Telethon Toddle 2009

Harry Chapin sings a song called ‘circle’ this song is apt when you think about life and how things go round in swings and roundabouts. I remember when I used to take my children to the telethon breakfast and building the money brick wall now that would be over 20 years ago. Now I am going with my grandchildren – life is really a circle! When you do these things when your children are young you really do not realise what impact it has if any impact. For my daughter Faye, she remembers those times as happy fun family times, going to meet Fat Cat, Percy and Humphrey B Bear, she now wants her children to enjoy the same things. I must say it is different now to what it was back then, it’s more complicated now.

All my life's a circle;
Sunrise and sundown;
Moon rolls thru the night time;
Till the daybreak comes around.

All my life's a circle;
But I can't tell you why;
Season's spinning round again;
The years keep rollin' by.

Faye decided that it would be a good idea to go on the Telethon 2km Toddle walk this year, and both sets of grandees can go along for the walk too. Yes great idea, I love being a grandparent, however I think I am old enough for the job.


Sunday morning is usually our sleep in morning – not this Sunday we are up at the crack of dawn, well not quite. We decided that as there were two sets of grandparents going we need more children to go, so we took Jasmine 4.5yrs and Talia almost 2yrs old. It was the first time we had taken Talia out without mum and dad – she was so excited, going out with big sis, nanna and pops. Talia proudly waved bye bye to a nervous mum and dad, mind you I am sure they would enjoy a few hours break with only Sam left at home (8mths). We would be meeting them later in the day for a family birthday lunch.

I’m not sure of the numbers that attended, but it was packed. I was a little disappointed at the organisation of the day. The first problem was the power went off and the walk was delayed for at least 30 mins. Dylan enjoyed watching Bob the Builder and Jasmine is old enough to really enjoy the dancing routines; her favourite was the bumble bees. The walk really needs to be a one way walk, not 1km there and turn around and come back. The path is too narrow with pushers, prams, bikes, toddlers, dogs and some oldies, not me.


It was fun to see the markers each 0.5km and we took Jasmines picture at each sign, she was really good and walked the whole two k’s.





As for Dylan he to walked but often had a ride on Dad’s shoulders, Talia was in the stroller for ¾ of the way and Isabella was in the pusher and managed a sleep. Both granddads did well, and off course the nanna’s didn’t have a problem. At the end of the walk was the ‘good fairy’ and the kids had their photo with her and received some fairy dust, off course grand pops wanted his picture taken, what a surprise that was!




I was disappointed that Fat Cat only appeared on stage for a short period, it would be nice if he could mingle amongst the kids so that the grandparents could take some photos, alas that did not happen. It was time for a nice cold drink and some food, thank goodness the other nanna and Faye were organised with food, as we were going out for lunch, I just took a packet of biscuits and some water. Better planning is required for next year. All the kids had balloons, Jasmine seem to lose every balloon we managed to give her. We took Dylan, Jasmine and Talia on the mini Ferris wheel - Talia was all keen to go on, until it started to move upwards, then the crying started and the call of 'nanna' came - it was time to go to the rescue and get her off - it reminded me of the time when we were in Durban and Faye went on a spinning wheel and really did not like it, in fact she was sick, so there was flying vomit!!! yuk, it took her a long time to forgive me and she was much older than Talia. So I was very worried about little Talia, I didn't want her upset or traumatised. Nothing some fairy floss did not fix.


A good time was had by all, we left about 1230 to go to lunch, I thought the kids would have a sleep in the car, you know what thought did! the others stayed and had a nice picnic lunch and then all went home for an afternoon siesta.

Be good until the next nanna adventure with the little darlings!

The making of Isabells christening gown

Isabella's christening was last week, Faye organised it for March and has asked me to make the dress. Which was not unexpected as I did make Dylan's outfit and his was a challenge because you want it to be special but boyish. Me I like grandiose, lace pretty etc, but for a boy well you have to curtail the pretty and lace, so I made a Satin suit, bow tie and a satin blue embosted waist coat. However for a girl, well, I could just go mad. But my daughter added a special challenge for me, that was to incorporate some family lace on her husbands side for me to use - some beautifully handmade lace which was around some pillow cases. The lace was handmade by Isabella's great grandmother it was quite heavy looked croqueted but it wasn't it was very nice but not what I had in mind, so I had to re think the whole outfit. I looked for a pattern that would enhance both my ideas of what I wanted and also bring out the best in the lace. I spent several weeks looking for material that would match this lace. If you know anything about material it fades or looses it's original colour, for whites they go yellowish or off white. I eventually found some beautiful off white satinish material, imprinted with a rose through out, it matched the lace perfectly. Faye and I both went to this fantastic store called 'Fabulous Fabrics' in Balcatta, what a store, lace galore from all prices we looked at some that were $175.00 per meter, I could not justify that, we settled for one that was $45.00 per meter and it was fabulous.


