Sunday Snapshot... a bit more holiday fun.

Summer is here.

It's HOT.

It's sweaty.

The kids STINK by the end of the day.

I have extra loads of washing whenever we go swimming.

What's not to love?

So this isn't really from today only... or even from this week only... it's a mish mash of stuff that I needed to get out of my brain and my photo files.

Last Saturday we went swimming at Cheetah and Little Bear's house.  The kids had a great time and I eventually remembered to wash the swimming gear.  Just in time to go swimming with some friends yesterday.  I'm right on top of this domestic thing.

Dragon looks super brave there.  Thing is, that's how he spent most of the afternoon, on the edge of the pool.  Little Bear really was turning blue... she's a little cold frog like her Aunty McTavish.

We really went around because we weren't able to make it for Cheetah's birthday the weekend before so we took some Milk Arrowroot biscuits, some leftover icing from the fridge and some sprinkles and made some birthday cookies to celebrate all over again!

Monkey, who was wearing a sweet little toweling robe and was being called "Heff" all afternoon, LOVED the iced cookies!

*****

Do you need a new oven?  Are you concerned that you current oven is using too much electricity? That it's damaging the environment?  That it just isn't the "in" thing?  Well let me introduce to you the Simpson Recycle.  Based on the ever popular Simpson Evolution oven only using 100% less electricity we think it will be a winner in your house. 

Lids of  "take and toss" containers for the hotplates, nappy box for the oven, old rice cooker for them to cook up a storm.  They loved it and played with it constantly for three or four days and on and off since.  Thanks to a friend of a friend for the idea.

*****

I recently made a purchase that I have been intending to make for a while.  Almost all our face washers are 6 years old... or more.  They are VERY well used and are looking a little worse for wear.  I haven't really bought many myself, they were mostly baby gifts when Lion was born (we got a LOT of washers) so they have had 6 years of babies learning to feed themselves, 6 years of cleaning up kids coming inside from the dirt, 6 years of cleaning up spills, 6 years of bath times, 6 years of tending to scrapes and cuts... most of them need retirement.  Washers are annoying, their very use lends them to getting stained and discoloured quickly.  So when I saw Target had 10packs of ALL WHITE washers I jumped.  My friend that I mentioned my plan to thought I was insane.  YOU HAVE ALL BOYS!  YOU CAN'T BUY WHITE!!  YOU'LL REGRET THIS!!!  But I bought them anyway.  Because the one thing I've learnt with boys is black is a great colour for clothing.  Brown is a fantastic colour for furnishings.  But for washers and towels and things you can't go past WHITE...

Because after it's been through a bucket of bleach it looks like new again and again and again.  So here's to 10 years or more from my 30 new face washers... yes, 30!

Oh, I do have brown ones that wont be retiring... they are brown to make their use very clear... and it's certainly not for cleaning faces.

*****

Dragon woke up one day on the school holidays and decided he wanted to be a scientist.  Always happy to encourage science I tired to think up some experiments we could do.  We did a few little experiments with weight and volume in a tub of water.  Mostly I wanted to make sure I was giving him 'speriments to do so he didn't do what I heard him chatting to Lion about and "go and do some 'sperimentin' by myself".  I figured bang for buck you can't go past a few teaspoons of bicarb and some vinegar.  so I balanced a pinch bowl on top of an upturned cup, used some foil to make sure it didn't tip over and added some food colouring to the vinegar and we had a great time making blue volcanoes!

Monkey got a bit freaked out and didn't sit there for much longer after I took the middle photo.  I am sure if I had let them the boys would have gone through my entire stash of bicarb and vinegar.  And because I did it all on a tray the clean up was so easy.  I took all the mess inside, rinsed everything off and put it all in the dishwasher, that's my kind of  'speriment.

*****

So that's a little of what we've been up to along with 12 month needles, sicknesses and teething just for a bit of fun and excitement.

Sunday Snapshot

Our new family portrait

This is our family.

Yes, Monkey is trying to remove Dragon's head.

That's just what life in our house is like.

If you look really close you can see the nose of a giant snake sticking out from behind Monkey's hat.

