This is gonna be a photo heavy post,  (but I'll keep them small) be warned ;)  We met up with the kids Uncles (who are visiting from New Zealand) and MaMa (great grandmother) at the local Botanical Gardens today for a wander around.  Uncle Nigel arrived before us and had maps in hand for the childrens 'Hide & seek trail' and the boys were stoked.   Basically it's a marked trail through part of the gardens with numbered things for children to discover as they walk.  I think there were 17 items in all, sculptures and various neat peices of art, and the boys found them all.  Without further adieu.. pictures!  

Blogger isn't wanting to cooperate with formatting here, so we'll see what comes up where LOL.    Pics are in no real order, as that's where blogger & I did not see eye to eye and I can't strongarm it much!  But they show a (mostly) lovely day. 

The boys got to see a real sundial.. and as the winter solstice was yesterday, it was right on time, showing a perfect 11am to match my phone.   The boys enjoyed hanging out with the uncles, and MaMa (they just dote on her.. up above is a shot of Merry and her, hand in hand, marching up a path :)    The funky fruit bats hanging on the tree,  panda  sculpture and the koala were items the kids had to 'find' on the trail.  I loved it.. the pandas were in the bamboo garden, the koala near the eucalypts etc.  

The first two pics are the kids in the Japanese garden.. they all loved the stepping stones across the water and went on about how 'treacherous' it was hehehe.  

The BEST item in the whole garden (aside from the natural items of course;)  was the Xylophone.  It was near the fern house, and was a fern shaped bench.  It had an assortment of mallets and the boys (and uncles) had a great time making music with it.  It had a lovely, deep sound.. not the obnoxious tinny clang of some.  

The kids have not stopped talking about it and have ticked off all the great things they 'found' during our trek.    It would have been a little bit nicer had Merry not had several meltdowns over not being allowed to run wild *insert eye roll here*  but ah well, such is life I guess??  

 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!

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)

I already have Sam sick and not sleeping well, due to coughing his toenails up.  But was it really necessary for Merry to spike a ridiculous fever at 2am last night, just because I was already half awake?!?!?!   Even the bottoms of the poor kids FEET were burning up.    We did manage to dose him up and he went right back to sleep (something about being in dad's spot on the bed has a sedative effect lol) but poor Strider had to go down to Merry's bed, because bub was just all OVER him in the night.    As he made what he thought was his escape, I told him I'd handle THIS sicky, and he could handle the other one ;)

I'll pause here a second, and make note of just how LUCKY I am when it comes to my DH.  This is the dude who had to get up at 415am to leave for work, yet he still got up to help me get nurofen into the feverish one.  THen he was up twice with the coughing one giving him water and making sure he could breathe etc.

I think it must be the weather.. it's incredibly dreary here, and probably will be most of the week.  We're expecting some 200+mm of rain in the next 2 days as well.  That, combined with the sickies, ensures that we're looking at week #2 of not leaving the house.  

Sam is off the hook for any 'required' schoolwork until his cough is better, especially his Headsprout as it requires talking which is absurd when you can't stop coughing.   He will probably sit in while I read a bit of the Pawn of Prophecy to Frodo though, because he loves it ;) 

Frodo will do his usual work this week though, and Sam is free to join in if he's up to it.  We're up to Earth later this week, in our solar system study and we'll do a quick once over as we've done with the other planets... and then AFTER we're done with the rest of the solar system we'll do our indepth study of Earth.   It's almost a unit within a unit, but it didn't feel right to pause the solar system to go through the entire Earth unit, ya know?   Plus, I guess I like to think our planet is special enough to get it's own term of study ;)  

I shall wrap this up, as I have been interrupted about 20 times to 'reacha cuddle' by Merry, and at least that many by the non sick, sickie running after his brother up & down the hall lol.  I think they require something organized to do before they come undone! 

