What's for dinner?

Life has been moving faster than we can catch up at the moment.  Wolf has a new job, Monkey is getting smarter and smarter, Lion has finished his first year of school and Dragon is done with Kindy for the year.  It's almost Christmas and I am soooo far behind on blogging what's been going on around here.  I'm just going to do my best and see how fast I can catch up.

 *****

Driving along in almost silence one day, Dragon was obviously doing some deep thinking when he came out with this doozy... "Mummy, Are we God's Lego?"  Wow, what an opportunity... kicking my own deep thinking brain into gear I got on with an answer... I can't remember it exactly what I said but it was along the lines of "yes...and no"  Yes, we are like God's Lego because God can make us into whatever he wants to, he has complete control of us.  But no, because God loves us perfectly, he loves us more than we could ever love Lego and because of that there's never a person that is out of his sight, he never wanders around saying "now where is that kid with the red cap, I know I had him here somewhere yesterday".  He takes care of us better than we could ever take care of our Lego.  Dragon took it all in, processed it and gave me a deep response... "I need to wee when we get to the shops".

*****

Lion had a bit of fun a while back helping Grandad to clean their big trailer with the pressure sprayer.

*****

I think I sing too many children's songs when a sudden ant bite sends me into a tuneful (or not) frenzy of "Ants in my armpit, a a a, ants in my armpit, a a a..."  Stupid ants.

*****

I found Monkey a few days ago sitting on the floor unwrapping a Dove chocolate like we have in the advent calendar... I don't know where he got it. He tried to pretend he wasn't opening it and gave it to me while looking all innocent... I pretended along and shared it with him... no one need ever know....

*****

These are what Lion and Dragon took for their school and kindy friends instead of Christmas cards or candy canes.  I hate candy canes, the kiddie-crack that they are, and there was no way I was going to sit around and supervise as they wrote in 483940 cards for their friends and then when handing them out find that we missed a kid who is now in tears and... and... and... it's all too much for this season of love and goodwill.  Something sweet, something with no names attached... easy.  Yes, I'd much rather stay up late, after the kids are in bed and make treats for their friends than supervise the Christmas card writing.

*****

Cleaning up the kitchen bench junk piles recently I found...

• 1 hand grenade (toy, thankfully )
• many rocks
• 2 pairs of socks
• 1 snake skin
• sparklers
• matches
• an array of things I should have returned to people

Life with boys is never dull.

*****

Lion's class led the school assembly a few weeks ago.  It was awesome.  This term they were discovering "Who Sank The Boat" so they performed it for us.  Lion had to welcome everyone to the assembly and introduce one section then thank everyone for coming at the end.  He had a lot to learn but he did a great job!

*****

We had Cheetah and Little Bear come for a sleep over a few weeks ago... it was absolute chaos!  But we did have a lot of fun!  Believe it or not the last two to go to sleep were Dragon and Little Bear... those two kept going and going and going and going!

Little Bear managed to find our only two Duplo girls... she said one was her and one was me... she's so sweet.

***** 

Judge me if you wish but when the kids ask what's for dinner over and over and over they usually get the response "poo on toast".  One day Lion came to me and asked "Mum, are we having poo on toast for dinner?"  "Yes" I responded... "Oh noooooo" said Dragon... "not TOAST".

*****

Phew... there's a bit of a catch up... still more to go!

Birthday Soup for Little Bear?

(image credit)

Man, I love that book! But no, our Little Bear didn't get birthday soup.  She got a birthday cake that tasted nothing like soup! (although one day I want to make her a birthday cake that looks like a big bowl of soup)

I made her birthday cake again this year (1st birthday cake here, 2nd birthday cake here) and she finally got that Cinderella cake!  We had a little conversation about what sort of cake she wanted for her birthday and it went something like this...

Me- What sort of birthday cake do you want Little Bear?

LB- Um, I wand an ithetweam take pweese.

Me- But it'll be really cold, are you sure you want an icecream cake?

LB- Um, yeeeeeah, I wand a warm one.

Me- A warm icecream cake?

LB- Um, yeah, dats wad I wand.

 

So, nothing like being set an impossible task, there's no way I can fail her, right?

 

We talked around in circles for a few minutes and decided that a princess cake would be good.  I didn't commit to a particular princess because I had no idea what I was able to pull off so I thought I'd wait until I could see what props were available and if it was going to be one of "THE" princesses or just your generic run-of-the-mill princesses.

