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i'm pregnant and it's going to be a rollercoaster

Ekka Time August 14, 2013

Filed under: activities for kids,family,Parenting — rakster @ 9:01 am
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Petting the animals

It’s the time of the Royal Agricultural Exhibition, or Ekka as it’s known.

We haven’t taken the kids so far, cause it is typically busy and a bit full-on, but the lure of the baby animal nursery, where there are hundreds of little animals in an enclosure won out: you can walk right in and feed, pat and generally get close to them.

So C took the morning off work and with his rules of “no carnies, no show bags”, we ventured forth.

And it was fun!

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The kids got initiated into the famous Ekka strawberry icecreams…

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Strawberry Ekka Icecreams

 

being gentle with the chicks

 

 

 

New household members April 19, 2013

Filed under: activities for kids,development stages,emotion,family,Parenting — rakster @ 7:19 am

Our new household members arrived last night.

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Our kindy/daycare ran a hatching program for all the kids to see and we have adopted four.

You have never seen two more excited children when they arrived home last night. And this morning the excitement is still palpable.

Here’s hoping we didn’t get any roosters!

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Pink Dinner is a winner April 9, 2013

Filed under: activities for kids,cooking,eating,family — rakster @ 7:45 pm

You just never know what will happen at dinner time…

Most nights little O picks at his food and has to be coaxed into even tasting most new things. We try to just relax about the whole thing, and not wheedle or cajole, but some nights we resort to it in frustration.

Generally we do try to eat around the kids too: by that I mean making meals that they like or are not as spiced as we might otherwise eat.

But tonight I decided to just cook something I felt like cooking. Actually a bit of experimentation.

So beetroot and yoghurt sauce + lentil pilaf.

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And for once I has a son who ate without complaint, telling me that it “tastes great when I put all of it in my mouth at once!”

Who didn’t look like he was loving it, but for some reason tonight just decided to soldier through.

And gleefully declared at the end of the meal that he is looking forward to purple poo tomorrow.

 

Swallows and Dinosaurs January 30, 2013

Filed under: activities for kids,cooking,imitation,playing — rakster @ 6:51 pm

Tonight was cookie baking: using beautiful new cookie cutters I found on my recent trip to Melbourne.

Both O and L joined in.

Dinner went down quickly then O chose to eat a swallow and a dinosaur.

Yum!

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Halloween October 31, 2012

Filed under: activities for kids,development stages,playing — rakster @ 8:26 pm
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There was pumpkin carving..

And some trick or treating!

 

 

 

 

Another birthday and a robot cake adventure June 26, 2012

It’s been a crazy week of birthdays… A quick post to share a photo or two.

We celebrated O’s 3rd Birthday in the park on the weekend with a robot and rocket party.

What does that look like? Lots of big refrigerator boxes all joined up to make a robot spaceship, decorated with stickers and stick-ons. Filled with small children popping their heads up through the funny windows and openings. And crawling between all the adjoining boxes like crazy.

In the spaceship

Lots of fruit for morning tea.

the spaceship has landed in the park

And, of course, a robot cake. Which the smallest one managed to swipe icing off while I was trying to light the candles!

Robot Cake!

Happy Robot Birthday my beautiful boy!

 

The family outing May 19, 2012

Our family went out to brunch this morning to celebrate Aunt Rhyan’s birthday.

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We were in safe hands with the rescue team on standby in case of emergency..

 

when Robots attack! April 14, 2012

Saturday morning was robot time at our house this morning.

 

robot. saturday morning robot

We found the pipe cleaners and raided the recycling box.

New Robot met old robot,

“See, you’re just like me – a robot.  We are both robots, right?”

Hello robot!

and there was a lot of playing.


happy weekend everyone!

 

How to keep a secret… and Happy Birthday… Dear Daddy! March 30, 2012

On Wednesday night, Daddy was a little late coming home.

 

Which was good as it left us a little time to try to wrap a present and make a birthday card.

 

Little O helped stick the paper on with sticky tape, and drew some lovely “O”s on a piece of paper to make a card.  Because we  need to wrap a special present for Daddy because it is his birthday tomorrow.

Then we had to hide the present.  Because it isn’t Daddy’s birthday until Thursday morning.  Tomorrow morning.

Then we had to find somewhere to hide the present.  Because we don’t want Daddy to know about it until Thursday morning. Tomorrow morning.

We decided (O decided) that a good spot was under his dressing table.  Little O insisted on hiding it there himself.  He dropped the heavy gift about 5 times getting it up the hallway.  Because it was heavy.  Because hiding it under the dressing table Daddy won’t know and won’t see it when he comes home.  And we can give it to him in the morning.

….

 

Daddy comes home about 10 minutes later.  Little O jumps out of bed, calling,

“Daddy, Daddy.  You’re home.  We have your present for your birthday but it’s hidden under there,” points to the dresser, “and it was very heavy and I carried it down the hall and mummy said be careful but we can’t give it to you until tomorrow but it’s a secret because it’s your birthday and it’s a bit heavy and we wrapped it and drew some O’s and it has some paper and sticky tape and we mustn’t tell you because it’s a secret for your birthday, alright?”

In one big single breathed monologue.

 

Luckily he didn’t know what it was when we were wrapping it – he’d never seen a tortilla press before.

 

Happy Birthday Daddy!

 

angel food cake! yum

P.S.  and I forgot to take a photo of the Angel Food Cake that I made on request.  But I got one of the only remaining piece after it was eaten.  Recipe tomorrow…

lighting the candles

 

Boobie boobie boobie March 29, 2012

One of the songs O sings in music class is about a little box.  As part of the song, someone chooses something to come out of the box, and then it makes a noise.  Cue this week’s contribution from little O:

Music Teacher: “O, what would you like to be in the box today?”

O: “Boonie.  Boonie in the box.”

Boonie is one of little Luna’s nicknames in our house.  Nothing to do at all with the Australian cricketer.  Just “Luna Boona” gets shortened to “Boonie”.  It’s an Australian thing.

 

The teacher looks a little confused, who wouldn’t with someone saying “Boonie” as though you should know what that is.

 

I point to Luna’s head to indicate he means her.   Then wonder if I should be encouraging a song where my second child is put in a box.  Oh well.  The teacher goes on:

“Baby? Oscar wants to put a baby in the box.  That’s a good idea.  What should the baby say when it comes out? Wah, wah, wah?”

Oscar: “No. Baby’s don’t say ‘wah, wah, wah’.  They say ‘boobie, boobie, boobie’.”

At this point the teacher cracks up laughing so hard she can’t talk for a minute.  She tries to regain her composure as she says:

“Oscar’s right, babies do say ‘boobie, boobie, boobie’.  Everybody, let’s put the baby in the box now ..”

And we all proceeded to sing the song and then say “boobie, boobie, boobie” when the baby came out of the box.  Nice.

 

Another breastfeeding is just the norm in our household snippet bought to you from the mouth of a babe.

breastfeeding is the norm. Me feeding little O when he was 14 months at a friend’s wedding. In a totally not breastfeeding friendly dress. It worked nonetheless. (And yeah, I can’t remember what we were talking about but S is obviously demonstrating something).

Love mum