School Holidays

The boys have had a fabulous time...

The holidays started over Easter which we celebrated with their first "Egg hunt" in the garden. They literally raced around in their pyjamas shrieking...



We explored galleries...


To inspire us in the future...

and created elaborate duplo constructions (this one was called "Emergency Cool!")...

Wheely bugs! Fortunately we have a suprisingly hardy floating floor...

We visited the zoo and found out that Meerkats like the smell of rye cruskits, there were a dozen meerkats salivating on the other side of that wall...

Explored some marvellous playgrounds...



Made a necklace for Grandma's birthday (you can see it blowing in the wind), she wore it proudly while we ate lunch (at a rather smart cafe!)...

Rode our bikes...

and started potty training this one... (his idea not ours!)

All is well at pirate HQ!

Book worms - hurrah!

I adore books, I collect them, I read them voraciously (and have done since I was a little girl), I have even insisted that we investigate the local library options before any house purchases! So when I see the boys are starting to share a similar love of reading and books it makes me feel tremendously good!

It truly warms my heart to see them cuddled up together enjoying a book.

The boys and their favorite toys; Thomas the Tank Engine.

I thought a lot about toys and what I wanted to spend money on. My priorities were not so much about education (which seems to be the marketing byword for toys these days) but to keep plastic to a minimum, buy second-hand or vintage where possible, stick to quality, well-made and well-crafted toys and toys that were open ended (blocks, lego, paints, boxes, playdough). Mostly, I think our toy choices have been successful and our wooden Thomas would be one of the most beloved, both by us and the boys.

The Captain can spend up to two hours engineering complicated routes and elaborate disasters for his trains to cope with, including landslides of dirt as you can see above (I went inside to get a cup of tea...), sometimes he even has the tracks running from room to room.

It is hard to decide what he loves more, the hours spent setting it all up, the playing, (I really should say crashing) or the time he sometimes spends simply admiring?

Baby Pirate has a new identity... Cranky Cowboy!

My favourite sulky cowboy!

Baby Pirate is growing up so quickly I can hardly absorb the changes. He swims in the pool now unassisted. Well, with the bubble on but he does NOT like anyone to hold him or indeed hover around him. He adores playing with his big brother's Thomas trains and the vintage Little People toys. He is obsessed with his beloveds, "Witchard" (a lion soft toy) and "Beee-arrr" (a winnie the pooh bear). He is the polar opposite of N, who did not form an attachment to any soft toys or blankies, whereas H almost always has one of his beloveds in his arms 0r is dragging his blanket (a muslin wrap) around the house/garden/neighborhood with him. I am trying to confine the comfort items to the house, hence the sulky face in the above photos! He is eating us out of house and home and has a worrying sweet tooth! He loves going for walks around the neighborhood in the pram or sitting on the back of my bike in the toddler seat as we ride around the nearby lagoon/lake and wetlands. Every morning without fail he asks to go to the beach and looks so crestfallen if I say no. He has the most divine smile and has a full compliment of teeth,yes even the 2 year old molars! (Don't you know you are six months early stupid teeth?). He is already kicking a soccer ball around quite proficiently and is currently eyeing off the Captain's old balance bike. It won't be long before R starts grooming him to win the Tour de France.

Baby Pirate's Digs

Now for the little one's room, this is still a work in progress so please excuse the cowboy/nautical theme clash and the lack of toy storage. Not sure if I want to go down the expedit path again (see the Captain's room), but I am not a huge fan of toy boxes either. Off to google toy storage ideas now!

Pirates who would be Kings (of the wild things anyway).

When we went to pick up the trampoline that we, I mean Santa, gave the boys for Christmas they were handing out crowns as part of a Where the Wild Things Are promotion. There is endless scope for imaginary play with a crown and the boys have been having a wonderful time with them. Instead of seeing little Max's running about they remind me of Christopher Robin though. Totally adorable!

The Baby is saying so many words now, even some litte sentences. His first proper word (other than mumma/dadda) was "yucky" which came out of the cheeky monkey's mouth for the first time while we were on holiday in Palm Cove last year and has now been added to with "no no no no" and "mine mine mine" (that one is to be screeched), "Iwandis" and "Iwandat" (I would like this/that please dearest sweet Mummy), "cwacka (cracker), sausiges (his favorite), fishie (his second favorite), bisky (biscuit) and too many other words and little sentences to mention. Sadly, we are still waiting for please, thank you, I love you mummy etc. The Captains' first word was boat and was quickly followed with peese (please) and sankkuu (thank you) however this early promise has failed to produce a refined boy with lovely manners. I still have to remind him several hundred times a day to say please and thank you.