Kites

On an especially windy Saturday Louisa and Max remembered that buried underneath Max's cupboard they had kites!

It was a success.

And Louisa didn't even have to change out of her pyjamas.

Hepburn

Louisa tells me that David and Granny both said she looks like "Ordinary Hepburn - but I don't even know who that is."

Actually it's Audrey - and actually she does.

Louisa

Has a new haircut. For weeks she has been fancying the idea of a fringe and we finally found a spare moment to do the cutting. I suggested we wait till Jesse came home from her exam for another opinion, but Louisa said 'Mum, I don't really care what other people think about my hair.' So we cut it then and there - and it's completely gorgeous - not that my opinion matters.

Wept all through Sacrament meeting today until she quietly cried herself to sleep - because Beth was called as Relief Society President necessitating a release from being Beehive Advisor.

Played in her first two concerts with the strings ensemble from school. She was very pleased to report that she got it right at least 50% of the time.

Came to the Relief Society gardening talk on Saturday - she loves gardening and can't be away from Jesse and I for too long.

Has been tending a sick goat for weeks - Chocolate is not well. We think both goats must have eaten something they shouldn't have. We made a coat out of an old blanket and Chocolate looks forward to Louisa putting it on each night.

Mornings

Louisa and Max are supposed to be up at 6.30am for scriptures, then on to getting ready for school, animals, jobs, cello or piano practice and out of the house by 8 am.

But it's getting cooler and sometimes when they have a late night (anything after 9pm) I let them sleep in a bit.

Then when I finally go in to get them up I find:

I think I am the only one wholly committed to the morning schedule.

Watoto

Louisa and Max and I went to the Watoto Children's Choir. We were the only family members with a night spare when they were performing - and the others have been many times. Max, however, couldn't remember seeing them - even though he has been many times. It's a fantastic night.

Watoto is a Christian children's orphanage in Uganda where they take up to 8 children and put them in a three bedroom house with a mother who they stay with their whole life. The mother is usually a woman who has been abandoned by her husband. The children are usually found on the streets - although some mothers will organise for the children to go to Watoto when the mother knows she is dying. They have 180,000 children now - that's about 1% of Uganda's orphans.

And to raise awareness and funds, and to show some of the children the world, they form choirs and go on tours. Usually the kids are 8 - 18, and are the most charming, energetic and happy children God ever placed on the planet. The cuteness practically kills us.

So they sing songs about Jesus and dance. Then some of the kids tell their stories and some video of others is shown - then they pass around the hat and it gets very full.

Listening to the stories of war, deprivation and depravity Max asked 'why do so many bad things happen to black people?" Don't know.

And Louisa said it makes her feel bad for the things she crys about sometimes (mainly school and Young Women). Yes, I understand.

Mainly though it leads to days of talking about how joyful we should be to not only have Jesus Christ as Saviour but to have the restored gospel and an intact family. It's good for the soul.

(I forgot my camera so this if from their website - and is a much better photo than I would have taken anyway.)

Just the girls

Because Louisa attended a YW activity without Simone and Monica (they were in Tasmania), she came home in tears - too many early teenage hormones in one room for Louisa - and because Louisa came home in tears she begged for 'some time with just you and me and Jesse' - and because she is so appealing Jesse and I dropped everything and took her shopping and playing and doing girl things.

We bought jeans and a skivvy for Louisa and shoes and a backpack for Jesse - checked out some quilt shops and the new City Farmers store. Went to a baptism then picked up Joan for more shopping. This time we bought pearl necklaces for both girls - pink for Jesse and a mix of whites, creams and greys for Louisa. They are real but were cheap. Then had lunch at Jocelyns - brioche pizzas, zucchini and mint fritters and brownies so rich they were practically indecent.

It's a bit like If you give a Mouse a Cookie around here. The YW couldn't possibly imagine the chain of events they put in place whenever Louisa goes to an activity.

