The Adventures of Box Boy & Lego Lad

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

2012-02-06T07:47:00.001+10:00

A great time was had by all seeing the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Mary Poppins!
(hope your family had fun too Saminda)
BB was entranced and LL was throughly engrossed and would occassionally break out in excited babble about the story line. Brett was thoroughly happy with all the set pieces flying in and out and all the lighting queues. (He worked briefly at QPAC forever ago on lighting crew) I loved the story, the singing and the dancing and how well it translated to the stage.

Lots and lots of families were there enjoying the show, so there was a great feeling.
A wonderful memory for our family.

Back to school

2012-02-04T19:43:00.000+10:00

Yes, they've been back at school two weeks and I'm just getting around to the obligatory first day picture.

Box Boy is in year 3 this year! One of the girls from his class last year called him over to ask him, "When's the last time you had a hair cut?" Funny that it bothered her. He alternates between liking his hair long and hating his hair touching his collar.
He is happy with his class and his teachers. His room is full of books, so he should be happy. He gets to learn violin at school this year and has been selected to be a part of a group designing a web page for their maths revision.

Lego Lad is in year 6 and is happy with to find himself with several of his friends. He and Miss T are happy little chatterboxes together. Lucky she likes Star Wars. He had a maths and spelling test on his first day, but wasn't too bothered. He is excited about learning French this year and has been worried about whether it would stop raining long enough for the class to do a science project about melting different foods. Despite lots and lots of rain, it did stop raining long enough.

Wishing everyone a wonderful year of learning, whatever your age!

Happy Australia Day

2012-01-26T17:15:00.000+10:00

Happy Australia Day to everybody.
This photo was taken at Bargara last week, but it could have been today at the local beach where they spent many hours puttering and splashing about.
It is so good that the boys seem to be getting better at enjoying the sand and sea and even a little bit of surf.
Very Australian of them.

Turtle boys

2012-01-22T13:25:00.000+10:00

I knew they were mad keen on turtles. Maybe they're just mad.
Here they are having a turtley good time at Bargara (near Bundaberg) to finish off the school holidays.

Pretty cool park with a great view of the ocean.

One of the main attractions to coming to Bargara is to visit near by turtle nesting spot, Mon Repos.
So one night after dark we got to see a real Loggerhead turtle mama doing her thing.

She clambered up the beach, onto a sand dune, cleared some vegetation and dug her hole pretty deep with her back flippers. This impressive lady laid a clutch of around 100 eggs that night, her fourth time for the season.
It's sad to realise that of her 400 baby turtles that the odds aren't good for any of them to reach to adulthood. The rangers think it's about 1 in 1000 eggs that make it to maturity. The work that is done there is important but much needs to be done around the world for their protection. (netting, foxes, boats, pollution etc)
LL and BB were disappointed to not see hatchlings (the weather's been too cold) but cheered up when I reminded them they had seen lots of baby turtles (just in their shells).
And they got to stay up till midnight.
Turtle Power!

Banana Icecream

2012-01-12T10:48:00.000+10:00

Box Boy got a kid's icecream maker for Christmas. I think the icecream maker is not exactly the best, it's more like a frosty mug with a motor, but it may just be we need some patience and change things slightly to optimise it's capabilities.Like follow the instructions. Go figure.
We've made strawberry and mango icecream so far and when Box Boy had a friend to visit he asked for banana icecream. I already had some frozen bananas and I think that helped speed the process up.

A Banana Icecream Recipe sans IceCream Maker
3 bananas
100 g sugar
375 mls milk

I blitzed up the frozen bananas in the food processor and then added the milk and sugar. It already looked creamy and yummy. Box Boy and I had a taste and thought it tasted just like a really yummy thick smoothie. I think you could get away with less sugar.
If our icecream maker base was frozen at this stage, I would have churned it for 20-30 minutes and I think all would be well. (we would need to do it in two batches for this volume) Of course the icecream maker base wasn't frozen, so I poured the mix into a plastic container and froze it for a couple of hours and then threw it back in the food processor to help it not be too icy. Hmm, how is this using the icecream maker? Back into the freezer.
You can repeat this process of mixing a few times to stop it being too icy, but I normally forget or don't leave enough time and it ends up quite difficult to scoop. I think you can begin to see why we haven't given the ice cream maker a proper chance.
But this time I remembered. I used the whipping attachment for the food processor and spun it around for a few minutes. It seemed to increase in volume. Then it went back in the freezer.
I was pleased that I did the extra step and it did make a difference. It's different to store bought icecream and an interesting banana colour but it was easier to scoop than without having done this extra step.