 

I got to Target to check out the girls toy section and I found these cute little princesses with a spare change of clothes (because all good princesses need a spare change of clothes) and figured I'd find out which one she would like and make the cake in the shape of something from that particular princesses story.  I rang Chimera and started asking but then I had to stop and ask a mother and daughter who were standing there which princesses I was actually looking at!

 

So, Little Bear has a bit of a thing for Cinderella so I grabbed a Cinderella and went and cleansed myself with a stroll down the Lego aisle and started thinking about what shape to do the cake... at which point I realised I had no idea which story belonged to Cinderella.

 

I can pretty much sum up my princess knowledge here... Ariel is the mermaid, all mermaidy stuff is hers.  Belle is from Beauty and the Beast, the rest of them I can remember their names usually but as to which prince and which story the belong in... I'm lost.

 

So, I considered hunting down the previously mentioned mother and daughter team... but that might just be a little weird.  I mulled over finding another random little girl to quiz about Cinderella but figured it wouldn't help my cause to get locked up somewhere out the back of Target while I awaited the cops.  THE BOOKSHOP! I can go to the bookshop and look up a book on Cinderella (I make it sound like it's in the reference section, hey?) and find out what her story is.  On heading out though I got a chatty checkout chick... I shared that I was getting this to make my nieces birthday cake... she wanted to know more... I didn't know any more... so I asked her!  I had my suspicion so I just came out with it...

 

"Is Cinderella the one with the pumpkin coach?"

 

She gave me a blank look that I interpreted as "How on earth would I know?"

 

But it turns out it was probably more likely "Are you seriously dumb as a post that you don't know Cinderella's story?"

 

"Yeah... yeah she is" said the girl.

 

"thanks" I said and then mumbled something about having boys and never being a girly-girl and it wasn't on the QCS test and I never took Princesses and their back stories 101 at Uni...

 

So, I had that sorted, I would do a pumpkin/coach cake.

 

The weekend for cake making was really busy... time slipped past and it was the morning of the afternoon of the party.  I ditched any thoughts of actually making the cake and frantically headed to Woolworths to buy something, anything that I could shape into a coach.

 

We got home and I had four hours until the party but the baby was cranky, tired, grumpy, hungry... I got that sorted, I had 2 hours until the party... plans had to change.

 

I started making the icing... and I didn't have enough icing sugar.  I never run out, how did I get so low? I never let my self NOT have a spare bag in the cupboard.  I tore the cupboard apart and send Wolf out to buy more while I started making icing with what little I had... and shaping some cakes to look like a coach.

 

Then, I did something really stupid... I coloured ALL the icing I made the one colour (spilling the bottle into the mixture as I did it so it ended up much brighter than I anticipated)...

 

At this point I am considering dumping my HUGE batch of bright pink icing on one of the shop bought cakes and stuffing Cinders in the top and feeling secure in the fact that Little Bear wouldn't give a toss if I did that, she'd love it anyway.  But I soldiered on.

 

So, JUST as my big boys are returned home by their grandparents and with 1 hour until the party...

 

I finished the cake...

 

Then, with much fear, I carried it on my lap as we wove through the streets of our town to Little Bear's house for her party.  I had visions of turning up with a cakeboard filled with mess and smears of pink icing from my head to my toes... I didn't even want to think about how I would clean the car after that!

But we did make it, and the cake wasn't too bad even though it wasn't home made.

And although it's not a lot like what I originally intended it to look like, I think Little Bear liked it.

The post in which I possibly make some enemies...

Last night I wasted 139 minutes of my life. Over 2 hours down the drain. Never to be redeemed. GONE. So how did I waste so much time??? I watched this...

I can tell you that I am just not that into this movie. Wolf took Lion to the football thanks to a friend offering some tickets so I figured I'd go out and get a DVD (and some malteasers) that I knew Wolf wasn't interested in seeing to watch after I got Dragon to bed. I made a very bad decision.

The bad decision wasn't necessarily that I rented this movie. It possibly started much earlier than that. When I trusted two of my very good friends for their movie advice. See, I don't get to the movies much so my friends let me know what's worth watching when it comes out on DVD. This one they recommended. They even went so far as to say that "even Wolf will probably like it". I am so glad I didn't listen to that last bit of advice and subject Wolf to watching this too or I would have been in serious trouble. So why did I trust these girls? I don't know. What have I learnt from this?

• My friends don't know me as well as I thought they did.



• NEVER take movie advice from girls who like rubbish girly movies like Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Titanic, etc.



• If you think a movie looks silly but your previously mentioned friends have recommended it... go with your instincts.



• Do not under any circumstances take advice on what movies your husband will like from a girl who has only just started dating her guy and he will currently go and see and pretend to like just about any movie to keep her happy and spend time with her.

