Caz
As tomorrow is officially the start of Winter for us Aussies, I thought I'd get a head start on decorating for the season :D Autumn is actually my favourite seas, but a Queensland winter is like most normal places version of a mild Autumn lol... so what we have now, and maybe for the next couple of months, is pretty much Autumnlike weather. And I'm loving it! I actually saw a maple tree (not common) with it's gorgeous gold & orange leaves in various stages of falling from the tree. Todays high temp? a whopping 21C (which is about 69-70F) but for an acclimated Queenslander, if you're not in the sun you want a sweater on!

And if tomorrow is the first day of Winter.. then TODAY.. is my birthday! Yep, I celebrated another trip around the sun today. For surviving this year.. I was awarded a brand spanking new, shiny esspresso machine! (thanks Mum, Dad & Strider!) I was also given 24hours sans children by my MIL, from mid day Saturday to mid day Sunday. Bliss. I should make up some exciting adventurous tale for what I chose to do with my kid free time.. but alas, I'm boring. We came home through the CBD (city centre for non aussies) and grabbed sushi at one of my fave places, picked up some coffee beans to test out my birthday present and headed home. We played some WOW (as addicts will do ;) and watched 'Angels & Demons'.. love me some Dan Brown novels! Loved the movie too, Tom Hanks is one of my favourite actors.

We stayed up very late, and slept in very late too! Imagine DH's surprise when he looked at the clock and it was 950am LOL... since he usually wakes up at 4am, this was QUITE a sleep in! The parents returned our kiddies after lunch, and the house we tidied up that morning, was promptly untidied. Life returns to normal ;)

***I'm so utterly behind with things I never posted a weekly wrap for last week... so I think I'm gonna say stuff it for the week! Be assured, we did school work and baked & had fun, and all of the other things we usually do!***
Caz

This week we are talking about our favourite subject to teach our kids, great topic :D  

I'd have to say that hands down, my favourite 'subject' to teach the boys is science.  The world and how things in it work and grow are totally fascinating to me.  The boys have endless excitement to learn about these things.  Now they love learning in general, but math & grammar just can't muster the excitement & passion in small boys that the inner workings of the natural world can!   Just tonight we were outside on the veranda, since it was a warmish evening (but cool enough for no bugs to pester us!), and Merry was all excited because he found a puff ball.  You know... those little round fungus thingies that release spores when you squish them.  That was investigated for ages. 

Then Frodo pointed out Venus, shining brightly in  the mostly darkened sky...and went on to look for Mars & Jupiter as well (not sure if we got those right.. must have a peek at google sky and see!)  

Then there was possum spotting (on the neighbors roof, thankfully, not ours lol... they're noisy little buggers!) and checking out the moth that was hanging out on the brick wall near the light.   All this scientific exploration, and we have a rather sterile and boring little tiny suburban backyard.

One of the reasons that science is my favourite, is that the internet makes SO much more available than ever before.  We don't have a telescope, but we can hop on google sky and it's almost like we do!  No microscope either (yet!), but there are up close images of slides of just about ANYTHING you can imagine online.   Then there are the local interactive things like the planetarium and science centre and nature reserves.  Endless possibilities.  

The looks of awe on their faces when we do an activity or experiment and they see the end results is just totally worth all the work.  

Caz
We've had a really busy week this week, and here are a few pics of our adventures :)   I'm not going to subject by subject it as detailed this week as.. well.. I was bored by the last one LOL.  

  

Our big focus this week was all things science.  Monday the boys had Professor Jellybean science class #2, where they made freaky goo Octopi/jellyfish/THINGS lol, as well as SNOW!  The real live fake snow type stuff that they use in movies and such.  

As you can see, it was a huge hit throughout the week at home too.  Must hose down the brick wall near the patio table.. it's slathered with glitter goo!

We also did a few experiements from the Real Science Odyssey.. Mapping Uranus & defining planets.  (the mapping was a demo of how scientists know what the surface of distant planets that are covered with thick clouds is like, defining planet was learning about how scientists determined that Pluto didn't REALLY fit into the planet category)  There's also a pic here of the 'Neptune is out of order' experiment.. but my swiss cheese brain cannot remember if that was this week or last lol.  

And no, Merry did not do that graphic... but he insisted on embellishing it throughout the week ;)  We also watched part of a documentary on space, but it was too involved so we're going to iView a better one on the net later :)   

We also spent time pottering in the garden and the boys are stoked with how well things are growing..Sam is biding his time very patiently until he can steal cherry tomatos off the vine LOL. (doesn't that silverbeet look NOM NOMNOM!?!? and spring onions are 1.89 a small bunch here.. so those babies are a goldmine of savings for me!)