Thanks for the birthday wishes for Frodo :D   He has had a lovely weekend.  The mini cupcakes are long gone and he assisted admirably with bbq'ing (ok, for about 5minutes.. then running around the yard with his brothers won out).   He's most enjoyed his Links crossbow training for the Wii as well.

Saturday was our orientation with our Distance education school.  The kids had lots of getting to know you activities and DH hung out with Merry while the older two were in those, and while I was doing the boring paperwork end of things.  It did not go well for Strider.  I came out to find Merry in FULL ON meltdown mode, as he had been off and on (mostly on apparently) during the whole 1.5hrs of my absence.  Oh Dear.   It finally came down to the wire and I had to leave a msg for the organizer that we were having to bail ont he bbq, because Merry was melting down hard and was going to take us all with him lol.  After a doze in the car, and a swim in the pool upon arriving home, he was better... at least for a while.  

This morning we had the boys swimming lessons, and Frodo was just beside himself because he was 'tested' and graduated up to the next level class!  He got a certificate and everything and has just grinned about it all day.  Nan took him out to pick out his birthday present, he had a hard time choosing between roller blades or a bike, but eventually went with roller blades.  Which didn't fit lol.  Nan will exchange them and if the next size up doesn't work.. they'll go bike shopping I suppose.   Which would be cool anyway, as our favourite new park has a neato bike area made up like little roads winding around... with traffic signs at the corners even hehehe.  It's terribly cute so we're planning a scooter day at the park soon.

Tuesday is Australia Day, sorta like our 4th of July.  Really it's just an excuse for Aussies to get together with mates & family, throw something on the bbq... and quite often imbibe that popular australian love... beer!  (I'll pass on the swilll myself, but you guys go ahead & raise a glass if you choose hehe)  So in additon to all the madness of starting schoolwork again, our first EC day, trying to bake and decorate a fabulous official birthday cake for Frodo (and having a wee gathering to admire & eat said creation)... we'll also be carting our crew over to The Cousins' place.   The entire family (and it's a BIG family lol) will be eating, drinking, generally being merry... and tossing themselves, and possibly each other, into the pool.  

Today, exactly 8 years ago, I was feeling rather miserable.  I was huge and overdue by a week, and just about DONE with this whole pregnancy thing.  We'd been in to the doc for ye olde cervical torture routine a couple of days ago, but it seemingly did nothing, and tomorrow would have been induction or possible csection (my oldest was a C baby).  We had done everything safe (and I do mean everything ;) to attempt to get this child in motion to join us in the outside world to no avail.  

But this morning 8 years ago, I felt crappy.  Not contractions, omgI'mgonnahaveababy crappy... just crappy.  Hubby made me eat a silverside sandwich around 11am (right about now actually!) and I laid down to have a nap.  Hubby played DiabloII lol.  I woke up feeling more than crappy about an hour later.   I hung out with hubby while he played and we watched the clock  timing 'cramps' taht weren't uncomfortable... until they WERE.   He called the midwife to let her know we were going to come on over and we headed to the car.  I remember having to stop 3 times to wait out contractions just in the couple of minutes walking to the garage. 

After we got moving I was just sure we were going to be those people you read about ... ya know the ones that had their baby on the side of the road in the car?  It was the most insane 25min trip to the hospital ever, but we made it.  Of course, immediately upon stepping into the hospital lobby, I promptly threw that nice silverside sandwich up all over their floor LOL.   At which point I was met with a wheelchair and raced upstairs.   I really liked the nitrous gas they offer as first line pain relief in labour.  I remember arguing with DH when he told me he could see Frodo's head... 'NO YOU CAN"T, NOT YET!'  LOL  as it was only 15 or 20minutes after we arrived.   But two minutes later, I was holding the sweetest little thing with the most gorgeous blue eyes.   He settled in for his first feed but never stopped staring at my face.  To this day I really do wonder what he was thinking?  Was he thinking the same thing I was... hello perfect person, I'm so glad to meet you!?   The nurses scowled as I wouldn't let them poke him for vitamin k or give him a hep b shot.. but brand new baby boys are not for poking!  They are for cuddling and dreaming about the future.

