Crazy adventurers apply now!

I don’t know why, but for some reason we seem to attract crazy adventures into our life. Nothing seems to be simple, things always happen to change our plans and on top of that, we’re usually trying to manage with two toddlers in tow.


Let’s take Saturday as an example……

We decided to go for a drive with our friends late Saturday afternoon and have a BBQ dinner. Sounds simple right? Nothing unusual about having a BBQ dinner with friends is there? Apparently for us, there is.

The main track started to look more like a river

Firstly, a drive and BBQ dinner with our friends means getting 5 children under four-years old and 4 adults into 2 4WD’s and heading bush on a dirt track. We weren’t even off the bitumen road when the heavens opened up and the monsoonal rains we had been waiting for made an appearance. We decided to push on despite a few fun slides on the already muddy main track and just take a drive for the fun of it.

Onto the track to the Latram River and the rain started coming down harder and the lighting began. I think at this point none of thought we’d actually be staying at the river for dinner, but what the hell, we were half way there so we might as well keep going.



The "puddles" on the Latram track



Miriam loves the bumps and was giggling every time we bounced up and down on the track. Meanwhile I’m having heart palpitations every time we drove through anything bigger than a puddle.

I think the small ones were a bit disappointed that we got to the river and just turned around and went home again – Miriam especially was all ready to go for a swim – but with lighting around none of us wanted to go in the water.



Following the G's through the larger 'puddles'



So, back we went, more bumps, more puddles, more mud sliding, rain still pelting down. Everyone eating from a box of Pizza Shapes (cause by this point we were all starving) and singing along to “Hey now Rock Star” (aka All Star by SmashMouth, the theme from the first Shrek movie).

Back at our house with 5 very wound up kids, we put the potatoes in the oven and sausages on the BBQ in the backyard instead of on the fire. The kids got the picnic rug out and we all sat on our lounge room floor and ate dinner while the rain continued to bucket down outside.

Not quite the afternoon we had planned but fun nonetheless and definitely an adventure to remember.




"Jazz Hands"



Family 'selfies' fun







These boots were made for walking

Our little Ezzy-bezzy has decided it was time for her to get up on her two feet and walk. She’s been tottering around for a week now and has it pretty much mastered. It’s hilarious to watch her walking around and negotiate stuff that’s left on the floor.

She has pretty much given up crawling and moved entirely to her new mode of transportation. It makes her look so grown up!

This morning she decided to put on Miriam’s gumboot and walk around the house. Didn’t matter that they were at least 10 sizes too big, she wanted boots! She also likes to wear her tiny little Havianas we bought for her in Bali.

Maybe she’ll have a shoe fetish like her Mum?

Organisation rules!!

The beginning of 2013 has heralded a new era in our house. I have made the jump back into full-time work. While many might think this is crazy with two small children, I love working and the kidlets love childcare. Miriam proudly announces that she goes “5-days a week” now to Turtle School and Ezzy smiles when she sees her teachers and her little friends.

After two weeks of full-time work I can see how thing could dissolve into chaos quite quickly. Being an organisation/control freak I am determined this won’t happen. I have a schedule of when I am going to do the shopping, pick up the mail, run other errands and go walking with my friend. I’ve also put a meal plan together so I can have some idea of what’s going on in the kitchen each afternoon. Like any working parent, coming home from a day at work does not mean being able to sit down and enjoy watching the news with a glass of red. In our house it goes a little something like this:

1. Pick up kids from ‘school’ which involves collecting all the lunchboxes, drink bottles, sleeping bags and dirty clothes. Pile everything into the car and drive home singing “The wheels on the car go round and round” 

Get all of the abovementioned stuff into the house including my work bag, without dissolving into a pile of sweat.

Put all the abovementioned stuff in the appropriate place – bag hooks, kitchen, laundry, shoe box etc

Peel off my dirty work clothes while trying not the tread on the toys that have already made their way out of the boxes and all over the floor

Throw on something from the pile of clean laundry accumulating on the lounge, affectionately known hereafter as “Mt Foldmore”.

Turn on Peppa Pig to keep the ‘natives’ amused while preparing dinner

Spend 5 minutes in the kitchen trying to work out what to feed everyone and then realise you have a “Meal Plan” stuck to the fridge.

Organise dinner for the ‘natives’ including feeding Ezzy while continuously telling Miriam to turnaround and face the table and keep eating.

