Drama Drama Drama!

So in the last week of November a group of people came in inspect the hospital, and more specifically to look at the surgery department to assess their ability to meet requirements for intern doctors.  Now everyone thought this would impact next years interns, and everyone working in surg and the previous interns who had done their rotations already gave great reviews on the Surgery department.  Everyone thought everything was ok.  BUT IT WASN'T!  Andrew got called into a head persons office on Friday morning (December 7) and was told that the accrediting body had revoked Mount Isa's surgery accreditation and that Andrew needed to start work in Townsville on Monday morning if he wanted to get all his hours/requirements for his intern year... 

So the kids and I come home from playgroup on Friday at around noon and Andrew is home - weird - shouldn't you be at work? NOPE we have to move to Townsville for the next 6 weeks.  So it was all dramatic for a few hours, with us trying to figure out what to do!  Do we all pack up and drive over tomorrow?  Do we let the hospital fly us all there and then ship our van over?  Does Andrew just go and I stay with the kids?  We had to find somewhere to say ASAP so the hospital could book it for us (And almost everything was sold out because it's school and Christmas holidays!)  

We ended up deciding that Andrew would fly out Sunday night and be there for 2 weeks, then fly home for Christmas and then we would all drive out together for the last 4 weeks - drama drama drama!  It was quite stressful for a bit but we came up with a good plan!  I was really dreading being alone with the kids for 2 weeks, but it actually went really well.  

It doesn't feel like Christmas at all!

Elly wanted to look like a princess to take daddy to the airport!

As soon as we got home Charlie built daddy's plane out of LEGO

We found a 3 class sing and grow program for the first week of holidays
that the kids just loved!  Hazel especially loved the instruments

The library hosted a Christmas craft day as well that the kids enjoyed 

We borrowed this triple arch rainbow from the toy library that the kids had so much fun with!

Hazel's first experience with corn on the cob was a success!  She LOVED it

I had decided to do "the summer of ABCs" to get Charlie more familiar with the
alphabet - first up was A and apple smiles!

My friend Joanna is getting into photography, and so we went out here one evening so she
could practise on the kids!  Charlie and Elly love being in front of the camera!

B day! 

She's too cute

Charlie dressed up as Baymax from Big Hero 6

D day we decorated ornaments!

Wise Men at Mainly Music

We built Es out of marshmallows for E day

Elly wanted a crown of bows to go pick up daddy at the airport

Making paper flowers for F day

Making and decorating sugar cookies

mmmm cafe rio beans!

The Winding Up

Well not long after returning from our little holiday things started to come to a close for the year!  Since the summer school holidays are over Christmas, everything else ends too, not just school!(playgroups, music classes, etc)  But things slowly ended a week at a time really, so it was an ease into nothingness... of which I was quite afraid!  It's turned out not too bad so far though.

The library had a mailbox to post letters to Santa!

Primary presentation - you can hardly see Charlie in the second row, but he did amazing in the presentation!  He sat so reverently the entire time and even memorized and said his part!  He is so awesome!

Elly has become quite the little builder!

Kangatraining and therefore gymnastics ended in November!

I'm getting better at taming Ellys hair!

Elly's baby was crying so she had to breastfeed it! (and of course she needed the pillow!)

At Ngukuthati playgroup they had an aboriginal Santa - lol- the kids weren't too sure about it!  They went all out though with a bouncy house and cotton candy machine and popcorn maker and lots of presents for the kids!

Hazel got a baby and these cute antlers!

We made candy cane reindeer for Charlie's school party

Elly helped with toffee making
 (I was looking at this photo after and realized how unsafe it was! Oh dear...)

Some of ornaments Charlie and Elly have made in the past - getting things out to decorate the tree!

This cute girl turned 9 months!

We also made brownie Christmas trees for Charlie's kindy party!

What a handsome boy on his last day of kindy!  Big school next year!

Charlie and his best little buddy from kindy, Konrad (they aren't in the same class next year which I was so sad about!  I decided against telling Charlie about it...  he can find out when school starts!)

Charlie and his teachers - Miss Linda, Miss Rhi and Miss Andrea
(he's dressed like a bogan because they needed to wear a singlet, shorts and thongs
for their "Australian Jingle Bells" presentation)

Here they are in the "Rusty Holden Ute"

Tree decorating!

Holiday #2

So with Andrew working in ED and having shift work, we decided that on one of his breaks we should go on another little holiday to the coast! This time we decided not to tell the kids, so that it would be a surprise (and then they couldn't bug me about when it was time for our vacation!)  It was actually really hard to keep the secret, things almost kept popping out of my mouth!  Luckily I didn't spoil it and we woke the kids up at 4am and hit the road!  We had a couple of days in Townsville, to do some shopping and spend time at the beach, then we headed further south to Airlie Beach to the Big 4 with the 13 waterslides!  (Which is funny because literally the day before we left Elly drew me a picture of the 13 waterslides park!)  When we were in Townsville we didn't tell the kids we were going anywhere else, so when we got to the Big 4 it was another surprise!  We had a great time, and the long drives didn't even seem too bad... maybe we're getting used to living in the middle of nowhere?

Our first stop of the day had some dinosaurs at the gas station!  It was a good chance to run around!

A day or two after Charlie got his goose egg at school, Elly fell off a chair at home and got a huge bump and scratch,
(its actually still red more than a month later!) she was thrilled to have a little mermaid bandaid and wore it for a few days! 

These two LOVE swimming!!!

Hazel got her first taste of sand! YUM!

We love the warm lagoon pool!  And Hazel was a fan as well! 

The kids got worn out every day!  Elly fell asleep at dinner our last night, it was actually good she had a little
nap because Andrew took her and Charlie to see the outdoor movie after dinner!

So we woke up early to leave Airlie, and the kids didn't sleep much because the sun comes up so dang early!  I gave them some snacks, but Elly was just beside herself wanting to watch something and she was crying nonstop and then she barfed...  We were only 15 minutes or so from our first stop, and so we had to pull over on the side of the road to try and clean up the mess... well Andrew cleaned up the mess, I can't stand the smell of barf! 

Can you see her little bottom tooth?!?