Cheeky little rabbit!

After school Monday, the boys caught the bus home.  I picked them up from the mailbox and we headed off to the ice cream shop and park for a play. 


Earlier that day I had backed up my phone and deleted all of the photos and movies, I usually don't do this, but it was getting pretty full.


At the park I was loving the angle of the sun, and was kicking myself i'd left the D7000 in the car, so started taking some photos with the ole' iPhone.

On the way home Oshawott wanted to play with my phone, was a 2 minute drive, but whatever.  That night I was showing Coder my park photos when I discovered 102 photos! I had only taken 10.. 


This is what I found.  Plus many more like it. 92 to be exact.

Then on Tuesday I heard Oshawott being an elephant, and asked him if he would do it again for me to video.  He did.  

But then I left the phone with him to watch himself (over and over) whilst I went on with bedtime routine stuff.  I came back a few minutes later to find him and Voltorb having a fine old time taking video's of each other.

The boy that wont sit. Continued...

The boy that wont sit in the bath will now sit! Sometimes anyway, especially it seems, on the colder days.  He has realised that it is much warmer if you sit, he will still stand up often, but quickly plonks back down again.  This is great news as he actually gets clean now.  But now he likes it so much he doesn't want to get out of the bath.

It is not uncommon for him to have a 30min bath, 45mins even. We have always had boys who enjoy long luxurious baths.  An hour and a forty five minutes is the record set in Broken Hill many years ago.  Now, Voltorb and Oshawott often spend an hour in the bath.  Being the life guard on duty I try to keep myself busy, because an hour on a school night is too precious to give up.  So sometimes I shower, dry and straighten my hair, fold clothes, mend things, feed Lizzy, darn socks, and iron shirts, all within lunging distant to the bath. Okay, so I don't darn socks, or iron if I can get away with it.  But you get the picture.

He likes to bait Mummy though, he feigns wanting to get out, quickly screeching and sitting back down if I try to touch him.  Funny.  Real funny.

He doesn't like to let go.

But is very brave sometimes.

If only I believed you little Pichu.

I know I shouldn't laugh but...

I know this is going to sound terrible.

Legoman was sick last week, and actually part of the week before. It was viral, and seemed to come and go for over a week.  He had a fever on a couple of these nights, one night in particular he was also hallucinating.  Now, this is common for a sick Legoman.  His cousin vomits when he has a fever, Legoman hallucinates.  

Legoman stumbled out of our room (this is the 'sick' bed) mumbling and groaning.  I recognised the signs straight away and quickly got him laying still on me so I could try to calm him down.  He was saying something about Pichu, and the controller was "over there".  After many minutes trying to extract more information I had worked out that Pichu had a 'controller' (like a remote) and Legoman was trying to get it.  Wait... what?  Hang on now, if Pichu has a controller, including a mute and sleep function, why didn't I know about this?!

We managed to get medicine into him, and lay a warm face washer on his head until the fever subsided.  When he had snapped out of it he didn't remember anything, so my interrogation about the location of the controller was fruitless.

Last time this happened he was hallucinating about little tiny balls flying around in front of his face, he was actually scooping them into his mouth with a goofy grin on his face, they tasted like sugar!

Bits and Pieces

Sometimes it's the smallest of things (to us) that make a big difference to a little person.  This morning Voltorb opened one of the chocolate bars he had received at his party.  It was a Trolli Gummi Bear chocalate bar.  Perfect, it combines two of his loves, lollies and chocolate!  Not so perfect in reality as Voltorb does not like to mix his sugar groups.  Chocolate, yum! Lollies.. you bet!  Gummi Bears embedded into chocolate? What? That's crazy talk!  Voltorb was sad, he didn't like the Gummi Bear portion of his treat.  This is where Super Mum comes into play, she pulls off all the Gummi Bears, leaving just chocolate. Voltorb's eyes light up with amazement. 


Oshawott was playing with the voice changer toy while all of this was going on. Darth Vader was telling me "Mummy I love you, I love youuuu!".  Hm, I don't remember that from the movie.. "Luke, I am your father, and I love youuuu!" .


Another little thing the boys get a kick out of, is coloured yoghurt.  They have tried many colours, even though I have explained to them that the food colouring won't change the taste.  The best one yet has been grey! Something exciting about eating brain coloured slurry I suppose. Very boy of them. 