That future is here now... at least 8yrs worth of it ;)  And these days he's moved on to bananas and muffins for snacks... but he's still a pretty perfect person, despite his imperfections.   In a few months we're headed to a paediatrician for evaluation of his hearing and such, but for now, we're going into the kitchen to make chocolate mini cupcakes with rocky road frosting. PERFECT!   And I'll worry about imperfections another day...

Ok, so my last post was just a bit BLAH.. sorry bout that.   The holidays have gone and I survived them well enough.   Christmas eve my in laws came out, and brought DH's brother and his husband (who had just arrived in from New Zealand) with them.  We had seafood and nibbles and wine ;)  Which definitely helped make the season merrier lol.   It was great to have the brothers over, and they spoil their nephews wonderfully (not with junk thank goodness!)  All boys recieved a season of a cartoon series.. we have smurfs, TNMT (original toons), and GI Joe.  The latter I'm not a huge fan of (I'd imagine most women never got into it as girls ;) , but if the boys enjoy it and they don't go all warrior on me, I'll live.   Here's a small sample of our traditional Christmas eve dinner.. prawns, oysters (for the parents), smoked salmon and lobster!  and that's before mum made her stupendous 'steamboat' with satay sauce, coconut milk and all sorts of seafood.  My terribly awesome cheese and nibbles platter was decimated before the camera was found lol.

After they left, hubby & I sat and talked for a while ...and polished off the bottle of wine ;) and then started to 'play santa'.  That's a bit of a misnomer for us, as we have really scaled Santa back to basically being the dude that brings a stocking full of cool bits & peices and candy.  All the good stuff is from US dammit... I figure why should I be the one that has to say no to things all year, and has to handle all the ups & downs of the year... and yet Santa gets to take credit for all the loot? LOL    I don't think it makes the boys miss out on anything, as each of them got  something they asked for from Santa in their stockings :)    By midnight all gifts were assembled, and the wrapped goodies were under the tree and hubby & I collapsed into bed shortly  before 1am. (here's the before, and after) 

 

At the UNGODLY (and UNGOddessly too, for that matter!) hour of 5am Sam came excitedly in "It's christmas!!!!!!"   lol    We had a lovely morning doing pressies and playing and such.  The kids were thrilled and Frodo was all about the Wii that we'd gotten as the family gift.  (he was so sure Santa would bring a Wii, that he looked at the gifts under the tree, then stepped into the lounge to see if there was one.  He saw the 2 gift bags that I'd sat on TOP of the 6ft entertainment unit, climbed up and got them... then came in and complained that he got wii controllers but NO CONSOLE!  LOL)

   (note evidence of console there LOL)

We thought he might get sulky about leaving the Wii to go over to DH's cousins for the big family DO, but he was quite excited to go!  There was, after all, going to be swimming!   (here's Merry & his dad in the pool :)

 

We planned to hang out for a couple of hours tops, since the boys were up at stupid o'clock... but we ended up being there from just before lunch till 5pm  LOL.  A great day was had by all, and way too much decadent food was eaten by all as well ;)  Mmm... pavlova! 

 

But despite the disaster that awaited us, we were very glad to get home.   I read much online about the awful holiday gifts that some MIL's give to DIL's and had to share what mine gave me.  She is the most awesome mother in law ever, without a doubt!  If you remember a few weeks ago we had a whole 24hour period where she & her sister absconded with our boys?  Well THIS was the real reason!  I couldn't get a pic without a glare (she spent big on the photos, so I'm not complaining about the lack of non glare glass!)   It's the most gorgeous b&w photo of the three hobbits (complete with bare feet).  How on earth they managed to get them all happy and cooperating I have NO idea,  but I guess that is why one pays the big bucks for the pro's! 

