What We Did When the Big Girls Went Away

Imogen and Charlotte were going away to the 'Reasons for Hope' weekend and they would be away for a few days, so that meant Sophie and I were in charge.

When we had waved goodbye to the big girls, we made some eggy bread to eat. Mum said we could rent a movie, so Sophie and I did the dishes as fast as possible.  After looking at a few movies we chose The Croods. Sophie and I made some popcorn then settled down to watch.

The movie is about cavemen and was really good. Have you watched The Croods? I think one of my favourite characters out of the movie was Belt.

Belt

The next day Sophie made porridge for breakfast. We ate it slowly before doing the dishes and all the jobs.

"Girls, would you like to go out for lunch?" Mum asked. She'd promised we could do something special together while Imogen and Charlotte were away. "But we have to do some shopping first."

We smiled from ear to ear.

First thing we had to get from the shops was a present for Nanna. When we had found her something and bought a few other things we went to get lunch.

We entered a cafe and sat down. A lady came up to us. "Would you like a drink?"

"Just water please," Mum said.

The lady walked off but it wasn't long before she came back with glasses of water.

Another lady appeared with some menus and we began choosing.

There was so many things on the list like quiches and salad. Finally we had all chosen. I wanted a egg and bacon quiche. Sophie wanted a chunky steak pie. Dad had salad and Mum had quiche like me.

I stared at the huge plate of salad, chips and quiche that was placed in front of me. How was I ever going to manage to eat all that? All around me people chomped and munched. I tried some salad. Yum. I tried some quiche. Yum.

Sometime later Mum was staring at my plate. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"You're nearly finished," she said.

"Yeah?"

"I didn't think you could eat all of it," Mum said.

"I was hungry," I said.

When we had finished eating, Mum told us to choose ourselves a cake. Sophie chose a slice of apple pie and I chose a custard tart.

When we had eaten the cakes we went to the supermarket and did some grocery shopping.

In the evening we watched The Croods again.

On Sunday Imogen and Charlotte came home.

I enjoyed doing things with Mum and Dad but I am glad the big girls are home again.

Australia Day Birthday

It is Australia Day and it's also my birthday.

Dad is reading at the 7.30 am Mass and Imogen is singing at the later one so we will have to split up and go to two different churches.

Sophie climbs out of her bed. She is going to go to the early Mass. "Happy Birthday," she grins and gives me a hug.

Mum enters the room. "Sophie it is time to get up. Oh you got yourself up." She turns to go.

"MUM!" Sophie cries.

"What? Oh, Happy Birthday Gemma-Rose!"

Maybe Mum thought I was still asleep.

Suddenly there is the sound of a rocket taking off. It is really Callum starting his car. He has to pick his girlfriend up before Mass.

I jump out of bed and head for the dining room.

"Good morning," Duncan says appearing round the corner in his suit.

"Duncan," I say, "it is my birthday!"

"OH, Happy Birthday," Duncan says.

I sigh. Maybe everybody is still waking up. But I'm not. No way. I am full of energy.

Sophie appears beside me fully dressed. We bound into the dining room.

 "Look," I shout. Blue tacked to the wall is a birthday banner. It has HAPPY BIRTHDAY written in light blue words and standing in front of the them are Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Olaf from the movie Frozen.

"Do you think Charlotte drew it?" I ask Sophie. She nods. We both know that Charlotte is the only one talented enough to draw them.

Charlotte appears in her pyjamas. "Happy Birthday," she mumbles.

"Thank you for the banner!" I give Charlotte a big hug.

A few minutes later Duncan, Sophie and Dad leave for Mass.

Charlotte hands me a crumpet. I sit down and eat. When I am done I jump up and run towards my bedroom. In a few minutes I reappear dressed.

Usually the birthday girl or boy gets a day off jobs. But today there are not enough people. It doesn't matter. Having the day off jobs isn't the best part of a birthday.

After I have cleaned the the cat litters and straightened the cushions in the family room, Mum offers to do my hair. Finally I am all ready for Mass.

Imogen puts her L plates on the car before driving down our street and onto the road. She is driving Charlotte, Mum and me to Mass.

