Angient Egypt meets lego

Last night Spike was inspired to build a lego pyramid so we did just that! He insisted we have a picture of a pyramid to base out building on which wasn't too hard since I've been stockpiling books about Ancient Egypt since before the pyramids were built. 

We built our pyramid and then decided we needed a Pharaoh and a burial party and a selection of goodies for the Pharaoh to take into the afterlife with him. 

Here you can see the Pharaoh's Eye of Horus Amulets, his precious jewels, his statues of Anubis, his throne, his canonic jars containing all his organs (they're the lego heads) and his torch.

The pyramid, burial party (complete with slaves who are ready to drink poison and serve the Pharaoh in the afterlife) and all the afterlife necessities. 

The Pyramid

So a fun time was had by all, and today we're going to print out some colouring in and prepare a paper pharaoh for burial since you just don't get tired of this stuff ....

How big is a whale and other important questions.

For some time now Spikee has been comparing how big thing are to how big a whale is. I decided it was time to actually show him how long whales are so after some quick googling we found measurements for bluewhales, hump back whales, orcas, whale sharks, great white sharks, and finally the humble dolphin. 

We wrote all our information down on a bit of paper and headed to the park with some chalk and a tape measure. We drew a chalk line to mark the place we started measuring from and then drew another line every 5 metres until we hit the 30m mark, and the length of a blue whale, then we added all the other animals to our line.

He was quite impressed by how big they are, even though he had believed they were bigger, and the rest of us were rather daunted by the length of a great white. I knew they were big at 6.5m, but looking at that distance made me even more certain that I love swimming in pools!

I'm reading the first Harry Potter book to Spikee and he's really loving it. He has traded in his Superman cape temporarily, in exchange for some Harry Potter glasses and a wand. We're going to see if we can find some material and sew him a cape. He loves dressing up so much, far more than Stylish ever did, and this week he is refusing to answer to any name but Harry (given we'd only just gotten used to calling him Superman it's presenting us with quite a challenge)

Stylish has finally decided to give Harry Potter a go, and has read The Philosopher's Stone in two days flat. She's starting The Chamber of Secrets tonight. I think that seeing the movie really piked her interest. We've seen all the movies together, but the final one really seemed to awaken something in her. When asked this morning if she preferred the movie or the book, she had to confess to thinking the book was better. 

Stylish has been so creative with her frog tanks lately. She really adores her frogs. I'm told there are 7 of them, two species. She's been finding all her ferns and mossy branches at the park down the road, and she found a heap of good stuff when we had our snow hunting picnic. 

She also has a scorpion that came home on some drift wood she found at the beach. The scorpion is quite fascinating, it's quite enjoying its' diet of cockroaches (stow aways from Sydney), and we all love seeing it grab hold of them and poison them - maybe we're sadists, or maybe we've just lived with a few too many cockroaches!

Adding to the family

Today we got some new furry friends for the kids. They really wanted something small and cuddly so we got them a guinea pig each. Spikee has called his "Atomic Betty Rat" and Stylish has called hers "Guiness" although owing to the beer reference she's thinking of renaming it when she thinks of a name.

Poor Spikee came off his bike at the park yestersay and has a HUGE bruise on his face, grazing and a cut the size of a 20c piece on the inside of his cheek. He's also got a badly grazed knee and a cut on his forehead from where the helmet hit the ground and quite frankly I'm very relieved he had it on. I was reading something not long ago about how helmets are no use. Well maybe they aren't in a collision with a car, but for falling off the bike when the dog wants your pink crocs .... they're ace. He would have cracked his skull without it, no question in my mind.

Stylish is very pleased about the guinea pigs, she's been hassling me to get rats for ages and I kept saying no because she used to let them run around the house, but now we have the pink croc chasing dog that's not really an option. The pet shop said the guinea pigs were skittish, but they look pretty tame to me, one in each lap as the kids watch a movie!

Angus is crawling all over the place, he has two teeth through and it threatening to get a new top one any day now. He is really miserable with the teething. He stands up on furniture now and is close to stepping around holding onto stuff. He is making all sorts of baby babble noises and is starting to wave. He loves it when we sit out in the garden and he can crawl around.

Yesterday we took advantage of a glorious Autumn day and drove down to Southport for a picnic. The kids ran up and down the beach finding shells and feathers. We also found dead squid like things that when you walk on them they ooze purple ink. That's why I assume they were like squid, they looked like seaweed other than that! We saw a starfish, and wallaby, penguin, crab and dog footprints which we're sure was edumacational for them. A has drilled holes through many of the shells and the kids are making necklaces out of them.

Frogs, for a change

Here is some art Stylish has done lately. She's doing a very large project at the moment, documenting lots of Australian frogs and drawing pics of them all. Can't wait to see the finished product!

She is so good at drawing frogs she just copies the picture, these are not tracings.

Blessingway!

Today I am 38w pregnant and my wonderful friends held a blessingway for me. I had the most beautiful day, and I feel like the way it truly blessed.

Here are a few pics.

Stylish decorating the belly in henna. We chose a design of the Egyptian Goddess Heket. She is the goddess of fertility and midwifery and she is a frog, so it had meaning to us both. She was a bit nervous about drawing the design on the day so she drew it in texta last night and then just went over it in henna today. She did such a beautiful job! The Eye of Horus is also included, this is a symbol of protection.

The finished product! I think it looks amazing. I'm such a lucky mama to have my precious eldest child draw such a fantastic design on my belly.

It didn't take Stylish long to locate the resident pets. It should come as no surprise to our viewers that the snake was her favourite ...