The snake was the whole reason for taking the photo.

Yet, still he missed out.

I am loving the self portrait feature on my phone.

So are the kids.

Sunday Snapshot

So, I'm thinking of writing a book... I would call it Brown Bath Bubbles.

Would it be...

a) A guide to teaching alliteration to boys.

b) Practical science for boys (you should "pop" in the bath because it will smell worse thanks to the water stopping the noxious fumes from dissipating until the bubbles burst on the surface... closer to your brothers nose).

c) A self help guide for mums of boys... encompassing such riveting topics as ways to avoid the bath time ritual with your sons, teaching your son alliteration and explaining dissipation to boys.

Perhaps we should re-name this blog... Brown Bath Bubbles... it has a nice ring to it... like the ring in our bathtub.

Now, someone who does not need the joy of a well timed gas release explained to him is this soon to be one year old.

He's DESPERATE to get the hang of this skateboarding thing like his big brothers... well, they don't actually have the hang of it but they like to think they do.  For now he has to be content with cruising down the sloped driveway out onto the road with Daddy on the long board.

He is getting the hang of this walking thing too...

He has been cruising up and down Grannysaurus' hallway with this little trolley.  It looks so cute watching him trundle along.  I happen to think he is cutest from this angle though...

with his little legs kicking out to the side as he waddles along.  He has taken a few steps wihtout the trolley too!  Just a short jaunt here and there... but his first steps (yes, he started with THREE) happened when Dragon did his annoying big brother thing and just lay down in front of him like this...

Monkey stood up, annoyed, but was too far away to carry out his plan... so he took three steps forwards to be close enough to crash tackle Dragon!

Monkey, Dragon and I went over to visit our sweet little girl my brother's sweet little girl again... and we took a better camera!

Ahhh, all that girliness...

All the pink stuff that goes with girls...

So sweet...

So glad I have boys...

Okay, so this boy does like feathery masks but at least he's not wanting me to make room amongst the Tonka trucks and army men for unicorns and rainbows.  He's quite at home sliding around on the road with his belly on a skateboard...

But he should watch out where he's headed because I thought I was going to get a photo of Daddy knocking Dragon's front teeth out!  (in the end they didn't connect at all!)

Just yesterday we had a federal election here in Australia.  Dragon got a little confused.  He asked us on Saturday morning... "are you going on a boat today?" ... life can get a bit confusing when you can't say "V".  In the end he went to visit Great Grandma with Grandad and didn't get to come and vote with us.  He was a bit disappointed that he missed out on seeing mummy and daddy on a boat.  I don't know if he thought it would be cool or if he was hoping to get rid of us.  Out of our family, the election hype had the biggest effect on him... The other day he yelled excitedly from the backseat of the car "I see the guv-a-mint, I see the guv-a-mint!" after questioning I realised he had seen the roadside propaganda and recognised their faces from all the TV hype.  At first I was really proud that he knew what the old council chambers were as that is around about where we were at the time... but he set me straight on that one. "Not a buildin' mum, the GUV-A-MINT".

As well as not sending us on a boat, Dragon was sad this week when he found out that he can't be in Lion's school play.  I was cutting out some masks for the kids and Dragon decided he would like to wear one in the play.  I tried to let him down gently with the whole "being in the audience is a very important thing to do because if there wasn't an audience they wouldn't have anyone to perform for and the play wouldn't work" line... he wasn't buying it.

Lion got some new knee and elbow pads... except that he can't bend his knees or elbows very well while he's wearing them so it kind of makes the whole experience a little MORE dangerous.  I asked him to pose with his skateboard for me...

I don't know where he got that from.  But I had to get a photo... even with Dragon flying through the frame.

Sunday Snapshot

What a week!

Monday saw Monkey at the doctors to get antibiotics for ear infections but got the all clear for Lion's cough. 

learning to brush his gums from his big brother

Tuesday was playgroup and then in the afternoon I started to come down with something.

gotta rinse after you do all that tooth brushing

Wednesday I was well and truly sick with whatever I have and had lost my voice so the kids took control of the situation... HA!

they love bubbles!

