Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A day trip to the Zoo!

Today Charlotte's school were lucky to spend the whole day at the Tasmanian Zoo, used to be called Launceston Lakes out the back of Riverside. William and I decided to go out there for the day and spend time with Charlotte as well as to get to see some animals.
William loved it and as per usual was every where! Charlotte liked the start as it was all te birds and they made a heap of noise and she started to make her sounds to join in! She was also very alert and looking around at the noises she could here.
William really liked the Cockato as it kept saying hello to him which he thought was pretty cool. I think he sat and watched it for a good 5 minutes which was a miracle in its self!
Other highlights of the day were Seeing some Tassie Devils, feeding the goats that were rather cheeky and puuting their face in your face to make sure you knew they were there. Seeing some very cheeky monkeys that tried to take the digital camera of Carolyne (one of the teachers) as she was taking a picture of it! Seeing some snakes luckily behind the glass. Charlotte getting to pat a Tassie devil, and just hanging out on a nice day, as first up this morning I thought that they would cancel the trip as it was showering at 9am today, but lucky for everyone that the weather was overcast but the rain stayed away.


William loved playing with Kobe and kept running up to him and saying baby.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Saturday Antics

On Saturday we had a great day spending time as a family. We did a few things in town in the morning, including buying William a new pair of shoes and some new winter clothes, he has all of a sudden had a growth spurt. Included in his new threads were a pair of PJ's that are Carlton football club, it was Daddies idea if it had been my choice they would have been St Kilda's!

When we came home we had time of just hanging out, Ryan was doing some preperation for a talk he had to do on Sunday and he was laying on the floor in the stair well and William tried to give him a hand.

Amelia was having some posing time! She was also snap happy with her camera as we finally brought some new batteries for it!

Family Pizza Night

On Friday night we had a family night and made some yummy homemade pizza's. The kids loved geting involved and William really enjoyed eating his olives! They are a big favourite for him he always is asking for olives to eat. Takes after his Dad with his live for savory that's for sure!
When I was shopping the other day I brought a Wiggles tomato sauce, because William LOVES everthing Wiggles. The funny thing is though he now has to have tomato sauce on EVERYTHING!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Crunchalots!

For family home evening on Monday we made some crunchalot biscuits (yes this is their actual name) and they were really easy to make and tasted pretty good. The receipe came out of a book Amelia got at the end of last year for her settling approach to her work. It was the first time we had used it. But this afternoon when she got home we made another batch as they were a good lunch box filler for school and we had ran out.
Amelia loves to help out in the kitchen and is a great help, she especially loved rolling the balls and then flattening them out on the tray, didn't get a photo as my hands were covered in biscuit mess as well!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A 5km Run

Also while we were in Hobart Ryan and I went on a 5km run getting in practise for the Women 5km run to raise money for Breast Cancer. Ryan managed to run it after eating the disgusting pounder but he was not well at the beginning of it and he told me he had to walk in a few stages. I managed to make it as well BUT it was hard as it is different running on the road comapred to a cushy treadmill inside!
I managed to run the 5km race on Sunday and finished 83rd out of 2000 people with a time of 24.21. Now that I know the course I am going to run it so I can try and better the time. I am only 8 minutes behind the elite so I have a goal to work to I would like to run it next year and come in under 50! I can dream can't I! I heard that they managed to raise $10,655 towards the cause which is great! I have a strong passion in jumping on board and helping to raise money for women's cancers as it expected that 1 in 4 women will have cancer in their life, which is a very scary number. So far I have a few people in my life that have had it and survived and a few who have not so it is very close to me as something I like to help raise awareness for and money to help find a cure. In a few months our family will be back to hobart and will go in the Mothers Day classic, this is a 4km run to raise money for women's cancer as well and it such a great thing to do. This is a three stage event they have a 8km run, a 4km run and a 4km walk. It's good that the runners don't have to worry about the walkers and like wise the walkers can take their time. I am hoping to do the 4km run then come back and meet Ryan and then walk the 4 km with the family. It is held on the domain, to find out more check out the website
http://www.mothersdayclassic.org/home/event-details/hobart/#where

A 4th Birthday Party!

