Nanoo's birthday

While the French celebrate their Bastille Day, here in Oz we celebrate Nanoo's birthday.  And nothing screams French more than a good old fashioned Aussie BBQ birthday brunch.

 

Road trip

Me and the kids took a little spontaneous road trip to Kangaroo Valley to visit friends for a couple of days.  It was the school holidays, we had a few spare days of nothing much planned, so why not.  It's a 4 1/2 hour drive from our house to Emma and Dave's place in Kangaroo Valley.  Michael didn't have time off work, so I took on the driving duties myself.  I borrowed a car DVD set from a friend and we set off.

First stop, dropping Michael off at his workplace in Sydney.  Kids got to see Dad's desk and pretend to work.
 

Stop.  Revive.  Survive.
 

Once we got off the freeways and were officially driving through the Southern Highlands it was just beautiful.  Lots of bare trees line the streets, winter flowers in bloom, and fresh cool air up the nostrils.  Then finally we arrived.

Our days were spent catching up with friends, the kids playing with each other, walking around the property and enjoying the blue skies and warming sun, despite it being the middle of winter.

Emma and Moz.
 

Glorious sun for a winter lunch outside.

Special mention must be made to "sausages".  Buster was obsessed with this toy.  It's a dog's toy he found outside that none of the dogs playing with.  Buster took it everywhere with him and it became a security blanket for him while we were away.  Emma kindly let him keep "sausages" and now we are home, of course he has no interest in playing with them.  But he has squirreled them away with his other precious momentos that he hordes.

One of the highlights of the trip was a show put on by the kids.  You see there is a TV commercial called Dumb Ways to Die which is funny and has a very catchy jingle.  The kids occupied themselves for a whole afternoon planning a play we have called "Dumb Ways to Die - The Musical".  They producted tickets for the show, made and organised props, prepared a running order/script, numbered seats for the audience, and all the kids were given a role.  Buster was an usher and handed out crackers once the audience was seated.  Joe was the announcer, and Henry, Milly and Allegra were the performers.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Kangaroo Valley and head home.

McHappy.

Pyromaniacs?

A heart warming drink for the adults.

At winter solstice time you can usually find us at Kangaroo Valley around a bonfire, but the past few years (due to soccer commitments) have seen us staying at home sitting around our chiminea.  Our house is surrounded by trees and we amass a lot of branch and twig debris.  Add some marshmallows to the mix and we've got ourselves a fire-starting night of family fun.

Why don't children feel the cold?

"But it does all fit in Mumma"

The fun didn't end there, we still had a heap of sticks to get rid of and a handful of marshmallows.  What were we to do?  Well, the very next day we fired up the chiminea again and spent the day burning as much wood as we could.

Milly looks completely over it.

The magic of Harry Potter

If you've never read the Harry Potter books nor seen the films then this blog post might not make much sense to you.  But know this - the magic and imagination in those books transcends the pages and inspires the reader.

For the past year we have been reading the Harry Potter books to Henry..... and Milly and Buster when they sit in and listen before becoming too fidgety.  We've also let them watch some of the movies.  The stories have influenced their playtime together and inspired some creative activities - all self initiated.

They run around casting spells on each other and they have made Tom Riddle's diary and The Marauder's Map.

The magic of Harry Potter is that it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Henry's Marauder's Map
A magical document that reveals all of Hogwarts School, showing every classroom, hallway, corner of the castle, the grounds of the castle and secret passages.

Winter uniform

 

Henry and Milly's school is a public school that thinks it's a private school.  Come Term 2 of the year the school rules that the winter uniform must be worn.  So out come the school ties, long pants, box-pleated tunic and stockings, peter pan collared shirts for girls, and standard collars for boys.  Have to admit they look pretty smart.

 

 

 

 

The second haircut

When we gave Buster his first haircut (you can read about it here) we fully expected when we cut out his curls that they would never grow back, and the blonde hair he had as a baby would grow brown.  But it's been almost one year since that haircut, and thankfully his hair did grow back retaining those gorgeous blonde curls.  So cue time for his second haircut and we were a little less nervous about our baby losing his baby face.  Just like the first time, it was Michael who took to the scissors and snipped away.

Heel and toe

Henry has been learning some bush dances at school.  It brings back all the memories I have of learning the same dances when I was in primary school.  He has taken it upon himself to pass on this valuable life skill to Buster. 



I'm sure I've already mentioned how much Buster admires and loves his big brother.  His love for Henry is almost matched by his love for Lego men.

School holiday fun

Sorry for the lack of blog posts.  I misplaced the cord to download photos from the camera.  I looked for it everywhere and of course it turned out to be in the one place I always put it away in and had searched through three times but couldn't see it.  Go figure.  So I've got lots of photos and little snippets of our life over the past month to share.  Here's the first one.

 

During the school holidays we managed to enjoy a little family day out.  We made good use of a free bowling voucher we got when we held Henry's birthday party at a bowling centre.  The kids were very keen to go bowling again, so we thought we'd make an afternoon of it.  Bowling, followed by lunch, followed by some chocolate.

 



 

Buster, with the aid of a ramp to bowl his ball down, turned out to be the star bowler of the day.
 

Mmm, which pink ball will she choose?
 

My little Mister.
 

Brotherly love.  These boys just grew closer during the school holidays.
 

Lunch time.
 

The kids were really excited to go the Max Brenner chocolate cafe.  This was a rare treat for them and it was nice to surprise them with something special. 
 

My hot chocolate.  Truthfully it was more like a bowl of chocolate soup.  It was aptly called the Thick Italian.
 

Things Milly says #6

This story has happened just now.  It is so disturbing I feel compelled to report it straight away.  Here's how it went down.

Milly and I are having a cuddle on my bed.  She is gently stroking my jumper then very sweetly says, "I can't wait to wear this when you're dead.  It feels so warm and snuggly."

The End.