Cubby House Fun

What to do on a cold, wintery morning?? Build a 'cubby owse' (as Q calls them). So in an effort to entertain two teething toddlers, a cubby house it was. After some furniture rearranging, this is what we came up with (using the most of the 'toy corner' and bookshelf). It had a sort of tunnel entrance by the wall!!


After both boys cracked the narnies, Granny very kindly came and took Q for a few hours while she did a few errands. Sebastian played very nicely (and contently) on his own, while I got stuck into the housework (in relative peace for a change).

Our very cheeky monkey (playing happily in what's left of the cubby house)!!

Here's a few snaps of the boys, taken this morning (both still in their pj's and nice warm, new, dressing gowns)! What am I talking about, Sebastian is still in his pj's!!

Sorry, this one's a bit blurry - he's waving a spatula around!!

I have to leave it at this for today!! Maybe next time we go to the park (like we did yesterday) I will remember to take my camera (and then some photo's)!!

Until next time...........LBQS

We went walking.......what did we see?

We were reading the book 'We Went Walking' with the boys this morning and it seems an appropriate title for our Easter activities!

We drove up to Launceston early on Good Friday (we left home before 7am so we could get to Church in time). Larry left straight after the service to go bush walking with a group of mates (and Heidi, the only female among 7 males). The boys and I
spent Friday/Saturday with Suzi and Eg, rather than sit at Mum's by ourselves!


So, Monday morning rolls around and we had set aside the day for some family time (same with Tuesday). We decided that a nice trip to Lilydale Falls was on the agenda. We did the walk to both sets of falls (quite short walks) and Q had a great time walking and exploring.

After our 'walk' we sat by the playground and enjoyed lunch and a drink before heading off for a drive. We got a bit lost, Larry's GPS lost the plot and the map was fairly useless. We followed forestry roads that were rather rough and bumpy and one was supposedly closed when we got to the other end of it (we did have to get out of the car and move a big tree branch). We did eventually find our way home again, a bit later than we hoped, and not in time to cook dinner (which I was going to do for mum and dad).

Tuesday was another beautiful sunny day! We decided Tamar Island was the go as Larry has been wanting to go there for a while. This time mum came with us! We spent a lovely 2 hours meandering to the island, over the island and back to the car (via the vistors centre). Quinlan did a lot of walking again (and exploring). We watched plenty of mud crabs, birds and a beautiful sea eagle soaring on wind currents. We crossed several bridges (I think 4) which Q thought was just marvelous (he has a bridge obsession, if you can go under something, it must be a bridge).

Needless to say, we had very tired little boys on the drive home on Tuesday night (Sebastian mostly hitched rides, but did a little bit of walking, he tends to go anywhere but the direction you are going in).

WARNING: Some viewers may find the following photo's disturbing!!!

Parental Guidance recommended for those under the age of 90. Heart attack or shock may ensue upon viewing these images! We take no responsibility for any health associated issues that arise from viewing these images!!

:=D

Ok, so maybe not that disturbing, but I thought we better show you Larry's new look (which happened over a week ago already!)!!

Will hopefully update with photo's from our Easter weekend soon!

Til then......

Mmmmmm.......

Need I say more?? Making hot cross buns at Easter is becoming a bit of a tradition in this house! Can't wait to eat them (breakfast on the go for tomorrow, in the car)!!

We hope you all have a happy and safe Easter as we remember the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour, in His death on the cross and His resurrection.

Love Larry, Bj, Quinlan and Sebastian

Mop Chop!!

On the weekend we ventured up to Launceston for the weekend to catch up with the family! While we were at it, we visited the family hair dresser for a much needed mop chop for the boys! This was Sebastian's first 'proper' hair cut (he has had a fringe trim before). Here are the before and after photo's (no before photo's of Q though!!).

The mullet before!

Looking at the world through hair (as opposed to eyes)!

I can see!!

I look like a little boy again!

