Mayhem Chez Pirates!

An eventful few days were had at Pirate HQ whilst R was away in Melbourne playing golf, staying at a glamorous hotel and dining at establishments like Gordon Ramsay's new restaurant. He had lobster and apparently it was outstanding, can you tell I am a teeny bit jealous...

Incident 1.  The Snake

The Captain announced calmly to me from the french doors that lead out into the garden, "Mummy, there is a snake in the garden"  the calmness of this statement threw me and I ignored him!  In my defence, I was thinking to myself that it must be a stick he is looking at.  A second, more urgent sounding "Mummy, there is a snake in the garden" got my attention though and I got up to have a look.

"Get inside the house and shut all the doors and windows!" I screeched, grabbing the phone to call husband and seek his advice on what to do.  Of course he was in Melbourne playing golf.  Admittedly and in his defence, it was a charity match raising money for Ronald McDonald House, however at that point in time I was outraged that he was not at my beck and call.  He suggested I ring WIRES.  They were very helpful and identified the snake as a non-venomous tree snake!  Phew! 

Incident 2. The demise of the Dishwasher

Out of frustration and to punish husband for his neglectful absence in my time of need I went and bought myself a shiny new Miele dishwasher and to go with it a lovely new Miele oven.  Well, it was on special and that never happens with Miele.  Plus, our stove top is Miele, so now everything matches and looks lovely!


Incident 3. The Power Failure

Tree-loppers across the road  in their attempt to remove some Bangalow Palms managed to accidentally knock down a giant Strezlitzia straight onto the power lines! No power for hours, this was merely inconvenient compared to incident 4 though.

Incident 4.  The Wardrobe Malfunction

I left the house at half-past eight and dropped the Captain off at pre-school.  Then with the baby went to do the shopping, pottered around Spotlight buying party items, had a coffee and some lunch and then visited several of my favourite junk shops.  During the course of the day I chatted with numerous people, but it was not until half-past two when I went to collect the Captain from school, that one of the other lovely Mums sidled up to me and whispered in my ear, "Emma, your dress is on inside out!" I was mortified! I have decided to blame R for this incident. If he had been at home he might have perhaps noticed such a significant wardrobe malfunction.  Also I might not have been so  distracted (see incidents one, two and three). 

Thankfully, throughout the mayhem, my two little pirates were angels... thank you boys! 

 P.S. I love my new oven and dishwasher and it made walking around the northern beaches with my frock on inside out all better, admittedly some rather extravagant retail therapy though!

Pirate Party - Preparations Continue.

Preparations for the Pirate Party this weekend are well and truly underway now.   So far we have made the treasure map,  as you can see the Captain got into the spirit of things:

The clues for the treasure map are stored inside these little pouches I found at a $2 shop.  The sword is the final clue and is the weapon to "open" the Treasure Chest pinata:

Filling the pinata full of "pieces of eight" (chocolate coins):

Making the pinata shell, hopefully when it is finished it will loosely resemble a Treasure Chest:

I am making 21 of these newspaper swords, see Alphamom for the tutorial: 

The Captain's hearty approval:

Lastly I chopped up the sun-shade umbrella to begin converting the outdoor table into a pirate ship.  Do you think my husband will be cross?  As he has been in Melbourne, gallivanting about and wining and dining with friends and I have been at home, alone with two children.  Left to deal with amongst other day to day things, a rogue snake (eeek!) and a broken dishwasher (gah!), he had better not say anything:

More on the rogue snake and other recent domestic issues tomorrow!

Have a nice day then!

Conversation with the little one at 7pm last night, moments before bedtime:

LO: I am going out.

Me: (grabbing camera off kitchen bench to fire off a few snaps quickly) Where are you going darling?

LO: (Smiling beatifically for camera) To work.

Me: Really?  Are you sure you should wear the bunny ears to work?

LO: Yes, dadda always wears bunny ears to work.

Me: (Laughing, all other photos now blurry)  Does he now?  I must have a word with your father about that then!

Embracing thrift with cute cowboys!

As I have two boys, my intention has always been to buy good quality clothes for Boy One and then hopefully pass some of his wardrobe onto Boy Two.  Boy One though has turned out to be extremely active and enjoys playing in the dirt, trees, sandpit and other typical boy joy places.  Most clothing has survived the mud and the dirt very well.  Seed, Country Road, Gap and Old Navy are definite favourites.  However, almost all of Boy One's pants have suffered in the knee area.  It seems so wasteful to throw out a pair of trousers just because the knees have worn through, so in the spirit of thrift and with noble thoughts regarding the environment, I asked my lovely Mum if she could sew some knee patches for me.  I am so pleased with the end result that I am blogging about it!

