Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Convalescing



 My big boy is sick.  I needed to wash his sheets so I relocated him to the back deck.  The natural healing properties of fresh air and sunshine must have helped.



He rallied and asked for some Tintin comics to read. Crossing my fingers and toes that the rest of us don't catch it!


Sunday, July 29, 2012

This child.....


The other day as I was quietly tapping away at the computer, writing the blog post about the sandpit boat I heard a commotion from the back deck.

"I am the King of the Superheroes!" he roared 


The Superhero King glances around to check if his legions of adoring fans are all ready and waiting to observe and witness his moment of glory.

 (Am just loving his underpants tucked into his t-shirt here, in almost perfect superhero form.  Although, technically they should probably be worn on the outside.)


... and then, OH MY!, he jumps.... 



Off the table and back on to the deck.

Love it! (Especially that look of intense concentration)

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The old boat sand pit or as it's being called on Pinterest, the sand box!


After writing the guest post for Carolyn I have received numerous emails asking about the boat sand pit/box.  The photo I posted of the boat is apparently very popular on Pinterest...



Before I even had children I had daydreamed about creating a play area that involved an old wooden boat.  As a child I adored many books that involved boats:

 "there is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats" (Ratty, The Wind in the Willows) or sailing to the end of the earth with Reepicheep and Prince Caspian in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (my favourite of all the Narnia series), or  playing pirates with the Walker and Blackett children in Swallows and Amazons and who wouldn't have wanted to run row away to The Secret Island?  One of Enid Blytons' first and possibly best books.

This early love stemming from children's books combined with my love for anything vintage and nautical and well, it is just simply something that I have always wanted to do.



So where did we get the boat from? Well, my aunt (technically my ex-aunt but she is still very much part of our family) and her husband live on the water.  Their garden is lovely green rolling lawns that wind down to a private sandy beach. After storms all sorts of debris washes up onto their little beach and they are then responsible for disposing of it. Often they find old tenders (or small row boats) washed up.  Naturally as soon as I wanted one there were none to be found.  However, the universe provided, one washed up on a nearby beach after a storm and remained unclaimed.  After waiting several weeks for an owner to materialise we nabbed it.  It was definitely not sea worthy anymore, so perfect to be re-purposed into a sand pit for my little pirates.  If you don't have access to a beach where boats might randomly wash up, try ebay and also the tip.  I have often seen old boats at our local tip, we do live near the sea though.




Do they play in it often?  In winter, yes.  In summer, not so much.  We have a pool though and in summer they spend a lot of time in the water.  In winter though they use it a lot.  Not just as a general sandpit for digging, trucks and the construction of elaborate waterways and dams. But also to play pirates and sailing around the world type imaginative games.







It is unique and I adore it.  I find the standard sanitised backyard play items available for children these days so boring.  An old boat, surrounded by sand, in a ring of old sandstone pavers truly is an enchanting and wondrous place for a child (or childlike grown ups!).

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Skiing Thredbo




We have just returned from a fabulous week away at the snow and on our second night it snowed!  The boys were beyond delighted as they ran around outside in their pjs/thermals.  We sort of half managed to get them dressed before they escaped outside and engaged themselves in a snowball fight.



We booked the boys into Thredboland every day and I highly recommend it.  The Captain has also attended ski school at Perisher but was a bit luke warm about it.  This year was his first time at Thredbo and it was the little one's first trip to the snow, previous trips he has been dropped off in Canberra to spend quality time with Grandma and Grandpa. Thredboland was fantastic.  They kept the boys together at our request and the instructors that they had for the week were brilliant.  Both boys started off skiing Friday Flat on the magic carpet and by the end of the week had achieved the Captain's ambition of moving up to skiing Merritt's.  R and I ran into them both with their instructor as they were in the line to get onto the Cruiser Chair and The Captain was proud as punch that he was skiing the same terrain that we were! Speaking of Merritt's if skiing Thredbo and looking for somewhere reasonable to eat lunch on the mountain I can definitely recommend Merritts Mountain House.  The food was fantastic, we especially loved the Austrian Goulash and the styling of the restaurant is seriously gorgeous!  There is the most amazing collection of enamelware on display and whoever styled it is another Sound of Music fan, there were references to the movie everywhere.  Every meal we ate there I was wishing I had brought the camera! The photo below is from their site and is just a glimpse of the great styling and vintage enamelware decorating the restaurant. 






Sadly, the days of apres-ski are well and truly over for us... instead we spent several afternoons at the Thredbo Leisure Centre.  The boys adored the waterside and there is a convenient row of chairs placed in front of it for parents and carers to observe their charges at play.  For older kids there is one of those inflatable obstacle courses which also looked great fun.



The baby looks tiny coming down the slide but he was by far it's biggest fan, we had to drag him out of the pool when it was time to go home for dinner:




I know many people are very dismissive of skiing in Australia.  The snow is fairly unreliable and the runs are relatively short if you have skied abroad.  Even so I believe that skiing in Australia is one of the most beautiful places in the world to ski. The snow gums and their myriad of colours dotting the edges of the runs are truly beautiful and nowhere else in the world will you be able to spot wombat footprints in the snow from the chairlift.   I don't think I have ever been disappointed in the experiences that I have had skiing the Australian resorts.   From the wonderful holidays I spent at Guthega and Thredbo as a child with school friends to the many ski trips that R and I went on before we had the boys and now to the wonderful memories we are creating at the snow with our own children.  

