Great Nanny Bounds

Great Nanny Bounds has been asking us to come and visit her for a while now. So we set a date and Wednesday was the day for it.

 Great Nanny Bounds

 Great Nanny Bounds is Mariah's Grandmother on her mothers side of the family. They live in Deloraine and have done for ever and a day.. well just out of Deloraine for ever and a day.

Great Nanny Bounds (GNB) is a sewer and has made some skirts for the girls in the past and wanted to try her hand at making them a jacket. So while Mariah and GNB went fabric shopping the kids and I went to the park.

 Milly fell in love with this slide. We fed the ducks for a bit, played on the train, walked across a wobbly bridge, looked at the rushing water, and learned some new tricks on some interesting play equipment.

When Mummy and GNB came to meet us at the park we decided to go for a walk along the river. Hanisi decided to ride her bike most of the way

The rest of us walked.

Now I have been in the family long enough to have heard the stories about how GNB likes to talk. I have even heard it from herself that everyone thinks that she is a great talker. So guess who got to walk with GNB

Me - Hanisi - GNB (the talker)

Well that was for a little while until Hanisi found a replacement. 

Poor Milly. It must be tough being the youngest. It wasn't long before my shift was over. 

As I write this I can hear Annette, Mariah's Mum laughing and laughing at this.... 

Ha ha the things you can do with photos.. this is not what happened at all.. We love GNB, and I don't mind her chats. We spoke about the gardens and grand children so I was listening half the time. Ha ha.. 

Part of our plan for the day was to feed the ducks. 

There were so many ducks to feed at Deloraine. We are just used to the several ducks at the Perth River. 

Hanisi was a cautions of all the ducks. She is not normally scared like this.

Milly was just amazed at all the ducks.

Then we lost Mummy

Where is Mummy Milly?

Over there?

Or over there?

Or over there?

There's Mummy!

 

I like this picture of Mariah. 

After our big walk we went back to GNB's house and by that time Great Poppy Bounds was back from the doctor. We stayed and had some yummy soup and a few lolly snakes before heading home.. 

It was a great day, but this was the highlight...

Thanks for reading.

Something NEW!

Tuesday started as a normal day... well kinda.. it did start off with me being out out bed at 6:30 and doing some exercise, and that is not normal. Besides me shaking the walls of the garage, it was normal. Hanisi was up and wanted to watch Timmy Time, Mariah was out with the other 2 musketeers entertaining the people living across from Perth Primary School, and Milly was still in bed.

Today was an exciting day as we had a trip to the library planned. Grandma and Grandpa were coming in the afternoon and were going to join us for tea.

It was about 10:30 and we were getting ready to go to the library when I got on to adopta pet website. We have been considering a cat for the family to love and adore. We took the kids out to the RSPCA about 6-8 weeks ago to have a look and see how they would react. They have been around Grandma's ragdoll cats and they were ok. By the time we arrived at the RSPCA the cats heard the kids coming and all shot inside. Except one little black kitten that followed Hanisi and Milly everywhere. After the visit we thought that maybe it was not the right time as the kids would just drive the cats nuts.

The other day we had gone to visit Grandpa and just as we were leaving Milly found the cat and was just memorized with the cat and could not stop patting it. We even threatened to leave her there and that didn't bother her, which is odd for Milly. At the time I thought nothing of it and we went home.

Yesterday I was talking to Mariah about getting a cat and she commented that she had also been thinking of it and thought that maybe it was a good time to get one. As she said that I came across a cat on the adopt a pet site that I thought was beautiful. Her name was Bailey... Yeah I know Bailey... a girls name????

This is Bailey (soon to change)

She is a Russian Blue, and I love her colour and her beautiful green eyes.. She is a bit grumpy in this photo. She had not been home long, and the kids were a bit too much for her at first. 

Grandpa and Grandma stayed for dinner and then said prayers with the kids and then were getting ready to go home. Milly saw this as her best chance for a ride before they went home. 

Almost as soon as Grandpa got up of his walking aid Milly pulled herself up, positioned herself, and held on. Both her and Hanisi love to go for rides. Hanisi was just too tired to go for a ride. Milly enjoyed it. 

After the kids had gone to bed, Bailey came out of hiding, and I went to Young Mens only to come home and find this. 

This was a good sign. Mariah said that she just followed her everywhere. As soon as Mariah sat down Baily would jump on her and settle down. 