This is all the candles that will be lit by friends when I am in labour. Everyone brought one along as we lit them all together today.

Finally, an update with pics!

Lately Stylish has been feeling very creative, she drew this dragon, I love it!

Spikee has just taught himself to skip with a skipping rope, I must take some video of that with the new camera. But this is a photo of the jigsaw he is in love with - minus two pieces.

On a side note, we have decided to go ahead and take the lunge, the great migration will happen some time after the baby is born, probably in mid october. To celebrate and keep track of the journey I have started a new blog, hope to see you there some time!

Us In Antarctica

General happenings

We have a new camera, I should really work out how to upload some pics coz we have quite a few!

As I hit 8 months pregnant I flew down to inspect a house. I spent a relaxing 3 days without children! I really like the area we're looking at moving to. There is a small village within walking distance of the house, lots of parks, bush, and it's all within reasonable driving distance of Hobart. It'll be a massive change, but it'll all be worth it once I adjust. I suspect everyone else will adjust more easily than me.

So the move to Antarctica is all looking very promising, we have put in an offer on the house and been accepted, and are now waiting on finance but I don't see any problems arising there as we have a substantial deposit. The kids are very excited and have been choosing different colours almost daily, that they might be able to paint their rooms. Spikee wants a lilac room with turquoise trimmings today and Stylish wants similar but darker colours. I think we'll let her paint her own room, she's old enough (in fact she will be 12 on Saturday!).

Stylish has taken to drawing dragons, they look amazing! She's also getting quite good at computer drawings lately, I must work out how to upload them onto the blog. The rat has had 13 babies, she had 14 but one died. I got an excited phone call on my first day in Tassie, telling me of the delightful event.

Spikee is fast approaching 4, and still happily breastfeeding and anticipating the arrival of his new sibling any time in the next 6 weeks. He is really enjoying his duplo and building tall towers and arches and whatnot. He's enjoying lots of books at the moment, from hide and seek ones, to adventure ones where you have to work out puzzles to finish the story.

Cold Breakfast Not In Bed

Today is my birthday! Stylish wanted to make me breakfast in bed so she saved her pennies and went to the shop this morning to get a few things. Then she set about cooking up a storm, complete with sending Spikee into the bedroom where I was hiding in bed, to ask for my order.

It's interesting to see a child set free in the kitchen. She's seen me cook bacon and eggs a million times so I knew it wouldn't be too much of an issue. First she put the bacon and eggs on, at the same time, so the eggs were ready way to early, and the bacon wasn't as cooked as she was hoping, and then she burnt the toast. The tea was perfect.

She was very pleased with her efforts, and I was too, and when she asked me about it I was honest, but told her that I enjoyed it very much - and I did! It was a lovely, thoughtful present.

The kids both made me beautiful cards, Stylish's was naturally covered in frogs, and said that she loved me as much as a rabbit on fire (which seemed to giver her laughter convulsions!) and Spikee's was just colourful and Stylish wrote Happy Birthday Mum on it for him. He was very pleased with himself. He's been a bit baffled by all the celebrations lately, with it being Mother's day last Sunday and my birthday today. He's woken me up every morning this week by shouting HAPPY BERFDAY MUM!

What more could a mama want on her Birthday?

Merry Giftmas!

I can't believe xmas came around so fast, I guess being pregnant, and raising two children makes the time fly by faster than is conceivable!

We had a wonderful family feast with turkey, ham, pork, and chicken that was all free range! And plenty of salads, a potato salad, a green salad, and a pasta pesto salad made from home grown rocket and basil.

To top it off we had chocolate chunk and berry ice-cream made by Stylish. We put the ice cream in mini cones, dipped them in melted white chocolate and turned them upside down (so they'd look like xmas trees) and the kids decorated their with m+m's. The ice cream tasted like very cold chocolate mousse, it was really yummy!

Stylish spent the day making videos of everything on her new ipod, and Spikee is in love with his new ambulance toy - complete with sirens. Tonight we downloaded Pink albums for her while Spikee and I played his new dice game. The game is with the characters from the movie Cars, and instead of having numbers on the dice it has colours so it's perfect for him.

Today he got a pencil on a mini etch a sketch and began doing some writing. He did a couple of tidy and organised little scribbles in the way you write letters! Then showed us all his writing, there was no doubting what it was! I was about to take a photo of it when he had to wipe it off - darn it! I'll see if I can get him to do it again.

Two days ago we got some pet fish for Spikee and Stylish, and they're going really well. The tank looks amazing! We have a crocodile that's mouth opens and shuts and bubbles come out to aerate the tank, colourful green rocks, glowing eggs, and a weird sort of decoration that looks like ancient pillars with coral growing off them (Spikee chose that ....). It was an early giftmas present. Spikee is really enjoying the job of feeding them each morning and night and he talks to them and gives them updates on everything from the impending arrival of Santa to the fact that I stored some clean rocks for their tank on top of the fridge.

In two days we head off on our camping trip! We're spending two nights in a hotel on the way to Eden, and we'll stay in Eden for a week of fishing, swimming, and fun family times!!! We're so organised it's ridiculous. We've bought roof racks off eBay, and a camp kitchen and chairs and tables this year to add to our already impressive collection of "make camping luxurious" accessories.

Tomorrow I'm taking the kids to see Where The Wild Things Are while A packs the camping stuff and watches cricket whilst consuming beer. I can't wait! I can only imagine how excited the kids would be ...

artistic afternoon

First paintings

experienced painter

first painting!

the frog!