So there you have it... 139 minutes of girly banter, dating dramatics, dodgy morals, eye stabbingly and mindnumbingly repetitive scenes. What Fun!

Thing is I thought these friends knew me better than to recommend something like this to me. They don't even invite me to go see the girliest rubbish anymore. They start talking about a movie and warn me that it's one that I shouldn't see. They were really surprised that I was actually interested in seeing The Other Boleyn Girl until I let them know that I had read the book and wanted to see how it compared (not real well it turns out).

I know that some people are currently taking offense and my lumping all those movies into the "rubbish girly movies" bin and moving on. I am not going to judge anyone on their movie tastes... Wolf loves Sci-fi... LOVES IT... yet I still love him and I still married him and I have even bought him many hours worth of sci-fi viewing for birthdays and Christmas and stuff. For love I have even watched some of those hours with him... See, I do really love him! So what I am saying I classify those movies as "rubbish girly movies" but if you happen to like them then that's great for you, you can classify them as "classics" or "great period drama" or whatever you want. Just please don't ask me to sit and watch them with you and we can still be friends.

Moving on now... Peach Blossom is 31 weeks today. That means it's only 8 weeks tomorrow until we get to meet this little thing. We think it's been on the Red Bull. I was only telling the OB last appointment that unlike the other two this one seems to sleep at night and party all day... Lion and Dragon just partied all the time. Wolf informed me the other morning that every time he touched my belly the night before Peach Blossom had kicked and punched and gone crazy... Like I hadn't noticed! I was told with Lion that after about 30 weeks the movements slow back down because they start to run out of room. So far none of mine have read that part of the baby books... they just ramp it up towards the end. The are still somersaulting right to the last minute! I am starting to notice that I am spending more and more time awake each night. On top of that poor Dragon has been getting nightmares. We are not strangers to night time dramatics in this house. Lion started night terrors at about 6 months and kept them up until about 4 years old. Since then he has had frequent nightmares but usually he just comes into our room, wakes me up to tell me he's had a nightmare and then sleeps the rest of the night on our floor on his little mattress. Dragon started night terrors at about 8 months old I think and he had grown out of them by the time he was a bit older than 1. We were very relieved. He has had hardly any nightmares to speak of until the last few weeks. He seems to be afraid of the dark, freaks out for AGES after his nightmare, and doesn't trust sleep for days after each one asking for the light to be left on even for his daytime nap. Some nights if Lion has gone to sleep in our room I'll just plonk myself on Lion's bed and go back to sleep there so that at least I am getting sleep instead of sitting next to Dragons bed until he is sound enough asleep to not notice me leave. We had an aromatherapy spray that worked wonders with the night terrors but it doesn't seem to work for nightmares. It's just a stage... it'll pass... I will get sleep again in about 12 more years so I'm told.

I saw this at Little Bears birthday party...

I thought it was so cute, she was helping him to move the car around through the bubbles... that was until she parked him out of the bubbles and with a satisfied look on her face she went back to playing alone in the bubbles. Smart girl that one, he was taking up precious bubble space.

This week hopefully we are going to get through a few more things on our lists. I need to have a big cook up and put some meals in the freezer and provide one for a friend who has just had a new baby. That was supposed to have been for last Tuesday but apparently I got the day wrong and so it's going to be one day this week. Lion and I have the first Kids church at his kindy tomorrow morning so we will be off bright and early for that (at least earlier than we have got moving for anything else these holidays) and then on Tuesday I have another OB appointment. I need to get to Medicare at some point after that to claim back for my last two appointments, we have hit the "safety net" (did so first week in May) and it's meaning that I'm not so panicked about being on fortnightly appointments now. We have never hit the safety net so early in the year before, it just goes to show that what I was thinking was right... we haven't had a good run with sickness this year. Still, none of it has been bad stuff, um, except the spots. Those were kind of scary.