    Hope you all had wonderful holidays friends, and bring on 2010 because it looks to be awesome!  (post coming on that ..)

The past week has brought a lot of things ... gastro bugs, jackhammer drama, and  boys that just don't seem to listen.  But on the up side there was some of this... because the boys love their math.   And I love the spiffy new boxes to keep their blocks in some state of tidyness.  

It had been driving me nuts for quite a while!  And the boxes have cool grooves in them so tht the kids can totally ignore actually building the problems in them!  Wow what an innovation eh? lol  There hasn't been a huge amount of other 'schoolwork' done though, as there has been a bit of illness & drama in the house (as you may have read) and our school year is technically at an end.  We're still doing a bit of reading on the Romans though, and plan to briefly look at the ancient Chinese and Aztecs as well, over our 'break'.   We may also do the boys '5 Senses' lapbook for something to keep them busy,  after the holidays anyway... they're keeping themselves busy by being worked into a frenzy about what Santa and the parents (who of course get credit for all the rockin cool stuff.. santa gets to do stockings and a few bits and bobs) might get them!

There was also a bit of this... we were looking for a particular park, didn't find it, but did find another little one.  We stopped for a picnic lunch of something yummy from the bakery and a play.  Nice little park, even if some local teens seem to have felt the need to forcibly remove the gate to the fence.  I suppose you'll have a few bad kids no matter how posh the neighborhood, eh?

Dad took the intrepid explorers off down a walking path for a bit.. doesn't Frodo have the funniest determined look on his face? lol (you might have to enlarge it to see)  Merry was clearly not ready to stop his exploration of the local scenery, and was quite adamant about not coming back.  Sam, on the other hand, had already raced back to where I was.  That boy has got boundless energy... wish I could figure out how to bottle it!

And off down the hill, was a view of the new lake.  The park we discovered is in the nearby 'master planned' community... it's BRIMMING with neighborhood parks!  We used to live in the original part of the suburb, but they have expanded greatly.  It's a 'lakes' suburb, so of course this side had to have it's own lake.  It's quite pretty, and I hope they leave it a little more natural than the other one (not that I dislike the other lake, with it's nice walking paths all the way around!) 

The Teen (my 16yo, who is currently in the states) is really wanting to come live down here for a year or so and finish up school here.   Partly for the experience, and partly to spend some time with his dear ole mum (at least I'd like to hope that is part of it LOL) and partly because chicks love an accent lol.   I'm going to check the local school there that Frodo went to part of K in, and if they have upgraded to having a high school we might contemplate finding a house to rent there again.  Oh how I'd LOVE to have all those parks within walking distance again!

Strider is currently on his way home from picking up a part for his work vehicle, and has informed me I am not allowed to look at the bank account site lol  He has  apparently been doing a little pressie buying for me.  I sincerely hope he had the good sense to pull cash out, as I am quite nosy (I seem to remember one christmas where my brother and I slit the tape to most of our presents when the parents weren't home LOL) and WILL work it out if I can see where he shopped :D   And being the greedy wench I am.. I txt'd him back that since he was there, sushi for luch would go over very very well  hehehe.   So, I think I'll go uncover the table from the current arty farty projects the kids have going, so that we can have a bite to eat shortly!

We have gotten zero done this week and I'd like a do over, thank you.  Sunday night Frodo was up with a fever & nausea completely out of the blue.  Made for a long day Monday that's for sure.  Oh I lied, he wanted to do a review page of his math so he did that on his own while mum was a zombie.

Tuesday... had grand plans for the day, until Frodo had a lapse of judgement and caused his head to make contact with ceiling fan blades (that were, as Murphy would have it, on HIGH speed).  This caused an urgent trip to the GP's office where the very nice doc checked him over, steri stripped the 2inch long gash in his forehead closed and gave me the requisite head injury 'to watch for' list detailing what would require an ER trip in the coming hours.  Luckily enough, none of those things eventuated and all was well in the end.  But for the better part of the morning we were both panicking.  