She is a smoocher and loves cuddles and pats. She is still not too fond of the kids. When Mariah got up this morning to go and exercise I went and got Baily and brought her to bed with me. She snuggled down and went to sleep. Then Hanisi got up .. and we have not seen her since. She did pop her head out once to say hi and then went back to where she is hiding. 

So that's that. A Beautiful cat. We may call her shadow as she follows you around at night. But not so visible during the day. What do you think?

Can't Keep Up.

Keeping up with this record keeping of our children and the fun things we do can be difficult. I had taken some photos yesterday and thought.. Yeah that would be a nice short blog. As I downloaded the photos this morning I noticed that I had taken others for another blog. Well I am just going to combine them in to one today.

Trip to the Library

Our children have always loved having stories read to them. From a very early age Mariah would read to them to Hanisi and Milly. It was always a little harder with a Milly. We had a few children's books and started to gather a few from garage sales, and collect them as gifts from family. Soon we were unable to keep up with their desire to read new books. That was until Mariah discovered that we could get the children their own library card, and go to the library and get out several books a fortnight.

And so it is that every 2 weeks or so, Mariah and the girls go to the library to find some new and interesting books to read.

Some titles that they have enjoyed reading have been:

* Who's Poo
* Assorted titles in the 5 little monkey books
* Bums
* Brown Bear Brown Bear
* Wonkey Donkey
* I Went Walking
* Who's Nickers

And many many more... Some of those titles are thanks to Toots (Mariah's Mum) She seems to find some wacky books that the adults love to read as much as the kids.

Last week it was my turn to take the girls to the library. This was a mile stone for more than one reason. It was my first time to take them to the library, and Milly's first time out without Mummy tagging along.

Across the street from the Longford Library is a park.. and if there is one thing the girls love more than books is the park. So we just had to have a play on the equipment before we went to the Library.

Milly loves the swing.

 Hanisi is excited by slides at the moment.

Playing at the part was thirsty work. We had to wet our whistles before we went and read some stories. 

I don't have too many photos of us in the library as it is hard enough keeping an eye on them, and under some sort of control. They go crazy and the Librarian is a stereotypical Librarian.

Any way we had fun.

DOING STUFF WITH MUM
Mariah is great at doing things with the kids. They have made some weird and wonderful creations over the past, 2 years 9 months.

This past week they made some snow men.

When we got back from the library Mummy had made some biscuits on a stick. An alternative to a lolly pop maybe????

She left the icing for the kids to do and then came the taste testing... Mmmmm the second best part. The best part is eating the raw mixture. I have the wounds to prove how vicious Mariah can be when it comes to protecting her mixture from the waiting vultures. Now that Hanisi is old enough, we work together to get the mixture, then split our earnings.

Just after this was taken Milly's eyes rolled back in her head and she fell off the chair.  It must have tasted to good.

Mariah tricked me with a hard one.

GIFTS FROM GRANDMA

Grandma (My Mum) loves her grand kids a lot. Every time she visits she comes baring gifts. Every time they receive the gift of kisses and cuddles, and sometimes they get other gifts. One day Grandma came with a Big Blue cowgirl hat for them to share. Although they both live it, Milly has taken an exceptional liking to it.
This Sunday I came home from being at grandmas to find Milly kind of dressed and saying that she was ready to go to the shop. I laughed that she wanted to go to the shop looking like this.

 
No there isn't a nappy under there. I am not sure where she discovered that dressing style.

I had been at Grandma's and Grandpa's that afternoon celebrating Grandpa's Birthday. The girls were just too sick to come out.. Milly thought she was well enough to go to the shop looking like that though.

Grandma had given me a card to give to the girls, as she knew that they were sick and might need cheering up with a card. Hanisi loved the card and talked about it for a while. She also loved the stickers.

I think that will do for now. I can't remember anything else that we had done..

Hidden Treasure

Watch this video and then comment as to what your first thoughts were... It will be interesting. I have had some mixed reactions already. 

That's right Mariah took me to Treasure Island this morning. What a hoot. It was so much fun that I even invited a mate.

This is my mate Mick and I in the ball pit. 

 

This us playing with the air machines that blow the foam balls in the air.  The Lady in the pink shirt is Mick's Wife, Kate. She had to make sure we didn't break the machine or push the other kids out of the way. 