The boys are playing Time Team in the back yard. They are discovering parts of buildings that were here before our house. Um, this was a new development when our house was built. Still, they don't let reality get in their way, Lion decided that the piece of concrete he found was from a building that was knocked down to make way for our house and it was Huddy's building. Wolf said it was likely just a piece of concrete from when our house was built but Lion very reasonably disagreed with him just like they do on Time Team and decided that he was right. They have been playing really well together lately (Lion and Dragon that is, Wolf is usually quite good playing with them so that's not such an exciting event). It's nice to hear them playing "extruction (construction) sites" or "restues" (rescues) or "icmergency (emergency) vehicles". I think it's emergency vehicles at the moment because there is a grass fire in the back paddock and Wolf told them they had to stay up in the cubby house and watch it and when it got to a certain point in the field they had to tell him. As an aside... is it strange that my son can say vehicles (and has been able to since before he was 2) but he can't say rescue properly without thinking about it? Another one of his cute little words (these are all Lion's today) is he calls the Chiney Apple over the fence a "Chinese Apple". He is giving Dragon a little nature lesson at the moment about the Chinese Apple:)

PS. Winter read my last post and turned up the next morning all windy and cool and making me need a jumper. YAY. Even better it has continued on for a few days. I hope it was some of your cold weather migrating up here Mum-me so that you could have had a little bit of a warmer day.

Whinge... Moan... Complain...

I am currently trying to decide if I have given my whole family food poisoning from dinner or if it's just me and it's a pregnant thing... I feel like rubbish and would love nothing more than to puke my guts up and go to bed... sorry probably an overshare.

Two posts in one day... days and days of nothingness then two in one day. This one was started ages ago so I thought I should finish it and post it... it probably contains nothing of consequence but I'll find that out when I read through it as I go... just a bunch of ranting and raving.



While we were shopping for the stuff I needed for Little Bear's cake we bought a bubble machine. Yep, nothing like sticking to the essentials. Mum asked why? My answer was that I took Wolf with me to do groceries. That seemed to explain it well enough. I saw it on the shelf and made the comment "bubble machine, cool". Wolf heard "wow, we really need that bubble machine, we'll have to buy that" so into Dragon's little shopping basket it went. Little Bear loved dancing in the bubbles at her party.

I am going to start putting out an all day feed trough for my kids soon. "Feed them porridge (oatmeal) for breakfast" they say... "fills them up for longer" they say... "cheap, nutritious and filling" they say... Then why is it Lion asks for food less than 10 minutes after he tells me he "can't finish my breakfast because my tummy is too full". Unfortunately I had already given his leftovers to Dragon so I couldn't present him with those to finish off.

He "needs" to eat constantly! TV is a big trigger, if he's in front of the TV he's S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G and only biscuits and lollies will do for the ravenous beast. It's not like I have ever encouraged this behaviour... REALLY, this time I'm not being sarcastic. They do eat snacks in front of the TV occasionally but for the most part they don't have anything while they watch. It's driving me nuts. Especially when he can't finish his filling breakfast and goes and sits down to finish his cartoons and decides that he is starving. But it's not just TV that triggers them. Seeing the kitchen reminds them that they need food, walking through the door after we have been out reminds them that they need food, playing in the yard reminds them that they need food. They are in no way underfed. There is usually fruit in the fridge and I rarely say no to them having a piece of fruit. We go through kilo's of sultanas for snacks, often they get a handful of sultanas and a plain biscuit for a snack but some days there is nothing I can offer them (unless it's a chocolate biscuit and a handful of lollies) that will do.

I don't actually think his tummy was full when he said it was this morning. He had just (out of silliness) knocked a glass candle cover off the table and he and I both froze as we waited for it to hit the floor and smash. Luckily for him it managed to stay on the chair and not hit the floor but he still got in trouble for being careless and I explained that if his silliness had caused it to get broken I would have taken money out of his piggy bank and taken him to buy me a new one. "well, that's not really a very fair idea" he says. After I explained that if I broke something of his by being careless I would replace it with my money and I expect the same from them he thought that it probably was a fair idea. I think the butterflies as he waited for the smash combined with being chastised by mummy made his tummy feel a bit yucky so he said he was done.



I am not sure if it's lack of sleep or pregnancy but my lack of intelligence is getting worse and worse. I can now provide you with this piece of useless information after one of my latest 'incidents'... Hairspray is really hard to clean out of your armpits... I know, you have been wondering that your whole life! Yesterday I actually sprayed my underarms with hairspray. Now I know that hair grows faster when you're pregnant but that's just crazy. I had mistakenly picked up the hairspray can instead of the deodorant (because it's easy to mistake a LARGE BLACK 360g can for a small white 30g can) and it wasn't until I put my arm down and it felt rather sticky that I noticed what I had done. I then had to try to clean it off so I could put the real stuff on. I often go to put soap on my toothbrush. We have pump soap in the bathroom and I haven't had pump toothpaste since I was about 10 so why I go to do that I don't know... but now I am worried that I will actually do it one day... when will I notice that one??? BEFORE I put it in my mouth I hope!



