The trampoline

The trampoline:

the jumping castle of dreams,

the stage for the imagination.

Kings and queens,

valiant soldiers,

chivalrous knights waging war against dragons.

Musicals and dramas enacted.

Today's wrestling ring is tomorrows circus.

And even, on occasion, a quiet sunny picnic spot.

Birthday season

It's the beginning of our peak birthday season. The first one was yesterday - celebrated with a pony party and horse riding (Happy Birthday Julia!). Today is Don's birthday. I don't think we'll mention ages anymore, after last night's conversation about how long ago High School was....

Here is the Master Chef between licks of icing. I know you'll do your best not to notice the mess in the background, and the fact that Don is cleaning out the kitchen cupboard on his birthday...

And the man himself. Happy Birthday!! xx

And a matching purse

What dress is complete without a matching purse?

Pattern from Skip To My Lou.

A new dress

Checklist for new dress:

• can be worn over jeans;
• has no traces of pink or purple;
• is pretty much the most fiddly and hard-to-read dress pattern ever so mother keeps up her sewing skills;
• can be worn while running around the yard and finding interesting bits of grass and rocks;
• has pockets to store the above mentioned items.

Check. Now to find some strawberry-type buttons to finish off the dress.... (and quickly throw out the pattern before I'm tempted to attempt it again...)

Motorbike riding at the farm

A couple of weekends ago we went to the farm (we say 'the farm', but it's my sister's in-law's farm) to celebrate a birthday and do some motorbike riding.

Happy birthday, matey!

Our boy would have ridden all day if allowed.

Eldest chicken had a blast too.

And littlest chicken was thrilled to have daddy ride her around the home paddock a few times.

The little girls had fun playing in the trailer with the big bike.

Bagworm revisited

We have been given another bagworm to babysit this week. We'll have to put him out on the gum tree soon - he's quite an escape artist, and we keep finding him working his way along the lounge room floor.

Camping & Lessons learnt

We're just back from a week of camping in Gloucester. Lovely! I don't think you can have too much fresh air and greenery, can you?

We did learn a few things from our week of camping:

1. children, tummy upsets, camping don't mix

2. if it rains, the rain will eventually find a leak in your tent

3. if you think it's a stinging nettle, it probably is one (lavender oil works great for the sting, by the way!)

But those were minor asides, really. Here's where it really happened:

The obligatory shot of wildlife:

A nice bushwalk or two:

Of course I had to take photos of the fungi (and picked up a few fresh leaches each time, but I chose not to photograph them):

A nice view from Barrington Tops:

And a nice drive past our favourite little chapel on the way home. Good for acorn collecting.

Check out the colour of the leaves!