 There was a bit of math in there... Sam is doing a fair bit better with his skip counting by 5s.  The secret was getting him hooked in.. all that took was a handful of 5c coins!  (he LOVES coins of any kind)   Frodo was a bit more motivated with it this week.  

Frodo read a chapter or two of his Knights of the Round Table, as well as a space book Sam got with something.  

We have been in the lessons of History Odyssey on Monks in the Christian church, and Islam the last couple of weeks... enthusiasm is low as religion is not my cup of tea.  I DO want my boys to have a basic understanding of other faiths though, so that they can be tolerant and accepting... not hateful & fearful as so many people are today.  So we soldier on.  But there have been a few questions about WHY the Muslims and Christians felt the need to war over simply believing different things.    

Other than that stuff, Frodo wrote another letter to his pen pal in the U.S.  The postal service ATE the last one :(   Sam did a couple of handwriting pages and practiced a bit more on unlined paper.  For some reason he does not like lines.. his letters refuse to have anything to DO with lines actually LOL .. ne'er the two shall meet.  

And back to science hehe.. we finally got around to picking up new binders (read swiss cheese brained mum forgot) and the boys are now decking them out so we can fill them up with this years stuff.  (I say this year because since our registration changed, we are technically starting our home ed year now) 

There was also a LOT of outside time for physical activity, plus gymnastics classes on Monday and swim class on Sunday.  I've been dragging the boys outside after our formal work around 11am, even though they would much rather nag me to play on the wii.  They still manage to have fun ;)  

Art this week was finishing up their castle drawings, and in class they used shapes to draw a birdhouse and then painted it.   Frodo rather enjoyed the castle drawing more than the birdhouse lol.

 And now, Friday!  We had a celebratory 'snacky lunch' (which is rolled ham, cheese wedges, crackers, grape tomatos and cucumber slices with dip and mandarin sections)  and I have been named mum of the year.. or at least day, as I am making their fave friday fried rice and yum cha!  

Caz

Coffee break!  This morning I was treated to about 5hours of time all to my self by my darling husband, who took all 3 of the boys to Nanny's house for swim lessons.  Merry didn't have to go along, but I needed to stay home to get our favourite asian chicken & sweetcorn soup going in the crockpot and DH knew that Merry would NOT be impressed if he were left behind.  So as they got in the car, I made myself a lovely cup of coffee.. not unlike those above (only bigger!) with my favourite mudslide beans, and a dollop of real whipped cream on top.  I then proceeded to thoroughly enjoy it.  The entire thing. While it was still hot.  Bliss.

I DID do other things during these hours of course,  I put on the delightful soup, which is now stinking my house up wonderfully.  I played on fb for a few, watered the veggie plants and noticed just how chilly it is out there!  The plants don't seem to mind though, and really, neither do I ;)  It's not so often that Queenslanders get the excuse to really bundle up in winter clothes.  I mean, I actually put SOCKS on!  And a sweater.   But give it a day or two and we'll have 25C again.  And sweaters will go back in the closet, socks will be tossed... and coffees on the veranda will have to be had in the morning before the sun starts cooking you as you sit on the veranda.  

If you'll excuse me, I do believe there is more of that coffee waiting for me.  And if DH is nice, I might even share some with him ;)

Caz

Today I got the ok from the real estate agent to just go ahead and put in the couple of small raised veggie beds in the backyard.  She said not to bother asking, just do it as long as I am happy to throw a bit of grass seed over it when we go eventually. WOOT!  I was kinda leaning towards the 'it's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission'  school of thought anyway ;)  

SO today I set about picking out where my first bed is going.  I've only got one to start with, but I'll definitely get a 2nd going later.  It's a 1.2metre square bed that's 30cm deep.  I'm going with the square foot gardening concept (1.2m is almost exactly 4ft ;) and I spent some time on  THIS fabulous website today planninng out my beds.   They have premade 'plans' for 8 gardens, or you can go to the planner tab and enter dimesions and then drag veggies and herbs etc onto your squares.  Not only that, but it tells you how many of each plant you can put in it's square.. and you can print the whole thing out complete with info on each plants needs.  I'm in love. 

