The Adventures of Radical Ryan

Here is Daddy's attempt at a comic strip. Will it be better than the boys? Stay tuned to see....

Mummy's holiday Bucket list

The boys have all now written their holiday to do lists. While I was watching them slave away over them I decided it would only be fair if Nathan and I participated too. So I have already done a Christmas recount and am about to present my list, Nathan will be writing a comic strip and publishing it here soon! But for now here is my list.

1. Spend quality time with my family.
2. Walk my boys and Bolt up my mountain.
3. Take my boys to Questacon.
4. Enjoy a hot date with my gorgeous hubby.
5. Take my family to Brisbane.
6. Get enough beach time in Brisbane to last me all through the Canberra winter.
7. Have at least one pyjama day.
8. Finish my merchandising job.
9. Plan how I am going to spend all of my hard earned cash from my new job!
10. Walk my boys up Mt Ainslie.
11. Pick a mountain we haven't walked up and walk up it.
12. Hire one of the paddle boat on Lake Burley Griffin and paddle my kids around in it.
13. Make my husband paddle me around Lake Burley Griffin.
14. Play cricket with Grumpy and the boys in the park.
15. Pick a museum in Brisbane to take the boys to.
16. Only use public transport not available in Canberra to travel around Brisbane.
17. Laugh at Nathan when he gets sea sick on the ferry on the Brisbane river.
19. Go to breakfast or lunch with my two favourite Canberra girls.
20. Take my Mum, Nan, Aunt and sister out for morning tea.

*edited*  We are marking the ones we have done with red text.

Mummy's Christmas Recount

Everybody else has done their Christmas recount so I thought I had better hurry up and do mine!

 Christmas began with a very large delivery from Santa's sleigh! I'm pretty sure he would have needed to go back to the North Pole to restock after unloading this lot!

 Then at the prearranged time of 5.15 am three little men rose. Or maybe they re-rose as Daddy had put Matthew back to be at 1am, to discover that Santa had been. They hot footed it over to Cleon and Michelle's to collect Uncle Brenty and Aunty Kata.

 Then they had to wait and wait and wait until all of the adults got out of bed and got a coffee and then finally sat down ready to watch to proceedings.

 When the starting gun went of there was flying wrapping paper everywhere!

 Bolt wasn't forgotten and he loved his new bird and he promptly tore off an eye and a leg and is currently in surgery trying to remove the birdies squeaker heart!

But what Bolty really wanted for Christmas was the boys new Sherrin from Brenty and Kata! Look at the look on his face while he is looking at that ball!

 Daddy was thrilled to share Christmas with his little brother!

 Ben was thrilled that Mummy and Daddy gave him a tablet so now when he goes for Sunday morning donuts and baby chinos he has his own tablet to play. 

 This photo shows just how thankful and full of love he was for his Mummy! Trust me he put a lot of love in that squeezing hug!

 Ryan was super, super thrilled with his Chromebook. If you look closely it is written all over his face!

 Matthew was thinking his new go pro was going to help him make awesome lego movies!

 Kata and Brenton were just thinking if it was time to go back to bed yet! ;-)

 Nana was having fun but the coffee hadn't hit Poppy yet!

 Up there with Ben's favourite present was his Max D t-shirt that Santa got him from the monster truck show. He was super impressed that Santa was able to source it from the show and so far has been sticking to the conditions Santa placed upon his ownership of the shirt. Santa included a return address so if Ben doesn't comply with the conditions Mummy has to send it back!

 As you can see they were all very, very, impressed with their Christmas haul.

 But by far the favourite present for all three boys has been their flat caps. The first night I had to tell all three to take them off for bed and since that moment they only take them off for bed!

 Oh! Look the coffee has hit! Poppy is awake!

 Daddy love,love, loved the Mark Webber Red Bull F1 remote control car that Mummy got him. He took it out of the box for a very quick spin and then promptly installed it in the bookcase above his desk in his mancave study!

Lunch was a very lavish affair with table decorations, personalised name cards, candles and best of all buckets and buckets of food. Ben ate his body weight in prawns including 'prawn gravy' otherwise known as the brains!

After lunch the 4X4 remote control car and jump that Nana Bev and Grumpy brought the boys got a spin and plenty of air!

 Then this is what the afternoon looked like....

 Or this for those who had worked their guts out in the kitchen for two days!

I hope your Christmas was as Merry as ours!

Tidbinbilla

After boxing day I took the in laws to Tidbinbilla to check out the natural environment and wildlife.

 These two that we found at Stromlo were pretty scary!

 The view from the lookout.

 Edwina the Emu played cricket with us during lunch.

 We were terrified that she thought the ball was one of her eggs but it turned out she just liked cricket. She was really friendly and made a point of going up to every new visitor to say hi. The reputation of other emus must have preceded her because most people were terribly frightened of her and all she wanted was to say hello. All be it at very close range!

 We had a walk around the koala park. Basically is is an area that they say you may catch a glimpse of a koala in this vicinity. They had just imported quite a few so we got lucky. I've been before and the only thing I got was a crink in the neck! This guy was 5 meters from the track at Nathan's head height. Those cute grey ears of his were flapping like mad listening to the rubbish those Rickard boys were spouting!

At the entrance there were several Mummy and baby koalas so my baby climbed on my back to show them we were friendly. The koalas really didn't care at all!

The Elfelfa the Elf Helper saga continues!

He really has been running amok! 

First, he drew all over a family photo. He gave Ryan a tail, Matthew horns, Ben glasses, me a halo and Nathan hair!

 But the boys were horrified with his behaviour. When I suggested that perhaps we should send him back to Santa Ryan and Ben agreed! The little army men were also very unhappy with his behaviour!