After we got sick of playing with the foam balls we went back to the ball pit. We discovered that we could make the balls fly high in the air.

We had so much fun. It was a pity that our wives insisted that the children come along. Well that's what we thought at first, but the kids made it more exciting and enjoyable.

Mariah was having a blast. It was just all too much for her at times. I think she may have found a quiet corner somewhere and chewed on the plastic. In this video she sounds like she is on drugs or something. 

 This Aiden. He is a few months older than Hanisi, and the oldest son of Mick and Kate.

This is Kaleb. Mick and Kate's youngest son. He is a few months younger than Milly.

 We all know Milly

And of course Hanisi. She liked playing in the ball pit. We buried her in the balls to see if she could get out. she needed a little help in the end.

Hanisi was not the only one who enjoyed the ball pit. 

There were things other than the ball pit to play with. 

We also liked the slide. 

Now just some random pics 

 

It was a great day. Great to see Mick and Kate and great to see the kids go crazy on all that play equipment. I have to honest and say that I did have just as much fun as the kids. We will be sure and go back... maybe through the week when it is not so busy. It did get a little crowded towards lunch time. I think we counted 4 Birthday parties. Thanks for the kids for making me feel more comfortable at Treasure Island. :)

A Man's Shed

The shed.  It is generally the domain of Men. Wikipedia says  "Larger sheds provide more space for engaging in hobbies such as gardening, small engine repair, or tinkering." I prefer to tinker in my shed/garage. Today was a tinkering day. I had a few odd jobs that needed doing and today was just the day to do them.

A man's shed is so important that there is even an Australian Men's Sheds Association. 

Want to learn more?

During these winter months I have had to share my shed. Share it with who? I have to share it with 3 sometimes 4 women. Did I hear someone say "you lucky guy!".. Yeah maybe.

What would these women want with a man's shed? SPACE and SHELTER. As some of you may be aware Mariah goes exercising with Leona and Kym, friends of hers here in Perth. They started a few months ago, and have been going 4 times a week every week. During the recent wet mornings it was suggested that they exercise indoors. They alternate which home they go to, and every now and then they come here.


I received a letter in the mail stating that I must display this signage whenever they occupy the shed.

I guess this is a health and safety issue for me and the kids.

It was brought up that it would be good if they had some music to work to when they were indoors. We only have the home theater system in our home, or the laptop. The laptop is a little quiet and may be difficult to hear above all the moaning, groaning, giggling and blowing off.

I recall the first morning they came here. there was 4 of them, and it was Belinda's first time, so the giggle volume was set to HIGH. I recall waking up to a someone running on the treadmill and the others laughing. It sounded like they were making their own music.

Thump thump thump thump, giggle giggle giggle giggle Thump thump thump thump, giggle giggle giggle giggle Thump thump thump thump, giggle giggle giggle giggle Thump thump thump thump, giggle giggle giggle giggle

Any way while tinkering today, I thought that I might have enough bits and pieces to make a more substantial system to help drown out the 'other' noises.

This is what I came up with.

 

It looks like something you may find in the back streets of Bangladesh, but it works and works well.

Some of you may recognise this from my younger days. It accompanied me on many a journey along beaches, through rivers and over the mountains of Tasmania. Well it now had been retired to my garage, to entertain and motivate anyone in ear shot.

I tried telling Mariah that maybe it is not such a good idea to have the music so loud, but she had me.

All the exercise was paying off... I had no where to go... She had me backed up against the kitchen bench...

Right in the nose.

This is what it looked like from my end.

THE VIDEO DID NOT UPLOAD

I will try tomorrow!

 Scary I know.

I have not choice but to share my shed. Otherwise the attack it 3-4 times worse. (I'm sure it will be after they see this)

All jokes aside If you hadn't guessed, I am exaggerating a bit, I don't mind sharing the space. I think it is great that Mariah has the determination to get up and going every morning. Leona, Kym and Mariah have developed great friendships though their exercising. I get to spend a bit more one on one with Hanisi and Milly. Most of all I get a happy wife.

Hair Hair... Yeah Yeah

Our two beautiful daughters have gorgeous hair......when it is brushed. Hanisi is not a big fan or getting her hair brushed, and it is not always the most easy task to perform on a child that is on the go all the time. Milly on the other hand just has crazy hair that does whatever it wants to do. I have been saving some photos of Milly's hair so that I can do a blog about it.. I only have a few, but typical me, have grown impatient waiting for those moments when I have the camera and they have the hair.


