Gosh I love summer holidays!

So far these holidays we have had a picnic breakfast with Courtney and her family at the Carillon.

 The boys fed the ducks.

 Then took a million photos of them!

 After breaky we rode around Lake Burley Griffin. No one fell in the lake so it was classed as successful.

 The following day we scootered around the lake. Again no one rode into the lake! The following photo is obviously not around the lake but it is the boys riding their new scooters.

 There has been a fair bit of conditioning training for Tae Kwon Do happening. This was the only push up Nathan did! The boys did hundreds although with not a good technique!

 So do you think all their training is paying off??

 And finally there as been a lot of playing under the sprinkler as all good Aussie kids should do during the summer!

NYE 2011

You will have to excuse the quality of the following photos! 1. It was dark! 2. It was late! 3. I had had a few cocktails!

As usual we had our Rickard NYE in the backyard.

 The usual crowd was there! Cleon & Meshel and their friend Glenda.

 Some old pro's (Lynne and Daniel) and some newbies!

 No Mum I'm not tired,and overstimulated and I do not want to go to bed!

 The Rickard's just before midnight! (Not drunk at all!!)

 The Rickard's at midnight!

Nathan kissing all the girls! And while we are at it Cleon appears to be quite enjoying it!!!

Monster Truck Show!

Remember the first year we went to the Monster Truck Show in Canberra? It began the boys obsession with Monster trucks!

We went back the following year and watched the show in the sleet and freezing cold! After that the M.T Show didn't come back to Canberra! So when we heard there was going to be a Boxing day show in Sydney we packed the boys up!

We took Grumpy with us and when he saw you could have  a ride in a truck for $10 he felt it would be well worth the money and put the boys and their dad in a truck!

 Look closely a the look on Ben and Rye's face. They are super excited! Now check out Matthew's face! He was so NOT! He really didn't want to do it but we didn't give him an option and when he got off he was so glad he did it!

Then they all got their photo taken sitting on the tyre of Raptors Revenge! 

 Rye was a little hesitant because of the height!

 Ben LOVED it!!!!

 This year they had these mini monster trucks which the boys got to sit in. Now you can only imagine the excitement for these three M.T mad boys! Funnily enough only the day after Christmas they were placing one of these each on their list for next Christmas!

 Rye, with his missing tooth so looks like "Bubba in his truuuck!" He was just missing his denim overalls!

 Spot was Matthew's favourite truck this year.

 Benny having a look inside the jet engine. Matthew's more worried they were going to start it up when we was standing near it! He is such a worry wart!

 Grumpy and Nathan talking to the owners about the fully sick jet car and Nathan enquiring about the aeronautical engineering properties!

 The boys insisted Grumpy have his photo taken with the Ford Truck. However, he was massively disappointed to find out it had a Chevy engine underneath it all! The driver, Kreg Christenson signed Ben's Scooby Doo cap as he is the usual driver of Scooby Doo.

 The boys sizing up the Jet Quad bike! There were lots of "Fully sick mate" comments made!

 Haven't we all grown up since the first Monster Truck Photo!!!

 The Mini Monsters in action. Not sure how we are going to get out of delivering these for Christmas next year!

 And on with the show! There was heaps of cheering and yelling!

 Our little spot! It drizzled all night but it was hot enough not to be a bother.

 Nathan getting all arty with the smoke and fire from the jet car.

 I will never, never get why it is entertainment to burn a car with a jet car's fire! But boys get it apparently and it is hugely entertaining!

Now check this out!

 From this......

To this........

Bolt is growing up!

Remember what our baby looked like on the day we picked him up?

Well he has grown heaps since then! Oh! And the adventures he has had....

 He has watched the movie Bolt about a million times and the boys are busily training him to do the "Superbark".

 He has done something no other Rickard dog has done before.......... Hoped into bed with Mummy and daddy for a snuggle. His favourite position is on top of daddy's head!

 We have found out he loves his tummy being rubbed!

 He often seeks Daddy's protection.....

 The boys gave him lessons on going down the slide. He has been quite keen to have a go himself!

 But kept trying to go up the wrong way!

For all those people have said "Oh Kelpies but they are such active dogs!" Have obviously not met my "such active" boys! At this moment they still wear him out! And I haven't even started walking him up the mountain yet!

 We have discovered he loves the sprinkler almost as much as he loves trying to round up the boys into the sprinkler!

 He has mastered the slide but still needs a hand up the stairs! (He has also overcome his fear of the trampoline but is yet to master those stairs as well!)

 His favourite game is the skipping rope that Matthew tied to his favourite soft toy. This can be a two player game or a one dog game! He drags it around chasing it for hours! I have the most fun helicoptering it over my head and watching him try to catch it!

 And he is still gorgeous and a bit of a camera tart!

He has fit into the Rickard boy mould so well. He has such a spunky personality and we cant imagine our family without him now!

Solar Power!

After seven and a half very long frustrating months we finally turned our solar power system on in November!

 This post could easily become a long winded vent of the inefficiencies of the government and the company that we used to install out system but I am saving that for a letter to my local member of parliament!

 Needless to say the system has become Nathan's new baby. He charts the energy production, cleans it and checks that it is working to maximum capacity often!

We haven't received out first payment yet but we are eagerly awaiting it whilst at the same time patting ourselves on the back for our green consciousness!

No more teachers. No more books!

We finished off the school year with both Matthew and Ryan getting merit certificates. (I don't have a photo of Ryan getting his because it was lost before it could be presented to him!)

Both Matthew and Ryan had a great year at school. Their reports were both very good. Matthew has however hit that age where the fact that he can be disruptive and easily distracted was noted in his report! All of us, including Aunty Teesh using her teacher voice, have spoken to him at length about the value of letting others learn and being open to learning yourself. He is big into pulling laughs from the other boys in the class and by the end of the year it became a bit of a competition to see who could be the stupidest!
Matthew pulled B's in French and of all things PE! He would have got an A if he improved his attitude! His skill levels are phenomenal however his win at all cost attitude is holding him back! It is super funny though because when Matthew tells people he is going to the Olympics for swimming, TaeKwonDo and Athletics they do not doubt him!
Ryan's report showed us how well he is doing in maths! For the kid that is most like me it good to know there is a little of his father in him because the maths genius certainly didn't come from me! Ryan has really developed socially this year. Being one of the youngest in the year and a little different has meant that up until this point he has struggled socially. Not with dire consequences but just enough for it to be a concern but by the end of the year his class room behaviour, ability to pull himself back into check rather than fall apart and his ability to build friendships was greatly improved so much so that his teacher commented on it in his report.
I am very grateful that all of my children are keen to learn and they love school. They appreciate not only the social side but also the academic too. I place full credit for this in the hands of the preschool teachers Debbie and Dorothy. I bid a very sad farewell to them both when Ben had his last day of preschool. I have long said that preschool is the best year of schooling! I have found preschool has opened the boys minds to learning, way more than i ever could. It has been a goal of mine to have smart kids. I've read to them from when they could hold up their heads, we have done puzzle after puzzle, only had education computer games etc but none of this compares to how this little play based early education program can expand their little minds. I have found it expanded not only their own interests but developed new ones spawned from the interests of their peers. And because it is generated from their peers they are much more susceptible to taking up the interest themselves. There have been other benefits from the program but for me this has been by far the greatest benefit from preschool so a huge thank you to the preschool team. Nathan and I are so grateful for your dedication and input into our children!