Rock Band Hero

This video is large but so worth it! Now I'd like to introduce.........Bon Junior Jovi!!!!!!!

Now the lyrics are apparently:

Ohhhh Shot through the heart

And your to blame

You give love a bad name

I play what you want

and i play your game

You give love a bad name!

Movie Night

So Saturday night is now movie night. Last weekend we were joined by Cleon, Michelle, Lola and Eva.

I didn't think was supposed to happen until the teenage years!!!!!

I cancelled this week due to last weeks shenanigans!!! (Not the cuddles but because they didn't sleep in like they promised!) Cleon, Michelle, Lola and Eva want to know why they have to be punished too and why cant we send the naughty boys away so they can still have movie night!

Thats all a tooth is worth these days!

So Matthew's front tooth finally fell out. It has been so loose for days. Nathan has been wanting to pull it out with the pliers and I haven't been letting him. I wanted to tie it up with dental floss and slam the door shut. Nathan asked me if that was how I got my teeth pulled as a kid and when I replied with no but it was the way i always wanted them pulled he told me that it just doesn't happen in real life! I still refuse to believe that and think it is the coolest way to pull a tooth!

Anyway, i think for the next few weeks at least Big Bubba has come to live with us!

Yep he has just got one tooth right in the middle pointing forward about 45 degrees!

And is looking decidedly sharkey!

This is how the Mum's do it

Here in Canberra....

This is the get up required for a quick walk up Mount Rogers in winter. But this is the view to make it all worth while!

You cant really see it but there is snow on those there mountains!

Quality time

I awoke this afternoon (i have been struggling with migraines for the last few days) to the sounds of my boys cooking along to the sweet sounds of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. They made scones for afternoon tea.

The reason they made scones was because Matthew brought home a take home reader this week based on how to make scones.

And let me tell you they were delicious! But the dup dadadup da dup da dah's I had to listen to all afternoon not so sweet!

A birthday party at the zoo

Today Ryan went to Catherine's birthday party which was held at the Canberra Zoo.

He was a little bit excited because.......

He got to hold a turtle and........

A snake and......

Feed a white lion and....

feed a giraffe!

Needless to say... the best party ever!

Raising Boys

Growing up I always thought i would be a Mum to lots of girls. I came from a family of three girls and one boy. I know girls. I could picture myself with girls. I understand girls. I thought i would coach their netball team, teach them about hair and make up and boys. In a million years I never pictured myself doing this.............

Yep we took the boys rock climbing today. I thought seeing how they had been so sick on the holidays and we hadn't done any of the things I had planned we would do at least one fun thing. So we headed out into the freezing cold to climb some walls!


Matthew loved it. He could get about half way up. Here he is just hanging around as Nath lowers him back to the ground.

He was quite funny, he would go taring up the wall until he got to the same point and figured he was high enough and the fear would set in. We found that this over the shoulder look means one thing for all three boys.... I've had enough let me down!

Once again. The look!

Off he goes just like spiderman!

Having a really good time. Matthew would like to go back and have his birthday party there.

He got quite good at it. It's a pity Nathan and I don't have clones. We needed to anchor the boys climbing which meant that we couldn't climb which meant we couldn't show the boys how to do it. Next time we are taking more adults! We think if Matt had have had one of us on the wall beside him he could have made it to the top.

Ryan was quite keen but petrified! Notice the over the shoulder look!

They were all fans of just hanging around.

This was Rye's first attempt. Look at the terror on his face! Now look how far off the ground he is! Hysterical!

Again another look of terror! Yet he kept coming back for more!

Ben had done it before so he was keen to show his brothers how good he was!

But after a while all he wanted to do was hang around!

Ice skating rink

We awoke to one in our back yard. Matthew and Ben took advantage of it............

But as you can see the ice on the padding has made the padding brittle and as they jumped it all broke away. However it gave them hours of fun, slipping and skating. Nathan is thankful it is an enclose tramp because they were really getting themselves flying!

Mud

I recently made the comment recently, i think on facebook, that the boys were outside digging a hole to China but I wasn't going to stop them as they were outside, they were working together and they were quiet. So same deal for today however today they had a purpose............ they were trying to bury Ryan's bike in China!




I do believe they did have the bike standing up like it was in a bike rack but the wind blew it over before I could get there! BOYS!!!!

This is how we roll in the 'berra

......when it is winter. And you are driving Mum up the wall and you desperately need to burn off some energy. And the wii just isn't cutting it anymore. And even though the wind is howling, ice cold and your Mum is awfully worried outside isn't the best place for your health. Boys just need to play outside in the dirt and mud.

Box Construction

Boys don't do craft. They do playdoh and they do box construction which just happens to beone of their favourite holidays tasks. We have been so full of illness these holidays that we haven't left the house. So as the boys were driving me up the wall with their driving up the walls I decided it was time to bring out the big guns.
We got out the whole contents of the craft cupboard. The are pipe cleaner, sequins, googly eyes, corrugated card, glue, pop sticks, stickers......you name it the stuck it one their boxes.