After receiving the go ahead, I was all but giddy and spent half the afternoon out in the yard day dreaming of all things growing.  And I spent the other half on the computer playing with that planner lol.  Ok, not QUITE half.. but enough *sheepish* 

My little potting veggie seedlings are going well, and helped a bit with my need to be DOING something.. but not enough.  DH & I had a big talk and we have decided to bide our time here for a while longer so that we can save for a down payment on a house in a year or so.  I don't LOVE this neighborhood... but I can live with the slightly bogan neighbors a bit longer if I can at least have a REAL garden while I save for my own little peice of earth to play in. 

In short.. our homeschooling will now have a lot more plant science going on, and you'll be hearing (and seeing) a lot about it!  Just call me Farmer Caz.

Caz

Another week has flown past!    We started back to our Home Ed networks weekly activities for the term on Monday and it was very obvious how much the boys missed them over the long break! (too many public holidays on monday at the start of the term = short term! :(    Without further adieu... I'll get on with it!

Math:  Frodo worked on his multiple digit subtraction with regrouping this week.  I was a bit draggy about the math this week though, so we will probably work on it a bit more this coming week as well.  Sam is skip counting by 5s and struggling with why on earth you would want to LOL.  Tried sitting us around the table and counting by 5's  using each of our hands for a visual aid, but he still said 11? lol  So I'm going to find the skip counting songs cd and see how he goes with that.

Language arts:  Frodo - Reading comprehension lesson, Grammar Once a Week (revision for the first part of the book).  He also did a solar system grammar 're write' where there was a paragraph with no capitalization or punctuation and he had to write it correctly below it.   He did exceptionally neat work for him!  He also did a couple of pages in his cursive handwriting book.  He read two chapters of his 'Knights of the Round Table' book and the Magic Tree House 'Knights & Castles' study guide.   Sam - did a couple of episodes of Reading Eggs,  worked with his new upper & lower case alphabet matching game (made by moi) a bit, and we worked on starting sounds of words throughout the week at completely random times :)  He also did a couple of pages of his handwriting book and got up to the first section review. 

History: This week we were on Monks & the medieval Christian church.  The boys didn't really 'get' why certain countries rulers thought that everyone had to have the same religion as they did.. and I don't either really.  I simply had to tell them that sometimes things people do in history just don't make sense.  We did our reading in the Usborne encyclopedia, and Frodo read his Knights of the Round Table chapter, and answered a couple of questions about what he read. (his comprehension has come a LONG way this year!)   For our history craft of the week, we made illuminated letters like the medieval monks did in their monasteries, as well as decorated a peice of notepaper with patterned borders.

Science: Busy week science wise around the Hobbit home!   I finally went and purchased the Earth & Space Real Science Odyssey from Pandiapress.com, to go along with our studies this year.  While I did work out our plan for the year and we'll be sticking to that, I decided I liked some of the activites in their free preview enough that I wanted to add it to our program :)  This week we studied Neptune and how it is SOMETIMES the 8th planet but for 20 out of 248yrs, Pluto skips in line and Neptune becomes the 9th.  We also learned about Pluto and how it USED to be a planet, but was demoted a few years ago and is now a dwarf planet.

The exercises were just great, and the kids enjoyed doing the 'experiments' and filling out their Lab reports!  They've asked if we can do a few of the activities for the planets we have already covered... who am I to say no to kids asking for science?? lol  

They also had their first Professor Jellybean class (see previous post!) and the kids LOVED IT!  And we watched 'Our Earth' on ABC kids, the subject was plate tectonics, continental drift and volcanos.  Frodo was riveted so that was a success.

Lote/Sose:  ABC program on Hindi wedding traditions...very interesting stuff. 

Art:  Class with Miss Liz on Monday was their first drawing class.. the boys had a bit of trouble at first, getting back into the routine.  Frodo left class well before it was over *sigh*, and Sam was a bit confused and ended up with an unrecognizable castle lol.  SO, I chatted with Liz and got the low down on what the goal was and the boys & I sat down Friday and repeated the project.  The idea was to use basic rectangle & squares, putting them together to create a castle.  The boys cut templates then positioned & traced them.  THEN the fun of embellishing by adding knights and scenery and DRAGONS began!

Health & PE:  Gymnastics class for both on Monday, MUCH scooter riding outside.  Merry had HIS very first tots gymnastics class as reported earlier, hoping it goes a little better this week lol. 

Other stuff  :D  We baked our favouite eggy pies this week and Frodo did ALL the grating (except the cheese which is too hard he says.. and I agree lol), we planted the last of our seedlings and the boys have been doing the daily watering and checking for bugs etc..  Merry had playgroup and enjoyed hanging out with the other kids, riding bikes, doing puzzles and playing with lego.  