Thursday Dragon, Monkey and I eagerly waited for our groceries to turn  up... with 5.5kg (just over 12lb) of pasta and rice.  Feeding these boys is expensive.  In the afternoon we went to get a few extra things at the shops and have afternoon tea with grannysaurus... until halfway through avo tea Monkey threw up all over me.  His antibiotics are not agreeing with him... I'm not particularly agreeing with them if they cause me to get covered in puke!  Poor little chooky.

we managed to get the mega pack of spag since we used online shopping, it's never on the shelf...

Friday we had a busy morning cleaning out one or two shelves in the pantry to try and better suit it to our growing family.  I hadn't really changed container sizes since it was just Wolf and I.  Now I am buying bigger packs of everything and it wasn't really working.  It was refreshing to clean it all out and throw out old stuff and find things that I should be using up and get it better suited to my cooking and my big boys.

We also tried to remember everything that we didn't get when our shopping trip was cut short the day before so we could pick it up in the afternoon. 

My spaghetti storage container had to change from the one on the right (holding enough for two meals... just) to the one on the left which will fit the whole giant pack of spag.

Saturday Lion had a friends birthday party at the bike park.  I took the two little ones as well and they all had a ball!  Saturday night the big boys and Wolf had a boys night with pizza and a movie and Monkey and I went to a friends house for a girly night.  Even though Monkey wouldn't go to sleep until WAY after he should have it was nice to sit around watching a couple of movies that Wolf wouldn't like, catching up and relaxing.

Sunday was our playgroups chance to take over the kids talk during church and let everyone know what we do each Tuesday and sing a little song.  It's always very cute with 2 & 3 year olds getting up and taking part.  We managed a bit of a nap and then this afternoon, half way through cooking up our sausage sizzle Grannysaurus rang so they came around for our sausage sizzle and stirred up the kids close to bed time... and Grannysaurus found....

A TOOTH

This sweet little boy has been working hard growing a nice shiny new tooth.  I'd love to say it hasn't troubled him but unfortunately he's been so out of sorts with everything else he's had that I have no idea if it's been upsetting him.  He's so sweet, tonight he didn't want to go to sleep so he was trying to distract me from that task and he grabbed my head in his hands and planted a couple of big juicy kisses on my cheek.  leaning back from me after each one to grin at me and wait for my approval... SWEET!

Hopefully this next week will let me get back into things.  Bible study starts again for the term on Wednesday.  I hope I'll get into the doctor early in the week to sort out whatever I have that isn't going away like I wanted it to.  I'm hoping to do some baking and freezing too to re-stock the freezer, weeks of sickness has really emptied it out and I am starting to panic each time I look in there for a last minute dinner option!

Sorry this is a bit of a bleh post.  That's been our week.  We all have those sometimes don't we?  Still, I am trying to get back into posting more regularly so that means you get the bleh weeks where I can't even think of anything humorous that has happened (although not a day goes by where it doesn't, thanks to these kids) and you get the weeks where we are crazy and wild every day.  Actually, even the bleh weeks are crazy and wild every day, just the wrong sort of crazy and wild.  Ahhh, kids... I wouldn't swap them for ANYTHING.

...except maybe a good nights sleep and a dinner time without whinging.

... nah, not really, you'd have to throw in some chocolate too.

Sunday Snapshot

By the thousands of emails* I've been getting I can tell that Sunday Snapshots have been greatly missed so a snapshot of one day from our week is offered for you this Sunday night...  (because that is all I can do after the bedtime routine fell in a stinking heap tonight).

"It's all in the Genes"

Why, yes, we do make cute kids around here.

I dragged the boys to the beach for a few (4) hours on Friday.  Aunty Em was getting her hair cut at about 2pm so in the interest of working on my list I thought we would meet her for an icecream lunch before her haircut.

It is at this point in the conversation that I will point out that it's mid-winter here, and we were going to the beach for icecream!

It was lovely weather, PERFECT beach weather.  Crazy southern folk would probably even have gone for a swim but not us, way too cold for us tropical frogs!