Quinlan have fun climbing!

Thanks Aunty Laura for your wonderful work! Our little boys now look like cheeky little boys instead of shaggy ragamuffins!!

Til next time............

Update!

How time flies these days! It's been a month since we updated the blog last! We've hardly taken any photos of anything at all, except for today! Not very many photo's to share today then!

It's a long weekend here and we are enjoying time in the garden! God has given us the most beautiful, glorious autumn days which we are hoping to make the most of! So off to the hardware shop we went for some plants, fertiliser and some bits n bobs. Home again to begin the list of projects for today!

Projects this weekend have consisted of mostly getting the garden beds tidied up, overgrown shrubs whacked with Larry's chopper things and weeding (Saturday's work). Today we have managed to get back into the veggie garden and we've planted seeds for carrots, parsnips and swedes after turning over the soil and fertilising (ok, I did that bit while Larry planted some other plants - red/black currants). So now we wait.....

Next on the to do list is to finish clearing more weeds in the veggie garden to plant seed potatoes. Then to start cabbage (red and green) and kale seedlings and they will be transferred once the beans and tomatoes are finished. I think we will also have young leeks to transplant once we find them amongst the weeds!

We are still picking an abundance of beans and tomatoes! Looks like I will be busy making the 3rd lot of tomato relish for this year (previous years I have had to horde the tomatoes to get the 1.5kg needed to make one yield of the recipe I use). I have also been busy with the 100's of apples that our tree has produced making them into pies and stewing them (into appelmoes). Our freezer and pantry are getting very full!!

We had also decided earlier in February to go strawberry picking so I could make jam! Some 3kg of strawberries later we had lots of jam! We also had enough nectarines (2kg) from our tree to make jam, and then more later to stew and freeze (and fresh ones to eat). This was the first year we actually got any edible and decent size nectarines from our tree!

Anyway, enough gardening news!! Some photo's to share of the boys enjoying the sunshine today, playing outside, 'helping' with the gardening and getting filthy dirty in the process (thats what boys do right??)!!

Quinlan the thoughtful one!

Watch out rabbit, I'm coming to 'pat' you!

This is how one gets around outside when they are not walking yet
(very funny to watch and he's very quick too)!

Well.....it's time to get back to organising and cooking dinner! I think it's also time to rescue Larry from 'The Destructor' (aka Sebastian) who is carefully destroying the sleepout while Larry attempts to study!

Til next time........Larry, Bj n boys!

Camping!

Ok, so here it is, finally!! Camping! The adventure we embarked on one fine Saturday morning in January, albeit a few days later than planned due to rain and flooding!

We arrived in St Helens (at Dora Point) to set up camp in a humid 28 degrees! We didn't have the worry of trying to find a decent camping spot as Suzi had already set up in a good spot a few days earlier. I left Larry and John (Bos) to set up the tent, as Larry and I always differ (heatedly) on how and where to set it up! Suzi, Eg and I took the two boys (and assortment of dogs) to the beach to cool off and play in the sand!

Our tent (and Spud)

Sebastian spent most of his (sleep) time sleeping in the stroller under the trees! He did have a bed in the tent!

Suzi's camp (we had a short driveway and a Y shaped camp - we were on the right, she was on the left)!

We spent a very relaxing week camping in beautiful warm weather! Only one light shower as far as rain went, and one overcast day compared to the 200+ mm of rain that had fallen in St Helens (and surrounds) the few days before we arrived! We spent many hours just sitting and reading or talking, playing on the beach with kids and dogs, swimming (for the brave as the water is quite cold), surfing (aka body boarding), sitting around the fire and fishing. We didn't get in as many walks as we would have liked, but we had to leave something for next time!

'The' fishing spot (at high tide, you could only fish off these rocks at low tide)

Every man and his dog (fishing)! The dogs were no longer allowed to go fishing after Spud ate the bait and Bella (Patrick's dog) ate something and got sick!

