the hungry little silkworms . . .

Steve and Chris kept silkworms when they were kids, and Steve being Steve, he managed to get onto the subject of them with a customer who said there were plenty of them on her mulberry tree at the moment and he was welcome to take some. Of course he jumped at the chance and came home very excited with them a few weeks ago . . .

first few days . . .

tiny little bubba worms

3 weeks later . . . 

a LOT fatter after eating their way through bags of mulberry leaves

and the first few cocoons are spun. . .

 2 weeks later and we have moths . . .
. . . now 2 weeks is a long time when you're 5. Austin would diligently check his shoebox every morning as soon as he got up and about another 20 times during the day, so very impatient for those moths to hatch . . .

well it eventually happened and it was the cutest thing ever . . . he came running through to me, so excited he could hardly get the words out "mummy mummy you are NOT going to believe this, it's unbelievable, quick come look". Too cute.

 smug little smile showing Daddy when he got home from work

1 week later and the mummy & daddy moths get it together . . .

 fascinated with watching them make babies

and another week later the cycle is complete . . .

 we have silkworm eggs, and lots of dead moths of course

 carefully putting away the eggs till next year . . . now where are they going to be kept till then I wonder . . . somehow I think they might get thrown out by mummy by 'accident'

crafty boys...

The other day Austin found one of my carefully hidden, rainy day, to be taken out only when Mummy has the energy, craft kits!!! Of course he wanted to do it straight away and I refused, I think I was busy cooking dinner at the time, so Steve had to stop the 'throwing itself on the floor and crying in devastation episode' by agreeing to do it with him.
It was very cute to watch - and Steve really surprised me with his patience and ability . . .

The finished Owl - great job boys!!!

missy moo poo

Lily's been a bit neglected lately (post wise that is) so I thought I better do one on our little baby girl, bubble, poppet, cheeky chops - yes she has lots of nicknames...

WHAT I LOVE TO DO LATELY . . .

 dress up in crazy outfits, put a bag over my shoulder and walk towards the front door . . .

 "Bye Mummy, I going shops..."

 gather all my animals (and lots of other bizarre things) on my bed, and pretend I'm on a boat . . . I pretend I'm fishing and fall overboard so I can be rescued by Austin or Mummy before the shark gets me, or I pretend I am a friendly pirate being pursued by the evil Captain Hook, "Ahoy, Ahoy me mateys!!!"

walk around in only my gumboots . . .

fall asleep on the couch . . .

waste baby wipes - and lots of them . . .

swim with my Daddy . . .

have tea parties with my big brother, our animals and our babies . . .

dreamworld...

At Austin's kindy, they have a twist on the old 'Show & Tell', it's called 'Weekend News' and you are supposed to fill in a sheet with photos, drawings etc whenever you do something interesting so the children can get up and talk about it.

Anyway, a while ago one of Austin's friends did a weekend sheet about his trip to Queensland, it's on a massive piece of cardboard and is filled with pictures of him at Dreamworld and Seaworld. And every day without fail, Austin goes straight for it and says the same thing "I wish we could go to Queensland so I can go on the rides like Samuel did..."

So after driving all the way to Queensland with Chris & Roberta there was no way we could go home without taking Austin to a theme park. When he was a baby we went to Seaworld with Linda, Shaun & Alex so we decided to go to Dreamworld this time. I remember going there when I was a kid and to be honest nothing much has changed, everything looked a little worn and in need of a revamp. It just feels like a rip-off, they charge you a fortune to get in, then they charge you a fortune for crap food, then you wait in line for so long for rides that last half a minute!! And to top it off, the one ride Austin has been obsessed with and the one ride I really wanted to go on, The Log Ride, was closed for the day. It's just not my idea of fun, maybe the fact I'm terrified of rollercoasters has something to do with it, or maybe I'm just old!!!

Austin loved it though and was completely fearless. I managed to work up the courage to go on a rollercoaster with him but I think he could sense my fear, while we were waiting in line he kept saying "it's ok Mummy, it's not too scary".

Lily had a great day too, well apart from the first ride we took her on which we stupidly didn't watch to see what the ride actually did. We just read the sign which said you had to be over 1 years of age and thought oh well it couldn't be too scary. Oh my word, I was in the carriage in front with Austin and Steve was behind with Lily. I couldn't look behind because I was holding on for dear life myself but all I could hear was Lily screaming with terror. The ride was horrific, I can't believe it didn't have a height restriction. Poor baby girl got on it so excited too and with complete trust in us, I felt so guilty!!! Needless to say we stuck to the really tame rides for her after that, hope she doesn't have recurring nightmares....

Kenny the Koala, still exactly the same as I remember..

Some nice tame rides for Lily...

These water jets were probably one of the best bits of entertainment of the day...simple things

Austin's first rollercoaster experience, he LOVED it

...definitely doesn't get that from me...

tourists....

Chris and Roberta came to visit a couple of weeks ago which was awesome, I was so happy for Steve to finally have some family here, with the sheer size of my family I'm sure he feels completely outnumbered at times!!! The kids of course LOVED having Chris & Roberta in the house, there were more people to show off for and play games with... Aunty Roberta couldn't say no of course and was dragged into every single imaginary game. These usually involve hunting adventures looking for tigers, lions or dinosaurs, complete with backpacks, binoculars and torches. But the new favourite game became hunting for 'Bokke', a Springbok stuffed toy that Chris & Roberta bought Lily from South Africa. Roberta really got into it and even invented her own game 'The Claw', where she would chase the kids through the house with her neck pillow (for the plane), calling out "the claaaawwww..." in a deep voice and pretending it was a giant claw coming to grab them. They of course wanted to play it over and over and over, as only kids can do.

We didn't do a lot of touristy stuff, Chris & Roberta really wanted to spend time with us and see our day to day life, not rush around trying to see everything. I love it when people visit though because it gives you an excuse to go see all those wonderful places in Sydney that you hardly ever visit. You see it through fresh eyes and it makes you appreciate what a truly amazing city Sydney is...we should all get out and enjoy it more...

MANLY FERRY

CIRCULAR QUAY & OPERA HOUSE

THE ROCKS

GLENMORE HOTEL

TARONGA ZOO

THE GAP & WATSON'S BAY

CHINATOWN

SYDNEY FISH MARKETS