And it gave me oh about a hours peace. Just enough time to tidy up one living area, move them into it so I can start tidying the other one and then repeat!

An Orchard of Sticks!

I love the idea of fruit trees. Nathan doesn't! Can everyone remember my post about the plum trees? And speaking of pruning we found out why our loquat tree has never fruited! It was because Nathan and his evil side kick, Poppy had been pruning it at the wrong time and cutting off all of the flowers and fruit! So anyway, Nathan was thrilled to spend the weekend picking out fruit trees with me! Although he finds their current appearance appealing!

This is our dwarf gala and pink lady apple tree.

This is our Granny Smith apple. I'm going to have a tough time getting the boys to wait long enough for the apples to ripen before they devour them! If we get them that is!

This is my lemon. And a cute puppy guarding the lemons! He thinks they are his! There are five tiny green lemons on this tree already!


This one is the one that receives the most love, it is my imperial mandarin tree. The boys will have to hold me back from eating the unripe fruit from this tree!

This is my raspberry bush.

This is a dwarf peach and nectarine tree. This will be another fav!

When you add in the plums, loquat and strawberries it brings our total to 11 different varieties of fruit! I am hoping that these trees will significantly reduce our fruit bill. It is crazy, how many normal people spend close to $30 on just green apples a fortnight!

Buying the new trees from the nursery was certainly an interesting experience. There were hundreds of trees planted in raised garden beds. I went to get a person to dig us one out and she told us there was no need. They are bare rooted trees, you just pull them out and put them in a garbage bag! It felt a bit weird pulling out a tree from the ground and taking it home! (Although I would imagine it was very similar to the time Ben pulled my Magnolia out under the close supervision of Daddy and Poppy!) The boys on the other hand hand no issues what so ever! Ben was quite expert!

The old lady who lived in a shoe

...she had so many children she didn't know what to do. Remember that old nursery rhyme? Well this term at playschool Ben studied nursery rhymes and fairy tales. His activity for this particular rhyme was to cut out an old lady and then fill the shoe with kids....

Notice the old lady...... Dawn Fraser! I asked why he specifically chose her as the old lady and he told me because she was at Uncle Brenty's pool! And sure enough the photo was taken at the AIS. This kid certainly has swimming in his blood! Furthermore, you might notice there is one picture that is cars instead of kid. Apparently asking why was a stupid question! Cars rate over kids any day!

Helpers

I have gone back to study. I have been working really hard but some times there are disadvantages to studying whilst raising children. I awoke to this one morning.......

Ryan felt my assignment preparation didn't have enough decoration! I also had to rip out 50 odd pages of my note book that he decorated! Thank goodness all of my assignments are submitted digitally or I wonder if there are extra markings in beautifully decorated assignments?

A New Tradition

Saturday movie night! We started last weekend with a Mighty Ducks marathon. It is funny you know... I loved that movie as a young girl. My question to you is.. was it always that corny? Although we did have such a good time we have decided to do it every weekend. It was lovely we started around 5pm. I made pizzas which we ate on the rug, picnic style. We then pigged out on M & M's. Unfortunately Ben wasn't feeling well and only made it til 6.25! Matthew and Ryan lasted the distance and enjoyed the movies. And the best thing of all..... they all slept in until 7.45am! A major sleep in in the Rickard household! So this weekend we have the last mighty duck movie and then we are going to start on the Karate kid movies.