After Mass we drive back home and open the front door. Everybody is waiting inside for presents. I make some hot chocolate and we are ready. Duncan grabs the film camera and everybody takes a seat.

"One, two, three," Mum says and everybody starts to sing Happy Birthday.

I grin.

Sophie gives me an envelope. "Happy Birthday!"

"An envelope! Just what I always wanted," I joke. Inside is a piece of paper. "The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns," I read. "Thank you Mum." It is a Kindle book and a sequel to one of my favourite library books.

Charlotte trots up next and passes me a package. I give her a big squeeze and probably give her a broken back. I tear off the paper and shake out a running shirt. My eyes grow wide. "I was wanting one of those!"

Charlotte gives me another present. It is some sketching pencils.

Duncan gives me a Rapunzel wig.

Imogen gives me some coloured inking pens.

Callum hands me a movie called Horton Hears a Who based off a book by Dr. Seuss.

Lots more presents get given to me. I especially like my Lego house Mum gives me and my owl necklace from Casey.

When presents are done Sophie and me sit down on the ground and we begin to build the Lego house.

"Gemma-Rose," Mum calls from her room.

I stand up and run toward her. "Yes Mum?"

"Do you want to go to that animal place we went to on your birthday two years ago?" Mum asks.

I nod.

"Get your shoes on everyone," Mum shouts.

Ten minutes later we have our shoes on and food packed. We pile into the car and we are off.

A while later the Dad parks the car and we hop out. The food gets carted over to the sheltered eating area. Dad hands me a cold sausage in a wrap with pasta salad. It sure tastes nice.

When we have finished putting away the extra sausages we go to look at the kangaroos and emus. There are two emus and loads of kangaroos and wallabies. After we have walked around the enclosure a few times we head back to the car.

In the evening Imogen cooks pizza and we eat in front of the movie Horton hears a Who.

Felicity rings to wish me Happy Birthday then we have cake.

I have had a wonderful day.

Feasting on Father's Day

Yesterday it was Father's Day.

We all hopped out of bed, ate breakfast and got ready to go to Mass like we do every Sunday. But on the way back home from Mass we did something we don't normally do.

Dad parked the van outside the supermarket and then he and Mum walked into the shop to buy something special for lunch. They came back a few minutes later. Dad started the van and we drove home.

"Everybody out," Dad bellowed from the front of the van. We all piled out of the van, trotted down the driveway and into the house. Imogen started to unpack the lunch and I smiled as I saw a container of potato salad, a packet of cheese, a bag of rolls, followed by some peppercorn ham and pesto ham. We all tucked into a good lunch.

 "Gemma-Rose, go to my bedroom. In my cupboard are some presents," Mum whispered to me after lunch. I dashed off to Mum's bedroom and soon came back out with a big bag of presents.

I chose a present from the bag and walked over to Dad. "Happy Father's Day," I said giving him a kind of square and squidgy parcel, and a big kiss.

Dad opened the present and a smile crept onto his face. "A pair of shorts. Thank you."

Sophie gave him the next present. "Socks! Groovy socks," cried Dad in delight.

"Here you go, Dad," said Charlotte, handing him another present.

"Ooh...arr...Um I can't get into this one," Dad admitted as everybody watched him struggling to get it open.

"Maybe I put just a little too much sticky tape on that," pondered Charlotte.

"Nuts! Yummy hot spicy nuts," exclaimed Dad when he finally got the present open.

"Another pair of shorts! Thank you Imogen," said Dad, taking the paper off another present.

One by one the presents got opened and oohs and arrs kept going round the room.

Mum handed Dad the keys to the car. "Go look in the boot of my car," she said with a mischievous grin.

Dad, Imogen and I headed out to the car. Dad opened the boot and inside was a huge cardboard box. He looked at the side of the box. "Ocean," he read,"You're giving me an ocean?"

"No, no," said Imogen as we plodded back into the house.

"Is it supposed to make all those click clacking sounds?" Dad asked.

"Yes," Mum reassured him.

Dad pulled out of the box lots of black pieces of plastic, then some black square plastic frames and four white plastic boxes.

