Back to School Day 2

Ethan came home from school yesterday afternoon feeling alot better than when he went to school.  Today was a much happier day and our walk to school only took 5mins. :+]] Joy!!

Back to School

Well it was the first day back at school, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the boys were ready by 8.15am.  Sam was ready and happy to go to school.  Ethan was ready, but not so happy to go back to school.

It was a very long walk to school (it usually takes 5mins, today it took over 10mins), but we made it.  Fortunately Ethan's teacher from last year thought it was a good idea that I come into the class for the first little bit.  Ethan settled down and was given the job of taking the morning attendance list to the Principle.  So happily, thank goodness, Ethan and his friend Jack went off together to the office, my cue for departure.

 The boys won't find out which class they're in until Friday, so over the next few days they hang out in their old class room or whatever room is available until they sort out classes and their new teachers.  It's a little frustrating, but I guess they just want to get the classes right.

"ice ice baby"

It is the last day of the school holidays, sadly the boys go back to school on Wednesday.  So to make it a fun last day, Don Solo decided to take Samikin and Queethan ice skating at the Macquarie Centre.

It was a little wet and slippery and certainly cold, but the boys had lots of fun.  Donald braved the ice with both the boys even though he was a little shaky at first.  They all got the hang of it after testing out the ice on their first lap.

Sam and Ethan suprised us both by coping with the cold, wet and slippery conditions.  Sam had been ice skating once before, so knew what to expect.  He gained more and more confidence each time around and was letting go of the wall more than holding on to it.  You can see the joy in his face below.  Meanwhile Ethan would come and visit Toby and cheer him up after each lap with Donald.  Ethan really enjoyed himself too, being his first time, I was a little worried how he would go, but he just loved it!  

Toby and I sat in the bleachers while cheering on the boys.  Toby was a little cold and sad that he wasn't going out on the ice, so we put another shirt on him and wrapped him in his blankies. Every time Donald and the boys came around Toby would get very excited "they're here mummy, I see them", then the next minute he would be crying because they skated off.

I think Don Solo had the most fun of all!

Australia Day

Happy Australia Day!  We hope everyone has a lovely day.  We started our day off with Fruit crepes for breakfast and making little flags to put on them.  There's nothing like syrupy kisses in the morning from your little ones.

Hopefully we'll have a BBQ to finish off the day.

Loch Ness Monster

Yesterday Sam, Ethan & Toby were watching Planet Cook on the ABC, it's a cooking program for children.  They've really been into cooking shows since we watch Jaimie at Home together and marvel at the delicious meals prepared.  The dish that was being made yesterday was Loch Ness Monster pudding. Profiteroles filled with custard cream on a sea of blueberry custard. Seeing as the boys really liked the Waterhorse movie, they thought making their own Loch Ness would be fun.

The boys really enjoyed the whole process of making our Loch Ness, from getting the groceries needed, reading out the ingredients, mixing and finally creating our monster then eating it.  

Here is our sad little Nessie, half eaten. The profiteroles didn't rise very well, the custard filling was very runny and hard to pipe into the profiteroles and the blueberry custard wasn't as blue as we'd hoped. But the boys thought it was fantastic, and it didn't taste too bad either.

Crepe Myrtles

I love Crepe Myrtle trees.  We have lots growing around our neighbourhood and ever since I was a child growing up in Kenmore I have had an affection for them.  I remember one late afternoon lying on the cold grass, underneath the tree we had out the front corner of our house, I used to get the flower buds and peel off the outer layers until I found some colour.  I pretended that the flowers were the Gumnut babies from May Gibbs stories.

 

Each year my parents would give it a flat top hair cut so that it would grow long, strong branches in spring.  I kind of like them when they are left to grow in their own way, year after year.

They have such delicate and lacy petals and such amazing different colours. These are just a few from down our street. 

 

My favourite crepe myrtle is the lavender one, I find it to be a very elegant tree, both in colour and shape.  Their branches are very strong and rise up to wonderful leafy heights.  The bark on the branches peels off to reveal different tones underneath of green and a pale pinky-brown, even grey colours, yet is very smooth and cool to touch.  

The marvelous thing about these trees is not only do they produce fantastic blossoms in mid-summer but their little rounded leaves change in the autumn to shades of yellow and orange. What a beautiful creation.  I'm afraid the pic below doesn't do it justice, but it's the only big one I had. 

Beautiful day for a bike ride

It's been a beautiful day for a bike ride so we decided to ride down to the boys school so they could have a smooth area for them to ride around on. Luckily their school is at the end of our street and around the corner. We only had one mishap along the way, not a bad one, when Toby went full steam ahead down the hill on his little yellow bike. He lifts his feet up and just goes.........until he crashes.

