End of Year Pre-school concert and b-day cont..

Riley in his reddest t-shirt (christmassy and also his fav colour)

Best mate James. They're both crazy, funny good boys :)

Friends on the slide - Riley having a sook about something..

Riley's birthday cake. bit of a last minute whack together, but Riley liked it.
I must say, it was the most relaxed and simple party. They had a great time and so did us grown ups! I admit... it's even a shop bought chocolate sponge under there!! I'd usually treat that as a complete failure of traditional motherly duties. Some things are just more important. Simple, happy fun and all about Riley.

 Riley and his pals on a big crane firetruck thing.

 suiting up

This little miss said to me, "What are we supposed to be doing?" EXACTLY! What is the point of climbing on trucks?! It's a boy thing.. but apparently they both look like they miss the point.

Oh they get it! Singing away as they drive.

The bushfire station was HEAPS better and next time we'll skip the fire and emergency and come straight here.

 Riley's cracking up in this pic below as he just hosed Steve in the head :) hahaha
Steve was taking pics just by that silver box on the side of the shed. (he's ducked down now)

Happy Birthday Riley!

On his birthday (yesterday) we went to Nanny and Grandad's for a treat. We haven't seen them in ages due to their ill health, so it was extra nice to see them.

Awesome pressie, yummy food, lovely day. x

Thanks!!xx

Little Entrepreneurs

My little  Entrepreneurs out on the drive way. Shame we face the bush otherwise they may have had some customers! They dragged the neighbour out - who bought herbs :)
"Garoj Sayol"

I said they could have a real one on Saturday if they liked. We could paint signs and stuff. First sign of work.. Lucas said no, Riley is up for it (usually the opposite!) though Lucas will most likely expect all the money. A manager in the making.

Riley found this cicada. Apart from the shiny gold one we found, this is the most different kind we've found so far. Check out the pink belly.

Riley helped me grate up one of the smaller (yes, smaller!) Zucchinis for our annual batch of piccalilli. A few months late, but we got there in the end :)

The fun continues...

Riley's happy as I let him have a whole box of eel sushi to himself! (What the?! When I was a kid it was chips!)

Having a good laugh with Santa - who was a jolly old fellow

 Last day at Jim Jam music class. They made "Noodles from scratch" like the book and the song.

"Smile Riley" ... the usual :) His first ever recorder as a gift for going to big school next year.

Continuing the theme.. We made more pasta from scratch. This time with Khorasan flour so I can eat it happily. I had roast pumpkin ravioli with (almost) burnt butter and sage. The boys just like it plain with cheese.
It's picnic on the kitchen floor time when the tables haven't been cleared!

The Danish church Christmas market - how did I miss this one for so long!!?!?

 BEST hot dogs. Yellow sausage (they were out of red), funny mayo stuff, mustard, ketchup, fried onions and pickles. YU-U-UM!

We skipped another Christmas party - too tired! Then off to our Church get together. It was fun with friends :)

 This is Riley at the photobooth corner. Dressed as a donkey (obviously) and eating the grass.

November update

What a great month!! November has been FULL of fun and surprises.

A new cicada enclosure for Steve to fill with nymphs at night. Then for the kids to watch hatch and dry their wings in the morning. 

 If only the freaky little insects would stay IN and not come out for so many cuddles and play with the boys.
I had a panic attach when I was ten, (fresh off the plane from England and thought, like everything else here, it was poisonous or going to inflict pain!) and still to this day I'll totally freak if they touch me... I can watch but that's it!

Lucas had his end of year show. His classed danced perfectly.

Lucas took the initiative to make breakfast. American pancakes -all on his own. I was only allowed to read the recipe. I didn't do ANYTHING! So proud of him. x

Riley with Steve's first ever zucchini. I picked the plant - yellow - such a lovely colour!! Steve's been pottering about the garden quite a bit. Everyday the garden grows by another pot or three, more herbs, veggies, passionfruit vine... the list goes on. I think it's cute that he'll stand hunched over pondering who nibbled his veggie leaf.. It's come full cirlcle Trev! I never thought I'd see it, but POP! One day he just woke up and started :) Now he's a fully fledged green thumb.


Riley is showing his pet (dead) 'yellow monday' cicada who is sitting on top of the zucc.

Quick trip to the beach - surprised Lucas with a day off school - thrilled!!

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. :)