Finish dinner and try to clean up the devastation while herding the ‘natives’ toward the bathroom.

Undress and bath ‘natives’, cleaning off all the paint, glitter and glue while singing endless renditions of “Rubber Ducky”, “Galoomph went the little green frog” and “I had a little turtle…”.

Get natives dried off and into their pyjamas.

Sit down with bottle (Ezzy) and read a story.

Put Ezzy to bed and start to make dinner for the ‘grown ups’.

Keep an eye on Miriam as she ‘helps’ to make Daddy’s dinner

Get dinner on the stove/oven

Read another story to Miriam (or watch her new favourite DVD, The Australian ballet’s Sleeping Beauty)

Tackle Mt Foldmore while dinner cooks.

Sit down and eat while watching something pointless on TV

Clean up the kitchen, put on the dishwasher (yes dishwasher, Thank You God!) and prepare the kids lunches for ‘school’ the next day

Hang out the load of washing I put on that morning before work

Look at the rest of Mt Foldmore and decide it can wait till tomorrow

Finally sit down and relax ready to watch TV and realise there is nothing on I want to watch so I go to bed and watch re-runs of NCIS or Bones on DVD.

And the merry-go-round keeps going everyday until Saturday when I finally don’t set the alarm, only to be woken by the kids at 6am anyway.

Have a Holly (and Allan, Miriam and Ezzy) Jolly Christmas

Another year in Gove. Anyone would think we liked the place….. Well we do, but it hasn’t been without it’s adventures and challenges.

Holly was off on maternity leave for most of the year. At home with two small children, as many of you will know, is a challenge in itself but it gave us the ability to go and visit our family. We travelled out of Gove at least six times, which meant our two intrepid travelers were frequent flyers (in fact Miriam actually is a Qantas Frequent Flyer!).

Allan was even fortunate enough to travel to Norway for work, with a side trip to the Netherlands too. Apparently it was the only place he could undertake a certain type of training (lucky him!!).

Our two gorgeous girls kept growing up fast. Sometime in August we decided it was time for them to share a room, as they had been doing so for most of our travels anyway. It has been a tremendous success and has brought the two of them closer together—if that’s even possible. They love to play together and Miriam LOVES to be the ‘big sister’, helping Ezzy to do all sorts of things. If you ask her, she will even take credit for teaching Ezzy how to say “Daddy”.



Miriam the 'dancer girl'



Miriam is obsessed by dancing (which naturally has nothing to do with her mother…haha.) and has been taking “Introduction to Dance”, ie baby ballet, for most of the year. She is now quite enamoured by Highland Dancing and has been putting on her skirt and hopping around the lounge room. Her Scottish heritage must be coming through.



Ezzy seems to have a more reserved personality than her big sister which might be because she can’t get a word in edgewise. Although, since starting ‘school’ in September she has starting to hold her own a bit more. Both Miriam and Ezzy enjoy chasing each other down the hall and wrestling, which mainly involves Ezzy launching herself at Miriam.

Farewell Papa


This year we were saddened to lose Holly’s grandfather, Alexander Hector MacGregor, aka Papa. Our girls have been very blessed to meet almost all of their great– grandparents and Papa, particularly, loved to see his family growing. He was never short of stories from his amazing adventurous life. We will miss him very much.

Squeezy, Glenda and Papa



Our girls are growing up

You wouldn’t believe it but this year we had a third birthday party and a first birthday party!

Miriam was desperate to have a Ballerina birthday party, and once an idea is in her head it’s hard to change it, so that’s exactly what we did. It was so cute to see 10 little ballerinas running around our backyard in their tutus—and a couple a big ballerinas too. Even the cake had a tutu! We danced around the backyard, hyped up on sugar and had a hilarious round of pass-the-parcel.



Miriam ready for her Ballerina party

Ezzy relaxing with her teddy bears

Ezzy had a “Teddy Bear’s picnic” party complete with a giant picnic rug and lots and lots of teddy bears. Everyone that came had to bring along their favourite teddy to join in the fun. She had a wonderful time with all her little friends, but being a 1-year old party there were probably more of Mummy and Daddy’s friends than hers.



We've been to Bali too

In June we decided it was time for another De Rooy adventure overseas. With two small children we decided somewhere close was a better option for us this time, so we chose Bali.

We were extremely blessed to be offered the use of a friend’s villa in Candidasa, about two hours drive up the east coast of Bali. Being a bit more out of the way than the other resort hot spots like Seminyak, Kuta and Sanur, Candidasa was the perfect spot to take our two little intrepid travellers.

