No Joy diminished

On my mind this week is joy and wonder at how it is that your heart can grow bigger with each child, love you feel for one is felt for all.... before having two kids I didn't know how this was possible. This week 'little love' started walking and we are the proudest parents. Marvelling over how cute he is with each new step, word, action and look. Anyone would think he is the only child in the world to learn to walk but he isn't, he is the fourth one in this family alone, but the love, joy and pride I have felt this week is he same as I felt for all the others when they completed their milestones. No joy is diminished with each child.

 

I caught a moment last night when my husband and I were alone with 'Little love', Mr These Beautiful Days had taught him how to say "Dadda" and point to him and he was showing off. When it was just the three of us,  you could for a moment press rewind to 9 years ago and  the first time we had seen our baby play this game. But this is the fourth one and we still love it, it still brings such joy, we still look at all these little faces and wonder how are we so lucky to have these little people in our lives? What a privilege and honour!

 

There is a little girl who we have been thinking of a lot lately she hasn't got a lot of time left in this world. I was messaging her relative who is a good friend of mine last night. I said to her I hope you can find some little joys this week, those tiny moments of light in a terrible time. Its these little moments of joy captured not on film but in our hearts that burn the brightest even through our darkest times.

 So while I celebrate our joys, the wonder of life and little people I remember to put the phone down, turn away from the screens and soak it all up, gather the lights. These are the lights that cannot be diminished no mater what the future holds. These joys are the moments I will remember when I am old and thinking back to the lights of my life.
Happy Holidays for all that have started holidays today..... look for the joy to light the way!!

Japan Part 2 Tokyo and Sahoro

We travelled by Shinkasen (Bullet Train) from Kyoto to Tokyo. These trains are awesome, they are super clean, spacious, on time and go fast! We collected food for everyone a sticker book for each of the kids and off we went, through the Japanese countryside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was amazing to look out the window and see rural Japan houses, fields, industry and snow!! The kids all slept and we took it all in.

 

We arrived in Tokyo and headed straight for out hotel, it was magnificent, so quiet and with views over parkland and Tokyo Tower.

This hotel was the nicest hotel I have ever or most likely will ever stay in it was beautiful. The girls had an adjoining room and felt like Eloise in the city with their robes and tea and croissants overlooking the park each morning.

I was stoked with the complementary Shiseido skincare and huge spa bath and Mr These Beautiful Days loved the heated toilet seats!! The beds were plush I have never wanted to take a hotel bed home with me so much!!

 

 We decided to head straight up Tokyo Tower and timed it perfectly for the sunset. The next few hours were magic! To get the scope and scale of a city like Tokyo from this view was mind blowing, the kids sat and stared out for ages.... all those people. We took our time and tried to capture the moments on film but nothing could really translate what we were seeing, sunset over Mt Fuji and day turning to night... We were in Tokyo!!

We finally tore ourselves away from the windows and headed down into the city, we headed to Roppongi Hills. This was built in 2003 and is a city within a city, it was not far from where we were staying and looked good from above but it was confusing once we were there. We walked around, ate some food, looked for baby nappies (so hard to find) and headed back to our bliss full hotel.

Due to time constraints we had one day in Tokyo city..... One day and it was a massive one. Firstly we headed to Tsukiji Fish Market. The main market area is only open to a few tourists every day and we were a little late to get in but the outer market has plenty of stalls, seafood sushi. We tasted, browsed and froze. The people were friendly, we had loads of comments on having 4 children and being very lucky, Everyone in Japan loved the little boys especially Littlelove who smiles at everyone, and the market was no different. We lined up for 30 mins at a sushi restaurant to eat the freshest sushi, it was beautiful. Again such care and attention to detail in the presentation of food and plastic cups were offered for the kids.

 When we had eaten till we could eat no more (except for Miss 6 who declared on sitting down she doesn't like egg, rice or fish.... she enjoyed her green tea though) we headed to our next stop. Shibuya crossing... the busiest crossing in the world. We walked up the stairs from the subway and then were hit with people, we watched and waited and held onto kids, it was interesting! We crossed back and forth to say we had done it then we went shopping. The girls hit up the shops to find Hello Kitty, the boys went in search of cash. We met back up at a time and a place like old school (without mobile phones) then we headed to Shinjuku. We were in search of 'Daisio' a 100 yen shop.... and we found it.... all 5 levels of it. We thought we went crazy here then got to the register... we had spent the grand total of $64 Aus. Now if I could turn back time I would have sent Mr These Beautiful Days to the sports store and headed back in there to do more damage though I am not sure we could have carried more. We enjoyed a fair amount of time at the sports store while Mr These Beautiful Days bought a pair of special running shoes that he had been dreaming of and loves which made him super excited (I can't remember details, but you know they must be good cause he still wears them and its been a few months). Back on the train we were headed back to Shibuya to the best most fun sushi restaurant in the world. Its all computerised so you sit order off a screen and then your food is delivered by train straight to your seat, it was awesome!! Back up to Starbucks to see the crossing at night, then back to the hotel.... Phew what a day!! But tomorrow was Disneyland.

