Lies????

Little Miss 3 (is just a week away from being Little Miss 4!), keeps getting caught telling lies. Oh dear, but the worst thing is sometimes I can't tell, until her big brother ratts her out!

So today, when Master 5 told me his sister ate one of those blueberries, I asked her and she said yes. It just so happens those blueberries happen to be a weed (knotweed I think). When I asked her, she said she did and also fed Rusty some too, so I told her that was naughty and they are poisonous.

At this point my mind starts racing, oh dear, what has she done?  Keeping an eye on her for the rest of the afternoon, she showed no signs of any distress. This evening, before I put her to bed I asked just one more time and she now changes her story to 'no, I did not eat them'.

I stared her down for a minute, asked again, and she began to have a worried look on her face. She was just about in tears, so I asked what was wrong. She sulkily replied she did not know they were poisonous. Giving her a big cuddle I had to reassure her she was ok.

This seemed to work, so we had another chat about eating things out of the garden (which she now says she didn't), as this was not the first time.

I love my kids, and pray nothing bad ever happens to them. Tomorrow, after having mown today, I will check the yard over again for those naughty weeds, just to be safe!

It is not supposed to happen to me!

When we go away the kids get sick or hubby gets injured, but I am usually all good and the 'carer', cleaning up messes and fussing over injuries.

Unfortunately, these holidays the tables have turned. Not in a bad way (thank goodness), just a slight muscular injury meaning I can't do many things with my main arm.

I read a post from a friend saying you can do anything with one hand when you have to hold a baby, and you know, I think I would rather have to hold a baby than have an injured arm. I can't hang out the washing, brush my hair, get dressed, the list goes on.  Even going to town (hubby driving) with the kids holding my hand, I am so scared they will jump up and pull my arm down.

It is frustrating as these things don't uaually happen to me. And all I did was lift my Little Man so he could see a boat.

Oh well, I think it might be time for a rum! To be consumed with the aid of my left hand of course. Enjoy your holidays.

Rules and more rules

Dropping Master 5 at school this morning, I was on my way back out across the oval when I saw a teacher walking towards the children playing on the oval.

There are rules in our little school that morning time is to sharpen pencils and such to get ready for the day, not to play. Now, I am really frustrated with this in the first instance as at the beginning of the year the children were banned off the fort before school due to lack of supervision. A decision was made and the kids could play on the fort if a parent was supervising them. Aside from this they were told to get some equipment out and play on the oval. Fair enough I thought.

As the year has progressed, rules have changed and now (as I mentioned), mornings are for day prep to avoid injury, they are no longer allowed to play. So when these children were told off for playing marbles on the oval I was a little irate. I don't ever recall getting injured playing marbles as a kid, and kids are spending 6hours a day at school, I don't see the harm in letting them have that 10 minutes of extra play before school in 'their time'.

Master 5 came home at the beginning of the week and we told him we were having a bonfire that night (cooking our first campfire damper). He said he did not want to because his teachers have told the children in the class to have an early night so they are ready for the next day. Seriously, I was livid. My son is awake for an hour and a half in the morning before he starts school, and has about 3and a half hours in the evening with us. In this time he is fed, clothed, washed, doing homework, and is supposed to play and be part of our family, but now his school expects him to get an earlier night than he already does? He is at school for just over 6 hours. Fair much? I DONT THINK SO.

MESSY FUN!!!

I know I have been neglecting my duties as a fun and educating Mum lately, so this week we have been busy busy busy playing!

A few days ago I cleared the dining table and gave Little Miss 3 the playdough. She loved it, as she always has. Only thing is I have been too busy to 'let' her do it. Not anymore. It is time to get involved again!

The only thing which broke my heart more is when Master 5 came home from school, he was willing to give up our bonfire that evening (over which we cooked some dinner), to play with the playdough. Apparently they don't get to play much like that at school anymore.

So the next day I set up an activity for Little Miss 3 which I have been wanting to do for a while. We got out the kids plastic table, the wooden building blocks, and a tin of shave cream. Her task was to 'cement' the blocks together! She had lots of fun, though I am not sure what was the best part, cementing the blocks or washing the shave cream off her hands! After we had finished, we hosed everything down and left it in the sun to dry. It was still out when Master 5 came home, so I told him what we had been up to and both my children had fun working together for another hour!

Good old faithful dog watching over his kiddies.

Our girl and her chickens, she catches them in the yard herself!
 

Waiting Games.

DH had a bad tooth ache the other day, so he had an appointment and got it fixed. With pain still radiating, we are back for a quick check to make sure all is well. I am sure he will be fine after a round of antibiotics. 

But it has me thinking. We are always waiting. Waiting at the dentist/doctors, waiting to go on holidays, waiting for the bank balance to grow, waiting for the kids to get home from school, and the list goes on. 

DH and I were discussing swimming lessons this morning for the kids. I rang and enquired and have decided to start up, which Little Miss 3 will love, but Master 5 will be stoked as their lessons will both be at the same time, no more waiting for him! This will be his first out side of school activity all year. Little miss 3s music lessons were supposed to be expanded to include preps and year 1s, but it is still in planning, so he is still waiting for that. Hopefully he will enjoy this now instead!

Whatever you are waiting for, make it worthwhile, make sure the wait is worth the end result. 

Planning and putting it to action!

We have been planning for some time, our first big camping trip. So last weekend it finally became time, we packed up and went on our very first adventure.

Not having been to our destination in the past, it was very exciting to be going somewhere new, for the first time in our camper trailer.

Now to begin with, I have to go back to the day before. We needed to get electric breaks installed into our car to accomodate the extra towing weight. This was an easy task, but time consuming. I had to leave home at 530 with the two kids, to drive 2 hours to where the car would have its 'surgery'. They needed the car for the whole day, which was no problem as they gave me the loan car to use.

I was lucky to have this time in town, as I managed to get those last few items we needed to have a successful weekend away. And we also got to start our holiday with a trip to the local zoo. It was nothing like the big zoo's around the country, but a nice small one which our kids managed to enjoy just as much.

The day went along fine, and I returned to collect my car at closing time, only for it to take another 45minutes for them to finish the job. Frustrated, as I still had to transfer all my belongings and 2 car seats back to my car, I finally left and made it back home sometime around 10pm. Wow, I was wrecked but, after puttting the kids to bed, I undloaded the car and began packing ready to take off in the morning. Finally made it to bed by midnight and fell fast asleep!

We got up excitedly the next morning, finished packing and were on our merry way. A quick 3 and a half hour drive saw us to our destination. After setting up our camper, we settled down for the night in our new surroundings.

When we woke in the morning, we decided to venture into the gorge. I am so proud of my kids, Master 5 just trudged along with the rest of us, and Little Miss 3 stepped it out as best she could too. We walked about 8klms round trip, over cute little creeks, along sand banks, past towering cliff walls, to some of the most stunning scenery.

The next day we contemplated another walk, but decided on checking out the rock pools. Only a 200metre walk. It was so nice down those tracks. I was amazed that in Central Queensland in the middle of a national park you can find 'beaches'. Long stretches of sand, surrounded by rocks and creeks trickling (and sometimes flowing) through. The water at the rock pools was so clear, the kids almost jumped right in. I think they would have if the other tourists (foreigners) did not make such a scene about how cold the water was! It took them a bit, but they eventually jumped in, although it did not last long.

We all crossed the shallow creek down the gorge a little, onto the rocky bank and the kids began skimming rocks (their favourite passtime of the weekend). We had so much fun. We are already planning our next trip out there!