Enter Detective Peter

Yes indeed, enter Detective Peter. The Little Man is now on the hunt constantly and particularly looking for things that his dastardly brother is doing wrong. Then he runs (or sneaks) to me and tells me about it. Hmmmm.... not quite right Detective!

This morning Detective Peter came to me about The Big Man playing his iPod instead of being in the shower. Hmmm... "I'm so surprised he didn't hear my footprints Mum!"

The Transistor Radio

I thought I had it all sussed. I had confiscated the iPod, the MP3 player, and something else (cant remember) I thought it would be fine. He cannot entertain himself in there unless he plays with his lego or such. Imagine my surprise when I go into his room after school drop off and find his transistor radio all tucked up in bed. His old Pa gave it to him for a birthday or something and even though the aerial is broken,  he just loves it... So very cute, this little man.

Faeries purses

When I was a little girl I always thought that these dear little heart shaped seed pods were actually faerie purses... I thought that the faeries picked one from the bush and used the seeds inside as money. I haven't seen any of them for years and years, and then this little one popped up amongst my strawberries.

Another visitor!

Here is Kevin. Kevin Kookaburra. He has become a recent visitor since he has realised that there are 35+ rats in these here cages he is sitting on... He also has his eye on the baby chicken cage just across the way behind him... He fills in his day looking in the cages perched on top. I guess he is trying to figure out how he can get to them... At the moment 30 of the 35 are still peanut and brazil nut size, imagine what he will do when they all start running around in there ten to the dozen.. which they do actually. It is so funny to watch, in every batch there is always a crazy dude who tears around running on the walls, fighting with the others, setting the place on fire... Anyway, good luck Kevin, but I need to to remind you that these little ratskis are Juliet's dinner not yours!

Every so often

a lady needs some flowers.

Sometimes I get the occasional bloom plucked from a nearby garden... tsk tsk... Other times I get huge branches of "It was wild mum!" bouganvillea to decorate my entire wall with... and other times it is just nice to spend half an hour in a beautiful florist shop, admiring and smelling and touching and deciding what it is that I would like today. This is where I go mostly, but their website is not nearly so beautiful as the shop... they really should do something about that...

Invariably, someone will ask... "Oh, who gave you flowers?" like it might be something exciting that they missed out on.

"ME!" I proudly say. I bought them for me.

I spy with my little eye

My vegie garden has made a comeback. I just woke up one morning and thought "That's it! It's time to get a growin'.!

I planted lettuce, rainbow chard, rocket, basil, mint, comfrey (for the chooks apparently), tomatoes, pumpkin, paper daisies (for the boys... we have been seeing them around lately and they are fascinated with them), thyme, beans, parsley, zucchinis and strawberries.

The lettuce, chard and rocket have been feeding us for about 2 months now, even with the odd bunch or two going to friends. There is nothing quite so wonderful as being able to share the bounty from your harvest! Sounds so lame... but I love it. 

The tomatoes are growing taller and taller and are just flowering up now. Once random little one that came up from last year in my basil pot is sporting lovely red fruit already. Every time I see them still there I am amazed that the little men haven't come along and gobbled them up, nothing like a tomato warm from the sun. They just taste different that way.

The paper daisies tried ever so hard to pop their heads up to the sun, but the enormous pumpkin leaves got in the way. They stand about a metre tall and are huge, bigger than dinner plates. I have never seen a pumpkin like it, but thought I would persist... mini pumpkins... 

Unfortunately every pumpkin that I picked had rotted through and fell apart in my hands... so disappointing. I had visions of baking them whole stuffed with yummy things like pine nuts and ricotta. So, the decision is made – Out come the pumpkins on the weekend and in go some peas. I have been pondering whether or not to try broad beans... a good crop would fill the freezer and the boys do so love to peel those thick thick skins off... Personally they remind me of big cattle ticks... but the inside so yummy and green...

When mum is out

What do baby chickens do when Mother is out?

Oh yes, hey escape the box they are in, causing her to have a heart attack when she comes home to find them missing. But not for long... chirruping like mad, I found them...

A visitor...

The other day the dogs were barking madly out the front. I yelled to make them stop, but it didn't work. They kept at it until finally I went out to see what the trouble was. This fellow... (can you see him, right down the bottom there, clinging on for dear life...)

had been travelling alone the ground, they had spotted him and decided to take a sniff. Of course once he retreated into his little caravan, they wanted him to come back out! I think I arrived at just the right time as they were starting to paw his beautiful house.

