Oeps.. three week update!

Another three weeks have passed. Gosh it's already february! The time is going really fast right now.
Well a short recap of these weeks.

The week of the 27th of January was fairly normal. I spend a lot of my free time with Meghan, the new au-pair of the Sims family (Marianne's old family). Tuesday evening we spend just chilling in the cabin. On Wednesday we both have our day off, so that is really nice! We spend it together. We decided to go and check out all of Barham, safe to say we did that in an hour (including driving there). We had lunch at the bakery and slowly made our way back to the cabin.

On Thursday I decided to make cupcakes with the kids. They didn't really turn out the way I wanted. They have been branded 'mufcakes' or 'coffins' (a cross between a muffin and a cupcake, for those who didn't get it haha). Nevertheless they were good, the kids (Laura and Jaap, the other lost interest) had fun making them and we surprised Christel with them after dinner.

Friday I thought was the last day of the kids' holiday, so I decided to rent a DVD with them. I know I was always really excited when we did this, and so were they. The picking-out-part went really well and we ended up with 'how to train your dragon'. We watched this in the afternoon. In the evening I learned that the kids don't have to go to school until Wednesday, so we still have two days of holiday left. So I need to think of something new to end the holiday.. Ideas are welcome! In the evening I went over to Meghan's and we watched a movie.

Saturday I went to Echuca with Meghan. This is about an hour away. We spend the day shopping, we both scored a nice top and at night we went to the cabin. We ended up watching 'the place beyond the pines', which is a strange, sad movie. Anyway it was a good day! Sunday I took it easy. I did clean one of the cars, that is the deal when I take it to Echuca, and met up with Meghan at the club. Here we bought tickets for a music festival in Echuca in two weeks. I'm excited to first of all have something to do, but second to go to a music festival and third being able to do it with Meghan. The rest of the day I just watched some shows and cleaned up a little.

Just two more days of holiday for the kids before the new school year starts. It's gonna be weird, because Hugo (the youngest) is going to pre-school as well. I went to the club with them, which as I'm typing it sounds really weird. Let me explain: it's a club for older people, which also has a bistro, a restaurant, a small playground and you can gamble there. We went for the last part :P. On Tuesday I met up with the other au-pair Meghan and her kids at the park. We wanted to do that for a long time, and now the weather was finally like 'you go ahead and go outside with the kids without melting and burning away!' I came prepared! I had morning tea (which is just fruit) and lunch with me, so we stayed there all morning. It was a lot of fun! For dinner I made 'osso buco'. And YES I didn't know what that was! Jolmer told me to find 3 recipes from my cookbook and he would see if they had the meat for it. All my choices weren't there, so he gave me 3 new ones. This was one of them. It's a stew and it was really nice! I did a good job and they all liked it! SCORE!

Wednesday was the first day of school, but my day off. I went for a run and to the club for wifi. Time flew by, because I sat there for 4 hours!! I met Meghan at the Long Paddock for a good ice coffee and went to her house to watch some tv, before heading back to the cabin. I had to babysit at 7, because Christel had to go somewhere. I was good weird to be there for nighttime. I'm normally not there for that. We watched some television and I let them stay up a little later, which made me tha bomb! Around 9.30 Christel was back and I went back to the cabin.

Thursday was the first real school day and the first day that Tim would go from 9 to 3 to school. Laura wasn't feeling well so she stayed home. I had only 2 kids! It was weird, but a fun day! I had some more one-on-one time with the kids. For dinner I made a quiche, which was so good that when I went with Hugo to put his pajama on the other kids ate the cheese from the top! It's apparently a keeper haha!

Friday Jolmer was home as well, because his days in Bendigo changed. We divided the tasks a little bit, which gave me more time again to play with the kids. At night Meghan came over and we watched a movie.

The weekend was a little different. It felt like I was on call (which I literally was), because Christel was away and Jolmer was on call. That meant that I had to take care of the kids if he had to go. I had to go at 8 am on Saturday, because Jolmer had patients. Around 1.30 he was back, so I went into town for a little bit. In the evening Meghan came over again and we watched another movie. On Sunday I had to go at 8 again, but this time Jolmer was back earlier. I made a nice piece of art with the kids to hang in the cabin. Around 11 I went into town again, but unfortunately I had to go back at 12. Around 1 he was back again, because some people don't think to take some painkillers before calling in a doctor on a Sunday. Anyway.. I wasn't called back for the rest of the day. I met Meghan again and she made me dinner. AWESOME! That's a good Sunday right haha. We rented a movie, 'memoirs of a geisha' and watched that in the evening.

New week (week of the 10th)! Short overview of the school days: Laura, Jaap and Peter go to school from 9 to 3 every day. Tim goes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 3 and Hugo goes on Tuesdays and Fridays from 9 to 11.30. I went to the park with Tim and Hugo in the morning, because the temperature was nice then. Did some grocery shopping after and the rest of the day was spend at home. Nothing really special happened, just did my thing, which is doing laundry and playing with the kids.

