh back. We think that she might have learnt a little bit about taking care of her possessions.

Sizzler

Tonight the girls, Mum, Dad and the Mundy mob went to Sizzler. Again, with a whole smorgasbord of food to choose from, Brooke only eats a bread roll and a couple of chips.... and ice cream.

Christmas Party

Today Dad's work held a Christmas party which the girls went to and had a great time. It was much like the picnic day earlier in the year with rides, an animal farm, gymnastics gear, etc. Santa Claus came in on a helicopter and he had a present for both of the girls.



Courtney learnt the importance of using tears at the right moment. After letting Brooke go first on the dodge 'em cars, Dad and CJ went to line up for her turn, only to be told that the ride had closed for the day. Courtney burst into tears and tugged enough heart strings to have the man running the ride to let her on. Only time will tell if she continues to use this trick.

Christmas begins

Today the girls put up the Christmas tree. It looks a lot better than last years effort. This year Brooke got to put the angel up on top. The girls already have a present underneath the tree and they have already taken to squeezing, shaking and listening in an effort to guess what is inside.

This week...

Last weekend Courtney went to Nana and Grandad’s house and helped Grandad lay some new pavers. She was a big help carrying them over and playing in the trailer load of sand.

Yesterday, Brooke played quietly in the kitchen while Mum was busy. She went to the pantry and pulled out all the flour, chocolate sauce, sugar etc and had a wonderful time “cooking”

Brooke continues not to eat anything. Has anyone else heard of a three year old that does not like watermelon, rockmelon or any other type of fruit – except banana?

Bugs, snails etc

On Saturday, Dad and the girls went up to see the Mundy family who are busy getting ready to move house. Due to an earlier than expected settlement date, they are going to stay with Dad for a week or so at the end of the month. Both the girls are really looking forward to the visit.

Today was a bit slower. The girls have for some time, taken a great interest in the "Rolly Bugs" that live in the garden. Dad has always known them to be called Slater Bugs but a search of the internet has him no closer to working out their proper name. They are the little black critters in the leaf litter that roll up in a ball as soon as you touch them. They look something like this...

Porcellio Scaber is the closest I can get. For now, Rolly Bug will do just fine. Anyway, the girls have discovered that Rolly Bugs love playing in the dolls house, cubby houses and just about anywhere they can. Today the girls had a great time sending them down a little slide that they made up for them. Needless to say, Dad vacuums up a number of bugs each Sunday night.

Speaking of such things, Brooke is well and truly over her fear of snails, in fact earlier in the week she was somewhat upset to discover that her "pet" snail have escaped from the container in the back yard.

A new game

Brooke found out this morning that if your (at least hers) fist will slide into a toilet roll tube quite easy... it just won't come out again without a great deal of effort. Still she has not learnt and did the same trick again this afternoon.

Today Mum and Dad took the girls to the duck park so they could ride their bike. Courtney gave them both a heart attack by riding so fast she got speed wobbles and Brooke pushed herself really hard to make it all the way up the hill.

CJ

A really full day

Last night, the girls made a list of five things that they wanted to do over the weekend. It came as no surprise that going to Wildkiz was on top of the list. So this morning we went there. One of the first things that the girls wanted to do was get their faces painted. Brooke went for her standard butterfly however Courtney asked to be an alien... Looks like the face painting lady thinks that Shek is an alien. Still, Courtney loved it.

Brooke was really brave. She went all the way to the top and down the big, turning slide...

She even went down the long, dark slide, which is almost pitch black inside... She looks relaxed enough.

Having said that, Brooke again found her nose out of joint. She was not able to go on the bumper cars because she is not 4 years old, nor is she 95cm tall. Dad tried to explain but it was hard not to laugh when she said "I am big, and I know what is best for people."

Poor Brooke she wasn't even allowed to go on the big blow up, bouncing toys.

When we got home, the girls opened the cafe' and Brooke served afternoon tea.

Afterwards, we all headed out the front for a new game that Dad thought off. Boule. Courtney loves it (always has) but Brooke thinks that it is better to be charge and she messures the distance between the balls.

All up, it's been a really big day with some great moments, like Brooke running past Dad, whilst trying to hide the two packets of tic tac that she had just stolen from the kitchen. Cheeky girl.

Ever since the girls went to Mr Burke's farm, they have been playing cafe'. Courtney's new sign announces that we are open. "Cafe. Food and drink"