I ran to get my camera... I have never seen one this big... he is huge!

Camp

The smile is bigger than big. Trying to contain The Little Man and his excitement last night and this morning has proved a task too big for me. I have decided to just let it run its course. And... of course it is all coming to a head as The Big Man and The Little Man connect (as I write I can hear "No. This is a good shirt!""Oh yeah, well this is is a good wall!" All I have to do is endure another 15 minutes and then we can go to school and wait there with the other 100+ excited children. Heaven help the teachers!

But in all honesty he is SO EXCITED. It is his first camp. And after the fiasco of his FIRST birthday party, the prospect of this FIRST camp is too much for him. Please let him get to Wednesday afternoon with no accidents, no major friendship bust ups and just a little sleep!

The Present

Note to self: Boats like this can be quite noisy at 6am in the morning.

And, welcome to the family Enad and Retrop. Those of you who know us will surely be able to work out how these particular names were chosen... the story of Esio Trot should help you.

The party!

I am not much of a party or cake kind of person. A birthday is just another day really. which is quite horrible when it comes to children. I should be celebrating their years in a wonderful motherly way... tsk tsk... I will not say it out loud, but perhaps I am one of those bad mothers...?

Anyway, thought I would do the right thing, and on his 10th birthday, give him a party with 10 boys... that seems apt. Great idea Mum... Could have left it at that... yep... could have, but didn't. I turned it into a sleepover!

Uh huh! A sleepover!

(Shh... it was actually easy. The boys whom I invited were all gorgeous boys who knew their manners and it was a breeze.... kinda..)

Anyway. The plan was to all go to the local pool for a splash, enjoy the blow up slide and then settle down with a picnic dinner to watch an outdoor movie. Doesn't that sound great? I know, and the adults I had enlisted brought dip and bickies and brie and I think a bottle of red may even have been smuggled in later (not that we ever got to it...)

The children had a wonderful time, they were all blue around the nose and mouth, shivering like no tomorrow (they must have really ached the next day from all that shivering, I know I would have!). I did a final head count and sent them off to have a hot shower before joining us on the mat for a roll-up and drink, chippies, lollies all that good stuff.

Everyone was sorting out "I don't have drink yet! Mum? Jack needs a popper! I don't like this, you can have it... etc etc etc" when all of a sudden

OMG! It is all a blur after that for about 5 minutes... there was noise and people and moving and "OW!" and "OUCH" until finally the boys emerged one by one nursing their bumps and grazes, until... someone told me The Little Man was hurt. 

Mother Mode kicked in so fast! Poor Little Man... come to Mama, and then the blood started to flow and flow and flow... 

Long long story short... thankfully only My Little Man was hurt, none of the other 9 were seriously injured. There was much hysteria for a while, and then the excitement kicked in. My lovely adult helpers packed up that picnic site in lightning speed, ferried them all back to my place, fed them up, chipped them, lollied them, and plonked them in front a movie... what a godsend they were. I can never thank them enough.

And the result of it all... 7 stitches. Nasty nasty nasty. But he was sooooo incredibly brave and level headed the whole time... in fact kept reassuring me that it was ok. What a darling little man. His brother was quite concerned too which was nice to see. (But not so concerned that he couldn't hoover down a free hot chocolate and sausage sizzle!)

The cake was cut at 10.10pm, with 10 candles and 10 boys gathered around. They all thought that was soooo amazing! 10.10pm! What are the chances?! 

I really wanted to just say "Hey fellas, actually... more amazing is what are the chances of a whopping big branch falling on you at the first birthday party you ever had!?"

All good now. He's a star at school. He's a star at home and he is double digits now! What a Man!

It's all about me today!!!!

It is The Little Man's birthday today. He is 10 years old. Cannot believe that 10 years have passed. He is such a beautiful boy.  He is running around the house singing very loudly:

Then just in case the neighbours did not hear, he opened the door near their house and yelled it again!

He is soooo excited. It has been such a build up for him... well... kind of. Let me see if I can recall it all... (like I could forget!!)

Eggs

Only My Little Man would appreciate the aroma of a curried egg sandwich!

This morning he said to me as he put it in his school bag: "I just love having egg sandwiches! Every time I go near my bag I can smell that beautiful egg smell! I love it!"

The Big Man looked on in distaste as he gingerly put his lunch bag into his school bag, knowing that he will probably be taunted all day by his mates...