Caz
Or, thank Goddess that's over! LOL.    Yesterday was our first Monday of home ed network activities for this term, and it was BUSY.   Both Sam & Frodo are signed on for gymnastics and art class, plus the big hit of the term, Professor Jellybean science classes!     Professor Jellybean, or PJ as she says we can call her for short, is doing 2 hands on experiments with the kids each week.  If the next 5weeks are as gooey and messy as yesterday, MAJOR HIT lol.   

HERE is Sam rockin the lab coat & safety glasses, looking every bit the miniature mad scientist!  The kids totally enjoyed getting all geared up and stuck  into their experiments. 

This week they made a glittery 'goop' that Frodo informed me is made using a seaweed based food thickener, and some really freaky slimy 'worms'.  Very excellent was their official verdict.

It was Merry's first time EVER having his own classes to go to.  He's signed on for tiny tots gymnastics (which I must go to with him) and a playgroup for under 5's.   

He did very well for the first 20minutes of gymnastics, all the parents were around the giant parachute floofing (new word, like it?) it up into the air and down again... the littlies were getting under & getting their noses tickled by it.  Then we did stretches and animal walks... Merry thought that bit was fun.  And he really enjoyed the floor activities... big foam steps with a hill to tumble down, tunnels to climb under, ladders to climb UP, rings to swing from, and his fave.. the mini trampoline to jump onto and bounce off the other side.   

Then the bar activities ... very simple things like pretending you are a possum swinging from a bar (with parental support).  Well Merry was NOT in the mood suddenly.  He had to wait his turn, and chucked a wobbly about it (that would be the Aussie equivalent of 'pitching a fit' btw).  He can't do this out of the way, he has to hurl himself onto the mats directly in the way of other people (intentionally) and then shrieks bloody murder when I have to move him for his safety (and everyone else's ability to participate!).   The screams were heard all through the building I'm sure @@... I did eventually get him to calm down enough to walk the balance beam with me... but it was all over for all practical intents & purposes.   

I managed to mostly maintain my sanity hehe, and really he's not even 4 and has never done an organized activity in his life.  So I'm not surprised.  His playgroup went much better.  He had a nice time riding the scooters, doing puzzles, using markers and playing in the sand.   It was VERY nice to have activities for the little ones while the big ones were off in class!

 Here's the little dude busy at work.  He also spent a fair bit of time on the massive climbing play structure.. that's not even half of it in the picture.  On the way home, it was a very peaceful drive... as he snoozed happily all the way home.

My goal for next week...I'm just hoping he makes it 5 minutes longer in his class before melting down lol.   I KNOW he will settle in eventually :D 

Caz

'Twas a short week here, as Strider had Monday off for a public holiday.  We still managed to pack plenty in to the week though!  

Math:  Frodo worked on 2 digit subraction with regrouping/borrowing, he seemed to catch on pretty well, but needs more practice to reinforce the idea that you MUST write down what you borrowed straight away or you'll forget it ;)  Sam was on skip counting by 10s, oddly enough he did not catch on to this as well as he did the 2's or 5's!  So we'll work on it a bit more this week by playing the skip counting cd  and finding things that come in 10's to count.

Language arts:  Frodo did a Reading Comp exercise on summarizing, learned the i_e spelling words (which he's really way ahead of, but the book also has him do other activities with those words so he enjoys it), and Grammar once a week pages about Homophones and what a simple sentence must have. 

Both boys did work in their handwriting workbooks, and Sam & I made a game for matching upper & lower case alphabet letters.  

Science:  This week it was Saturn and Uranus, and their respective parts of our lapbook project.  The boys were fascinated to learn that if you found a bathtub or ocean big enough, Saturn would actually FLOAT!  And that if you put Saturn (including it's rings) between the Earth & moon.. it would barely fit!  Frodo did a solar system word search as well.. he loves those things :)

SOSE/History:  Frodo started reading the chapter book "Knights of the Round Table"  and answering comprehension questions after the chapters.  It's not a long book so he should finish it in the coming week.  We read a bit more about Emperor Justinian and his Code of Laws, and Frodo copied one into his history notebook.  We moved on to Charlemagne and HIS laws... which were not quite so equally applied to the poor Romans. (Frodo was very indignant about that!) and Frodo did his map for the lesson.