Here's another banana icecream recipe that's even easier and is dairy free. I really like it. The others don't think it's proper icecream and leave it for me. Lucky me!
Blitz a banana. Freeze it. Eat it.
Or
Blitz a frozen banana and eat a soft serve version straight away.
Or
Add a few teaspoons of nutella or chocolate powder to it for a choc banana version.

The last version came about because I saw a recipe that said to add 1 cup of nutella to 2 bananas. That's a whole small jar! A bit to expensive to my way of thinking.
It's such a nice thing to have the bananas finally become cheap enough again following the cyclone last year that I can start to mess around with banana recipes. I bet the banana farmers are even more glad.

Happy New Year

2012-01-08T20:41:00.000+10:00

Happy New Year to you all! Hope that you have had an enjoyable Christmas period.
A good time was had in the Lego/Box household.
And yet, there has also been some whinging prior and after Christmas that has been getting on parental nerves.
On Christmas Day there was a Santa mix up that resulted in some anguish for Lego Lad. "I didn't get enough Lego!"
There was a lot of it's just not fair comments going on that were totally not grounded in reality.

Then there was the incident in the park when one of the short people made quite a scene (in company) because we dared to bring along a flavoured soft drink he didn't like and NO he did not want to drink water or be a part of our family. He wanted us to buy the soft drink he wanted. NOW.
They don't proclaim that they are bored but they do protest mightily if they have to leave the house for mundane purposes.
I have seen this on Pinterest (sorry don't know original source) and it goes along with a conversation about first world problems I had with a knowledgeable friend following the soft drink incident.

It's not just the boys, I know I'm guilty too of a lack of contentment at times.

We have so much to be thankful for.

Gingerbread house party

2011-12-24T16:30:00.000+10:00

Last year we had so much fun making mini gingerbread houses with friends that we decided to do it again this year.

We got together with the Aussie Half Dozen and the G family early in the school holidays to make some yummy treats.

This time we decided to concentrate on the assembly. We prepared the gingerbread pieces ahead of time (the kids making gingerbread was not quite so much fun last year) and the two families brought the sweet shop along with them. If only I could count!

I used the gingerbread recipe from this Christmas lesson. It makes quite a hard gingerbread but I liked the taste. Our Sunday school did an Edible Christmas lesson this year and it was lots of fun. What I like about this gingerbread is that it doesn't use that much butter/margarine and it was simple. Something to consider when making several batches. The recipe makes 2 mini gingerbread houses or whatever shape you decide to make with it.

Gingerbread Recipe

This mixture can be made the day before it is needed and can be kept in the fridge for weeks. The dough is easier to work with if you let it rest.
Melt together 2 tablespoons margarine with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 4 tablespoons golden syrup in a microwave.
In a large bowl put 2 cups plain flour, 1 teaspoon bicarb soda, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 teaspoon mixed spice. Add melted mixture and 2 tablespoons milk and stir until combined. Put in the fridge until needed. Then roll out on floured board, cut out shapes about 1/2 cm thick and bake for 12-15 minutes in a moderate oven.

The results? All the kids were justifiably proud of their creations.

clean and simple design by Box Boy

Jelly bean door, lamp, wreath and path by Lego Lad

Possum's designer eye with the holly

Snow men, palm trees, wreaths and lots of icing!

(sorry if I missed any of the girls - my memory isn't that good)

We just might have to do it again next Christmas!

Wishing you and your family a blessed Christmas celebration.

Teacher's gifts

2011-12-22T19:33:00.000+10:00

We love to give something little to thank the teachers for the huge job they do every year.

We made little Christmas puds (but not as nicely decorated as Possum's) which I believe were much appreciated. Lego Lad likes them so much and talked them up so much to his classmates, that he chose to take a plate of them for his class Christmas party to share with his group. Strange that he doesn't like fruitcake, but likes little Christmas puds.