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When we got to the school the boys were a little shy about riding around, particularly as the school holiday program kids were in the playground.  We were also suprised to see the kindi farm there as well.  The kids were chasing rabbits, goats, chicks etc around the school yard.  As my boys were a little shy we continued on through the school to another play area for some riding.

Sam was practicing his slow riding skills by following the lines on the playground surface. I really think he’s ready for a bigger bike, he just looks a little squished on his bike even though we’ve raised the seat on it. 

Ethan was just happy cruising around and around, getting a bit cheeky here and there. Toby was trying to keep up with everyone and had the greatest joy in finding drain covers to ride over and tell me everytime he found one. And me, I was riding the scooter around and just soaking up fun time with the boys and taking pictures of course.

Toby discovered some ants and started counting them, although I think the ants were a bit quick for him .

The boys had relaxed enough to go and visit the kindifarm animals and the holiday supervisor was kind enough to let us have a little pat. Toby was rather taken by the little pig in the pen and was very excited to watch him drinking..... “The pig is drinking water mummy”.

Sam got to pat and hold his favourite of all animals, a rabbit. Afterwards it was....”I wish we had a bunny”.

Ethan and Toby were fascinated by these two gorgeous goats that were allowed to wander around the school. Toby was riding his little bike with the goats walking around him. Ethan was in giggles about the goat pooping all over the ground, as were all the other kids.

It has been a lovely day, to be finished off by the boys favourite Legos Star Wars, the complete saga, Wii game.

The Movies

It has been raining for the past 3 days so we decided to get out of the house and go to the movies. Donald really wanted to see Enchanted, but the boys weren’t interested so we split up at Macquarie Centre. Sam, Ethan and I went to see the Waterhorse. The Legend of the Loch Ness Monster. I wanted to see it after reading Kim’s recommendation on her blog.


We went to buy the movie tickets and the gentleman selling the tickets warned me that it would have some scary parts in it, like when the army started shooting at the waterhorse. So the boys and I debated whether we could handle it, and decided that we could. The gentleman also kindly told us that if we had to leave within 30 mins we would get a refund on our tickets, he was worried as some other mum had come out of the movie with a screaming child. I had my doubts, particularly as we had seen the “Barnyard” animation movie a few years ago. During that movie I had to take Ethan out because there was an increadibly long death scene of a cow (all in animation) and it freaked him out (me too!).

Anyway I think I was a little more anxious about the movie than the boys were, for fear of bursting into tears myself should the poor wee Nessie be harmed in any way.

The movie was beautiful, scenery spectacular and the Water horse amazing. During one emotional part of the movie Sam asked me a question and I had to answer him in my squeeky, tear stained voice, to which Sam asked me if I was “happy sad”. (“Happy sad” is when we are joyfully sad, or sad but laughing or really sad and putting on a brave face). Half way through Ethan got a little bored and started to ask when the movie was finishing but his interest returned as the story started getting exciting! At the end of it all Sam told me he felt happy sad too! It melts my heart to hear him say that, particularly when you have all of these feelings welling up inside you at the end of a feel good movie.

Meanwhile Donald & Toby had gone wondering around the shopping centre together and at the end of their time we found them both, looking rather proud of Toby’s new shoes. Donald had found them on sale in Big W for $10. They were black Batman shoes with flashing lights on them, although one of the shoes didn’t work, so he had one shoe with lights on.......hence the $10 price tag.....they don't flash anymore, one just glows and keeps on glowing! Spooky!

Warriewood Beach

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday, so we decided to head to the beach.  The boys were excited as we hadn't made it to the beach these holidays.  We headed north towards Avalon, and chose Warriewood Beach.  It's a nice little beach with surf life savers, lots of families and a few body boarders. The water was a beautiful clear aquamarine colour, except where the waves met the sand it became rather muddy.  The sand was very gritty, a little different to Stradbrokes smooth soft yellow/white beaches, great for digging nonetheless.

There was a bit of a drag in the surf and every time the waves crashed on the steep shore they sucked you back out to sea.  It was nice if you found a break in the waves where two waves met, that way you stood a chance at keeping on your feet.  I took Ethan out first and we jumped over the waves or ducked under them depending on their size.  I had to hold tight to Ethan as his feet couldn't touch the bottom, instead he stood on my knees to keep his head above the water.  Next Sam came out, being a little taller Sam could stand up.  However he didn't like the idea of ducking under the big waves, he would have preferred to have his head thumped by them instead.