Winter

It really isn't winter in Samford. But on the first grey and windy day it felt like winter and Louisa and Max begged for a day at home. They could think of nothing better than a day of quilts, hot chocolate, reading and knitting.

But I had a meeting that day and Jesse had a day at Pine so I bribed and cajoled and talked them into a day off the next day.

Luckily it was still wet and windy and cool.

It was the weather but I think it was also about being together after so long apart in different schools - the first year ever for Louisa and Max

After a breakfast of hot cross buns and hot chocolate, they bustled off to Max's room and after a while this sign appeared on the door.

(Which being translated reads: Come in and see puppet show called The Awesome Puppet in Max's Room. Please put some sweet food in the yellow box (some ideas - whipped cream, chocolate slice etc.))

So I left an offering of chocolate slice and whipped cream and was duly admitted for two puppet shows.

Then they played dreidle, cooked, read and knitted/crocheted.

Since then we have been making an effort - to have more quiet together time at the end of day and to read more and generally cocoon at night.

We have re-read The Mozart Question - one of our absolute favourites - and listened to Vivaldi's Winter movement because the little boy in the book plays it. Now we are onto Toby Alone and Jesse is reading book 3 of The Rangers Apprentice at night.

Max starts in the lounge room with me reading, then goes to the girls room where Jesse reads Rangers Apprentice, then into his own bed where Roger or I read Book of Mormon stories, and then, when he is home, Tom goes in and reads Redwall. It is a full night.

Some people say Queensland doesn't have seasons - but it has just enough for us. Jesse says it smells like Easter - fresh, cool and autumny. We can tell that winter is coming and it's time to tuck ourselves inside and make the most of short days and crisp nights. Time for Easter eggs and Easter books, time for hot chocolate, general conference, school holidays and trying again with the garden.

Ducks and Pigs

Jesse was icing cupcakes with Louisa and Max when she knocked a glass off the kitchen bench - but it was caught in a tablecloth and didn't hit the floor.

Louisa said 'Jesse, you are as lucky as a duck that didn't get its head cut off.' Which I suppose is true.

Then the icing got started and Max said 'I'm going to be as generous as a pig with this icing.' And Louisa nodded and replied "Pigs are very generous animals.' I didn't know that but Jesse says it must be true because Max was very generous with the icing.

LilyRhadika

Some friendships make me believe that at least some of us knew each other before this life.

Max had a fascination for Ruby Greenan when she was a newborn and he was around 2 - it was something to see. As though a two year old a baby could speak to each other.

And Louisa has LilyRhadika. They have been friends since they laid eyes on each other at five years old, and even though Lily has been at a different school for a few years now they remain devoted. There was a hot line of sorts between our houses over the school holidays as the two girls shared gossip, feelings of impending doom and excitement all at once while they prepared for high school.

And last weekend they managed to co-ordinate their busy schedules so that Lily could sleep over on Friday night.

And cook and swim all day on Saturday.

Then visit Mack at the Pine afternoon tea.

We dropped Lily home and she gave Max masses of lovely lego that she had finished with and Louisa a bag of clothes.

Louisa gave us a fashion parade at dinner a few nights ago. There was a bright purple coat - Lily's favourite colour. Someone said it suited Louisa, and I said it's lucky that Louisa and Lily both look good in purple.

And Louisa reminded me 'but we're twins.'

Funny thing is there was a time when both girls quite genuinely thought that was true. I walked past Louisa's bedroom when Lily was sleeping over years ago - the girls had dressed identically - and they were certain that 'the teachers will never be able to tell us apart.' Somehow they managed.

Jerusalem Quartet

Joan, Louisa and I were so excited to see the Jerusalem Quartet - they even had a guest cellist. The only difficulty was that we had to sneak in the back door because Joan had received an email from the Palestinian action group she'd just met the weekend before at their film festival saying that they would be holding a protest and would we like to come?

Apparently the Jerusalem Quartet are funded by the Israeli government making them a political statement and something no-one in good conscience could possibly attend.

