Archive for the ‘Informative’ Category

Was just reading this about Disney and I love this quote right here

One of the most popular questions asked at the park is: ‘What time does the 3 o’clock parade start?’ “We call it the 3 o’clock question,” Giannetta said with a chuckle. “But the quality of your response is what matters. You need to think: what are they really asking?” This might mean pointing customers towards an air-conditioned spot to relax at while waiting for the parade, or suggesting a refreshment hut, restrooms, ride suggestions, or just a little interaction. In Disneyland, customers aren’t morons for asking obvious questions; they just might need guidance; both in maneuvering the park and in creating the kinds of memories they came for in the first place.

I think this applies not just in theme parks, but in lots of situations when I get asked really obvious questions. In each case, I have a choice: do I go for the ridicule and spend time on that, or do I just skip to being helpful. Sharole will tell you which one I seem to choose more often, but the truth is I’m not a completely heartless jerk all the time, and it’s reassuring to find a message out there that I can use to bolster my more suave and conciliatory side.

I was so excited to see a demolition derby coming to our speedway. My brother Edgar had dropped his kids over New Years Eve for a sleepover, we went to a pool party in Kellyville and sadly everyone fell asleep before midnight, except TJ. I managed to get a few pictures, so angelic asleep :)

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So we grabbed all our 7 kids and headed home we made it just in time to get all the kids in bed except TJ and we watched the midnight fireworks. My favourite is always the waterfall effect off the bottom of the Harbour Bridge.

We did some hard playtime at the Armory park come morning time, it’s across the water from our place it has flying fox’s, a water area, climbing towers, going in tunnels, slides, swings, climbing over ropes etc….

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I could add lots more pictures, they had a blast. They all got ice creams – bubble-o-bills and then we headed home for lunch they played for an hour or so at home then I took the kids to another park over in Putney, they weren’t as impressed there.

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The cousins all got on so well. We then headed home to change and headed off to the Speedway for our evening event. The kids got face painting, the girls got flowers and the boys got spiders. We had Monster Truck tickets for the kids. By the time we found a plot and got seated and ate some food, Toby took the kids over for the Monster rides. Sadly the queue was huge and wasn’t moving anytime fast. After about an hour or so, they gave up hope once the kids started arguing (Gigi and Amilia), so back they came. They were all getting tired. The speedway put on some fireworks and it was fantastic, I hasen to say that it was better than the New Years Eve ones I thought. The kids loved them also. Then one by one they dropped off to dreamland. (below Gigi and Dakota)

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The evening was supposed to finish at 10.30pm, but when it arrived, we still weren’t anywhere near seeing the derby :( however I wasn’t willing to budge till I saw it, my childhood memories coming back here. About 11.30pm it finally started and boy was it worth it, so much fun, one car turned into a U-shape, and another car just wouldn’t die, it was smashed all over and still keep on, moving on. Jordan was the only one that saw it, but the other kids got to see it on the way out all the smashed up cars. One more sleepover and then it was time to them to leave. But not before a slip’n'slide which ended up biting the dust after one use, they sure don’t make things sturdy nowadays. When Uncle Edgar and Aunty Karen came, TJ got out his R/C car and they had a spin of it, it’s rather fast.

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The cousins had a blast together and we were sad to see them go. But glad we’d see them again at TJ’s birthday party in a few days before they head back to Queensland.

Christmas 2012

Posted: 22/01/2013 by Sharole in Family, Informative, Pictures, Uncategorized
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I realised I am behind in our family news. So maybe a few short ones to catch you all up.

We had a family Christmas to-do on 23rd with my family it took place at a public pool out at Penrith. Aunty Mel organised it and the weather was hot and so water was a nice idea. Except for the fact Gigi and I forgot to re-apply sunscreen and so felt the effects of such an act. Yep both burnt.

It was really nice to have my brother Edgar down from Queensland. It was the first Christmas I’ve had with him since he got married. He had wife and 3 of his kids in tow. Jordan, Dakota and Owen. They were lovely kids and I spent most of the day playing games with them in the pool.

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Above is our mantel minus the stockings due to they were too heavy for our stocking weights once Santa had visited, grrr…. we tried so hard to buy decent ones first time round sighs but seems they weren’t heavy enough. So we put the stocking up once the gifts were opened. Notice our nativity we are so proud of it simple and gorgeous, just three items, Mary, Joseph and Jeses. We found that several years ago.

Stockings full

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Christmas Eve my dad came over for a sleepover so he was ready for Christmas morning with us. TJ was our first munchkin to wake up followed by everyone else soon after. Gigi was the designated Santa’s helper this year. We had Aunt Molly our first Christmas here in in Ermington , then TJ 2011 and now Gigi 2012, so I guess William gets his turn, this coming year unless we have a special visitor that trumps him. Any family offering up a visit?

What you see as you walk in the living room.

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As tradition dictates (our rules) we get to open our stockings each first up, then breakfast time. We had bacon and eggs. Then once that settled, back into the living room, a/c on, and time to open all the presents. This year Gigi had her big present in the dining room, she got a mini kitchen, TJ got an r/c car and William got a car (pictured above) and Rocky a little tikes mobile (pictured above). They all liked their gifts phew and we had a lovely time playing with all the gifts and getting some lovely family time. We had to charge the rc car so no picture of that one, yet.

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TJ and Granddad enjoyed a game of monopoly. Rocky was enjoying our santa pillow. And daddy got some hot tomales to remind him of home.