I had found some lovely soaps with yummy scents like mango and passionfruit and wanted to gift them as well. They just needed the right presentation.

I found this sweet idea here via Pinterest for little Reindeer soaps in a washcloth.

They looked so cute and smelt so good in their little herd before they went off to their new homes!

I must have had reindeer on the brain - or reached saturation with the media Christmas frenzy. Driving home from a busy shopping centre last week, I glanced to the paddock beside the highway and thought I saw an actual reindeer! I looked again and realised it was a small mob of kangaroo bent over feeding on the lush green grass. It was surprising to see kangaroo in such a busy and built out area and it was at lunch time, not the usual dawn or dusk. The kangaroo/reindeer must have been having an early Christmas lunch!

Feeling stressed?

2011-12-21T20:51:00.000+10:00

Feeling stressed with the pre Christmas rush?
Elf-y is here to help.

Elf-y has taken his responsibilities as Santa's helper very seriously. When he gets dressed in the morning, all he can think about is how he can be of assistance.
The only down side is that he must be in high demand. He appeared quite regularly and went out in public with us for a few days but then disappeared. Some might say that his "here to help" attitude wore out, but I like to think he is helping some other families elsewhere.

Christmas lights

2011-12-14T12:58:00.000+10:00

Photograph by Nick Kunh for Quest Newspapers
A great photograph from the local newspaper showing the beautiful lights that Brett and the team had been working on.
Fantastic.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2011-12-12T20:47:00.000+10:00

Well, it has for a while. Brett has been very busy with Christmas lights for church. As part of the testing and building stages, our house was full of lights paraphernalia.
And as the school year wound down, the kids were hyped up with Christmas crafts and activities.
Not to mention the bombardment of ads and TV specials.
All before December.

So, while I had plans to keep tradition and put the tree up the first weekend of December, it was up before. I came home from work and found it up, courtesy of the two youngest members of the house. Much like last year. I did arrive in time to get to have a say that not all the tinsel was to be used on the tree this year and they managed a much more even distribution of ornaments.
I'm sad, I didn't get to decorate the tree with them. Glad that they had fun.

Just keep swimming

2011-12-05T10:01:00.000+10:00

It can feel a bit like that at this time of year...
But I actually have a fishy tale to share. Are you comfy? Let's begin.
One morning, not so long ago, I noticed one of our small gold fish up against the side of the pond really struggling. You know, on it's side and bloated, not long for the world? I mentioned it quietly to Brett as I went to empty the bins and on my return I was met by racing children come to save the fish.
They carefully moved him back into the deeper water and then stood and encouraged the fish to swim.
And then something strange happened.
The other fish started nudging the sick fish. At first I thought they were picking on him for being sick or weak. Then it became apparent that they were taking turns to nudge the sick fish from behind to keep it swimming and upright.
Around and around they went for hours, taking turns. When the big fish had a turn the poor sick fish nearly flew out of the pond! A bit too much love.
I would check on them from time to time, fully expecting to find the fish dead. He did get stuck on the side one more time and the boys rescued him again and then the other two fish did their thing of keeping him afloat.
The next morning, I found three happy and healthy fish swimming contently around their pond.

Who says fish have short memories? They definitely worked as a team.
I told some friends about this and they thought it sounded very Nemo like.
Luckily no pelicans or dentists were involved.
So, if things look like they're bad or even out for the count, have some friends to help you just keep swimming.

Man in the picture

2011-11-27T13:24:00.000+10:00

Hello all. I'm alive and well. Just not in a blogging frame of mind.
The boys have had their end of year concert for their choirs recently. It was a great concert. All 3 choirs for the school are enormous (I think LL's has over 100). It's wonderful to see so many kids enthusiastic for music.

(the senior choir & percussion group in a regional competition)

BB had sung a lovely song about mums in the middle of the year but had been saving up a fabulous song for the end for the dads.
They performed it beautifully, and there was a slide show of lots of pictures of dads & kids playing on the screen above the choir.
(I don't know if the dads were that crazy about seeing themselves on the big screen :) )

It was such a terrific song I thought I'd share the chorus with you.
The song is The Man in the Picture and the internet tells me it's by the Bobkatz.
You can listen to it here.

