Monday 10 December 2007

Christmas has descended upon the Theakston household - today we put up our Christmas tree and decorations. We went out to our block yesterday to select a suitable tree and got sidetracked collecting tadpoles. Alas no photos were taken of Paul and Sarah wading through the thick mud scooping up the unsuspecting creatures. The boys are delighted with their new 'pets' which are currently settled in the farthest corner of the yard - lets see how long they last before they are taken back to where they came from! And lets see how delighted the boys actually are when and if they do make it to the frog stage!! I'll keep you posted.

We also had attempt number one at the Christmas photo shoot today. Attempt number two will take place in the near future. Today, despite being bribed with smarties, Isaac was not playing. You can tell from Jacob's smile that HE was keen for the smarties!




Friday 23 November 2007

Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink! Yep, it's been raining in Cobar - lots! The boys have enjoyed splashing in the puddles and playing in the shallow ground tank on our block. We're loving the rain and hope it continues a bit more. 'Not a drop to drink' because Paul has been working flat out (around his normal job) to get the rain water tanks connected to our house. Another full day's work and they'll be operational (hopefully!).

Isaac turned 2 a couple of weeks ago, it seems like he's grown up over night. He speaks pretty well for his age and is parroting everything we say. His favourite words are 'Nope' 'Yeah' and 'Rachoo' (aunty Rachel) in that order. He doesn't address his brothers seperately but refers to them as one entity: 'baa' (brothers). He is very independant and walks all over his second oldest brother (Jeremy) although he's finding it a bit harder to put one over Jacob so they are becoming partners in crime!

The pictures below are Jeremy and then Jacob out on our block, then Isaac on his birthday. :)






Wednesday 31 October 2007

The weekend was spent in Canberra for Tory's 21st (sarah's sister). Not much to add to that but here are some of the photos...




Thursday 18 October 2007

It's been a while since I've posted - I'm trying not to get too far behind but time flies. It's all still happening out at the house - Paul's dad is still here but is going home on the weekend. A sneak preview of what they've been up to, with proper photos to come after the weekend...


The boys and I have been going out there on and off to both help and hinder. I'm informed that when we leave Paul and his dad find that tools have mysteriously disappeared, glue containers have been emptied out, and numerous nails have been hammered into pieces of wood. Not to mention the drawing of 'daddy' we found on the floor in one of the bedrooms (carpet will cover it fortunately). Paul and Deda do seem to enjoy the ice-creams we often take out to them however...


Finally, we thought it would stop with Jacob but it appears to run in the family. Isaac has now also become obsessed with lining up his toy cars - and yes, they also must all face the same way...


Friday 28 September 2007

We've progressed from washing up to cake making. Isaac that is. He helped make a pretty good mud cake the other day and did a great job at cleaning up the bowl afterwards too!






Paul's dad is now out helping to build the house, so we should see a lot of movement in that area over the next four weeks. Although the other day the digging was put on hold whilst Paul helped clear out a cubby for the boys to play around. Seeing as it's snake season you can't be too careful. Their 'house' was a lot quicker to set up then ours!

Wednesday 19 September 2007

The boys have been doing 'jobs' around the house for a long time, but mostly in the form of non-destructive activities such as dusting, clearing the table, etc. Yesterday morning they wanted to do jobs, but 'washing up' jobs. They've been eyeing the bubbly water for a while now and itching to get their hands into it. So I gave them a chair each, set them going, then left the room! They did a pretty good job for a 3 and 4 year old - no breakages and I only had to redo one saucepan!





Isaac has always slept on top of his blankets rather then under - most nights we play a game of putting the blanket over him then coming back an hour later to find him on top of it, so we add another one which he ends up on top off. Usually in the morning he is on top of a mountain of blankets. Yesterday for his day sleep I went to check on him and found him sleeping like this...




And finally, as promised here is one of the layouts I did at Louth. Will upload some more later!


Monday 17 September 2007

The Outback Scrapping Experience

Just got home yesterday from the Louth Scrapbooking Retreat, held at Trilby Station. I spent four days with a group of ladies and almost the only thing we have in common is scrapping. It was a fantastic weekend. The fewer numbers meant we got to know each other better and we had heaps of time to scrap. I completed 10 layouts and 3 OTP's - i haven't taken pics yet but will post them here when i do.

We had minimal sleep and ate far too much thanks to Liz's (owner of Trilby) wonderful cooking. The weather was typical drought weather - hot, dry and dusty, but we had cooler nights.

Like last year we scrapped in the woolshed and so had to blow the dust off our layouts regularly and keep our rulers handy for swiping at the moths at night time. We had a couple of incidents with spiders and goats, but it's all part of the Outback Scrapping Experience and I can't wait for next year!






Thursday 6 September 2007

Summer is definately on the way. The days in Cobar are beautifully warm and the boys are spending more and more time outside again. Their latest fad is playing with the cardboard boxes we get our groceries delivered in. I knew that the boxes could be a great source of entertainment but I underestimated how entertaining they could be! They slide in them, sit in them, push each other around, make towers, put sand in them, pretend they are boats, cars, trains etc etc. Maybe I'll chuck out all the toys and just keep up a steady supply of cardboard boxes that we can throw out once they fall apart - that would solve the storage problems!

When it came to drawing on Deda's Fathers Day Card Jacob wasn't cooperating. He didn't want to draw anything and so when kindly asked to just draw something he did - "Mummy I drew a dead flower".