I knew that if I was to be happy with the patches that the fabric had to be cute.  So after quizzing a clever pre-school Mum (Thank you Susan!) I found some gorgeous cowboy fabric at a nearby quilting shop.  A fat quarter of cowboy fabric cost a few dollars and if you think about the cost of buying a new pair of decent pants, a few dollars is nothing. 

The patches were stitched on by hand, with some additional fabric stitched onto the inside leg of the jeans (basically behind the patches), in order to meet boy play standards.  This will come in handy as Boy Two is following in Boy One's gumboots and is equally as fascinated with mud, dirt and general outdoor mischief.  

Perfect play clothes for the little one! Thanks Grandma!!!

The Gruffalo

This morning I took the pirates to see the stage production of The Gruffalo.  The Captain, who can almost recite The Gruffalo in it's entirety, just loved it and the baby watched wide eyed and adored roaring when the "mouse" requested that the children in the audience roar!  To anyone who is unfamiliar with the books and has young children, I highly recommend all of Julia Donaldson's books but in particular The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child.  Written in rhyme, the story will appeal to most children and is so clever that I actually don't mind reading it over and over again!

Berrima

I met up with my parents for lunch today in Berrima, a lovely little town a few hours south of Sydney in the Southern Highlands.  They have very kindly had The Captain to stay for the last few days and so we met in Berrima so that they could return him to me!  I adore meeting up with them here as we can have a lovely lunch at one of the numerous cafes and then I can have a leisurely stroll through the many antique shops whilst they entertain the grandchildren in the park!  Today we had lunch at The Magpie Cafe on the verandah. 


The Captain dancing about with excitement on the verandah at the cafe, telling me all about the wonderful time he has had with Grandma and Grandpa:

Although it would have been just as lovely to eat outside on the pavement under the blosssoms, petals were drifting down with the slight breeze and filling the air with their delicious scent:

The highlands are in the midst of Tulip Time and there were half barrels full of tulips lining the streets:

Even the post office had tubs of flowers outside:

       This cat is a local identity.  He gracefully permitted me to photograph him outside his home:

A must in Berrima is a visit to Peppergreen's.  An absolute favourite of mine:

It is full of vintage kitchenalia:

Glassware:

Vintage linen:

Other collectibles:

Beautiful things:

There are several rooms full of collectibles and it truly is a feast for the eyes!

Thank you to my wonderful parents for having The Captain to stay!  He had a marvellous time and we had a lovely break!

It was far too quiet...

I was on the phone to my husband, discussing the necessity of my latest nursery order (as in garden nursery, yes it is a weakness.  Note to self:  think about making NYE resolution preventing future nursery purchases!)  Anyway, during the course of the phone call I suddenly noticed the absence of the little one.  Wandering through the house looking for him, I spotted this:

That would be a 2 kilo jar of sugar next to his feet.  I hastily said to my husband. "Um... I need to go.  Bye!"  I grabbed the camera, as I really regret not taking the photos of this child covered in permanent marker aged 3 months (didn't find it that funny at the time... unfortunately!).  Licking his lips:

Quickly shovelling in the last mouthful whilst Mummy snaps a few more photos:

Mwaaahhaaaahaaahaaaaaa!!!:

I recall saying some time ago that this child has a sweet tooth!

Addendum: all nursery purchases for CURRENT garden need to be completed by Christmas 2010

Pirate Party - the Invitations

So this is what I have spent my morning doing!  I copied a treasure map image I found through google images, faded it to make a background and then typed the invitation wording across the top. The font is blackadder.  Once printed, I cut out the invitation and dunked it in a baking tray of very strong tea.  Singed the edges with a lighter and lastly, tied with twine!

I think I will have to hand deliver them!

The Captain and his imagination.

The Captain has always had an extraordinary imagination.  Mostly we have encouraged it.  (We did get a bit fed up with Pup and Dink though!)  I was doing the shopping a couple of days ago. Kids in the trolley. The Captain was in the main basket sitting facing the front and pretending to drive the trolley. He was steering an imaginary wheel, braking and grinding through the gears to his hearts content. I pulled up at the Bakery to pick up some bread and a little boy appproached about the same age as the Captain.  With a withering glance, he scathingly said: "you're not driving."  The Captain's little shoulders slumped and he turned to look at me, confusion and hurt in his eyes.   I just felt and saw his spirit crushed.  The lioness protecting her cub roared!  Loudly I announced to the Captain to take no notice, an imagination is a wonderful thing, drive on.  He didn't do it again though. 


