Aunty Teesh would like to share......

The three boys and I were out walking through Nathan's high school, Nudgee College, on Tuesday morning. Nath was pointing out places of interest when he pointed at a building and said, "That is where they do English".
Ben, who was holding my hand at that time, said to me, "That's where you live."
I tried to convince him that this was not my school and that I did not live there when he said, "That's where you live, Aunty Teesh. You live in English".
Priceless. Not bad for the a three year old to realise that I live in London, England.

Last one!

Matthew's Concert

Next it was off to Matthew's Kindy Concert. All three classes sang a few songs then it was into Matthew's classroom for his learning Journey (Basically where you check out his work since the last one!)

I think he might be having a good time!

Enthusiastically doing the actions and singing. It's hard for males!

Now for the video!

This is "Little Peter Rabbit" Check out the actions that go with the song!

Ben's Concert

It has been a full on day of Christmas Concerts! First up was Ben's Playschool One....

Singing little Peter Rabbit....with actions!

Party time! Fairy Bread anyone?

Ryan tucking in

Awwwww!

Jingle Bells.

Ben was VERY nervous about singing Jingle Bells because this morning he could only remember the first line!

Nice!

Chinese Night

A while ago Matthew and I had a discussion about eating utensils. He thought that knives, forks and spoons were the only utensils that people used to eat. As we were having the Dare family and the neighbours over for dinner that night we decided to have food that didn't require a knife and fork to eat it. We discussed all the different cultural foods we could have and decided on Asian. So we feasted on Sushi, fried rice and stir fry. Ben didn't have much luck!

Matthew tried hard.....

Ryan got it......

Poor Eli starved!

Cid is a pro!

So the Rickard went all multi cultural!

Happy Birthday Michelle and Paula

On the weekend we had a BBQ to celebrate Michelle (next door) and Paula's (across the road) birthdays. It was so much fun, we had kids running around the back yard laughing and playing. Cleon had requested I made insect cupcakes but as i was so pressed for time (and had been baking all weekend for a bake sale!) I only managed butterfly cakes. They were still beautiful!

Ryan and Ben really want to try one!

Happy Birthday Ladies!

Christmas Craft

This year I have made all of the children's teachers bon bons for Christmas. I learnt how to make the bon bons at a Stampin Up class that Cid dragged me to. The cards are all hand stamped and the bon bons are made of cardboard rolls.

Aren't they beautiful I filled them with Lint Choccies
And this is the mess I made whilst being beautifully creative!

Random Breath Testing

On Friday on our way to swimming lessons I drove through a RBT roadside thingy. The boys were so excited to see so many police cars and police men. As the officer said Hi I told him that he was making my boys day. He told me he could make it better! He then lent in the window and asked Matthew what his favourite Christmas Carol was. Matthew replied Jingle Bell Rock. The officer then said "Ok Madam can you please sing the first three lines of Jingle Bell rock into this unit!"

Santa's Christmas Workshop

Check out the look of concentration on Ryan's face every time he has to use his rhythm sticks! Hysterical!

Ryan's Christmas Concert

Friday was Ryan's Preschool Christmas Concert. The children have been rehearsing the songs for nearly as long as the decorations have been in the shops! So they were well and truly ready to perform!
The first song they sang was Skitt-a-ma-rink. An old favourite of Ryan's!

Then came singing in the rain. This is the elbows together part.....

Fa....La....Laaaaaaa!

This photo is from Ryan's and Matthews favourite Christmas song, Santa's Christmas Workshop. This is the toes are tapping part!

Rhythm sticks are tricky!

Jingle Bells!

In a one horse open sleigh....Hey!

Ryan presenting me with my Christmas gift

The beautiful portfolio of his years work!

The Invisible Man has friends!

Called the Magic Man and Mr Cool. These guys are permanently attached to one of my children at all times. They are however, interchangeable. For instance the Magic man was apparently hanging on to the back of Matthew's togs when he got out of the pool this afternoon. Ben saw him. Mr Cool was lying in bed with Nathan, Ben and myself yesterday. He was apparently in between Ben and Nathan.
Between the six of them they cause an awful amount of mischief!