The fever from Sunday/Monday is long gone now... but Merry seems to have an awfully gravelly voice *insert suspicious look from me*  And as the evening went on it occurred to me that I had a bit of a sore throat.  Then a headache... O.M.G. I'm getting sick *splat*  Suffice it to say that upon waking this morning I had a headache that wouldn't quit no matter how much nurofen I took, a sore throat that was annoying as hell, and I felt like I'd run a marathon before being hit by a very large truck!    Frodo did another sysematic review page in his MUS, which I checked over, and he seems to be really grasping the round to the nearest 100 concept :)     The boys also dug into a couple of  'school project' kits I caught on clearance a while back, on The Planets and Ancient Egypt and did  a project page using the stencils, stickers and information they read in the booklet.  So I guess saying 'nothing' was accomplished isn't exactly true.

My MAIN reason for posting was to share this with anyone that might be interested!  This is the printing readiness program that Sam has used to help with his fine motor skills and writing, he enjoyed it and it really helped a lot for a brief program.    It's from Donna Young and even has a cool certificate of completion you can print out for yout little one.  We all know how kids love those :D

I am just about fed up with illness though, and am doing some research on wtf is going on with my immune system which I will discuss with my doc because it looks promising (and very common & overlooked even  ... how did my doc not notice that I've had numerous severe respiratory illnesses this year AS WELL AS a borderline low thyroid test and put those two together?)   

For now though, I shall go have a brief lay down as hubby is home to supervise the boys. Tomorrow will be a better day.  

Today was an extra curricular day with our distance ed unit.  We have them every fortnight, but we haven't been as much as I'd like this year due to my ridiculous stretches of illness and my holiday overseas.  These days were the reason Sir Merry started attending kindy on Fridays, as he was just too much to manage when added to the king of distractability and disruption and the Lord of Poutiness (aka Frodo and Sam).  

Here's a run down of a typical EC day.  

1030am   Start time, morning 'class' of intro to Japanese ... boys giggle, get rowdy & silly and Sam wants to go to the playground.  Whines excessively when told after class is done.

1100am   Switch to dance class with George.  Frodo loves this, but gets rowdy as he & one of his little mates egg each other one.  Sam on the other hand, refuses to participate at all and sits up under me sulking since we haven't gone to the playground yet.  For goodness sake, they're doing robot dancing and it looks like great fun.. but he scowls and refuses on principle.

1130   FINALLY I send the little grumble bum to the playground (just outside the scout hut we have our classes in) Where he happily plays and comes over for a snack every 2.5 minutes.

1200   Next group activity.  Rinse & repeat previous descriptions of boys behavior as some things never change.

1300   Joyously send the little beasts off to the playground, snacking accelerates to constant levels.  You'd think they are never fed except these days?

1330   Last groups for the day!  Met with exuberance from Frodo and sulking from Sam.  And requests for even MORE food.  

1430    Time to battle the traffic and head home. 

Usually by the time I arrive home, I've txt'd hubby to have an adult beverage ready and a padded room if possible.  

Today on the other hand *faints*.  Pardon that... took me a moment to come to.  WHO are these children I took with me today?  We got there, they went to, participated in, and ENJOYED every.single.group!  They came out to the picnic area where the mums gathered and chatted, had lunch & snacks, got their water bottles refilled and played with their little friends.   

It was quite possibly the nicest day out with both boys that I have ever had.  And THEY thought so too.  They have talked about nothing else all evening and can't wait to go next fortnight!  The bummer is, next fortnight is the last one till February as it will be 'summer break' for us technically.   

 Mad catch up post alert!   I got a bit swamped last week so here are a few pics to show what we got up to.   In our History Odyssey, we are back in ancient Egypt... Frodo's favourite subject (historically speaking).   This time around it's Egpyt's Empire and every life in Ancient Egypt.   Fun project for the week was building Egyptian riverboats like the ones that would have been used for trading on the Nile.  Ok, so ours were made of paper towel tubes, pencils & felt scraps... but it was fun! 