Our super-confident 2 ½ year old was the hit of Candidasa. Strutting up the street to get lunch or dinner in her pink dress or red shorts and pig tails, she didn't exactly blend in with the locals. More like stand out like a sore thumb! But everyone loved it. She was very happy to chat to anyone and was very good at using the Indonesian words Holly had taught her. Sometimes it took a little prompting but she could say "Nama saya Miriam" (my name is Miriam) "Selamat Pagi" (good morning) and a few other phrases. Needless to say the locals found this hilarious.

For Miriam this trip was also culinary adventure. Each day brought new delights and some disasters, but overall it was fun. We didn't make her eat Indonesian food everyday - there really is only so much Nasi Goreng a toddler can eat - but she had to try everything. We had Babi Kecap (Pork in soy sauce) at the Pasar Malam (night market) and Sate Ayam. Even Ezzy tried new food, sucking back on a coconut in Ubud.

Our little intrepid travellers didn't not let us down, trekking with us to Ubud, Amlapura, Mt Agung, Tirta Gangga and the historical village of Tanganan.

The girls relaxing at Bali Santi villas

And so, after reflecting on 2012, we look forward to what 2013 holds for us. Will we stay in Gove? Well, circumstances outside our control may influence that decision, but we know one thing… whatever God has in store for us, it will be another amazing adventure!

Merry Christmas to you and yours and may the new year bring blessings of many kinds.

Chillin' in Canberra

***I know this post is late but I'm catching up on all my posts***

The dry season is a magical time in the Top End. It's our "winter" with lovely cool breezes all the time and temperatures even cool enough to warrant a light jacket or cardigan in the evening. We had planned some dry season fun while Mo was visiting us in July, but our plans soon turned to a much colder holiday when Mum, the girls and I had to rush to Canberra following the death of Papa.

Leaving Allan behind, we all rushed to Canberra to be with Squeezy and help organise the funeral. This meant packing the girls and I for two weeks away and leaving Gove on the red-eye via Darwin for Sydney all within 12 hours.... talk about an adventure! After borrowing another KinderCot we popped up two tents in Darwin Airport and put the girls to sleep for the 4-hour wait between flights. The girls were such troopers, sleeping for most of the time and then getting up and getting on another flight at 1:30am in the morning.

Needless to say we were all buggered when we arrived in Canberra!

In amongst funeral organisation, we also had time to hang out with the family and for Miriam and Zechy to play. Zechy also loved playing with "the baby" Ezzy, giving her lots of cousin cuddles. The girls did well braving the cold and by the end of the trip Miriam had fallen in love with her new gumboots and fluffy jacket. Even Ezzy was happy donning her beanie and mittens.

Despite the sombre reason for our trip, it was wonderful to see our family and spend time with them, especially those who we don't get to see a lot. There were some relatives at the funeral who were meeting Miriam and Ezzy for the first time.

After Canberra we headed back to "The Gong" for a week and caught up with more family there. The girls and I chilled out (literally) with Ken-Pa who took the week off work to spend time with us. Miriam enjoyed going to Library wityh Ken-Pa and having special 'baby cinos'. Ezzy got in lots of play time with her aunts and uncles and had almost worked out how to crawl by the time we left.

More on our recent adventures to come....

Dry season in Darwin

Before heading home after our fun times in Bali and Singapore we decided to stop in Darwin and visit some of our ex-Goveite friends who had recently moved to the 'big smoke'. Caz and 'Dre graciously let us stay at their place for a week, a decision I think both of us regretted a few times with many "tag team" wake ups between Miri, Ezzy and Cia. Overall though it was considerably calm with four adults and three kids in the house.

Whilst the boys were at work, Caz and I headed to Leanyer water park with the kids for some lunch and a swim. The swim turned into a splash because the water was so damn cold, noone wanted to go in!

Miri braving the cold at Leanyer water park

Allan was desperate for some 4wd'ing action after a few weeks overseas so we piled 6 adults and 5 kids into two 4wdrives and headed for Litchfield National Park. Having been to Kakadu just before Ezzy was born I was thinking "more of the same" but Litchfield was even more beautiful than Kakadu, if that's even possible. We had a great picnic lunch  with the whole gang, and a snake even decided to join in on the fun. Very amusing to watch all thr tourists chasing it around with their cameras. Thankfully it was not of the poisoness variety. After lunch we drove to one of the other swimming spots and got into our swimmers for a dip. IT WAS FREEZING and it became a very short lived swim.
The boys took the dirt road in for some extra 4wd'ing fun but on the way home we were too buggered and took the easy route.