"It all looks like giant Lego," said Charlotte.

"Does it have any instructions?" Mum asked.

"No. There's only lots of plastic," said Dad.

"I think this part goes here and this one here," Imogen said, helping Dad put up a rather tall tower.

"What is it?" Dad asked.

"Not telling," said Mum.

"Done," said Dad, standing back to view the masterpiece. "It's a cabinet with four drawers, isn't it?"

"Yes. It's for all your stuff that's lying on the table in the other room," said Mum.

After a relaxing afternoon we had dinner and ice cream. We did the dishes and then settled down to watch Oliver Twist. When we had finished that, Mum said, "Callum sent me a text message telling everybody not go to bed."

"Not go to bed?" I asked.

"Yes. We've all got to stay up till he gets home from work."

"Imogen, while we were at the supermarket I bought some crumpets. Do you want to cook some?" Dad asked.

Imogen walked into the kitchen and soon we could hear the kettle boiling and the toaster being placed on the kitchen bench.

We ate crumpets and talked until we heard the front door open and Callum walked into the family-room.

"Good. You are all still up," he said and with that, he walked into the kitchen.

Callum came back a few minutes later with a platter of salmon, olives, a orange dip, cheese and crackers. Everybody scrambled to the table and started filling plates high with cheese and crackers.

"I am full," said Dad as he polished off the last of his crackers.

"So am I," said Mum.

"But it was good," I said, getting up from the sofa.

"We better be getting to bed," said Sophie.

I toddled out of the room.

"Good night," said Mum as she bent down to give me a cuddle.

"See you in the morning ," I said drowsily.

Mum closed the door softly and padded off down the hall.

Everybody enjoyed Father's Day and the feast that came with it. But I was glad it was all over and I could go to sleep.          
   

Yummy Cakes

We always celebrate a special day with a yummy cake.

                                           
                                             My eighth birthday cake    

                                                           Happy Anniversary cake

                                       
                                                              Epiphany Crown Cake                         

                             
                                                            My 9th Birthday cake

                      
                                                Charlotte's First Holy Communion cake  
                                                           

                                                   Easter Egg Nest Cake

 
                                                           Pentecost Cake

                                                        Imogen's 18th Birthday Cake

                                                             Fathers Day Cake

                                                       Sophie's Confirmation Cake  


Tomorrow we will be having another cake. It is Mummy's birthday!

Swimming

I have swimming lessons. I go to the swimming pool every Saturday. It is a chlorine pool.

Mum got me a wonderful pink wet suit because the water there is very cold. I also have a rash shirt, a pink swimsuit and pink goggles. I like pink.

I go and play for five or ten minutes before my lesson. Then I have a half an hour swim lesson. I love my swim lessons. They are lots of fun and I soon warm up. I can do tumble turns, I can dive with a big splash and I am learning breast stroke.  I think I am lucky to get swim lessons.

After my lesson, I play till Charlotte has finished swimming laps. Then we go and get changed into our clothes.

I was glad that Mum got me swim lessons when Dad, Charlotte and I capsized the canoe, while we were on holiday.  We all fell into the freezing cold water. It was deep. I went down to the bottom of the lake. Then Charlotte grabbed me.  We got back into the canoe and Dad towed us to shore.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Movies

 Some of my favourite movies are...

Tangled.

Brave.

Muppet Treasure Island.

Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings.

The Incredibles.

Megamind

How to Train Your Dragon

I love having a movie night and watching one of my favourite movies. It is even more fun when Dad makes popcorn and everybody watches with me.

  
 

Kangaroos

There is a lot of kangaroos in Australia.

When Charlotte was little, Mum and Dad lived on a 100 acre block and when they went walking in the bushy bits they could see lots of kangaroos.

At Penrose Park (monastery) we see heaps of kangaroos just dotted around the place.

We have seen kangaroos on our street as well. When we were saying morning prayers one day, Mum said, "Look there is a kangaroo."

I rushed to the window and there was a kangaroo happily hopping down the road.

We also saw a kangaroo when we were going running.We were walking up to the bush track in the early morning.

"Look, it's a kangaroo," said Imogen.

