Thursday 30 August 2012

So matchy matchy

We have started to all dress alike. Last weekend we went out for a walk and the boys turned up ready to go in completely the same outfit. It was apparently unintentional. They even had matching denim shirts on under their matching army green jackets...to go with their matching jeans and Blundstone boots.

 






















Milly and I ended up matching too but it was later and I haven't actually had the guts to leave the house in our matching shirts yet (I had extra fabric after finishing my top so made a similar one for her).

 























xmarnie

Saturday 25 August 2012

overheard in the loungeroom

Henry: Dad can you put me in handcuffs?
Greg: No, here I'll hog-tie you. It works better.

Monday 13 August 2012

Patrick


Last week I got attacked by our rooster Patrick. I was holding one of the hens and he got all stroppy thinking she was in need of protection.  As I turned my back and knelt down to put her in the hen house, he threw himself at my back and managed to tear a hole straight through the pocket of my jeans. He also gave me quite a decent scratch in the gap between my shirt and the top of my trousers.

I didn't think much of it and assumed it was probably just an unlucky one off, but then he got Henry. Poor Henry was playing in the yard crawling through bushes and inadvertedly flushed out a couple of hens at the same time. Patrick gave him several nasty scratches on his back through his t'shirt and worst of all, a big scratch right on his cheek. 
 
Poor Henry was really shook up and all of a sudden playing outside didn't feel safe anymore. Patrick is a pretty big bird now, the thump as he hit my back the other day was substantial, and in addition to normal chicken claws he has spurs that are about 3cm long on each ankle. Perhaps unsurprisingly Henry was pretty enthusiastic about condemning Patrick to the pot. 


But we didn't do it. Not yet anyway. We were all getting pretty tired of the poo everywhere from the chickens having free-range of the yard and having to fence off the vege patch and every plant pot was tiresome.







So Greg built a fence. We gave them a big area down on the lawn and he did it in just one afternoon. I don't know why we didn't do it earlier.


And Patrick gets to strut and crow for a while longer yet.

xmarnie

Wednesday 8 August 2012

the difference a day can make

I took these photos to remind myself what a difference a day can make. To remind myself that even the worst of days can be followed by a good one. And to remind myself that sometimes all that is required to fix the mess of disappointment and doubt that a bad day brings is a good sleep, a day at home and time spent together.

Forget the housework and make paper crowns.











xmarnie

Sunday 5 August 2012

little milestones

Just lately Henry has started coming home from preschool with a few completed projects. Some kids seem to have some sort of artwork or cardboard construction every time they walk out the door but not our boy. I'm not sure why, though I suspect he's just more interested in playing with the other kids in a more active way. He loves doing craft at home, in fact both kids do but I still can't help feeling a little moment of anticipation when I pull open his tray at school in the hope there might be something in there. I think it's just because it's a window into what he gets up to all day. The most you usually get out of the teachers is "he had a good day", I couldn't even get much of an answer out of one when I asked which other kids he played with. It makes you wonder, are the teachers smoking behind the bikeshed from 10 to 2?

Anyway, last week he came home with this...


He wrote his name! And you can't really see it in this photo but he also did a really good job of cutting along the line. I made such a silly mum fuss when I found this in his tray.

And the other day we went home with a project he had not had time to finish at school. So we took all the bits home and finished it there. This is Henry working hard at the kitchen table (in his undies of course because it's at least 5 degrees outside and probably a balmy 10 in the sunroom). Nice job buddy!



Oh and speaking of working hard, Greg dug a new sandpit for the kids. It knocked him out so much that he had to have a nanna-nap in the afternoon.



xmarnie