Bike Wanderings - our day in photos.

Wow wee, combining two themes at once here.  A Bike Wandering post - which I haven't done for a while.  And Our Day in Photos as part of our half hearted attempt to document the school holidays.  Yep, missed yesterday.  So what?!

Not too many words today.  I just hauled the kids into the city and back (my odometer tells me it was 17kms all up).  I'm tired.  In a good way of course.  Few things feel better than the general tiredness that a day on wheels in the sunshine leaves one with.  Though I could have done without the 44 km head/side winds.

We went to see The Gruffalo at the Opera House.  It was fantastic.  Go and see it if you can, I hear a few tickets are still available.  Here's Dex playing around on the sloped wall outside the Opera House.

Afterwards we enjoyed a picnic in the Botanical Gardens with our friends and then a slow ride home letting ourselves be distracted many times and stopping often.  

I was looking everywhere for my cycling gloves, worried I'd left them in the toilets inside the Opera House.  But no, Hugo had pinched them!

Dexter got us a new cycling map from the sydneycycleways stall in Hyde Park as we had lost ours.  They gave the kids reflective slap bands which they were very pleased about. 

Then we checked out the exhibition Sydney Life in Hyde Park - part of Art & About.  (There's some really cool looking aspects to Art & About that we're excited about.  I'll blog about it when we get along).

 

 Finished our day at Don Campos because I needed an iced chocolate!

Here they are talking to a customer through the window about their day.  

And now I'd best go think about dinner...

Happy long weekend everyone!

ANOTHER one, really?!

 Our Day In Photos

I know.  3rd day of holidays, 3rd day of blogging in a row.  It can't last people but for now I'm running with it!

We had a great day today.  We went to a workshop at the Nicholson Museum at Sydney Uni on Roman's and Etruscans.  We didn't know who else might be there and were delighted to discover that half of SHRIMPs where in attendance and I do believe that the home-schooled kidlets outnumbered the schooled kids!  Pretty funny.  

Anyway, Dexter got to dress in a toga and study ancient artefacts (wearing surgical gloves and using a magnifying glass - COOL!).  Both kids loved the create your own mythical beast activity and Dexter learnt how to write his age in roman numerals in order to make a Chariot Driver's Licence where he went by his middle name (which is far more Roman sounding than his first).  Dex even enjoyed some one on one time with a post grad student who gave him his own private tour of some of the exhibits, answering his questions in a way that was pitched perfectly for a kid who until this morning had no idea who the ancient romans were.

Dexter took the following photos of some of his favourite things.  The mummy is Horace - a 3 yr old boy, the real thing, never been unwrapped or tampered with.  Emily - our guide - explained that they took this mummy to RPA for an X-ray to discover the sex, for yrs he had been mistaken for being a girl.

On to sushi for lunch.  Dex chose his usual avocado, cucumber and eggplant rolls while Hugo ate only prawn nigiri-sushi.  Then to the art shop for supplies (pipe cleaners for Dexter) and even though it started raining quite heavily  - and we were on wheels and probably should have high-tailed it home - we stopped at the library.  Of course a book about Ancient Rome was in Dexter's pile.  The librarian kindly gave us a couple of plastic bags to protect the books from the poor weather on our way home.

Before we rode home in the rain we admired the Mary Poppins chalk drawing that has been for weeks and weeks on the ground outside the library entrance.  Isn't it cool?!

Who knew?!

School Holidays - Our Day in Photos

I can't quite believe it myself - but here you have it folks.  Not only am I blogging for the second day in a row - but this makes it my second Our Day In Photos post for the holidays.  Did I expect this?  No way!

Anyhow.  Day two of the school holidays.  Went to our favourite little piece of Sydney foreshore with friends.  Wondered where all the kids who are not in school were.  For a gorgeous spring day in Sydney I expected crowds.  Obviously they were all around the corner at Bondi Beach, poor sods.

We spent all day here....and as you can see by the final photos, came home pooped!

   

Holidays! Our day in photos...

First day of the school holidays today!  Yes, I know we home-school, but we still have holidays you know.  Our weekly home-school activities and classes follow the normal school term.

Inspired by this and my sister I thought I'd write a post about our day. However, I'm not so ambitious as to think I will do this for every single day of the holidays, no thanks.  That just ain't ever gonna happen so why set myself up for failure by pretending it will?!

I kept the camera handy with an Our Day In Photos blog post in mind.  I may do it again one day in the break, or more than once even.  But we'll just see how that unfolds shall we?

We began with a trip to the Toyota service centre to book in my car to have the broken side mirror replaced.  Hmm, I had a little run in with a pillar in a car park the other evening.  The pillar won. Anyway, what an absolutely unexciting start to the day.  The lack lustre service and $500 quote didn't help to make it any more interesting.  Oh well, lesson learnt.  Avoid concrete pillars in future.

Next up the kids rode their bikes to Don Campos where we met Will for lunch.  On the way Hugo did his usual balance bike antics - trying to keep up with Dex.  Shouting - Got to tatch up to Dexie.  Vroom!  Super ignition power booster starting...three, two, one - go!  Click-er-lee (quickly), I coming Dexie!

A little painting with water colours after lunch.

 

(Photo by Cass)

Then Dexter went out to tend to his fairy garden that he built a couple of weeks ago.  A sudden cry - Mum!  Come out here quick!  Fairies have been in my garden - look!  He held up a magic rock, found hidden beneath the twig shelter.  Well, that about made his day.  Who could have left that crystal but a fairy.  Proof!