Little kisses from Pichu (who is still perfecting his technique) is also a must have at bedtime from the three other boys.  They have coined the phrase "miss kiss" and therefore another kiss is in order until it's hits the target, which is generally anywhere on their face.  Hair is a miss, as is an air kiss.  Because they are masters in bed time stall tactics this can go on for quite some time, until Pichu puts an end to the fun and games with one of his banshee screeches.  There are only so many kisses a little boy can give!  Well, this little boy in particular.

I saw this old picture on my Facebook page last week and it made me remember a comment Voltorb made once when Pichu was a tiny baby.  I must have been commenting (complaining) about Pichu having a short nap one day.  Voltorb pipes up with "I guess he didn't sleep so long because he loves me so much".  You know what, I think you might just be right!  What a lucky boy Pichu is, having such lovely big brothers.


Speaking of which, Legoman loves playing the big brother role, well, most of the time.  When we were in Broken Hill for the 5 weeks in January, he took it upon himself to help me get Voltorb and Oshawott into bed some difficult nights.  As coder was here in Hobart I had to get the 4 of them into bed by myself every night.  Legoman made up a bedtime story called "Oshawott Rocket" in which the rocket visits a different planet every night, either rescuing someone or collecting something.  Featuring in the stories was, Voltorb rocket, Legoman rocket, Pichu rocket and Mummy rocket.  We didn't do a Daddy rocket because this would make them sad at bedtime. :(  


End Permian News
Now this is very exciting news!  Coder was contacted by Amazon a few weeks ago about featuring one of his apps as their "Free App of the Day".  Woo hoo!  The Floor is Lava is up on their -Appstore for Android- front page, and will be for 24 hours.  For those of you jumping and and down with excitement, we aren't rubbing our hands together waiting for the cash to flow.  No.. it's a 'free' app, hence the "Free App of the Day".  But!  They did mention they usually get 150 thousand downloads, which is awesome.  Coder has made sure this app is well stocked with links and information on how to get their hands on his other apps.  Plus the Facebook page link of course.  (I saw Facebook and Twitter icons on a cereal box today!) 


You can check it out here.  Amazon Appstore for Android.  Share it with your friends!

Tea for two at 2:00.

2:00AM.  

Last night I went out for dinner with a big group of Mums from school.  In preparation for this very rare event I did a couple of things during the day to ensure a smooth evening for all involved.

1: Only let Pichu nap in he car for 30mins to ensure he would be tired for bed at 7pm.

2: Make a lasagna at 7am.

3: Don't let Oshawott fall asleep in the car.

One thing I could not do though, was to get Pichu to eat dinner.  This turned out to be my downfall.  It wasn't from lack of trying I can tell you! He had a mouthful of lasagna, 1 of custard, 3 of yoghurt, 4 bites of watermelon, a sip of milk and 3 tic tacs. Of course I wasn't keeping track at all.

He went to bed just fine and I left the house at 7.05pm.  It was pouring with rain, wind gusts and frogs all over the road, but that wasn't going to stop me!

I had Field Mushroom Risotto with parmesan crisps and truffle salt.  Was nice enough, bit salty.  Didn't look very appetising though.  

I had to prove to my sister I was actually out.

After another drive in the rain I was home at 11pm.  Coder tells me all has been quiet.  Yay!  I get into bed and I hear Pichu have a cry through the monitor.  He has had this uncanny ability to predict my bedtime since he was just a tiny baby.  I ignore it as usual (hah, that sounds terrible! but he normally goes back to sleep).  At 2am he doesn't stop.  I open his door to find him sitting up, "Mum".  At first I do the contortion trick and climb into the cot with him, trying to coax him back to sleep.  He is not having a bar of it, I am so tired I fall asleep in between his "Mum"'s.  Being the smart little cookie he is, he has learned how to unlock my phone and put Little Charley Bear on!  Took me awhile before I realised he was hungry and there was going to be no going back to sleep until he had a full tummy.  Might have been around the time he was pointing at the door crying.. sorry, I was tired!

So picture if you will. Tea party for two.  Me, sitting in the cot next to Pichu, peeling and de-pithing each segment of 2 mandarins to the light of the iPhone playing Little Charley Bear.   Some sips of milk and a sachet of banana custard later (plus a couple of episodes) I inform him that it was the middle of the night and time to go back to sleep.  He lies down next to me, and goes to sleep without another peep! Poor starving boy.  

