A trip to Questacon

While Grandma was here we visited Questacon, our favourite place to hang out when it's cold outside! We spent a lot of time in Mini-Q with Jessie while the older children hung out together in the Top Secret Spy gallery.

I've also included a gratuitous 29 week pregnant belly shot - hidden by Michael's old jumper.

Holidays for all...

Did I mention that while the girls and I were up playing on a tropical island, the boys stayed with their Grandma? I don't know who had the more fun!

Actually, Grandma organised some great activities, but also put the boys to work. They tried catching fish for dinner but were unsuccessful. She fed them anyway. They had a terrific time mucking around with boats, and next visit will possibly be allowed to sleep on the raft unsupervised.

Refloating a big big boat

During recent storms, a large ship was washed up on a popular Newcastle beach. Grandma L, who offered the boys room and lodgings while we lived it up on Hamilton Island, took them to watch it being refloated.

They were able to get reasonably close, but I was horrified to hear that they made the national news with the Ginger Ninja pushing Possum down a steep hill. Apparently it was lots of fun and everybody was doing it...

Sunset n Hamlton Island

We made the traditional tourists' trek up to One Tree Hill to watch the sun set over the Whitsundays. It was beautiful, but a few more clouds probably would've improved the scene! There were plenty of people making a night out of sunset - there is a temporary bar that opens just for the sunset crowd, and the hotels pack picnic baskets on request.

The second photo shows our accommodation - we were staying in the short block of units on the far left and had wonderful views of Catseye beach.

The newest cousin!

While we were travelling we dropped in on my sister, who had her first baby ten weeks ago! Isn't he gorgeous?!

The girls and I spent some time visiting yesterday, so feel well acquainted with him, but today's flying visit was the boys' first chance to see their new cousin in the flesh.

Sunny daze...

And despite being miserable with her cold, Ginger Rose is still happy to play around in the gorgeous sunny weather with Briar Rose!

Briar Rose had her first sailing trip this morning when dh took her out in a catamaran. They were a very capable duo, being one of the only boats to make it back under their own steam with a stiff off shore breeze.

Art class

Briar Rose went to art class for a couple of mornings, and produced some quite creditable artwork (or am I just a biased mother?) for an 8yo with an artistically challenged mother. More importantly, she really enjoyed spending time with other children.

We had to cancel our bookings with Kids Club after Ginger Rose flunked her trial session by crying incessantly :( , but Dh and I still enjoyed a wonderful afternoon snorkelling on the reef thanks to the inhouse babysitting service!

Breakfast with the birds

If there's anything more idyllic than a full buffet breakfast on a tropical island, it's being accompanied by tropical birds :). Actually, the birds were a little too much - we lost a quantity of breakfast to them, and dh ended up with a nasty nip after a rainbow lorikeet was offended by being offered a finger to perch on.

Still - they sounded and looked just gorgeous, and the girls loved it!

Tropical island, day one...

Here's Briar Rose learning how to snorkel within an hour of landing on the island, then a happy snap from our hotel room before she and DH went for a snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef!

Sadly, the rain means visibility was down to about 2m instead of 10m, but they still saw plenty of fish and even some sea turtles.

Brave kitten!

Paint and Play was not for the faint hearted today, at a chilly 7 degrees (about 44 degrees f) with a brisk breeze. I hadn't anticipated the freezing weather (it was warm in our centrally heated house!) so didn't dress Ginger Rose or myself appropriately - she didn't notice at all, but I was crossing my legs and trying to tuck my hands under my arms within minutes!

I thought this kitten's visit was worth recording. What self-respecting feline would actually cross a road and voluntarily walk through a fence into a children's playground *full* of children?! This young cat was happy to be admired and stroked by Ginger Rose and her friend, but did have a playful attack and scratch that startled the children.

There are often young cats around the playground, and this is not the first time they've come to Paint and Play - but it still strikes me as bizarre behaviour for animals that usually keep a safe distance from toddlers!

Injury time

Exhibit A: Briar Rose's now discarded tracksuit pants showing the marks where an errant firecracker blasted into her leg, leaving her with a small bruise, smaller burn mark, and lashings of sympathy from all and sundry.
Ouch - I think I fractured my toe a few days ago. It certainly felt like it. This is after some of the swelling and colour had retreated. It's not as bad as the toe on the other foot which was dislocated and fractured a few years ago, and I think I learnt some tips from that experience.

I made sure I stayed pottering around so nothing had a chance to stiffen up and swell too much, and I think it paid off - it's certainly healing faster than I thought it would.

Fireworks weekend

We've had a wonderfully full house for this year's fireworks long weekend. My brother and SIL brought the childrens' two cousins to stay, and we had two other families join us for Saturday night dinner and fireworks.

It was a little chaotic with 21 of us trying to eat in the dark, but the weather was perfect - cold but not too cold, a gentle breeze to lift the whirling firecrackers, and a lovely fire in a brazier to take the chill off the air and bake potatoes in.