Anyway, once I started thinking about heading down for icecream I figured since it's holidays I might as well take the kids for a play for the morning.  So after Monkey's nap we took off and had a great morning.  The boys took two army men and a plastic tree each and dug trenches in the sand and played wars or something.  Dragon buried his men at one point and they were never able to be found again.  Lion kept his but as we were finishing up on the beach and heading for a playground he was washing one in the ocean and let it go.  It was whisked away by the tide and he wasn't able to catch it.  I agreed with him that it was sad but I wasn't in on his plan to come back that night and walk the ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE STRAND to see if it had been washed back up.  He eventually gave in to my offer of going down just before we leave to check where it washed away.

This was how Monkey would concede to experience the sand.  Well, like this up on his tippy toes and fingers or standing holding on to my legs like in the top photo.  I guess he just didn't wan to get that cute Dalmatian nappy dirty.  Although, every now and then he'd look at me in disgust with sand on his hands as if pleading with me to do something about them.  I just dusted them off and he went back to grabbing handfuls of sand to eat.  I have never had a kid that just wanted to eat sand, its gross and inevitably ends up in sandy puke all over me.

Dragon had to come running over to us every now and then to remind us that he loves us or to remind Monkey that Dragon loves to annoy him or to accidentally flick sand all over us...  He was having a great time.

Eventually we wandered down to find some public loos.  I decided I couldn't wait until icecream time to eat so I started talking lunch thinking I'd grab a scoop of chips for us to share but Lion told me there was a man down the end with a caravan that sells stuff.  Turns out it was a hotdog guy with a cart... probably the only hotdog guy in our town.  I got one plain one for the boys to share and one for myself and tried to turn off that little voice in my head whispering screaming FOOD POISONING FOOD POISONING FOOD POISONING!  Oh, and the little voice telling me that it's just wrong to have a naked hotdog... seriously, I like my hotdogs to have skin on them!  He was marketing them very much "American Style" all with names of US or Canadian cities, American flags here and there, so is this the way you guys do hotdogs? Skinless?  Naked?

Anyway, the boys did like theirs! (mine was yummy too, I enjoyed it more retrospectively when I decided sufficient time had passed for me to be safe from food poisoning).

Eventually after another play in the park we headed back to meet Aunty Em and get some icecream (I had caramel swirlysomething and vanilla) and then popped back down to the beach for Lion to check for his army man... IT WAS THERE!  Yes, it really was!  After I spent the morning preparing him to never see that army man again it had washed back up and nearly 4 hours later it was sitting there waiting for him.  Dragons were gone for good.

On the way home we Dragon whispered "I love my Aunty Em" "Yes, Dragon, I love your Aunty Em too" "No, Mum, I love my Aunty Em" he whispers again "Yes, sweetie I know you do" Louder this time... "NO, Mum, I love my ARMY MAN, I'm SAD that he is LOST".  Okay, not the touching moment I thought we were having.

*okay, lets call that creative licence, it may not be thousands... or any at all... but I know you have missed it.

A Month of Sundayssssssnapshots.

Wow, it's been a month since the last Sunday Snapshot.  Since I did a catch up post earlier this week I wont fill you in on the last month, I'll just jump right in here at this Sunday Snapshot.  Just a warning though, I am not a microblogger, you may have noticed.  This post is one of my lengthier ones...

Last Sunday we took the kids for a ride down by the river and a play in the playground there.   It was a drizzly afternoon so it was nice and cool and it also had kept a lot of people away so it was fairly quiet.

My little ducklings all in a row.  They had a great time on their bikes, I am starting to think that it's probably time to move them all up one... except we don't have anywhere to move Lion up to... so it'll just have to wait until I figure that one out.

This section of the boardwalk gives a wonderful view of the river, the boys didn't mind stopping for a minute to watch the ski boats dragging the skiers around the river.

This is taken at the bottom of the boardwalk close to where the first photo was taken.  The river is FILLED with turtles and ducks hang around and fish pip at the surface and the water lilies float gently on the ripples... it's a lovely river.  (Nope, not even going to mention the crocodiles today)

With the playground in sight the boys took off...