The man in the picture

didn't fly through the air

he's no super hero

he's sure no millionaire

didn't walk on the moon

didn't save the world today

but he's my hero anyway

A kind and gentle man

The best friend I ever had

He's my hero

He's my dad

I know that's not true for all people, but wouldn't the world be a great place if it was?
Back to our hero: Brett's finger is on the mend, but he can't fully close his hand yet. But he's a top bloke.

Before and After (or playgrounds are dangerous)

2011-10-25T11:25:00.000+10:00

Not just for kids, but adults too.

before...

An afternoon at the park with the kids ends suddenly when Brett trips and falls backwards over an embankment and lands heavily on his little finger.

A visit to the hospital, his own personal radiographer, a ring block and some happy gas later...

A much happier Brett.

Poor Brett is still a bit sore. As well as dislocating his little finger, he broke his ring finger too (but that's undisplaced).

Very kind of Brett to provide such a practical demonstration to the boys on what happens if you hurt yourself and need to go to the hospital.

It was also a practical lesson on prayer. Brett was in the park with the boys and their bikes by himself and wasn't sure how to get the bikes back on the car with a crooked hand. LL prayed for someone to come and help and straight away a policeman arrived and helped put the bikes on the car. I arrived two minutes later and took him to hospital. The boys were so excited to see their prayer answered!

We were well looked after in the hospital and were home again by dinner time.

Nothing like a bit of excitment on the weekend, what?

Pause

2011-10-17T14:22:00.000+10:00

Just dropping by to same I'm still alive and well. I have so many photos of our trip to Cairns that I can't string a thought together to make a post. Will return when I can. Smiles!

Double digits

2011-10-06T12:20:00.001+10:00

Happy birthday LL!

Lego Lad is now officially into the double digits.
And how did Master LL get to spend his birthday?
Well, he got to do something pretty special.
You know, he is very keen on turtles.

And his birthday is in the school holidays.

So, he got to do his dream of swimming with turtles.

That's him on the left and me on the right. Truly.

It was awesome.

We had travelled out to the Low Isles off Port Douglas on the Great Barrier Reef on his birthday day.
He is one lucky fellow. At first he was so super keen about trying to see a turtle that he couldn't get the hang of snorkelling - and this made for one very frustrated boy. After lunch, we had another try and the tide was out and the turtles were coming into the shallows. He was determined to not miss out! We found a turtle easily and he forgot over thinking the breathing thing and had the most marvellous time snorkelling above the green turtle and watching them eat.
Way to go LL! We love you and hope that your 10th birthday will always be a birthday to remember.

No worries for now

2011-10-03T22:19:00.000+10:00

We got a worrying phone call the end of last week regarding Super Nana. She had taken a funny turn and things were not-looking-very-good.

So, I rallied the troops and we went to visit Super Nana.

You can tell by our happy faces that we found her quite well. An added bonus was that she remembered us and was walking unassisted (after breaking her hip this year). Hooray for bouncing back!
The boys sometimes find visiting Super Nana a bit tricky as she's not one for conversation, and these photos were taken at the end of the visit. The boys had actually had a good time because we had bought a veritable zoo of stuffed animals to show Super Nana and to keep them entertained.
Super Nana's slightly dazed expression is partly to do with dementia and partly from being tired out by all the silliness.
Box Boy says, "Silly? Who me?"

Hang in there Super Nana.

Window

2011-09-30T13:54:00.000+10:00

It might not seem much and it certainly isn't a terrific photo, but this window has meant so much to me.

Normally in my work place we are in the middle of the building and don't have any windows.
During recent (and extended) renovations we were fortunate enough to have a tea room with a window with a great outlook onto a garden.
I've really enjoyed lunchtimes in our temporary location. The world is a better place with a bit of natural light.

Down at Lego Police Station

2011-09-27T18:40:00.002+10:00

Just in case you think the Lego half part of the blog is being neglected.

This is one of the scenes I discovered one morning.

A siege perhaps?