Arts:  Frodo made his particularly awesome castle, and both boys made Illuminated style letters ala the Middle ages.  Frodo did almost all of his letter, but Sam wanted me to draw the letter form for him and let him do the colouring in and embelleshing.   The boys also made me a stunning mothers' day card while having a sleepover at their Nana's house on Friday night :) She pulled out all the stops and gave them a ton of scrapbooking bits & peices and they had a great time!

Health & Physical Ed:  Swim lessons on Saturday this week, a LOT of time out in the yard as the weather was lovely the latter half of the week, kicking the soccer ball around the park with their Uncle & cousins at the park.

Caz
 Happy Mothers' day to all you blogging mamas out there!   I had a very lovely one.  I woke up to be presented with a beautiful card the boys made for me while they stayed overnight at their grandparents house Friday.  Nana turned them loose with scrap book supplies and the result is gorgeous... and I fail to have a picture!!! lol   Then hubby made me poached eggs & toast, which is my favourite breakfast ever and a nice mocha to go with it.  NOM!

Hubby just happened to catch the winner of the last Australian 'Master Chef' tv series at a bookstore in the city, signing copies of her cookbook.  So guess what both his mum AND I got for Mothers day?   Signed copies of a really lovely cookbook... with some delicious sounding recipes to try out.  I've already chosen the first ones to be added to this weeks menu hehe.  

Then we headed off to the family 'do' at a park about half an hour away.  The whole family was there and we had lunch picnic style and laughed and had a great time.  The kids kicked the soccer ball around and we adults took turns herding the masses of them over to the playground area and back.  

 A few pics from the day... 2 of my 3 plus their cousins sorely testing the maxiumum bums per chair ratio for this seat lol! 

Merry pigging out on cake :)   And last, but not least,  Sam... where he could have happily stayed the ENTIRE day!  He positively adores Humphrey, and she (yep, she lol) is so sweet & tolerant.   They kept each other company very well. 

 It was a really nice day... right up until someone, I can't remember who, mentioned something about school.  @@  Then my SIL, opened her big mouth.  "OH *neices name* LOVES school, she has since the first day she went! and she gets MUCH better SOCIALIZATION there than we could ever give her at home!"   This is the second weekend in a row she has done this, and I'm just about pissed off.. as my children were RIGHT THERE!   I'm hoping they were busy eating their cake & didn't notice their Aunt basically bashing our choice of education.  

I bit my tongue all the way home, so the kids didn't hear me abusing their Aunt.  Then I hit facebook and grumbled on my status update, and yes SIL is on my friends list.  I was a good girl and didn't name her directly... just simply said it's frustrating when people assume we are judging THEIR parenting choices just because we happen to make different ones!  Somehow I doubt she'll even 'get' that it was her honestly.  But it made me feel better to say SOMETHING.   

Honestly, it was REALLY hard to not point out that the 'socialization' her daughter learned at school had her being snotty & ignoring her cousins as they tried to say good bye to her and give her a hug.   Yeah.. I'll pass on that socializtion thanks.

HOWEVER!  After having a mini rant, I refused to let this do more than dent this nice day.  Strider & I went outside as soon as the sun was not directly in our faces, and started planting the seedlings I bought yesterday!   We now have 4 black russian tomatoes (omg yum), 2 pots with a total of 8 silverbeet, and a pot of spring onions planted and waiting for the morning sun on the end of the veranda :D   We still have 4 cherry tomatoes, and 3 punnets of mixed lettuce seedlings to go in... but we ran out of soil lol.  My lovely hubby is going to pick up a couple more bags on his way home tomorrow so we can finish up.  It REALLY has been making me sad not to have any veggies growing in our yard, so I was very happy to get a few things in.  Next weekend, provided these plants are all in.. it's off to get even more soil and strawberry plants! 

Getting out & getting my hands dirty really helped get rid of the funk from the earlier incident and was a perfect way to end Mother's day.. doing one of my favourite things :)   I hope all my mom friends out there had awesome days!

Caz
We have had a few days of exceedingly dreary, and sorta chilly weather.  There have been breaks in the rain but nothing wonderful.  Until today... the skies were just amazingly blue, it was perfect.

SO, we did what any self respecting homeschoolers would do.. shelved the books and headed outside!  We spent pretty much the entire day hangin out in the back yard... the kids made a fort of their climber, stepping stones were hopped, tether tennis was whacked about and other fun was had :)  I actually got to drink a coffee, while it was hot... because the boys were too busy running around in the sunshine to pester me ....err, ask me, for anything!  

I read a bit of a gardening book, made a grocery list and menu for the week and watched the kids thoroughly enjoy themselves.  It wasn't a day without learning, since obivously that's impossible ;) We caught 15minutes of a show about ice ages on tv.. and Frodo build a rockin cardboard box castle to go along with our Middle Ages studies.