They love this tree house.  The whole park has been designed for wheelchair access so I can get the pram right in there so Monkey can get in and play with them.  We played and ate afternoon tea and went home worn out.

*****

The humor in our house never stops...

"My butt hurts..."
"What?"

*****

Lion's school had their ANZAC day parade on Friday.  I took Dragon and Monkey along.  Each class had made a wreath to lay at the ceremony, Lion's class is the "A" wreath, A for ANZAC.

Each year the local QCWA branch gives a gift of books to one local school.  This year they gave them to Lion's school, a very exciting addition to their new library.

Monkey has a new skill.  Well, the skill isn't so new, he has been able to wave for a while.  The new bit is that if you don't wave back within what His Royal Highness deems an acceptable amount of time... he will yell at you.  Proceedings were going along nicely, Monkey started waving at the back of one of the army men who was also attending.  Since it was his back that was being waved to, the army man didn't wave back... make sense?  Anyway, I tried waving back to him myself, I tried to get him to settle down but it wasn't working... don't forget this was a solemn parade, with a minute silence fast approaching... you guessed it.  Monkey got Jack of not being waved back to RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SILENCE.  My boy was screaming at someone in the middle of the minute silence... an army man, no less.  Classy.  I'm pretty sure that all of the few hundred primary school students that were there were managing to be silent... imagine that for a moment... all those kids who NEVER stop talking, fidgeting, making noises simply for the sake of making noises were SILENT.  MONUMENTOUS OCCASION.  Monkey, well, Monkey was an upset baby who just wanted the army man to wave back at him.

*****

On Friday we went to the park by the river again with some friends.  They did attend our church until recently and their second oldest was good friends with Lion.  Lion has really missed him for the few weeks since they changed churches so us mums decided a play was in order.  So, T and her 4 boys rode to the park and we ducked over there after school with my 3 boys and we had a wild time all afternoon.  I wanted to get a photo of all of the boys together but putting 7 boys ranging in age from 7 to 0 in one photo and try to get them all looking at the camera is not going to go well.  So, I didn't ask them to look at the camera...

I asked them to pull silly faces.  So, left to right, Dragon (3), his buddy S (3), Lion (5), his buddy B (5), J (7), E (1) and Monkey (7.5mos).

Thank you for coming to play with us you crazy boys!!!

*****
Questions Answered:

From the Catching up on the Cuteness post.

For Ginny Marie-

Here's a nice dodgy photo of Dragon with something daddy caught for him.  No, it's not the big frog from the BBQ, it's a smaller frog from the BBQ.  We clear the frogs out when it's time to use the barbie, they don't much like it but I'm sure if they realised what the other option was they would be thankful.

Boy Mom- I make my own baby food, I even made the rice cereal this time!  I have made my own for each boy because I lick my fingers when I'm feeding them and I like what I lick off to be edible.  I haven't liked what I've tried of the tinned stuff.

From the Easter Excitement post.

Boy Mom- at Kindy shoes are optional.  It's great, freedom to kick off our shoes all year round, sandals all year if we want... What's that?  You haven't been able to wear sandals for months?  Spring has been fickle and  you still don't know if you will be wearing boots or sandals when you wake up each day? oh, that is sad.

Leah- Yes, my boys are the ones that play air guitar during the kids song at church.  They are VERY comfortable being themselves at church... a little too comfortable if we recall that little moment a few weeks ago where Dragon shared all about Daddy burping at the dinner table.

From the Bin there Done that post.

Suz- YES we are getting so much more sleep.  I keep thinking I should do a post about it so I can remember just what I can survive when I next think I am up against an impossible situation.  Thanks for praying for us.  I hope you are getting more sleep too.

Sunday Snapshot

A little someone has started sleeping... it makes all of us happy when he sleeps... especially him...

^^I have been trying to get this face on camera for ages... I LOVE IT^^

^^this is a face just like one his big brother Dragon pulls^^

Not much to say this week... just enjoying the sleep.

I got a video of him giggling but there is so much background noise you can hardly hear him... so I'll tease you with a promise of a new one shot and uploaded soon!