Benny's world

Ben is a blokes bloke. When he is older his mates are going to be called Wazza and Shazza. People will probably call him Ricko. How do I know he will be like this? Because already at three he has taken to shortening peoples names. This means he now ONLY calls Matthew..........Maff! And Ryan is Ry and Barkley is Bark. And well he is a bit confused about Eli coz his name has already been shortened!

It's Here! It's Here!

The most anticipated thing in our house since October has been Christmas! So you can image the relief in our house when December 1st FINALLY rolled around!

Straightening out the branches
Singing Christmas Carols

Taking particular care to place each ornament in exactly the right place!

Dressing up for the occasion

Cheese

Guess who?

This is our miniature tree. This year I decided we would put the big tree in the formal lounge where it can be seen through the window and put a little kid friendly one in the family room so the kids can maul it and I wont stress!

We had to consult last years Christmas tree raising ceremony photos to see who had hung the star last year and we found out it was Matthew's turn to do the honours this year. He is still no quite tall enough but it wont be long apparently!

So Daddy helped!

Then it was off to calm to the children down for the next 24 days and reassure them that there is no way possible that Santa will come early. But I would advise them to be on their very, very best behaviour cos it might, maybe possibly, could happen if they were super, super, stupendously well behaved and treated their mother like a goddess for the next few weeks!!

We've got a 7 seater!

We have just bought a Holden Captiva. When we started looking we were just looking for something with 7 seats. Which is why the Captiva is now referred to as the 7 seater. Any SUV drives down the road now and there is a chorus from the back seat "There's a 7 seater!" Any way it is beautiful We currently have Ryan and Ben in the middle row and Matthew in the third row. (Yes we strongly advice the divide and conquer method for long car trips!) So after a few days of driving home from school via Gungahlin (not even remotely ON our way home from school) I suggested to Nath we take it for a proper spin. So we went fro a Sunday drive to Batemans Bay for fish and chips for lunch! It was a perfect day! For just having a stroll!

Or running around with no pants on, like maniacs!

And checking out the seaweed!

Not to mention fresh fish and chips!

We did take a photo of us infront of the new car at the beach but I am too fat in the picture so it wont be seeing the light of the internet!

Grumpy and Nana Bev

We were lucky to have a very brief visit from Grumpy and Nana. They had just enough time for a trip to Questacon. Which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Unfortunately Grumpy's brother and Nana Dawn are unwell. So they just popped down from Sydney for a quick catch up.

Barkley the 4th Rickard son!

What a photo doesn't capture is he actually jumps!

The Moster truck show

The Monster Trucks have been causing havoc in our back yard. One particular day the boys lined ALL of their cars (oh! and planes too) up end to end down the hill of our back yard. The monster trucks then set about demolishing them.............


And look how sweet and innocent my little boys are amid the destruction!

I wished I had actually been quick enough to catch a photo of the line of cars, it was so orderly and precise! Believe it or not!

Benjamin Dare

Nathan is currently in Ben's room helping him pack his bags so he can move in with Treb...... Tonight at dinner Ben was telling us that Treb has no hair (he doesn't!) It then moved on to "Treb is my best Dad!" (the logic is Eli is his best friend, Eli's Dad is Treb that makes Treb his best Dad!) I made all the appropriate noises about his Daddy being the best, all of which were rejected so I moved onto "Well Daddy has to be the best husband then".
Reply : "No its Treb!"
Daddy then left the room so I cued Ben up to tell his Dad that HE was the best. Upon Nathan's return Ben said "It's still Treb!"
So that is why Daddy is currently helping Ben pack his bags. I'm not going to tell Ben the Dares don't want him until he can sleep past 7am!

My little helper

Benny is apparently a great little helper at playschool. On Tuesday he helped the assistants sweep up. He helped pack up and then he followed the assistant into the kitchen and asked if he could help there. As the assistant was wiping up the dishes he said to her "I can help do that. I help my Mummy do that ALL the time!"
I have a dishwasher! No need to dry anything! And certainly never had anyone offer to help!

Mother of the year!

This morning I sent both of my school going children to school with no lunch! I packed their morning tea however there wasn't enough bread for both of their sandwiches so i had planned (at 7am this morning) to go via the bakery. At 9am however i had forgot. It wasn't until I went to make Ben lunch at 12 i realised i had forgotten!
I did make it to the bakery and then school in time for lunch. Thank Goodness. Imagine them saying "Excuse me Miss my Mummy has forgotten to feed me!"