It sat there in the bush looking at us, then it hurried away as if it was late for something.

Dad hit a kangaroo late one night. I think the kangaroo did more damage to the car then the car did to it. Imogen was afraid that the kangaroo would go through the windscreen and it would sit in her lap. Dad managed to get the car home. Luckily for me I was not in the car but I did get to see the car afterwards. It had kangaroo fur on it. Both the kangaroo and the car ended up dying.

I like kangaroos and their big legs.         
   

Angelica

Angelica is my guinea pig. She is about seven years old which is very old for a guinea pig.

We bought another guinea pig at the same time. That guinea pig's name was Pia.

Angelica

We already had two guinea pigs at home. Their names were Scarlatti and Hercules. They were more black then orange, not like Pia and Angelica.

Scarlatti was Sophie's favourite guinea pig.

One day Sophie and I are sitting on our beds before going outside. Duncan suddenly bursts open the door.

"What is it?" I ask.

"It's Hercules," says Duncan. "He died last night."

I burst into tears and run out of the room to Mum.

me and Angelica

Another time we are giving all the guinea pigs a cuddle except for Hercules (because he is dead). I am holding Scarlatti.

"The guinea pig is very quiet. Is he ok?" I ask.

"Yes!" says Sophie confidently. "He is just settling down."

I'm not so sure but I decide to believe her.

We take Scarlatti and Pia back to their cages and close the doors.

 I skip off to the house with Sophie to get Angelica.

When we come back I look down at Scarlatti and cry. "Sophie, he has not moved."

Sophie thrusts Angelica into the cage and grabs Scarlatti. Together we run into the house.

"Dad! Dad!" we shout. "Scarlatti is not moving."

 Dad picks up Scarlatti.  "I think he is dead," says Dad.

Sophie and I start crying in unison. Mum gives us a cuddle and tries to comfort us.

Duncan moves Pia and Angelica to the now empty boy guinea pigs' cage because it is a safer cage.

Angelica in her cage

Pia died while Mum was doing our hair and Charlotte had been feeding the guinea pigs and had found Pia dead.

I was strong and didn't cry.

Angelica in the sun

So now we only have Angelica who didn't really notice that Pia was gone except that there was more food. She is now the fattest guinea pig ever.                                                               

Daddy's Birthday

Daddy's birthday was on Sunday. Mummy and me wrapped the presents in the morning. We all signed our names in the birthday card. Then we had presents.

Daddy got a bike helmet. He put it on his head. He got two hoodies. Callum wanted the hoodies because they looked so nice.

After Mass we went out for morning tea/lunch (a munch?) We had sausage rolls. I spilt masses of tomato sauce on my cardigan. We also had donuts and hot chocolate. Mum and Dad had nice yoghurt.

In the evening Callum gave Dad his present. It was a black bag with licorice, chocolate covered almonds, nuts, and cheese and biscuits. I wanted to eat all the nuts.

Then it was time for cake. It was a coffee and chocolate cake. Imogen put in lots of coffee because Daddy loves coffee. Mummy put pink fairy sprinkles on top of the cake. We wanted to put lots and lots of candles on the cake but Mummy said we didn't have enough. So instead we put on two number candles.

We sang happy birthday and then Daddy blew out his candles. We all ate huge slices of cake. Daddy had a really good birthday. It wasn't actually Daddy's birthday on Sunday. We had it on Sunday because Daddy had to work on his birthday.

Twins

I would like to have a twin. It sounds nice. I would always have someone to play with. I would like to laugh when someone mistook me for my twin. But I don't have a twin. So I pretend.

Two of my dolls are twins. They look exactly the same. I like to play with them. I like to mke them act just like I would act if I had a twin.
Sophie and I are twins sometimes. We wear the same clothes, play the same games and pretend we look exactly the same. But we're not. I've got blond hair, and she has brown hair, I'm short, and she's tall, and I have freckles, but she doesn't. But we both have blue eyesDad and I are twins too. We have the same colour hair...well, almost. We both take coffee to my swimming lessons, but he always drinks it before I'm done. It's not fair!
I like being twins with Sophie and Dad. But I would still like a real twin.