Boo...Halloween is coming

 So of course I've been doing a bit of Halloween decorating. At the front door we have a "Witches Parking" area with an umbrella witchy hanging from the roof.

I made a very eclectic wreath for the front door.

 And an arachnophobes nightmare of a front door. I've also lost my Halloween doorbell from last year, it's disappeared into the abyss of the spare room I think.

Jack insisted on having the eyeballs back out the front in the birds nest.  It's funny how kids like to have things exactly how they were previously.  Jack takes a bit of convincing sometimes if I want to change something around.

How Vampire Diary is this, Candy Blood!!  Gross and cool at the same time.  I bet it is disgustingly sweet.  I know it's a bit gross especially for kids but I couldn't resist.

Inside the front entry, the treat laden entry table with bloody hands and spidery mirror.

 Jack painting the eggs for the Halloween party invites...

The finished invitation...

And swim season has started.  Some days it's still a bit chilly but Jack's been in a few times and I've even been in once.

The boys have been hard at work...

Our backyard has always been a bit of a dumping ground and it's also had a few make overs.  We were trying to decide what to do with it after the pool was put in.  We had few ideas: a mini golf course, a succulent garden, a zen retreat, a built up vege patch but in the end we decided just to pave against the house and turf it so it can be multi purpose.  We might put in one golf hole for some putting and it can be our croquet and bocce green.  It's nice to have a bit of green out there.  We've still need to decide what to plant against the fence and Owen is going to build a screen for around the air conditioners.

The clear out...

Jack showing off his muscles after moving a few dozen pavers...

 Ta-da...the paving done.

O laying the turf...

 ...nearly finished....

Jack having a little cuddle with Kitti on the nice cool grass...

Of course you have to water in the new lawn so Jack made the most of it and tromped down the turf at the same time...

 The boys did a great job.

On the last weekend of the holidays Jack had his mate Mitchell over for a sleep over.  We headed to the Crazy Joker for a few hours before heading home.  Jack had seen Mr Maker make these haunted castles so we had been saving our toilet paper rolls and Jack and Mitch each made one.  Great way to occupy some time.

On Sunday morning the boys played Band Hero on the Wii.  They were really getting into it too.

Jack rocking out...

New additions to our home...

O and I had decided to get a couple of chooks.  We checked out the laws on the link at the council website, ordered a coop and some feeders and went to visit a breeder to check out her frizzle chickens which are the most adorable things.  Their feather curve outward so the little chooks look like they've been caught in a windstorm, they are super cute.  So anyway O was doing some research while we were waiting for the coop to be shipped and came across the 2006 council rules which state no chooks allowed for a block of our size!!  So of course being the goody two shoes that I am instead of just pretending we hadn't seen it a got the chooks anyway I insisted that we ring to clarify with the council.  Bad move :(  Turns out that the 2006 rules still apply.  The link that we had looked at was the new laws that are not in yet and are still under consideration so come the 31st of December we may or may not be able to have chooks.  I'm hopeful that we will be able to since in Brisbane it's not a problem to have chooks on our block size. 

So of course Jack was very disappointed.  We explained it all to him as best we could and he now is not very happy with the council.  So then I thought maybe we could get a pair of quails instead but they are apparently classed as poultry as well and therefore are not allowed either.  So what's the next best thing to keep in a coop....

...Fluffy and Caramel!! 

They are very cute.  My brother and I had guinea pigs galore when we were kids.  I figure even though they can't provide us with eggs at least they'll still eat our vege scraps.  I had wanted to get fancy guinea pigs with the cool mullet hairstyles but Jack fell in love with Fluffy (the black and white one) and we wanted two around the same size/age and the only fancy one was a fair bit bigger.  They are such adorable little things and are coping pretty well with being caught and kid handled by a 6 year old every couple of hours.  I discovered this afternoon though a jellybean sized lump on the side of Caramels face so I really hope these guinea pigs arent' going to cost us a fortune in vet bills.

Notice Jack's lip in the photo?  We spent a couple of hours at the ER on Friday night.  Jack was practicing his gymnastics swinging in between our dresser and the bed foot and lost his grip and face planted on the carpet.  The scream definitely brought O and I running.  He had put three teeth through his lip and split the gum behind one tooth and in front of the other so we thought we'd better get it checked out.  It's healing up well, no need for stitches or anything and his teeth are ok luckily.  He's had some bruising come out today both on and under his lip and also under his chin which is slightly swollen.  Poor little bugger, it looks bloody painful.

Pizza!!

Jack's little mate Jared is having a sleep over tonight.  I had a great afternoon, they entertained themselves with the Wii and I was free to relax!!  So tonight we've made pizza for dinner.

Here are the boys making the dough.  Jared was chief mixer and Jack was chief sifter.

Then they got down and dirty and kneaded the dough...

They stretched it out to their desired shapes.  Jack's was in the shaped of a bone.

Applied their sauce of choice...

Added some bacon and cheese...

And viola!!  Pizza!!

Then the taste test...

Jared's hot cheese face.

Birthdays and a new kitten in our household.

We've had a busy weekend for birthdays this week.  A joint birthday for Owen's niece and nephew on Friday, Emmy's 1st Birthday party on Saturday, Grandad Kev's birthday dinner Saturday night and then a BBQ dinner for another niece tonight.

Here's Grandad blowing out the candles on his cake for his 88th Birthday. 

 Jack, Patrick and Ally lining up to help Emmy blow out the candle on her 1st Birthday cake.  She was adorable grabbing little handfuls of smarties off the cake.

And last but not least here is our new kitten, Cappuccino.  She's such a cutie.  Kitti apparently disagrees but we're very much hoping that she'll get over it. At the moment there's just been lots of hissing and mewling. 

Goodbye Old Girl

We made the very very sad decision to put our poor old Bella girl to sleep today.  Today I was feeling relieved that she was sick no longer and would be feeling no more pain but tonight I'm just feeling heart broken.  I'm very much wishing that Jacks' suggestion to "think of happy kittens" was actually effective because all I can think of is the loss of her.

  

I have a thousand thoughts but no words...

A break away...

...what a great way to spend a weekend!!

We went to the beach for a couple of days over the Easter weekend and stayed at the beach house with some family and friends.  I'm sure I've mentioned many times about the great childhood memories I have from holidays with my family at the beach house.  When I say my family I don't just mean my Mum and my brother I mean FAMILY!!  My Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins...lots of us all in one house, beds head to head around the sleep out.  The best of times!!  Ah, sweet memories.

So this weekend the three of us went down with our friends the Williams's and the Bruckner's and my Grandparents and Aunt Jenny and Uncle Michael.  It makes me feel so happy to have Jack spend time with other kids like that.  I'm sure it was a different experience for him as well being around other kids for that amount of time.

So we did some swimming...

We hung out at the beach...

We played in the sand...

We hunted for yabbies (thanks Jason)...

We saw the sunrise (thanks kids :P)

We swam some more...

We baked some brownies...

We at some fantastic waffles (thanks David)

The kids rode scooters and bikes...

The big kids rode bikes...

We goofed around...

We ate fresh coconut...

And we wore out sunscreen...

Jack got so sick of me telling him to put on more sunscreen.  He told me he couldn't wear five layers of sunscreen.  He didn't get burned though, lucky he listened to his Mum.

It is sooooo relaxing down there.  The fresh sea breeze, the sound of the ocean, the wind rustling the coconut leaves, the sand between your toes, the cool water splashing over your feet, the laughter of the kids, ahh bliss.  

Life is good!