Hovercraft, radishes, and a wedding

There was great excitement the day that we got a Canadian package from cousins Annabella and Luca. Inside the package were balloon-powered hovercraft!

We have begun to harvest our radish crop, here is George tasting his first radish. 

I don't think he liked it very much.

The last week or so, there has been a lot of activity related to getting ready for our wedding. Max and George went down to the Suit Hire shop to get fitted for suits by Norm.

Max and George were ring bearers at my and Royce's wedding, and cousins Saskia, Holly, and Piama were our flower girls. The girls were so beautiful and the boys were very handsome in their suits. 

photo by Trilby

We suggested at one point that Saskia should perhaps put down her teddy bear but she refused to be parted with it. We tried to explain that she would need her hands free to throw flower petals but she remained unconvinced.

photo by Trilby

The flower girls tossed white rose petals which had been gathered from Nanny's garden. Some people were puzzled as to why Kate the bridesmaid was carrying a teddy bear.

photo by Trilby

photo by Trilby

Max and George gave me away. They did such a good job.

Max was a bit thrilled with the power, that if they did not consent to giving me away, the whole wedding would stop.

Apparently there were two very serious faces as they spoke in front of 100 people.

photo by Trilby

photo by Perry Becker

Good times. 

photo by Trilby

Max said he's happy about it. The marriage, that is.

We got a family photo in while everyone was all scrubbed up.

photo by Trilby

Then we went to the pub for dinner and reception. 

photo by Geoff Enever who by the way was an excellent MC

Shani got everyone's attention before the speeches. Shani, you rock. 

photo by Perry Becker

After dinner and speeches there was some more singing by Aunty Shani, complemented by some break dancing by George. After rocking the house Aunty Shani then packed up and left, and probably had her flower girls in bed by 9pm.

photo by Perry Becker who gave a stirring speech about the power of  "I was wrong", "you were right", "yes, dear" and "I love you" in a marriage context

photo by Perry Becker

Several eyewitnesses report that George executed a perfect head-spin with about 4 rotations.

photo by Perry Becker

photo by Geoff Enever

And there's some other news.

Max and George are going to have a sibling later this year.

Max thinks it is a girl. George wants the baby to sleep with him in the bottom bunk.

Hens' teeth, Ravioli, Shahnaz Vocal School

Sometimes Max and George walk Sooty the dog before school.

Here's George with his school bag on, ready to go.

Living right next to school means that Max can leave at the last minute and he should get home right after the bell rings at 3.30.

Here is Max about to get jumped on by Lachy.

One day Lachy and Riley's chooks escaped and came over to visit us. Everybody had to catch the chooks before they got away!

That was when I was informed by Max that hens do actually have teeth, "they just don't like to show you".

When they're not chasing chickens they chase the dog. It's their little game. 

The zucchini plant has been getting rotten on the ends before the zucchini reach full size. 

It could be just the wet weather this summer, or it could be caused by lack of calcium in the soil, so we saved our eggshells (= calcium) and here's George crushing them to sprinkle on the dirt.

Max gets homework on Mondays which has to be completed by  Thursday.

  

Here's George at his kindergarten, playing with his friend Isabella and some birds in their habitat.

Remember those little seeds the kids planted? Now they have sprouted into radish plants. One day soon, we're going to have to eat RADISHES.

These are the seeds of a capsicum a.k.a. bell pepper, sprouting in some cotton balls in Max and George's room. 

This is an avocado seed, from a fruit we ate back in December. It has been sitting on the windowsill beside George's bed, and just this week it is putting up a shoot. 

Beside the avocado are more capsicum seeds, these ones growing in dirt with some weeds as well.

We made our own ravioli from scratch recently. It was a group effort. 

Here's Max using a paintbrush to paint water on the ravioli so they will stick when we fold them up. 

George likes a good breakdance, and he said he'd like to try out Aunty Shani's School of Singing and Dancing. 

Apart from one spectacular handstand, he just watched the class intently. As a break dancer, he was a little out of his depth in a Bollywood Dance environment.

They played "chinese whispers" to train their memories to one day memorise the words of songs.  

Even Max joined in the chinese whispers part.

George enjoyed himself quite a bit and would like to try it again.