Bush Magic

It was a glorious sunny day yesterday so our Mother's Group met at Bush Magic Park in North Adelaide. Oliver was befriended by an 8 year old girl named Sarah who is also a twin. They were inseparable for the afternoon.

William and Ella had fun taking it in turns to let out a loud noise and then laugh.

William didn't take long to find the bubbler and started to spray everyone who ventured close.



Here he is with Thomas, each vying for ownership of the bubbler. It became a lesson in turn taking.

Soon things became a bit more exciting..............................

and this is how things ended up!

Let's cook!

Today while William was having an afternoon sleep Oliver and I did some baking. We made a pear cake and three batches of biscuits.

Oliver was the official taster.

He followed this up with a full inventory and rearrangement of the kitchen pantry. He is wearing a gorgeous new cooking apron made by our friend Gillian from www.sillygilly.com

Finding Nemo

The boys have been enjoying watching Finding Nemo on DVD so today I planned our craft activity around making an underwater mobile. I took out the butcher's paper and plenty of crepe paper and we got started.

William discovered that it was just as much fun throwing the squares of paper.

What had been crepe paper was transformed into two fairly passable goldfish.

Keeping Up Appearances

Stepping Stones

Last weekend I had a plan that we would all make stepping stones. After swimming we set off to garage sales in our area to look for suitable china for making mosaics. The boys had never been to a garage sale and had a great time foraging through other people's wares. As well as finding china I picked up a fabulous wizard's costume complete with cape, hat and wand and a clown's hat and red wig. The boys found a deluxe pink Barbie convertible which they have since played with all week. It was a very good buy at 50c and came up sparkling after a good wash. Using Daddy's screwdrivers Oliver sprung Barbie's car's boot open. We were all shocked to find a boot full of Barbie's best shoes and dresses, but alas no Barbie. Inger would not consent to the purchase of a Barbie or even a Ken doll. It seems that the mystery of Barbie's whereabouts will remain just that.................a mystery. You can be sure that we will be doing the rounds of garage sales on a more regular basis from here on. Who knows what we might find? My natural tendency as a hoarder has not escaped Inger's notice. As fast as he tries to declutter our house I manage to find new treasures to fill it once again.

Anyway, back to the stepping stones. As soon as hammers and bags of cement started appearing the boys knew we meant business. They couldn't wait to wield hammers. It's a boy thing I'm sure!! They donned their sun glasses and smashed china with all their might.

The next step involved adding water and pigment to the easy mix cement. Its amazing how far that pigment travelled!

We then sat down on the grass and embedded the pieces of china into the cement which we had poured into plastic tubs.

Ta da !! One of the finished stones in the side garden. Our next little project will be to plant some flowers around the stones and make it a small garden for the boys. The project was a lot of fun and One we will repeat as we still have quite a lot of left over pieces of china.

William's new jumper

After finishing Oliver's jumper I set to and knit one for William as well. I used a Debbie Bliss Aran tweed for the main colour and again used the Noro for the contrast. It has a chunkier finish than the one I made for Oliver. William was very happy with it.

Here both boys were playing in my office after I finished work yesterday. They love 'mummy's office' with its fax phone and computer.

This is not quite what I meant.................

This is not quite what I had in mind when I asked Inger to 'Do something with the boys while I get the dinner ready!' It was a shaving cream finger painting bonanza. The one consolation was that it was very easy to clean up.

Sunday at Gina's

On Sunday afternoon we drove to Gina and Michael's house. Their house is on a sloping block with a fantastic view over Flinders University. From the photos below it is obvious that all of the children got along very well. Ella is a talented little dancer and soon got everyone up and dancing to music by Shakira.

Oliver in particular had a ball, jigging and jiving around whilst holding three plastic cups. he even did a few forward rolls for good measure! Oliver also discovered a great liking for the chocolate cupcakes which Gina had made. His main interest however was in the icing rather than the entire cake which meant fairly slim pickings for everyone else!

Here is Ella in her best ballet pose!

Jacob was showing Oliver a collection of lacquered boxes. Oliver was very interested in opening them and stacking them on top of each other.

4.10pm Thursday

An Eventful Day

We went to the Toy Library this afternoon and borrowed two costumes- Bob the Builder and Henry the Octopus. Both boys initially wanted to be Bob but William was the more insistent. As a compromise Oliver said he would be Henry if he could wear a Bob hat and gumboots. It didn't take long before he completely abandoned the attachment to Henry and said he wanted to be a lion wearing gumboots. That is what we went with.

William was very keen on his tool belt and immediately began a careful scrutiny of the perimeter of the house to see if anything needed fixing.

Oliver meanwhile helped William to shift some bricks at the side of the house and then set to mowing the lawn.

It was while the boys were happily playing that I noticed that Lola, one of our chickens was bleeding profusely from her vent. As we lost Ines about three weeks ago with the same symptoms I immediately put Lola into a cat carrier and took her to the vet. It turned out that she had become egg-bound whilst trying to lay a double-yolker. The vet was able to deflate the partially formed egg, remove it and then she gave Lola a shot of antibiotics. She is now sleeping quite peacefully in the laundry after her big ordeal. I have to somehow administer antibiotics to her orally through a syringe for the next week. That will be very interesting!

Our new trainset

Our family room has been taken over by Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. I can see that this may well become a new addiction for Daddy! He likes to conjure up new track layouts in the evenings when the boys have gone to bed.

Oliver's new jumper

It has been ideal weather for knitting. I went to the Yarn Barn a couple of weeks ago to choose some wool to make jumpers for the boys. I couldn't resist a soft New Zealand mohair and a Japanese variegated wool. Oliver was first to claim the jumper which emerged. Here he is proudly modelling it!

Now I have started a similar jumper but in different colours for William. This knitting is addictive! Garments for the boys don't take very long to knit so I can see myself coming up with more creations in the very near future. Stay tuned!

An unexpected treat!

I usually start work at 8am on Tuesday and Wednesday but this morning I had an early cancellation. It was a great opportunity to take the boys out for breakfast at Cibo's. We made our way to the cafe and had plenty of opportunities to admire garbage trucks, diggers and cars along the way.

Both boys selected a delicious Florentine Brioche and a babycino for their breakfast. We were sitting outside and had the company of a big black poodle at the table adjacent to ours. On the way back home we stopped at the newsagent where Oliver spied a bag of brightly coloured party whistles which he just 'had' to have! We definitely have to 'do breakfast' again. It was such a great start to my working day!

Mount Lofty Botanical Gardens

The gardens are only a 15 minute drive from our house. They are beautiful in all seasons but I especially love the early spring flowers, the gushing waterfalls and the many coloured leaves of the Northern hemisphere trees.

Oliver is striding out towards the gate at the other end of the bridge.

We found a grove of beautiful Magnolias. Magnolias, particularly white ones, were the favourite flowers of my mother who died almost three years ago. I was thinking of her as I walked through the gardens.

The boys were interested when I pointed out the lichen on this fallen log.

Oliver looked lost in thought as he nestled into the grassy embankment.

Inger and the boys making their way up one of the many hills.

William enjoys collecting rocks wherever we go. He found some pebbles and fossils and took them home.