Before Christmas comes....

The mischief Elfelfa got up to before he left! He painted every ones face to look like Rudolf! 

 Including Poppy's!!!!!!!!

 Then he wrote all over the bathroom mirror. He also wrote "So long Suckers" on the sliding door on his way out! We are still fighting over who should clean it off!

We took all of the family to see the World Record Christmas lights in Forrest. There were over half a million lights on the house and surrounding gardens!

But the boys were far more impressed to have their photo taken with the actual World Record certificate!

 

 The next day the boys were busy cooking and decorating cookies for Santa.

Aunty Kata had a ball too!

 Then Christmas Eve was the full on traditional dinner of Roast Turkey, Lamb, Pork and all the trimmings.

 Ben is a BIG fan of turkey! He gets it from his Uncle Brenton!

Wow! What a huge lead up to Christmas! But we are not done yet because here it comes...... 

Ummmm Ahhhhh!!! ELFELFA!!!!!!

Last night he got into the bubble gum ball jar! And he ate one! And blew bubbles! Naughty Elfelfa!

What Elfelfa the Elf Helper did next...

Last night he helped Ben with his hearing homework! Which resulted in Ben being super motivated to beat Elfelfa's best score! Yay!

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!

Birthday Catch Up!

This year it was Ben's turn to have a party for his birthday and while he wanted to have a party at Tunzafun, Lets play, Kid city and bowling! I helped him settle on a bowling party.

 Which he was quite pleased with!

 He had lego blocks as his cake.

 His wife Alyssa came. Her Mum told me she was a pain getting dressed because she insisted on preening herself and looking her best just for Ben!

 His oldest friend Harry was there!

 He did really well at the bowling and apparently no matter the score you always get to be the winner when it is your party!

 I loved the card Alyssa gave him. She is the pink mate, he is the blue one!

 

 

The lolly tray was quite the attraction!

 On his actual birthday he got a powerwing scooter. Ryan and Matthew got these for Christmas. We didn't think Ben would be coordinated enough to use one but we were wrong and it has been a long 8 month wait from Christmas to his birthday so he could have one too! Thankfully we no longer have fights over the powerwings, now they are only over the razor scooter, of which there is only one!

 My boys are growing up!

 But before even Ben's birthday it was Cleon's birthday. She was in Brisbane for her actual birthday but she was lucky enough to still get a cake. we must really lover her or something! I made her an extra special rainbow cake. Which she love to pieces and insisted on taking the left overs to work the next day. She also took Michelle's left overs too!

 

 We had Cleon's cake a few days before they left on 4 1/2 month around the world trip so the boys had to give the girl enough cuddles to last them for that length of time!

And seeing how the rainbow cakes were such a hit I made rainbow cupcake for Ben class at school. His teacher thanked me sincerely for all the excess food colouring in the cakes. It really made her day!

40 years is a very long time!

 My Mum and Dad have been married for 40 years! I am sure they could tell you more than I could how trying it has been at times but yet here they are celebrating 40 years of being happily married.

To celebrate Nathan and I shouted them lunch at the Stamford Plaza's seafood buffet.

 It was a very posh restaurant. It even has tiara's for sale in the foyer!

 And a massive staircase and wooden banister. The boys would have loved to have slide down it but they were on their very best behaviour!

 How good are seafood buffets? We stuffed ourselves silly! All that lovely food matched the beautiful view of the Brisbane River.

 This is what good manners looked like. They were so well behaved and their table manners beautiful. I am so glad they know how to behave in public because they don't usually look this good at home!

 Nanna Bev with her favourite course. A plate FULL of dessert!

 Ben's favourite course was the prawn course. Of which there were several! He ate more than 20 of which he peeled all by himself! He then moved onto the meat course,then the salad course, then the veggie course before moving onto dessert.

 This is what full Matthew looks like!

 Ryan with his favourite....... chocolate. A child after my own heart! By the way how good looking are my kids!!!!

 Nanna Bev believes Ben's fruit course was a waste! Who goes to nice restaurants for fruit but those who know my kids know they always make a bee line for the fruit, even in nice restaurants too apparently!

 A beautiful, beautiful day. Can't you just see the good behaviour emanating from the boys in this photo!

 Tweedle dee, Tweedle dumb and Tweedle dumber with their toothpicks after lunch!

 After lunch we went to my little sister place to celebrate with cake! We had strawberry cheesecake cupcakes.

 Red velvet cupcakes

And the kids had rainbow brite cupcakes. Funnily enough I couldn't get a photo quick enough! And they were the colours on the paper. Sooooo much food colouring. Thank goodness 40th wedding anniversaries don't come around ever day!