Briar Rose is 8!

Briar Rose celebrated her birthday with a small sleepover party. Here are the girls in the morning spraypainting with blow pens. 

Just two families...

I took this photo of our two families (I'm behind the camera) after we hiked down to the falls you can vaguely see in the background.

It was a gorgeous rainforest walk, but I was feeling a bit uncomfortable after a taipan slid away from the path *after* Briar Rose and Ginger Rose had been running ahead of us!

And we might look like a large group, but it's going to get larger (we hope) in September/October when our next bublet is scheduled for arrival! 

Lamington National Park

We loved visiting Lamington National Park, home of the Regent Bower Bird.

We were fortunate enough to meet most of the birds in the car park as we arrived, including the Regent Bower Bird. The bower bird surprised us all while we were feeding some other natives in the car park by flying down and taking food from Peter then Michael.

You can see the yellow blur flying away in the background of the second photo.

The strangler figs were magnificent, and in the middle of the treetop canopy walk the big kids and Michael were able to climb to the top of the tallest specimen to get a really good view of the top of a rainforest canopy.


 

Briar Rose's holiday

Here is the stunning view from our 39th floor luxury apartment - we were so spoilt!

Briar Rose had a week feeling like a princess as her bedroom contained a queen size bed, had ocean views and its own balconney.

I am pleased to report that she shows no interest in keeping reptiles, however she has drawn a comprehensive diagram detailing her plan to keep a chihuahua in her wardrobe and has dropped multiple hints about a puppy for her forthcoming birthday!
 

A budding herpetologist...

We recently gained a new employee, who is a keen herpetologist, and Possum's caught the enthusiasm!

On our recent holiday, he very enthusiastically investigated all the reptiles he could find, and has decided to purchase a Bearded Dragon as soon as he can afford the equipment.

He is currently engaged in rather optimistically pricing all the unsecured items in his bedroom in an attempt to raise the necessary funds. As his eventual aim is to bring a python into the house, I'm not helping with the fundraising...

 

Where have we been?

We've been in sunny Queensland for a much deserved family holiday! The children are holding a real live baby crocodile - poor thing had its mouth taped up, but seemed quite content to be posed.

We spent a week on the Gold Coast (with a couple of days spent at a chiropractic seminar for Michael and I while the children amused themselves in the resort pool!) then stayed with some friends for a couple of nights. 

Comet fever

We all enjoyed watching McNaught's comet last month. It was visible to the naked eye from the end of our verandah, and very very pretty!

The more vertically challenged of us had to spend some time standing on the verandah rail, which was a little hair-raising, but it was such a treat to be able to see it so clearly from home! 

Belated Christmas

We saved our English Christmas presents from November to share with Grandad D for a belated Christmas celebration but then ran out of opportunities to share them with him.

Instead, we had a Christmas celebration on the last day of Music School. It was great - with the hugest success being a CD of Postman Pat stories and songs for Ginger Rose. She listens to them as she goes to sleep, and has even been convinced to listen to them in the morning at 5am rather than getting up and running around the house! 

Kindred spirits!

Briar Rose and Grandad D get on so well :). It probably helps that Briar Rose loves helping Grandad with his dogs, and that Grandad loves spoiling Briar Rose!

He often treats us all to a meal out at this fantastically cheap and cheerful restaurant which has become a family tradition on Grandad's visits. 

The art of air kneading

In preparation for the arrival of my wonderful new Kenwood Chef with dough hook, I've been experimenting with baking in the oven rather than the breadmaker.

This has the advantage of making the bread much easier to slice and use, and has encouraged me to experiment with a few different bread recipes.

The Ginger Ninja has become very helpful in the kitchen, and has perfected the art of "air kneading", which prevents the bread dough from sticking to the counter by encouraging it to stick to fingers instead! He kneads for 15 - 20 minutes at a time, making me wonder if I really need a machine...

And speaking of kneading, Briar Rose and Possum both go through stages of wanting to become chiropractors, and trade treatments with each other. Some of them are quite innovative - I'm sure the Bear treatment will become very popular some day!
 

The fabric stash finally diminishes!

Briar Rose and I took some time together this week to strip piece these rectangular blocks into rows. They are fabrics that had been hanging around my fabric stash for too long, and it feels great to finally get a home for them!
The colours are a bit more vibrant than they look, and I'm unexpectedly pleased with the result.

Sadly, my old machine is faltering - the tension is more than a bit wonky, so some of the stitching leaves a bit to be desired, but at least it's mostly straight! 

Music camp memories!

