"Make and Do" a Pirate Ship

Inspired by the amazing Dawn Treaders that Lier of Ikat Bag made with her girls, (I found Lier via The Brothers Trimm), The Captain and I made a pirate ship. We carefully read all the tips and instructions provided by Lier and then sat d0wn with the glue gun and an old cardboard box.

I roughly sketched outlines onto the cardboard with a pencil and then cut them out. We glued all the bits together using a hot glue gun. (This was probably the highlight for Nicholas, he asked if he could have a glue gun for his birthday!).

We made the mast out of a kebab stick and a paddle pop stick. I cut the sharpish end of the stick off after we had used it to puncture holes through the cardboard and the sail.

He loves it. Tomorrow we shall add the helm, anchor and life boat. In the meantime, Captain Blunderbuss (The Captain's altarego), has taken some Little People and lego men as hostages.

Easter... oh to be at Depot Beach!

Easter always makes think of Depot Beach (well, after all the more obvious associations like religion and chocolate). My parents have a holiday house at Depot Beach and I have spent many wonderful easter holidays there. Sadly this Easter we are unable to visit as the house is undergoing some much needed renovations. Instead, I have been reminiscing about times spent there. Including our wedding:


R and I collected all the stone "nameplaces" from Pebbly Beach (Depot's neighbour) and then returned them after the wedding. The shells we used to tie the napkins were collected over the years, many of them from as far back as my childhood.

The two hanging flower arrangements were made by my beautiful mother and an extremely talented friend (Thanks Mark!). They used two old vintage lobster pots that we had found washed up on the beach and carefully arranged Singapore orchids inside them. Another gorgeous friend had flown in from Singaore that morning with the orchids (stored in flight in the champagne cart in first class!)

The rest of the flowers were simply purchased from the Flemington flower markets in Sydney that morning and then "arranged" (stuck at the last minute) in old jam jars, the same ones my Dad uses every year to make his famous homemade jams.

As you can tell from this photo, Depot Beach is very undeveloped, in fact it is in the middle of a national park. I wrote a very heartfelt letter to National Parks and Wildlife requesting permission to get married on the beach and I was so grateful when they approved our request for the marquee on the beach.

It was a magical wedding, Depot Beach is magic!

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?

The Mulch Mountain

Across the road from us, a house is undergoing a fairly major renovation. The boys have just adored all the associated activity. In particular, the diggers,trucks and cement mixers that have been roaring up and down their long driveway. Recently there have even been tree surgeons chopping down some absolutely enormous trees. Naturally, they are fascinated by all this and unfortunately are not content to observe from the house. Instead, I have to sit on the nature strip with them so that they can project manage the whole operation. With the tree surgeons came a mulching truck and once again they stood mesmerised as the workmen fed the trunks and branches into the mulcher and then they watched fascinated as the mulch streamed out into the truck. As we were watching all of this the workmen asked me if I would like some mulch. "Ooh yes please," I foolishly said. I seriously thought that they would give me the equivalent of a couple of bags worth or at the most a big wheelbarrow load.

Shortly afterwards we left to go to swimming lessons and upon our return I discovered that they had indeed left us some mulch. They had emptied the entire trucks worth onto our nature strip. As I stared in dismay at the mountain of mulch, the boys in stark contrast were delighted. They immediately mounted an expedition to the top with the kid from down the road. Hesitantly, I rang Ross (who rather inconveniently was on the Gold Coast working) and warned him that we had a little mulch problem on the nature strip. What do you mean there is a trucks worth of mulch on the nature strip, he exploded? After I had explained the whole story to him his instructions were to make a sign saying free mulch and then to ring everyone we know and ask them if they would like some mulch!

Two weeks later it is all gone! The sign worked. We literally had people stopping and filling up trailers, utes and even plastic buckets with mulch. I am so grateful to all our lovely neighbours. We actually have met almost everyone in the street now, thanks to our mountain of mulch!

Mulching the garden was actually suprisingly satisfying and inspired us to do lots of other much needed gardening. Even "Bill and Ben", my super-cute flower pot men got in on the act!

Nicasso's latest masterpiece!

Collecting The Captain on wednesday from pre-school he gleefully waves his latest painting at me. "Oh it's lovely darling," I dutifully say. "Yes Mummy," he says to me in his loud clear voice, "it is of you and Daddy drinking wine." All the other mothers nearby smother giggles and the teacher is practically in hysterics. "Don't worry" one Mum says kindly to me, "Alexander's first word was 'wine!'"

Note, the wine glasses in our hands (not bad for a 4 year old!) I can't believe that this is what he chose to paint us doing though! The little monkey! :

The Captain's Clash with a Filing Cabinet

This is what happens when you combine a kamikaze daredevil with an antique oak filing cabinet. Three stitches and a wound so deep that you could see bone. Every person in emergency gasped in horror when the triage nurse peeled the temporary bandage off his head on our arrival. Only the day before I had been admiring his smooth forehead and thinking how handsome he was...

This is what it looks like now that the stitches have been removed. Apologies for the clothes peg hair clip. In this male dominated family we naturally, have a hair clip shortage and my bobby pins were not up to the rigours of a 4 year old boy. Thus, I had to improvise with the clothes peg! Don't worry Captain, that scar will make you look more authentic when you play pirates now!

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.