Bringing in the age

It has been a wonderful week. A week that has restored my love of celebrating birthdays. For a number of years now I've groaned at the thought of having a birthday party or making a fuss about turning another year older. But in the past seven days I've helped a friend turn 40 with our friends, been out to a fancy dinner with Michael and some close friends, had a surprise party with my Mother's Group, and have finished it off with a party with my family. Being with my friends and my family and sharing it all with them has left me feeling pretty special indeed.

So the family dinner was a chance to entertain. My Dad and Tracey drove down from Coffs Harbour, my brother and family drove up from Sydney, my step sister Nikki joined us from Sydney too, and Mum and Peter completed the mix.

Somehow I managed to take few photos of me and the family, but not surprisingly took plenty of photos of the food. All homemade by me and Michael. Mum made my cake.

My birthday cocktail. Vanilla, pear and vodka.


Starters.
Potato foccacia with tomato, oregano and black olives.
Mushroom, feta and thyme tartlets.


Mains.
Roman style gnocchi baked with radicchio, gorgonzola and walnuts.


Mains.
Eggplant parmigiana.


Mains.
Pear, pecorino, walnut and current salad.

Chocolate mud cake.

So here I am with Mum and Dad. None of us quite believing I've made it this far. I'm hoping (and I'm sure they are too) I last another 40 years.

Rhymes with sporty

Well I've just celebrated a birthday milestone. I've reached an age where I always thought of other people at that age as older, mature, senior. I don't feel any of those things. I still feel like I'm in my early 30s, but the person looking back at me in the mirror looks older.

I had a great birthday (and my birthday festival ain't over yet). I was spoiled by Michael and the kids, surprised by the ladies in my awesome Mother's Group, and received lots of phone calls and well wishes from family and friends. What more could a girl ask for.

Some of my birthday pressies. From Michael, a fancy pants watch that operates as a heart monitor and GPS system for when I go jogging. And a silver bracelet from my sister-in-law.

An indulgent morning tea with my Mother's Group. Check out that birthday cake.


Happy Birthday to me.

Inside the strawberry mousse cake. And yes, it tasted as good as it looks.

Mmm, my birthday dinner cooked by my wonderful Michael.

The end to a perfect day. Dinner with Michael and kids.

More celebrations to come. We are hosting a family birthday dinner this weekend. Expecting Mum to gross everyone out with my birth story.

Big day out

We recently had a wonderful weekend spent together as a family. It's not often the diary is clear of markets, sporting activities, or other gatherings and we can just enjoy the day as it presents itself with just the five of us. So we headed out to a local spring fair, then on to a massive playground, and finally in the late afternoon we went to the beach.

Buster trying to hijack a fire engine.


The super slide.

A spider monkey.

A bucket and spade.

Milly finally over her fear of the beach.

Boogie boarding.

No he's not frightened of the seagull, he's shivering.

Raiding the neighbours

One of our neighbours has a big mulberry tree that looms over our fence in the backyard. It is currently full of berries and guess who love helping themselves to the spoils?

The great thing about mulberries is the stain they leave on your face, hands and clothes when you eat them. It is the type of stain that leaves no one wondering what you've been up to. When you're a kid you can't just pinch and sneakily eat a mulberry. The evidence is there for all to see.


The lower branches of the tree get raided almost daily and when there are no ripe mulberries left Henry and Milly need a boost up on the roof of the shed to get more. Poor Buster can't reach any of the branches and there is no way we are letting him on the shed roof, so he has to rely on Henry and Milly to drip feed him some berries. Naturally he gets a bit frustrated with this, because there is nothing he'd like better than to help himself to the berries and have an adventure on the roof of the shed.



We've had so many berries from the tree. We've mixed them in ice cream, added them to a fruit salad, and I'm thinking of putting them in my next rhubarb crumble because I've more rhubarb to harvest.

One thing is for sure. While the picking is good, the kids will be picking.

Fantastic Mr Fox

During the school holidays Nanoo had planned on taking Henry and Milly to see a production of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. On performance day Nanoo was feeling a bit unwell, so we traded places (ie she looked after Buster). It was a rare treat for me to take the kids. Usually I'm rushing them to school, preschool, swimming lessons etc. It's all go, go, go. It's rare I get to do something fun with them, where I can sit down and enjoy the experience to.


We packed a lunch and joined the other punters. The play was being performed outside and thankfully the rain that has been ever present the past few months stayed away (only just).

The tree and the foxes hole. Mr Fox and Mrs Fox.

The farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean.

The feast.

The play was performed by a young drama school and I have to say it was really good. Henry and Milly were already familiar with the story having been read the book a few times and they really enjoyed it to.

Henry takes Buster for a ride

A little brotherly love.

Buster loves being taken for a car ride. He'd love to drive the car himself, but he's such a shorty his little legs can't reach the pedals yet. Which is good news for the garden, because we are sure he'd be a speed demon if he could get behind the wheel himself and he'd tear up the garden. He's fallen off the back a couple of times, but he doesn't mind. He just climbs back on board and off they go again.

What's wrong with this picture?

After weeks of kicking and screaming to get him in the bath, Buster has finally decided baths are ok.

