Trampoline cubby

Hugo uses the trampoline almost every day. When he's not bouncing he uses it as a cubby house. I snapped him through the bushes chatting away to his truck and helicopter. But he spotted me and wanted to show me how the boot comes off his truck.

Chess

Daisy is getting pretty good at chess. Here she is absorbed in her chess homework. I was stumped on a few of her questions but she worked out the moves.

New camera

Scott took these photos with the our new camera (thank you). We've only just got it but we are already enjoying the beautiful photos it takes - especially the depth of field. Here are Daisy and Django enjoying a run by the river. Hugo was sleeping in the car so missed out on the action.

These ones of Hugo busy with his fire engine were taken through the fly wire, hence the soft focus feel

Making dogs

Hugo has always loved playing with playdough. Usually he gets lots of animals, mostly dinosaurs, and they stomp through it and hide under it. But today he made some dogs. I was very excited. It's lovely to see him develop and grow up. It's the first time he's made something like this from his playdough. He spent ages doing it while I cooked a lasagne alongside him.



After he had finished he went to collect his art box and asked to do some gluing and drawing - again another first. Up until now he hasn't been that keen to do any drawing.
He is also sporting his lovely new hair cut - very cute.

Weekend activity

Daisy gets busy with the perfume making kit that she got from Grandma for her birthday.

And Hugo helps Daisy make fresh pasta. We tried it once before but weren't very successful. This time it went well. We'll do it again.

The science party

Daisy chose a science party (her invitations went out in a test tube). Nana took Hugo out for the day so we could set up and do experiements without any 'help' from a three year old. Before the party Daisy helped ice her cake and get everything ready.
She invited six friends from school. After present opening and a quick play in the tree-house and on the trampoline we got down to the experiments.
We had seven to get through and had no idea how long they would take. We were hoping they'd last close to an hour, but they ended up going for 1 1/2 hours. We only just had time for party tea!

Once the lab coats and goggles were on, we tackled red cabbage chemistry. Red cabbage contains a natural pH indicator. We added vinegar, sodium bicarbonate, fizzy drink, lemon juice etc to see what colour the liquid turned.

Very acidic solutions turn it red, neutral ones purple and basic ones greenish-yellow.

We made some instant worms from a kit, squirting one solution into another and watching a long blue worm form.

For colour changing milk we put drops of food colouring in a plate of milk, then touched the surface with washing up liquid on a cotton bud and watched the colours swirl around. Very impressive, it worked much better than I expected.

Then the slime. They all had great fun mixing and playing with their slime. I bought a kit for this one, to make sure it worked. We've got some left, so we're making some more with Hugo.







Gooey, slimey





Homemade ice cream got them outside for a dance around. We put milk, sugar and vanilla essence in a small zip lock bag, inside a large zip lock bag with ice and rock salt. Then we shook it around for 5 minutes and amazingly got ice cream.
The rock salt causes the ice to melt at a lower temperature. The lower freezing point provides the temperature difference needed to freeze the ice cream. Rock salt doesn't lower the freezing point as much as table salt, so it gives you a smoother ice cream because it freezes more gradually.

Then the finale with the cola mentos fountain (a whole packet of mentos in one go into a bottle of coke), twice, while I hastily cleaned up and laid out the party tea.

Mini frankfurters were a big hit!

Happy birthday Daisy!

The other experiments were unmixable water - hot red water in one jar with a playing card on top, tipped on top of another jar with cold blue water, pull the card out and, hey presto, the colours don't mix.

Dancing raisins - raisins in lemonade. The bubbles cling to the raisins, they rise, the bubbles pop, they fall.... Tip - soak the raisins first.

Many thanks to Katz from Mumsnet for all her suggestions and the booklet, which I blatantly copied - removing and adding a couple of experiments - and gave to all the party goers.

They also all took home their goggles and lab coats, and some expanding beads (one pack generously managed 7 children), which have been a big hit at school today.

Hugo's 3

This is the first year Daisy and Hugo have had separate birthday parties. We decided to have them on the same weekend - hectic but great fun. After presents and webcam chats with Grandma, Grand and Granny in the UK, we got ready for the first party - Hugo's

Hugo chose a superheroes party. We made superhero eye masks, then played pass the parcel. Daisy did a great job of doing the music and making sure all the kids got a turn with the parcel.

Here with cousin Claire.

Then party tea. There was a brief period of quiet while all 12 of them sat and ate.

Hugo liked the cakes best - note the still full plate of fruit.

It was a hot day, so the polyester costumes didn't last long. Hugo, Pascal and Rex enjoy a bit of time in the sandpit before coming back in for birthday cake.

Happy birthday Hugo. A big three-year old boy.

A few friends stayed after the party for some drinks and takeaway pizza. Super parents Richard and Claerwen came and stayed with party goers Winter and Baxter and gorgeous two-week old Flint.

Calm in the kitchen while the children have a present fest in the lounge.

Birthday morning

Here's Hugo having a look at his new Cranky crane amidst the carnage of present time.

The bookshelf

Here's the new bookshelf, made out of the wood that was holding our old straw ceiling up. It just needs to be painted now.

It's (almost) finished

It only took three weeks, although it felt like much longer. Our kitchen is now finished, apart from the bookshelf. It's made an enormous difference to the house. It was a gloomy room during the day, until late afternoon in the summer when the sun finally reached it. It wasn't a room we particularly wanted to spend time in. But now we love it.

The nook has had many incarnations, starting as Daisy's making area - now relocated to her bedroom. Now it's become a music room/quiet grown up's space.

The open bookshelf is going from floor to ceiling where the missing skirting board is.

Look at the sun coming in those skylights - they're 5 star rated, so hopefully won't make the room too hot in summer.

Science experiment

Daisy asked Scott why people don't fall out of aeroplanes when they do a loop the loop. A quick lesson on centrifugal force followed. Here's Daisy demonstrating with a full bucket of water.

Oh so different

I took this short video of Daisy and Hugo because it captured how different they are. Daisy is singing about bright stars, while Hugo is talking about killing things with his powers.

Fete day

It's been a busy week. It was the school fete today. The weather was amazing and the turnout was huge. It was packed and the kids had lots of fun. Feeding the baby animals is always a highlight.

Hugo was also particularly pleased with his new spiderman outfit, bought for $4.

And they both love the new $2 swing.