Dinner and a show

For my birthday Roger made a roasted, marinated venison backstrap with masses of organic roasted veges. (He even hunted and butchered the venison himself!)

Louisa and Max put on a show.

Louisa started by saying 'I will now play Happy Birthday on the cello - to the tune of Lightly Row.' (You have to work with what you have.)

Then Louisa and Max sang bawdy tunes about the family composed earlier in the bath.

"Food, food, food, I can't get enough food.' - about Peet.

'Snore, snore, snore like a tiger roar' - about Roger.

You get the idea.

There were presents too.

School holidays

Stradbroke Island - which I'll post about as soon as I collect some of the gorgeous photos - and Sunshine Beach made for a beautiful school holiday.

We left Sunshine early though for Jess - who had to have a small but emergency operation to excise an abscess. Lots of pain, general queasiness, a general anesthetic and a couple of weeks of packing the wound. She's getting better all the time - and yesterday Peet pretended he had to stay home from school to look after her. They actually went to see Harry Potter - not many people in the cinema so Jesse got to lie down across five seats to watch.

Consensus of opinion from Roger, Jesse and Peet - Harry Potter was not bad - but perhaps not up to the usual standard - they are anxiously awaiting part 7.

Pine Theatre Restaurant

The annual Pine Theatre Restaurant is - well - not for the faint of heart! Plays are written, directed, and performed completely by the kids - some as young as four - and it can be a little hard to follow. The usual process is that each kids chooses the character they want to be - then they write a play with those characters. This year Louisa chose a giant squid - that's her in the slightly KKK looking costume at the front.

And Max was an old granny - his favourite character to play at home - sometimes he can be old granny for hours - it's wearing after a while.

(The restaurant part is a pot luck dinner before the plays.)

It's a riotously fun night.

Hagues

My cousin* Natasha came to Brisbane for her husband Anthony to go through the temple for the first time. Roger and I went too - Tom had to stay home and nurse Jesse.

Here's Natasha, Anthony, Seth and Imogen** - now those are two cute little kids.

* Natasha is not actually my cousin - we just think of her that way - her dad and my dad are cousins - but there's not so many family members from that side of the family in Australia.

** Amelita stayed in Townsville for a holiday with her dad.

Sunday Afternoon

While Roger visited ward members, and while the big kids and I slept, Louisa and Max pulled out the saw, the drill, some rope and a board and made a swing.

It even worked

.

Swords

Before the fateful day when Jesse started to read The Ranger's Apprentice and Max could still think about other things he had a medieval fad - inspired of course by the big boys ball.

Many hours were spent sanding a bit of pine he found in the wood pile to make the perfect - and actually quite sharp - sword.

He just squeezed in a bit of sword fighting before the dream was over.

Now he is looking for the sword to give to Samuel and plans for a 'really good bow' are in the wings.

Two balls

Alec and Tom have been to two balls - the YSA ball at church and the Abbey Festival Medieval Masqued Ball.

The church ball was easy - suits with patterned shirts.

The Medieval ball needed costumes - Alec had arranged go before Tom got home - he was going with friends - Samantha, Anastasia and David - Samantha and Anastasia made the costumes - bless them.

I made Tom's costume - clearly Samantha and Anastasia cared more - but Tom looked good anyway.

Apparently they had a great time - even without the complimentary mulled wine offered with the ticket.

There's a YSA dance coming up in September - Alec and Anastasia are ward YSA reps and on the dance committee - the theme is Medieval. Which sounds good because the boys have costumes - but Jesse will be YSA by then and we'll need to get out the sewing machine again.

FHE

Family home evening this week was a puzzle and some scripture reading - and Rocky Road for dessert. (We did the puzzle on the not-flat lounge table for an extra degree of diffculty.)

The deal was that everyone could have one piece of rocky road before the puzzle and one piece when it was finished. It was harder than anticipated and didn't get finished till the next day - and one piece was missing. I was accused of hiding it on purpose so no-one could have more Rocky Road until Louisa found it the next day - under the mat.

Tom has been home for a month and a half now and we still haven't had a regular FHE with him - he was in Toowoomba working with Lee this week.

But we are glad to have him home - Louisa said that she has noticed that since Tom has been home Alec has not been a 'grumpy goose' when he gets home from work - just a 'slightly grumpy goose.'

The Ranger's Apprentice

While the big boys watched and cheered* through the State of Origin, Jesse, Louisa and Max lay on my bed while Jesse read a couple of chapters from The Ranger's Apprentice.

After Jesse and Louisa had gone to bed and Max had watched a bit of football, Max came back into my bed with a long face and sad eyes. "Mum, can I talk to you?"

"Yep, climb up here with me."

"I have a really big problem." (Max was almost teary at this point)

"Mmmm"

"Ever since Jesse read me that first chapter of Ranger's Apprentice, I can't think of anything else. I try to do writing in school but all I can think about is Ranger's Apprentice, I try to do maths but I just can't stop thinking about Ranger's Apprentice."

"Oh."

"It's like my mind is full of Ranger's Apprentice and I can't do anything else." (There was genuine worry in his voice for this alarming state of affairs.)

So we did a bit of writing in his journal about Ranger's Apprentice and he felt a little better - but there are eight books in the series with number nine due in November - this could go on for a while.

*Oops - Roger just told me that was not cheering I heard - that was complaining at the ref - NSW won.