 I have always as long as I remembered wanted to go to Disneyland and we did it!! The next morning we were up super early and off to the happiest place on earth (and in Japan in January also the coldest).

 We had a great time the looks on the kids faces was priceless we are so lucky to get there when 3 out of 4 will remember and they loved it. We walked and ate and shopped and met Princesses and characters.

We went on a few rides and watched the parades, the day went fast really fast and though we were really freezing most of the day (Miss 8 bought a blanket from the gift shop with her own money) there were no complaints.

We got back late and packed to get ready for the next day, we were heading to the snow!!

We had a bus transfer to the airport an internal flight and another bus transfer to the Sahoro on the island of Hokkaido where we  spending the next 5 nights. The signage at the airport was in Russian and Japanese so we knew we had travelled a long was. We were so excited as we flew overhead to see a clanked of thick white snow covering the ground, so far from home now!! The snow was beautiful and we all really enjoyed skiing, the food was very western as were the staff so for this time we didn't really feel like we were in a different country. One of the kids had a tummy bug after each other almost the whole time we were here starting 24 hours after we arrived so our time skiing was a bit of a juggling act, but we made the most of it and had lots of fun. We all cant wait to head to another ski slope soon, though being novice skiers we didn't fully appreciate the quality of the snow. We enjoyed snowfall 3 out of the 5 days we were there this was magic as was the food and drinks available. I got to do a trail ride through the snow here, this was lovely to see the snow covered countryside from horseback and to see the difference of a farm covered in snow rather than red dirt!!

On our last morning we faced every parents worst nightmare.... travelling with a child with a tummy bug!! Master 3 started 3 hours before our bus arrived, I was so happy all he lived on for the last few days was hot chips and coke. Once this was out of his system, it made things a lot less messy. The next 24 hours was a juggle, we can only laugh looking back on it! A 2hr bus ride, 2 hr wait, 1hr flight 5 hr wait, and 7 hr flight to arrive back to the tropics at 4am Australia Day, with no hotel booked (insert cranky exhausted face here). All with a 3 year old that looked like we were travelling weekend at Bernie's style.

 We headed to McDonalds (with Master 3 still asleep and now running a fever) and worked out a game plan. Luckily our usual hotel had a vacancy and let us in straight away, up we cranked the air conditioner and got medication into Master 3 from the chemist across the road.... it had been a massive day night day. We rested for an hour or two then showered and headed to town for burgers and a swim it was Aussie day after all!!

 

Learning's from this part of the trip....

1. Always always always pack some medication for vomiting

2. If you ever get at a 100 yen shop go crazy then go crazy again

3. Approach travelling with kids with a sense of humour, appreciate what you can do and enjoy it.

4.Spend 500 yen ($5) at each airport for a new sticker book for each kid.... they love it and it keeps them happy

5. Remember to feed them whenever you can

6. Where you see the opportunity to withdraw money.... do so even if you don't need it

 

7. If you see something you want to buy... buy it don't think or question it, yo can't really go back to get it later.  (Mr These Beautiful Days is still dreaming of a shirt in a shop in Kyoto)

 

The kids have come away from this experience with a love of travel, a feeling that its possible to see the world and an appreciation of differences. They now realise that they are part of a globe, and come from a small part of the world where things are done a certain way but that there are different ways of living and that's a good thing. I think this has made them more confident little people. I am so thankful that we have had the opportunity to travel as a family, I could never imagine that we would ever be able to take our kids on such a trip and I feel so lucky we were able to do this. The only problem is we all have the travel bug Miss 9 is headed to Paris, Miss 6 to Mexico, Master 3 wants to go to everywhere and Mr These Beautiful Days is planning races wherever he can... I might just have to chaperon them all!!!

