More....

Working on the naughty or nice list!
Watching Grumpy do his V8 hot laps at Willowbank.

The boys with race driver grumpy

There he goes!

He had a ball!

Australia Zoo at 9.15 and around 30 degrees. We were ready to go home already!

The boys and an alligator

Sitting on a tortoise. It wasn't real!

Ryan feeding an elephant

The croc show

Us with the mascot. At around 43 degree he would have been melting. I know I was!

A Balinese statue thingy

My friend Nicole's 3 boys and mine. 6 under 6!

Ryan and my godson Lachlan. There is 20 days between them

The little bugger got me with the hose!

Armed and dangerous!

Poppy armed and dangerous! Check out his evil glare!

Stopping for a refill

Ryan squirting himself in the eye as only he could!

The boys in the pj's Cleon and Michelle brought them back from Kuala Lumpur

Poppy's baby seal is ready for swimming lessons

Matthew and his puppy and little guy (the Beijing Olympic mascots), Ryan and his puppy and tiger and little guy and Benny and his little guy and wait a minute there is a teddy in there that looks awfully like.....Poppy!

Nana and Poppy favourite part of their visits. They LOVE bring awake at 6am. Although Poppy finds it about hard to read the words in the books that early. He isn't sure why. Maybe try opening your eyes Poppy!

Random recent pictures

Pillow case races up the hallway. Apparently these are the activities you resort to one week before school goes back!
Matthew trying hard because he has to be the winner

Benny flashing his headlights at Questacon's mini Q

Waterplay at questacon

Ryan completely bewildered because his clowns head is on back to front and he cant figure out what is wrong!

Can you make out three boys dancing?

The excavator at Great Uncle Ross's Farm

Drivers seat of the dump truck at Great Uncle Ross's farm

The quad bike..... Uncle Ross's farm is a Rickard boys paradise!

The boat

Ryan on the quad

The trip home from QLD. So tired Matthew fell asleep still colouring in!

My gosh they are gorgeous when they are asleep!

Ryan refuses to go to sleep!

Ryan wearing the elf hat and ears (that were just made fro him to wear!) and the kilt towel Kata brought him back from Scotland

Matthew as Rudolf

Matching kilts from Scotland!

How cute is this kid?

Snow dancing

The children stayed inside this morning while I put the clothes on the line as it was too damned hot. Anyway half way through Benny comes running out yelling "We're having a dance party!" This entails them turning on our clock radio and jumping on my bed. Not my favourite activity for them but I thought it was keeping them out of trouble until I had finished. 10 minutes later Benny comes running out saying "We're having a snow party!" Well that rang alarm bells in my head! This is what a snow party looks like!

(its all of the toilet paper we had in the house)

I guess its better than a foam party!

Playschool

I caught up with Ryan's playschool teacher from last year today and her christmas gift last year was a cd of the years photos. They are gorgeous! And what a lovely gift! Here are the best of them. Upside down
Building in the sandpit

This is Ryan and his bestest friend in the whole wide world Ben. Unfortunately Ben wont be going to pre school with Ryan but we will still see him!

This is pure Ryan!

The highlight of Ryan life so far was milking this "cow"! He talks about it often and he was absolutely amazed by it! So was I and Julie's ingenuity in building a cow out of a climbing frame, glove and cardboard!

Blue Sky

On our recent holiday to Qld we were able to catch up with our old friend Kylie and Micheal and meet their son Ollie. Nathan and Micheal are old school buddies and we have managed to keep in contact over the years. Just over a year ago Kylie and Micheal moved to Melbourne (about a year after we had left!). Anyway Kylie is having troubles with the Melbourne skyline. Apparently no shade of grey makes her happy and only shades of grey are offered in Melbourne. Except for the most fleeting glimpses of blue! Kylie and I were talking recently and we were both surprised at how we struggled with the muggy heat. I did at that stage let her know that Canberra has gorgeous blue skies. Even in the height of winter when it is minus 8 degrees outside the sky is a gorgeous blue!