We went computer shopping this morning. I am sick of sharing Wolf's work computer. I am frustrated with feeling like I am depriving him of computer time whenever I get 5 minutes on there. I don't like the hovering at my shoulder waiting for me to finish. I have been reading blogs bit by bit but not getting to comment except here and there. Blog posts are being written bit by by too, any photo editing I want to do or googling (I'd call it research but I don't know if it really classifies as such) I want to get done gets pushed aside so that I don't have to sit with someone watching my every keystroke. The other option is to stay up real late and do it all... yeah, I need sleep since I am the one that gets dragged out of bed at 6ish every morning because Wolf's ears shut down between the hours of 10pm and 8am so he supposedly can't hear the kids asking for breakfast/TV/cuddles after nightmares/blankets pulled up/whatever else they decide they need to drag me out of my nice comfy bed for.

We have the electricians coming in just over 2 weeks to install our air-cons. Yep, right in time for winter. This is something we have been working towards for years now but it is finally happening. This time we made the decision, got a GREAT quote from someone that seems to actually be genuine, got the money together... and then my hand-me-down laptop fritzed... that's okay, we still have the desktop... then the hard drive on that fritzed... um... okay, I can handle only having access to a computer while Wolf is at home... turns out he sometimes wants to use his computer at home too. So we need to get at least one replacement computer (we really should stop using the work computer for home stuff quite so much) which has to come out of the air-con money. We can still do it though, just. We decided to just get a new laptop since our only place for a desk set-up is in the garage and that's not entirely practical. It's also REALLY hot in summer and is not getting air-conditioned (unlike our last house where the garage was the only place air-conditioned other than the master bedroom).

I think winter has been and gone. We had a couple of nights where I wore socks to bed but it's over now. The boys are still wearing flanny jammies to bed because they don't keep their covers on. It's only the first week of July. I WANT WINTER!


I have googled our front runner baby names. first and last together, first, middle and last, all initials, first and last initial. Here's what I found.

Horrible Diseases - None (oh, we have come close to this one before).
Gangsters - None.
Criminals - None.
Pedophile watch lists - None (yes, it has happened when I googled a friends name trying to hunt them down).
Dodgy film stars - None.
Famous people of any description - None.

We may just have a winner folks!

I am kind of enjoying this whole -not telling everyone what flavour baby we are having- thing... I am thinking that once it's born I might keep it up. Only post photos in non-gender-specific outfits, keep all gender references out, just keep it up as long as possible. Good idea?

Anyway, today's post was brought to you by some photos of Little Bear's birthday. I got a super sloppy kiss for that cake :) I figured I wont get around to doing an actual post of all the photos we got so I'll pepper them through other posts. Just a little something to distract you from my whinging and whining.

Now blogger is messing with my head... my last post it kept telling me that there were no spelling mistakes and I knew there was a heap. This post it is correcting correct spelling. It picked up half a dozen words that were spelt right... it offered me the EXACT.SAME.SPELLING. Blogger, don't mess with me... I'm feeling yuck and I'm hormonal... not a good combination.

Hello Dolly!

I realise now that the last post was badly timed if I wanted an answer that was anything other than "It's for Dragon". NO, we are not buying our boy Barbie dolls, blue or any colour. Wolf is actually quite fine with the whole doll situation and supports his boy's love of all things pink. He isn't so happy with the need for frilly handbags and for that matter neither am I. The pink pig handbag wild boar manbag is about as far as I think we will let that one get. So... no one got the right answer after yesterday. I am not a 50 something year old man who plays with Barbie dolls... I'm much younger than that. I am having children to fill my need for dolls that I didn't get as a child (I'm joking, don't comment on this one!). You are very right that I wouldn't tell you if it was for a girl of our own. All your other crazy answers were also not right. Although Sandra was close. Does this help????
Why, YES, that would be a Dolly Varden cake tin filled and sitting upside down in a newspaper stuffed saucepan...

That means the correct answer was c. Mummy McTavish has bitten off more than she can chew!

My sister is a great mum. But she does this thing for her kids birthdays... it's called a round chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I happen to love making kids birthday cakes. I made Little Bears 1st birthday cake last year and I offered to make myself the official "Chimera's Kids Birthday Cake Maker" when I asked if she was doing a special cake this year and I got told... "yeah, it'll be chocolate". So long story short...

Little Bear gets the doll, and a pretty birthday cake. I am sure I could have done better without kids around but hey, that's not likely to happen is it? I know you don't need to see it from every side but this is for my record too:)

It was supposed to be a Cinderella cake but when I went to buy the right doll yesterday Target had packed away all the Barbie stock to prepare to move it ready for the toy sale. I had to go with whatever I could get in Woolworths because I love little bear but I wasn't roaming all over town to find the "perfect" Barbie.