Ta-da!  Frodo was very proud..  blogger has eaten the photo of Sam's golden river boat (as it is missing from this post grrr)  but you can see the tip (is that the bow/prow or stern? lol) of it following Frodo's as they went trading up the Nile... which was filled in for by our dark blue living room carpet hehe.  

Frodo also drew a gorgeous picture of what he learned about in this lesson, for his history notebook.  It is a boat very much like that one hauling money back up the Nile from selling gold (Frodo narrated it for me :) with big waves lapping at the hull and a bright desert sun riding high in the sky.  I really should frame that one for his wall I think.  (and should have taken a pic of it for this post but I had a brain cramp,  that's picture fail x2 for me today!)   

Among other things this past week, we bought & carved our pumpkin for Halloween.  The boys helped me pick out a very cute template to use.  Here's Frodo busy poking holes to outline the pattern (he's using a tiny screwdriver, so no panicked notes about knives please :)  

We also finished up the Halloween lapbook project.  As much as I try to like lapbooks, they annoy me lol.  I think we'll transition to notebooking pages that can be inserted into their various notebooks.  

HERE is the finished result of our hard work on said pumpkin!  The boys were QUITE pleased with him.  Don't ya love that playful wink?  Who'da thunk spiders could be so darn cute!?!

We also ventured out to a big Halloween street party and had an OK time.  I was a bit disappointed because the council apparently OVER advertised it and it was so crowded you couldn't turn around   :(    Traffic & parking were a nightmare and the tiny business district of Manly just is not big enough to support enough stalls, entertainment, rides etc to keep nearly 10k people happily amused for an evening.   We left after an hour at most.  But the kids had fun...  

 As evidenced by them hangin out with the chauffeur to the damned here, waiting for the parade to begin ;)   Note to self:  do NOT get Frodo a costume of a corpse next year,  he was not amused by the screenprinted ribcage on the front *sigh*   That kid is gonna be the death of me with his sensitive side ;)  Then there's Sam.. who was very put out that I did not have vampire teeth complete with bloody dripping from them to complete HIS costue @@.

Ask and ye shall recieve! hehehe   I didn't think too many people would be excited by the old school heroes these days, so I didn't add them to the post.  But here you go!  You'll note Sam looks slightly perplexed.. he had NO idea who these weird men in spandex mum had him pose with were lol.. but he knew they were super heroes so that made it ok!    Man, have costumes come a long way or what?!?!?  Although I must say, these two guys looked fairly confident despite being wrapped in the most unforgiving fabric ever lol.

 Ok ... just couldn't resist sharing my personal moment with Austin Powers hehehe.   They were very entertaining dancing their way along Main Street :D    (you'll note the massive cover over the whole of Main St. there... mega  high skin cancer rates = an immense shade sale industry lol) 

Yesterday we had our home ed group excursion to Movie World on the Gold Coast.  Movie World is the ONLY motion picture oriented theme park int he Southern Hemisphere apparently.   They also film movies,  a couple of the batman movies were filmed there as are many other Warner Brother flicks.    About 100 people, give or take, turned up bright & early for a day of fun and boy was it!  

There was Shrek, and Bugs bunny & friends, Scooby Doo and the whole gang, Batman, old school heroes like the Flash & the Green Lantern.. and even Cat woman was caught lounging in a shady spot (I suppose all that leather would be a tad hot in a nice sun beam ;)  The Harry Potter shop was a huge hit, and Sam & I rode a Batman adventure ride... and HE handled it better than *I* did!  In my defence though, it was one of those 3d movies in a rockin-n-rollin' pod!   Not my forte!!!!  Photos will tell the tale of this day better than words, so here goes!

 Here's the boys & their cousin hangin out with Scooby, Shaggy & Fred.  The guy that played Shaggy did the BEST copy of his voice, it was great!

