Pirate Mermaid party

Birthday Party

After the success of Peter Pan our birthday party became a pirate and mermaid party. Nic had set the challenge.

when the children arrived off they went on a treasure hunt to find a treasure box with either a pirate costume or mermaid costume in it.

the day was hot so most of the time was spent in the pool.

preparations

45 degrees outside and it is the same in my house as i am bundling up costumes for tomorrows party. thank goodness i printed the pirate t shirts on Tuesday night when it wasn't so hot.
hopefully it will be cooler tomorrow

eggs

over the last week i have noticed a change in Penny (the mother hen) she has left the babies alone and fend for themselves, i guess they are ready to go off into the bi wide world of grown up chooks. this morning as Hugo was letting the chooks out he found 3 eggs. penny is laying.

First hair Cut

well my baby boy had his first hair cut today, some would say long overdue but i loved it ( maybe because it might be the only time my boys will have long hair and maybe because it was the closest to a girl i might ever get!) anyway off we went today to the hairdressers. arch sat as still as still and was very proud of his results :: it does look much better ( but don't tell anyone i said that)

step back in time

in October i made hugos best friend a liberty patchwork skirt.
i forgot to take a photo of it.
Ruby and her family came over for an impromptured dinner on Sunday night and she was wearing the skirt, so i quickly snapped some photos

Happy 80th Birthday

today my Uncle John had a surprise 80th birthday. Uncle John is dads eldest brother. here the three boys are dad, uncle john and uncle Neil.
i haven't spent all that much time with dads family over the years but they are great there are so many of them, uncle john has 5 children and all are married with kids, these kids are my age so i get alone with all. uncle Neil lives in New Zealand, and he and his family are fantastic. uncle Neil and co would come over every year and stay so i have grown up with his part of the family.
it was a great day full of laughter, tears of joy, fun, love and of course in my family a few ales and wine.
what a great day i had a great time. its nice to catch up with family like this.

Peter Pan

this afternoon we set off for Ripponlea Estate in Elsternwick. it was a beautiful summers evening to watch the production of Peter Pan.
i have never got round to reading the story but on the way explained the basic story and hoped that what we were about to see wouldn't be too scary.
i needn't have worried. it was fantastic. with light humor thrown in and some classic pantomime lines it was a wonder to watch. my little boy sat up the front by himself with little red squirrels eldest and the two were fully absorbed in the magic and wonder of peter pan. with a picnic dinner and good friends it was a wonderful night. something that we should do more often.
at the end of the show Hugo wanted Peter Pan and Captain Hook to sign his book.

Victor Harbour

we left the wineries and drove to Victor Harbopur a great family destination. the caravan park was full of kids and i saw Hugo looking the same way i did :: why do we have to go home tomorrow, one night isn't enough. it was great though we just walked over the dunes to the beach where the boys played, we then went inot town took a ferris wheel ride ( thats another story when we had been round once and then for the next 10 minutes all we could hear was " i want to get off !") we then walked out to Granite island. Granite Island is home to little pengins. we managed to spot a little penguin in its burrow. we then caught the horse drawn tram back to the mainland. we then had dinner over looking the water in a great local seafood restaurant.
with sand in our hair and the sting of the sun we all went to bed happy and not ready to come home tomorrow.

Barossa

2 nights in the Barossa.
:: wineries
:: a game of Croquet
:: swims in the pool
:: HOT

Clare Valley

with its rugged beauty we awoke to explore The Clare Valley. we stayed in the town of Clare. the 2 nights we were there were cold but beautiful warm to hot days, perfect weather. we visited a heap of wineries and the boys had fun, exploring , playing and sometimes annoying us after the we had stayed at a winery for too long.
Clare is famous for their Rieslings and i feel in love.
the area reminded me a little of Tuscany with its rugged beauty. perfect rows of lush green vines and then ruggered Australian bush :: gums, dirt and brown grass.

we swam in the caravan park pool, had yummy BBQ's in our camp and had great coffee in the main street. we found a great toy shop that sold anything related to tractors and Archie was in heaven.
we needed a few more days as we would have liked to hire bikes and ride the reisling trail which meanders through the townships of the valley and the wineries.

South Australia

Today we left for a week of relaxation.
we got really cheap air flights to Adelaide and decided to come over for a week.
today we picked up our home for the trip, a home on wheels a big motor home. we were all very excited.
first stop Grange.
this is a fantastic town/suburb of Adelaide :: john had some worked to do so the boys and i explored the beach. we found shells, crab body and nippers and beautiful rocks. the beach was amazingly windy but once we were used to that and down by the waters edge, all i could here was giggles, shrieks and laughter. the waves were rough and Archie was sent to the ground a couple of times but to his credit he just kept on getting up. we had a wonderful afternoon. we walked along the pier and saw the fishermen with net/wire baskets. Hugo was fascinated and wanted to know what they caught. all of a sudden a little voice next to me said "excuse me what do you catch in those ?" i looked down and it was Hugo asking the fisherman, :: wow he is growing up i thought as i leaned closer so i also could hear the answer. "what ever we can mate" was the response. not enough for my inquisitive young man so we stayed and stayed till it was time to meet daddy. a quick walk back along the pier to show dad we saw some crabs on the ground. i" i think it must be crabs mummy. but we can ask Popeye he will know. "
with sand in our toes and our hair all wind blown we had a quick dinner on the deck of the grange hotel. as we pulled out in our motor home i could hear 2 big happy sighs behind me.
we drove to Clare and as i tucked the boys into bed without them even waking i could smell the sea in their hair and it already felt like we had been on holidays for weeks.