Tennis & Treasure

String Bean was invited to a Tennis and Treasure birthday party for her friend Holly. So we went for a leisurely drive out to the countryside, Murrumbatemen to be precise. After getting over my slight *cough cough* house envy and over my major garden envy I was able to cruise around and enjoy my surroundings and company.



Mitchell, String Bean, Lewis & Nelson.

Everything was just so unbelievably gorgeous. Perfectly maintained gardens, all clipped, flowering....no weeds in sight. Ahhh. Maybe one day.

The kids had a fantastic time searching for treasure. Playing tennis. Eating sausages. What a wonderful idea for a birthday party. Even the drive didn't seem like a drag......novelty factor I'm sure.

Airport Open Day

We ventured out to the Airport Open Day on Sunday and had a great time. We decided to get there as early as possible to avoid the crowds. We got there at 8.45am for a 9.30 start. It was great we got a park in the first row. Got the kids faces painted without having to line up.



A lion, tiger and puppy (String Bean is always a puppy).



We then made it onto the RAAF hot air balloon for a quick ride. We ended up being one of the last groups to go up as the wind picked up quite suddenly and it ceased to be safe to continue. The kids were freaking out big time but they all went up in the end. They hated the noise and spent most of the time peering out the little view holes in the balloon's basket. Lucky I didn't book a balloon flight for the family this year. Will have to rethink when we are going to do this and possibly leave it for another good couple of years.




We then went over to look at the planes. The kids to got to look into a Cicada and a Cessna. We then lined up to go onto a Qantas plane. Fuzzy Wuzzy was so concerned after the balloon ride that he said: "But were not going to go flying up, are we?" I guess he really freaked out because the engines were on, running the lights and the air conditioning. So it did sound like it could actually take off at any moment. Poor Fuzzy.

Pyjama Day/Crazy Hat Day

String Bean had a full on day today. From some insane reason school made it Pyjama Day (fund raiser to purchase goods for the school Fete). The ELC always staff and provide for the healthy food stall. Treats on offer will include: corn on the cob and chocolate dipped strawberries. The later sell faster than you can say 'chocolate dipped strawberries!'

It was also Crazy Hat day. The kids had to design or wear a crazy hat. We totally ran out of time, so String Bean got to wear her funky cowboy hat instead. At least we remembered to do both things and pack the $2 donation...phew. I am not looking forward to all three kidlets being at school, all doing readers, sports etc......argh.....breath......sigh.




















In addition to all that. It was also one of String Bean's friends birthday parties. So for the first (and possibly last time) she went ice skating. Unfortunately she didn't really enjoy it all that much. She spent the whole time clinging to the edge. She went round 3 times and then that was it! She just waited around for the hot chips and birthday cake! She isn't a natural, oh well, at least she did try.

Potting up

Well it would seem that Fuzzy Wuzzy has a green thumb. At school on Thursday the children had the opportunity to pot up some plants. Fuzzy potted up 6 pots! A mixture of flowers and some vegetables and herbs too. "I planted parsley Mummy!"











He is so proud of his plants and is watering them regularly. Last night he had to check on then 6 times before finally going to sleep.

Not a bunch of Sunflowers...

Husband Deluxe realised I needed a pick me up and decided to get me a new pair of sneakers. They are super comfy and fuchsia pink scored lots of points! Love them. Esp. as my old sneakers were giving me blisters. So no excuses for not going to the gym regularly now.

Picnic in the Park

Here is String Bean having a lovely day out at the Girl Guides: Picnic In The Park. The picnic was held in Goulburn and had a theme of All Thing Magical.

They all had a fantastic day. Some of the activities String Bean did included: temporary tattoos, making grassy heads, face painting, jumping castle, a magic show, bubble blowing, biscuit decorating etc etc.

The girls got to go around in small groups and choose which ever activity they wanted to do. I think the Face Painting was very popular. Argh that was me and one of our Junior leaders: Quokka/Emily. Oh well. I sure did get good at doing love hearts, butterflies, princess crowns, shooting stars and rainbows by the end of the day!

