Ten

Eight

Swimming & Beanie's 5th Birthday

 

Nine

 

Happy birthday, gorgeous boy! Nine years goes by so quickly.

This year's cake request was for a sponge cake with jam and cream. My first ever attempt at a sponge - and a gluten free one at that! - and it turned out okay... a bit dense but everyone one loved it (lashings of Chantilly cream makes everything better). 

Happy Easter

Snuggled up in bed with Baby Bear, listening to the excitement of the three big boys as they hunt down all the choccies the Easter Bunny left for them. Love hearing the wonder and joy in their voices.

And I hope they clean up the little piles of jelly beans that the Easter Bunny deposited too...

Catch Up - Pigs, a Birthday, Teeth and More

  

 

We've visited Mount Gnomon Farm for their Rare Day Out. In between the rain, wind and hail we enjoyed some delish food and took a tour of the farm, seeing the Wessex Saddleback pigs and Belted Galloway cattle.

We celebrated Loo Bear's 7th birthday with our traditional jelly cups and bubble bath. This year Loo requested a chocolate cheesecake with berries on top so I had fun making and decorating a simple but very yummy Toblerone cheesecake.

The Burnie Arts & Function Centre hosted the Da Vinci Machines exhibition. We all thoroughly enjoyed the fascinating and hands-on displays, as well as the more in-depth explanations that one of the workers gave us. We also took the opportunity to turn it into as mini study on Leonardo Da Vinci.

Last year, when Baby Bear and I were at the hospital in Melbourne, the OH took the other 3 boys to the Devonport community gardens. He discovered that we were eligible for the Youth & Family Focus Inc.'s Veggie Patch Project, so he signed us up. Recently the team came out and installed 2 awesome raised garden beds as well as a compost bin.

We've discovered samphire at a local beach, so have gone foraging while collecting seaweed for the garden. Samphire has the saltiness of olives with a nice freshness and crunch. We ate it after blanching and it would go well in salads.

Meeting lovely new people while out and about...

 

After years of watching our tooth fairy visit his older brother, Loo Bear finally got his first wobbly teeth. One fell out recently and we popped it and a note into a 'Tooth Jar'. Bramble Ravenwing, our boy-tooth-fairy, exchanged the tooth for a letter and a dinosaur candle (he doesn't do money).

And speaking of teeth, we've started using xylitol. I dissolve it in water (about 1.5g of xylitol per 20ml dose) to make a mouth rinse that we use after eating. I chose a mouth rinse over substituting it into our diets so that we don't have to worry about how much we're consuming and possible side effects. We also have some Epic gum and mints that we use, mostly for when we're out and about. The kids love the fresh fruit 'mints' as they're not actually minty - they have a cool, tangy, fruity flavour. The OH and I like the spearmint gum. We are occasionally using the xylitol toothpaste too but I'm currently researching making my own toothpaste with a betonite clay, bicarb soda, coconut oil and xylitol base.

Refinding Our Rhythm

My elderly father hadn't been well for quite a while. My parents had been planning on flying us up to spend some time with them in July, however in early January my dad's health took a turn for the worse.

Toward the end of January we got the call we'd been half expecting and with less than a week of last minute planning, booking and packing, we flew north for a 2 week stay.

We got to spend 10 days with my dad before he finally passed away; it was lovely to see his joy in seeing all his grandkids again. Since it was so close to our departure date and the funeral had to wait for international relatives, we decided to extend our stay by a week. REX were great and waived the flight change fees when we faxed our travel agent the death certificate but Virgin wouldn't budge and we had to fork out nearly $1500.

Our stay in far north Queensland was hot, humid, wet and exhausting. The mosquitoes just about ate Beanie alive when he spent 10 minutes outside. There were cyclone threats. Due to my dad's ill health and death and the hot, wet weather, we didn't venture far from my parents' home. The boys got bored, watched far too much TV and ate far too much junk food. We stayed indoors and enjoyed the air conditioning. The boys enjoyed a nearby child-friendly shopping centre.

