homework...

Not sure if anyone has experienced this problem, but it's a daily occurance for me...my husband works 'asian' hours - Hong Kong/Singapore are 3 hours behind us...which means he starts work when they start and finishes when they finish...so he gets home after dinner...which leaves the afternoon/evening routine to me....this has never been a problem, it's always worked well for our family but now that Jake gets homework, it's a become a juggling act! He usually needs a play and relax after school - but he also gets tired quickly...so I generally get dinner around the 5:30pm mark....which is also the best time for him to do homework too...I've found if I leave it too late he's tired and if I make him do it as soon as he gets home he will rebel! So I've found I have to juggle cooking dinner and monitoring/helping him with his homework tasks...he still takes awhile and generally we'll be there for about an hour. Now this isn't so bad...but add to the equation a little SISTER and it's a whole new ball game!

...Jake is easily distracted...

...it often takes alot of concentration for him to complete all his homework...

...this is one of my favourite parts...the tongue doesn't stop...

Now everything looks like its going just fine...but what you're not seeing is this....

this is Layne looking innocent and watching from the other side of the table...

.....closer...

...and closer...hoping we won't notice until she's practically hovering over Jake and telling him what he to do...

...and this is her telling me what she thinks when I tell her to stop hovering over Jake and leave him alone so he can do his homework! (I was giving her a peace sign, trying to make her laugh because she was sulking...)

Give her something to do??? ...oh we've been there...if she doesn't have the same work to do as Jake, she whinges...and she wants to give her homework to his school teacher (and I mean walk into the class room in the morning and give it to her - no way out of that one!)...and then if I give her something different...Jake wants to do what she's doing because her homework is more fun and his homework is boring!...a word he never knew until he went to school!

....and last but not least this gave me a good laugh - Layne wanted to be silly for the photo and right at the last minute jake flashed his pencil in front of the lens to try to ruin the picture...and look what we get...Layne hovering...to the point of biting his pencil!

Ok so maybe Layne isn't the only distraction...and maybe homework really is boring...because mummy was bored enough to get her camera out and start taking pictures...and still expected Jake to finish his homework with the distraction!

Unexpected...

I've been spending time with family the last few weeks, with an unexpected visit to Melbourne for 2 weeks. It's been a sad and emotionally draining time for me with the loss of a much loved family member and have of course not felt like blogging.

Melbourne is and has always been a favourite for me - their old buildings amaze me and I love the scenery...but I don't like the COLD! I managed to take a few photos while down there and have come to the conclusion that although my heart wasn't in it....even if it was I don't think I could be a photographer in melbourne...I shiver and my teeth chatter too much in the cold and no VR lense is going to help with that kinda blur!!! I tried extra coats but it didn't really help.

My husband and the kids drove down about a week after I left to be with me... so I got some shots of them with their cousins...

Layne & Rylie are only a month apart...and Indianna and Jake...well they may be 5 yrs apart in age but I don't think there is an age on MISCHIEF!!


Please don't ask...I don't have an answer for this...she just came out like it...

Indi's tongue never stops wagging and those eyes are always bright with mischief...she provided us with a few good laughs!

I love these cherry blossom trees - and Melbourne is full of them...

We drove back last Sunday and got caught in a snow storm...yes...in...australia....my husband was a little beside himself with excitement, because growing up in Europe he was used to this kinda thing...but he acted like it was a miracle in Australia...ok so it doesn't happen often and NEVER in Sydney BUT it does happen...but it was the first time our kids had seen snow, they were SOOOO excited. We stopped to let them play in it for a little while but daddy wouldn't let them play for long as he was concerned about how bad it would get and how much of it we had to get through - none of us wanted to be stuck on a closed road in a snow storm....

so we kept going...it probably took us about 2 hours to get through to the other side of it which was about an hour south of sydney...and then it was completely the opposite - no cloud and all sunshine...two extremes!