While we were in Hobart over the weekend we were able to go to Henry's 4th Birthday party. William has never been to a birthday party before so he had a great time! He wasn't keen on the idea of having to share things with the other kids but he overall wasn't to bad. Henry's thing at the moment is Toy Story and he LOVES everthing to do with Buzz and Woody. As his present we were able to find a Woody doll and a toy story game that it similay to twister as well as a pair of Buzz Light Year undies. All the kids had a ball as they played pass the parcel as well as a game where they had to collect as many stars as they could. Henry cracked it when he didn't win either game and then said that everyone could leave now. He is such a crack up as he alwas has the funnies things come out of his mouth, and he has always been really bright with his words and very clear from quite early on.
The birthday boy having a great time.
William loved the play doh and kitchen set, he especially like the mixer that was rather loud!
Amelia being STRONG! Nice arms she must be working out
Josh is so cute, he is quite but can be up to no good as well.
"Happy birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Henry, Happy Birthday to you!"
The yummy birthday cake, all the kids were trying to pick off the freckles and leave the cake!
Along with the birthday party we also had time at Grandma and Grandad's where Amelia loved playng with the dog! She loved holding her and giving her little cuddles.
William was a really good boy sleeping at Grandma's, it helped that they had his cousin Samuel staying as well as it kept him occupied when we went out.
Amelia and Tilly.

Update on our comedian!

Well we travelled to Hobart and dropped the kids off at Ryan parents place on Thursday and then drove to the Uni bar in SandyBay. We got there on time and Ryan was whisked off to have a chat with the organisers as to what the set up would be for the night. They had 18 contestants and they broke them down into three sets with a 5 minutes break between. The compare for the evening was a guy called Josh and he was really funny. He is a comedian and a Libraryian from Melbourne but was born here in Burnie. He opened the night and then he introduced the first act. The crowd was huge a good 100 or more there. It was also a very differnt crowd to the one in Launceston. Ryan was up in the second set and was really nervouse. He did a really good job but he didn't get chosen to go to Melbourne. The winner was a female who I thought was rather funny as she took the mickey out of Bindi Irwin and her serial killer eyes! I also have to say that a few of the people that competed had in fact ben in it the year before and had come runner up or had been performers in the uni revue for some time which means they had a little more edge over performing in front of a large crowd! But overall Ryan did a great job and he can now say that he has given it a go! After the competition finished we went ot Maccas for a late dinner date, Ryan thought he would try a Pounder burger, it has 4 burgers, and four slices of cheese. He then thought he would be tough and order a large fries!!!!!! I am happy to say that I ordered a cheesburger and a sunday! he managed to eat it all but he did feel a bit ill after, I say sucked in!


Thursday, March 19, 2009

What a STAR!

Well Ryan has again become a celebrity! Today the Hobart Mercury had a little write up on him and how he is competing in the Raw Comedy competition at the Uni Bar in Hobart tonight, They even used a photo that I took back in December of him, so I felt rather good knowing that one of my pics made the newspaper! So if anyone in Hobart has a spare moment and they want a good laugh they should pop down to the Uni Bar in Hobart tonight it starts at 7.30 adn is $7 for students and $10 for everyone else!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Examiner Article

Well today I found out that the Examiner newspaper published an article about our funny Ryan winning the Launceston Raw Comedy competition so I have attached it below.

Northern comic has the last laugh
14/03/2009 1:00:00 AM
LAUNCESTON funny man Ryan Weeden has won the Northern Tasmania heat of the Raw Comedy open-mic comedy competition.
Held at the Uni Bar at Newnham on Thursday night, the competition is run by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Weeden was in his element cracking jokes, and said he actually ended up on stage twice because one entrant failed to turn up.
"I started off with some popular ones and just rode the wave in," he said.
Weeden is off to Hobart to compete at the next level on March 19, and, if successful, he may be selected to perform at the Victorian state final on March 24 for the chance to perform at the National Grand Final at the Comedy Festival next month.
The nervous comedian said the judges were encouraging, reminding him that this heat had given him experience that his Southern counterparts wouldn't have had yet.
"I've been tested and tried so I know what I can take out and put back in again," he said.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Raw Comedy Launceston Winner!