Ezzy enjoying watermelon at lunch. Don't think I've seen her this excited over food!

Family photo at the waterfalls

Please Dad don't make me go in!

Because I have never been, and cause it's the 'thing' to do in dry season Darwin, we went to Mindil Beach markets. The sunset across the beach really was spectacular and even though there weren't many people when we arrived the place was packed by the time the sun went down. With so many yummy things on offer for dinner the choice was hard - I eventually settled for Yiros. Didn't buy anything at the rest of the markets but it was really interesting to look around.

Allan and Miri at Mindil Beach

Ezzy getting ready to watch the sunset

After another week of shopping and good food it was time to head back to Gove. Reality had to set back in at some point. Thankfully we knew we were headed out again in August so it wasn't that long to wait before we could savour good coffee and good food again. Or so we thought.......



Allan enjoying a giant coffee before heading back to Gove

More fun food and family in Singapore

After leaving Bali we made the two hour plane trip to Singapore for another week of food, fun and this time, family. My step-brother and his new wife had moved to Singapore earlier in the year and Miri was very excited to visit her Uncle Ben and Aunty Nemo (aka Naomi).

Ezzy only had Eyes for Uncle Ben at dinner in Little India

We decided to live it up a bit and stayed at the same place we did last time we were in Singapore before kids. We can highly recommend the Royal Plaza on Scotts - even with kids it was a great experience. The staff are amazing (one of the cleaners on our floor was called Mariam and she and Miri built a special bond over their names - it was so cute) and the breakfast buffet is like nothing else on this planet!

Ezzy's sleeping arrangement in our hotel room (all four of us in one room was a tight squeeze)

It goes without saying that we didn't copious amounts of shopping so I won't talk about that bit. Other than shopping we went on the Singapore Flyer (giant ferris wheel thing), ate chilli crab with Ben and Naomi at Jumbo's and took the kids to the Singapore Zoo.

Naomi, Ben and Allan at Jumbo's

Miri lining up the drinks while out bar hopping with Ben and Nemo (hahahaha)

Again, the kids were absolute troopers. They stayed up late and slept late, walked long distances and ate more new things. Overall I think our favourite Singapore experience was the zoo. Miriam absoluted loved seeing all the animals and Ezzy was of an age where she enjoyed looking at things too. A lot of the Singapore enclosures are interactive or you can walk through them which means the animals are really close. I think Miriam nearly wet her pants when we got to walk through the Madagascar enclosure and the saw the "move it move it's" (aka lemurs).


Allan, Miri and a "move it move it"

Singapore is a wonderful place to take kids. It's safe, clean and they even have little toilets for kids in a lot of places! Miriam was obsessed with going on the trains and the MRT is an excellent way to get around. Our kids are cute at the best of times (even if I do say so myself) and they were an absolute hit on the trains with Miri chatting away about trains and Ezzy smiling at everyone.

Couldn't wipe the smile off her face!

I've been there four times now and I'll definately go again - I 'heart' Singapore!

Been there, done that, we've been the Bali too!

I know I've had a major hiatus from the blog but when you read these next few posts you'll understand why. The De Rooy's have barely sat still these last three months! And the fun continues..... but I'll save that for another post

Earlier in the year we decided it was time for another De Rooy adventure overseas. Seeing as we had two small children to travel with this time we went with the easy option - Bali! After flying to Darwin (about an hour) Bali is only a two hour flight for us. Much more manageable with two small children than our last adventure to the USA and Canada.

We were extremely blessed to be offered the use of a friends villa in Candidasa (about two hours drive up the east coast of Bali) - a place I visited when I last went to Bali in 1988. Being a bit more out of the way than the other resort hot spots like Seminyak, Kuta and Sanur, Candidasa was the perfect spot to take our two little intrepid travellers.

The De Rooys at Bali Santi in Candidasa

Our super-confident two and a half year old was the hit of Candidasa. Strutting up the street to get lunch or dinner in her pink dress or red shorts and pig tails, she didn't exactly blend in with the locals. More like stand out like a sore thumb! But everyone loved it. She was very happy to chat to anyone and was very good at using the Indonesian words I had taught her. Sometimes it took a little prompting but she could say "Nama saya Miriam" (my name is Miriam) "Selamat Pagi" (good morning) and a few other phrases. Needless to say the locals found this hilarious.