Phew. Looks like the Tactical Response Unit has it under control.
(this really is as I found it)

Happily healthy project

2011-09-22T19:14:00.001+10:00

Hello there,
Have you heard of the Happily Healthy Project? It's put on by Nestle and is a large survey to find out about Australians eating and healthy habits. It takes about 10 minutes and I didn't feel that it made me feel guilty or put down, but did provide some good suggestions on ways to improve our health. It talks about the links between health and emotional happiness.
At the end of the survey they give you a HHQ. (happily healthy quotient - made up term to look like IQ) I was obviously feeling happy on the day that I did it as I scored well above the national average. I've since looked again at the site and more happy and healthy people have done the survey and has pushed the average up. And I'm not looking so (relatively) happy or healthy.
After the survey it links into material written by Nestle on exercise and recipes and stuff.
If you are interested the link for the site is here.
No kickback, just free uncalled for sharing.
It's not a perfect survey and there are areas I think it doesn't cover. If you do have a look and do it, let me know what you think.

Alarm clock

2011-09-19T10:00:00.000+10:00

Often I feel like an alarm clock.
(Image source)
Come on!
Time for breakfast.
         Time to get dressed.
                 Time for school.
                           Time for dinner.
                                    Time for a shower.
                                            Time for teeth and time for bed.
                                                                                           And repeat.

Needless to say I feel a bit fed up with being ignored or being treated to their dismay/disgust at my interruption of their activity. I've been trying to let them take some more responsibility for their time management and keep quiet, but it's hard! On the other hand, I know that it is an important life lesson that they will need.

Brett is much more easy going and finds it easier to assume they know how to get ready and just leave it to them. But he has had many other experiences of being the only one to hear an alarm clock.
BB was playing with Brett's phone the other day and managed to turn on a feature that Brett wasn't aware of.
But he was at 2 am in the morning.
Time to wake up! Time to wake up! His phone screeched at 2 am.
And Brett had to stumble around in the dark to find his phone and work out how to turn off the alarm.
Not that anyone else noticed, least of all the perpetrator. We are all sound sleepers.
It's not BB's first offence at setting alarm clocks at inconvenient times, and I'm guessing it won't be the last for that cheeky lad.

Sturt Desert Pea

2011-09-16T19:02:00.000+10:00

Lego Lad last term had to build a floral state emblem during class time.
He chose the Sturt Desert Pea, floral emblem for the state of South Australia.

It is very striking plant and is found in arid regions.
LL armed with a very large styrofoam box and some wire spent a long time cutting. And cutting. And cutting.
Poor Mrs M's ears were very sensitised to the sound of wire cutting (screeching) the foam by the end of the process. He finally was left with this and quite a lot of leftover box.

He did learn that paint and styrofoam are not the best of friends.
He was very proud of his efforts and so am I.

Magpie and the sock puppet

2011-09-13T12:00:00.000+10:00

Not only is this an award winning sock puppet.

Oh no, it is much more than that. It has successfully served in that truly timely and noble task as a magpie repellant.
Let me explain...
Lego Lad recently entered a school sock puppet competition for Book Week. They were given the brief of making a sock puppet of an animal from another country. Well, LL had a clear design and decided to make Pengi the Australian Penguin and wrote a story to accompany his puppet. There were many terrific entries and one that looked just like Pengi but made by a younger entrant. LL was very happy when they announced he was the winner of his category.
Time passed (maybe a whole week) and spring had sprung. This year, for some reason, I was growing increasingly paranoid about having to walk into school because of a black and white feathered friend. The walk into school is up a steep hill and during breeding season, the protective magpie can swoop you all the way up the hill. You just don't know when or where. If you've ever heard the sound of the magpie clashing their beak just behind your ear or had them draw blood, you know what I mean.
Now the magpie is just being sensible and protecting his nest and I have nothing against him personally. He has a very pretty song. The magpie tends not to swoop the kids, because they descend from the school on mass. Parents walking up the hill on their own are another story and are a fair target. My children tend to dawdle and we leave late (well, it's all relative. Have you noticed how fast a school can turn from a busy throng of children to a ghost town?) and on our own, leaving me feel very vulnerable and nervy.
So, this year I've decided to deal with my fear by a tried and true method. Avoidance. Brave, I am not. I had set up a system to enable this. One that kept me and the magpie separate. But the kids still dawdle, or don't trust the system, or Lego Lad decides he needs to go to the library again after school and it means I have to go up the hill, and, of greater concern, go down it again when the school has already emptied out.
One day we were at the school library taking our time sorting out LL's borrowing habits when he decided to claim his award winning sock puppet back. Of course, I got to carry it. I decided to put it to good use, seeing as I didn't have any anti-magpie protection and held the sock puppet aloft. I strode confidently down the hill with my little brood, much like those funny little tourist groups, with my penguin held high.
And you know what?
In the game of paper, scissors, rock - Penguin beats Magpie!

