Face Painting

For Eliza's birthday she was given some face paint. This was something that I wasn't too keen for her to have. Didn't really want face paint at random times, the mess and the stress of what she could do with it. So I put it safely away. It came out for the Covid Swans game at home, then went away again. When I pulled it out to do Eliza's cheeks for her book parade she was keen to do some face painting. On the weekend I decided to let them have a go, and she actually did really well.

She asked me if I wanted a rainbow so she painted a rainbow at the beach.

Alexander was keen to have his face painted too. He asked for a bee, and then asked if Thomas could be painted on his hand. Eliza did a really good job painting Thomas. She really is creative and has a good eye for detail. She also had to include some love hearts. Then he wanted to be like Mummy and have a rainbow as well on his other cheek.

Daniel also wanted to do some face painting. Eliza told him that she wanted to paint his face first. He asked for a zombie from Plants vs Zombies. I wasn't sure how she would go but she did an awesome job! She even included the red tie.

Then Daniel got to paint Eliza's face and hand. She asked for Catgirl from PJ Masks, which Daniel did a really good job of, on her hand.

She asked for a unicorn to be painted on her cheek, which was tricky to do but Daniel did his best.

Then she asked for a butterfly on her other cheek. 

What I loved about this activity was that the kids were so very encouraging of each other. They commented 'I love it', and 'that looks really good' and 'you did a good job'. They could have spoken poorly but they were just so excited to have their faces painted. I guess it was a good gift idea and need to remember to pull it out one day these holidays to occupy the kids.

Confidence when Riding

Alexander has really grown in confidence with his riding. He is keen to ride longer distances and go up hills. He does well standing up to go as far up a hill as he can.

He has also started to ride on the pavers and have the control to avoid the obstacles along the way. Previously he has just used the scooter saying that it is too hard to turn the corners. I do like that his confidence has grown.

Return to the Reptile Park

Term 4 I have been trying really hard to go for an adventure with Alexander on Wednesdays because this year will be our last day of nothing on regularly with just the 2 of us. Next year he will be at preschool 3 days a week, Thursdays will be Mother’s Group and Fridays will be swimming and Nana and Poppy coming around (I am hoping this continues ;-) ).

Our first adventure was to the Reptile Park, one of Alexander’s favourite places to go. He has been desperate to go for so long. 

Of course our first stop was to see Elvis the crocodile. He was keen to feed the kangaroos but they were digging up the grass so we weren’t able to see them, but maybe a future trip we will feed them.

We went up to see the platypus who was happily playing in the waterfall. I do love the platypus. It is such a happy animal. As we left the room we met a keeper who had a parrot on her arm. She kindly asked Alexander if he wanted to pat it. He was hesitant but did. The parrot is apparently learning how to behave at the front desk.

Alexander had a great time looking at the map, working out where we were and then deciding where we go next. 

He was excited to see a lizard on the path that we were walking along, not in an enclosure.

We went and saw the tawny frogmouths and the owls. Such fun birds. They were so close to us too.

We then went over to listen to a bit of the keeper talk. Alexander got to pat an alligator but he wasn’t keen to get a photo with one. He does love this animal though.

We headed back over to Hugo for his walk. Because the grass was being laid again, we had the chance to go into Hugo’s enclosure to say hi and give him a pat. What a special treat!

We then finished the day with watching Elvis be fed. 

Always very cool to watch! Thanks for the adventure Alexander!

Choc Chip Cookies

Eliza loves the idea of baking, especially something sweet. One week she asked me if we could make some chic chip cookies. I happened to have the ingredients so we could. 

We mixed the ingredients and rolled the dough into balls and placed them on the tray to cook. It was fun doing it with her.

While Eliza and I were making the cookies, Alexander wanted to copy in the play kitchen. He pretended to have different ingredients, mixed them together in the mixing bowl and then wanted to put cookies on the trays. I told him that he could make some cookies out of paper and put them on a tray. He was keen to do that. I do love the creativity that he shows when he does pretend play. He is really enjoying cooking in his kitchen while I cook. 

The cookies turned out perfectly too! Thanks Eliza! Apparently Alexander’s cookies were really nice too :-)

First Summer Swim

 For most of winter the kids have been asking to go for a swim in Judy's pool. Obviously I have responded saying that it is too cold. But October saw us have a few warmer days so we took advantage of using Judy's pool. The water was pretty cold but the kids loved being able to go for a swim. They are also getting to the stage where I don't need to be in the water with them all. Alexander isn't confident on his own to swim, but he is happy swimming with a noodle which is an improvement on last year.