Meanwhile Donald and Toby were digging a pool in the hope of some waves reaching and filling their construction. 

 We all got digging, the diggingest dog would have been proud of us.  

Ethan & Toby had their own little hole.  

Sam just enjoyed toying with the waves and his imagination.  

The tide was up so our pool got filled many times to the point of disappearing all together. At which point we decided we'd had enough sun and trudged back through the hot sand to the showers to wash a little sand off and head home in our stinking hot car.

Soon after we got home the Southerly Buster came through and cooled us all down, leaving us wondering if it had been a hot day at all and had we really just spent the morning at the beach!!

I also forgot to mention that a day at the beach wouldn't be complete without ice blocks. Donald pulled over at a petrol station and bought us all lemonade ice blocks plus one big raspberry slurpy to share. We all had our eyes on the slurpy whilst licking our ice blocks, it was sitting in the centre console in the front of the car, when Donald braked suddenly.  It wasn't sitting in the console anymore......in fact it was all over the console, gear stick, hand brake, floor need I say more.  The kids were almost in tears at the loss of their coveted slurpy. Trying to keep the tears at bay (the kids and mine) I grabbed handfuls of clean slurpy and shoved it in their mouths as I desperately tried to mop it up as we drove along. :+/  

Honda's Happy Home

The long awaited arrival (1 week) of the Honda superhawk occurred yesterday.  Shipped down by truck from Ormiston, Black Betty is finally here.  She's quite happy in her new surroundings and enjoyed a ride around Castle Hill and Dural with Lisha in the afternoon.  After which she was tucked up in bed with her new room mates the GS and the little yellow Suzuki.  Don't they look cosy.

Thank goodness we cleaned out the garage the day after we got back from Qld. So now we can fit the trailer and the bikes in.  

New Years Eve 2007

The last sunset of 2007, what a way to end the day! It's so nice to be able to watch the sun setting, it doesn't happen often, usually I get to see the sun setting on our drive up to Brisbane or when we're on holiday.  It is such a nice way to finish your day, it adds a little peace and joy in your heart. 

We spent the evening at Laidley sitting in the sprinkling rain around a fire toasting marshmallows and chocolates, playing with sparklers and glow bracelettes. Our camera was able to capture the light in a very interesting way...... 

Joan's upside down heart, which I think looks like a nice little bottom.

Sam, Ethan and Donald going crazy.

Alister and Zinta had a little more style to greet the new year.

Christmas Day

Contrary to my belief that Christmas in Qld is always stinking hot, Laidley had a lovely breeze to keep us cool, in fact the breeze became rather gusty and close to cyclonic. Our tent and Waynes tarp was firmly pegged down and we slept soundly even with the pouring rain and blustery winds that came later on.

Christmas Day was spent discovering surprises in Christmas stockings and opening the rest of the presents under the tree. We had a couple of visitors in our tent Christmas morning, the boys cousins Ava & Riley.

Our gourmet Christmas dinner consisted of turkey done in the new BBQ oven, pork done in the webber (re-done in the turbo oven), another turkey done by Alister on the open fire, left over ham, plus vegies done in the turbo oven and gravy etc. To be topped up by delicious plum pud courtesy of Lindsay & Fiona.

The last surprise on Christmas morning was to be found out in the trailer.

The boys got a mini bike a little SuzukiJR50.  It doesn’t even sound as loud as a lawn mower more like a whipper snipper.


I think Toby thought it was his little yellow bike as he was in on the surprise when Donald went and bought it, and of course he had rides up and down our driveway while the kids were at school.

Sam mastered the bike pretty quickly after thorough instructions by Donald, and was very happy and confident to ride round the paddock bumpy though it was. I think Donald lost a few kilos over Christmas because he was running beside the boys on the bike every step of the way.

It took a little practice on the bicycles first before Ethan built up the courage to go it alone and when he did he kept on going......... Fortunately for us Wayne & Joan’s street was a dead end street with very little traffic coming through so it gave the boys a chance to have a smoother ride.

Exhausted but happy

And of course the big kids got to ride motorbikes too! Wayne, Donald & Campbell went for a ride so Donald could try out Campbells bike. All of the brothers and Wayne went for a few early morning rides around Gatton, Toowoomba area. And Lisha (that’s me) got to play around on Alisters bike, which is on it’s way down to Sydney as we speak to be my new bike.

Donald

Wayne, Donald & Campbell

Lisha's Honda 250 Superhawk (Sorry Alister)