(though the Lollipop Lady, who watched the spectacle, thought I was crazy. She might have a point.)

Birthday festival

2011-09-07T14:36:00.000+10:00

The boys were talking with a man at church the day before "the" party while I was busy doing some other stuff. They were explaining to this gentleman how it wasn't BB birthday on the day of the party and went on to explain in great detail about how he would receive presents from different relatives on other days, that were also not his birthday, and how much they liked all these "birthday" days.
I rejoined them at this point and was able to hear the gentleman suggest that BB was having a birthday festival seeing as it was being celebrated over an extended period.
Needless to say that idea delighted the boys!
As part of the birthday festival, Box Boy got to see his Nana ...

and Grandpa. It's been a long time since the kids last saw these lovely people.

Box Boy came across as a bit flippant about the presents. Nana likes to give well rounded presents and BB thought he had sussed her pattern. He announced in one breath, "That ones a book, that ones clothes and that ones Lego."

Nana was disappointed because she thought he didn't like his gifts, but he did! He was just doing as my dad (and grandpa) used to do when I was little. They always seemed to know what the present was, no matter how unusual, before they unwrapped it.

And watch out Nana, Lego Lad's been growing. It won't be long before he catches up.

Perhaps Lego Lad's own Birthday Festival has begun?

Can you guess? - part 4

2011-09-02T09:19:00.000+10:00

And the last.
Thanks Mum-me for guessing along.
There are a few more strange looking things we made to go along with the previous items.

Of the edible kind.

And finally, as per Box Boy's request...

Box Boy is now eight. He wanted to celebrate with a Star Wars party.
He and Lego Lad and their friends get into a bit of a frenzy about Star Wars at the moment. Star Wars the Clone Wars has fed that. (our afternoons are much better now that the series has finished!) They know so much more about it than me. For a long time we didn't let them watch the movies but they still could tell you who was who and what they said and what equipment they should have. Freaky.
BB was very pleased with R2D2. I know my icing is a bit blobby, but I am pretty happy too.
Preparing for the party I went a bit mad and found lots of ideas I could do. Individually they didn't take long, but together it was a bit much. I need to learn between could do and should do. Did I mention I also made them all little Jedi cloaks? Mad.
If you are interested a lot of my inspiration links can be found here at Pinterest
In case you are interested, the item from Post 1 was a Death Star Pinata - good job Mum-me. First time we've had a pinata at a party.

It copped a beating.
Item 2 was a crazy balloon for a game like Hot Potato. When the music stops, if you were holding the balloon you had to explode off the Death Star. I like the crazy balloon a lot. I highly recommend it.
Sorry, I've lost where I sourced this from!
Item 3 were light sabers from pool noodles.

To my beautiful Box Boy, I hope you had a great time turning eight! We love you!

Can you guess? - part 3

2011-09-01T09:10:00.001+10:00

Hope you're still with me. Nearly there.

What do you make of these?

Can you guess what this is - part 2

2011-08-31T15:53:00.000+10:00

I think it's obvious it's a balloon.

But it is one crazy balloon. When you shake it for a bit, the mini bouncy balls take on a life of their own and makes for AMAZING fun.
When I sent Brett to get some clear balloons, the party lady thought I was crazy too. And then once it was inflated, she recognised how cool it was.

Can you guess what it was used for?

(I'll link where I got the idea from shortly)

Can you guess what this is?

2011-08-31T11:00:00.000+10:00

Is it some kind of prehistoric fossil?

Or is it something from another planet?

Is it something for all the family to do together?

Well, it was supposed to be, but LL didn't like getting his hands messy and lasted 1 minute.

Did it end up being a lot of fun?

Eventually.

Did it look like it was intended?

Hmm.