It was a fews weeks ago, while Mariah was having a shower, that I decided to cut Hanisi's hair... and then "trim" Milly's hair. I had been warned on numerous occasions not to touch their hair. As soon as I realised that Mariah was going to be occupied for the good part of an hour.. yes .. she loves LOOONG hot showers. :-[

 Once Milly had seen Hanis have a hair cut... she just ha to have one.

 The finished product, after she had run her fingers through it!

 The next morning. Milly will often wake up with hair everywhere.."The birds nest"

These are the photos that we like to capture, it is when her hair is at it's best.

 We don't have any fancy editing software.. and this is what I came up with... 

This is our day to day Milly, rain, hail, or shine.. she has the curls.

People often ask where they get their curls from. When Mariah's Father grows his hair out, which is not too often, it looks just like Milly's. Only his has a silver tint! hahaha

COWS BUM!

For half of our married life Mariah and I have lived on a student's budget and are about to venture down that path again soon. This time though we have two little ones and a mortgage. It will be an interesting time, however; will help us to become more self sufficient and be a little wiser with our money and with the things that we buy.

When we buy our meat we normally buy it in bulk and cut it up ourselves, that way we get so many cuts of meat for the one low price. It is normally just Mariah and I that get involved, but today the kids wanted to get involved, Hanisi in particular.

Helpers

The meat we brought today was Beef Rump. To help Hanisi understand where the cut of meat comes from we just call it "Cow's Bum". 

Daddy: "Hanisi, did you know that this meat is called rump? 

Hanisi: Yeah

Daddy: Hanisi, the Rump is the Cow's bum. This meat that we are cutting up comes from the Cow's bum.

Hanisi: Hmmmm... Hanisi like Cow's Bum. 

Saying this back in my mind I can hear Hanisi say those words and it makes me laugh. I will tell you a story about this at the end of the blog. 

Hanisi was our chief mincer... NO FINGERS!!

Hanisi thought this was great. She was covered in mince when she was finished. 

Mariah and Milly were the packers. 

This is our production line. First Daddy cuts it and grades it. Anything that does not look good enough to eat as steak, or strips, goes to Hanisi and then in to the mincer. 

After a while our packers packed it in.. I think Milly had had enough. So it was just Hanisi and Daddy left holding the Cow's Bum. 

At the end of it.. We had 10 or so packs of mince, a couple of Tupperware containers of steak and a couple of packs of stir fry strips. We had fun. Mincing seemed to keep Hanisi occupied and we got the job done. Thanks Family. 

So to the story of me recalling things Hanisi says. 

When we were living in our little flat in South Launceston, we discovered that Hanisi loved to jump. We didn't have the room for a trampoline, so we brought a little mini tramp. She loved it. When we moved to Perth we had loads of room, so Toots and Grandad got Hanisi and Milly a trampoline for Christmas.

Hanisi could not say trampoline, she would say Tramp a beeeeen. (The emphasis is on the Beeeen. The Beeeen started of as a normal Bee.. then increases in pitch and hold on to the eeeee then finish with a quick downward eeN   Tramp a Beeen. Anyway so I just loved it to bits when she would say it. 

When I was having bad days at work I would often go for a walk and just say Tramp a beeeen... Or if I had some time I would ring home and try and get Hanisi to say Tramp a beeen. 

After several phone calls over a few weeks Hanisi had cottoned on to what I was doing, and would say it freely. I haven't heard her say it for a while, But I have said it in my head!

Sneak Peak At Our Week.

It has been a good week this week. We have been able to do some fun things with the kids. Help out some friends, visit with old friends, and so some things that we have not done in a while or done ever before.

 Last Saturday we caught up with Mick and Kate, Aiden and Kaleb. We had not seen these guys for a while and it was about time we got together again for a visit and it was good to see them again. We spent a couple of hours with Kate and the boys while Mick was at work and then after choir practice I made my way back for dinner and a night out hunting with Mick (something I had not done in a while).  It had been a long time between shots.

 

Hanisi and Milly love to paint. Mairah has come up with some interesting ways to paint using different tools. Today was marble painting. Other days it is golf ball painting, or just plain old painting. Marble painting involves using a container with sides, a few blobs of paint and 2-3 marbles. we used 3 this day. 

There was the snow of course. You can check out Leona's blog to see all the fun we had that day.. It was a blast. 