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Toby made sort work of those I didn’t even get one :) which was fine. My favourite American candy are swedish fish. We ate our big meal as a mid afternoon lunch, we had turkey, with seasoned baked potatoes and vegies. Granddad left after that and we relaxed and watch daddy’s movie from his stocking in the evening and went to bed early.

Awww… what a nice relaxing day.

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year.

Cubby House – Finale

Posted: 23/09/2012 by Sharole in Events, Informative, Pictures, Uncategorized
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Last weekend we finally finished putting the slide together and then this weekend we put the slide support on, so this baby is finally finished and now we can put other things on the to do lists for the weekend.

The kids are loving it and now their friends that were asking asking for sleepovers once it’s finished are patiently waiting for the invite. It’s holidays so we might make some kids requests reality.

Half of the fun is climbing up not just coming down!

Finito…

I’m getting this great new email out, well new to me. Apparently they have them for many cities, called weekend notes. Where people can post events going on, that you should go see. Well I learned about this one during the week last week, and brought it up as an activity for our family. We decided to do it.

Gigi had gotten a kite for her 3rd birthday and we’ve not used it yet, we have tried with no success. So this last weekend was it.

We started off seeing this cool fire cloud whilst stuck in traffic. Not so cool for whatever was burning :(

Bondi Beach has this event each year where families can come and fly kites on and around the beach. There were some supper huge ones. We managed to get a park in a good position which was great and off we set for a picnic and some kite flying. This was the very first kite we saw, it was huge!

Everyone loaded up and off we set, as soon as we put the bags down TJ says I need to go toilet (our eyes roll) yes we are used to it, but doesn’t mean we like it every time. But the time TJ and I got back, then guess who needed to go Gigi and William, so I said Toby your up, there’s no queue for the mens room. And needless to say he was back in no time.

We ate and let the kids play for a while, some were more photogenic than others.

I was quite excited I managed to get the kite up and going, Gigi gave it a big throw. I was surprised that it isn’t as easy as you might think, getting it up and going. Once it’s up you’re good, well unless the person holding it isn’t paying attention and it falls down on peoples heads Gigi, not naming any names now :)

We saw a huge whale, tiger, bear, and stingray. We all had a nice time. The kids even managed to convince us to let them go on the jumping castles. They could pick 2 each.

TJ – Dinosaurs and Catch a Wave

Gigi – Dinosaurs and Muscle Man

William – Muscle Man and Toy Story

All in all a lovely family day at the beach.

William

Posted: 08/09/2012 by Sharole in Family, Informative, Pictures, William
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This is how I see William most days, loveable and smiley, happy to play with his brother…….awwww….

And then there are……

These moments…..

This face was I can’t get this shirt on, my head is too big!!!!!!!

Here I am, pay me attention, yes take my picture……

“Check out my new moves Granddad on the Rapese” (Trapese)

William loves his spikey hair, he feels great when it’s done.

This is his “what you talking about Willace” face (show – Different Strokes)

And then this week William says to me “mum you are ruining my life” yep my 3 year old, seems it’s begun!

We managed to get a family outing in on the weekend. I had been wanting to go see this new addition to Darling Harbour for a while now.

We had a great time, it was quite good for kids, clothes to try on, games to play and things to touch and press, made for a fun outing in good old Sydney.

We also took in a picnic and enjoyed watching the kids run around chasing birds and playing with each other.

Some pictures of the fun that was had.

Some Australian History – Captain Cook and Ned Kelly – Ned was quite a looker!

 

 

 

 

Toby as a T-bird, Sandy and yep I’m a Pink Lady

 

 

 

 

The kids – Rockin it out…… with Jimmy Barnes and John Farham

 

 

 

 

What’s with touching my nose, Micheal?             I totally get this….now

 

 

 

 

 

Wow…. a house of my very own in Australia and the US!               Hello Possums…..            She’s Gorgeous -Toby’s thinking

 

 

 

 

Marilyn Monroe herself

 

 

 

 

 

William was very much taken with Delta Goodrem – as you can see

 

 

 

 

I saw that….. (says me)  well I caught that…… (says Toby) oops…… (me)

 

 

 

 

 

We even got to rub noses with The Aussies Prime Minister, the America President and the list goes on :)

We had a blast. Would totally recommend this as a good family outing, too fun……

Our backyard does have a slant to it. Toby was using blocks to make it level. Upon my insistence this last Saturday we had some friends help move the cubbyhouse over and we leveled the area and bought some fake grass so that the area would have nice feel to it for the kids. There is quite a variety of fake grass out there.

The stuff I ended up buying is much nicer than what gets produced naturally in this back yard, lets just say. And because the amount I wanted to buy would have left only 2 metres left on there role, the guy gave it to us :D sadly it was just shy of covering the whole area of the whole construction :( However it was enough to make it a nicer area. It will be nice not having to worry about wiper sniping up close to the structure.

In the move of the cubbyhouse Toby took off part of the roof and the stairs and climbing wall. Thankfully the move back went smoothly. He did get to attach the stairs once more, but not the roof yet.

As you can see it looks much nicer.

So now Toby can work on the slippery slide.

Things sure don’t move along fast with a family and this and that going on all the time.

Some progress – half the roof is on, the climbing wall and stairs are attached.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids are already loving it. Gigi’s best mate has asked can she have a sleepover when it’s finished.

We still have the slippery slide and swings to get on, then it’s done.

Toby attached the rest of the roof the next day.

Here are the plaster paintings the kids did in the last holidays. I finally took the pictures.

Can you guess who’s is who’s?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A sticker for the winner :D