Lovely Learning

Its school holidays here and Alexander is driving "home school". The boys need a little catch up in their reading and maths so it really is to their advantage for us to do a little work at home. The last couple of days I have driven the sessions, but as a change I thought Alexander could read Charlottes Web to the twins - and this was the result. A really lovely moment in the sun. If only every day looked like this picture!!

Team work

 Our boys played one of their own. Another schools tackers team within the same club. The battle was hard fought on the field but off field, all boys linked arms to sing the team song.

Happy Birthday Poppy

toy Parade

40's

Today a girlfriend is celebrating her 40th birthday - well celebrating isn't exactly how she sees it. Dreading is a better description and I think I know how she feels!

With thanks to pinterest for the inspiration, I actually made something I pinned! 

I had seen variaions on this theme - 40 sucks or 40 blows and went with the sucks:

 And I decided to combine it with this roses version - this is done with chocolates and crepe paper but  i thought I could make it work. http://www.usefuldiy.com/diy-romantic-chocolate-rose-bouquet/ is the link to the original post.

 I had plenty of time (!) a whole hour between pilates and lunch to make this creation and then at the supermarket found that crepe paper is harder to come by than I thought. I had to make do and chose serviettes as they are a bit more flexible than tissue paper. Really would work better in crepe paper though.

 So with my supplies i literally hacked into them. I cut circles for the petals and wrapped each with three. I found that a circle around the size of a 1/4 of the serviette worked well. They were swiftly attached with sticky tape.

 I tried the heart shape but didn't have time to make it work and adjust the size. The green needed to add to make it look more like a flower. A zig zag shape worked best and this was wrapped and used sticky tape again.

 Then I found a bucket in the present cupboard and these clear marbles were also lying around. Turns out if you do save something just in case it can be useful. I thought I had some florist foam but I couldnt find it - so this was me making do!

 Once all forty lollipop flowers were in the jar, attached a little card with some ribbon.

and she loved it! 

Confidence

Hi five Benji! Benji got a smile award at school today for the improvement in his handwriting. The teacher had spoken to me prior that he wanted to give him an award - because he had earned it. They also wanted to check that it was ok for Spencer not to get one at the same time and I said that it was my preference that they deserved it rather than getting them at the same time.

He was very pleased with himself and has been doing much better since our meeting. One of the follow ups to the meeting was me meeting the school psychologist, which of course I was happy to do. While we talked about a number of things, Benji was our main concern. He has settled down a lot and is getting more attention in the class but we were looking at the root of the problems and how to resolve or at least assist.  His teacher had talked about confidence, but I was concerned that wasn't giving him the skills and the clever psychologist explained that it was not Confidence but Resilience.

Lightbulb moment. Of course it is. I knew it wasn't confidence, but I didn't know what it was. So we talked about some strategies and some I already do, some are new. She was so great in helping me clear out some of my thoughts and reasoning and I hope I can help Benji in the same way. At this stage, he doesn't need formal meetings and we will keep in touch to monitor progress but I did come home and make a suggested purchase. She recommended the Happiness Trap book which is not purely about resilience, but has a whole lot of strategies to help generally deal with life. Will let you know when it arrives!

The best day ever! said the 6 year old

 Cold and early start but it was off to Auskick again. This week both Benji and Spencer got their best listener awards. i missed the presentation as I had to take Xandy to basketball where they came back from 16 to 4 down, to be 18 all, and lose it with a last minute goal. It was an exciting game.

Then a quick lunch of hotdogs and it was off to another game of footy. The twins were playing in the half time match at a local under 18s game. We watched the match and while I watched it for a bit, my mind wandered off to the future - looking at the big boys who were all still under 18 and imagining three big smelly boys lying on my couches and just eating! Quick - out from that nightmare and back to current reality -

 were they are still cute! They had a lovely time out there with their mates.

Then it was back in the car and down to Merricks where we were treated to a divine Solstice celebration! Inside the fires were crackling and dinner was being prepared. We were spoiled with beef on the spit with potatoesbeans and corn. The kids dragged themselves away from playing to eat a sausage and then it was on.

The fire was all stacked ready and with a little help from the petrol (!) it was alight. The kids are happily calling it a Bomb Fire! It was big and lit up the dark night is a soft firey glow.

When the fire is being stocked with a tractor, we felt it was a little big to cook marshmellows at, so the smores were made inside and we enjoyed delicious self saucing pudding! Thanks to the Demspter girls for a lovely night!