A peak inside our week

Term 4 is a busy one for us with regular classes and activities on every day of the week apart from Wednesday.  On Thursday last week I decided to attempt capturing each day in photos.  Not beautiful photography, but moments of our day snapped here and there....simply for prosperity.

Thursday looks a little like this each week.  Yes.  I'm starting with Thursday, why ever not?!

 First stop of the day is always coffee of course.

Will bought the boys these Colombian soccer shirt on a trip there earlier this year.  They're thrilled to be able to wear them with a purpose now and truth be told so am I.  Call me a snob, but I've just never been into the sports wear as casual fashion look.

 

Onto SHRIMPs, our local homeschool meet where the children engage in imaginative play with dear friends for hours and hours.  This week it centred around making ochre paint from crushed rocks.  Many trips were made to the picnic rugs for vessels to contain this wonderful stuff.  Will got a couple of nasty surprise in the form of mud-filled lunch containers later that evening when he was doing the dishes.  I've suggested to Dex that he take some takeaway containers next time he thinks such things might be necessary at SHRIMPs because frankly, our beautiful stainless steel lunch boxes are too precious to be filled with filthy park-mud.  Gross.

One of their friends wasn't there on Thursday so the children made a sign:  Wanted!  Olivia T to turn up!  (Unfortunately it didn't have the desired effect.  But I'm sure Olivia would be pleased to know she was so missed).

Lunch was homemade nori rolls made by moi.  Dedication or what?  We began eating gluten free last week as Hugo has tested positive to an intolerance.  The rest of us have also been tested and are awaiting results but in the meantime its easier on Hugo if we all join him in his gluten free world.  (We are all feeling fantastic by the way, even thought it DEOS require far more forethought and planning and rolled-at-the -park lunches.  Did you know that just about all bought sushi rice contains gluten in the form of wheat glucose in the seasoning- what a drag huh?).

It was impossible to tear the children away from their play this week.  But isn't the late afternoon light lovely?  I believe it was close to 7pm before we left.  I love day light savings and anyone who doesn't is crazy!

Next post...how Fridays in our world look at the moment.

The Homecoming of Daddy!

Will has had a LOT of travelling in recent months, more than ever before.  Of course each time we drop him off at the airport is eventually followed somewhere between 7 and 14 days later by picking him up!  Which is the fun part.

We have the whole Daddy-is-home today routine down.  We always pick him up from the airport even when it means setting the alarm clock for 5.30am *shudder*.  Things tend to unfold the same way each time and I've been meaning to try and photo-document it for yonks but somehow slipping behind the lens of my camera at these times feels harder than normal.  We just want to revel in Will being home!

On Monday Will returned from his latest trip (Sulawesi, Indonesia).  This was a particularly special one though as its his final big (as in a week or more in length) trip away now for a looooong time.  He'll still have to duck away for the odd overnight trip and there's the possibility of one or two 3 to 4 day trips between now and baby number 3 arriving, but by and large there's nothing scheduled and no big coffee events on the calendar that involve Will leaving the country for some months now.  Yay!!


As soon as we get in the door Will unpacks his bag for show and tell.  We take a quick look at his photos.  Later when the kids are in bed we take a proper look and its always, always interesting to me.  (In Sulawesi he was able to photograph a traditional funeral procession including the slaughtering of bulls and seeing the preserved deceased - usually dead for several years before the funeral - adorned in sun glasses with a cigarette in his or her mouth.  I'm not kidding.  I really mean it when I say interesting!)

The children become acquainted with any figurines or artefacts given to him by the local coffee farmers or bought by Will to either adorn our home or one of our espresso bars or the office.  There's often a t. shirt or cupping spoon or coffee mug inscribed with the logo of whichever Cup Of Excellence Will has been a judge at.  Foreign money and anything with foreign text on it usually captures the boys attention too.  They have a collection of foreign coins and notes which is growing at a rate with all the exotic travel daddy has been doing.

Will then enjoys a long shower (often he is so far off the beaten track beyond the land of flushing toilets and running hot water so that first shower is divine every time!) and we head out for...well of course, for coffee!

 (nobody wants to hold mummies hand when they haven't held daddy's for so long)

Will being the passionate madman that he is jumps straight into telling our staff about his latest adventure.   No matter how jet lagged he is, he will without fail drop by the warehouse and office to check in and see what he missed.  And the afternoons are nearly always spent with him in the kitchen preparing something delicious.  The food can be rather hit and miss when you're off on coffee adventures and for a food lover, being back in his own kitchen is where its at.  After solo parenting I love that he loves to cook so much.

Over the next couple of days the children share with dad the things he missed (this time it was Dexter's first sleepover guest, watching a performance by an Aboriginal musician and a visit from nanny); as do I.  Last week while he slept on a wooden slat bed (no mattress!) in the village chiefs' hut high up in the mountains beyond the reaches of Wi-Fi or even radio news broadcasts in english Will completely missed this awesome event and he made my heart sing when he sat down and watched it in full twice, feeling just as thrilled by it as I was upon watching it.