My house smells like sugar... I love that smell. I remember it from when mum used to make wedding cakes when we were little. Pearl dust is on EVERYTHING. That was my biggest frustration... it kinda clumped because it hasn't been used for so long and it didn't want to spread evenly or come off so she has a very uneven shimmer to her dress that I don't think you can see in these photos.

Also, lining a dolly varden tin is not easy... I hadn't even thought of how to do it until I had to actually get it done. You know you live in a boy house when a dolly varden cake tin is being called a "rocket helmet" by everyone. Hopefully Wolf will post the photos of the boys wearing it on here in the next few days.

So now all that is left to do is get the cake and the cake plate to the party without breaking either. Apparently this is exactly like a cake plate I broke when I was little. I feel no guilt, I don't remember it and I am sure if I needed to be I was punished at the time. My mother however likes to remind me that I broke it. I asked for a cake plate yesterday when I was picking up all the decorating stuff I needed and she said, I've got this one (large, but had a curved surface), and this one (smaller, less curved surface but no room for errors) and I'm not sure where it is but I have the one that is the same as the one you broke when you were little. I probably would have just called it the flat glass one with the scalloped edge but that's just me.

I wonder what Cheetah will want for his birthday cake when I have a not quite 1 month old... I hope it doesn't require a brain at all.

and yes, she does have a slight lean to her... I tried and tried and it just didn't want to even out:(

GREAT grandma!

A bunch of us trundled over to my grandma's on Thursday night for dinner. I took along the camera because I never remember to get photos of the boys with their great-grandma. I nearly forgot again except that Grandma wanted some other photos taken and that reminded me that I needed to get mine in.

To keep Little Bear still she got to wear her mum's "princess bracelet" until He-Man himself flogged it. He looks oh-so-tough in his precious gems doesn't he? That's my Dragon.

So we got one of Dragon, Grandma and Lion.

One of Little Bear, Grandma and Cheetah.

And one of Grandma and Cheetah after Little Bear didn't want to sit for the camera anymore.

Aparently iiM Unbalanced

Chimera bought a Wii fit this morning. I will never have one in my house... okay maybe never is too strong.

But there is good reason for not having photos with this post!

It told me I'm unbalanced... Unbalanced??? I'll show it unbalanced, as I put it's condescending white balance board through the TV... um, perhaps it's best you don't show this to your DH Chimera. (and yes Johnny's Mummy, I recycle my jokes. I've gotta, I don't have all that much material)

First thing you do is a little test to find your BMI, and Wii age. Chimera went through it first and I was laughing my butt off when she got 32. 3 years older than she really is. You can imagine her delight when I got 45! Stupid Wii, adding 18 years to my life. I was rubbish at the balance test, really really rubbish. It didn't help that Little bear assisted in my failure in the last part of it. After we got set up Chimera started doing some of the exercises and got what I will call beginner scores. It was after all her first time. Then I started, I got beginner scores too. Then I tried the soccer game where you head but the ball. THEY THEW SHOES AT ME! I couldn't get the balls but I was a dab hand at getting whacked in the head by a shoe! So I wasn't too good at that one, it seemed like whichever way I tried to go they Mii would go the other way. This got us wondering... Sure enough she had positioned the balance board facing the wrong way! You'd think the iiM on the board should have had her suspicious.

We fixed that and I was still rubbish at the rest of the stuff I tried. Except breathing, turns out I am a Yoga Master at breathing. I never would have guessed, I've only been practicing for 45 27 years.

Oh, I did okay at the running one... sort of... well... I may have cheated... but only for some of it! Mummy McT 1 - Balance Board 4937. I'll have my victory one day... one day... Mwahahahaha.

If you want to read Chimera's version of events you can find it here. Just ignore the comments about my derriere.

What you've all been waiting for...

This is the birthday post. I thought I probably should get it done before a whole month passes since their birthdays. First to answer the question on everybody's lips... So how did the Monkey cake turn out????

Well, it looks like Wolf gives it his thumbs up. *** wouldnt you know it he did his sillyness in the best shot of the lot*** I started to put a little glint in his eyes for realism but decided I wouldnt be able to stick a knife in it if I did that.


That is the on-the-bench-as-soon-as-it's-finished-in-the-middle-of-all-the-decorating-mess-get-some-photos-just-in-case-anything-happens photo. Now for the real-thing-candles-and-all photo...


Of course there wasnt a big old smudge in the corner, that is where i smudged out his real name in the photo (you didnt really think his name was dragon did you???)