Marriage is hard work

When people would say to me that marriage was hard work I always assumed they meant that the longer you were married the more you would fight and argue. But now seven and half years down the track i think i get it! Marriage is hard work but the hard work is maintaining love within your marriage. Young love is easy. It is all encompassing. It is entangled in lust. It is addictive. I can see why so many marriages fail. When marriage becomes "work" it is easy to say goodbye rather than put that work in. On the surface young love looks more rewarding. I think what these divorcing couples are missing is in fact commitment. I do genuinely believe these people love each other, maybe not enough but more importantly they are not committed. We were driving to Questacon the other day discussing this very topic. I can safely say I am over the honeymoon and babymoon periods of our life long commitment. If you were to look at Nathan's and my relationship it would look boring. We have done the whole lust thing, we have done the white wedding thing, we have had babies. What do we have to look forward too? Most people would probably only see the hard work of raising three boys, working on progressing Nathan's career, figuring out what I'm going to do when the boys are at school...... Those things don't sound exciting. That don't make the blood rush from your head. They don't get you heart pumping. Thoughts and daydreams don't feature those topics. This people is the hard work stage of marriage! But am I finding it too hard to bear?
Hell NO!!!! Does my heart miss a beat when Nathan walks in the door? Not very often! Do I sit around doodling Jenni Rickard on my note pad? Gosh no! Do i have nothing better to do with my weekdays but to plan what we will do on the weekend? Ummmmm plenty! Does this mean that we are no longer in love? No. I think it means our love has grown. It is no longer all encompassing. It now encompasses our family (and most of the things we were doing in the all encompassing part of our relationship was NOT PG!) Nathan and I both agreed in our recent discussion that our love is less superficial. There is more to us than Nathan and Jenni now. Our love is deeper.
I have been reminiscing recently about being a young woman first in love, who's only responsibilities were herself and how exciting being that girl was. I think the thought of her is exciting. Would I want to go back and be her? Hell no! Do people who walk away from their marriages really find that person who they are looking for? Or is it a case of you can never go back? I guess I wont know! Because even after the terrible fight I had with Nathan this week I still remain committed to my marriage. If I have painted a grim picture of long marriages it really isn't like that! Nathan and I talk all the time about our future. Even if we don't have the heat of a new relationship we still have all the potential new relationships have. We still haven't reached our potential. We still have things to look forward too. In not too much longer we will be able to leave the boys at home by themselves and do things as a couple again. And then not too much father past that the boys will be fully grown and then we have huge plans! We are counting down the years til Ben's 21st when we will taking a round the world trip to all the places Nathan visited and only got to see the swimming pool!
So yes i now realise what people mean when they say marriage is hard work but we are not turned off by it at all. Nathan and Jenni Rickard say bring it on!

Team work

Generally I feel I cope very well with them being close together. More so now that they are all older. The biggest trial is getting them to where they have to be, for instance school and playschool at the same time. Or even harder than that is to get three swimming lessons of varying levels at the same or close enough together!
However last night we were stretched! Ben was the first to start spewing, followed by Ryan and then Matthew. Now when we get a spew bug in this house it ALWAYS is shared around. Never has just one of the boys spewed and not the rest! And last night was no different! And poor Nathan! He was up late trying to finish his assignment. But the way this operates is : Nathan has to clean up the spew from the floor or bed etc. I have to get the boy out of their soiled pj's and provide the comfort. Generally whilst the comforting is going on I need things like water, puppies and face washers. And these demands are placed upon poor Nath. Last night, when Matthew started he came to me and as I lifted the covers to get out of bed, thinking I would give Nathan a break and do the clean up and comforting at the same time BUT Matthew had other ideas! He was in my bed under my covers before I could even get out! So once again Nathan was on clean up duty! Don't feel too sorry for him though! I still get stuck with washing duty the next morning. So in the end it works out even!

The kid wasn't born that way......

Ugly that is! I gave birth to gorgeous boys but poor Matthew is just beginning that awkward, ugly stage! His top two teeth are coming through. However, the other ones haven't fallen out yet! The ones beside the front teeth have moved over to give the new ones room and the left one is sooooo wobbly. But the right one is stuck rather tight at a nearly 40 degree angle from where it should be!

Now check out the freaky close ups!

33 1/3 "T" Party

So way back in March when it was my real birthday I made a comment at dinner that I should have a thirty three and a third party. I just thought it sounded cool. It would be even cooker if we all dressed up with something starting with T. Nathan replied with "Yeah, it could be a third of a century party!" I didn't think that party was so cool. But everyone at dinner that night was quite enthusiastic so we ended up having a 33 1/3 T party!
Everybody went all out on their costumes. I didn't get photos of everyone but I did get some. Treb would have to win the best dressed as MR T. Soooo far away from his usual self and so funny! The Whittinghams did well too. There was a Tai Kwon Doe person, a Truckie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Tinkerbell, Teddy bear and even 6 week old Airye came as Taz!

Ryan rockin' out on Rock Band Hero. His head nods in time to the beat!

Cleon is a TV and Michelle is a Tarantula.

Eli is Thomas

The Tomliboo's rockin!

A Top Gun, Tombliboo, Tiger, Transformer and pTeranadon!

Ooo, Eee and Unn. I think that is what we are called! Or collectively the Tomliboos.

I rock that drum kit!

Having a great time, with a few frozen cocktails! Nathan arrived back from a week away a couple of hours into the party! He hadn't had a hot shower the whole time he was away! So he needed a quick one before he could join the party. By the way the party was planned a long time before the trip away! So don't feel sorry for him!

Mr T and his Tombliboo.

Lopsided mo and all! Ben was so disappointed Treb didn't come to the party until the very end! (When he took his fake hair off!) And Mr T basically scared all the kids all night. Even his own son was afraid of him!

Roaring tiger, hidden ratbag!

Transformers.....Matthew in disguise.

Colin as The Phantom. We all voted Billy Zane the better version. But we still love Colin. He even has two phantom rings.

Harry as Tom. Jerry stayed at home as I'm allergic!