So, what do you reckon?

We've got the music

2011-08-30T11:42:00.000+10:00

I recently asked a group of kids a question. Could they think of something that was really special to them?
The answers that they shared did pleasingly surprise me. One boy replied that his drum kit was his most precious thing. This was not surprising, as he, at only 8, is a very talented drummer. This resulted in some similar replies. My violin. My flute. And a sweet fellow beside me said his family.
When I asked would anyone be willing to give up their special thing for someone else, the answer was a resounding NO!
Oh well.
Well, in a fit of madness, Box Boy has started violin lessons.
He has wanted to play for some time now and is ever so pleased with his violin. The first day he stood for a long time admiring himself in the mirror with his violin in its case.

(don't be too critical on how he's holding it)

I hope he continues to enjoy, as he learns to play.
The kids are having a very musical week this week. Several performances with their choirs, music lessons and their school is participating in Count Us In. Kids everywhere around the country will be singing "We've got the music" on Thursday at 11 am. It's a groovy tune written by a young fellow on the north side of Brisbane.
Is your school joining in?

Rediscovering play dough

2011-08-29T11:42:00.000+10:00

We visited with a friend the other day and she had made play dough and put it out for the kids to play with.

The boys initially were a bit hesitant, they thought they were too old for it, but then they had the best time with it. I have to admit, I really enjoyed it too. It was all very relaxing, kneading and rolling and shaping.
Encouraged by this, we made some at home too.
Box Boy had so much fun creating with it and pulling out all the old accessories.

What things have you or your family discovered or rediscovered lately?

15 years ago...

2011-08-19T07:49:00.000+10:00

Box Boy's take on our wedding day. Do you like how he drew that we gave each other our hearts?
I don't recall my cheeks being that rosy or my hands that big, but that's okay.
It has been the best 15 years. Brett, you are the best.
To celebrate, we enjoyed a lovely lunch together as a family in the mountains, our hearts filled with thankfulness. Because we have a lot to be thankful for.

Lego Storage ideas # 2534314881

2011-08-09T12:05:00.000+10:00

Or an exercise in futility.
It's been a long time between Lego posts, but they are still very keen on the stuff.
A few months ago, I got a bee in my bonnet (again) about storing Lego.
I do love our Box 4 Bricks, but it didn't cut it for all the little teeny tiny pieces of Lego that we have.
My MIL quite rightly observed that when her boys were little, Lego came in only 3 sizes. And none of them were teeny tiny. But our boys not only have a lot of Lego, but the majority falls into the incredibly small variety.
So one day I decided to attack the problem head on. I spent hours and hours filling up little storage boxes with all those little teeny tiny pieces.

Brett was a dissenter. In fact he laughed at me. "That won't work."
He was right.
I'd used a double sided storage box (cause there were so many different types of little teeny tiny pieces that they wouldn't fit in a single container, so let's try that snazzy looking double sided one and then they can all be in one place, oh what a good idea) that the boys managed to not clip together properly the very first time they used it. They flipped it over to get to all their disfigured mini figs and little teeny tiny bits went everywhere.

(disfigured Lego mini figs in a semi-organised state)

Afternoon wasted.
Somehow I persevered and did it all again and this time used some single containers.
Well, it works. In a fashion. You can see what little teeny tiny bits you have. The problem lies in the boys and I have different ideas about categorisation. And we still have the original and underlying problem. They don't put stuff away. Doesn't matter how you spin it, entropy is at work in the house.
But I'll show you how it can work if you have abnormal children who put things away. Except then you probably don't need this idea either, because they would naturally have come up with a better system that didn't involve so much purchasing of plastic containers.

Exercise in futility? Perhaps.
I might go and bang my head against a wall.

It is finished!

2011-08-04T19:07:00.000+10:00

A brand new smile for my LL.

It hasn't been without it's heartache and pain.
I worked out it has meant well over 10 appointments and countless hours of coaxing, encouraging and threatening to help him overcome his fear. He is a determined soul.
This week he had his second go at a GA to have some teeth extracted and oh while your there, let's spend some more money on what teeth are left in his head. For this to happen we had some premeds that took all the fight and all the fright out of him.
How good is that?
You might not be able to see, but do you like his robot teeth? (more commonly known as crowns)
He sure does love his new smile.
And I am so grateful for that he does.