Sunday Snapshot Double-Up

Double-up this week.  Two weeks squished down into one little post... okay, maybe not so little.  I'll try not to bore you with ALL the details, I'll just give you most of them... and a LOT of photos.

By far the most exciting thing in the last two weeks was another double-up... the two new little additions to our extended family. Kate had her twins. They made a safe and organised entry to the world via C-section on February 17th due to the baby we now know as Little-E continuing to turn the wrong way around. Her brother Little-L made his appearance first and she followed 1 minute behind. I got to visit the day after they were born but was only allowed to look due to Little-E’s tiny size and Little-L being kept in the special care nursery. I got some photos of Little-E tucked away in her little cot but I only got to see Little-L in his humidicrib behind the glass window of the SCN.

The sweet Little-E

A few days later on the Monday I got to pop in for a quick visit again and I actually got to cuddle with Little-L.

The handsome Little-L

They all got out of hospital yesterday and are doing their best to settle into routines and every day life... I get the idea that the getting out of hospital was far less organised than the birth... vomiting toddler, last minute feeds, missing car seat parts... but they made it home.

At one of our visits Monkey had a lovely little snuggle up against Cousin Wilbie... so cute!

“And another thing you little whipper-snapper” says Old Man Monkey.

We started solids for Monkey last Saturday. HE LOVED IT. Dragon had a go at feeding him too. That was fine while Monkey was in shock and was compliantly gobbling down each mouthful but after that first feed and Monkey realised that this was going to be an ongoing thing he got a bit more wilful and wanted to be a little less passive about the feeding thing so Dragon hasn’t been able to feed him again.

Last Saturday we also got kicked out of our house by Wolf so he could finish up writing his sermon for the next day. We called Aunty Chimera and decided to brave the heat and take all 5 kids to the park. I’ll spare you the commentary and just give you the pictures.

Mummy McT Goes on a Trip... a Guilt Trip.

Mummy McT packs away Hungry Hippos that had been left out with pieces scattered and the box getting tossed around and getting wrecked.  Mummy McT, while packing up the hippos, has stern words with Lion to pack away the giant puzzle that has all it's pieces tossed around and the box getting tripped over and pieces going missing. "I get so frustrated when we have nice stuff and it just gets left to get destroyed, nice things sitting on the floor and people just stepping on them instead of packing them up" Mummy McT spots the blinds all screwed up to get them to the side instead of being slid along the track "See, the nice blinds scrunched up and getting destroyed instead of being looked after...*continues a mumbled rant more to herself than anyone in particular*"  Lion responds "I see something that is nice that I don't want to destroy" hugs Mummy McT's leg "My Mummy.  Hug, not destroy".  Yeah, that's my boy.  Brings his mummy back into line more often than I care to admit.

Bath time is a crazy time around here. The theory is that a bath will calm your kids down ready for bed. Not around here. Monkey has joined in a couple of times, he likes it for a little bit but it doesn’t last long.

He does like to be wrapped up for snuggles after his bath though. This wasn’t the best photo of Monkey and I but it was the best of Daddy :-)

Dragon is playing with lego shark, making it attack a lego life raft. 'Snap, Snap, Snap... Mmmmmm Belisimo!!' looks like 'Scary' the shark is Italian. For those with a squeamish tummy, it was eating the aerials off the life raft not the lego people.

School is very exhausting for Lion

Dragon: Daddy can we please play the (what sounds like) Mystery Key Game?

Wolf: the what game? The Mystery Key game?

Dragon: No! (annunciating) The Mr McGee Game?

Wolf: I don't know that name can you show it to me?

Dragon: (Pointing to the Monopoly game box) That one! the Mr McGee Game.

Wolf: Ohh, Monopoly, where did you get Mr McGee from?

Dragon: He told me... (pointing to a picture of Grumpy the Dwarf on Wolf's shirt)

Mummy: This just gets stranger and stranger.

Dragon rifles around in the car and finds a hanky. "Mum, look!  My hanky!.... hanky, hanky, hanky, hanky... that reminds me of a hanky song I know".  The kid did go through a slight hanky obsession a while back and every now and then he gets a thrill when he finds one he has stashed somewhere.

I love my boys.