Tuesday I didn't have to start until 11.30, because I didn't have kids! I picked Hugo up and we had lunch. We had a fun day together. He helps me with everything, it's so funny. At 3 we picked the other ones up. After afternoon tea they were working on a play, so I watched them for a little bit and worked on dinner. The eldest three have karate on at least Tuesdays, so I took them there. Normally Christel or Jolmer do it, but they weren't home yet and Christel called ahead if I would do it. Christel got home about 10 min. after I got back. At night Meghan came over.

I've been in contact with the new au pair, which is arriving on the 25th of February, and she asked what a typical day here is. And then I realized I haven't really described that, so here it goes:
- I start at 8. When I get to the house I help where needed (laundry, just cleaning up, making lunch, getting someone dressed, helping with breakfast)
- Jolmer and Christel take the kids to school at 8.30 and then I'm left with either Tim, Hugo or both. I usually do some more tidying up and laundry. Meanwhile the kids play and after I'm done with what I need to do, I join them.
- Sometimes at 9.30 I put on Play School, which is an educational program that lasts 30 min.
- At 10 - 10.30 it's morning tea, which is usually some kind of fruit.
- After I do some more laundry, either putting it in the wash machine, taking it down and folding it or hanging it up. When that is done, it's more playing with the kids or just watch them and take pictures haha. If I need groceries, I do that also in this time. And a stop at the bakery and the milk farm is always on the agenda. It's kinda funny, because we get the freshest milk you can imagine. Pretty much straight out of the cow!
- Around 12 we have lunch. Sometimes I do this outside or at a park/playground. It depends on the weather. Then it's a picknick which the kids love.
- After lunch it's usually checking the laundry and playing some more. The kids have a really big imagination, so it's never the same!
- At 2.40 I make my way to the school to pick up Peter, Jaap and Laura. Hugo and Tim can play at the playground there, so I usually arrive a little early. I stay there until 3.15, so they all can play a little more.
- At home, usually around 3.30, we have afternoon tea.
- After this I start dinner. A lot of the times the kids help me. They like to cut things, even more when they can snack on the thing they're cutting. Laura helps me pretty much all the time.
- Around 5 the kids start setting the table. They all have a task to do and around 5.30-5.45 we start dinner. Jolmer and Christel don't get home in time a lot of the times, so they eat a little later.
Usually (which I have used A LOT) after cleaning up one of them is home, so my day ends.
Yes I'm a soccer mom here haha :D.

Okay let's make this a little longer! I know you like it! Just one more thing; THE WEEKEND!!
The weekend started a little early this time. I was going to the Riverboats Music Festival with Meghan, which was in Echuca. We were able to spend the weekend at the cabin of the sister of Meghan's host mom, so we saved some money on accommodation and it was really nice!! We arrived at the cabin around 6.30 PM. We unpacked, had dinner and made our way to the festival. This took some planning and time. We called the Moama Club, which had a shuttle service, to pick us up and take us to the club. We had a drink there and then walked to the festival. But it was a fair walk (and even longer when it's raining and you have to pee!), about 20-25 min. We were able to enjoy the atmosphere at the festival, so we knew what to expect the other days.

The main reason we wanted to go was because of the line-up on Saturday; Tinpan Orange and The Cat Empire. Our first stop was McDonald's, and yes I know how bad that sounds! I ordered, what I thought was a really nice coffee, a macchiato. I got something that you can swallow in one sip. I thought the guy messed it up and thought I said espresso. I later learned that it's just not what I thought, which was a latte macchiato. The latte part is what I like apparently haha. Anyway.. Next stop was the BigW (kinda like Wallmart) and buy some poncho's. We picked the ONE weekend it rains in Australia, so we needed them. We also had a nice coffee, lunch at the cabin and went to the festival. We got to the festival around 1.30 PM and scored some chairs. We saw Tinpan Orange and they were really good! Even a little rain didn't dampen the mood! We saw some artists after that, which were nice also! We went to Antonio's, a really good Italian restaurant, for dinner and made our way back for The Cat Empire! They were AWESOME! We got soaking wet though, but it was great! We ended up meeting some people from Barham at one of the clubs in Echuca. It was a great day!

On Sunday we only really wanted to see Paul Dempsey and he was at 3, so we slept in and walked around Echuca for a bit. We had an awesome iced coffee and both bought CD's from the festival. I got the one from The Cat Empire!! After seeing Paul Dempsey and having a pastry from one of the best bakeries in Echuca, we made our way home while singing to the songs of our new CD's! We had dinner at the cabin and around 7 I took Meghan home. I put all the stuff away and ended up watching 'Wolf Creek' on the tv.