Swooping magpies, baby kanga, hair conditioner

Max was awarded his first badge at Cubs this week. 

This is the grand howl. "Akela we will do our best" (a reference to the Jungle Book).

Here is George eating some homemade icecream with hundreds and thousands on top.

George continues to go to preschool on Wednesday and Friday ...and still asks if he can go on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Max has been riding his bike to school as usual, but this week the magpies have become very protective of their nests, to the point of pecking Max's helmet as he rides past their tree.

This is the bird that swooped George. 

Its beak did not make contact with George's head.We just heard fluttering nearby. 

This orphan baby kangaroo is being hand raised by a carer. It lives in a "pouch" (a bag) inside a basket. It drinks a bottle of milk every 4 hours. 

Kirby invited us to his birthday party. There was a bouncy castle, mini golf and go carts.

George had some friends over this week and they all cuddled guinea pigs.

Here is Miff the cat enjoying her dinner. 

Photo: Giorgio Piccone

This week Max discovered conditioner.

It's great when they get along and play together. 

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.

Visiting friends, lighting fires, throwing things at Max's head

We took Jay home after a play at our house...

He's got tadpoles!

George, don't catch the tadpoles.

We went to a bonfire at Pete and Leanne's place, for Leanne's birthday.

Happy Birthday Leanne

 Here is George with his new socks.

Max's old shoes.

Max's new shoes.

Toni, Choo-choo (who is pregnant) and Milo. Our remaining guinea pig herd consists of the 3 females. The 3 males, Max, Spot, and Joel Corey Enright, have gone to live with Jack and Andrew.

Playing with Connor and Kodi at their house.

As a special treat Max is allowed to indulge in some neurotoxin (Diet Coke).

Connor's dad can't resist patting George's head whenever he sees him. This week it was payback time.

Max trying to remember how to do that martial arts thing that Rob taught him.

 Backyard hula hoop vs. broom.

George is now nit-free and he needs a haircut because he's starting to look like Justin Bieber.

"La tigre"

 

At Cubs this week they learnt how to safely light a fire. There was a cleared area, a little ball of newspaper for firelighter and some tiny twigs. If you got your fire going you could roast a marshmallow otherwise you had to eat it raw. Max was one of the unfortunates whose fire kept going out. They learnt that it is not enough to just put more newspaper on top of the dying fire, you have to make a little teepee of sticks. 

 

Here is cousin Pia when we saw her at Bunnings Warehouse this weekend for a kids DIY workshop.  

  

This is how Max eats apples these days. Very little is wasted. Just the seed case remains when he is finished. 

You might be able to see the bruise over Max's left eyebrow where George threw a dog toy and hit Max in the face, or the black mark on the right side of Max's forehead where George threw a chunk of charcoal and hit Max in the face the following day. Poor Max!

They fell asleep while I was reading a joke book: "Waiter! Waiter! there's a fly in my soup!" "Sssh be quiet or everyone will want one." "Waiter, what is this fly doing in my soup?" "It seems to be doing backstroke."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz