Little Aussie Poms

Birthday cupcake

Last Sunday was Steve's annual birthday barbeque extravaganza.  The sun was hot, the wine was cold (well, kind of), our best friends were gathered in our garden and Steve got to play with fire.  What more could you ask? 

Oh!  And in lieu of a single birthday cake, I made Steve birthday cupcakes, for reasons that are clear only to those who KNOW.   But hey, they were made with love, not to prove a point.  Well ok, maybe just a little one.   Typically, I forgot to photograph them until it was too late, but here's what was left after the pack of child vultures had swooped.

There is honestly nothing better than spending time with the gang, or what's left of it since the Rutters left a gaping great Mabel shaped hole.  What amazed me on Sunday was that the kids behaved beautifully with nary a scuffle or skirmish.  Well, apart from a small incident in Alex's bedroom where they tried to decapitate each other by pulling a shelf off the wall, but we'll gloss over that.

Alex spent the afternoon refining his flirting skills as he and Millie were stuck like glue.

Seriously, it would have taken a crowbar to wrench those two apart. 

Once the music started we discovered something new about our youngest son.  The boy can move.  He shook his booty and strutted his funky stuff on the dancefloor. 

But in the midst of such idyll, someone always has to lower the tone.  Just leave it to four year old boys.  If you are easily offended, look away now. 

A peeing competition against the fence.  I kid you not.  I dare not post the photos of them actually in the act, as I've just realised I caught more than bare butts on film.

Sorry this is so badly written.  I'm tired.  I may come back and fix it up later.  But as we're off to sunny (ha ha) Wales tomorrow I fear I won't.  Thank you and good night. 

A new beginning

Last month I became the proud owner of one of these.   The camera, that is, not the child.  I've had the child for a good four years now.

This was taken on the basic idiotproof setting.  I can't wait to figure out what it can REALLY do.

So THAT's how the hoover works...

I don't really do housework.  I'm not particularly good at it and actually, I loathe it.  That's why I'm allowed to pay someone every couple of weeks to come and do it for me.  Until, that is, I give up work in two weeks time to become a full time mother and wannabe domestic goddess.  Then that ship will sail and I'll be forced to attempt the housework on my own. 

This, I have to say, is more than a little bit daunting.  Up until now I've been able to shirk most responsibilty with the work excuse, and the fact that I only work two and a half days a week is neither here nor there.  But in two weeks time the responsibility for the entire house and child rearing becomes mine all mine.  GAH!  A little daunting?  It terrifies me. 

So today I thought I'd have a little practice run and got the hoover out of retirement.  And then discovered something fabulous.  Alex LOVES to clean.  I'm not sure where this trait came from, it's clearly not genetic as Steve and I are both domestically challenged.  Still, it is not mine to question and besides, the cat baskets have never looked so clean.  Child labour is a wonderful thing...

Fun at the Fair #2

Two years ago almost to the day, we took Alex to the fair for the first time.  He wasn't so impressed.  In fact I would go so far as to say downright unimpressed. 

This year, clearly touched in the heads by all the fantastic sunshine we'd been having, we made a second attempt.  And actually, it wasn't so bad.  Almost ... fun? 

You can see by the look of sheer excitement on their faces that Alex and Ben were having a ball.  No really!  That's their excited look.  Honestly.

The sunshine continued into the next day so the Tonkii came round for a lunchtime barbeque that stretched into the rest of the afternoon and early evening.  We nearly melted under the sweltering heat (in ENGLAND! In MAY!) and the jug of Pimms grew not only slightly warm but rather hot, but still we persevered because after all,  mad dogs and englishmen stay out in the midday sun.  We don't have a mad dog by the way.  Do psychotic cats count? 

Besides, the boys were having fun.

And on another note entirely, the day was finished off with a nice cool bath.  Fortunately wanton nakedness is still perfectly acceptable with the four year olds as well as the babies, although I'm thinking posting photos of said wanton four year old nakedness might not be so socially acceptable.  Still, long may such innocence last.

Random Acts of Kindness

For the last two days Steve has been finishing work ON TIME.  This means catching a relatively early train home from London which in turn means he not only gets to see the boys before bedtime, we even have time to meet him at the station. 

In the world of the four year old, getting to meet Daddy off the train is pretty much the coolest thing ever.  He gets to stand on the platform,  listen to the station announcements (yep, even listening to announcements is, apparently, hot stuff) and watch the fast trains to Scotland go hurtling by before Daddy's train pulls in. 

On top of all this excitement, there are also the  awesome ticket barriers to be negotiated.  The nice men at the station always let us through the barriers to wait for Steve and then let us back again afterwards.   But for the last two days, Alex has had an added bonus.  On Tuesday, the nice man not only opened the barrier and let us through, he gave Alex his very own ticket to feed through the machine.  When we went back to the station on Wednesday to meet Steve again, Alex was more than a little distraught that I had left his precious ticket at home and we very nearly had ticket meltdown.  Fortunately for my sanity, the same nice man was manning the barriers and he not only remembered Alex, but had two used tickets waiting for him.  Despite the commuters streaming out of the station, he patiently let Alex go backwards and forwards through the barriers, manually opening and closing them for him once Alex's battered tickets lost any usefulness.

