Scorpion, fire lighting, fresh pasta, horse having a shower

Last Monday Victoria's children got a day off school. It was a sunny day and we went for a drive towards Dargo.

We had taken a picnic lunch (including chocolate cake) and our camping chairs.

Max practised lighting a fire.

Max found a scorpion. I can't believe the way he finds animals. I had never seen one before. It was tiny and scared of us. We were also scared of it. But I knew it wasn't too poisonous because Max and I had done some internet research about scorpions a few years ago, and had learnt that the kinds with really fat tails are the most poisonous.

When it was time to go, Max went and got water from the stream to douse the fire.

Back to school the next day. We have to take a lunch box to school every day over here, not like those lucky little Canadian kids who get a hot lunch at school.

This week was the school principal's birthday. All the kids dressed up as him, or as someone from 1960s America (Mr Shoemaker is from Illinois).

George spent some time on the couch this week with an ear infection. He had to come home from preschool early because his ear hurt. He went to bed early. He woke up in the middle of the night saying he'd heard a "pop". His eardrum burst. We took him to the doctor who says it is healing up nicely.

At Cubs they reviewed some knot tying skills and then played a game where they tried to lasso styrofoam balls.

I made fresh pasta without a machine (what a workout!) and Max was my pasta-hanger.

You can see where George cut a chunk out of his hair with scissors.

A rare sight: Max eating something green.

Here is George's painting which he did at preschool. He says it is a turtle, but it's a "boy turtle".

This is a horse. The long line on the left is its nose. The dot is its eye. And this horse is having a shower.