A day in the sunshine

We have had a string of relatives visiting over the last week. It's been lovely, and I'm glad the sun is shining again or the relatives might have been sharing unwashed sheets...! ;)

It has been a lovely warm sunny day today. Don has been in the veggie patch, turning over the beds and getting ready for late autumn and winter planting. The children have been racing around in the sunshine with their cousins. There has been a lot of collecting dirt/rock/leaf samples (to go in my nephew's new explorer bag), and observing the wildlife (although I'd prefer it if the flies stayed outside for their observation). And I have planted (with lots of help from relatives) quite a few flowering shrubs and vines.

We were all quite fascinated by the above Golden Orbweaver spider. The web it used to hold to the trees was very strong and quite a yellow colour. It was hanging at quite a perfect height for us to observe all her body parts, including the spinneret.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, friends. We have celebrated the usual way - freshly baked hot cross buns and chocolate eggs, to remind us of Jesus death and resurrection. Today we're happy to be warm inside as it is pouring with rain outside. There has been a spot of reading (Don pictured trying to read "Twenty-one balloons").


And a spot of knitting.

It has been very pleasant, but I think the quiet individual activities have come to an end as the children are starting to quarrel. Time to pull out the rainy-day play tent and box of toys...

Snake sighting

We've had a very exciting morning so far - the children spotted a brown snake in the yard outside, quite close to the house. It was a good opportunity to revise what-to-do-if-you-see-a-snake lessons. Somehow I don't think anyone will be volunteering to help me hang out the washing this morning!

I have been organising some Montessori-style activity draws for the littlest chicken to keep her occupied during school work times. They're such a great idea. The favourites at the moment are posting matchsticks through a hole in a box, and dropping water from one bottle to another.

And after all my moaning and groaning yesterday about not having the right Easter eggs in the shops, I made some up last night using the moulds. It was really very easy in the end, and I'm wondering why I ever bought them in the first place!

An exercise in patience...

There's been a bit of baking happening here over the last week. There have been lots of helpers, as evidenced by the floury fingerprints all over the kitchen, and the sticky spots over the floor... Between you and me cooking with children is a real patience building exercise - there's a lot of breath holding, and I have to keep reminding myself that it's about the process rather than the end result, and flour and sugar all over the floor can be cleaned up! I must say, though, that the cakes have been very yummy.

Don cooked up all the beetroot we pulled from the veggie patch. Yummy!

I'm thinking I'm going to have to find the egg moulds, so I can make chicken no.1 Easter eggs this year. There is generally one store in town that sees fit to stock dairy & nut free chocolate, but evidently this year someone way down in Melbourne decided we didn't need it this year!! Grrrrrr.....

Ah, those chubby cheeks!

On the weekend my dad was showing us some video tapes of the children when they were younger. Those chubby little cheeks were so adorable! (Not that they're not adorable now.. but there's something extra cute about those very early years - that look in their eyes of earnestness and trust, love, cuteness...). I hope you'll permit me to share a favourite set of photos with you, taken while they were playing with a ladybird.

The new tent

We had a lovely weekend ‘camping’ in my parent’s backyard this weekend. Some may argue (yes, that would be you, Rachael!) that it wasn’t really camping, but the point is that we were sleeping in our

new tent.

You could call it a practice run! I’m glad it was a practice run, or we would have forgotten the can opener and toilet paper! (...and socks and toothbrushes...) We also had a nice picnic and bushwalk at one of the local falls.

The weekend also included catching up with some friends (nothing like a leisurely lunch with friends under a big old shady tree), and cuddles with a new little baby (so sweet!).

Lego, Lego, Lego

The last three days, as the children have been recovering from their various illnesses, they have been playing almost non-stop with their Lego. It's such a great toy for developing their concentration, co-ordination, manipulative skills, following instructions, etc etc!



Now chicken no.1 when she grows up doesn't just want to be a scientist/vet/farmer/run an orphanage - she also wants to be a Lego designer. Wouldn't you love to be 6 again?