I'd left him upstairs playing while I grabbed some laundry. Henry was already having his bath and I returned to check on them to discover Buster had managed to climb into the bath on his own, and fully clothed, including shoes and socks.

Note to self: can no longer leave Buster unsupervised near the bathroom if there is water in the bath.

Additional note to self: should probably start supervising Buster full time because he's a right little monkey.

Henry strikes back

I did some eavesdropping on Henry and Milly yesterday. This is the end of what I overheard.

Henry: You don't know everthing Milly.
Milly: Yes, I do.
Henry: Well, do you know about cheetahs?
Milly: (silence)
Henry: Well, I do. They can run really fast.
Milly: (more silence)
Henry: See Milly. You don't know everthing.

Her reaction was to remain indifferent and then change the subject.

Another story to share goes like this. I was bringing some washing in off the line when Milly skipped up behind me, all sweetness and light.

Milly: Mum, do you want some help with that?
Me: Thanks Poppet. Only if you want to.
Milly: No thanks. (skips away)

More from Milly

Another car trip, another round of interesting musings from Milly.

Milly: Lamby's dad is having a birthday party in a couple of days. He's going to die soon because he's old.
Me and Michael: Oh, that doesn't sound too good.
Milly: Yeah, he's going to die in two weeks.
Me and Michael: He's going to die in two weeks? Oh no, that'll be sad for Lamby.
Milly: No, Lamby's ok because he's got a disco and lots of parties to go to.

Some winter randoms

Deciding on a new ride.

Feet don't quite reach the pedals on this one.

Henry the Clone Trooper.

Milly and her beautifully decorated mud pie.

Sibling rivalry

I've just picked up Henry from school. The conversation in the car went like this.

Henry: Mama, do skunks eat bats?
Me: I don't know mister.
Milly: Well, they do.
Henry: How do you know?
Milly: I know everything!
Henry: No you don't.
Milly: Yes, I do. I know what 4 + 2 is.
Me: What is it Milly?
Milly: Six.
Henry: Well, I know what 11 + 11 is. It's 14.
Me: Um, sorry mister. It's 22.
Milly: Well, I know what 1 + 19 + is. It's a secret. Everything I know is a secret.

Football fever

Henry has just finished his first season of playing football. It's fair to say he had a great time. He played in an Under 6 age group with boys from his school, learnt some basic ball skills, but most importantly had fun with his friends.

The team won 15 of the 16 games they played during the season.

Most of the time he was a bit of daydreamer on the field, but he did have his moments.

His best day ever. He scored four goals.



His trophy for participating in a gala day where he played six games. He and his team got to stand in front of the school assembly and show off their trophies. Yes, I filmed it. And, yes I was proud.

End of season team picnic celebration.

Another trophy and a certificate.

Father's Day

As the parent's of three young children, when it comes to Mother's Day and Father's Day the only thing either of us really wants is some quiet time to ourselves. A little break. Don't get me wrong, we love our kids. It's just sometimes some time out is the best gift of all.

Not so for poor Michael. This Father's Day I had a market on, so I was out of the house before 7.00am and not home until 1.30pm. Michael had to make his own breakfast and deal with all the kids. When I got home, Michael was ready for a break but no so the kids. They love their Dadda and wanted to make the most of having him to themselves.

Minnie and Harry

Our little Buster has started saying Henry's and Milly's names. Well... his version of their names. He calls them Minnie and Harry. Yes he's adorable. So everyone, after three, let's all say "ah".

There's a spring in our step

I might be talking too soon but I can feel spring just around the corner. It has been a very chilly winter and I've been a bit tired of wearing the same two outfits everyday. Why only two outfits? Well, I've had to wear almost all my winter clothes at the same time, layering myself in tops and jumpers just to try and keep warm. However, the last few days have seen the sun shining and heating things up. I've gone from wearing five layers on top to wearing just three. So taking advantage of the beautiful weekend of weather we have just had, we took to the garden to start preparing it for spring.

Our vegetable and herb garden has been very neglected. I stopped putting any energy into it when I was pregnant with Buster. Apart from the herbs the only growing success we've had is rhubarb, which has provided us with bountiful pickings which in turn has provided us with many a scrumptious rhubarb crumble.

After giving the vege patch a good weeding and setting down some newspapers to stop any further weeds growing before we built up the beds, I had the idea of creating a border. I'd thought about using some planks of wood or getting a ready-made decorative border, but then remembered we had a heap of bricks we had unearthed on an earlier garden weeding mission when we first bought the house. I'm a fan of recycling so wondered what a brick border would look like.

Michael had some great ideas on how to do it and set about digging a trench, making it level and placing the bricks on an angle. Me, Henry and Milly got busy bringing Michael the bricks that were stacked on the other side of the house and restacking them in front of him for ease of use.

Fetching bricks was a short lived activity for Henry. Now that he is at school so many activities have become "boring". We soldiered on regardless and wanted to make the most of the time we had while Buster was having his daytime sleep.

When the job was finished, it was time to step back and take a look (and a photo). We were pretty pleased with it. It's tidied things up and hopefully the bricks will stop the kids riding their bikes and scooters into the vege patch and squashing everything.