We had our first firecracker accident when Briar Rose set off a firecracker upside down, sending balls of fire hurtling in a 360 degree range. One hit her on the ankle, burning through her tracksuit pants and leaving her with a very minor burn, slight bruise and very wounded sense of dignity! She spent the rest of the evening curled up on my bed reading pony books with her cousin and another friend.

Briar Rose's other ankle was jammed in a door during a fast and furious game of 44 home today at lunch. My great aunt and uncle were visiting, and it was the perfect opportunity for Briar Rose to snuggle and feel comforted by my great aunt. I think it was worth the injury to see them having such a close time on the couch.

I was quite relieved when Briar Rose dropped a glass bottle of soft drink in the kitchen at dinner time, as we can relax a little now her three accidents are out of the way!

Possum tries acupuncture...

We have a new acupuncturist working at the clinic, and let Possum try her out. We were hoping it would help him get some mental clarity, but it doesn't seem to be working! He received a diary warning for a playground dispute the very next day!

We also turned on the heating this week - Wednesday June 6th 2007. We would have left it off for longer because we were all enjoying the challenge (except Possum who was feeling the cold) but had guests coming for the weekend and felt a fridge-like environment might not be hospitable...

Guess where we went today?

One of the Ginger Ninja's homeschooling friends was given two Zoo Venture tickets, and very very kindly invited the Ginger Ninja to accompany her. Ginger Rose and I came along to see the sights available to the public.

We had a wonderful day watching the monkeys, bears, fish, leopards, but mostly liked the giraffes!

One wednesday...

Here's a little of what we did on Wednesday this week. Ginger Ninja, Ginger Rose and I walked Possum and Briar Rose to school, and dropped in at the school office to organise Ginger Rose's enrolment interview with the Head of Junior School. As they had a free appointment later that morning, we arranged to return.

We then walked up across the paddocks to the town shopping centre. As the Ginger Ninja was seeing a performance of Othello on Thursday, I tried to keep the conversation focused on literary and dramatic devices. As you can see, he and Ginger Rose tried to keep the conversation focused on topics appropriate for Dolly, seen holding both their hands as they head off on a tangent without me.

Ginger Rose met up with her best friend at the shops, so we stopped at a coffee shop for a quick refuel and play before continuing on for a quick blood test for me and a trip to the library for all of us.

We returned to school for a successful school interview, during which Ginger Rose nodded with her fingers in her mouth in response to questions such as "Do you like to play at the park?", before walking home for Ginger Rose's nap.

I returned to school to see Briar Rose's class presenting at the junior school assembly. She played piano very skilfully, presented a cereal she'd designed and explained that her class was experimenting to see how fast various things dissolved in Coke over a four week period.


I can't remember what we made for dinner that night, but here's a visual of the Thai chicken meatballs we made earlier in the week. They were such a quick winner that I'm definitely adding them to my "quick meals" list, though they're very rich so really need to be served with a good helping of rice and salad or vegies. I didn't have sweet chilli sauce (one of the perils of owning a teenage boy capable of finishing bottles of sauce and not informing stock control!) so served them with soy, but sweet chilli would've been much nice.

THAI CHICKEN BALLS

Serving size: Serves 4Cooking time: Less than 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

500g chicken mince¼ cup (60ml) oyster sauce2 cloves garlic, crushed1 tablespoon self-raising flour1 tablespoon fish sauce½ cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves2/3 cup (160ml) coconut milksoy sauce and sliced chillies or sweet chilli sauce, for serving
METHOD

Preheat the oven to moderately hot (200°C/180°C fan-forced). Grease two 12-hole mini muffin pans (1 tablespoon/20ml capacity).Combine chicken mince, oyster sauce, garlic, flour, fish sauce, coriander and coconut milk in a large bowl. Place rounded tablespoons of mixture into prepared pans. Bake in a moderately hot oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.Turn out and serve hot with combined soy sauce and chilli or sweet chilli sauce. Suitable to freeze.Not suitable to microwave.

Have you been introduced?

To Sebastian, our cat?

He's rather long suffering, and pretends to dislike the children, but strangely seems to prefer sleeping in the childrens' bedrooms. Here he is trying to blend in with the stuffed animals in Briar Rose's lower bunk.
And here's how the children are preparing for their new baby brother...

Ginger Rose enjoys autumn

We made the effort to leave the Ginger Ninja behind for Paint and Play this week, and Ginger Rose had a fantastic time playing with the other preschoolers. She's off to school for two days a week next year, so we're making a bigger effort to meet up with other children her age.

Autumn is great fun for little ones - Ginger Rose makes a bouquet of autumn leaves most days on our walks to and from school. Unfortunately, the leaves aren't allowed inside the house, which is terribly cruel of me, so the bouquets are left in piles on our back lawn.