Lucas and the Christmas Dinosaur

Santa's here!! Weeks early... even the tree isn't up yet in the courtyard.. nevermind. Lucas drank it all in and loved every minute.

As soon as the procession started and passed us, we dashed inside to take a short cut so we could sneak in right behind the mini parade. 

Even though we got a sneak peak at Santa sometimes, it was mainly Rudolf's butt all the way. Who didn't care?! Lucas :) He was so excited. We walked the whole way back and forth following and seeing the onlooker's faces. It was really nice.

The tree wouldn't stay for a pic, so lucky..... er.. yep, luckily the weedy dinosaur from Australian Geographic was there. Bonus!

 Riley hid, he'd had enough.

 Later that day, all of a sudden I was ill. The two boys made a maddening mess, played so well together, came and stroked me on the head and I read them books. They came running whenever I banged Riley's metal drum (no bell handy!) and were the best behaved cheeky rascals all weekend.

 Itching for boys camping trips already :)

Mr Cheeky - Butterfly Whisperer

 Drumming class with his home made steel drum.

First time catching his own butterfly. It's now opened the gates to lots of gentle catches. He's a bit of a Steve Perryman/Irwin bug catcher this one. Just the other day he put some toys into the house we'd made for the cicadas. (Obviously they'd get bored in there and need something to do!)

"LOOK MUM! LOOK MUM! It's the REDDEST RED ROCK so far!!!" He says as well as an insect scientist, he wants to be a rock scientist ;)

We were lucky enough to have some visitors from overseas visit last week. We took them and Riley down to the fish ponds. Leah loved the lizards.. caught courtesy of Steve of course.

I liked the 'washing machine hole' and imagined back in the hand washing days, I'd sneak down here to get a load done in the rock pools

... and Riley's best moment was with Dad, having a hold of all the lizards he caught and feeling really responsible and grown up. :)

Star Wars Lego Lucas

Almost every single night since his 6th birthday, Lucas has laid in bed at night, just after lights out and whispered in my ear, "Mum, for my next birthday I want  a Star Wars Lego party with a remote controlled spider and a remote controlled snake."

"Er... We'll see!" I say almost every night.

Well the day came, and all his dreams came true.. and then some. x

Check out the preparations here

I accidentally invited the whole of his year! Luckily it's a long weekend and only 13 could make it! :)

After initial training, the kids were tested. They could use both of their new skills - the Jedi mind trick and light saber fighting.

To our surprise we had 4 unexpected visitors... they were in white so we called them Storm troopers and put them to work!

 After fighting the storm troopers on the flying fox, the kids ran into an aerial attack:

 (good job it was a hot day!)

After lots of battles with the Storm Troopers  (poor guys! They got beaten to a pulp :) Hahaha!) we had cake. Totally yummy, strawberry-lemon cake with white choc icing. Homemade marzipan Lego men were yummy. Should have made more!

After fighting through the undergrowth, finding enemy balloons and bashing them, they made their way to the Death Star!

This little girl got so into it, that she went for another super whack - watch out Steve!

The final blow!

Just as parents arrived, the Rebel Alliance was ready for their own areal attack.. on the Mums and Dads!

Then lastly, the non-lolly bag to take home. Of course they got to keep their light saber and cup full of pinata lollies. So this was a fun extra. Homemade Lego crayon shapes with a mini colouring in book.

I LOVED that the kids went for the R2D2 water bottles, glugged down the Jedi Juice (mild apple juice), and munched on all the healthy snacks (Darth Vader cookies may have been a bit evil, but if they had a wookie cookie to follow it would balance out right).

We all went home exhausted and on a buzz. It was SO MUCH FUN!!!! I can't wait for Riley's now. It's an easy one, another trip to the fire station :) Aaah!

First love... Aw!!

Lucky for Lucas his regular teacher is off with appendicitis. He likes her, but he's rather taken with the substitute teacher.
He came home asking if he could write her a letter.

Now what he told me, and what he told Dad were two different stories!

Version to Mum when asked, "What did your teacher say when she read your letter?"
"We stood there smiling at eachother, I love her and she loves me. We're in LOOVE. When she smiled at me and said 'Thank you Lucas' my heart went all warm" (Big cheesy mushy grin)

Version to Dad when Mum told him the story,
" I never said that! She just read the letter and said thanks that's all"

He's such a softie this one. So caring and kind. Rather sensitive which sometimes helps me understand what I'm like for Steve to deal with when I'm tired! :)

Seeing his potential...

Spending time with Riley as he grows is just amazing. Kids learn so much at this age and we wonder if they're ready for school, if they make friends well enough, if they can make good choices etc.
Well Riley's vocab is pretty amazing for a 4 1/2yr old. He also shows fantastic dancing, body rhythm skills and ... well.. you can hear for your self about the noise! (above)

He will sit for 20mins at a keyboard "playing" music and is just so mechanically minded that everything becomes a working machine and has a purpose with a story.

At the moment he "reads" and keeps in his bed a Collins reference book of places and helicopters. So much so that Lucas keeps yelling at him to be quiet so he can get to sleep!

He loves organising. He got a special treat for doing such a great job with the shopping in the trolley.

July Fun

... or some of the fun. We didn't take many pics!
Pre-movie sushi. Can I just say how completely surreal having a 4 1/2 year old yell out "MUUUUM! I want EEL! I want EEL!" at the Sushi counter... what the?!  Only to have me reply, "No, just have the salmon (raw) today"

When I was a kid we were very lucky to have delicious and varied food made from scratch. My other friends' mums didn't do so well. Egg and chips, fish and chips, beans and chips.

So nice to be in Australia with all the healthy and diverse food!

My kids pretending they're Monsters... they do better impressions at about 7pm every night. So cute.

Our kids LOVE Ribs night. We don't have ribs very often, usually when the LDS Missionaries come over for a feed up.. we all get stuck in. :)

Having lots of mucky fun at the park with charcoal.

A very proud boy after making his bed and arranging all the teddies very carefully.

Proud moments

Lucas came home with 10 merit awards yesterday. He'll be presented with his bronze certificate today. All but one are for Personal Best. :)

The boys enjoying the last few days with Dad before he goes back to shift work. It's been a wonderful 8 months having him home!

Riley blows his pre-school teachers away with his creativity. This was yesterday's effort. Lots of moving parts, crane and support stands, winches etc.

Here he is putting his masterpiece by his picture for tomorrow's adjustments. 

"And it's a firetruck Mum!!" Of course Riley, what else would it be?! haha Our little firetruck fanatic.

He spends so long concentrating that I have trouble getting him to leave the lego alone at dinner time. He also wants a keyboard so he can play me long songs (he can sit for ages!).  So we'll have to keep and eye out for one. Meanwhile Lucas is determined to make a noise on the flute/fife that we have at home. He's taken it to school today for show (just for fun, his news was yesterday).

Early June

Not really much of a title I know.. but this is just what we've been up to:


 Steve and I went on a date day..We didn't talk much, walked around some beautiful places,

..found another Mum and Dad and disturbed their peaceful moment

 We sat together, said nothing, and enjoyed it!

Then onto a marvelous time on the Queen's birthday long weekend, showing the kids an important part of their English heritage.. rock!

 We found an angry crab at the shops

 .. and a happy crab (he's always happy!)

My Norwex team tripled in May and I made Sales Leader (the first ever in Sydney might I add)...

..saw the funniest thing at the shops. Watching a middle aged woman struggle with the massive card and phone (doing the chalk board writing body wobble) gave me the giggles.