I have thought about this incident a lot over the past few days, then we visited a playground on the other side of town.  The Captain  befriended  a little boy that was a carbon copy of himself. Wavy dark hair and eyes. Both in green t-shirts and board shorts. Is that why they started playing? I don't know, but it didn't take long for them to start playing fire engines, explorers, dinosaur hunters... they had a fantastic time together! When it was time for Tom to leave his mum approached and commented that Tom struggled to find playmates as they often don't seem to understand imaginary play.   We swapped numbers and despite the hour long drive between our homes have organised to play again.  I guess when you find like minded people you snatch the moment. 

Is the lack of imaginary play amongst kids now the result of watching too much television or spending hours in front of computer games?   Love to hear what others think!

The new suit (well, new to the Captain).

The Captain found this suit at an op shop nearby yesterday.  He insisted on wearing it all day, despite the heat (about 25 degrees). Indeed, he is so enamoured with his new dress up outfit that he sat in the laundry in front of the washing machine this morning watching it get washed!   $2.50 well spent! 

This photo is the only time he was still enough whilst wearing it for me to take a photograph!  He alternated between being a mechanic, a pilot and as his dad and I pointed out to him... he really looked like he was all ready to set off down into the mines!  Whilst the new "suit" was in the machine he took a brief moment to come and ask me if I could "go online and find a matching one" for his brother to wear.  I didn't know whether to laugh or be alarmed that online is in his vocabulary!   

Bangkok!

I am feeling a bit in need of a holiday.  I don't know if it is because it is school holidays and I feel like I am supposed to be on holiday or if I am missing my old life a fraction.  In my former life I was a flight attendant, a job I absolutely loved! Plenty of opportunity for travel,  suprisingly generous rest time and holidays, plus the very unique bonus of an ever changing workplace and workforce.  I don't miss those carts at all or the occasional tedious passenger.  I do miss the people, the lifestyle and the travel though, in particular Bangkok!

I have a bit of a passion for Thailand, probably because I was born there and also because it is such a wonderful place to visit. 

Some of my favourite things about Bangkok include:

The unique gardens!

                                                     

                     

The Markets.  The photo above is of the Suan Luam Night Bazaar.  Lots of small shops and some fabulous outdoor restaurants.  Nothing like the notorious (and horrid) Patpong Market.  For daytime markets either travel out of town to the Damnoen Saduak (the floating market) and a must is the Chatuchak Weekend Market.  I have been going to Chatuchak since I was a little girl and am still in awe each visit. 

River life.  Never take a tuk tuk or a taxi if possible. Travel on the river taxi's.  It is the best way to see the city and so much faster and cheaper.  The average fare is less than a $1!  Bangkok is built along a river and is interlaced with canals so it really is a marvellous and scenic way to travel. 

Yes, Bangkok is grimy and corrupt but there is also a remarkable beauty in this unique and dynamic city if you look for it.  I am longing to return. 

Pirates, and a pool update.

I have always been fascinated by pirates, ever since I can remember. As a kid we used to go camping on remote islands off the coast of Malaysia and I can still remember my parents and the friends we often travelled with discussing what to do if we were attacked by pirates. We would travel out to the islands on rickety old wooden fishing boats and all the kids would be crowded around the bow, scouring the horizon, desperately hoping to spot an approaching pirate ship. We really had no idea of the the true dangers associated with a pirate attack! Now as an adult and the mother of two pirate obsessed boys I wonder who the pirates employed to do their PR and marketing? What is it about plunder, pillage and rape that is so glamourous? Is it simply the idea of the individual living outside of society's constraints? Seeking their fortune and sailing the seven seas? Hmmm, it does sound glamourous when you omit the villainous aspects!

Number 1 pirate attended a pirate party on the weekend and also celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept 19th if you fancy celebrating next year) at pre-school. He LOVED it! His birthday is approaching and he has asked to have a pirate party, of course!





Meanwhile, the swimming pool renovation continued. As the Captain was off at pre-school, the little one sat by the pool mesmerised:



Or if the tile cutting machine got too noisy, he relocated to the chatterbean:

The coping is now finished:

Tiling has begun:

Hopefully photos of us swimming in it to follow soon!