Here's the boy hard at work constructing :)  And with the finished product... demonstrating the drawbridge.  Note the fancy woodwork around the entry ;)

 And we talked about gardening.  I'm getting ready to get stuff to plant and we talked about what THEY would like to grow and we walked the yard to find a good spot to put our prefab raised bed (and I am hoping the real estate agent doesn't lose the plot lol) 

Merry found & picked up a rolly polly bug and thought that was grand.. and Frodo managed to catch a ladybug (ladybird) and put her on our basil plant as it's being snacked on by something.  

And here is a photo from our weekend.   It was my 2nd sons 17th birthday, and while he's in the US, we always make a cake to celebrate.  The boys totally cheesed up the happy birthday singing here... 

   Tomorrow afternoon Nana is picking up the oldest two for a sleep over (Merry is gonna play hell about THAT!) and swim lessons, as sunday is Mothers day and no class.  So the hubs & I will be having OUR favourite dish for dinner (cheesey baked chard NOM).  The boys won't eat it, so we'll get to have it without complains ;)  since Merry won't eat anything lol.   

What I'm saying here is that I really WOULDN'T hold my breath on seeing a weekly wrap out of me in any kind of timely manner lol.   Tomorrow night will be adult relaxing time.. Saturday working in the garden time :D and Sunday is family get together at a park for a Mother's Day picnic.  So, nope.. not likely lol.

Caz
Well now, aren’t we glad THAT’s over with. Hopefully my walking off in a huff for a week (was it only a week??? It felt looonger!!) was enough for Blogger to pull it’s head in and behave! Either way, I have outsmarted it and am typing this in a WP program.. Take that you fascist blog site you!

What has the Hobbit family been up to this past week? I’m sure you’re all dying to know (well, the maybe 20ppl that actually actively follow anyway lol) what you’ve missed. There was the usual schoolwork … we’re up to Saturn in the solar system now, and reading about Charlemagne in History Odyssey. Math is cruising right along for both boys and Frodo is REALLY picking up with his writing these days!  

Sam has ditched on Reading eggs for the last week.. But that’s ok, I’m making him ‘beginning sounds’ activities and a game to help him match up the lower case letter to it’s upper case version (he can tell that a m makes an mmm sound.. But the M throws him!) The boys got a bit of ‘technology’ in today, as they helped me laminate the activities I’m making for Sam. They were fascinated with how the machine worked, and more so that they got to put the pieces in the sleeves so I could feed them into it. 

Sam is doing exceptionally well with his handwriting and is using the solar system matching cards almost daily… he likes the pictures ;)  

We had cousin L’s 7th birthday party on the weekend.. And the kids enjoyed spending the afternoon at the park eating lots of disgusting junk food (srsly, fairy bread = white bread +butter/marg + farking 100s & 1000s /sprinkles WTF?!?!?!) A mum of one of L’s classmates came up, introduced herself, then in a ‘we’re going to do it anyway, but it’s a courtesy to ask’ let SIL know she was doing a drop & run and would be back at 3 to pick her child up. Um OK. If you have to introduce yourself to me? It’s not on to assume I’m going to babysit your child just because it’s a birthday party. Big public park, with a hugely busy street on one side and open water on site. WOW is about all I could say.  

Of course, SIL didn’t miss a beat with ‘OH when you’re in public school you go to SO many birthday parties and meet so many parents that it’s just the norm’. Um, wtf-ever. I just rolled my eyes and reminded her that I do have 2 children that did that, so do indeed understand. And that I am so friggin happy we aren’t obligated to go to 25birthday parties of kids we wouldn’t normally be hanging out with. (ok, I was slightly more polite than that… not much though)  

It just shits me that we don’t seem to be able to have a family gathering without someone bringing up in some way that my kids are missing out on something! They’re not people, get over it already. 

*deep cleansing breath*

Thankfully it was a long weekend, so I had Monday with DH home so I could get over my ire hehehe. We’ve been busy busy, so I’ll have a nice weekly wrap … whenever I get around to posting it that is!

I fear the only picture I have to offer today is one of our new additions to the ratty cage. This utterly adorable dude’s name is Sniffy.. Because Sam says he keeps sniffing in his ear every time he picks him up.  (note to self.. chicken wire not the best foreground)

Caz
I think I am almost ready to forgive you for being a fascist and eating my nice posts.  So,  I'm back-ish.