Winter school holidays

The kids are suddenly very interested in making food. Here is George, juicing up some apples. We made our own icypoles with the juice.

This is a "jaffle iron". It was my grandmother's. Max now makes beautiful golden-brown toasted sandwiches with it. For some reason they taste way better than the toasted sandwiches made in electric sandwich makers. 

Here is George helping me hem some jeans, and Max's newly patched knee.

We do have a more creative sewing project planned. It will look something like this:

One day Max's friend Jack came over and roasted some marshmallows. 

Here is a photo of the "brother moles". Both kids have a mole on the same spot on their arm. George's one is darker. 

Here is George making some homebrew. 

Uncle Mike, Aunty Nat, and Nanny and Gramps all had lunch at the Farmer's Home Hotel in Lindenow. George took these photos. You can see a plastic thing sitting in the glass in front of Aunty Nat, which was the holder for the applejuice icy pole that George made in the first photo.

One morning Saskia and her parents came over for breakfast. Max made pancakes and Saskia and George cleaned the floor.

Sometimes Max tries to watch TV but it isn't always easy.

Aunty Nat and Uncle Mike gave both kids a world cup soccer ball. For Max's birthday, he got a paper aeroplane book which has been well used. 

We visited Nanny and Gramps at their caravan. Nanny had bought some new clothes for the boys. It was the 5th of July, but I think those American flags are hanging up year-round.

Max has been showing such an interest in cooking. Here he is cooking his first barbie. This is one of the requirements for getting a Cooking Level 1 badge at Cubs.

Another requirement for the Cooking badge is to make yourself a hot breakfast and a beverage. Max made french toast and a milo. He was also required to clean up afterwards. 

On the same morning he also made a batch of pikelets for morning tea when the grandparents were visiting. 

Here is George demonstrating how to dance like a girl. 

Go George!!

Max was inspired to make some fresh lemonade. He juiced 1/3 cup of lemon juice, melted 1/3 cup caster sugar in 1/3 cup water, allowed it to cool a bit, then mixed it all up with 1 cup of water. Yum!

Peeling potatoes, sneezing, singing, fishing

Max has found something which is "More fun than computer games." That activity is: peeling potatoes.

He peeled about 8 little purple potatoes that grew in a friend's backyard. George was very interested in the process but then disgraced himself by throwing potatoes around the kitchen.

It's cold season. There's been some sneezing this week.

It was superhero night at Cubs. Max dressed up as Aang, his friend Jack was Heatblast... which reminded us of our friend Kai's Heatblast Costume.

George refused to be denied the opportunity to dress up as a superhero and join in the fun.

On the weekend we went to the footy, and we saw Junior (Anthony Edwards) who is planning on shaving off his mullet to raise money for leukemia research. You can donate online here.

The blue and white team are the "Cavemen" from Buchan.

Max found a droptail lizard. He was careful not to touch its tail but the lizard was able to get it's tail to drop off anyway without any assistance. If you look carefully you can see that the tail is about to break off.

Max and a friend from Cubs made a cubbyhouse in the bush behind the football oval.

There were frogs heard croaking in the swamp and evidence that a very tall Wombat lives here.

This is a game called Singstar. Max was singing "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS. George accompanied on the bongos.

We have 6 guineapigs. There are two cages, one for boys, one for girls. Here is Max holding Tony, the baby girl guineapig with the extra toe.

We took Max fishing with his new fishing rod in a private lake.


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There was very soft mud on the banks. One of Max's boots got stuck. A yappy little dog had appeared out of nowhere and started trying to dig holes in the mud like a mad thing.

Max got so wet while canoeing that he had to go home wearing only his underpants.