We miss Will terribly when he is away but we really love it when he gets home.

Smelly shoes and underpants

Last week the boys set up a cafe and served their customers the days specials.  Which were according to them Smelly Shoes and Dirty Underpants.  Cue hysterical laughter.  Yes, the humour of 4 and 6 yr olds; hilarious!  They laughed and laughed as they served their meals to Monkey, Baby and all their friends.

Later that day I opened the freezer to discover a lovely little dish of frozen mud.  Completely unrelated to their cafe play I'm told.  Part of An Experiment.  Ah huh!  These are the little details that I hope to remember about this time in our lives when my sons are taller than me and their shoes actually stink for real.

Where oh where have we been?!

I can tell you where I haven't been very much in recent weeks.  Here!  Sitting at the computer; blogging. Here's a few of my excuses as to why poor little We Be has been so very neglected for so very long.  But at the end of the day, they're just excuses.  I simply haven't been making time to record the little comings and goings of our lives here and its time that stopped people!

1.  I am gestating.  And we all know how much energy that can take up.  Seriously though, the first trimester was a blur of down to the bone exhaustion and round the clock nausea.  Will had more overseas travel than usual so I was solo parenting throughout much of it and maintaining this little space fell way down the list of priorities alongside such tasks as avoiding a car interior that doesn't resemble a bomb sight and cleaning the smudge marks off the mirrored wardrobe doors.  I recently announced our newest family member with this graphic on Facebook.  Cute huh?!

2.  Term 3 was busy, busy, busy.  (Term 4 looks set to be busier still....arghhh).  It included not only all our usual classes and social groups but also extra activities during Science Week in August, attending our first opera performance (Hansel and Gretel), running around to appointments for Hugo's ongoing ezcema /tummy problems and starting the long process of designing a plan for the renovation of our house with our wonderful architect.  Oh yes, and squashed in there were my prenatal appointments with my beautiful midwife, a regular babysitting favour for a neighbour and a huge family reunion organised by my mum.  Did I mention Will's travel schedule during this time?  He swung through Colombia (twice), El Salvador, Canada, United States, Nassau and Papua New Guinea.  Its possible I've forgotten somewhere too.  One can hardly keep track!

I mustn't leave out a couple of rather impressive milestones that Dexter achieved during the past couples of months.  He attended his first ever sleep over without a hiccup.  It was Carmella's 9th birthday party and Dexter had a ball along with 8 of his friends staying up late dancing to Bananarama, watching Madagascar and choreographing and performing various 'shows'.


Dexter also performed in his first piano recital.  We have been attending our end of term piano concerts since Dexter began lessons 12 months ago but he wasn't feeling ready to participate until now.  He played Go Tell Aunt Rhody.  Hugo also insisted on performing even though he has only been having lessons for one term and is very much at the beginning of things shall we say?!  His performance involved bowing, sitting at the piano to play the Busy Busy Stop Stop rhythm with his thumb on C and bowing again to finish - the whole thing taking about 45 seconds!

                                      

Another big event that took place last term was the birth of my niece Hayley.  She arrived in a big hurry into my brothers waiting arms in their home while the car sat running the driveway for a trip to the local birthing suite which never eventuated.   What a champion her mama is, she made it all look so easy and stayed cool, calm and collected throughout.  A few days later Cass and I enjoyed an extremely fun 24 hour road trip - without our husbands or children, oh my - so I could meet my gorgeous new niece and Cass could capture her first days in the world with her wonderful photography skills.  (All up 7 hours of driving time and still we hadn't finished our conversation when I dropped her home late at night...one just never runs out of things to talk about with ones best friend does one?!).

photo by Cass

3.  We have been overseas, albeit briefly.  The trip was for exactly 14 days start to finish and we literally travelled to the opposite side of the globe then back again.  That's a lot of air miles and sitting around in airports.  When we weren't on an airplane we enjoyed teasing tastes of New Orleans, Boston and the main event which was spending 6 days with Granny Kim and Papa Ward on their beautiful boat Goodtimes in the Bahamas.  Divine.  (I hope this is enough photos for you mum)!

 Above: Dexter driving the dingy above and below: my belly and I hanging with the nurse sharks.  

We spent hours on various beaches accessible only by the dingy.  Not a footprint or sign of a human in sight.  Who knows how long since the last child wrote his name in the sand here.

Hugo had a go at driving the dingy with Papa Ward giving instruction.  Can you spot the giant iguana below?  A whole island full of them!  And they're not very appreciative of human visitors.  Some of the worlds most amazing real estate and essentially owned by iguana's.  How awesome!

This is the Compass Cay marina.  The entire area is a national park/marine conservation in the Bahamas too divine for words, where we moored Goodtimes for a few days.  Only the island caretaker Tucker and his family live here and in 5 days we only saw 2 other boats visiting.  Uncrowded is an understatement.

The children found a treasure map in a bottle just bobbing around in the water beside the boat, no kidding!  They followed the map to buried treasure on the other side of the island.  The whole adventure thrilled them beyond belief.  Below, Will checking in on work.  What a crappy location to check your emails from huh?  