Lion got the digger and chocolate crackle construction site cake again. This time with his precious Bob the Builder candle on it. We bought that for his second birthday off eBay, it survived the post (candles dont post well to North Queensland as I guess you can imagine) and he had it on his second cake and third cake and now fourth cake... for 99c I think I am doing well, he wont let Dragon use it. He did allow daddy to use it for his last birthday pie.

For their birthdays they got a whole slew of great toys. Lion got his first REAL bike. It was cousin Cheetah's bike that he had grown out of and Uncle R and Aunty J cleaned it up and put some training wheels on it. Lion LOVES it.

But when that scary unmanned scooter starts chasing you just put your head down and GO GO GO!!!

They both got John Deer farm equipment. Lion got a Digger and Dragon got a dump truck. Dragon decided to ride Lion's digger and Little Bear climbed on too. He does look rather annoyed with his new hood ornament! It's not a ride on toy, it's just so big that they can ride it.

Lion also got a jackhammer. But it's going back. What's a birthday without at least one dangerously defective toy. There will be letters to Bosch who brand it, the company that manufacturers it for Bosch, Target who sell it and product recalls who need to know that it was seriously faulty. It didnt come with batteries, so being a good mummy I chucked some in the night before when I wrapped it. We took it out and started it up and they had a bit of fun but it started making a weird noise. We tried turning it off and on again but it wouldnt turn off. And then it started making a really weird noise even in the off position... so we took the batteries out, which were REALLY hot! That really worried me. So back it goes...

They each got a sword and shield for their birthdays. Actually between the two birthdays. I couldnt deal with giving lion his and dragon knew that there was going to be one for him (he was with me when I bought them) and it seemed like I was giving a 4 day head start to the beating Dragon would receive if I let Lion have his first. They are a hit!

Dragon loves his new chair that his Great-Grandma gave him. He goes out ont he patio and just sits in it and watches Lion play. He also loves his new Bob the Builder shirt from Aunty and Uncle Wilbie and Little Wilbie. It came with a cup which he has used every day since!

If you are still with me after this long post, I thank you. It's done now, I have posted the birthdays. Actually, not quite. The first birthday post had some photos I didnt tell you about... Lion got a Wall-e toy that talks to you in gibberish. He loves it. We havent seen the movie yet but he knows about it somehow. It responds to any noises you make, it is kinda cute. Dragon got a remote control dinosaur. It's gone back too. It had crossed wires that meant it's head was doing whatever it felt like doing when you pressed the button, sometimes noise and no movement, or movement and no noise, or neither or both or weird non-dinosaur noises. There were no more when I took it back so I got a much cooler (in my opinion) little kids remote control car made by matchbox. it's great, but it sucks the life right out of the batteries!

This is how birthdays go for us. there is always something faulty or broken that needs returning.

Oh, and lion's jackhammer was replaced with a cool flashing soccerball and flashing headbands for playing soccer at night except that Lion is too scared to go anywhere dark enough to use it!

Wednesday is Playday

Since there is no point in trying to get anything done with these three in the house on wednesday afternoons we thought we would take them out somewhere so at least they weren't making anyones house messier. We thought we would go to the marina and take some photos of the boats but it's not the place you really want to be with these three. I got two shots of the boats neither of which is worth showing. So here's some shots that I do like...

Don't these two look like they are up to something.

I got a few good shots of them sharing this rocker. I wish they shared more things, I was expecting an outburst from dragon as little bear climbed on board but he actually stopped rocking to let her on.

My Lion.

Isn't he just the cutest little thing. I am having trouble with him turning 4 this month. I just want him to stay my little boy forever.

We were playing in ANZAC park. Lion has been asking a lot of questions lately about the army. we have an army couple living next door to us and we often hear the practice in the hills near us and the planes flying overhead. We explain that they are practicing so that if we need to be protected from naughty people they will know what to do. Also that sometimes they need to go and fight in countries where kids arent safe playing outside and families are taken away from each other and our army people go to their countries and help them to be safe from bad people. He was asking about the memorials at the park and I was explaining that some of our soldiers die while they are trying to protect other people and we put their names on plaques so we can remember who they are. He was particularly intreagued by being able to walk underneath the eternal flame and look on the map everywhere our army people have faught.

I love the weathered stone

Lion loved having his rocket with him. He wanted to have his photo taken with it, he picked where he wanted to stand and where the rocket should go. Then he wanted to swap places. He had such a great time posing for pictures. I just wish he would pose when I wanted him to.

My boys kept wanting to drink the fountain water. They also liked to play with the spouts of water shooting out.