Music camp for the three older children is bringing back so many wonderful memories for me - of course, when I went to music camp we lived in and there were no such courses as circus skills, pinatas, digital music, didgeridoo or African drums!

My heart is truly glowing at the enjoyment my children are finally experiencing in a musical environment!

Ginger Ninja is enjoying learning Blues improvisation on his flute, circus skills, pinata (he's making a pinata of John Howard - gotta love his sense of humour if not his sense of discretion!) and digital music.

Possum is focussing on drums, doing two streams of beginner drums and African drumming, but he's also enjoying digital media.

Briar Rose is thriving in the junior school, where she's singing, playing recorder and learning all about music around the world.

The weather has been stinking hot, and the commute to the other side of town has been grueling for Ginger Rose and I - even though we're car pooling! But it is so worth it to finally feel that I've found a way for my children to share a love of music with me! Even if it's only for this one precious summer! 

They breed in the night...

One of my New Year goals is to declutter. Which one do I start with? Sadly, this is after I've removed all the remotes for items no longer in active use, or that we can totally operate from the box itself!

And just in case you don't recognise it, the remote on the right is the remote control to control all other controls! I just need to learn how to use it...

And on the other side of the screen, we have the living room the morning after a riotously messy dinner party involving an extra toddler who enjoyed playing with lots of soft toys, toys that made noise, toys that moved...you name it, each toy was new, wonderful and *had* to be removed from the cupboard and played with for at least 30 seconds! 

Belated Christmas morning shots!

We had a great Christmas morning at MIL's house. We are so incredibly blessed with mothers who have taken on grandmotherhood so gracefully.

MIL bought a house on a river with an attic so the children can boat during the day, then have their own (very low ceilinged!) living quarters at night. We had a few days before Christmas at her house, then left after Christmas lunch.

We drove down to Sydney where we enjoyed my mother's newly landscaped garden. Previous visits have been a little stressful as the house is festooned with fragile objects placed at toddler height, and the garden used to contain a rarely used but constantly dangerous swimming pool. The pool has been replaced by a perfectly sized lawn, surrounded by gardens and courtyards, with outdoor dining at tables for 8 and 4 people (so adult and children tables are easily arranged!), and a gazebo will soon be installed for even more fun! I was so impressed to arrive and find that Mum had even arranged for a small bike for Ginger Rose to ride around the new paths!

The best Christmas present was the Ginger Ninja's new flute, which makes a big difference to his playing, and which he was surprisingly delighted to receive.



 

Toddler wearing

It's been a while since I've carried Ginger Rose in a wrap, but after realising that she's been a little needy lately - and finding it impossible to tidy the house while she's running away and rubbishing it at the same time - I thought we'd try hanging some washing using my old trusty Bear Hug Baby wrap.

Briar Rose thought it was funny enough to grab the camera for, so we have a record!

The middle photo shows me changing the wrap from a cross-over to a back-pack tie because the cross-over position was making it difficult for me to lift my arms high enough to peg out the washing.
I have been reminded that it is easier to proactively carry a toddler in an ergonomically comfortable style than to try to work one-handed with a wriggling heavy toddler on one hip. But as my stretchy wrap works much better for front carries (you can see the she tilts backwards no matter how tightly I tie her because of the material's stretch), I think I might need to look for just one more baby carrier! 

Role play for the girls

While the boys played on the "Sideshow" games at Questacon , the girls played at being vets. It was the first time I've really seen Ginger Rose role playing with something other than a doll, and may have been inspired by the fluffy toy puppy Grandma E gave her for Christmas.

I really enjoyed watching how seriously the girls took the responsibilities of measuring the animals, checking inside ears and inspecting x-rays!

It was particularly impressive when you consider that the girls haven't really seen doctors or vets in action! 

And Christmas begins...

One of the very nicest things about Christmas is catching up with family. Dh's grandparents welcomed us to a pre-Christmas lunch yesterday. While the meal was absolutely enormous and delicious, what was most heartening was seeing again that it is possible to live a good and healthy independent life even in your nineties!

Nana J loves to spoil her grandchildren, and the gift bags she prepares each year probably contain as many little treats as they see in a year - although I must confess to removing as much sugar from their bags as I can once they're out of sight!

I've included a shot of three generations all working together in Grandad D's study to get his computer back up so he can keep track of his online share portfolio. He's certainly living proof of "using it and not losing it"!

After the truly enormous meal, the children were able to lie on the spare bed and watch one of the DVDs that were in their Christmas bags. I was so proud of the way they negotiated with each other to find something they were all happy to watch.