The Scarlet Robin and the Lab

Last week we were host to a kamikaze bird, and a lost dog.  The bird, a Scarlet Robin, spent much of his day sitting on my clothes line, then launching himself into the nearest window.  Over and over again, we just became accustomed to the sweet sound of bird mass connecting with glass, 'thunk' 'thunk', it was quite rhythmic.  Possibly relaxing even, if I had not known that he was probably concussing himself.  He would have a crack at this for 20mins at a time, Pichu found it to be very amusing indeed.  Robin would leave for a 30min spell, most likely recovering on a branch somewhere, with those little stars whizzing around his head cartoon style, trying not to fall off.  Then he'd promptly be back to his position and right back on the job.  

Some theories tossed around were that he may have been attacking his reflection thinking it was another male come to whisk his lady friend off her feet and fly off into the sunset.  Perhaps we was looking for food?  But you would think, and it was obvious he didn't put much thought into it at all, that after the first 100 times and no luck, you would just give up?  But give up he did not, not for days.  The towels on the line suffered, as if being left on the line for a week wasn't suffering enough, now they had Scarlet Robin evidence all over them.  Which is fine, thanks Robin, I really don't have enough clothes to wash.


I did capture this on video, so you too, can enjoy the rhythmical stylings of 
the Scarlet Robin. 

Then on Thursday we had another visitor.  For those of you that know us, we don't get many unexpected visitors up here, so I was surprised to find Elsie's alarmed barking was a real person and not just a wayward wallaby or a very brave chicken getting too close in the hope of a tasty moth to eat.  


Naturally there was a twist, Oshawott was on the toilet at the time that this all started.  I had to leave him to fend for himself, asking him quickly if he was ok and wasn't going to fall in?  Once outside I was greeted by a farm hand with a beautiful sandy white lab in tow.  The Lab was getting acquainted with his sheep in the adjoining paddock, nothing viscous, but he was wary about leaving him roaming all day until he finished work and was able to search for the owner.  


It was about then, that Oshawott appeared at the back of the house, with pants around his ankles..   


All awkwardness aside it was decided the pretty Lab would stay up here for the afternoon.  I quickly snapped a pic on the way to get the boys from school and sports training following.  

The Lab was gone when we got home.  Coder was sad.  He was hoping we would get to keep her.  She was so well natured, she would have fit in just fine.  But then what would I give Coder for his Birthday?  Ha!! I'm kidding!

Pirate party success!

We here I am, on the flip side of the joint 6 yr old party.  We made it.  With our sanity (well most of it) intact.  The pirate party went relatively smoothly, only a few (ok.. half a dozen) falls on the steep driveway or path. We remembered to do most things, although I did forget to place the X on the treasure chest, which turned out not to be an issue anyway, as Legoman and his posse of grade 2's had already discovered the chest earlier and led the treasure hungry buccaneers straight to it after the last clue was unearthed (literally, it was buried in the barren veggie patch!).  


The day started off slowly, as any day does that you are up at 5.50am.  That was thanks to a very excited Voltorb who then began his well practised mantra for the morning. "Is it party time yet?"  No Voltorb, it's still dark outside!   There was much to do, yet the children were still asking for breakfast, really guys? Today?  C'mon..  


But all the boring setting up was done.  Actually some of it was quite fun, I had treasure hunt clues to hide and bury, plus I decided it would be funny to put in a fake treasure chest before they found the real one.  Just making extra work for myself, I'm adept at this.  The jumping castle man arrived (late) and set up the two castles.  Now my boys were excited, because they weren't before, honestly.  With less then an hour until the guests arrived, and yes I do recall every moment as I was being constantly badgered about the impending arrival of presents (I mean friends).  The late jumpy castle man opened up a whole new can of worms, in fact I had, of course, predicted this.  


Around 30 children, plus parents were incoming, T minus 10 minutes and counting.  JC man was still setting up.  Our road is 600m long and one way only.  You can't see other cars until it's too late and you (or the other car if you're lucky) are left to reverse either back up or down the whole winding, steep way.  I quickly rang a friend to organise them to stop the traffic at the bottom as soon as she arrived, but there was just no time.  Coder had a light bulb moment and decided to ride his bike down.  With phones we then became those council workers with the 'stop' and 'slow' signs, Coder let cars up until up JC man was ready to leave, he then stopped traffic until I gave the all clear.  Other then the few distressed text messages I got "Lots waiting!!!!" and "Hurryyyyyytt" it ended up being very successful.  After the JC man saw the first car come up he inquired if they were all going to come up here to park.  Weird.  Where else would they park?  "Come on kids, lets walk up this 600m steep gravel driveway! I don't care if you're 3, let's go!"  But he did get a wriggle on as soon as he put two and two together.  Because 2 + 2 = 400m reverse.


