Collecting fire wood and BMX

We found a spot tucked away in some trees for the boys to practice their jumps, they rode there for a couple of hours and loved it. So did Charlie, he was being very adventurous.

Collecting firewood to warm our home.

This is a coral fungi I found when we were out collecting fire wood, very cool.

This is the most unusual fungi I have ever seen.

Charlotte Came to visit

It is always lovey to have Charlotte come to visit us. Cute cousins!!!

Chuckles loves the Garden

It's wet, it's muddy, of course he loves the garden...

Last week we attended a "Day of Knights" with some fellow home schoolers. It was heaps of fun, the kids really enjoyed it. I didn't get too many photos though as I was busy chasing Charlie around and trying to keep him out of trouble.

Josh tried his hand at "medieval writing" and making maille (chain-maille, however we learned that "maille" means "chain", so technically it isn't "chain maille"). We learned that it takes about 4 months to make one set of cloths and that a set of knights armour is about equivalent to owning an million dollar house these days. All very interesting, and right down the boys alley, they came home and made new swords.

Eli was practicing being a court jester.

A 4wding Trip to the snow

Well yes your first question might be "so wheres the snow?". I can tell you where it isn't. It isn't where we went last weekend. The kids were rather disappointed by the whole affair, they were all kitted out and had removed the wheels from their skateboards and packed in the backboards ready for some fun...damn that global warming!!! What we did find was plenty of mud, the most beautiful forest in the Yarra Ranges (and of course new fungi!!!). Not to mention an enforced lunch break at a fallen tree which proved somewhat difficult to conquer. We got there in the end, hopefully not permanent damage has been done.

First they tried to move the tree...that didn't work.
While all this was very interesting (not) I went bush in search for fungi. It was so beautiful in the forest, I would have been perfectly happy to be left there for all of the day.

The trees were tall and beautiful.

I found this fungi growing on a tree.

I'm sure we were stuck for what seemed like hours... and disappointingly we found no snow what so ever, but we did find a nice stream to stop at on the way home to cook snags for dinner and a cuppa tea. Good day regardless.

Lesson for the day: don't ever tell the kids we are going to the snow, until we are certain that we can acctually see snow.

My Beautiful Eli

This photo was taken by a friend, I think it's a lovely photo of a lovely boy.

A Morning a home

Josh built this wonderful little chair for Charlie, it's so cute, Charlie loves "sitting" on things so this chair is perfect.
Charlie loves his music, he was dancing around to some nursery rhymes and playing his own music. He is so funny, he even dances when you turn on the dishwasher and washing machine.

Eli is enjoying working his way though "Reading Eggs", undoubtedly he will learn something from it.

Noah earned himself a few dollars stamping invoices for me.

It's nice when you stop what you are doing and look around and this is what you find your children doing, time to take a deep breath and sigh...Everyone happy and busy all at the same time. Precious moment.

Mountain Biking

Eli mucking about while we were waiting for the other boys...who never turned up.

Took the boys to Lysterfield to go mountain biking. Ended up getting there a bit late so didn't get too much riding done. Josh brought one of his friends from down the road so he Josh and Noah went off riding together...and got lost! Nice one. So that's why I have no photos of any of them. Eli had a great ride and we found lots of mud. Looking forward to going again soon, probably next week.

Fishing at Safety Beach

The cutest baby in the entire known universe.

Cute baby one and cute baby four. But don't tell Josh I said he was cute. Apparently 12 yr old boys don't like being cute.
The boys talked me into a fishing trip to the beach and as the sun was shining for a change I thought we'd best go soke up some sunshine. Didn't really count on the rather brisk wind that was blowing though, and nor did the boys because of course when the sun is shining you wear shorts and t shirt regardless of the wind factor!!! So fishing lasted about 10 minutes. Chuckle had fun playing on the beach and chasing the "silly gulls" (as Eli used to call them).
Looking forward to some warmer days at the beach.

Josh Playing Footy

This is Josh first year playing AFL. It's been so good for him and he's loved every minute of it. He takes himself off to training twice a week and Matt takes him to his games on a Sunday. We love watching him play...it's very exciting and they have a great coach and a are a great team. They have made it into the grand final too, so that's awesome!!! Go Josh.

Noah