An entertaining couple of days

I took DS3 to see the Wiggles live in concert yesterday. This involved a 40min bus ride each way. When we got there I was highly amused to see the number of prams parked on the sidewalk outside the theatre, and the fact they had 'Pram Control' people, lol.

Needless to say, DS3 loved the concert from start to finish. He didn't move from his seat the whole time, except to do a few brief dance moves, so cute. We had a seat riiight up the back (second last row) but it was in a good spot for being able to see the stage (just hard to see the faces on the stage, but who cares, it's the Wiggles!!). I think the funniest part was seeing Captain Feathersword and a 'duck' doing the MC Hammer dance! I was very good and wasted no money on goodies after the show. We have quite a few Wiggles dvd's and two t-shirts, I think that is sufficient. DS3 slept during the bus ride back, stayed asleep when I got off and transferred him to the pram, stayed asleep when I moved him into the car, stayed asleep when I took him inside and put him into bed, and slept for another hour until I woke him to go pick up DS2. I have to admit it wore me out too, I should have had a nanna nap, but had other things to do.

Today was a busy day. I went to work early (8.30) so that I could leave early as we had a birthday party to go to tonight (it was on from 4pm-7pm so we were going to miss some anyway)......

Right now I am negotiating a discussion about who threw balls first. I reckon mankind have been throwing things at each other since the dawn of time (I daresay Eve chucked the apple at Adam when she gave birth for the first time, maybe she even chucked the whole tree)....

Anyway....

I finished work at 4.30pm, went and collected DS1 and DS2, dropped them at the party, collected DS3 from daycare, came back to the party. It is amazing how much noise ten boys can make! Surely girls aren't as noisy. It is like boys compete to see who can be the loudest! they had a Pinyata (wow, I don't know how to spell this word and I really can't be bothered looking it up). It was a papier mache balloon and DS1 managed to break the stick over it, instead of breaking the thingy (lol). They found a thicker stick but still no-one could break it, so they ended up playing soccer with it until it broke! Pretty entertaining. My friend (mother of the birthday boy) made it and had done layer after layer of paper, it was really thick. I find Pinyata's scary because of the stick, it is so easy for accidents to happen, but the boys were kept back and under vague control so nothing happened.

We stayed until after 7pm, I helped my friend with some of the cleaning up. I was glad to go home, I had been feeling sick and headachy all day. I think I will have an early night. DS3 is in bed and the other two are having a ball fight with the balls that I bought for the ball pit. This has been a pretty regular game for the last couple of weeks, I allow it as long as they clean up the balls.

DS1 has completed his half year exams, he seems confident.

I spoke to my best friend (13yrs and counting) tonight, she is looking forward to having bub arrive in 10 days. I am so excited about going to see her next week and having a cuddle with her new baby. I have quilts for her baby and her 3yr old nearly finished, I'll do some major work on them this weekend and will post photos (tried to do it tonight but having issues).

We have soccer in the afternoon tomorrow, yay, I can have a sleep in until 8am, lol, if DS3 lets me.

Since DS2's 8th birthday falls while we are away we are having his party on this Sunday instead. We are going to a massive indoor playground with 10 of his buddies. Everything is catered for so I don't have to worry about it, and it is still only costing what I would have spent if I had done it myself (except it involves alot less stress and NO cooking, yay). I think I will still do a cake for him on his actual birthday, and I will give him his pressies then.

Daycare announced today that they are putting their fees up another $5 per day from 1st July. I can appreciate why, but since my pay doesn't go up too it is going to make it a teeny bit tougher. It is already now at the point where I 'make' $4.50 an hour (what is actually left after I pay for childcare and petrol). Thank god I don't rely on my pay for anything really important, like rent and food. But I am noticing my food bill creeping up, what I could buy for $100 six months ago is now costing $130. Add to that the cost of petrol and I wonder how other people survive. We are fine because we have LPG installed, but if we relied just on petrol then I couldn't afford to work. Seems extreme, but having to fill the car would wipe out my income every week, how would I be able to justify working at all?

My boss told me recently that if I put my son into one of our council run childcare centres, then I can salary sacrifice, thereby saving on tax and having more take home pay. I am seriously considering this and will actually be at the relevant centre on Monday, so will have a look around and a chat to the director about fees and other stuff. I don't think the standard of care will be any less than what DS3 gets now. I was discussing the current centre with another mum today and she is considering moving her child too. We discovered that we both had some issues with the skill level and professionalism of a couple of the centre workers and also we were concerned that there is no structured program for kids over 2yrs old. I realise that DS3 is not even 2yrs old yet, but with the shortage of care where we are it pays to think ahead and get him settled in somewhere he is maybe going to stay long term.

Haven't heard from DH for a week. He replied to my email claiming that I had misunderstood him, as usual, well...whatever. I would rather a 'hello' than a'where were you', it really sets the tone for the whole conversation.