What a great day!

It was a fabulous day. The weather was so good; the park wasn't too crowded (but we still could have done with a fully fenced area); we all had a ball.
We had 12 families who came along which was a fantastic turn-out for our first Family Day. The coffee van was put to good use as was the children's playground. A big thank you to Linda who brought along a bubble-machine which made a couple of appearances each time the kids seemed to wander too close to the car park!
I know all my Carroll boys had a fantastic time and what's even better is that they went out like lights tonight as soon as their heads touched the pillow...including their dad :-)
I, for one, am certainly looking forward to the next FD on 22nd June and hope you'll be able to join us then (details in June's newsletter and on the blog nearer the time).
Look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon -
Kat Carroll

Family Day is going ahead

It's 7:30am and here in the Carroll household we're getting ready to go to Family Day. Weather looks OK, bit chilly at this time in the day but according to the Weatherzone (http://www.weatherzone.com.au) radar there isn't a drop of rain in the sky!
So we'll hopefully be leaving in an hour to get to Stanwell a bit early so we can grab an undercover area - just to be on the safe side!
See you there
Kat Carroll

Family Day this Sunday, 25th May from 10am

Announcing SSMBA's first Family Day!
We believe there are some of our members who find it difficult to attend coffee mornings or playdays during the week. We appreciate that a lot of mums have gone back to work, the little ones are starting preschool or big school and feel that by starting up a Family Day once a month it will give all our members a better opportunity to catch up with each other.
This coming Sunday, 25th May, we will be holding Family Day down at the beach at Stanwell Park from 10am. Note: the park we are going to is on Station Street - see map below.
We will be meeting at one of the undercover picnic area points (hopefully we will get there early enough to grab one!) and will have our SSMBA banner blowing in the wind so you can see where we are!
There is a great playground for the kids with a little bike track, bbqs, picnic tables and plenty of spots to throw down a picnic blanket. We have also booked a coffee van to come along and don't forget we'll be holding our SSMBA merchandise winter sale!
All parents of multiples are welcome and we look forward to seeing you there.
Please note, if it is torrential rain on the day then we will unfortunately need to cancel this event. However, you can either contact Katrina Carroll (0400 356 928), Nisette Rask (4294 4114), or, this Blog on the day to confirm if Family Day is going ahead.

Pregnancy, Babies and Children's Expo

Rebecca Young and Katrina Carroll attended the PBC Expo at Sydney Showground last weekend to man the AMBA stand. If you were there you would have seen Rebecca on Saturday and Katrina on Sunday.
They both had fun chatting to all the pregnant ladies, their partners and peeking
at all the little newborns.
Katrina said, "I found it exhilirating talking to all the pregnant women and a lot of prospective dads too. I had forgotten just what an exciting time it was being pregnant with your multiples and it was fun to be able to share those feelings again with so many nervous but excited people. It was hilarious though cos so many people wanted to know about breastfeeding twins and I have absolutely no idea on that one cos I wasn't able to! Thank goodness I'd attended an Expectant Parents night recently so I could pass on some tips from our other mums who had breastfed successfully."
Some of the other tips they were able to pass on included; wearing support-pants after a c-section so you don't get an over-hang, using the AMBA community forum (you'll see the side link on our blog page for this) and also Nicki Wright's wonderful idea of having a 'to do list' on your fridge so any visitors can just take a look at it and automatically give some much needed help without you feeling guilty about saying what needs doing.
Keep a lookout on our blog and in our newsletter for future conferences, expo's and the like.

Saturday 17th May - Night Out without the kids!

Last Saturday night a few of us got together at EngadineRSL for a chat and a few drinks - minus the kids !! The conversations included toilet training our kids (I picked up some great tips!), how to get our little ones to eat veggies (or just get them to eat food in some instances) and how us girls can make our boobs look bigger and more uplifted (lots of hilarity from this and a bit of show and tell too!).
A good time was had by all and as one mum put it, "it is sooooo refreshing to hear most of you are living the same as us and wondering if life will ever resemble normality again!"
The next night out is promising to be bigger and better - but we might just wait for it to warm up a bit more.
We had (left to right) Nisette Rask, NatalieArmstrong, Kristen Hardman, Sue Steer, Nicki Wright, Rebecca Young, Tenielle McGuire, Linda Allen, Katrina Carroll (taking the photo) and her husband Brendan who put on a brave face after being duped into being the only husband there, but managed to escape early!

Committee Meeting update

So our '08/'09 SSMBA committee had its 2nd committee meeting on Monday night. There was much to talk about, lots to catch-up on and some great ideas were discussed. For those of you who aren't in the Shire-West area, our rep. for that area (also our HOM rep.), Sue Steer, has written a letter to the council regarding the lack of fully fenced playgrounds. She has requested the council provide complete fencing and gates on some of the parks in the Sutherland Shire. Thanks so much, Sue for pursuing this very important issue. We'll let you know if Sue gets a response from the council and if SSMBA are going to get involved in this matter further. We've had some great feedback from the 'new-look' newsletter - great job Rebecca! I nearly missed mine in the post 'cos it looked so different and what a fantastic read. Members also seem to like the idea of having a monthly Family Day so we're looking forward to seeing what kind of turn-out we have on the 25th May. Another item of discussion was about the possibility of holding seminars for our members throughout the year - we need some topic ideas though so let us know what topics you would like us to cover. One member, who is a developmental psychologist, has offered to do a short talk on literacy and has suggested it would be good to tie this in with a Book Look fundraiser. We'd love to hear from you if you have any ideas or could offer some such service. We're also wanting to hold at least one, possibly two, accredited first aid courses. One of our very own committee members recently had a very harrowing experience with one of her twins where she needed to perform resuscitation on her child. She will be sharing her story with us in one of the newsletters so I'm not going to say too much here but she's highlighting the need for all of us to know these basic but extremely important first aid techniques. I know there was more discussed but we're not going to give away too many secrets this early in the game! Just keep watching this space, reading the newsletter and coming along to events...

(Photos of PlayDay, 24th Apr. & 8th May '08)

S/shire West Area Playdate

Monday 5th May
What a lovely Monday morning for a change - it was fantastic to see that the sun out.
It turned out very nicely for the mums and multiples that came along, a very fast running Sue with triplets: Sam, Matt and Will (2 and a half); Samantha with her daughters Tabitha and Jamilla: happy first birthday girls for Friday...and especially happy birthday for you Samantha on Wednesday; Katrina Carroll with sons Samuel and Jacob ( 2 and a half) and Alex ( 9 months) who loved having a play on the blankets and swings; Tiffany Robinson with Holland and Griffin ( 18 months) who had lots of fun on their bikes; Rebecca Young with Amy , Lily and big brother Jake who loved having a play at the park and me with two of my boys Christian and Tristan ( 15 months) who loved running in opposite directions.
The parks equipment is great for all ages but unfortunately it is only marginally fenced for such a busy road and with a car park right there too, so its another spot that you really have to keep an eye on your little ones- we all really discovered this when the council garbage truck sped into the grounds without a care for the very busy park! This is why it is really important that we get behind Sue Steers approach to the council to completely fence our local parks....especially as we are all in the same boat trying to watch more than one child at a time! Really looking forward to seeing you all again at next months play date, hopefully the warmth will still be in the air for outdoors!
Take care and Happy Mothers Day Mums
Regards
Leticia Wilson and Sue Steer
Sutherland Shire West Area Reps.

Welcome to our Blog!

Well, hello everyone!
Welcome to SSMBA's 2008 blog.
This is where we'll add regular updates throughout the month of what we've been upto as well as sneak peaks of the coming newsletters.
Hope to see you at one of our events soon..