I'm hoping that watching Alex's excitement was a bright spot in this rather nice man's day for no other reason that he'd made the little guy happy.  Because I have to tell you, his random acts of kindness were an unexpected bright spot in mine.

Bzzzzz

This is Alex's climbing frame.  It's a rather lovely climbing frame.  We like it.  Alex likes it.  Oliver is rather keen on it too.

Hmmm.  Whatever could Steve be looking at with such interest and his gimmicky electric fly swat in his hands?  We'll come back to that.

Recently Alex has become a complete nancy when it comes to anything small and buzzy.  The world's smallest fly could innocently wander into the house and Alex will start doing peculiar dance moves and run away shrieking that, "it' s a bee!  A waspy!  It's coming to get me!"

So when he crawled into the tent of his climbing frame this morning and seconds later emerged yelling that there was a vicious wasp inside we shrugged our shoulders and more or less told him to get over it.  He was insistent however, so Steve took a little peek inside.

GAH! 

Not only was he right about the vicious wasp, she was acting vicious for a damn good reason. 

THIS is what has been lurking in my children's den.  It was full of many eggs and I don't even want to think about the consequences had it not been discovered before the eggs hatched.

Note to self:  ALWAYS listen to the child.  They are rarely wrong, especially in matters of the vicious wasp.

The sun is shining and the sky is blue....

... and we feel happy, happy all through.

If you've ever gone to Tick Tock, I defy you not to be humming that RIGHT NOW.

Wierdly in the space of a week we have gone from winter coats to shorts and sandals and sun, sun, sun.  That is to say Alex has gone from winter coats to shorts and sandals.  As Ollie's feet grow so rapidly I wasn't brave enough to buy him "just in case" sandals a few weeks ago when we bought Alex's, with the result that when we suddenly morphed into summer with no warning, Ollie has been forced to wear shorts, teeshirts and his great big clod hopping winter shoes with socks.  All the poor kid needed was a knotted hankie on his head and a string vest and the sight would have been complete.

This is not a look I am keen to perfect on my child, so off to Clarks we went this afternoon and home we came with these super cute new summer shoes. 

As an added bonus, they came with matching sun hat and sun glasses.  Ollie is not a hat fan, but we can work on that.

He wasn't a fan of the sunglasses either ... until I gave them to Alex.

At which point he decided maybe he did rather like them after all.

So yes...

... the sun is shining ...

... and the sky is blue ...

... and we feel happy ...

... happy all through. 

Biker Boys

On Tuesday afternoon the sun came out and so did the bikes. 

So did Oliver's spoon.  Well, you just never know when bonus food might appear.

Riding anywhere at the moment is a slow, slow process.  Alex can  pedal brilliantly, as long as he's on a flat surface and doesn't have to turn corners or go around anything.  If there is even the slightest hint of a slope he comes to a grinding halt and whimpers until you come to his aid.  At which point he will yell that he's a big boy and doesn't need help.   Still, we eventually made it over to the park where Oliver proudly displayed his new climbing frame/slide abilities. 

He was so proud of his new found mountain goat abilities that after another tortuously slow pedal home  ("don't touch me! I can pedal by myself!!!") we went out in the back garden for some more climbing.

Roll on summer, bare feet and much MUCH more climbing.

Listen and Learn

This morning Alex told me to, "get out of the way, you STUPID woman". 

My GOD!  Where did my sweet son learn such words?  I racked my brains and pointed many fingers at various people.

When the punishment of some time out in his bedroom was over and he'd apologised, I asked him who says such a terrible thing.

"YOU, Mummy, when you're driving and they pull out in front of you."

Ah.  Yup.  That would indeed be me.

Fishy Fiesta

Since the miscarriage, I've needed (REALLY needed) something to focus on.  With Alex's birthday imminent, I found my release in the planning of his birthday party.  I poured my heart and soul into it and although on the day it was completely bonkers, I think it worked in all the ways it was meant to.  Having said that, inviting nine small boys and three little girls into your house for two hours of sugar fuelled mania in one go is not just a bit daft, but bordering on insanity.  Alex was insistent on many boys this year, seeing as, "I don't like gewls, they wear pink and they're yucky".  Except apparently for Millie because, "Actually, I don't mind Millie ... she's ok".

And who could not love the lovely Millie, who not only graced us with her presence, but did it all wearing bonus bunny ears.

But I digress.  Alex decided it was to be an underwater birthday party this year, and the conservatory became our fishy palace.  What kind of idiot spends hours the previous evening decorating the conservatory and then completely forgets to take photos before the room gets trashed?  That would be me then. 