 

Japan (Part 1) Kyoto

We are officially crazy. In some hormone induced pre baby high where everything is easy and you are sleeping through the night..... every night, we (I) booked a trip to Japan for January 2014. We wanted to go somewhere different to home, different culture, climate, food and language... but a direct flight. We took all the hassle out of the trip by using BYO Kids to book everything. Erin our consultant booked flights, transfers, accommodation in adjacent or adjoining rooms (we cant fit in one room...anywhere anymore) and was on the phone or email constantly with options in planning and booking, I highly recommend using BYO Kids for anyone travelling with kids especially with a large family. 

Not sure if eating the book will teach you Japanese

Every trip has an obstacle, ours had a few. Firstly our plane was delayed..... for 8 hours. We took the opportunity to run the kids raggered at the airport, games, races, songs, activity books so when we boarded 3 were sleeping soundly before take off whoo hoo!!!

 

There were all so tired they slept the whole way. We arrived at Osaka at 3am then boarded a bus for a complementary random hotel (as we had missed our transfer) checked in at 4am to check out at 7am to return to the airport to find our way to Kyoto. A few things stuck me during this time, not everyone in Japan speaks English (we should have learnt more Japanese), the people are so helpful (even opening more customs stations for our unplanned flight at this crazy hour) and everything is so clean. This is Japan, helpful, clean, organised..... a travelling with kids dream.

 

 

 

Mr These Beautiful Days quickly acquainted himself with the Japanese transport system (I still don't get it) and maps and worked out a plan to get to our hotel in Kyoto. The kids slept on every train and walked and pulled luggage like seasoned travellers.... we checked in to our hotel at midday (awesome effort). We quickly got changed into our real winter clothes then set off for Gion we had lost sightseeing time and we weren't missing anything. It was so nice to finally feel cool after leaving a Far North Queensland summer behind. Our first real Japanese meal was in Gion, tofu and soba noodles with green tea overlooking a Japanese garden... beautiful, simple and stunning.

We walked and saw Japanese gardens, temples, Geisha's,  markets, we drank strange drinks ate real Japanese food, tasted Japanese coffee (then quickly found Starbucks) and were in bed by 8pm.

 

Kyoto is an amazing place, the people are so friendly you go into a Family Mart or 7 Eleven to by 6 bottles of water and they open the door for you greet you with a smile and  as you leave endless bows of "Arigato gozaimasu" they make you feel so welcomed and every transaction is considered and done with respect regardless of the value. Nothing is rushed or hurried, it was lovely seeing the kids embrace this part of the culture.

The next day we found a bakery for breakfast, we were learning happy kids are fed kids (funny that) and piled our trays high with pastries, croissants breads, juices and coffees we ate.

We then went to Fushimi Inari (The Fox Temple). The big orange tori gates line pathways trough the forest and are donated by businesses for prosperity. There are Fox statues everywhere that are regarded as messengers.

We loved it and found lots of Foxy gifts here. We then continued on to Nara and saw the Deer and Todaiji Temple (Great Buddha).

 

The deer were, well Deer (on advice from others who had been there we didn't buy food for them and after seeing what happened to others that did we were glad). The Deer were quite happy to be patted by the kids and were very gentle to us but were a bit crazy to those with food.

The Todaiji Temple is majestic and was one of my favourite Japanese experiences. There aren't words to describe the dimensions of the statue and the feeling of calm, and peacefulness here. It is truly a spiritual, magical place.

The next day we went to Nijo Castle. This is a fort.... a real fort with beautiful gardens and a squeaky floor that sounds like birds to detect when Ninjas were trying to invade... for real. We looked for Ninjas for Master 3 but we couldn't find any ( we may have bought one home though). I liked the castle and the gardens but I got really bored here, the kids liked it but I was the first one on the trip to get bored (go figure).

 

In the afternoon we then went  on to Arashiyama and to the Bamboo Grove. This was also beautiful the lines of bamboo in the forest were hypnotic and all encompassing. It made everything feel a little green and the kids loved running up the pathways. There is a lovely little village here that we would have loved to wander through a bit more but by this time we had some tired kids (I wonder why). It was interesting seeing parents here pick up their kids from preschool on bikes sometimes 2 or 3 kids on one push bike, so different to the car filled pick up back home!!

 

One of my favourite meals was here at a little road stop stall. Miso soup with tofu for about $4.00....delicious.

 

 

Our last night in Kyoto we ate at a restaurant where we ordered at the 'teller machine" in the front using the pictures, basic Japanese, and the helpful Japanese girls that Littlelove at 7 months was chatting up. We thanked them by letting them look after him at their table while we ate in peace!

We then went to Karaoke and sang every Taylor Swift song before going back and packing for the next leg tomorrow we were on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Tokyo.

 

So far we had learnt.....

