Let it rain

It's been raining all week and I now have a tank of water! Oh I love the rain.
I love that when it rains it's a great excuse to do crafty/ inside things. The kids have been construcing cubbie houses in the lounge room, doing heaps of reading and snuggling by the fire and watching DVD's.
We have been busy too. Monday we went to a homeschoolers French class.Tuesday was Rain's birthday.
Thursday night we went to see the Circus Out of Africa. Amazing acrobatics!
Yesterday Rain and Mr T went to a homeschooling group craft meet up and did some papier mache.

I've been crocheting some baby longies, they are not quite finished yet but I have been sewing a bit this week. I wanted to make a pattern for a frilly, girly, floaty kind of skirt, it worked and I love this new skirt I made myself.

Going to make some more like it :)

Pixie dust and chocolate sprinkles

Ariad

Qld Floods

veiw from the veranda today...and it is still pouring down!

I just can't believe the amount of rain that has poured down over the last month or more. So far we have been having lots of rainy days ut we aren't in one of the really badly affected areas. So far the area of Queensland that is flooded is equivalent in size to the whole state of NSW or the whole of England and Germany combined! And more rain is on the way. Flooding is expected to spread, especially in my local area.

My heart goes out to all the people who have lost everything.
Today the water has been slowly rising around the house and I can imagine the panic and fear that people must feel as they watch the water rise and know that everything is going to go under.

Circus skills

Rain has been practising lots of circus skills lately. I wish I had got a video of this. She can now do five hula hoops at once!

She has also been practising on her unicycle everyday. She got it a year ago and has never really learnt to ride it properly but she decided last week to practice everyday for as long as it takes to be able to ride it. Already after a week she can ride it a couple of meters without stepping off.

Hopefully soon I'll have a videa of her zooming around on it!

Mr T and I have been practising hand stands and cartwheels today too. I showed him a one handed cart wheel and straight away he launched into one and pulled it off perfectly.

Then this evening he has been doing acrobalance with P.

We'll be able to start our own family circus soon :)

From the Archives

It's Rain's birthday over the weekend. Tonight she is having a slumber party so I'm surrounded by lots of gigglkeing right now;)

And since my camera is dead I thought I'd post this photo of her 2nd birthday party.

We were travelling in our bus at the time and had a little party with some friends at the park in Port Douglas in Far north Queensland.

Interesting photo too because it's one of the only photo's of me around over the last twenty years in which I have a significant amout of hair on my head.

ahhhh, green

I love green. The plants are looking so beautiful after all the rain.
And I just finished this little green bag.

For my birthday I got a new camera, it's only a point and click but the photos are heaps clearer than the old camera.

 I also went shopping and added to my wool stash.

 Zan made me this beautiful little table out of a slab of red cedar.

 P has been amusing the kids by dressing the dog up.

Rain, rain and even more rain.

This afternoon the water was coming up to the pavers out the front. It's over them now. Glad our house is up off the ground.

The trampoline looks as if it might float away!

But the kids had heaps of fun playing in the puddles!

Green green grass and crochet for blokes

At last we've had some rain! Over the last five months we have had 18mm of rain, barely enough to keep the plants alive. Our water tank was nearly empty again, we bought a load of water a couple of months ago but a load is only about half a tank full.

We were trying to conserve water but even the dam had dried up and we were having to get water from town in forty litre drums just to keep the veggies alive.
But now we have had rain. About 150mm in the last week. The dam is overflowing and so is the tank :)

And as you can see from this photo the grass is growing again... at a phenominal rate. The longer grass in this photo was mowed 10 days ago!!! So mowing the lawn is becoming a daily chore for P. I am usually not to worried about the grass getting a bit long but a couple of days ago, after a big fall of rain I walked up the back of the property to see how much water was in the dam and I stepped on a big snake!!! AND it was not a friendly snake either. I think it was a blue-bellied black snake (which although are not considered deadly are pretty nasty!) I have never leapt so high in my life!

It did not bite me but did scare the crap out of me. And now I want the grass as short as posible so the kids can see any snakes that are around.

I tried to make a few christmas pressies this year, not as many as I would have liked, next year I'll have to be more organised.
I find it hard to think of presents for males... women just seem easier to please, they like candles and soaps and crochet things.
Then I had an idea for a crocheted beer cooler!

There's fun to be had...

I just love it how seemingly everyday events and object for us boring old adults :) are just more opportunities for fun for our children. It always reminds me that so many of our experiences are based on perception. If you expect something to be boring it usually is. But if you are in the now and not basing your actions on past experiences you see things with fresh eyes.

Children are open to the new, they haven't 'learned' their reactions, they act in the moment. I'm blessed to have four wonderful children who are always teaching me new ways of being.

Yesterday we got a new fridge delivered.
Even the arrival of the truck was exciting for Mr T (and slightly scary for Tui!) The refrigerator was unloaded and Mr T exclaimed 'that's the biggest box ever!'

I didn't see much of him all day, he spent most of it inside the box. It became a hide out, a tunnel and then probably a lot of other things in his amazing imaginary world.

Tui loved that box too!

And the trolley used to move the fridge became a new toy.

What to me was a useful tool and an empty box became hours of entertainment and exploration for the kids.

So today I will try to remember to look at the world around me with the eyes of a child and see the potential for joy and fun in everything.

Birthday Unicycle

Birthday kisses

Birthday cakes

Birthday Smiles

and co- sleeping beauty...

love, love, love...

Rainy days and fun times...

We've had more rainy weather here on the Sunshine Coast. We've had two floods in two weeks. Seems like it should be called the Rainy Coast!

But it is so beautiful and the trees are all growing so well this year.





The creek flowing over the road again.






And I can't keep the kids inside. They love playing in all the puddles... it just means more muddy clothes to wash and try to get dry...








Even Tui sat at the door calling to be allowed out in the water to play. Eventually big brother came to the rescue and Zan splashed in a puddle with her for a little while.
Luckily even when it rains the temperature is still in the mid-twenties! (celcius)







Here's another beautiful Rain!





Then when the Sun finally came we were all keen to get into the garden. The kids built a wigwam with apple tree prunings, vines and branches.





Tui helped too!

The finished wigwam!

Well almost finished, because Rain decided to weave some mats for the floor.

Peace has bolted some rock climbing holds onto the big pecan tree over in the playground.

And made a rope bridge from the Pecan over to the platform tree.

Mr T loves climbing anything, he is such a monkey.

And Rain's friend had a go too...

I even climbed up but unfortunately no photos ;)