Friday, July 13, 2012

Why you shouldn't let your children play with your mobile phones.....




Two fairly significant reasons:

1.  You may end up with a mobile phone that looks like this:




or


2.  Your six year old might send a photo of your husband in his boxer shorts (and nothing else) to the CIO of your main client at 7 0'clock in the morning.... well, actually I found this pretty funny.  Needless to say but husband did not.


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Keeping it real.....


I read this post yesterday (another absolute favourite blog!) and laughed so much that it inspired me to go and investigate the contents of my own bag.  I was actually horrified when I emptied it out!!  My obsession with home organisation clearly has not translated to my handbag.  The shame.


1.  The bag itself, can I blame the bag for this, it is huge?
2. Sunglasses, (in a stolen case, EYEBIZ feel free to take this one up with boy number 2)


3. L'Occitane lip balm (gift from flight attendant friend, possibly also stolen from an inflight amenities pack....)
4. Bracelet and necklace (was wondering where this bracelet was actually)
5. Lego bits (x 17)
6.  Loose change ($4.70)
7. Rubbish/Receipts/Tissues (planning to dispose of all this appropriately....)
8. One sock (boys x-sml)
9. Ferry tickets and 1 x Ferry Timetable (all out of date so technically more rubbish)
10. Jewellery bag, contents missing..... (boy number 2 again?)
11. Eco-shopping bag (carried around 2673 times,  actually remembered to use: maybe twice?)
11. The other 11, the one in red. (Apparently I can't count... ) a plastic knight wielding a sword, minus his horse.
12.  First Aid Kit containing:

Transformers bandaids x 12
Rapaid Tea tree Oil first aid spray (this is actually very good, one of my desert island list thingys)
Stop Itch 
Nars lip gloss - Oasis (a first aid kit essential)
Revlon lip gloss - 160 (just in case)
Weleda Pomegranate hand cream (very soothing)
Chupa Chup lollipop (for genuine emergencies only)
Sewing Repair Kit (for fashion emergencies only)

13. Wipes
14. Tissues
15.  Purse

Underneath 14 and 15 is my notepad, contents include:
2 "To Do" lists (by me)
402 drawings (by the little one)


16.  Two pairs of "days of the week" (Sunday/Thursday) underpants (boys size sml)
17. Numerous paper bags, previously containing items purchased at the French Patisserie next to the Captain's art class.  Obviously, if I want to lose weight I am going to have to find him a new art school.
18. Two Matchbox cars and one Matchbox plane.



Lastly.... what I discovered once I had pulled everything out.  The offending pen is of course absent.  Not sure whether to call it art or google how to remove ball point pen from suede.

Hello to all my new followers as well! I will be along to visit you all soon.  Now go read Loosy's bag contents, seriously funny!  Emma xx




Monday, July 9, 2012

My first guest post!!!



A few months ago I was driving the Captain to a birthday party over in Killara.  Stopped at the lights I glanced at the car next to me and spotted a familiar face, a fellow blogger!  Will I?  Won't I? I was torn between saying hello and scared she would think I was a lunatic!  Gathering courage I wound down the window and called out "Carolyn?"  Yes, it was definitely her!  "I love your blog" I followed with!  Luckily, she laughed!  I don't think she thought I was a complete lunatic as soon after we met for a coffee and she even asked me to write a guest post!  Here it is over at Desire Empire!!!






Sunday, July 1, 2012

Best Birthday Party Ever - The Busytown Birthday Party


We have all been super sick here at Pirate HQ.  Three visits to the GP, two at home visits from the after hours Doctor and one little Pirate with a fever so high he started hallucinating, kind of sick.  Possibly the real flu our GP thinks.  Nevertheless, by Thursday evening we were given the all clear and so decided to go ahead and have The Best Birthday Party Ever! 


Thursday and Friday were thus spent whipping up all sorts of brightly coloured party food.  Remarkably almost all of it was made with natural colours!



I couldn't bring myself to bake the ubiquitous rainbow cake though, he got a basic butter cake with 100s and 1000s on top instead!


Felt Lowly Worms from Scarry's  Best Make It Book Ever he did get though! He adored them and sat watching me make them fascinated by the process. (They are super easy if any one is scared of giving it a go!)




The cup cake toppers I made using a scrap booking hole punch thing from Spotlight, double sided sticky tape, toothpicks and a dog-eared, scribbled all over copy of an old Scarry Golden Book.






We set up a play Busytown using the Thomas train tracks turned over to the road side and various wooden cars and trucks.  Running down the centre of the table we had the fold out Busytown Lift the Flap Book.



Party games included the great Goldbug scavenger hunt.  I gathered all the kids together and showed them how in Cars and Trucks and Things that Go there is a Goldbug hidden on every page.  Then explained that they had to go and find all the Goldbugs hidden in the garden.  

There was also the great sack race.....



     
                                                                  ..... which did end in tears....




Happy Birthday Mr 4!



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