But the tickets were $90 each so we went and snuck in.

Turns out we're just not that high brow. It was quite the night. 3 hours of solid chamber music - nary a word or a smile the whole time. Fascinating - but an hour or so might have done the trick.

It was a great night still - Louisa wore the dress Susie bought for her birthday and we had Vietnamese for dinner quite late and felt very cosmopolitan.

As Louisa likes it.

Louisa is living the good life - in fact her life is so good right now that it can really only go down hill from here.

Those are pierced ears - for her 12th birthday.

And those are new glasses - they are training glasses and she'll probably have them for 2 or 3 years. It's all about getting both eyes to look at the same spot. When the optometrist gave her the good news Louisa said she'd been thinking that she needed glasses for a while now. And she didn't tell me because.... she thought she was just convincing herself to need them since she wanted them so much.

The whole family, Joan, and the other Fulchers (except Robert and Samuel) went to the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble's production of As You Like It - we are practically groupies - we go to everything they put on because it is always fabulous.

Matilda and Patrick came to As You Like It too - they took Lee & Petie's tickets.

One of her many birthday presents was a ripstick. Max got one too and they are addicted.

Her birthday dinner was provided by Joan - roast anchovy crusted lamb, with creamy potatoes, organic greens and seaweed and spelt bread followed by a spelt sponge cake with rich Jersey cream, bananas and rhubarb coulis.

Last week was Pine's Wet n Wild day.

She has a possum as a pet and has a vision of herself lying on the reading couch with her glasses on and a possum sitting on her shoulder, reading a good book.

This week is Pine big kids camp on Stradbroke Island.

It just doesn't get much better than that.

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.

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

.

Sydney

Max was sick - so sick I took him to the doctor. The doctor looked in his ears, listened to his chest and said "Congratulations Max - you win! You are the sickest person I've seen all day." Then diagnosed bronchitis, prescribed antibiotics and predicted 3 or 4 more days of being very sick.

(It's a blurry photo - but I think that's how he felt!)

So I called Peet and Louisa and told them they could take my place on the trip to Sydney Joan and I had been planning - we were leaving the next day. That made two happy kids.

Then Roger called to say he could take carers leave and I could go to Sydney. I was happy too.

Max was not so happy and started to whine. Alec told him not to worry - Dad would be home. Max sarcastically wondered 'and what could possibly go wrong with Dad?'

I went anyway.

Joan had four super cheap tickets to Sydney - actually so cheap they were free for me. (Joan and Lee and Sue and Graham had planned the trip six months ago, then Lee got busy and Sue had to work - so voila - free tickets to Sydney.)

We flew in to Newcastle and caught the train to Sydney - which was nice - we trundled past the Hawkesbury where Roger and I spent our honeymoon on a houseboat.

Checked into the motel and made a beeline for the David Jones Food Hall to buy chocolate coated strawberries and bananas. Louisa has an addiction.

Book shopping followed - Louisa went to sleep on the stairs of the shop - just for a moment and I wasn't far away.

Then dinner at Bill and Tony's. And bed.

A ferry ride to May Gibbs' house and back.

May Gibbs (of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie fame) was quite the woman - and reminded Joan and I of Grandma Thomas - in letter writing, art work and attitude.

Then the Hyde Park Barracks Museum - family history and temple work become pressing in the face of such difficult times past - St Mary's Cathedral, and the Australian Museum.

Italian thick hot chocolates at Max Brenner in the city.

Dinner at Bill and Tony's again - Peet has an addiction.

Another train trip back to Newcastle. A seven hour wait in the fun factory that is the Newcastle Airport (delayed planes due to fog).

Home.

Here's the surprise - my kids are getting big. I said no when they first caught wind that there were two spare tickets and begged to come. I knew I needed some time off and wanted to do heaps of things, and read and sleep.

Then they came and I had some time off, did heaps of things and read and slept.

