The end of an era.

Recently the blue car has been causing problems. Mostly from being neglected because Nathan either rides his bike or catches the bus to work. And it got expelled from the driveway onto the road because it was leaking oil over the driveway. All of this culminated in it breaking down on the rare occasion that Nathan drove it to work. It carked it in the middle of a major intersection just near home. Our friends had a field day driving past it. One set of neighbours who shall remain nameless even took the time to stop and put on note on it saying "LOSER!" Finally a couple of weekends ago it was broken into. It was the one weekend Nathan decided he wanted a sleep in and not to join the neighbours at the weekly farmers market. Well guess who got a call at sparrows fart anyway? Nathan! Because Jose found the blue car parked in front of his house with all the doors open and a window smashed. It appears that the worlds dumbest teen aged thieves attempted to hot wire it. They flogged a brand spanking new pair of pliers from Kmart( I know this because they left the packaging and pliers behind!) and used them to tear apart the steering column. When they couldn't find the wires with the words "hot wire here" they tried smashing apart the key casing. Nathan thought they might have been out there with their smart phones googling hot wiring 101. But duh the blue car has been sitting out the front of the house BROKEN DOWN for weeks. No amount of attempted hot wiring was going to get that baby started! LOSERS!!

Anyway so that is how the blue car came to the end of an era. Nathan and I have done so many things in the back of that car. Like.....

Bringing Matthew home from hospital. Get your mind out of the gutter people!

Harvesting time!

We have had an interesting time with our veggie patch this winter. In Autumn just after planting we lost all of our broccoli, caulis, brussel sprout and cabbage to those darned cabbage moths! To counteract them we put netting over the veggie patch but on most occasions you would find one or two of the bloody cabbage moths on the inside of the net. In the end we gave up our organic credentials and used derris dust and the netting. Luckily it worked and we have been harvesting our own broccoli for a while.

 It is exceptionally yummy!

 The cauliflowers are cute! Still a little while until they will be ready but they are growing and it gives the boys something to check on every time they go out in the garden.

 The boys were very impressed with their farming abilities! Matthew is often heard to exclaim every time he walks past the garden "Aren't we great farmers!" He thinks it is about time to get him a pair of denim overalls!

There were no complaints at dinner time. Not that there usually is!

Dreamworld

Ages ago, like at Easter we went to Dreamworld as an Easter treat.

The boys had a go at most things. They drove cars.....

And I am glad it will be along time before Ryan is back behind a wheel!

 Matthew drove one by himself. Just think it is only like 9 years before he will be able to be out on the roads for real!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

 They patted koalas after we elbowed all of the Asian tourists out of the way!

 They had Rosy Tea with Dorothy.....

 They tried to have a cuppa with the Wiggles. But they weren't home apparently! I thought they might have seen us coming....

 I searched everywhere for Captain Feathersword. I've always wanted to try out his feathersword...... But alas he wasn't home either!

 We briefly walked past the tigers. The boys were all like "Grace (the cat from next door) is scarier!!!" She is too! She hisses and swipes at us all and is quite unsociable!

 The boys all had a go at the Spongebob ride...

 They had a go at the Blues Clues ride although we have no idea who he is!!!

 The swings were fun!

 We then met up with my great mate Nicole and her three boys. Nic and I managed to choose the dry seats on the rapid ride.

 And stay dry!

 I wasn't so lucky on the log ride! Lachlan (my godson) insisted on sitting in the back seat. He must have done this ride before....

 Because guess who ended up saturated!

 Ryan was thrilled to meet Spongebob and Patrick. He has been a fan for a long time. He would have only been 2 at the most when he corrected Cleon telling her very solemnly that it was SpongeBob Squarepants! Not SquareBob sponge pants!

 The ball pit that was huge with ball firing cannons was a huge hit. Daddy helped the boys with their aim....

 How good is the photography! Have a look at the top left corner, you can see the balls shooting out!

 Do you know how hard it is to get six boys to all look in the one direction and smile?????? They are lined up in age order. Matthew 7, Lach 6 (20 days older than) Ryan 6, Ben 4 who is 2 months older than Ethan and Caleb.  Six boys born with less than three years between them! That is a whole lot of boy energy right there! And we only managed to loose one of 'em the whole time we were there!