 For Sam, it was ALL about the BAT!  He got to see the REAL batmobile from the Batman Returns movie and was giddy.  Then he watched adults get flung into the sky on the batshot, Frodo looked mortified.. Sam looked like he was thinking 'where do I sign on for THAT!?!'  lol  Somewhere at that moment, a grey hair sprouted from my head.

 Here's the two boybarians on the mini version of the Batshot, called Sylvesters Pounce &  Bounce.   They LOVED it and did the requisite screams the whole time hehehe.

 And here is Frodo in his first driving experience... don't ask what's up with the hat brim, I have no idea what he was thinking LOL.   They had quite the time bumping each other around the room.

Austin Powers & company danced their way up Main St. at one point, and I managed to get a 'yeah babaaaay' and pose from him for a pic lol.   

All in all it was a great day, and today I'm left with achy knees and legs and am glad it's over.  Wonder how many kilometres we logged walking around that massive place..

Because after MUCH oohing and ahhhing over their new bedroom, and talk of how excellent the bed was itself... I walked into their room around 9pm to discover that Frodo had climbed down from the top bunk and was sleeping soundly next to Sam.    

See, for about 2yrs now they have shared the same twin bed, by choice, despite having a 2nd twin bed in the room as well.   Eventually we gave up on the 2nd bed, and dissassembled it for the extra play space ;)  We even put a queen sized bed in their room at one point, but they didn't like th bigness of it and asked for their old bed back.  lol   

We rather thought that after all the bickering and such after they went to bed, that maybe Frodo was just ready for some 'space' of his own.  I think he is, but as the post title says... old habits die hard!   Ah well.. they are rather cute sprawled across each other :)

Oh wait, wrong pirate!  Yesterday we made the trip to Ikea and loaded the van up with our handy shopping list from the Ikea site (and we even managed to only leave with 2 items that weren't planned!  major accomplishment really lol)   It was a lovely day out for hubby & I, we stopped off at a shopping centre to hit Border's books, as last time I was there I took a HAHA photo of a couple of books for dh's dad... and he said hey, next time pick me one up and I'll give ya cash! lol  (I'll just say they are rather specialized gardening books and leave it there ;) Scored dh a new pair of work sneakers at a reasonable price,  his were way way past their prime.  And picked up an iced creme brulee at Gloria Jeans,  my favourite coffee haunt, for the road.

Then off to Ikea for lunch & shopping.  Dh has never had their meatballs with cream sauce & lingonberry jam,  he was hooked at first bite.  Seriously tasty lunch and at least as cheap as Maccas' (McDonalds) if not cheaper!   We managed to find everything we were looking for fairly easily... and had a ball going the WRONG WAY through the showroom floor hehehe.  I defy you silly arrows painted upon the floor!  I defy you!!!!  Before heading downstairs to the markethall, I spied  a very nice dining set that I'll becoveting for a long time ;)

It was rather hilarious when we got to the self service area... DH being the master of loading up a vehicle, packed that flatbed trolley like a pro and managed to get 2 desks, one bed, one bookcase a trofast storage shelf and a mattress... all on one trolley LOL.  Steering was a bitch I'm sure ;)

DH spent the night putting the Kura bed together, and I spent the evening drinking vodka cruisers and painting a few cute themed items for the bedroom walls (ok, I shared a cruiser or two with dh.. I didn't drink 'em all!~)  And THIS is the result:

 

  

The very cute door sign and pirate treasure map, were painted by yours truly (and are awaiting a coat of varnish as the propellant is gone from the can it appears!).  The uber cool flag on the wall is courtesy of Nan who always finds the coolest stuff.  And how CUTE is that pirate doona (douvet) cover!?!?    

The boys arrived home a bit ago, and they are thrilled.  Sam just informed me 'mum if you need me, I'll be in my bed'  LOL

Now.. to convince dh that flat pack is not the devil so that he'll come build me a REAL desk!

