Peppa or Belle?  Time Will Tell.

This is an attempt to resurrect the blog.  The hubby keeps asking/encouraging me to get it going again, time just seems to be against me.

We are still homeschooling, now the four oldest.  With two younger ones (one who starts school next year) there is never a dull moment in our house.  Happenings at the moment include our oldest boy driving around the place in his Ford Spectron van, given to him by his uncle and fixed up with his help.  He is so proud of it, the wheels are always polished to a bright shine. DS2 boy is heavily into making Lego stop-motion movies.  He is doing really well with them, we just need to get him some decent software for editing.  DS3 is keen to start the cricket season next week.  Since last season he has a new bat and can't wait to try it out in serious play.  DS4 still spends hours jumping on the trampoline making explosion noises.  He can back-flip now which must add some exciting action into the story he is playing out in his head.  DS5 is now responsible for the livelihood of our 3 new chickens.  His favourite, Johnny, is a beautiful grey colour and there was much excitement today when Johnny allowed himself to be caught and held not once, but about three times.  Finally, DD1/number 6 child watched The Beauty and the Beast (Disney version) yesterday for the first time.  Cuddling up to her older brother she actually sat through the whole movie.  Today she wanted again to watch 'Goosey and the Geese'.  I wonder if this will break her Peppa Pig fixation?

It's been a while since I last posted - keeping up a blog is hard work.  Since the last post a lot has changed - the oldest boy is almost a teenager - a fact which delights his brothers, they remind him as often as possible.  Number 2 is as studious as ever, he is heavily into making his own Lego movies.  Icac seems to be living up to his nickname (ICAC standing for the Independent Commission Against Corruption for those of you who aren't in the know).  He is Mr. Organised and ensures that we are not late for any of his activities.  Cay Cay is, well, he is Cay Cay.  He is a crazy larrikin who can make us experience a whole range of emotions in one day - laughter one minute, frustration the next.  A bit like Melbourne weather.  He is a delight.  Jo jo has been added to the pack, with him we have a handful of boys.  He adores his daddy and wants to help 'fix' everything.  He has just learnt to ride his bike without training wheels, a pretty big achievement for a 3 year old.  Finally we now also have Abstar, and boy has the balance of power shifted in our house again.  She is the pretty little princess who has all the boys enchanted with her shenanigans.  With 6 kids and homeschooling, things can get a bit hectic in our house, never a dull moment.  But we wouldn't have it any other way.  :)

This morning our house experienced a change in the shift of power. The earth seemed to tremble and the foundations of the house shook as Isaac, the third child who is usually delegated to the role of second-best-play-mate-you-have-to-play-what-we-decide realised he was the only one who still had Easter Eggs. His self-control in not scoffing his chocolate as fast as his brothers enabled him to experience, for one of the few times in his 5-year-life, the feeling of power. The feeling of having his brothers bow down to him.
I realised what it must have felt like for Joseph when his eleven brothers bowed down before him in Egypt, which Joseph had seen in a dream years earlier. Joseph went on to tell his brothers of his dream which led to him being sold to travelling slave traders. Years later Joseph finds himself in charge of the stores of grain during a famine in Egypt, second-in-charge to the Pharoah no less. His brothers arrive in Egypt seeking grain and bow down to the Egyptian in charge, not realising they are bowing down to their long-lost brother.
Hopefully Isaac’s brothers won’t see a need to sell him into slavery. I think his usefulness in enabling them to play games that require a second or third person, or him being the ‘go-ask-mum’ guy will keep him in good standing for many years to come. Although I don’t think his Easter Eggs will last as long. As soon as his older brothers realised the power had shifted, they tried to do everything they could to revert things back to normal. Despite Isaac being told he doesn’t have to reward their lack of self-control by sharing his last egg with them he has always had a kind heart. The balance of power will revert very shortly as Isaac is currently in the process of sharing his last egg with his brothers. His willingness to please others probably means he’d make a good politician. Yep, I can see him as second-in-charge to the Prime Minister.

Who?

First update in months - a couple of recent pics incase you've forgotten what the boys look like:

Caleb and 'Jo-Jo' whom we found and took to a wildlife carer, much to Jacob's disgust.

Typical winter backyard campfire.

Caleb turned 2.

The boys and Dad made a bird feeder pulley thing. Too bad the birds won't go near it.

I'll be back soon.

The runner-up prize

Yesterday we attended the final Little Athletics evening for the season, which was followed by the presentations. Our two little athletics were ecstatic (almost as ecstatic as mum and dad) to each take home an award:



Jeremy was awarded second place in his Under 6 boys group. Notice his ecstatic expression. He gets that from his father. He has been really enjoying Little A's and trying hard every week, so it was great to see his efforts rewarded. Isaac, who has been in the Tiny Tots group, received a medal. When he prayed that night before going to bed he prayed "and thank you for my steel...". After some head-scratching and puzzling it out, we realised that he had thought we were saying 'metal' and as his entire life has been one big house-building experience, in his four year old head he had received some steel!

Jacob hasn't been doing Little Athletics this season, but by the end of the night he had a different sort of trophy. First please note the following 'before' photo. He has recently lost his top two front teeth, the badge of honour for an almost-seven-year-old. This was taken about two days prior to the 'incident'.

This next photo was taken the morning after the Little A's presentation:

Jacob's 'trophy' was five stitches to the back of his head, after falling over and cutting his head. We have no idea how this happened and all he can tell us is he hit it on the concrete when he fell over. We couldn't tell exactly what he'd done because of the blood-matted hair, but after putting him in the shower to wash it off a bit it became apparent that a trip to the hospital would indeed be necessary. He was very brave and only cried during the administration of the anasthetic, at which i would have been screaming alot louder then he was. He was more concerned at how silly he thought he looked with his head all bandaged up, and if he'd still be able to show dad his latest recorder tunes. Needless to say this morning he proved he was fine by getting straight back into teasing his brothers.

Well that's the latest from our corner of the world. Tune in next week for the second episode in our Stitches mini-series, "The Removal".

Have a nice day!

Photos

Why is it...

so hard

to get four pairs of eyes

looking in roughly the same direction

at once???

Aaaahhh, there they are!

Must be a boy thing

The boys have never been ones for dress ups. At two, if you even showed Jacob some kind of mask, cloak or other dress up, he'd run screaming in the opposite direction, and his brothers seemed to be going the same way. Until now. Our trip to the Wall Memorial on New Years Day changed all that. Must be something about the big ships, aeroplanes, helicopters and canons. Whatever it was, they couldn't get enough of the dress ups...

Lest we forget.