Dress up day!

Life is certainly never dull here..... This is what the kids came up with after raiding Peter's wardrobe...



Ok.... just to clarify... the wig came from Little Possum's dress-up box, not from Peter's wardrobe, although he was the one who brought it home after a work social event.....

"I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...."

Ever since receiving my new Christmas present I have been singing this chorus to myself.. and today was the day we decided to go on our very first family outing with bikes. Doodlebug and I had our new bikes, Turtle and LP had their upgrades so we decided to go to Homebush for the afternoon.

Amazingly we managed to fit 5 bikes and 5 people in our car - Bertie Bus has his flaws (being unique, highly noticable, unstealable and indestructible to name but a few....) but he comes into his own when we need to transport lots of stuff or people or both.

We didn't go straight to Bicentennial Park this time, but decided to go exploring and we found a spot called Wentworth Common that looked promising.

It was a lovely, sunny afternoon and as we followed a bikepath along the waterfront we saw some wonderful things. There were mangrove boardwalks, lookout towers, shipwrecks and even a great new adventure playground .

We found our way to Bicentennial Park, and the Treillage. I don't know what this name means but I think it might be "tower by avenue with water jets squirting up from the pavement so children can get really soaked". The kids did just that - got soaked.

Biking through the water, running through the water, sitting in the water. Of course we never travel anywhere without spare sets of clothes. The only problem was that the clothes were all in the car. So we had to wring out as much water as possible from the clothes and they cheerfully continued on our ride wearing wet clothes. Must have been quite cooling actually.

They had almost dried out again by the time we found the fountains at the end of Olympic Blvd.

Another happy half an hour was spent here splashing in the water before we rode back towards the car and stopped off for a while at the new adventure playground.

There was a flying fox, climbing nets, shaded areas, sand and...... water. This time in the form of a pond, but no water too dirty for our lot. Before you could say "aaaah, not a good idea", Turtle and LP were happily going for a wade and swim in the pond that is probably frequented more by birds than people.

A wonderful day was had by all.

Christmas presents

Santa came in the night!!! We must all have been good this year because we received some great presents! Doodlebug got a bike with gears and his excitement was matched by Turtle who finally had his wish of a Nintendo DS fulfilled. Little Possum wanted some more furniture and things for her doll's house and some Polly Pocket stuff. Happiness all around. My present was unexpected as I had more or less given up on ever getting one..... I got a bike too!!! Santa must have heard about my goal for next year of getting fit and informed his local representative! Peter's presents were books and a set with hair clippers and a euphemistically named "personal grooming set" - a little cutter with attachments that are mostly obsolete because Peter does not have a beard or moustache (I suppose he'll be ready for next Movember!)..... but it has a nosehair attachment.... :) Santa left a photo of Doodlebug's bike and a message explaining that the reindeer were tired and didn't manage to bring the bike all the way to our house, but that they had stopped off at the grandparents' house and left it there.

YES!!! Finally!!!

And here I am practising barbering on Doodlebug's hair..... he was very brave being my guinea pig, and it's a good thing that school is another month away because he did look like he had been attacked by a psycho lawnmower...... Turtle went second and by then I had worked out that '3mm' was not the same as a 'no3'

"Mary, did you know?"

"My hair had a party last night..."

...when it hit the pillow it was lookin' alright
Things started out friendly but
there must have been a fight
My hair had a party last night" (Trout fishing in America)

I love it when the Little Possum crawls out of bed in the morning and comes to find me for a cuddle, looking a little sleepy and dishevelled. "> LP does not like having to brush out the morning hair, but is getting quite good at doing it herself now - even those knotty bits at the back.

yup - it's another UFO....

This is my "12 days of Christmas" quilt, designed by Tita Leach. With just 2 blocks to go, then the gazillion hollyberries and leaves, I really have no excuse not to have it finished by Christmas... next year. This will be my first UFO goal for 2008. I hereby pledge to have this quilt finished for next Christmas - along with the Christmas Story quilt that I just started of course.

"Whose line is it anyway?"

"If you chance to meet a frown,
do not let it stay...."

"Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away....."

