What the cousins are up to now!!

Sunday, February 22, 2015

FJ'S new Lego blog

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you know the FJ has started his own blog about his Lego creations. You can have a look here - The Brick Maniac

Here is his minifigure ...

Go have a look - he'd love to know what you think.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Back to school tomorrow!!

Most kids in Australia, particularly Western Australia will be back at school by tomorrow.

FJ would just like to say...

Take care riding or walking to school and cross the road with the crossing guard - just like this little boy!!

Friday, January 30, 2015

I have just spent my first two days at school this year, preparing for life in a new class with a new teacher and new challenges.

One of my challenges was coming up with new sensory play items for a child who uses them a lot to calm down when he is getting agitated. This is what I came up with thanks to Happy Hooligans, a site with many great ideas for sensory play and other great activities for young children.

Sigh - no, I don't know why blogger insists on putting in the photos upside down!!! Anyway, don't they look vibrant?

The recipe is really simple. Put 1 cup of cheap white rice in a plastic container with 1/2 tsp white vinegar and a couple of drops of food colouring. Put the lid on and shake vigorously and pour out on a tray to dry for a couple of days (although I think with 36 degrees today it won't take that long!).

Then I will mix it together in a plastic container and hide a few things in it - like marbles, trash monsters, letters etc. Or rather FJ will, as he is itching to play with it too!!

"Mum - can't you make me some?"

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Cheese-making this week...

Since I've been back from Brisbane (more about that in another post) I've been making cheese again. I've taken time to myself - now that lots of our out-of-school activities have wound down. Also inspired by my beautiful step-mum, who finds the time to make cheese even with her busy life. If she can do it - so can I!

First was Camembert. I love Camembert and so do my children. I didn't have any mould spores available so I used a sliver of mould from a commercial Camembert - and what do you know? It worked! It is in my cheese fridge happily sprouting a coating of white mould as it should.

The Camembert is on the top in it's own box so it doesn't contaminate anything else. The second cheese I made was a Monterrey Jack with HiLo milk. It is the red one on the right. A smaller cheese because of the HiLo. The one on the left is a Farmhouse Cheddar that I made about six months ago that we are resisting eating until at least nine months.

Then yesterday I made a Caerphilly - that's it just out of the mold above. It is one of Miss Blondie's favourites and quite a quick cheese to mature. It is ready to eat in about three weeks and doesn't need waxing. Caerphilly is a Welsh cheese - whitish, crumbly, a bit salty and very yummy.

I have just ordered some more ingredients - including a thermophilic culture for making cheeses like Parmesan. So I hope I can keep finding the time to make cheese. We have no weekend sports for the summer as we were all suffering from lack of home and family time.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The benefits of having older kids...

I love having older kids. Much and all as I like babies and little ones I have to say that older kids are my favourite. I prefer working with older kids at school and now that mine are older ( 11,13 and 16 nearly) it's fantastic.

They are joining the family as active participating members, they hold mature ( and not so mature!) conversations with us and each other. They are pushing for and gaining (little by little) independence.

Our eldest is on the verge of picking her subjects for her last two years of high school, and next year goes on a music tour of Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Our middle one starts the high school journey next year. Our baby has only one more year of primary school before he too starts high school.

They are all crafty kids...

FJ's latest creation - a sock monkey called Chuckles

...and share with us a love of hockey, reading, super heroes and Lego. Just the other day I listened from the other room as they gave each other quizzes on who was the biggest super hero nerd, the biggest Lord of the Rings fan, and the biggest Harry Potter nerd. Miss Nearly 16 stretched her wings a couple of weekends ago by organising herself and going to Supernova in the city, (sort of like Comicon for us uninitiated!!) dressed as Black Widow from Marvel: Agents of Shield.

They are developing new relationships with each other as they go through different stages. Just today FJ woke his sister up to ask her whether she would take him on the train and go to see a movie with him. She said yes, and with no involvement from Mum (other than a lift to the station and the provision of funds) off they went. Our middle one is off at a sleepover and movie with a friend.

When they all get home they'll all be in the kitchen baking, helping with dinner with animated conversations about who's been where, which movie was best and catching up with which dragons have been bred today on their favourite game (Dragonvale).

There are still tears and tantrums, arguments and fights. But the focus is changing and I love it!!

Monday, April 7, 2014

What an outstanding save!!

Hockey season has started again - at least for the seniors. Juniors don't start till May, although training is well under way. We had club day weekend before last and the Masters grass team played a scratch match with the Men's 1 turf team. I missed the match but got sent this awesome photo of DH at full stretch saving a goal that the goalie just couldn't get to.

He couldn't believe he'd done anything special - until he saw the photo. They went down 2-1 in a hard fought battle, and are now ready for season proper.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Lego minifigures...

FJ has quite a collection of Lego minifigures. Recently we decided that we would grab them all out of their sets and boxes and divide them up into bodies, heads, hats, hair, legs, accessories etc.