Well last night Ryan entered into the Raw Comedy Competition in Launceston. He was really nervouse and what made it worse for him was that he was first up for the night! We thought the competition started at 7.30 so we got their at 7 to find out that the competition started at 8pm. So we had to sit around for a while which I think made Ryan more worried about performing! We decided to grab a bite to eat which I must say was a really good affordable meal that tasted really good. So after hanging around the competition started. The host for the night was Gavin and he was a competitor in Hobart about 3 years ago and won a spot to go to Melb to perform at the national final. He didn't win but he has started in a career and now gets gigs around the place. So after about 15 minutes he introduced Ryan. I must say that I laughed pretty hard as I wasn't suer what material he was going to use. He used some very funny stories and the worse thing was they were ones that we had done together. To find out more you will need to come to Hobart next Thursday to the Uni bar where he will be performing again in the Hobart heats and to hopefully win a spot to perform in Melb. What will happen in Hobart is they will be recording the performers and then they will send it to be judged in Melb. and they will choose the winners. Their is also a chance to have bits of the performance shown or aired on TV or radio, which is why they ask it to be kept PG rated.
After his first performance for the night he went back on for a second time as they had to fill in time till 10 before another guy turned up. I thought he was brave going up a second time as by the time he went up the second time the crowd were rather drunk and they were a little rowdy. He did well but it was a lot harder the second time for him.
Some of the photos of our funny man!
This is before while we were waiting and Ryan kept pacing back and forward, he was so nervouse!
Waiting, looking worried.
No more photos please!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

What a weekend!

Well the weekend just gone was such a busy one for me as I was away most of it as a Youth leader for a special youth convention that was put on by the Devenport Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that involved the 14-18 year olds. It involved youth from all over Tassie and it went down really well. On the Friday night the youth from each Ward put together a DVD over the past few weeks to show, the theme was based on the youth theme this year is from 1 Timothy 4:12 "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity". It was excellent to see the ideas that each group had come up with and they all had done great jobs.
On the Saturday the youth participated in a service project at Newstead Heights school and they did gardening, cleaned the gym, and made some blankets. They worked really hard and even finished earlier than expected and then went to Punchbowl for a a kick of the footy and some lunch.

While the youth were at the service project Ryan and I took our kids into town and hung out at City Park, which was fun William loved the train, while Amelia loved the monkey bars, Charlotte just enjoyed hanging out with Dad.

After lunch the youth went to do some obstacle courses, which was great as they had stations set up and they were put into groups and they had to problem solve together. After this they travelled back to where they were staying and got ready for a formal dinner and dance. They had a great time and really enjoyed their night.
On Sunday everyone attended church in the morning and the youth went to workshops i the afternoon. Sunday evening we went to a great fireside that was linked up with Kenneth Cope in America, he is a guy who writes and perform inspiring songs and e spoke to the youth for about an hour, the Skype line cut in and out a few times but overall it worked well and the youth loved him. We also had a testimony meeting which was great as the youth love them.
On Monday everyone went to the pool at Riverside for a swim, so Ryan and the kids came along and had a great time. William LOVED the little pool and made some new friends at the same time. I must say that when the close of the convention came around I was rather relieved as I was starting to feel very tired from such a busy weekend, we never had time to stop at all which I think is a good thing when it comes to doing stuff with the youth.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Dorothy the Dinosaur in Concert!

How cool does William feel! Today he went to see Dorothy the Dinosaur and her friends in concert at the Princess Theatre! It was great and he sat for the full 45 minutes and didn't move he was captivated by it all! He clapped when songs finished and he wven managed to do the actions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but that was about it as he was awe struck with it all. He got to see Capatin Feathersword, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog, Postman Don, Fairies Clare and Larissa, and of course Dorothy herself! I was going to buy him something from the wiggle shop they had their but it was really expensive so as a result I took him to Kmart and he got a Wiggles drink bottle, something he needed anyway but even cooler cause it is the Wiggles. He is so funny as he has already drank 2 bottles of water just becuase he can drink out of the Wiggles drink cup, and this was in about an hour!




Dorothy had a few costume changes through the show.


Clare the fairy came int the audience and collected Roses that the children had brought for Dorothy, because everyine knows that Doroty loves Roses