Birthday Campout {Earth Hour}

March 23-24th 2013

A tradition has begun to celebrate Michael and Jayden's birthday as well as Earth hour with a camp out up at our block. 

We invited some family which made it really special and we all really had a great time!

Louis caught a grasshopper!

The boys and their cousins playing in the dirt...I can't tell you how much I love seeing them so happy to just be digging around...

Good old egg and spoon race...

My Dad and brother firing up the BBQ...

Yeah...Jayden has no pants on, the one thing I forgot to bring was a change of clothes for everyone! What was I thinking?

Love this tree...

Love sitting around a campfire...

Happy 3rd Birthday Jayden!  He wanted a "Jayden" cake so that was easy!

We finished the night off with sparklers and glow sticks...so much fun!

I didn't get any photo's, but we also toasted marshmallows in between chocolate wheat biscuits for our version of S'mores. 

It was such an amazing night and we all slept pretty well in the tents.  Up early the next morning for some eggs on toast for breakfast. 

Sometimes the simple things in life are truly the best!

Fathering Adventures Father-Son weekend

March 15-17th 2013

Michael and Louis's Father-Son Adventure weekend!

What an amazing weekend the boys had!  Louis was so excited to head off with his Dad for a fun weekend, just the two of them!  I packed them up and sent them on their way and only had the photo's and happy faces to look at upon their return.  Dylan is now super excited for his turn when he turns 7yo! 

Accommodation at Mill Valley Ranch

That's a tired boy posing, not an unhappy one! Lol...

Fishing...

Canoeing

Horseriding...

Archery

A magic moment between father and son that brought Louis to tears because "It was so special"...

The weekend was run by Fathering Adventures...here's a little info from their site:

‘Fathering Adventures’, founded by Darren Lewis back in July 2008, is an adventure-based organization, devoted to turning the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, as well as providing opportunities for men to initiate boys into young manhood, young men into authentic manhood, and bless & release girls / young women into authentic womanhood.

Darren and his wife have devoted their lives to helping families and I strongly support the work that they are doing.   They are amazing people! 

They not only run Father-son adventures but also Father-daughter weekends as well. The weekends are held for ages 7-13, while the 4 and 5 day adventures are from 13-70! 

They are held in QLD, NSW and now in Victoria, but check the website for current dates and availability. 

First days of school and kinder!

What a huge beginning of 2013 with all 4 of my boys attending school or kinder!  It was a staggered start for them all but quick enough to have me wondering where all the years have gone. 

Louis is in Grade 2 this year with a new male teacher.  He was super excited especially as most of his classmates are the same as last year.  He is actually enjoying having a more strict teacher and I think it's come at a really great time now that he's a little older.  He is reading chapter books almost every night and other than that doesn't have any other homework to complete which is nice.  He seems to have a really great little group of friends that he likes to hang out with.  They have a system at the school where  you get your name on the board if you're misbehaving or have done something you shouldn't and if that happens 3 times you get the "red folder".  I believe that means a note home to the kids parents and a "detention" at lunchtime.  The boys know that if they stay out of trouble we'll have a trip to the movies as a reward at the end of term.   

A day later Dylan has his first ever day of Prep!!!  He was so excited but also quite nervous.  He has the nicest teacher and is just thriving at school.  He is reading so well and just absolutely trying his best at everything.  His artwork is so great to see also.   He's really giving everything a go and has such a great attitude.  I'm just so proud of him!!

We even made the cover of the local newspaper!!

On to Ethan...this big boy was so excited to start 4yo kinder!  He is absolutely loving it and has really bonded with his teacher.  He's enjoying trying out the arts and crafts and loves playing outside.  (I have always struggled getting them into art and craft so when they have a go I'm so pleased!) He's always looking forward to his kinder days but I'm so glad that I have him home with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays!  They increased the hours this year so he is at kinder Monday and Wednesday 8.45-2.45pm and then Friday 8.45-11.45am.  

Last but not least is my little Jayden.  He's attending a 3yo kinder session on Fridays the same time as Ethan's kinder.  He's not quite 3 yet so I've been staying with him for the session as I'm not allowed to leave him while he's still 2.  This also means that he'll be attending 3yo kinder again next year as I'd rather him be a little older when he starts school.  He has a great teacher who is such fun with the kids. It's taken a couple of weeks for him to start to feel more comfortable there and warm up but I'm sure he'll be fine.  He loves the whole concept of it  (which is mostly because he doesn't want to miss out on all the fun his brothers are having)...  

