I sit, LOVING the fast  internet, eating a bowl of teriyaki vegies with cashews, having had a hot spa for the third day in a row. Oh, and did I mention the ecstatic children who have as much Foxtel as they can handle as well as their OWN rooms AND their own BATHROOMS!!!!??
Yep, we are house-sitting again!!
I really like this house sitting gig - you get to feel like you are on holidays, explore someone else's book collection and enjoy a new view for a little while...and make new doggy friends! I never thought I would become so enamoured with dachshunds!!
Anyway, we have also been happily doing stuff, like going to see James and the Giant Peach on stage...which we nearly missed alltogether. As we were walking into the 12.15 performance I happened to glance at the tickets which said quite clearly: 10am show.
Oh shizzle.
The nice ticket lady (seeing our crestfallen faces) let us sneak into the seats of some other people who didn't turn up....it was an adventure, and a good show...

Then yesterday was a day with Dad as I did my yoga/massage thing (LOVE) and it was cubs 'cook breakfast for dinner' night. The boys came home and we sat in the spa in the starlight as they told me all about the potato and corn fritters they had made. Topped with bacon of course!
Today we made toffee apples. Now I have never made these before and it's trickier than I had expected getting the toffee to the right consistency....but we did it. The boys thoroughly enjoyed impaling the bright green Granny Smiths and smothering them in toffee. And they look lovely all tied up in wax paper and brown string ready for the festival on sunday....

And then it was pumpkin picking time....well strictly speaking we have been harvesting delicious pumpkins for a few months now, but this afternoon was a big one. We are holding a 'guess the ingredients in the pumpkin soup' activity at the festival and the prize will be a piece of pumpkin! So we had a great time foraging in the overgrown wilderness of the pumpkin patch and shrieking "I found another one!" every time the subtle blush of a pumpkin was spotted peeking out from under all the greenery. Good times.......
And naturally, we had to organise the pumpkins into various shapes and patterns as well as have a go of balancing them on our heads....And now the boys are OD'ing on Mythbusters and freaky science shows. I'm eating chocolate. The internet is FAST.  It's allllllll good.

This week has been a real landmark in the culinary journey of my Flex...
He has had the opportunity to go for a full 'day out' to the Sydney Fish Markets with our wonderful neighbour Nola...by himself! Yep, he rode his bike to her place in the morning and spent the day gazing and grazing on the plethora of delectable delights on offer...they went cheese tasting at the Black Wattle Deli (which Nola had a part in designing), bought tonnes of seafood and Flex even bought Nola a coffee!
I received close up photos of fish all day in my inbox and a 'kiss' cupcake' when they returned!!

Then last night was the big 'cook-up'.....together the two of them ('Chef' and 'Sous Chef') prepped mussels and cut fish, shelled prawns and chopped fennel and created the most divine 'fish soup' or 'boullabaise', serving it up with crusty bread in a dinner party for the rest of us!! Nola was handing out hints left right and centre and I have no doubt it was the best 'masterclass' any 9 year old foodie could ever ask for. What a delight! Aren't we lucky to have such marvelous mentors in our children's lives!!??

PS Sorry the photos are a bit crazy - my computer is getting creative all on it's own....

We headed north up to Norah Head on monday for an afternoon of hanging with the creatures that hang with the rocks...ocean rocks and rockpools that is!
In a nice little group the kids explored the vast conglomerate rock shelf (that used to be the bed of the mouth of a massive trans-continental river apparently) which was dissected by veins of iron and contained more creatures than you could poke a stick at (which the group of mostly very curious boys tried to do!).
They were (mostly) effectively wrangled by Jeannie who was passionate about these animals and tried at every opportunity to educate the kids on why they should NOT step on them / stick fingers into them / take them home...It certainly sunk in for my boys who even got a bit preachy at times!
We got to study sea stars (NOT fish!) and sea hares (graceful and mesmerising blobs of jubey-ness), yell when we spotted big purple-clawed crabs, marvel at the  sight of a cluster of sea-snail eggs in a rocky crevice and jump off little ("it looks big from up here!" )cliffs.

A beautiful spot which we plan on returning to for it's annual Whale Festival on the 1st June....
 

Today, after two pages of maths (over french toast) and a bit of painting I let the boys play.all.day.
Flex pulled apart his K'nex rollercoaster (which had remained intact for WAY too long) and spent hours and hours creating different vehicles using the tracks, motor and other small parts. He and his brother came out to the garden and constructed 'roads' made of different materials (think a hall runner, a boat cushion, a wooden plank). I have no doubt he now knows more than most adults about basic mechanics and how they impact on driving surfaces!
Lucky organised 'races' between three types of spinning tops and using statistics and persuasion got us all to bet on which one would spin the longest. Future bookie??!!
They both built gargantuan marble tracks playing with gravity and balance, had fun making patterns with a fractions puzzle and rode their bikes to a neighbours house to play further.
I watched in wonder as they happily learned stuff all.day.long.
Love this life!

One of our oldest and goldest friends in the whole wide world is Lou. She is based on the other side of the planet in North America and spends her life hanging on a farm near San Francisco and playing in the Fernie snow. She has always been a great person - full of smarts - and has grown exponentially in heart, mind and spirit over the last few years. She has found her 'tribe' over there, but I feel, we Aussies remain her 'family'....the boys love surfing, watching movies and eating at sushi train with her. Gav loves having a beer and strumming the guitar with her and me, well I just can't get past a big D & M on the balcony accompanied by a home cooked feast and copious amounts of white wine, vinyl and pool (Oh the hangover)!

Lou reminds us to savour the moment, put your energy into what really matters (ie what you love to do and makes your life better) and accept/appreciate things as they are. Her mantra on this trip was " You CAN have it all - just not all at once!"

I am so thankful that the boys have adults like her to know and learn from. People who have chosen a different kind of life and are glowing with happiness. It's so healthy for them to understand that there are many roads to travel and many ways to live - here, overseas, on farms, moving around, no fixed address - and that they are all valid and equally 'real'! The more types of people we can meet and spend time with, the more open minded we become.....

We love you Lou!

One of our oldest and goldest friends in the whole wide world is Lou. She is based on the other side of the planet in North America and spends her life hanging on a farm near San Francisco and playing in the Fernie snow. She has always been a great person - full of smarts - and has grown exponentially in heart, mind and spirit over the last few years. She has found her 'tribe' over there, but I feel, we Aussies remain her 'family'....the boys love surfing, watching movies and eating at sushi train with her. Gav loves having a beer and strumming the guitar with her and me, well I just can't get past a big D & M on the balcony accompanied by a home cooked feast and copious amounts of white wine, vinyl and pool (Oh the hangover)!

Lou reminds us to savour the moment, put your energy into what really matters (ie what you love to do and makes your life better) and accept/appreciate things as they are. Her mantra on this trip was:
" You CAN have it all - just not all at once!"

I am so thankful that the boys have adults like her to know and learn from. People who have chosen a different kind of life and are glowing with happiness. It's so healthy for them to understand that there are many roads to travel and many ways to live - here, overseas, on farms, moving around, no fixed address - and that they are all valid and equally 'real'! The more types of people we can meet and spend time with, the more open minded we become.....

We love you Lou!