So the day after we arrived home and I was admiring the blue cloudless sky at roughly 27 degrees, I thought of Kylie and took this photo for her!

And to compare. Kylie this is a Canberra winter sky of around 1 degree!

So Kyles and Mick any thoughts about moving to Canberra? It is only a days drive away from Qld!

Preparation

My friend Hayley, who writes one of favourite blogs is currently 38 weeks pregnant with her 2nd daughter. Her blog lately is all about her preparations for her huge upcoming event. As I open her blog every morning I hold my breath just waiting to hear that she has had her eagerly anticipated arrival. I find it funny because in this house we are busily preparing for a huge event too. This event as so different but yet similar. We are both looking at something that is familiar yet unknown. Her event is labour and delivering another beautiful daughter. Our event is delivering our eldest some to his first day of big school!
Matthew is jumping out of his skin in eagerness and anticipation. I don't share his reaction! (Most of the time!) I am nervous that I have spent the last 5.4 months raising our son and being the biggest influence in his life. On Monday morning at 9am i am handing over the reins to someone I don't even know! As of Monday Miss whoever it shall be will spend more hours with my son than I will. And she wont be the only changing influence. There will be 21 random children that will become nearly more important than me. I guess I should just have faith in my abilities in being his mother so far and know that I have taught him right from wrong and that will help him on his journey.
But even that isn't my greatest worry. I am going to miss my son. I love having him near me. I enjoy (95% of the time!) his personality. 5 is a great age. Starting school is almost like, thanks mums you've all done a great job through the tough years we will have your children now that they are happy, lovely civilised people now!
But I know in my heart that Matthew is SOOOO ready for school. His mind works overtime trying to work out how things work (does that sound like his Daddy?!) He tries to read the road signs. He asks how you spell things. He can read letters on shops and then asks what it says. (Today's one was exit starts with an X. When i showed him the word "exit" and asked him if he thought it still started with an x, he corrected himself, which then started a huge discussion on ee and x sounds!) Another way i know Matthew is ready for school is he is now using his brain for evil rather than good. The last 2 weeks his behaviour had been awful and it is plain to see that he is bored and unstimulated. So take that Mum! You cant even keep up mentally now!
So on Monday I will be brave. And dress him in his uniform. Pack his bag. Give him the confidence to walk into his classroom by himself. Then i will walk away and consume as much chocolate as I can! I'm not worried about crying as he walks away. I will be fine and proud and happy. I will fall apart when I pick him up and realise just how much I missed him and how independent he is now. And he will wonder what all the fuss is about!
And Hayley, I hope your labour is not too far off and you have your husband to hold your hand and it is as pain free as possible. I cant wait to hear that your 2nd little girl has arrived!

a new kitchen

The Rickard's came down to visit in early January. And apparently these people cannot sit still for five minutes and enjoy a holiday! No, they decided it was a great time to put in half a new kitchen! Last January it was a new entertainment area! However as much as i worry that they will both have a heart attack from doing huge home improvement project when they are SUPPOSED to be on holidays, I am so thrilled to have beautiful new pantry cupboards and my fridge in my kitchen!

Taking the doors off

Knocking through the wall and getting rid of the lovely arch. Bye Bye 1970's!

Installing new gyprock wall pieces. Nathan made one mistake all week when he measured his gyprock not once but three times cut it, went to put it up and realised he had cut it 10cm too short!

One new wall

Plastering the cracks

The first pantry cupboard

Installing the over fridge cupboard

Tidying up

Ta da!!!

Nathan still has to do the kickboards and the roof cornices but it is looking really good. So thank you to the Nana and Poppy Rickard. I really love watching Poppy and Nathan working together. They do make a great team. And maybe soon, when the house has been completely renovated they will be able to come and have a holiday and relax and recuperate! (Yeah right, not with my kids!)