Funny faces

Christmas is "only" 2 months away. Do you think these children have been naughty or nice!?

Christmas Holidays

Another long overdue post. 

Here is George, taken late last year. He is proudly displaying his sticker chart and wearing the prize that he was allowed to choose.

This is from the day that George turned 5 and a half. We had a small celebration and some cake. It is hard to watch your brother turn 10 and get all those presents.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Max had some things to get off his chest so he wrote a list of all the things about George that annoyed him. In hieroglyphics.

Max and Ruby posing for the camera.

They're getting older now, and it's natural that the boys would start to be interested in chicks.

Mmmmm delicious dirt!

Running back to the car in the hail.

 Max is the resident reptile handler. When this creature appeared in the back yard I just tied up the dog and waited for Max to get home from school and catch it.

The boys found this beautiful frog in the back yard trying to hibernate in our old paddle-pool.

Max and Ruby as two dragons!

Some lucky people got a Christmas card with a picture of Santa and his elf on it. The sad thing is how terribly mistreated Santa is by one of his own elves.

 Santa took the time to write George a letter this year.

Here is a video including Max and George as "football fans" on the right - from the school's Christmas breakup.

On the same night, here's George doing the heel and toe polka.

We had a mini pre-Christmas get together with the local cousins.

Santa Claus had left some presents in our car, as we got up early on Christmas Day to drive 4.5 hours to nanny and gramps' house. Other presents Santa had left in our house and still more were at Nanny and Gramps's.

All the kids at Nanny and Gramps's

 Ruby and cousin Arlo.

 Here they are swimming with Uncle Mike and cousin Saskia.

 Back at home, we spent a 42C day at the beach.

Other hot days we got out the slip and slide in the backyard.

 Of course there are frequent Skype conversations with Dad, Max took this photo.

Playing with presents from Dad.

At Roseneath beach.

Swimming at the river

It was hot so we went to the river for a swim

Here George found an "awesome rock".

The post that took 6 months: Max's 10th Birthday

Max's party was on Monday of the Queens' Birthday long weekend but his REAL birthday was a couple of days later.

They kicked the footy, they played in the yard, they sucked the helium gas out of balloons so they could sound like weirdos.

Here are some of our guests playing blackjack with the birthday boy.

Here's Max's new BMX bike.

George has a new bike too.

There they go, riding off into the distance.

The effects of helium on Max:


Bathtime with Ruby. 

The boys had a nice visit with some friends who have horses, and they got to go for a little ride.

Here's George kissing the window of the car. 

This is the changing rooms of the Orbost footy club after our team won their first victory for the season. We were all so proud of them!

Both Max and George spend hours kicking the football and honing their skills. The obsession must be getting pretty bad when you find yourself sleeping with a football.

George and I go to the pool together sometimes while Max is at football training. 

On this occasion I forgot my bathers, so I watched from the sidelines and took photos instead.

It's been cold and frosty some of these mornings!

Here Ruby and I are making use of our warm Two Rivers jumpers.

There have been some warmish winter afternoons. Here you can see the dog, waiting in vain for Ruby to give him a belly rub.

Reckless behaviour like this has gotten her banned from the trampoline. She now crawls around on the grass while I hang up laundry. Unfortunately, one day when I wasn't looking, she ate a dry old piece of dog poo.

She uses her two fingers like chopsticks to pick things up.

Max's schoolwork, a poster all about Kookaburras.