shave and a hair cut

i am always on the lookout for the holy grail of children’s hairdressers – a barber who is patient and polite and calm. a hairdresser who is fast and gentle and efficient. a salon equipped with enough distraction to keep my rambunctious toddler occupied for long enough that his entire head full of hair could be cut. so far this search has taken me far and wide across the city with no ‘haircut heaven’ in sight. until last week…

until now, getting thatcher’s hair cut was one of those tasks i dreaded and consequently put off until the poor child had to start tilting his head back just to be able to see past his fringe. the reason for this being that without fail, every time he would have a meltdown halfway through the cut. every time we would have to take a time out to go and get a drink or a snack with a half-cut head of hair. every time i would spend the entire hair cut trying to distract thatcher from turning his head, grabbing the scissors, spraying the hairdresser with water, crying or anything else had may choose to do on the day. and every time he would end up with a less-than great hair style as a result :(

but last week we tried roll n dice barbershop in canning vale and things weren’t so bad. for $25 thatch got to sit in either an army jeep, plane or police car, watch movies, eat popcorn, drink strawberry milk and have his hair cut. he even got a lollipop and lucky dip at the end of it all! it was still by no means a relaxing experience (and the fact that I couldn’t make an appointment – just had to rock up and wait my turn did not help as it meant that thatch was a little bit over it all before she even made the first cut), but it was the best I have come across so far and I have no doubt we will be back soon; even if it is half-an-hour away. ooh, maybe rod can take him next time…

^^he just couldn’t wait to get in there. he maybe even had a ride in all three of the cars/planes while we waited^^

^^the finished product; all waxed up and looking suave^^

light the night 2014

on wednesday 1 october 2014, a few members of my family and some close friends of ours took part in the leukaemia foundations annual light the night walk around the perth cultural centre. to say that it was a stunning, breathtaking and emotional sight was an understatement. there would have been about one thousand people taking part in this gentle stroll around perth in the evening caring a light lantern in support of blood cancer research and seeing the blanket of lanterns stretch out around me was awesome. we all carried gold lanterns in memory of my lovely mother and others carried blue in support of the cause or white to symbolise their own battle with blood cancer. i loved taking part in this unique and touching event and am proud to say that our little team (mostly thanks to rod’s fundraising efforts) was able to donate over $1500 to blood cancer research all in memory of my mother. xx

^^killing time waiting for the sun to set and the action to start^^

^^it’s never to early to start a healthy obsession with selfies^^

show time

in what is set to become an annual tradition in our family, last week rod and i took the kids to the perth royal show. shockingly, marlow couldn’t have cared less about the whole experience, but being the older and wiser sibling, thatcher had a blast! rather than suffer through the crowds and heat of heading to the show in the middle of the day, we decided not to go until just after 5pm and it was an amazing decision – the weather was pleasant and it was by-no-means crowded. we did miss out on seeing a few things, like the bananas in pyjamas and diving pigs (yes, you read that correctly), by visiting later in the day but the fireworks and atmosphere more than made up for it. besides, i think thatch was more than satisfied with watching the dogs compete in the agility obstacle course, riding on the carousel and seeing all the bright lights.

^^^the train ride there is half the fun^^^

^^^coz it’s not the royal show without a random painted cow^^^

^^^and since I managed to get a photo of a cow and not a single shot of m and i, here’s a selfie we took^^^