Things

My friend Cid has lots of "things", so many that she has started a blog dedicated solely to her things. However she is not the only one with things. Her whole family have things. Her youngest son is Ben's very bestest friend in the whole wide world. And he has been so blessed to have two neurotic parents (who I love dearly!) so he received the gene two times over with no recessive anything! Like all good OCD children he checks his things list on a checklist. It really is very cute! Lucky for him Benny is his bestset friend because as they travel along in life if anyone gives Eli a hard time Ben is going to go for them. Probably tackle them like the bull at a gate that he is and ask questions after!
But this family aren't the only ones to have things. I too have one that she finds weird. Which must make it really weird!
I have issues with the cleanliness of clothes. Once a clow (clothes is plural which must make one garment a clow. Right? Just like the boys have looming. A car does brooming right so a lawn mower does looming. I now know where they get their reasoning from!) However,I digress! Once a clow has touched something that is dirty like a body it needs to be washed! Even if it only touches that body for five minutes. Cid asked me the other day what would happen if just one dirty clow touched a whole load of clean washing and the answer is it would be rewashed! The one dirty clow has now infected the whole load!
So what are your things? Come on I know you have some!

Unplugged

Yesterday was our first tv and computer free day. Some time last week I decided the boys were far to reliant on the computer and tv for their entertainment and felt the solution would be to have one day free of those things. So over dinner we discussed what day they thought would be the best to do it. And they decided Mondays. (In my opinion a great choice as we have school, swimming lessons for Ben, lunch with Cid and Eli and Auskick after school!) We dint talk about it again until yesterday when Matthew woke he came straight into our room to tell us it was Monday and we weren't allowed the tv or computer! I was so please he remembered! Even more so he was excited by the idea! And it went so well. Instead of computer games while I showered they watched me shower! (Ok there were some negatives!) Instead of having the tv on they cut out toy catalogues to do their wish list to Santa. (Ryan did one list for himself, one for Ben and one for Matthew and wrote their names on it with no assistance! I think he's genius!) Instead of fighting over screen time they played dress ups. Instead of any making a mess of the computer table they trashed the house including their bedrooms! But what is two little negatives when they got so many more positives!
They liked it so much Monday unplugged is here to stay in the Rickard Roost!

Benny IS NOT scared of Santa......

any more! Apparently!

When we walked into the mall in mid October and the Christmas decorations were up Ben informed me that he was no longer afraid of Santa as he is a big boy. This statement of fact was made after he exclaimed "Christmas is here!" A week later when we returned to the mall he came up with "It's still here!" It was after the realisation that Christmas was in fact here to stay for the next few months that he decided to no longer be afraid of Santa!

Last year I thought I was clever. I became a Santa tart and I took Ben to every Santa in Canberra and chose the one he had the greatest rapport with to have the annual family photo done. So five days before Christmas (giving me just enough time to get it done and posted to the grandparents! And leaving me exhausted from all the Santa tarting around town) we went to the favourite one and Benny was absolutely sure he wanted his photo taken with Santa we arrived at the mall to have the above, precious photo taken.

Apparently if you have it taken you bought it baby!

Miles Franklin Fete

Saturday night we attended the school Fete. Matthew was bursting in anticipation! And we had a great night. I couldn't walk two steps without having to stop to chat to someone (This pleased Nathan immensely!!!) The boys played with their friends. We tried all the stalls. The boys had a hot dog made for them by the teachers. I had Indian donated by a local restaurant. We all had snow cones. It was just a really pleasant evening.

Matthew and Ryan on the swing ride

Ryan really enjoyed the ride!

Benny didn't have his ride because he was too overawed by the fire truck. He didn't want to wait in the line for the ride because he wanted to go over to the truck. But as we wouldn't take him because the other two were waiting for their turns Ben couldn't concentrate on anything else until........he actually had a ride on the fire truck and got to put out a pretend fire with the hose and then he really wanted his turn on the swing ride! (Can anyone say one pointed focus?!)

But well done to the fete organisers it was a really great night and I have already told Nathan I plan to volunteer him for the BBQ next year!