They just don't need me to do much anymore - and I forgot - they're pretty much grown up. I even had Peet go off to David Jones for chocolate coated fruit supplies alone while Louisa and I read in the motel. And I didn't have to tell them to watch for traffic - or eat their greens - or have a bath. In fact I only talked to them because we were enjoying the same stuff and learning new things together. So in the end I went on holidays with three of my best friends.

Still, how nice to find Max still sick and still needing a cuddle and still a bit of a baby.

Swine Flu

Alec has a cough - Louisa says he has Swine Flue - and she can tell because his room is a pig sty.

And that's the pretty clean version - we are trying to find a place for Tom to lay his head.

Painted

Louisa came home from school saying 'I just sat still for a while and the little kids painted me'. I guess these things will happen!

Hats

Shoes are entirely discretionary at Pine - but hats are compulsory. Which does not mean that my children remember hats very often at all - they prefer to grab one from the spare hats box.

Problem is - head lice love the spare hats box. Which should not be taken to mean that my children only get head lice from other children - I think it's actually the other way around - it's a case of the sins of the parents being visited - literally - on the heads of the children. I teased a girl about having head lice in grade 7 - it's a long and sad story. So it serves me right really.

But I think it's my civic duty to try not to inflict those sins upon the rest of the school. So I try to get the kids to wear their own hats. (Though any hat is better than none of course - Matt did just lose an eye to sun cancer.)

But I think I have finally cracked it! I sewed (!) hats - Louisa and Max picked fabric out of my quilting stash and we sewed them up on Saturday afternoon.

They love them - they're a hit at school - and they remember them everyday and wear them all day long.

Max loves his so much he sleeps in it!

Just to clear my name for future generations - we work very hard at getting rid of head lice and treat the kids every week - it just never lasts long. And, yes, Max is sleeping in his clothes - and it's not even the first time that's happened.

Green Frogs

When Sam was staying with Susie at Moonstone long ago, Susie took her revenge on Sam (after Sam made a Lemon Meringue Pie and ate it all before Sue got home) by throwing a bucketful of green frogs on Sam while she was in the bath. Worked too - Sam leaped out of the bath and ran naked through a crowded room to escape.

At Glenellen in Rocky we had so many green frogs that Joan and Lee paid me 20 cents for each one I got out of the toilet - I was enterprising too - I paid Matthew 5 cents to catch them and put them back in the toilet!

Now they are so rare that when we heard one in the drain pipe Roger took the whole pipe apart to get it out to look at and relocate to somewhere nicer (the dam).

Louisa and Max found a couple of little marsh frogs for friends but Roger was insistent that it should be let go in the dam.

Well they tried - but the way Louisa tells the story she put it on a lilypad but it looked so scared that she had to pick it up again. It looks scared don't you think?

So Louisa rescued it.

And it sat on her arm for so long that I almost believed the story. Finally Louisa and Max walked around trying each tree until the frog finally hopped off onto the Jacaranda tree where it seems to have made a new home.

Mountain Biking

It started with Peet admiring Daniel Woods and his tales of derring do on the mountain bike. Then Peet bought a bike with all his hard earned cash and Max admired Peet's tales. Then Max bought a bike and now we can admire his tales.

Plainly, Max is very pleased with his bike - bought on ebay for $56 - advertised as a 20 inch but in reality a 24 inch - amazingly he can ride it with ease.

Roger and Mark (Parry) took the little kids - Max, Jessica and Louisa - mountain biking on the Jinka Track on Saturday - now that was a hit. There were creeks to ride through and 'burns' and mud covered their backs. What more could you want? Turns out you could want to go again. Badly. So it looks like this Friday or Saturday they'll be tearing down the Jinka Track again.

(The really good news is that the mud splashes stained Max's shirt and now he wears it all the time because that way people can ask what the stains are and he gets to tell them!)

Cello

Apparently it takes 10,000 hours of practice to reach virtuoso status in pretty much anything - Joan and Louisa have the first hour down for Cello playing.