Nathan: Formula Ford Superstar!

The best wife in the world bought Nathan 10 laps in a Formula Ford for his birthday/Christmas present. Needless to say he loved it! Here is the video....

Blowout

Ben didn't just grow out of his shoe he burst out of them!!!! His toes have been seriously hanging out of them for the last week!

Little A's

The boys decided they would give little athletics a go this summer. It was a very, very tough choice between this and cricket!

This is Ben starting the 100m race. His starts reminded both Nathan and I of a swimming relay start! Pity the kid still can't swim due to his ears! 

So far they are loving it! I'm not overly loving the $330 plus $90 in t-shirts it has cost us to play so far but I am sure by the end of the season I will think it was worth it!

 Ryan's run up for the long jump. He appears to have more aptitude for the field events!

 Ben loved the 400m but is even more excited about the 800m this weekend!

 Matthew in the 200m. They are slightly confused about which races they have to stay in their lanes and which ones they don't!

 Ryan was really good with a discus, quite natural. We are just praying it doesn't snap off his skinny twig like arm!

 Matthew's javelin throw. Thank goodness someone saw reason and decided not to give children sharp pointy spears to throw. Well not until next year anyway!

 Ryan's 200m sprint. He slipped over and was thrilled because even though he fell he still came second last because it could have been worse it could have been last!

Ben's long jump.

It was an interesting experience for Nathan and I! Firstly because we have three children and there are only two of us which meant that one child had to be by themselves. We reckon we walked kms each trying to keep up with all the boys and each other! We would wave at each other as we passed! Secondly not being heavily involved was weird! Usually Nathan and I would be at the center of all the action but we decided we can't do everything and we would sit back and just be observers of Little A's. And it killed us! We watched the other helpers measure long jump back to front! The running timing gates are a computer nerds dream! So I am thinking it really won't be long before Nathan is offering to do the automated timing and I will be in the sandpit measuring the jumps!

Aside from that the boys loved it and can not wait to go again next week!

Holidays

These holidays have been rather low key! We were minus Matthew one week so we took the opportunity to 'spoil' the other two because they were terribly upset at missing out on all the fun at Grumpy and Nana Bev's holiday house!

 

 Nathan took Ryan and Ben go karting.

 

 This must have been early on in the first week before they decided the disliked each other company without a Matthew buffer!

 Ben was old enough to drive his own go kart! When he got out he exclaimed he was so talented that he didn't need to use his brake at all! Not even to come to a full stop at the finish!

 Ryan has marginally more speed than the last time but he certainly is not a thrill seeker!

 We hung out ta the park with Harry on the new flying fox.

 We had our usual Wednesday date with the Forrest kids which coincided with Matt's birthday cake.

I didn't make the cake this year,  had 6 kids in my backyard all day there was no time for baking!

And now it is time to go back to school for the final term of school for 2012! Where had the year gone?

Half of eighteen is....

Nine!

Half way to adulthood!

Very recently Nathan and I realised that Matthew understands what we value and believe as a family and the time has now come for him to practise how to apply those values and beliefs to his life. It is now time to gently loosen the invisible umbilical cord! We know that he knows who we are and it is time to let him explore and exercise how that all fits. Whilst this is terrifying Matthew is eager to please, he is eager to explore and eager to enjoy some new found freedom. Now we aren't packing him up and sending him out in the big bad world all by himself we are gradually letting go. Before he wasn't allowed to play where I couldn't see him. Now when his friends come over they can play out on the street or at the park by themselves. We have been having lots of in depth conversations about how much we trust him and what he can do should someone ask him to do something that he isn't comfortable with or something he knows we wouldn't approve of. He is slowly coming to realise that at times this may mean standing up to adults and being assertive about what he finds acceptable. It is really time to start moulding this young boy into an awesome tween! Because if the next nine years fly by as quickly as the last nine we will all be severely under prepared!

And now for the flowers!

Every year at Floriade we hold the annual Rickard Photography competition. I think everybody else who goes to Floriade does the same because every person walks around looking at it through their viewfinders! This year was interesting because not only did you have massive telephonic lenses on big arse cameras but also smart phone cameras and my personal favourite the ipad! Seriously people were walking around with their ipads up in front of their faces! (Just quietly on one occasion that person was Ryan, with his new tablet!)

This year I was fascinated by the poppy's. The first visit they weren't really flowering.

 But by the third visit they were stunning!

But i found their un-flowering form to be the most interesting.

 They remind me of something hairy and bally! Gross!

 And the way they unfurl! Amaze balls I mean amazing!!!

 

 This image captures floriade for the boys! This is what they think it is all about! Matthew took this photo.

 I was also interested in the yet to flower tulips too. They looked really interesting on mass like that.

 

I love the tulips the best but this daffodil is a close second.

 

 Oh but you cant beat these hairy tulips!

 This is my entry into the photo comp! A white Hyacinth.

 

 This is the Forrest kids entry.

 This is Matthew's.

 This is Ryan's taken through the spit filter on his tablet! I am pretty sure this shot and the filter used is going to take off in photography circles around the globe!

 Another Matthew entry.

 A Ryan entry with a slightly cleaner filter.

This is what the majority of entries looked like! A whopping great big shadow over some random flower!

 

But this is our winner! Taken by Benjamin Rickard.

 

 He wins a packet of smarties for his efforts!

(Or he would have had I not eaten them first before deciding the winner!)

Floriade with family and friends

We have been to Floriade three times already this year! And i still need to visit once more on the last day to buy Mum her discounted t-towel!

 The weather has been glorious in Canberra so far these holidays so we have been making the most of it! First of all we took Uncle Brenty who had never been despite living in Canberra for a while!

 I've taken five kids, by myself and didn't lose one of them!

 I've taken my Grandmother who has been wanting to see it for years!

 Grumpy and Nanna Bev loved it, although she kept exclaiming how there never used to be this many people visiting it when she lived here!

 

 

 Grumpy wondered how they knew he would be visiting today because the sign on the organ says "Why not take a photo with the man with a big organ!" So he insisted on having his photo taken!

 There were hundreds of perspex cranes hung in the trees when we went on the Sunday but when we went back the following Wednesday they had all disappeared!

 Three garden gnomes in a flower bed!

Picture perfect.....for five monsters!

 

 However the frame is not one size fits all!

 We had to have our photo taken with the boat of flowers that Ben's friend Alyssa help plant on a school excursion with the green team.

 The view from the Ferris wheel which I took all five kids on and I was guessing it was because there were so many of us in the carriage was why it swung so much and most of us were petrified the whole time!

 Hardly any people there on the Wednesday unlike the previous Sunday when I had taken nan and Mum and there were millions and you could hardly move!

The highlight of Floriade so far was Ben being called up to help by a street performer. When the guy asked for helpers he asked all of the ugly, naughty people who wanted to help and Ben was the most enthusiastic of all the ugly, naughty kids so he got picked! He was quite entertaining, when the guys asked him where he lived he told the whole crowd our exact street address including phone number! So whilst i have the know your own address thing down pat with him we may have to work on privacy issues!

All in all we have all loved Floriade this year. Mainly because we have got to share it with some lovely people!