 Thank goodness the next morning Elfelfa the Elf Helper made they boys breakfast to make up for all the trouble!

 He even wrote a little sorry note.

 The next morning we woke up to a lego snow angel!

 Followed by a reminder that Elfelfa the Elf Helper was in constant contact with Santa. He also brought back from the North Pole their mid December report card from Santa the same day that they received their school report cards. Their teachers were more impressed with their progress than Santa was!

 And last night Elfelfa the Elf Helper made a flying fox out of some ribbon and a candy cane. Apparently he had so much fun all night!

It has been amazing to see the magic of Christmas come alive this year. I really thought it was going to over, after all Matthew is 10 but Elfelfa has re invigorated Christmas magic big time in this house!

Elfelfa the Elf Helper

This Christmas we thought we would try something different from the usual rotten potato threats! Because we know how well that worked! 

So this year we have enlisted an Elf on the shelf to help. Our elf arrived in the mail yesterday after days and days of anticipation. Saying the boys were busting to meet him was an understatement!

Once we had him unpacked we needed to give him a name and the boys decided on Elfelfa the Elf Helper. We were standing near our Alfalfa grower at the time! I explained the rules to the boys and we registered our new elf online. We printed our adoption certificate and perused the Frequently Asked Questions page on the website. The boys were pleased to know if they accidentally touch him they can cleanse him with cinnamon to refresh the magic and Mum and Dad were pleased that if the elf is in the same position as the night before it just means he is happy there! Phew!

 Then in the morning they woke up and found Elfelfa the Elf Helper riding the boys favourite monster truck jump! They went off! And the magic of Christmas has been re-invigorated for another year! The boys then raced around cleaning their rooms and doing their jobs to ensure they get a favourable report tonight. They got a little freaked out when Ben swore he saw his head move and then they all witnessed either his head move or his eyes move!

Then Ben sat down quietly to do this:-

 This is a picture of Elfelfa the Elf Helper.

And this is a picture of Santa! The bottoms line says The Rickard's believe in you. Awwwwww!

The time of our lives

 I was organising our Fiji photos ready for printing and enlarging last night when I was struck by the thought that the whole trip to Fiji was the best time of my life so far! Big call, I know! But it combined so may vitally important ingredients. Firstly, Nathan and I had been planning it for over 10 years. Secondly, I spent 10 days thoroughly enjoying my family. We had nothing but quality time together. I am fairly certain there was not one cross word spoken by anyone. Thirdly, it was like our wedding day except less stressful and no less meaningful. Finally, we were carefree, happy and healthy. I am only now just realising how truly special an experience it was.

Another bonus I discovered was this picture. This pic wasn't an initial favourite but after scouring through all of them this was the one I picked to get enlarged, not because it has the best composition or the most aesthetically appealing but because we all look so unbelievable happy!

Science Scramble 2012

Last year we did the science scramble with Aunty Teesh and had a blast! This year Teesh is too busy gallivanting around Europe with her parents to do it so I dragged Nathan along instead!

 We jumped straight into it this weekend, starting at the Canberra visitors centre, with some swimmer dude in the background. Maybe next year he can come down and do the science scramble with us instead of playing games in London!

 The first stop was Parliament House to answer a question about a female engineer! Talking about females we saw they had portraits up of the first female politician, first female senators etc. but as yet hadn't added the portrait of the first female prime minister! (Unless it was somewhere else and we didn't see it!)

 We had a quick look around and added it to the must come back and do properly list!

 We whipped around The Old Parliament House Rose Garden to answer some horticulture questions!

 From there we listened to our own echoes just down the road at the Magna Carta Monument. Three little boys did not enjoy that at all! Shouting out words like penis! And poo! And boogers!

 A very quick stop in at  the National Library and Questacon. Did you know the National Library has a globe that spins all by itself!

 We lifted the marble ball outside Questacon ourselves and found it weighed 633kgs!

 A short drive away was the Galleries where we got to have some fun with my favourite sculpture. Ryan is spinning it on his finger!

 Ben is holding it with his fingertips.

 But Mummy made a spit bubble! Gross!

 The next morning it was up and at it again early. Only this time we took our bikes and rode to all the points along the lake.

They tried to weigh anchor but it was waaayyy too heavy!

 At the Captain Cook Monument they answered a question on astronomy and then pondered the great waters of Lake Burley Griffin.

 Nice Bums!

 Along the foreshore of the lake is what is called the Australian of the Year walk. The bollards that the boys are standing next to are placed on musical stave lines and all the bollard read as a musical note that makes the national anthem. Cool hey! I learnt that when we did a cruise on HMS Jenny at Floriade one year.

 Now you may think this is just a photo of boys in silly poses but this was a question about the War Memorial in the background. Which means that this is the boys posing as soldiers! Ryan is throwing a grenade, Matthew is shooting a rifle and Ben has a bazooka! Of course! Only mothers of three boys would be able to decipher this photo!

 We had a quick stop for smoko! Thank goodness Nathan had thought to bring a hot chocolate because the breeze on the lake was chilly!

 After a little rest it was back on the bike for a beautiful ride through the sculpture garden. One of my favourite places in Canberra. Nathan tested the boys by asking how many cones they saw. Matthew counted the correct number of cones where as Ryan and Ben counted the number of shapes, which was two cones together, so they were half right!

 Last stop was at the site of their future tattoos! A southern cross at the Munnari Artwork.

Once again we had a great time doing the science scramble. It felt like it was heaps shorter this year, which Nathan was very happy with! If you live in Canberra get out and do it you still have time left, entries close on the 15th October!