a home on wheels

on the weekend John and I drove into a little town called Jamieson for real coffee while we were away camping. John had spent time there in his younger years, fishing with his dad and family friends. we stopped at a beautiful little cafe, and drove through some really quaint little streets, the river and caravan park.
as we drove back to our friends place i made comment that in time i would love a caravan to explore towns like that, place we never normally go, but have lots to offer for the weekend.
my thought was early on in the week we would sit down as a family and circle a town to visit the coming weekend. then come Friday night, hitch up the van, drive to the town and spend the weekend exploring. a great way top all spend time together and also a great way to see victoria.
well John being John has bought us a caravan and we are off to collect it over the weekend.
friends of ours, their parents are selling their old 1988 van. its old, buts it goes, its clean and its hardly been used.
so look out victoria we are coming to explore !!!!!

family time :: good for the soul

after a rough 18 months with business ventures not fulfilling their expectations there are new seeds being sown on the horizon.
its hard to believe that we have come out of a hard few years.
we have both given our all, but also both lost our way, shut down and closed off from each other.
this trip re ignited what we have had for so long, our love our passion and i found my best friend and soul mate again, right next to me.
with nothing to do but relax and unwind and enjoy each others company its what we did and it was great....

(now if only i could recreate that relaxed way back here with all the routine that has started again)

Grug

this morning Arch and I went to the Arts Centre to see a production of the children's story books, Grug.
it was aimed at pre schoolers and it was great.
it was in the ANZ pavilion theatre and it was lined with cushions for the kids to sit on. the show was interactive and onlt lasted 3/4 of an hour, perfect amount of time to hold the kids attention span. arch loved it.. he sat quietly taking it all in.
the performers acted out a series of the Grug stories.
when we got home arch quietly set to work recreating what he had seen... making his own diorama of the show.

pasta

you cant have fresh tomato pasatta/sauce without fresh pasta
so the boys and i made pasta this morning.
Hugo went up to the TV to watch the Stephanie Alexander DVD again, so he could write the recipe down.
100 grams strong flour to 1 egg
as we were in the middle of making it friends dropped in, so Seth joined in and helped.
it was fun and dinner last night was one of our best meals, so simple but delicious.
fresh pasta and fresh sauce.

exploring

i love the beach no matter what time of year and today was one of those cold blustery days, perfect fro rugging up and walking along the beach. we don't spend a lot of time at the back beach but today it was the perfect exploring weather.

memories

after years of procrastinating, today i decided just to DO IT. a photo wall that is. a blank canvas wall in our kitchen has now become a focal point. i have selected photos from the last 7 odd years of our family and friends and displayed them in a collage. everyone helped and we had a great time reminiscing about events, special moments in our lives as a family and how we have all grown. its stared something though... i have got hundreds of printed photos now and want to display more.... off to find the next wall!!

setting

this is how the boys set the table for dinner tonight, they had been out in the garden after school and came inside with the flowers for me. as part of our routines this year i am trying to engage them a little more in day to day life of our household. setting the table and cleaning their plates is something i think they can manage. and when i looked and saw this i was proud.

living in the moment # 16

walking home from school.
taking the time to slow down and walk home from school was a nice way to enjoy the spring weather.
we talked, stopped to look at bugs and flowers, waved at friends as they drove past in their cars and connected together as we walked home.

living in the moment #15

today Hugo went up a level in his reading at school.
it has taken a while for the reading to "click" for him but over the last few weeks he has "got it" and he has been going great guns. Today his teacher did running records with the class, and Hugo proudly after school ran to tell me that he has gone up a level. "i am now in green mum."
as a way of acknowledging this achievement and to show him that his efforts and hard work have been worth it i decided to celebrate this by baking him a cake.

he was excited and proud as we all sat around the dinner table having cake for dessert that was his special "reading cake"

well done Hugo you have tried so hard and that has paid off. you should be proud and i look forward to joining you on your reading journey.

i must appologise for the icing the cake was still warm when i iced it. i guess thats what happens when you have to bake, ice and decorate a cake all in the hour or so after school till dinner time...

day 2 of creativity

a 3d train out of boxes.

art = creativity. creativity = expression. expression = dressing up

a new way to display our textas

art:: creating each day for a month

after writing last week that i would do an art activity a day with Hugo, a friend of mine , nic has decided to join me in my challenge. its so easy to say that you are going to do something and then just shelve it, but with someone standing by your side things start to happen. so here we go ..... to extend it personally i am going to try and do one thing creatively a week... I'll start off slow and see how i go !
i was lying in bed last night thinking about my blog and how i wanted to document this month of creativity and i never seem to know what or how to write something, i just seem to ramble in my blog, so maybe a little less talking and more photos of our creations.
so 30 days of creativity and 30 days of photos....here goes.........
today i pulled out my dry felting materials and Hugo has interested, here are his efforts.
i am going to keep this out for the week , so he can revisit.

i don't want this to be a one hit wonder, i would like it to continue. they say you need to do something for 3 weeks for it to become a habit, so this is what i am hoping for.

it not that we don't do anything creative i think i have just got a little complacent of late and been running around doing so many things but nothing very constructive so its time just to stop and be in the moment for awhile.

treehouse fun

imaginative play is often the most rewarding to listen to and watch. My boys had so much fun this morning exploring and playing with the new tree house.

stitches

4pm on Saturday afternoon the boys head outside. they found an old tub that we had in the shed and mae a boat. they were sailing to Noosa. a of a sudden there is a cry.
2 hours later, 4 stitches later Archie comes home from the local hospital.
Brotherly love !!

when we were at the hospital the doctor decided to stitch his eye, rather than glue it as it was so close to the eye and they didn't want the glue in it. after applying a pad with anesthetic ointment on his cut for 15 minutes ( although i think it only lasted 10 mins as arch ripped it off !!) he lay on the bed, with hugo by his side i had to hold the laughing gas mask over his mouth while they gave him a needle to numb the area even more.

then they stitched the cut shut.

on the way out of the hospital Hugo held onto my had " mummy i don't want to be a doctor when i grow up"

busy days

:: first signs of spring
:: flowers
:: picnics outside
:: mowing the lawn

tree house

with a little help the tree house was finished :: a few hours passed in between i think John finally finished around 9 30 pm !!