So that's it...all 4 boys at school or kinder.  It's funny, I've had a few people ask what I'm going to do with all of my "free time".  All my free time consists of 1 x 3 hour block in which I'll be mostly volunteering for kinder duty and hopefully also be able to help out at the school.  So, no real free time this year although that suits me just fine.  My free time will come around soon enough, for now I'm going to enjoy each minute I get to spend with my little boys...

Bits and Pieces... February part 2

Bits and Pieces part 2...

Now while this may look like the kids were getting artistic, I'm willing to admit it was my drawing! Lol...my artistic abilities are severely limited! The point was though, that the boys all loved it, and of course I had to be proud of my effort because that's what it's all about right? Yep, it even got to go on the fridge! 

Home made pizza...I've finally mastered the art of pizza dough.  So easy to make and doesn't have all the nasties added to store bought pizza bases.  I added tomato sauce/paste, mixed herbs, slices of pumpkin, olives, spinach leaves and cheese! Delicious!

More Kinder duty! Dylan had the day off school (his school has the Wednesdays off for the first month) so he enjoyed visiting his old teachers. 

Is there any better place to be than on your Dad's shoulders?  We all trekked into school for assembly on a Friday afternoon to watch Dylan perform on stage with his class.  We were so proud seeing him so happy up there in front of everyone! I love that excitement on their faces when they see their parents in the crowd watching them.  It sure makes them feel special!

While tennis lessons only last for 1 hour on a Saturday morning, and there are playgrounds, the boys looked like this a lot of the time.  They really struggled to head out after a busy week at school and kinder.  Sleepy boys.  Tennis has finished now, so they're back to lazy Saturdays...

Speaking of sleepy.  This was Dylan in the morning before school.  Yes he's naked, not unusual for the boys in this house although we're trying to discourage him more now that he's a bit older!

Bits and pieces...February part 1

I've got a few catch up posts for February.  I figure I better get them up now before I forget!

Gorgeous cake for my 2nd cousins' baby shower!

I had a great weekend in early Feb when I headed down to my 2nd cousin Stacey's baby shower.  She looked fantastic and it was great to catch up with family.  Seriously, how cute is that cake?

Later that evening Mum and I headed to the movies to see Silver Linings Playbook.  I loved it! 



Off to the dentist...

Poor Louis had to have a little work done on one of his teeth...he also had a coating put over his teeth as unfortunately he has his fathers chalky teeth.  Apparently there's nothing we can do about it except regularly check on them.  He has an increased risk of his teeth just chipping or breaking though.  This is also why I'm already starting to save for dental work for when they're older!  Michael has teeth that just chip and die, and mine are crooked but strong.  Hmmm...would it be too much to ask for them to have my strength and Michael's straightness?  Lol...

Playground fun!

Epic lunch packing...

So, I try and make lunches of an evening to save the rushing around in the morning.   This doesn't always happen, but it really does help.  On this particular night I was making lunch for all 6 of us - Michael for work, Louis and Dylan for school, Ethan for Kinder, and then Jayden and I had kinder duty and were heading straight to Dylan's excursion afterwards.  I really didn't want to stop and buy anything and I definitely didn't want hungry kids. It pretty much all got eaten as well except for a an apple and a cookie.  Crazy amount of food though! Lol...

 



Dylan had an excursion with school to Mirimbah at the base of Mt Buller with his grade 5 buddy.  They had to build boats to sail down the river and it was great to see the kids working together to create some pretty unique boats.  It was a gorgeous day and I was so glad to be able to make it!

Louis has been taking some tennis lessons over summer.  He was pretty proud of himself to win the trophy for best effort that week.  This is a great initiative for the kids and they get to take it home for a week and then it gets passed on the next lesson.   We're not too worried about our boys excelling in sports at such a young age, our focus is more that they try new things and have a go.  There's so much in life to experience I would actually not encourage them to focus squarely on one thing while they're so little. 

'

Speaking of trying new things, we took the boys for a bike ride over the bridge where it's all concrete.  Dylan can ride really well now, although he still has training wheels on.  We're trying to get him to try without them now as he's pretty confident.  Louis is learning how to ride without training wheels but is really fearful of it.  Who would have thought with 4 boys they would have such resistance to riding bikes?  I thought it would be the first thing they learnt, but they'll get there when they're ready!