 

1. Feed the kids, feed the kids, feed the kids (they cant move without food, funny that).

2. Where there is a toilet use it and everyone must go and nappies must get changed... otherwise in 5 mins someone will need to go and we will waste 20 mins trying to find a toilet to then miss the train and have to wait 15 mins for the next one... Just go now!!

3. See Starbucks get coffee (little like no.1 but for the parents).

4. Just ask don't try and figure it ,out take a phrasebook and ask.

5. Forget Lonely Planet food guide, see a place and eat.

6. Mum gets bored first.

7. Get the kids to sleep where and when they can, planes, trains a 10 min nap makes all the difference at 5pm.

 

 

8. It takes 47 mins to get 4 kids ready from normal clothes to outside clothes to leave the hotel in a cool climate..... I am in wonder of people that do this all the time...

Next Friday on the blog we are off to Tokyo!!!

 

The Best Christmas Cake ....... Ever!!

It's Christmas time which means that we get to do crazy things like get along with our families, buy heaps of presents and shop like everyone lives where we live because the shops are closed for one whole day!! The best part of Christmas in my opinion is getting to eat this Christmas Cake.... THE BEST CHRISTMAS CAKE ....EVER!!

20 or more years ago my Mum made this for Christmas lunch with Kahlua and dried fruit, sort of sounds okay now but to us at the time it was a huge waste of perfectly good icecream. The next year I took over the preparation and I have been doing it ever since with different combinations. It is my favorite thing to eat...ever and this year we are having 3 Christmas celebrations so I get to make it and eat it 3 times whoo hoo!!

Its so easy to make all you need is 2 litres of vanilla icecream, any combination of chocolate bars (my favorite this year is pepermint areo x 2, malteasers, turkish delight and cherry ripe).

Slightly melt the ice-cream and chop the chocolate and  guard this with your life from little fingers wanting tastes, mix and put in a bowl lined with cling wrap freeze for about 24 hours then serve. 

I serve this with berries or mango on top just to balance all the chocolate and because it looks deceptively healthy to anyone that doesn't know that they are about to eat a huge bowl of ice cream and chocolate.

I will guarantee if you make this there will be no leftovers, unless you sneak some away for yourself by cutting a huge slice for yourself and hiding half in the back of the freezer for later, not that I do that.... just saying!!

Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy the BEST CHRISTMAS CAKE.... EVER!!

Christmas Craft Princess

I have been in lockdown in this town for what seems like soooo long (I escaped for 1 day trip, so a total of 7 hours and 36 mins away in 4 weeks) and the weather has been a little warm so we have all been spending loads of time inside.....together. So what's a girl to do? Well with Christmas around the corner I seemed to turn into Martha Stewart, or some craft obsessed Princess from another land that I don't even recognise. The thing is I didn't think I liked crafting, sure I love knitting, baking and sewing, but craft yuck!!. I actually complained at the school last year that the kids did too much Christmas Craft as they bought home paper after paper of decorations,(note: take photos of any artworks that the kids are attached to before you bin them, then you can show them the photo when they ask. For artwork and craft that are really cool create a digital art book for them, its heaps easier to store them on the computer and great to share with family and friends), but the last few weeks have made me realise while I hate crappy craft, I love useful craft.... there is a big difference (Sure!) Anyway here are some of our projects, they are quick, will keep the kids amused (which may prevent heads little being scarred for life buy cranky sisters), easy, and best of all.... USEFULL!!

 

Gift Tags

1. We made these over a few sessions, the kids used Christmas Stamps to go crazy out the back with butchers paper. Session 1 done!

 

 

 

2. Then Master 3 and I practised his scissoring skills (for like 30 seconds) then I cut the shapes out while watching re-runs of Project Runway and drinking tea.
3. Miss 6 and I then cut out some Japanese Paper into shapes, and glued them with the stamped Christmas shapes onto cardboard. Merry Christmas 2013 and a hole punch...Ta Da Christmas Gift Tags!

 

 



Outdoor Christmas Tree

 

This was crazy easy and was an attempt to show Master 3 that sticks are useful for things other than chasing his sisters around with. He is still chasing his sisters with sticks but this project made use of his weapon stash in his room. We collected sticks from everywhere, painted them using the left over paint from the gift tag stamping and arranged them in order. We then bought a garden stake, whitewashed it and screwed the wood on in order and... Wallah.... Outdoor Christmas Tree. (This may end up as a bean climber in a second life after December 25).