Once coder had hitch hiked back up to the top, he whipped into his pirate costume.  I also was a pirate, a pov pirate with a makeshift costume.  It seemed everyone had fun.  The treasure hunt was a hit!

Maps we burned.

Ready for hiding.

Enter at your own risk!

Coder

Me

Cutest pirate ever! 

 At first he had them with promises of 'most awesome pirate' team.

 They weren't fooled... and soon defected to the 'good pirate'.

 Running to the spider shed to find our next clue.

See? the good pirate always stops to lend a helping hand.

 The two teams had merged now and were all headed towards the treasure.

 Found it!

 The treasure! Pirate pouches filled with chocolate coins.

We got to keep the left overs.

Cake, obviously.

Waiting for the candles to be lit.  Unfortunately there was too much wind.  The boys were great sports about it and pretended to blow them out.

 The present pile was impressive...

Intoxicating even!

It had been a long afternoon, the boys could not wait to open their spoils, no I mean literally, they were asking every minute if it was time for people to leave yet! Such hospitality. 


We have never had so many cars up here, including our cars there were 18!

Voltorb insisted he wear his pyjamas so he could be a pirate skeleton.  This ended up being quite helpful at bedtime.  We were exhausted and at least one of them was already ready for bed!

Skeleton with his loot.

Pichu slept for the whole party. I would normally wake him up if he naps too long, otherwise he isn't ready for bed until 8.30 or 9pm.  It was worth not having to worry about him though, and last night we just relaxed and watched Masterchef together.

Just an average week

We are having a party!  Well, Voltorb and one of his best friends are having a joint party at our place on Sunday.  Just 30 or so children, plus parents, nothing big. hahah... sigh.  Well he didn't have a big party last year and he wont be having one next year, possibly ever again.. depending how we are feeling by Sunday evening!  

There are party bags to organise, decorations to make, treasure hunt to plan, food to source and cook. Plus there are a few bad patches on our road I need to get at with a shovel again.  I have had a few attempts at smoothing out some big bumps and gaping crevices, but it's a long road! So of these things, party bags are not finished, decorations have not been started (except the pre-made purchased things), treasure hunt has been extensively talked about, but not planned.  Luckily its a joint party, and my fellow organiser, Mel (Coal Valley View) is doing most of the food.  But I have made meringues last night,  and brownies and banana bread today. 

On top of these things, Legoman has not been 100%.  Tuesday I had to pick him up early from school, Wednesday he had off and I took him to the Doctor.  Viral.  Of course.  Coder was working from home that day, so at least the little boys didn't have to miss out on our Wednesday morning music session at Richmond.  They love being able to play with unusual bit and bobs.  Really cool drums and bongos, bells and maracas.  Even buckets and scarves! 

So Wednesday was a little hectic, we dropped Voltorb to school, came home, quickly potted a birthday present for a friend, all the while Pichu was (over)feeding the chickens and getting chook poo all over him because I had accidentally locked them in the shed over night and they had to roost all over the place in the dark.  But that's another story!  Music started at 9, it was 9.05 when I finally had clean hands, a poop free Pichu and Oshawott with shoes on.  Off to music.  Then morning tea with the Birthday girl, home to swap a grumpy Oshawott with sick Legoman, tried to get Pichu to nap in the spare 10 mins I had.  No thanks Mum.  Great.  Back in the car to the Dr.  Viral infection confirmed, vitamin C, water and rest.  For me? Yes.. thanks Dr...  Oh right, for Legoman.  At home I had an hour to whip up some meringues, unstack/restack the dishwasher, and make lunch before heading out to get Voltorb from school and take him into Salamanca for Art Class.   Pizza for dinner, home at 5.30.  Nice surprise, Coder and Legoman had been cleaning! Then it's eating, home reading, magic words, spelling, pyjamas (no time for a bath tonight boys!), stories and bed.  Between 5.30 and 6.30 Coder also vacuumed and shampooed the lounge room carpet.  

Breathe...  all in a days work.

Today they are both at school, although once he realised he was going, Legoman suddenly had a headache.  Nice try sunshine!  The little boys and I are at home today, cooking, cleaning and hopefully doing some party decorations ( I have skulls to make!).  Soccer and hockey training this afternoon, home be around 4pm.  Luckily the slow cooker is making dinner tonight.

Here are some photos from music.

Pichu declares its home time, dragging my bag along with him.