Christmas Part I

Riley with the Largest Blue Tongue Lizard I have ever caught.
He was thrilled to have a turn at holding it.

Riley and Lucas were very lucky to have a Toy Garage for Christmas. Built by me with limited carpentry skills and not completed but almost. The Autoland comes equipped with Aircraft Hanger, Helicopter Pad, A Runway, Highways, Car Park, Patrol Station, Ramps, Speed Exit Tunnel, and of course a Police Stn, Fire Stn and Ambulance Stn with red flashing leds when an Emergency is on.

The boys love it.

Christmas Part II

Happy Birthday Riley

Well Riley was officially two on Saturday (and they've done nothing but play with duplo -thanks Gramps and Farmor!) and so I made him his second birthday cake of the week, a ginger biccy cream log.

 The cuddly crew (with faces painted at Bunnings (hardware) that morning)

 Doggy Riley taking one of his 50 odd re-takes at blowing candles and singing "Habpe Tu Tuu" to himself sooo cute! He's also wearing the H&M spider t-shirt that Lucas wore on his 2nd birthday.

busy days

 I didn't even think about doing gingerbread houses (great and small) this year so it was just some gingerbread trees and people and fruit mince scrolls. YUMMO!

 I gave them to Lucas' lovely teacher at pre-school. she loved them.

This is Lucas with his new jobs chart. We didn't really think about how many stars equals how much money. 30cents doesn't go very far these days. I used to get a big bag of sweets for 20p!

 Riley's pre-birthday bash. Short and sweet. Together with a quick look at Phoenix charity cards (gorgeous UK designs.. so so so beautiful and sooo much cheaper than the hallmark cards) Mums and kids got to mingle, chat and run. xxx

Lucas and Riley at pre-school during the Christmas concert while Lucas was supposed to be in the chorus. He didn't want to dance or sing or put his lei on. So I didn't make him. He sat in it though and had fun playing. I think he gets stage fright as he definately knows all the words and actions. 

(they're sitting on an emu)

Visit from our peeps

We had a very exciting visit from our family the other week. Riley and Arwen loved nudie cuddles and jumping in the cot.

 Arwen was adored by all!

 Here's Will the best big brother and Lucas the ... okay cousin (he got demoted after dropping her on her face - poor things.)

Thanks for adding to your trip by two hours and coming to see us!

Family Night Down Under... the trampoline

It finally got warm enough to hang out in the evenings. So a couple of weeks ago we had our family night and dinner under the trampoline, just for fun and had lots of play time too.

 Home made sausage roll mix and zucchini fritters.

Pics by Lucas

 Lucas loves taking pictures. Most of them are the floor, a blurry face or something, here are some that turned out ok.

New face, new shirt, old problem

Face courtesy of Bunnings on saturdays (free), shirts courtesy of Farmor and Gramps (Lucas wasn't available for this pic so Spiderman filled in).

Out of gaffa tape, we now put Riley sized fireman sam undies over his nappy. he's a midnight stripper!

Monkeys in the Jungle (Happy Birthday Lucas)

We were having so much fun today at Lucas' 4th birthday that we totally forgot about taking photos.

Steve managed a few short clips of our fireman Sam game (made up on the spot) that turned out to be the most popular one of the day.

The original "jungle" was the backyard but it was wet and rainy so we moved it to the chapel. It made a nice change for everyone to meet at my Church for a change since we meet at the Asquith ... er... something protestant..(Sorry forgot!) every week for playgroup :o)

Our friend (and ultra professional, excellent and super cool dentist) made us a special bubble rope that made the biggest bubbles ever and the kids were absorbed in giant bubble making (me too, it was my favourite bit!!)

We had lots of other activities and an amazing rocket cake made by the wife of a fellow Paramedic at Steve's station. Decent swap for cake tins!

Super Birthday

Last weekend we went to Daniel's birthday party (the BFF from playgroup). Lucas went as spider man complete with gloves that make the swishing noise of shooting web.

Riley who was stuffed in the car the moment he woke up, didn't have time for his underpants over jeans and back to front bib cape. He went as a villain (the lolly licker)

"loooolleee, looolleee!" showing me is umpteenth handful of lollies.

They had a face painter and lots of activities and games. Lucas really enjoyed having his face painted and I'm sure the lady who did it had just as much fun.

 

Here's Lucas and his playgroup BFF Superman with muscles. 

The novel idea was not to leave with a lolly bag but to leave with a present!! To my surprise, the boys were given proper wrapped presents to take home and they were awesome!
I think I'd like to do that.... one day when I can afford it :o)
Next month is Lucas' 4th birthday. So far he wants a golf set, drums and costumes of his own to play in. We'll see. Here's praying for some killer garage sales!

Cure for the blues

It is very frustrating waiting for your body to heal from surgery. It was only a bit of keyhole (or should I say keyholeS, poking, shoving, burning, cutting and stitching! I'm sure I fell off the operating table, they kicked me about a bit and popped me back on) surgery but my body is taking ages to get over it all and now 2 weeks after I still can't take the kids out anywhere that will mean lifting, walking much, manual handling of little squiggly kids into car seats etc etc. It just plain hurts. Though I'm feeling fine otherwise!

My fantastic surgeon gave me a copy of the photos they took while inside.. I'll not put those pics up because someone is alot squeamish :o)

Thank you to Trevor and Cathy for the most lovely and unexpected gift that I've kept in our room so (hopefully) they stay untouched by little hands.

Flowers (and the thought) have magical happy powers and I'm sure I must be ALOT better already :o)

x (sorry the picture isn't very good - lighting all wrong!)

Sprung

Spring has sprung right on cue! Actually the blossoms were out about two days before.. but who's counting!
We had lots of fun ripping the flowers off a camelia(?) tree and throwing them like confetti. The tree's coming down anyway for Steve's new herb garden. (Lucky me gets the sun drenched but onion weed infested old herb garden :o)

This is it.. The new patch. There's this great ugly tree fern there that we chopped a long bit off when we first moved it. It was huge! Being propped up with a stick - chop, gone! It still lives at the back of the garden surprisingly enough. 

 

A lady from freecycle is coming to get them this coming week. I can't help thinking it's worth hundreds of dollars and she's going to sell it and make heaps of cash.. but she's going to be doing the digging and hauling so good luck to her! Ha!

 

 Blurgh!

Can we fix it? Monkeys Can!

Here's Lucas doing a GREAT job at screwing in some screws that were totally unnecessary but lots of fun and job satisfaction for him "helping" fixing the lock. Riley lost the key and I had to pick it open (after 3 days of not being able to get out the back door) only for Steve to find it within 20mins.

Can we fix it? YES WE CAN!

Riley enjoying a swim in the bath.. missing his dummy I think (here's to cleaning the plug from now on!)

And finally, for my funny little monkeys.....

MONKEY BREAD!

Monkey bread is a new favourite in our house. A lot less effort than cinnamon rolls and alot more fun to make and eat. More info on how it's made