Will jumped moments after this photo.  I videoed it however YouTube doesn't like me lately so you wont be able to see for yourself.

 Captain Steve involved the children in the lowering of the anchor when we spent the night 'on the hook' at a place known as Shroud which is on the way back to Nassua from Compass Cay.

Arriving back in Nassau to the marina at Atlantis.  It felt positively bustling after Compass Cay where we saw no more people than I have fingers.  

I will try to put together a few photos of our time in New orleans and Boston too but not today, I've reached my limit with sitting here patiently watching photos upload.

And that must conclude my attempt at a catch up post.  I have every intention of making more time for maintaining this blog from now on...if I don't and you happen to see me please feel free to poke me!  A little pushing and prodding might be necessary with our busy schedule of classes and courses this term and as I enter the later stages of pregnancy.  But I'm determined to keep things a little more current around here.  Wish me luck!

Hot glue gun - yeah baby!

One night before bed* last month Dexter made this:

They're dogs, on a mission to the moon.  Complete with stretchy bodies, tails, legs and detailed faces.  Made from paper and sticky tape and little foil in the background attached to their space ship.  I have no idea where he gets these ideas from, and as for constructing it in 3D?!  I love this kids creativity.

It gave me an idea.  Mum gave me a hot glue gun for my birthday last year which was still sitting in its packet on my sewing shelf.  Time we put it to use!  I raided the craft stuff and found these chipboard wooden bases along with a pile of other stuff.   We made a trip to the art store for a few extras like that fake bush/foliage stuff folks use in miniature train sets.  I figured if Dex could be so creative with paper and sticky tape, he would enjoy the process of making scenes/sets/fairy homes with the ease and convenience of a hot glue gun.    

 Dexter carefully planned a fairy house, drawing his ideas first, measuring and counting out little wooden cubes for the mini dwelling...generally attacking it in his usual, thoughtful way.  I handled the glue gun at all times - it really isn't safe for little people - and the children gave me directions on where to dab the next glob of glue.  The details are hard to see in a photo but here is his little fairy house including bunk beds, a doily rug, a fridge with doors that open and close, an indoor vertical garden (someone has been looking at renovation ideas with me!) and an outside garden.

Hugo took to the project in an entirely different way, with less planning and more of an organic approach.  He calls this a Camping Area.  There is a little sleeping bag and pillow down the back and various strange 'rock' and natural formations.  A little box contains treasures for the scary diamonte-eyed camper (middle foreground) to discover.

Hot glue guns rock!  They stink like nothing else - we were doing this on a freezing rainy day so didn't have any doors or windows open which was probably a bad idea.  The tip gets incredibly hot as does the glue and I received a couple of little burns to prove it.  The glue begins to dry in seconds and is completely set within 1 minute.  So easy.  We will do this again soon.

*I mentioned in my last post his night owl nature.  He is definitely the personality type that gets his creative jiggy on in the later part of the evening.  Wonder where he gets that from?  Hugo and Will on the other hand are morning people through and through.  

Hugo's drawings

Today I finally got around to photographing some of the HUGE pile of drawings that Hugo has created in recent months.  He loves drawing and is more and more interested in writing words and letters too.  He can write a few words by heart such as Hugo, Dex, Mum, Dad, go, stop, dog...though he can be rather creative with the order of the letters.  Many of his 'words' are completely made up, often with actual letters of the alphabet, often letter-like scribbles.  He likes me to spell out words as he writes them and checks each letter first by drawing it in the air and saying 'S is like this, isn't it mum?' etc.

I bought him a few workbook style early literacy activity books, you know the type; where he can trace the letters, circle which pictures on the page begin with that letter, draw a line between capital and lower case letters and so on.  He is much more into these than Dexter was who basically said - why would I trace over the same letter, repeatedly across the entire page when I've just done it once already?!  Having said that, Dexter is really into the currant workbooks I bought him (Excel's Science and Technology Ages 6-8 and a few of those cheapie School Zone publications like First and Second Grade Basics).  He hasn't spent more than 5 minutes with the Targeting Handwriting NSW Foundation Style 1 student book which was waste of $15!  And if you saw his shocking handwriting you would believe me!  Plenty of time for him to work on that though.  And it doesn't hurt to have a few of the BOS recommended workbooks around for our homeschooling records/resources...whether or not he uses them.  We can hand them onto Hugo anyway if his love for tracing letters continues.

Anyway, onto those drawings by Hugo:

He has a habit of adding little love hearts midway through someones name - naw!

I included the pen below to show perspective - how tiny and perfect is his name?  He drew this a few weeks ago, recently he has been drawing his g's backwards.

These three little letters were made early one morning - apart from Will who leaves the house at the ungodly hour of 6am or so Hugo is still the first one out of bed in this house.  This day he wrote some letters for Dexter (whose preferred sleeping pattern is one of the night owl like his mama) and placed them all around his sleeping head so that he would see them straight away upon waking.  He explained that they say 'To Dexter, Love Hugo' and include portraits of them both.