Only one week to the Louth Scrapping Retreat. Paul is so looking forward to having the boys all to himself for four days!!! Hopefully I'll get HEAPS of layouts completed. Here's one I did a few weeks ago...



Monday 20 August 2007

Another nice quiet weekend, with Paul's birthday on the Friday. For Jacob's birthday he had requested a bulldozer cake and Jeremy had ordered a train cake, so I asked them "What cake should we make for Daddy?". I was expecting them to answer a truck or a grader but after thinking very hard for a few moments Jacob replied "a Bible cake"!! You can't get much easier then that, so a caramel mud cake was made into a 'Bible cake' and greatly enjoyed.

We've finally had time to get back to working on the house. Paul's been getting up early and going out painting to get the north and eastern side finished before the hot weather arrives. We had the boys out helping dig holes last weekend but the rate they were going it'll take a while to get the house finished. Better get Isaac onto the job too! I'll put a house photo here when I take an updated one.




Thursday 16 August 2007

Last Sunday I saw Jeremy fishing around in the bottom of the pram (which was in the back yard after coming home from church) and emerge triumphant with a tupperware container. He took it off to play with, as little boys do.

He came up to me a short time later and while offering the tupperware container asked me "Do you want to pat my baby snake?"

A bit taken back but very curious now I asked if it would bite me, to which he replied "No, it's asleep". Very cautiously I prised the lid off the tupperware (at least whatever was in there would still be fresh) and to my delight discovered a length of cord - an old drawstring from the waist of boys shorts!!

Don't you just love the imaginative play of a 3 year old! He carried around the tupperware container for quite a while, checking on his baby snake occasionally. Later that afternoon he accidently left it on the Church Bus - we better get it back before it bites someone!!

Hmm, that reminds me - I'd better check to see if I got my tupperware back?!


Friday 10 August 2007

Tea anyone?

A beautiful warm day outside - perfect for a tea party. We went outside with a picnic rug and the boys had great fun pouring cups of 'tea' (apple juice) and eating the snacks off their little plates. It's a beautiful day, warm but a bit windy, making me think thoughts of spring cleaning.


The other day the boys were playing with some wooden blocks and Jacob made a little square and said "this is your vegie garden mummy". He held up small blocks and put them inside the garden: "this is your brocolli, this is your cucumber, and this is your garlic bread."


A photo of our tea party:


Monday 6 August 2007


A quiet weekend but it was greatly enjoyed as it was our first quiet weekend in a long time! Saturday night was a pizza making fest - see photos below - and they didn't taste too bad either. We have also recently made the cardboard box cars that I've been promising we'd make since they saw Jesse's Wiggles car in Mt Isa. Jacob thinks they are so cool. The photo below is of them sitting in them while watching a Play School DVD.

The aim this week is to get some decent scrapping done, and clean the house, look after the boys, prepare for Sunday School which starts this week, etc etc. If I do anything worthwhile I'll post it here!





Saturday 4 August 2007

The Big Trip

We are still being asked about the big trip away so I'd better share some of it.
Our destination was Mt Isa, via Corner Country. We thought we'd get to Mt Isa within about 4 or 5 days but it ended up taking 7 days as there was so much to see on the way. Towns and places of interest that we passed through on the way up were Tibooburra, Cameron Corner, Moomba, Innamincka, Birdsville, Bedourie and Boulia. No, we didn't get to see the Min Min lights.
It was beautiful country, and very remote, apart from the convoys of 4WD's we regularly passed. We had to stop at every waterhole and creek along the way so the boys could throw rocks into them but fortunately the reason it's remote is that there aren't many waterholes and creeks about.

By the way, does anyone know the correct spelling of Innamincka? Some of the signs read "Innaminka" but others said "Innamincka". Would love to know which is correct.
We camped some nights off the beaten track (and alot of it WAS beaten) and we regularly listened to the words of one of John Williamson's songs "Camping under the leapard wood when the sun goes down and the fire is good because I've managed to find myself some Brigalow". It's good to be Australian :)

Birdsville was fascinating so we stayed two nights. We would highly recommend the Working Museum and the 40km trip out to Big Red at the edge of the Simpson Desert. We would NOT recommend the westerly road between Arrabury and The Birdsville Development Road. It took most of the day to drive 160km. We did see some cool stuff along the way though. We also loved following in the tracks of some explorers - namely Burke & Wills and Charles Sturt. If the boys were older it would have been a great home-schooling trip.

We got to Mt Isa after 7 days and spent a wonderful week hanging out with friends. We relaxed a lot, drank too much coffee, played some good games, and scrapped too little. Our boys learnt to play dress up with Jesse, and Jesse learnt to call his dad "Uncle Lalo" off our kids.
We headed home after a week and came back down to NSW through Cloncurry, Winton, Longreach, Barcaldine, Blackall, Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke. More camping on the way home with an unscheduled stay at Blackall due to tyre trouble.

Photos are below. :)




New Blog

We've also decided to jump onto the Blog bandwagon. (You all knew it would come eventually).

The usual 2 rules apply:
- We will aim to update weekly but will probably end up doing about 2 posts a year
- We will aim to put regular photos on but will probably forget

Oh yeah - Mulga Ridge is the name of our 100 acre block of land.

Happy reading :)