Keep reading

2011-07-31T11:30:00.002+10:00

BB's teacher has been trying to inspire the class to read. She has been making the most of their interactive white board and playing this u-tube clip in the mornings. It's of a middle school who changed the words to the Black Eye Peas songs I've got a feeling to Gotta keep reading.
'Cause this book's going to be a good book, cause this book's going to be a good book, cause this book's going to be a good good good book to read.'
It's very clever and just as catchy.
BB's class is very happy to bounce around the classroom to the song in the morning. It warms them up!

BB& LL are already very keen on reading. LL's been powering through the books over the holidays and now he's back at school he can alternate between the council library and the school library for more books to help feed his appetite for reading.
BB's been enjoying Squeak Street, Flat Stanley and Geronomo Stilton. It's really rewarding to see him read independently and moving on to chapter books.
LL is very keen on any Star Wars books he can find. He is also working his way through the Deltora Quest series while also watching it on TV. I've also managed to expand his horizons a bit and he enjoys the Pet Finders series and Dick King Smith's books. They do tend to dismiss new books at first, so I try to read them different authors at night so they can see how many different good books there are out there.
What do you like to read?

Box Creation Links

2011-07-28T09:56:00.000+10:00

In the holidays, the boys got together with their friend s to make some box creations.
When they got home, they combined their box creations to make a home for their turtles.
I think it started off as a vet and then it had a garage. Lots of doors. Lots of places for Shelley and Shelby.

Lego Lad also made a few Star Wars themed projects. Star Wars is the new obsession. When they play Star Wars, Shelley become Shell-i. Turtle Jedi.
Yup.
I'm pretty good at procrastination. I've been playing a little bit with Pinterest which has so many pretty things to look at. And some of them are of the box kind.
So, if you find yourself with a whole heap of boxes you could always make this:

Mr McGroovy has a whole range of plans for AMAZING things to do with boxes.
His photostream has some other cool projects. LL would like the Star Wars X Wing fighter.

I also found an interesting way to use Duplo and paper/card together via here at Filth Wizardry.
You punch Lego stud sized holes in paper and then attach it to the blocks to make cars, flowers, people, whatever your creativity might think of.
My lot went hmph. They didn't share my excitement.
In fact, if you were to type boxes into Pinterest's search option you come up with 9287 pins of box prettiness.
Have you had a browse at Pinterest? What things caught your eye?
Anyone can browse the site, but if you want to save/pin the things of interest to you to your own board then you need an invite. Leave a comment/email if you would like an invite.

Whimsy

2011-07-22T10:00:00.000+10:00

The kids finally got their report cards. They were full of encouraging things (and some helpful feedback).
But I am terribly taken with what Lego Lad's teacher wrote in the Overall Comments.
LL tries his best at all times. He has worked hard on improving the standard of presentation of his work and is making steady progress in this area. LL is a thoughful student who has a lovely sense of whimsy about him. It is a pleasure to have LL in class.
I love that. There is definitely a sense of whimsy about LL. Some times I can think of other words, but that is just such a quaint and fanciful way to describe him. And fits him to a T.

whim·sy also whim·sey (hwĭmˈzē, wĭmˈ-)
noun pl. whimsies whim·sies also whim·seys

An odd or fanciful idea; a whim.
A quaint or fanciful quality: stories full of whimsy.

Origin: Probably from whim-wham, fanciful object.

Winter school holidays

2011-07-20T10:12:00.000+10:00

Hello. Long time between posts, hasn't it?
School hols even seem a long time ago now too. The boys packed a fair bit into their time off.

2 movies
3 birthday parties
4 play dates
some clever cardboard construction
lots of Lego building
too much time on the Wii
extended time playing Star Wars
many visits to the library
discovering new books (BB loves to read Flat Stanley now)
went to a regional show and were terribly spoilt by Grandparents with rides and show bags
went to an exhibition about puzzles
ate quite a bit, necessitating a fair bit of grocery shopping
hardly any photos taken, and no decent ones
and one failed visit to the dental hospital which resulted in a lot of gnashing of teeth (parental)

I'd say they had a good break. Hope you did too.