Wreath



I loved looking at these last year and we have never had a wreath. I thought the wool ones were pretty and would be a great use of extra wool I had lying around but the whole cardboard circle thing was a task in itself, so I never got round to it. Then I saw this... http://www.craftstylish.com/item/8659/how-to-make-a-finger-wrapped-pom-pom easy finger wrapped pom poms. Our little hands made many in such a short amount of time, we even had extras for the tree. I love our bright wreath!!

 

Teachers Gifts

We have beautiful staff at the school here. There are about 26 students and 7 staff including Administration, Teachers, Principal and Teacher Aides, so they all know the kids really well. For gifts for the teachers we made some Bliss Balls (raw cacao, LSA, raw almonds, rolled oats, dates, apricots, sultanas, blitzed in mixxy and  rolled in coconut or raw cacao) and Chocolate Fudge balls (biscuits, condensed milk, coconut, and raw cacao blitzed in mixxy and rolled in coconut). We then put them in sterile glass jars topped with Christmas Fabric bought up by Granny from NSW (thanks so much xxx) and finished with a gift tag. Miss 8 sewed around all the edges of the fabric all by herself and Master 3 helped in the cooking and taste testing. Beautiful!

 

 

 

Our Artwork

We were so lucky to be given a canvas from one of the teachers that is sadly leaving at the end of the year. In the spirit of Klimt who I love we created a family artwork. Miss 8 painted the background, Miss 6 and I painted the trunk and branches and then we all used our fingerprints to create the leaves. Little love had to use his toes... Its now hanging in our lounge room.

 

Our Tree

Our Tree this year is a branch from the Mango Tree. Decorated with all sorts of decorations. When we moved here we ditched our old plastic tree and we haven't bought a new one. Last year the Mango Tree served us well, I am not sure we will ever have a plastic one again!

These craft little projects are so easy, useful and have elements that can be done by all age groups.... Me crafting away... Who would have thought? Its amazing what so much time at home, in the heat can do!!!

 

 

My Weapons....

 

This week has been a little focussed on weapons in our house. Possibly because master 3 ended up at hospital at 8am Saturday morning getting his head glued together as a result of a Spinjitsu fight with one of his sisters who shall remain nameless. Her weapon was a medal, Master 3 thought it was great and has not learned a thing from the experience.

 

 

We all need weapons in life, things that we arm ourselves with to make the daily battles a little easier, a bag of popcorn for the kids at the shops for example.  A few weeks ago I was feeling a little 'meh' tired all the time, hot all the time, grumpy and a little shouty some of the time you know just 'meh'. Then I thought what can I do to make this all a little easier and I remembered a book I read recently by Paul de Gelder 'No Time for Fear'. This guy was the Navy clearance diver attacked by a shark in Sydney Harbour a few years ago. One line from the book jumped out at me.... "use sleep as your weapon". Which got me thinking.... I had been staying up late till about 11pm every night just to have some me time, but I was waking up at least once a night for Littleloves feeds and then up for good at about 5am without any downtime during the day... so even though I was getting a couple of hours me time every evening I really wasn't sleeping enough. So I decided to 'use sleep as my weapon' and set myself a bedtime. 9pm knitting needles down, 9:30pm bed, and it worked!!So I have achieved something Mum and Dad never could at 32 I finally have a bedtime.....(My Mum and Dad will be sitting in their recliners with a bottle of Red between them reading this and giggling and I say it now guys... you were right all along!!) For two ish weeks I have kept up this bedtime and I feel great, Littlelove has even slept through a few times since and I think its because I am feeling relaxed and not so tired so his feeds have been better!

 

 

 

At the same time I also set myself a Yoga challenge, to do at least 10 mins of Yoga every day. Its so easy as a Mum to let everyone's needs come before your own. There is ALWAYS something that needs to be done, washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, the list is endless and its so very easy to put these tasks in front of any time for yourself so I the spirit of paying myself first (thanks Oprah) I decided I would make it as important as one of those other things and set myself the goal at least 10 mins a day! Some days I only get 10 mins done right before bed as a relaxation. Other days I manage 20 or 30 mins when its still dark and its just Little love and I awake, but its been lovely getting to do something just for me every day!!

 

 

With Christmas coming up its lovely to be heading into it feeling good and refreshed. We are heading away on holidays soon so it will all fall by the wayside while we are away, Life is too short to go to sleep at 9:30pm when you are on holidays and visiting family you see once or twice a year but when we get back and I start feeling 'meh' again I know what I need to do to feel better.....Get my weapons back!! I only hope that the kids can adopt sleep and yoga as their weapons of choice at some stage otherwise there will be more hospital visits I'm sure!!