Quinlan having a turn at fishing (gotta start them young!)!

Look Daddy! A fish! (not an edible one, it was a Rass which Larry put in a rock pool so Q didn't start thinking that fish don't have heads!! It was returned to the water, a bit stunned but none the worse for wear!)

This one is edible! Patrick with an Australian Salmon (I think this was the biggest one they caught)!

The boys had a blast playing on the beach and in the makeshift sand pit at our camp site. Sebastian tried gourmet food, aka beetles (yep, that one was accompanied by a very strange face), an assortment of leaves, twigs, sticks and rocks and then proceeded to eat half of the camp site! Quinlan tried his hand at fishing and surfing (on Daddy's 'boat').

The beach!

Running on the beach (for once he didn't make a beeline for the water)!

It didn't last long though! Having fun with Aunty Suzi in the water!

We had a very enjoyable week, and came home relaxed, tanned and energized for the new year. We thank our Heavenly Father that He gives us such opportunities to spend time together and relax as a family!

I hope to be back in the next few days to add some more photos and edit this post! Right now, the photos are misbehaving and disappearing and I don't have the patience to find them!

Til then.....

Happy Birthday!

It was a year ago today that Sebastian came into our lives! Just a little scrap of a boy at 3.315kg.

(insert newborn photo, I can't access them from the laptop at the moment!)

Now a big boy at 9.48kg (still on the smaller size for his age)!


We are so richly blessed to have him in our lives. Happy Birthday dear Bubba! May God continue to surround you with His love and care! We hope that today is filled with the joy that only birthdays can bring!

Opening Presents!

The Ride-on that converts to a walker!
The Ball Popper!

Hopefully there will be some more photos to follow, and I had better do the camping photo's soon! We have a small BBQ planned for Sunday evening in Launceston to celebrate Sebastian's birthday!

Til then....

This is why I've been MIA!!

Just so you don't think I haven't updated the blog cos I'm lazy, I've been busy making these!!


Maybe I should have said this, as it only shows one (of two)! But, I made curtains for the boys room. After scouting high and low, far and near for curtains that I liked and were suitable (as in block out and the right colour) I came to the decision that the only way I would get what I wanted was to make them (might as well put the sewing machine to good use seeing as I co-own one these days)! So last Saturday, while Larry was having fun in WA (he actually would have been on his way over), the boys and I set off to Spotlight to buy materials, and lining and all things needed! This is the result of a weeks work (during children's nap times and once they were in bed at night)!

Their room was painted back in July last year and below is a pic of the feature wall and Q's bed!



I had to quickly make Q's bed before taking the photo (and line up all his stuffed animals)! S's bed was also unmade so it didn't get a feature this time!

I hope to update the blog with WA and camping photo's next week if I get time!

So, until then, we bid you farewell!!

We are still in the land of the living!!

Time to post a few recent pics seeing as I've done the email update! Things are fairly quiet on the home front, as we all recover from our bugs! We are looking forward to heading off to WA on the 27th of December, so blog updates may be a few and far between until closer to the end of January.

Quinlan and Sebastian enjoying the water on a warm spring day!

Chubba Bubba and his fingers!

One wet afternoon in November, the 27th to be precise, we had an end of year/farewell Church BBQ for the group in Hobart. Quinlan and his little friend Jedidiah had great fun playing in the rain (hence the drowned rat look) and playing peek-a-boo with one of the poles from the BBQ shelter (they could see each other through it and were blowing raspberries and giggling like girls).







And.........Sebastian's latest trick, there have been a few, has been to pull himself up onto his knees. The rocking moose was just the right height to practice this new trick on! These photo's are the most recent, taken just this morning!!

Toothy grin!

Very proud of this achievement!

Well that's all for this time! We hope and pray that you all have a blessed Christmas and we hope too see many of you soon!

Love Larry, Bj, Quinlan and Sebastian