Our weekend...

Our weekend began with Adam taking James and his friend to the local skate park with their scooters. Adam stayed to supervise as they are not old enough to be left alone. I'm sure it won't be long though before having dad there will be an issue. James then visited his friend's house for the morning while Adam drove Patrick to his basketball game where he put in a great effort, with a near miss on shooting a goal. Meanwhile, Sophie enjoyed her ballet class before we attended an open day at Tintern. We spent some time with the prep teacher in the prep classroom and were pleased with what we saw and heard. Sophie still loves her pre-prep program at the ELC.

On Sunday, James played football against Glen Waverley and his team played well. They had to "borrow" three played from the opposing team as recently a few team members have left the club. The highlight of the game was James kicking his first goal for the season! It was wonderful to see him so pleased with himself.

Sunday afternoon was spent at Kassian's "Operation Birthday" at a park in the Bayside area. This was a unique experience for the children where they were divided into teams with leaders and instructed to complete "special agent training". The boys loved it and got into the spirit by applying way too much camouflage paint (which I knew was difficult to remove from previous experience with James). The party continued until dark and they all had fun running around playing "capture the flag". It was then a challenge for the parents to find their children in the dark with dark clothing and cam paint on!

About time!

Today we bid farewell to our long serving and reliable X-Trail purchased ten years ago when James was only a couple of months old. It has been a great car, but we had definitely outgrown it. After 12 months of contemplating and test driving seven seater SUVs,we are now the proud owners of our seven seater CX 9 and look forward to more spacious and luxurious journeys.

We have allocated the seats and all are happy. More space in the car equals less arguing and happy parents!

Helen's 60th

On Sunday, we celebrated my aunty Helen's 60th birthday at mum's. It was a lovely afternoon and a great chance to catch up with the family. It was one of many celebrations for Helen. She had a suprise party with her friends and mum the previous weekend at Oscar W's in Echuca.

The four generations of females in my family...

Something amusing...

Recently, we discovered broken egg shell on the grass. One of the chickens has been laying an egg outside the coop and possibly eating it or maybe Rosie was the culprit?

At 5pm yesterday, Adam went out to round up the chickens and became concerned when one was missing (Wedding Girl). After some frantic searching, he found Wedding Girl sitting in Rosie's kennel in Rosie's bed! When Wedding Girl vacated the kennel, we discovered that she had laid an egg IN the kennel!
Rosie is such a good dog, but maybe a little too submissive when the chickens can push her out of HER kennel.

If you look closely, you can see the egg in the back right hand corner of the kennel.

Andy's Pinot 40th

Adam's blog entry:

What a night! Andy turned 40 and we celebrated in style with spatchcock, duck and 400 litres of pinot from various countries. It was great catching up with the old crew and everyone else at the party seemed to immediately recognise me as "Brett's brother". So as you could imagine, the stories of Brett's global exploits got bigger as the night and pinot flowed on....my head hurts.

A visit to Olinda Falls

Today was a mild and sunny day and our last weekday of the school holidays. We decided to visit Olinda Falls with Trav, Elina and children and walk through the forest.

A day out

Today we visited William Rickett's Sanctuary at Mt. Dandenong. We enjoyed a cool walk through the gardens followed by the all important devonshire tea afterwards. Adam has been ravenous all day since his 60 km bike ride this morning with his friend, Harry.

Camping

Yesterday was our first day at home in a while and the children decided to 'set up camp' in the rumpus room for the day. They created maps, cooked camp food and were later granted permission to sleep in their tents overnight.

Our biggest egg yet!

On Easter Monday, one of our chickens (we suspect Sophie's chicken Wedding Girl) laid the largest egg so far. Once cracked open, we were surprised to see it's double yolk.

Easter

Today began with a breakfast of easter eggs followed by some cereal then MORE chocolate. I made pizzas for lunch and we were joined by Big Pa, Paul, Ben, Ula and William.

Photo by Patrick.

Then boys spent the afternoon burning off some of their excess energy playing backyard football until dark.

Photo by Patrick.

After all that chocolate, I'm not sure what I'll be feeding them for dinner because no-one seems very hungry.

James and Patrick's day out

Today, James and Patrick had a great day. Their uncles, Ben and Paul, took them to watch Essendon vs Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium. Essendon won by 25 points. Matthew provided the tickets to the Medallion Club (which I'm told are the best seats at Etihad) and both boys had to wear collars to the event. No complaints about this part, they were so excited to be going.The boys also acquired some things during the visit to Paul's apartment. Patrick was given an electric guitar that he will re-string, a sombrero, James an acoustic guitar and hat, and Sophie a vuvuzela (which came from the World Cup and is VERY noisy) and a collection of coins.

While they were at the game, Adam, Sophie and I visited Lygon St for lunch and some shopping in the city. Soph loved being the 'only child' for the afternoon.

Sophie with her afternoon tea. I was instructed to photograph her "looking at her cupcake".

Sophie's day out

Sophie and I had a girls day out last week with Laura and her two daughters. We all went to the Hi 5 concert at Monash Uni and the little girls loved being so close to the "real Hi 5 people" and dancing along to the music.

First birthday

Yesterday we celebrated baby William's first birthday. The year has gone so quickly and he alreadly looks like a little boy and is walking. He is very active and reminds us of James at the same age.
They are moving interstate soon for 2 years. We will miss them but will plan a visit.

Chickens

We have had the chickens since November and have all become quite fond of them. I have been surprised by how interesting they are to observe. Each morning, Adam or Patrick collect the four eggs. Soon they all should be laying and we'll have six each day.