I am in awe of the amazing destructive talents of some small boys.  By the end of the afternoon, only the schools of fish hanging from the ceiling remained intact.

At least I had the presence of mind to photograph the enormous whale cake just before one of the said small boys decided to poke a sticky finger in it.  It's the biggest cake I've ever made and I had to do it in the roasting tin, in the absence of a cake tin big enough.  I have a suspicion it may have tasted faintly of roast beef, but no-one seemed to mind.   

Last year the weather on the day of Alex's party was so fabulous everyone managed to play outside. This year I'd planned on sending them all outside once more for a fishy treasure hunt.  In my head this was a truly fabulous idea.  By the time they'd had a couple of rounds of pass the parcel and pin the tail on the whale, then all put their shoes on, hunted for the many fish we were going to stash in the garden and come back inside, it would be time for tea.  Unfortunately much drizzle and a soggy garden put paid to that cunning plan and we were faced with the prospect of finding more ways of entertaining hoards of children In The House. 

I found myself with a rather large glass of wine in my hand and as my resistance to alcohol is still impressively woeful, it didn't take long for me find my happy place.  Steve found a stash of easter eggs in the garage and the children had a treasure hunt anyway. 

Suddenly it was tea time and the boys all wanted to play waiter and serve each other.  We let them. 

As a grand finale, they gutted a rather startled looking fish.  Steve held it up ....

... then quickly ran away before his limbs were mistaken for something that could be stockpiled and shoved into a party bag.

 

All in all, it was two hours of mental mayhem.  Children seemed to multiply before my eyes as my house visibly shrank.  But, I'll gladly do it all again next year.  Except maybe with a few less boys....

And then he was 4

Alex's birthday festivities this year should have started with a bang but very nearly commenced with a whimper.  Having made the decision to get him a big boy bike this year, we got him a funky yellow bike from the very big toy shop on the retail park in Stevenage.  It came in a box and we foolishly left it until the night before to try and assemble it.  Unsurprisingly, the funky yellow bike would NOT assemble no matter how much Steve swore at it and our vision of Alex coming downstairs to find the bike waiting for him fizzled swiftly out.  But hey!  He still had a funky purple helmet for his birthday.  Just no bike to wear it on....

Thanks to the miracle of Paul's Bikes in Hitchin, Alex still got a funky bike on the day, but it kind of lost it's impact a little.  Well, it did for us, Alex wasn't bothered in the slightest.  Fuelled by a Happy Meal, he was just excited to be riding up and down the driveway.

 

As if the bike riding wasn't exciting enough, we headed off to Gambados in Milton Keynes for the afternoon, which is currently Alex's most favourite place, followed by birthday tea at his Nana and Grandads. To top it all off, when we got home there was a message on our answering machine (never to be deleted as long as there is breath in my body) of our lovely Mabel singing Happy Birthday to Alex.

   

And THAT folks, is the genuinely happy smile of the birthday boy.  Could life get any better?

Birthday Boy

My goodness.  Has it really been a year since Baby Annabel made her appearance and declared she was in fact Baby Oliver?  I'd almost forgotten the Baby Annabel story.

Cards were opened first thing this morning with bonus drool. 

Presents too were opened, but not by Oliver.  In an calculated display of brotherly solidarity Alex explained that as Oliver is still only a baby he is unable to open his own presents and Alex was willing to provide his services.  He also spent the day generously making sure all Ollie's presents are in good working order and familiarising himself with them all, presumably so as to be able to help Ollie play with them when he eventually gets a look in.

After a spot of cake, we headed over to the farm.  It was one of Ollie's first outings as a newborn and it seemed fitting to take him back on his birthday.  The weather was so cold I wanted to weep, but in true Oliver style he beamed at everything anyway.

   

In fact it was so cold we were virtually the only people mad enough to venture out. A fact better described by the next photo.  The tractors are usually my personal hell as it is survival of the fittest trying to get one to ride.  Today however there was only this solitary little fellow, doggedly trying to pedal.  Alex does love those tractors.

We rounded off the day with a phone call to our lovely Mabel across the sea who Ollie shares a birthday with.  Hearing her infectious giggle at Alex singing Happy Birthday to her nearly broke my heart and Alex's birthday won't be the same this year without Mabel batting her eyelids at grandparents.

I leave you with an enduring Ollie image.  Behold the love affair with the raggedy and somewhat stinky blue bunny.

Happy Birthday Ollie.  We love you.

Breaking News

Oliver takes first steps just days before his first birthday.  Wobbly and somewhat wonky, but steps nevertheless.  Woo hoo!

Why bibs were invented

Tissues were also invented for the purpose of wiping enormous bogies off noses.  Sadly we forgot about those that day as well.

Reasons to keep smiling.....

Reason number 1:  Trying to get Alex to smile naturally when confronted with "the grimace".

Reason Number 2:  Watching Oliver experimenting with his food with the kind of gusto only an 11 month old could muster.