Big Boy Bed

Well after months of pretending to sleep in his older siblings beds, we decided it was time to introduce a 'big boy bed'. This is a real turning point for us. Three children and we have never had need to pack down the cot. I guess it is a time of moving onto bigger and more mature things. Still sad though, we are happy having three children but the moving on from there is really brought home by the simple act of dismantling a cot.




We've had great success with the introduction of the bed. Although for the first couple of days he wasn't overly keen on actually going to sleep. But once he did have a sleep in there he's been fine!

So now to thoughts of toilet training....hmmm he's so not ready. Maybe we'll leave that one for the summer holidays.

Clay Art

Fallen Leaves: 2008

Here is String Bean's gorgeous clay rhino. She made him at school last year and he lived in a class display of all the other animals made by her classmates. He now takes the best spot on my book shelf.








Sunflower 2008 ....using an itchy bomb (what ever that trees real name is?) seed to make the textured centre.

As always, amazed at the wonderful opportunities she receives at school. A chance to shine!

A Home for a Gnome

Well the gnomes that Nanny Sue got the kids at Floriade have been a huge hit. They both have names: String Bean's is called Lucky & Fuzzy Wuzzy named his Sneezy.












The two gnomes get moved around the front garden regularly and on the weekend String Bean decided to make a home for the gnomes. Fuzzy Wuzzy's ended up under a shrub "because he likes the dark". But Lucky ended up under one of our Rhododendrons. She carefully placed fallen camellia blooms in the branches, collected a lemon off the tree (in case he got hungry) and collected other bits and pieces from the fairy garden to make his home pretty.

So cute!

Thermomix Demo

Wow wish I had a spare $1849 laying around. I can really see the advantages of having one of these gadgets.....all these things I love to cook would become so much easier. Hmmm may have to start saving some money to get one of these baby's.








Our host decided to invite the whole family, so kids had a pyjama party, watched a DVD together and scoffed some dinner. This was all happening in the other room while we were having the demo.

Things to eat...

Grosse Lisse Tomato plant. My Rosemary cuttings from last year.

Here are the few edible things growing in my garden at the moment. I am thinking about making a straw bale bed in the back garden in the next couple of weeks. I was also drooling over some gorgeous blueberry plants at Bunnings today. Crone would you plant a blueberry in a straw bale bed? Or should I try and find a spot in my garden beds?

My strawberry which is just flowering.

Blanket Stitched Animals

Dragon & Cow.

I've had these guys cut out and floating around for awhile now. So tonight, after Fuzzy Wuzzy, played with the stuffing for the 100th time I finally got round to starting them. They didn't take long at all and look so cute. String Bean insisted on her cow having a smile :-)

Happy Birthday Squealy

It was Squealy's 2nd birthday this week. We decided to do a low key party where just family came along. Since he is really into giraffes and he's been able to say that word for about 6 months now, I made him up this cute giraffe birthday cake. He just loved it and got such a lovely surprise when the cake came out.

Overall he had a fantastic day. Not too much squealing. Just a little bit when the older two moved in on his new lego!

Sydney...Take 2

String Bean had some more testing done in Sydney this week. The lovely Speech Therapist who tested her had a lucky dip for her to pick from for working so hard. She choose this crystal tree and a set of stamper markers. So today was the day to watch the tree grow, and did it grow!

Only took a little while for some crystals to begin forming on the tree. There was much excitement in the house from all three children when they realised that the 'Christmas Tree' was fully grown!


















Also while in Sydney we decided to stop off at Roselands to grab some dinner and give String Bean a chance to run around. We were all set to take her to a park but Sydney was so, so cold on Monday it wasn't funny. Who would have thought? So we were well and truly caught out, wearing summer gear. When we got there we were so pleased to find one of those big tramps with the harnesses. So we let her have a go. She just loved it and pushed it to the limit of course. Going as high as possible. The spotter could tell she was a dare devil and was flinging her up as high and as fast as he could. Was like a jolly jumper for big kids!