Pool supervision

He did come and join me in supervising the swim.

They had a blast jumping in, diving, swimming, playing.

They enjoyed doing some noodle races too.

Their finished places (Daniel and Eliza kindly let Alexander win this race)

Happy kids.
 

The Back Wall

 Our back wall as really been a labour of love! A 2 year long process. I'm so very proud of James and all the work that he has done to bring my mountain of weeds from a dream to a reality. I love that his dad and my dad have helped out with this area and helping bring it together. I wish that Malcolm would be able to see it. He would be so proud of James and all this he has done. 

Over the long weekend we did the finishing touches to the back wall - fixing a couple of corners so that soil wouldn't flow out from it. We got a lot of soil dumped out the front of the house which we then wheelbarrowed to the back wall. It was a bit of a play to make it work. The wall is taller than the wheelbarrow so we couldn't just fill it and then tip it in. I was filling the barrow and then shoveling the dirt into the wall but that was making dirt fall on the pavers and there was no chance of that working on the top wall. Then I came up with the idea of filling buckets and putting them into the barrow and then filling that way. Worked really well! And worked with the kids too so that there wasn't dirt everywhere.

The kids did a great job at filling the buckets for me (I had to be ok with them sitting in the dirt at times and getting really messy. They were having a blast and were being pretty helpful).

Over 2 days we managed to fill the wall ready for plants!

On the Monday of the long weekend Mum and Dad were amazing and had the kids for a while so that James and I could head to a couple of nurseries to look at plants and buy some. We really had no idea what we were looking for, what would work, what we would like. It was a bit overwhelming too. We headed first to Plants Plus Cumberland Forest. They were great! The people who work there were really friends and gave helpful advice. They weren't pushy. They just listened to what we asked and pointed us in the right direction. We decided that we would try planting some clippings of lavender (for Grandma), we found a dwarf banksia that we thought would look lovely and some Cuphea with white flowers that we thought looked really cute. We also found some plants for upstairs. We bought some potting mix for natives that we mixed into the soil before planting and also some regular potting mix.

We took those plants home and then headed to Flower Power. It was a lot more overwhelming and the people there didn't feel as welcoming or helpful. We found the plant that James wanted to plant for Malcolm - Prostanthera Rotundifolia. This plant was at his house growing up so is a lovely connection to his family and his dad. We also found a violet version of the Cuphea so got that. We now need to get kangaroo paw (it has been very popular laterly) and Buxux hedges for along the top.

We headed back to get the kids and then came home to start planting. The first plant that we put in was the Prostanthera.  I will let James' words speak for this part because they are so heartfelt and meaningful and I want to remember them. He posted this on Facebook.

'It’s been a long two years, but the back wall and new garden bed are finished - and plants started going in today. Dad helped me with so much of this and I’ll forever be thankful for that (handyman, I am not). While it was sad he couldn’t see the finished product, the first plant that went in was for Dad - a Prostanthera Rotundafolia, a beautiful native plant that he loved and has a great connection to my childhood.'

We finished planting the plants that we had and the wall looked lovely.

I went around and picked up the table and chairs from Mum and Dad's place that was Grandma's. I love that it is here and it works so well in the corner.

The kids were pretty keen to use the table as soon as they saw it.
 

The last addition that I made was including the lorikeets that Anne, Angus and the kids gave to us after Malcolm and Grandma passed away. She sent them with a note saying while it won't bring them back it will give us a reminder that they are looking down over us each day. They are very cute!

Chilli looks like she approves of it all too, even though it has freaked her out with all the changes.

What a wonderful transformation! Again, so proud of James and all the work he has put into it! This back area just makes me smile. I can't wait for the plants to grow and fill the space. 

When we bought the place it looked so brown and dry. (all the mulch that covered up the weeds.) I never liked this back area and always dreamed of having a retaining wall with plants in it.)

This is how it looked before James started working on the back wall, just after the boys build the staircase extension. I'm so glad that they did because it kickstarted the work that needed to be done as we had no path to the back. It was a constant mountain of weeds, lots of greenery but it just wasn't neat or nice looking. The plants on the sides were massive and took over. I tried a few times to neaten it up an it just didn't work.

The finished product Painted pipe, wall done, some plants, table and chairs. We are in the process of getting rid of the clothes line at the back, which will just open up the grass area. I'm just so so happy with the outcome!