Tuesday Kym had hired out the bike center for a couple of hours and invited the neighborhood to come and enjoy. I didn't go I had some gardening to do for a lady. Kym had little to choose from when she booked the bike center and could only get a 9am - 11 session. It just so happened that this morning was the second coldest morning we have had so far this month. So from what I hear some of the kids just froze while others made the most of Kym's generosity. 

I had some roses to prune and some raspberry canes to plant. I had a great morning. I love being in the garden. I finished what I needed to do just after lunch, and then it was time for the billy cart racing down the hill.. See previous blog for that. 

Wednesday I went and cut some wood out Lilydale with Job Tai. It started off as the coldest morning of the month so far. -3.5 at Perth. Once we started it was off with the jumper though. We managed to cut a couple of trailer loads of wood, however; only managed to get 1 load home. As we reached the homeward stretch, one of the wheels of the trailer decided to take a different route home, leaving us stranded on the side of the highway. Won't go in to detail, but we got the wood and the trailer home safe... but could not return to get the extra load.

No Photos or video of that sorry. 

More painting with the kids. This time paining the old milk boxes and each other.. .Grrrrrrr

Milly just loves to eat everything. Today it was muddy puddles, and the river.. I will explain later. 

Last night Hanisi was showing off her ability to jump off the couch.

She thought it was great when she saw how far she could jump. She thought it was even better when she found that she could jump over me while I lay on the floor. The video is not that great.. But the big red blob on the floor is me.

Mariah has been riding a bike to her morning giggle, I mean gym sessions with Leona and Kym.. and this past week Belinda. 

Today she wanted us to go for a ride as a family (something we have never done). She must have mentioned it to Leona this morning as Leona said that we were  (I was) welcome to use their little Buggy. 

I had the fortunate task of pulling the two kids around Perth. It wasn't long before we had to stop because Milly was pulling Hanisi's hair. Once we got that sorted we were off to the river to have a look around. 

We like it down there. It will be nice in the summer to go down there for a BBQ and a swim maybe. I went there when the house was being built. I had taken a week off work to build the retaining wall, it was just my luck that it turned out to be a stinking hot week. It was in the mid to high 30's that particular Saturday, and we work real hard to get the wall finished that afternoon. Thanks to Ben and Josh (brothers). When we were finished we went down there for a dip and cool off.. 

Building the wall

Had been gardening all morning hence the Sunday best. Didn't even do my hair.

Me and the girls at the Perth jetty. We had not real plans, just walk around and enjoy being there. There were some sheep floating around so we thought we would wander off and have a look. Just as we set off we heard the cries of a familiar voice. "Sam and Mariah" We looked around.. It was the Tai's. 

They were taking their dog "Big Boy" for a walk. They came with us while we went and looked that the sheep. Job and I talked about school and Mariah and Leona, talked about whatever it is girls talk about. 

The kids were having fun. The Tai family had just been to see Kung Fu Panda 2 so they were all jumping around with sticks trying to be Ninjas. I am sure some of the pics will make it to their blog. 

We had noticed that Milly was getting close to the edge of the river. So Mariah and Leona took their mystery conversation down to the river where they could be closer to the kids. Just as well they did, as Milly must have lost her balance and went head first in to the river. Mariah stripped her off and I fed her up though my t-shirt to try and keep her warm. 

Poor Milly. She was so cold when they pulled her out of the river. She kept wanting to pull her arm out the top of the shirt, then would realise that it was so much warmer in the shirt than it was out and pull her arm back in. It was lucky that the Tai's were there as they took Milly home in the van and Job got the fortunate task of riding the bike back home. It started off that he would ride with Hanisi and CC in the buggy, then it was Lani and CC. (an extra few kgs). I rode Mariah's bike back. Job had great intentions of beating them home. It was all going well at the top of the first hill. The van was just heading off, and Job took off up the second hill saying something like "we got this, quick" He got a few meters up the hill and just died... I think he was so excited he used all his energy on the first hill. I think they were home before we made it to the top of that hill.. He was pulling the extra weight. 

We made it home eventually and got some tea ready. As tea was cooking Milly and I made some popcorn for us to eat. They love making popcorn. We were making it to eat while we watch Kung Fu Panda. We like to make a chicken and herb popcorn... Yummo...

So that was part of our week. I hope the kids appreciate the blog one day.