(have I started  a post with that title before? with all the sick this year, I'm not entirely sure.  If so, forgive my lack of creativity ;)  

I figure a few people probably started to wonder. I'm on what I hope will be my last round of antibiotics. I have been sick now for almost 4weeks... I know this because I got sick on a Saturday just before the belly dance school I attend started a 2week holiday, and last night I missed the 2nd class back. *sigh* I fear the mysterious world of veils will be lost on me next Monday (this is me being optomistic that I will even BE there Monday ;D Anyway... if this Augmentin doesn't kill me, (with it's headaches, dizziness & crampy guts), it will surely make me better ... or possibly turn me into a mutant. In the latter case, I have dibs on invisibility as a mutant power.

Schoolwise the monsters are having a good run so far this week! Frodo is doing a review mathbook (well the part he is doing right now is review, it probably gets harder :) until we get his new math program in. He's also been mad libbing like crazy, practicing his parts of speech. This week in science we are learning about Fungi! Tomorrow we start growing our own fungi (damp paper towel in a zippy bag + 1)slice of bread or 2) piece of vegetable) to see which grows mold first. I suppose I could just dig the ever present forgotten something from the bag of the fridge... but that doesn't 'really' count as a science experiment lol. We also read about the Babylonians and how they had the first written laws (the Hammurabi code) and how they worked out that the earth went around the sun in one year. They took that a bit further and divided that into 12 months..and then worked out how many days were in a month as well as that the day was 24hrs of 60minutes. I'm guessing they used different terminology of course, but Frodo thought it was very cool.  

Sam has been cruising through Headsprout episodes and acing the printing readiness program I found online (it's really more a series of worksheets... but program sounds much more flash hehe) It really is helping him though, because the other day I wrote his name and he copied it VERY WELL several times! And he's been practicing on our white board, since mum saw fit to score a package of crayola dry erase markers :D EIGHT colours of low odour, dry erase fun woohoo! He has not stopped writing since I got them, seriously.  

Today we started our Halloween lapbook project (which sadly I cannot find any info on the mama in the states who created it so I can't get permission to share it! waaaaaaaahhh) and I think the kids would have done the whole darn thing if I'd let them. As it was we talked about the history of Halloween & Samhain (and went through the whole pronunciation thing.. although far too many adults mispronounce Samhain so I should cut a 7yo some slack eh?... it's actually Sow-in for the non pagans about.. it's Gaelic I think?) and we learned some of the symbols of Halloween J Heaps of fun, and I have laid the project out so that it takes us right up to the 31st.

And totally unrelated to anything… we just scored a nice bit of cash back from the govt, so a trip to IKEA is in order! This weekend the boys will be spending Saturday night with their Nana & grandpa so we are sneaking to Ikea to buy them a Kura bed (to be used as a high bed, with bed underneath for Sam) and a new ‘theme’ bedding. We’re kinda hoping to find some rockin’ pirate themed stuff, or maybe castle/knight. The idea is Sunday afternoon when they come home, they find an AWESOMELY cool bedroom. I always wanted that bedroom when I was a kid, but mine was always boring and functional… this little bit of magic I can give to my kids I figure! Of course photos will be forthcoming.

So, last week I was blog surfing and came across this concept and though, how cool!  The boys will love that!  So I made sure to pick up little bits & peices that would work well and they excitedly helped me choose what they wanted (lamenting that there were only 6 spots in the tin the whole way lol)  

Blogger is being uncooperative about formatting today, so the pics are where it will consent for them to be *grumble*  In their first muffin tin lunches, they had pb&j sammiches, cheese sticks, strawberries & kiwi, some mini pretzels, a yogurt (note to self, yogurt photographs better with the top ON) and an after dinner mint because they were in the fridge and Sams' life would not be complete until he got one *insert eye roll*

 All in all a fun lunch, and we'll be doing this again!