The "De Rooy stack"



Both Allan and I have eaten Indonesian food many times before. In fact, Sate Ayam (chicken) is one of my favourite meals. I haven't found anywhere in Australia that makes it like they do in South East Asia. For Miriam, however, this trip was a culinary adventure. Each day brought new delights and some disasters, but overall it was fun. We didn't make her eat Indonesian food everyday - there really is only so much Nasi Goreng a toddler can eat - but she had to try everything. We had Babi Kecap (Pork in soy sauce) at the Pasar Malam (night market) and Sate Ayam at the Watergarden. Astrid and I had eaten at the Watergarden when we came to Bali in '88. I'd like to say it was a trip down memory lane but being 8 I don't remember all that much. Even Ezzy tried new food, sucking back on a coconut in Ubud.

 

One of my favourite photos from the trip

Our little intrepid travellers didn't not let us down, trekking with us to Ubud, Amlapura, Mt Agung, Tirta Gangga and Tanganan. Probably the roughest day was when we went to Tanganan for a coming-of-age ceremony. Only occurring once a year, the ceremony involved young boys fighting each other with pandanas leaves for swords. Every man, women, child, dog and motorbike for miles around was there and a few hundred tourists as well. It was chaos!!! We had a wonderful lunch with our driver Wayan's family (with it's own culinary delights such as shredded prok marinated in pigs blood.....ugh!) and in true Balinese style they doted on our children. After lunch we took up residence as close to the ceremonial stage as possible. Hours and hours later the fighting finally got started, however myself and girls were so shattered from standing half the day in the heat that we left only 10 minutes after it started. It was an interesting cultural experience nonetheless.

The only bit of ceremonial fighting we saw

Allan rehydrating Ezzy while we waited



After 9 days in Candidasa we said goodbye to Wayan, his wife Comang, Gary (the Aussie hotdog guy), Taman the fisherman and Adi; and headed to Seminyak for one night. Friends from our Church in Brisbane had moved to Bali a few months ago so we were able to catch up with them and they showed us around during our short stay. After being in the relative quiet of Candidasa I am glad we didn't stay long in Seminyak - it was crazy! Our villa was enormous (we were upgraded) and so stunningly beautiful I nearly cried.

Our room looking out onto our private plunge pool (oh yeah skinny dipping!)

Ezzy and I on Seminyak Beach

That was a VERY quick wrap up of our Bali adventure but if you ask Miriam next time you see her she will be only too happy to regale you with tales of our holiday in our "Bali House".

Toot toot, chugga chugga, big girls bike!

Last Christmas we bought Miriam a bike. It was one of those little kids ones with training wheels and a handle for Mum/Dad to hold onto and steer with. She LOVES it. I think at first she just loved an excuse to put on her 'Dora the Explorer' helmet but now she is begging to ride her bike everyday.

Learn to ride a bike could be described as a rite of passage in our society - something every child learns to do at some point. And it's also a challenge every parent must deal with.

It turns out Allan and I have very different approaches to teaching Miriam how to ride. Al has a more "let go and see" approach, where as I maintain the "hold on for dear life until she has it right and then maybe let go for 30 seconds" approach. Lucky for Miriam, Al has been undertaking most of the teaching!

On her way home from "school" yesterday I managed to capture a few moments on film....

Ezzy, meanwhile, was content just to sit back in the pram and watch all the fun. No doubt soon enough she will be up and chasing after her big sister!

Our musical kidlets

I guess it's no surprise that our two gorgeous girls love their music, singing and dancing. With parents like us I think they'd be hard pressed to find something else!

Lately my days at home with the girls have consisted of lots of singing, playing our "musical instruments" and practising our ballet. Ezzy loves her bells and enjoys pressing all the buttons on Miriam's guitar. Miriams love bashing things (what two year old doesn't!) and playing the "plan-o" (piano).




Miriam loves to sing and we spend a good part of the day singing various songs. The lastest favourites include "Turtle song" "Rubber Ducky" and "Twinkle Twinkle". Ezzy particularly enjoys "Twinkle Twinkle" especially if you do the actions.

I asked Miriam to sing twinkle twinkle with Ezzy for the camera and this is what I got. Attention span of a goldfish....