While we were away from home Beanie celebrated his 4th birthday and both toilet trained and finished breastfeeding. Big moments! Baby Bear celebrated his 1st birthday and started really cruising, even taking 3 unassisted steps! 

It was lovely to catch up with some old friends and family again (and to have some yummy nem chua again for the first time in over a decade) but we are so glad to be home. In the last couple of days of our stay, Shmoo and Beanie came down with a nasty cold and Loo had an allergic reaction so our journey home wasn't particularly pleasant and the rest of us have since caught the cold too.

We are still unpacking (having gone up with 2 half full suitcases and returned with 3 overloaded ones), recovering, and trying to settle down into some kind of rhythm again.

   

Happy New Year

Took the boys over to Burnie, had a late night picnic and they watched their first ever fireworks display from the boardwalk...

 

 

Merry Christmas

Kids up super-early and tired and overstimulated by lunch time...

   

There were the obligatory battery-operated noise makers from grandma and grandad for the little ones. Shmoo (thankfully the worst of his cold has passed) was absolutely thrilled with the remote-controlled helicopter from the grandparents and Hot Wheels walltracks from Aunty. Loo got a battery-operated triceratops from Aunty, Beanie a toy cash register, and Baby got a little dangly activity toy.

The big 3 all loved the iPod Shuffles that The OH and I bought for them as well as the waterproof camera that they're to share. We gave Baby Bear a lovely wooden rainbow set. He loves it, as do the older kids. It's the simple things that are often the best!

Santa visited overnight and filled their stockings (although I did have to have a grumble at the mess of half-eaten carrots his reindeer left in the driveway). They each got a new bath duck and bath mitt. The older 3 also each got a wind-up torch, a little wooden animal stamp, a wooden compass, scratch & sniff stickers, a few chocolates, and a little tumbling gnome. Santa gave Baby Bear a little wooden jingly bell rattle.

They've also got some money from Granny to spend next time we go shopping. Hopefully we won't end up with too much plastic, noisy crap!

And hopefully we'll all have a good night's sleep tonight. Baby Bear's restless with his top teeth on the move and he has started sitting and crawling about in the middle of the night.

ETA: Scrap the good night's sleep. Beanie's caught the cold and has been coughing terribly, poor thing.

Concert, Carols and Christmas Lights

Shmoo and Loo had their final 2 performing arts performances yesterday. The first was a Christmas family concert and The OH had to act as a fill-in Santa.

Then it was on to the Latrobe Christmas parade and carols where Shmoo and Loo performed with their TPAC group. Beanie even got up on stage when the mayor called all the kids up to sing a couple of Christmas carols!

 

After that, we took advantage of the late night and did our annual tour of the Christmas lights on the way home. We saw lots of lovely displays, like these homes in West Ulverstone.

Christmas Tree

It's fake, it's plastic and covered in sparkly decorations and noisy bells. And it brings the kids so much joy. :)

This Christmas we are remembering those who might have celebrated birthdays around now; those who are no longer with us; and we are extremely grateful for those who are.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Time to dig out our secular Christmas songs playlist and put it on the iPod!

With one new addition this year: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas by Bing Crosby.

Photo Catch Up

A few photos from the past month... 

Shmoo's 8th birthday while B and I were in Melbourne. They celebrated with a visit to Anvers Chocolate factory where they enjoyed chocolate fudge and ice cream. 

His favourite presents were Lego and a DIY vacuum science kit. 

And then Beanie knocked over the clothes airer, landing on top of it, and got 5 stitches in his cheek. Apparently my brave boy sat perfectly still with no fuss for both the anaesthesia injections and stitches. I had to see the GP the other week and she said she was amazed that he was so calm as she thought she was going to have to send him off to hospital to get it done. 

 

While I was away they also visited an open day for a community garden in Devonport. 

Since we've been home Shmoo and Loo both performed in the eisteddfod (Shmoo's first time, Loo's second). 

And on Friday night we celebrated the winter solstice with a little bonfire, marshmallows and damper.