My baby splashing around

And of course little bear was as photogenic as ever...

She really didnt want to hold anyones hand.

Isn't she a cutie?

I'm the baby!!!

It's a Little Bear day again today!!! She was feeling a little precious at first but as soon as grandma left she stopped her goody two shoes act and started bossing the big boys around!!!! She was getting tired though and needed to have a nap so I got her bottle and tried to get her off to sleep. Dragon didnt like that. He wanted the bottle, I could not convince him that he didnt need a bottle, it was Little Bear's bottle, only Babies use bottles... the only way I could see to fix it so little bear could have her bottle in peace was to dig out one of the baby bottles we had so he could ues it. He loved it. I did tell him that he had to lay down to use it like a baby. Oh how much frustration that would have saved me if he had taken a bottle when he was little. I have never had a thumb sucker or a bottle drinker but when Little Bear is here, Dragon picks up on both habits.

This very bedraggled Magpie is serenading me today. He is perched on the cubby house and is singing a song for me. It's so beautiful, and I am sure it's for me because every now and then it has a wolf whistle in it!!! I love magpies singing, even without wolf whistles for me:) He is obviously enjoying the rainy weather today!

I am not enjoying it so much, it's cold, really cold, and I am having trouble typing. Although, I am doing well, I got all 3 kids down for a nap at the same time! Draong was a bit disappointed though, usually they dont nap at the same time so Little bear uses his cot then she wakes up and he uses it. I went to take him for his nap and he seemed to really want to share the cot with little bear but she wasnt in there!!! I put her on the floor of my room because i knew her nap would overlap with dragons.

Some other photos captured throughout the jam making experience

Little bear came to visit for a short while but she was ready for a nap so wasnt co-operating for a photo...

This is Grandma's dog Babe, named before the pig! Aunty J dropped over for a bit and has a soft spot for Babe so she grabbed the camera and took some photos...

Dragon decided his "door" (dinosaur) was a bit thirsty, "dingk, dingk, dingk" says the "door"...

A birthday party for little bear...

I have long decided not to post birthday messages on here for nieces and nephews. There are too many and i would forget someone's and then they would be upset and it's just best not to start... However I am going to make mention of a very exciting first birthday party we went to this afternoon for one of them. Little Bear turned 1. Hurray! And somehow I was roped into making her a cake. The conversation went something like this...

Chimera (who now is beyond aunty K becasue she has her own blog...)- Did you make your boys birthday cakes?

Mummy McT - No I iced them but i cheated and bought slab cake and a sponge roll to make the shapes, Why?

C- They were really good.

MMcT - Thanks.

*little pause*

C - Can you do Little Bear's for saturday?

*insert big discussion about why she couldnt do it*

MMcT - Okay.

I think it turned out okay so here it is....

and this is Little bear and her mummy, Chimera and her daddy (um, as far as i know we are still calling him Uncle R but he needs a different name because there are two uncle R's) and the bonus is her cousin T. There is always a bonus child in the candle photos isnt there???

so go check out Chimera's blog and encourage her to go BEYOND THE FIRST POST!!! I'm not nagging, she has been very busy lately, we wont rush her...

just how much nothing???

For those who care and to emphasise just how much of nothing has been going on here I will update you on Coles confiscating my milk... They redeemed themselves, sort of. I went to a different coles the next day and they had a bunch of Goats milk marked down that probably shouldn't have been marked down yet. It was only down to $2 a Litre but that's less than half price and that's fine with me so I bought it and we have been enjoying special treats like Custard that I usually have to plan ahead for and buy not so expensive milk to use in it. So that is the grand total of the excitement here... Custard... YAY!

Although today we did have little bear here again and we managed to have all 3 monsters children asleep for their naps at the same time. I think there was an overlap of about an hour! pretty impressive.

Little Bear comes to play

Aunty K has had to go back to work but Little Bear doesnt have a full time place at day care so we are sharing her with grandma on wednesdays! She had so much fun! They trashed the lounge room and play room and all Dragon wanted to do was be with her but she got a bit tired of that after a few minutes. I think he was playing "wombats" or something with her, he would crawl up to her and put his head down and ram her. or if she was sitting down he would lie down in her lap and look up at her until she hit him hard enough to make him think that it was a bad idea. They did have a great time!
Later in the afternoon we went to the aquarium with JMac. They had a ball. there were baby turtles and big fish and little fish and in between size fish and more fish and sharks and big turtles and lots and lots of exciting things!!!

just a couple of photos, it was hard to keep track of all the kids!!!