Mmmmmm yummy!

Yep that is a mentos squished into his hair! How it got there.....I could guess!
I think he may have spat the mentos out and replaced it with his thumb which then left the other hand with a mentos in it.
Big dilemma.
Thumb sucking requires simultaneous hair twirling. Solution......twirl mentos into hair!

No Mummy I wasn't playing with the computer camera!

But Matthew I have proof!
But it wasn't me!
Ummmm yes it was!
I guess I should be pleased he wasn't picking his nose!

He is just hitting 'that' ugly stage....

Poor Matthew! With his missing two bottom teeth and this being the first of many, I have come to realise that it is going to be a long time before he goes back to being my good looking man! When you think about it he is going to have random teeth missing for the next few years. Then once he has grown all of his adult teeth he will hit puberty when he will be all ears, nose, hand and feet! (Just like his father!) So goodbye my good looking kid, I guess we will see you on the other side..... of puberty!

Ryan's Pool Party

Mr Universe himself! He is always the first out because he is cold! At home we call him Monty Burns because he looks just like the character from the Simpson's!

Treb. Tried to hide from the camera. Now look Treb, you are front and centre on the blog!

Another really attractive man! Colin and Lynne. Colin is demonstrating how to look you best in photos. Suck it in!

The ladies, Cleon, Michelle and Ang.

Run free Benny. This kids did not sit still for the whole 4 hours we were at the pool! Actually that is the story of his life!

Meka and Harry. Benny's playgroup and now playschool friends. (Cute photo!)

Ben and his breast (not a typo, he refers to his friends as breast friends!) friend Eli, cheers-ing.

Here come the action shots. Miss Meka climbing out.

Great action shot! Jasmin and Cid. We did get Cid in and she did win the Crunchie for putting her face in the water! Well done Cid!

The stunning Violette. She did make a gorgeous pool side ornament. I did however get her in and under by the end!

Kale. This kid is Ben's other half. They are both 3rd born, they both think they rule their roost and the universe. They both write cheques their bodies can't cash!

Daniel and Violette looking pretty!

Eli in action!

He jumped so high this time I missed his head.

Ryan's school buddy and swim buddy, Lilly in action.

Colin in action! How talented you are Colin!

Matthew on a rare occasion with his head out of the water!

Ben on a rare occasion with his head out of the water!

Ryan. Ditto!

Nathan swam a few laps with his adorning fans looking on. However he had a real thud to earth when the poolie asked who he was and Cleon answered "Brenton Rickard's brother!"

Daniel had a crack to see if he could beat him! Well, no he actually just wanted to do a few laps with him.

The cake! Ryan chose a Carlton Blues cake this year. Go the mighty Blues! Nanna and Poppy we saved you a piece! Its in the freezer for your next visit!

Happy birthday to you! Rye, Rye!

All that remained of a gorgeous day with family and friends!

Happy 5th Birthday Ryan!

Happy Birthday my gorgeous boy!

He woke up and appeared to forget it was his birthday! It wasn't until he walked into our room and Matthew showed him the bike he remembered!

He got a big boy bike. Unfortunately it wasn't the Nintendo DS he wanted but he forgot that as soon as he saw it! (isn't Matthew a poser! He gets that instant pose when a camera comes out from his father!)
This is the surprise he gets from opening his card!

The present from Benny.

The required monster truck. No Rickard boy can have any occasion without receiving one!

What is it??????

A Meccano set from Nanna and Grumpy. By far and away the favourite present!

Gelli Baff

A friend bought the boys some Gelli Baff because her boys had such a great time in it.

My boys tried it......

Matthew loved it. Ben was a bit unsure. Ryan HATED it!

And out they got. Well except for Matthew who loved it!

It fell out......

At 4.30AM! Matthew came running in this morning yelling "Mummy, Daddy my tooth fell out!" My response, seeing how Daddy wasn't even here was "Put it here and go back to bed!" However at a more respectable hour I was able to inspect the tooth and the gap it left and make all the appropriate noises. Then I got my revenge on Nathan when Matthew called him (early oclock!) to tell him the news. Poor Nath was so disappointed. First of all because he missed it and secondly because he didn't get to use the pliers!
Hey by the way don't you love the slant the other tooth has been left with! This might be a costly week!

So how much does the tooth fairy cough up with, anyway?

I'll need to know soon.......... He is like a shark. He has both big teeth already up. The little ones just haven't fallen out yet! Daddy reckons he is taking to them with the plies when he gets back from Adelaide.

Over my dead body!

Hide and Seek

This morning the boys were playing Hide and Seek. Benny was hiding himself where he stood by dropping to the floor in a ball. The minute "it" got to 10 he would spring up onto his feet screaming "I want to be found!"

Can you pick the Sheean?

OR

This one is for Nanna and Poppy Rickard!

This morning Daddy took the boys Mud Bog Racing through the front yard and onto the new driveway! (For those of you not in the know, Mud bog racing is a type of monster truck racing. It is more awesome than anything else because of the amount of mud involved!)

And for Poppy you no longer have to listen to me whinge about the dirt and dust in the back yard anymore!

Because it has washed away!

And an hour after this picture was taken there was an ever bigger pool of water at the bottom and mud rivers gushing down the hill!

Photographic Evidence

Matthew James Raymond Rickard LIKES vacuuming! Now it is here for all of eternity on the internet as proof. So if in years to come he tells me he hates vacuuming I shall be able to prove to him otherwise!

Look at meee!

Finally, after years of coaxing and then threatening we have finally taught Matthew to ride his bike. Up until very recently he couldn't even be connvinced to even get on his bike. So I went out and bought him some "protection" consisting of wrist, elbow and knee guards. After we wrapped him up like the Michelin Man he could be convinced to get on his bike but he didn't really like it. So early this year I decided to take the training wheels and pedals off all of the boys bikes and they could all learn together. Funnily enough faced with some brotherly competition (from Ben!) Matthew picked it up rather quickly and has become rather dedicated to bike riding!

Matthew was the first to have his pedals put back on

Ben was next only days later

Ryan has only just had his pedals put back on and isn't as confident as the others but he is slowly and steadily getting there!

Who thinks it won't be long til they are all lined up on the BMX track!


And the following is Nathan's contribution! Turn up the sound and enjoy!

I Love Canberra!

One of my favourite things to do in Canberra is walk up Mount Rogers. Well, favourite things might be stretching it as it is a punishing walk but once you have puffed your way to the top the walk around the top of the mountain is stunning! Not only are the views great but he people up there are so friendly. You can walk the streets of the suburbs and no one will make eye contact. However, up on the mountain everyone says G'day. Everyone is smiling. The thing that amazes me the most is that I would be the youngest walker by at least 20 years. And when I first started I was by far the slowest. On one of my first trips up in 2008 an elderly lady of I'd say around 60 ran up past me! (She was carrying her olden day discman!) Then on my first trip up this spring an old man over 60 walked up past me, stopped to have a chat, passed me again and beat me down the mountain!

However as I have been doing it quite regularly I have sped up a bit and not so many old people are beating me and I still have time to be able to enjoy the view!