Comic Challenge

Complete! All 4 boys have completed their comic challenge. This one was harder than I thought it would be! Ben struggled with his perfectionist tendency which created many an argument. 
Check them all out!

www.matthewswriting2014.blogspot.com

www.ryanswriting2014.blogspot.com

www.benswriting2014.blogspot.com

Next up a lego proposal and appraisal.......

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.

Rickard Writing

My boys don't really like to write. So much so that after Matthew's NAPLAN test last year he told us he didn't actually need to use writing as he wouldn't be using it as a professional athlete! But unfortunately to get to the professional athlete part you need to suffer through years and years and years of school first. And schools LOVE writing! 

So when we got the boys report cards this year and two out of three had a comment about their lack of written skills I decided it was time to bring out the big guns! Using the same theory I used when they were little to encourage a love of reading which has been successful we are now encouraging lots and lots and lots of different ways to write! (With reading it was lots and lots and lots of different books every night.)


After Ryan read Andy Griffins "Once upon a slime" he was keen to publish, he really wasn't keen to write something to be published he just wanted to be miraculously published. So I came up with the idea of them writing their own blogs. I have blogged for years and I love doing it. It has become a catch phrase around here when someone does anything even minutely amusing "That's going on the blog!" They are always keen to feature on the blog so I am hoping when they can feature in their own blog we may be able to spark a tolerance if not a love for writing!

So for a while I nagged, goaded, encouraged, cheered, bribed, yelled and screamed and they each have written their first piece which they have published to their own blogs. Please check them out from the links below. Add them to your favourites. And please, please comment. Teacher friends and family, correct them! Their grammar is terrible. Much like their fathers! Help them with their there, they're, theirs because trust me, by the time they have got to the publish button Nathan and I have nagged, corrected and edited to the point where they will no longer listen. And if you say it, they just might think we know what we are talking about (or in Nathan's case, making up!) and listen to us next time!

We have a plan to assist with their blogging! The plan centers around delivering a written piece each week of the holidays. Week 1 was the Christmas recount, 2 a holiday bucket list (stolen from here), 3 a lego comic strip complete with illustrations, 4 a comprehensive lego design with rationale and analysis, 5 a narrative about Elfelfa the Elf Helper and finally 1 real and 1 made up recipe complete with method.

Thank you in advance for your support and you never know they just might entertain you!

www.matthewswriting2014.blogspot.com

www.ryanswriting2014.blogspot.com

www.benswriting2014.blogspot.com

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...... 

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!