Thanks to Suzi for this giant zucchini/marrow! Who would have known that in addition to being nutritious, it would provide some entertainment as well...?

Some fun memories

Just before the Leppänen family returned to Finland, we had some fun when Adiel and Erno came to stay with us for a week. It was like a week-long sleepover!
We learned that our bath tub could fit 5 children in it...... and that 5 children in the bathtub create more of a flood in the bathroom than 3.....

Here is a handful of memories from that week:

Adiel learned to climb the pole/beam in our kitchen all the way to the ceiling.
Erno loved this day in the playground..



Adiel's ladybird. We should have left it to Mason for safe keeping - I think it got squashed under a sandal by accident....

"Bubble Bath"

"I emptied my bubble bath into the tub,
Determined to get myself thoroughly scrubbed.
The bottle had said "ONLY ONE CAP OR TWO",
So I poured in the lot to see what it would do!
That still didn't seem quite enough to get clean,
So I followed it up with another fifteen.
Then three bars of soap and a dozen shampoo,
And two broken bath bombs to finish my brew!
I'll cut to the chase, this did not turn out well,
As the burbling, foaming bath bubbles did swell!
It wasn't all bad, I was clean and smelt sweet,
But outside my soap suds had buried the street! "

- Gareth Lancaster

The morning after the night before...

Doodlebug's current obsession is Pokemon - It has actually lasted for almost a year now. His most treasured possessions include these two volumes of Pokemon game guide and the Pokedex..... This morning I found him asleep on top of his books possibly trying to absorb some more information through osmosis?

an evening out

We ate at Wolfie's and had a lovely view to the Opera House. Dinner was superb as well, we had chateaubriand which was cooked to perfection. Later, as we walked around Circular Quay on our way to Dende, we could see the storm clouds gathering out over the harbour. I wish I could've captured the lightning on film, but I had to settle for these two photos:

Rain = mud = happy children

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt" - Margaret Atwood

I was on my way into town to meet Peter and just wanted to say good-bye to the kids and this is the scene I found.
They were having so much fun that I had to take a photo of the happy, muddy little group of children..... At least 2 of them had the foresight to wear raincoats... But, I think hooded coveralls might have offered more protection. Bathtime became a 2 part process: first in the shower to get rid of the worst of the mud and then into the bathtub to finish off the ablutions. I missed this altogether because by then I had done a runner :) Gold stars to Sirpa and Teemu who were babysitting for us and who had to clean up my little people.

I never knew...

what exciting features my camera has...... this afternoon at the playground I was playing around with some buttons and a little tile icon came up, so I tested it out on Little Possum who was sitting in a spinning cup and this is what happened! I can see there's scope for some interesting photos

Alternative Nativity

This is the Nativity picture that Little Possum drew on Sunday..... In the left corner there is a shepherd with a sheep. Next to the shepherd are the kings bearing gifts. Baby Jesus , Mary and Joseph are there as well, and in the sky there are angels and the bright new star. And then..... well, then there is the Fairy Monster, lesser known personality in the Nativity...

New toy

This time for me.... Peter installed paint.net for me which is photo manipulation freeware. I get to play around with it and depending on how much fun I have with it, I might get PhotoShop. To start with I decided to play with a photo of Little Possum from a couple of years ago. The original is a colour photo and I have been experimenting with black/white adding a bit of colour. This is so much fun!!!

Colourful dinner guests

Now that the evenings are so pleasant, we have been having dinner out on the deck. Last night we had this little group of rainbow lorikeets dining along side of us in this palm tree (Queensland umbrella tree). There were 2 more, but they were a little more camera shy, and flew off as I took the photo. I love the birdlife here - lots of colour and personality esp the kookaburra.

Our gingerbread house!!!

Last year I had all the fun of assembling and decorating a gingerbread house at an activity, so this year I thought the kids could have a turn. I assembled the house and let the Turtle and Little Possum loose with lollies and icing.

There was intense concentration here as Turtle built a fence and LP was making sure the Smarties were lined up perfectly.
Just a few finishing touches......

And here is Turtle showing off the result - the house on the right is ours...... Now let's see how long this house will last before being demolished....