This was the last thing we did before leaving! The V8 Supercars. Anyone who knows my boys know that they are bogan rev heads! I am growing my collection of my boys standing beside some kind of vehicle!

It was between now and the middle of dinner that Ryan lost his first tooth! And when I say lost I mean lost! He came to us in the middle of dinner saying he had lost it. When I asked where it was he shrugged his shoulders and said "Dunno!"

Introducing the new Mr & Mrs Rickard!

So Ben was devastated for a whole for two minutes that Uncle Brenton was marrying Kata before he could grow up so he decided to get married on the rebound!

So I would like to introduce you all to Mrs Alyssa Forrest-Rickard! (She is hyphenating like all modern women!)

There ceremony was held in the Forrest's backyard. It really was lovely. The bride was beautifully dressed by Barbie. The groom wore his best trackie dacks and stood proudly beside his beautiful bride.

The official wedding photographer was Alyssa's big sister Kayla. Who used her brand new ipod touch to capture the candid wedding photos. The groom's brothers and the brides brother Dylan didn't attend the nuptials as they were far too interested in playing the wii! (In their defense it was The Simpsons game and we don't have it at home!)

The happy couple have decided it is best to live in their current houses as it would be too stressful to leave their Mummies just yet!

 The reception was also held in the Forrest's backyard. It was a beautifully laid picnic. Complete with toasting.

The bride and Groom do want to assure everyone that it WAS NOT a shotgun wedding. Their first born was just very premature!

Unfortunately after this shot was taken they were asked to tidy up the backyard as it was time for Ben to go home. This resulted in a massive fight with the new Mrs Rickard being jealous that her husband assisted her sister in the clean up rather than bend to her every whim. This resulted in threats of divorce and "Your not my best husband anymore, Ben!". However, they were able to overcome this little bump in the road and to this day are reasonably happily married! (as long as Ben does what he is told!)

School reports

So the first semester is coming to a close at Miles Franklin School. I waited eagerly for reports to come home. It has become ritual to sit down with a nice cup of tea and have a good read of their reports. You will be pleased to know that both Ryan and Matthew had great reports!
Matthew is reading above his age level and the comments on his report were awesome. Things like "Matthew has an excellent grasp of numbers and is a competent mathematician." He so gets that brilliance from his mother!!!! After reading this comment out to Matthew he has since been telling anyone who will listen that he is a "very competent math-a-magician!"
Ryan report said " Ryan has done well in literacy this semester. He is able to write independently in each genre with support and he is able to write independently in the information report text type."
One thing that Nathan and I found amusing was that we had no idea there was more than one genre! Especially at Grade one level! Additionally, Matthew received a comment that he should be introduced to more complex strategies in numeracy like compensation and jump strategy. Well, if i knew there was more than 'count it out on your fingers stratergy' I would have done much more better at adding up and taking away!!!

School Photos

 Benjamin Leslie Rickard.  4 years 11 months

 Ryan William Rickard. 6 years 5 months

Matthew James Raymond Rickard. 7 years 9 months

The conversations you have when you only have boys!

And I am fairly certain it will only get worse!

Ben: Mum are we closer to the north pole or the south pole?
Mum: The south pole Ben because the south pole is actually in Antarctica and that is the closest continent to Tasmania. When Matthew was a little baby we stood on the edge of Tassie and we could feel the freezing cold wind that came straight from there!
Ryan: Did I feel it too?
Mum: Nah buddy you were just a tiny little baby in my tummy!
Ryan: No Mum I actually felt the cold wind when I put my hands up to your belly! I remember!
Mum: Oh! Ok Rye if you say so!
Ben: Mum, how did I get out of your belly?
Mum: (remembering that Ben has been learning about the body and bodily functions at preschool!) Well Ben mummies go through a process called labour and what it is is the mummies muscles contracting to push the baby out through the vagina.
Matthew, Ryan & Ben: *Giggles* No we didn't!
Matthew: Ahhhh Mum now I know what happened to your penis! I broke it off when I was born!!!!!!
*******WHAT THE.........*******
Mum: Ahhh no buddy you ruined a lot of things in body but my penis was NOT one of them!!!

And here i was thinking that it was a very convoluted conversation but really when i thought about it we began talking about poles and finished talking about them! In fact when I think about it we seem to talk an awful lot about all sorts of poles!