Now the hard bit was done, finding the pattern, lace and material. I set aside a whole weekend for the job of making the outfit, nobody was invited to the house for dinner and no looking after grandchildren or socialising with friends. A small problem occurred I had not used my sewing machine for at least a year an had forgotten how to use the roll hem feature - so had to call on my Shaz to help, we used to do lots of crafts together, those were the days, making teddy bears, where have they gone! just not enough time. Thankfully between us both we worked out how to roll hem the lace. I spent the whole weekend sewing - Bella had a fitting on the Saturday night, Faye cooked us a lovely dinner then it was home to burn the midnight oil, which is not unusual for me at the best of times.
You might well ask how do you fit it all in, well you know there is an old saying 'the more you have to do in a day the more you do' 'the less you have to do, the less you do' how true that is for me, however very rarely do I have less to do.
I thoroughly enjoyed challenge of making the outfit, where I added the lace was trial and error, it looked perfect on the bottom and around the sleeves of the dress, however the hat really showed off the lace and Bella, I am sure great grandmother would be smiling from heaven, both Nanni's and mum were delighted and Bella is truly blessed.

I get such joy out of making things for the children, I feel the days of hand making are over, it is so expensive now to make your own clothes. Material is not cheap any more and then off course there is your own time and labour. When my children were small it was cheaper to make there clothes, now it is not, apart from the personal pleasure there is no benefit from it at all.
My consolation is that in generations to come I will be the great grandmother smiling from heaven and I will be remembered for making this gown and a tradition continues.

I am so happy & grateful for having a wonderful family.


Dylan's Christening 16 October 2006 & Jessica

Kings Park Adventure

Yes Nanna we will be good.

View from Kings Park over looking Perth.

I have been meaning to right up this adventure for some months now, but as usual life is so busy and time passes so quickly. I have however drafted many starts to this blog, each one different from the other, finally I have begun.
It’s funny as you get older as a parent, your children began to treat you as if you were the child – both kids (now in their 30’s twins) were a little unsure that I was going to be able to manage the grandchildren on my own – I had no doubt about it at all, in fact was very excited about it. Needless to say Dylan 3yrs and Jessica 3yrs were delightful and also excited that Nanna was taking them out to her favourite park. They chatted endlessly in the car, both trying to outdo the other. Dylan, “Jessie my daddy is at work today, he works lots”, Jessica, “yes Dylan my daddy is working lots to and he loves me”, Dylan, “my daddy loves me too”. They talked nonstop the whole journey, not one argument, just continuous one-up-man ship. It was very funny to listen too, I should have tapped it and added to the blog, it was entertaining for me. I had such fun.

Once at the park we looked for a parking spot, which is much easier to find with two kids helping. I did not realise that the Red Bull air show was on the same day, and from Kings Park it is a bird’s eye view of the aeroplanes, which they also enjoyed although it was noisy. We started at the top of the park and looked at the War Memorial; the kids enjoyed playing on the walls and climbing the stairs. When you have time to just let them play it is so much more fun, I sat and watched how simply they played with each other keeping me in their sights, it was a real treat.


Let me help you Jess!

This is how you do it! Nanna come on!

Dylan decided he would try and climb every tree he saw, Jess was happy to follow and do rollie pollie on the grass, having small children gives you permission to do silly things as an adult, like rollie pollie down the hill, we laughed and laughed – it was now lunch time – time to cue at the kiosk, for yes you guessed it a healthy lunch of chicken nuggets and chips with mayo for Dylan and tomato sauce for Jess, orange juice and water. Nanna enjoyed a cup of coffee and a sandwich. All was eaten with great gusto, sitting nicely at the table under the umbrella. Now it was time for the playground, “let’s go Nanna.”
Now the kids run and run, climbing on every possible piece of play equipment with Nanna watching with her eagle eyes. Heaven help trying to explain to their parents something happened whilst in my care
I'm tired Nanna and I am going to rest!


We did it Dylan, look we are at the top!



Treats, laughter & fun were bountiful, great therapy I recommend it for anyone with kids, spend time having lots and lots of merriment.

It was home time now, and you guessed it, the little darlings slept all the way home, it was a quiet drive home. I smiled to myself with great satisfaction, we all had a fantastic time.



Aren't they just beautiful!

Welcome to my Nanna world!

I decided that I would start a blog about what it is like to be a Nanna, the good, the bad and the ugly! not that I have experienced any except the good.
I just love being a Nanna, I love the joy the babies, toddlers bring to my life, they make me smile and I think they are just amazing little beings, so impressionable.

However saying that there are lots of issues surrounding being a Nanna, besides enjoying the beautiful grandchild - it is dealing with the grown up children that sometimes create the most dilemmas.
Feel free to comment and share stories about the many wonderful issues surrounding being a grandparent, and finding that balance in life.

I will start with this one. I suggested to my wonderful daughter that I might take both grandchild to Kings Park for a few hours on Saturday - the lovely little cherubs are both 3yrs old, cousins. My daughter's response was "both of them", me - "yes, you know I did have young children once, in fact you two are twins - remember?" she laughed and said " you know you're not as young as you were then?" " you're 20yrs older" lovely daughter, she is really my best friend.

I am looking forward to the brave adventure of taking my lovely Little ones to one of my favourite parks.
I will report after the weekend to see if my daughter was correct!
watch this space!