This photo doesn't show the detail.  He's lovingly created a little shelter out of twigs, there's a pulley system going up the sandstone garden wall, pebbles arranged just so.  Much love has gone into it.

I told the kids that Harriet and Teddy were coming over soon and Hugo decided to make Teddy a present.  He spend 20 minutes or so on this, whispering to me the whole time as it was a "sprise for Teddy".  The fact that Ted hadn't arrived yet seemed not to occur to him!
 

The rest of the afternoon was spend enjoying our visitors.  Dex showed Harriet his fairy house and then they moved on to Reading Eggs.  Well, Harriet supervised Dex doing his lessons.  (This is a child who completed the whole program in 3 weeks so I'm not kidding when I say supervise)!  Hugo and Teddy played Cafe with the pretend food and built the wooden railway set.  Cass and I managed to finish a few sentences - conversations even, oh my - while sipping our tea.

After our guests left Dexter felt compelled to make another jet pack.  Really.  One can never have enough apparently.

And while I made dinner an elaborate game had Will and I cracking up as we watched the boys - in their matching purple capes, act out a holiday.  They packed their bags with the essentials (which is another blog post altogether.  I LOVE seeing what they pack for such imaginary adventures, it never ceases to entertain me).  They flew - super hero style - between destinations (i.e the bunks and lounge).  I snapped this moment of them "relaxing at the hotel."

Hugo stayed in his dress-ups for dinner.  Look at his plate.  How embarrassing!  Boiled eggs, cheese and brown rice.  We ate an amazing shepherds pie, which Fussy Eater refused.  Well, actually, there were two pies, a vegetarian version for our resident vego Master Dexter.  Sigh.  One day, ONE DAY, we shall sit down to a meal that we all love!  Will's sweet French Toast doesn't count I'm afraid....it has far too much maple syrup to be counted as a real meal.

He makes, and makes...

Dexter continues to make stuff. So much stuff. Within an hour of returning from Vinnies with a pirate activity book on Saturday he'd churned out a sword, dagger, belt, hat and shield. He doesn't even particularly like pirates, pirate-y stuff never comes up in his role playing games, we don't even have any books about any beside Mem Fox's Tough Boris (which is hardly your typical pirate story)! It's all about the making.

This is a car racing ramp made from pencils, paper and sticky tape. He stuck one end to the drawers and the other to a pile of books. And well, sent his toy cars flying down over and over with Hugo assisting.

This is his current project pile by his craft table. Several things on the go here including a building with an external elevator (which is operated by an elaborate pulley system made from pipe cleaners), a car, 'balloon launcher' (??), several little houses and who knows what else. It's not always immediately obvious!

A large paper bag was turned into a robot costume last week.  He made a remote control, handed it to me and told me to program the robot to do whatever I needed!  Pff - of course I programmed 'it' to tidy up the toys!  When Will got home from work we acted out an elaborate game of showing off the new robot and wondering where Dexter had got to!  He insisted on the doing the whole thing again when our friends came to visit a few days later.  Oh, what a wonderful robot you have, where did you get it?  And what have you done with Dexter, I can't see him anywhere!

It's difficult to photograph but his creations are becoming more and more detailed.  For example, this robot has a battery compartment on the back, which when opened reveals little batteries (rolled up paper) which he can remove to put their 'charger' when necessary.   Another machine he made has a little door which can be opened to view the wiring - pipe cleaners.

Dex made an Explorer's Kit for his cousin's birthday.  It included binoculars, a magnifying glass and a compass  -  all inside a home made paper bag.  He was so proud of it.  See the N, S, E, W inside the compass?  He explained that he used the compass on my iphone to get the order correct.  Ha!  I never even knew I had a compass on my phone!  On the actual day of his cousin's birthday, Dex backed out of handing the whole thing over and decided to keep the compass and magnifying glass for himself.  Lucky Austin was none the wiser at this last minute culling of his present and loved the toilet roll binoculars, thinking they were the whole gift!

A few others bits and pieces.  A wagon with wheels made from lids, some springy paper thingies and a few samples of the remote controls/mobile phones/walkie talkies that are regular props in the games he plays with Hugo.

Light and shadows

This is fun, right now.  3 and a half and almost 6.  The other morning, without any input from me ( I was hanging out washing and checking my emails and stuff like that) the boys pulled out Connect Four and played together gorgeously at the dining table.  After 20 minutes or so they switched over to Zingo for a couple of rounds.  Both following the rules and being fair to each other.  Dexter helping Hugo if he needed some direction, using his gentle speaking-to-younger-child voice that is usually reserved for his friends younger siblings or random toddlers at the park.  

Earlier they'd been throwing paper aeroplanes from the top bunk.  Dexter made one for Hugo after his version - clumsily folded paper covered in sticky tape -  failed to fly.  Lately when we go to Campos for our daily coffee fix they stand next to the old roaster playing their roasting coffee game.  "Hoogs, get ready, it's almost done."

The buds have appeared on the Crepe Myrtle!  Whoo!  Spring really is here now folks.   We are so pleased to be saying good-bye to a long wet winter.  The house if filling up with light and for longer into the afternoon, making the art of shadow making a daily activity around the 4pm mark.

What a sweet time of year this is and a sweet time in our lives.  Hitting the pause button now!  Stay three and almost 6 for a little while my boys.  We like this.