Tickly ribs

Do chick peas come from chicks?

Is coleslaw called coleslaw because it is made in Coles ?

The funny things you get asked as a Mum! These were my couple of favourites from today. Kids sure can make your ribs tickle! Today Rosa thought it was funny when I picked her up, gave her a little wiggle on my hip saying "woo, woo, woo!" and she has been saying it off and on today - giggling away when I copy her.

When I picked Owen up from Prep. this afternoon, one of the teacher aides was telling me how Owen cracks her up. She relayed how Owen likes to grab one of the other children's drink bottle and pretend to hide it (hmm... Daddy I am afraid she picked this one up from your sense of humour at the dinner table:) Only problem is his cheeky face reveals it all. He tries the same hiding trick when I am about to put his socks on.... and I must say he still gets me sometimes. I sit there wondering what on earth I have done with the other sock until.... I see his cheeky grin and hand hiding behind his back.

Here is Owen doing the chicken dance (learned this at the circus - but not the one at our house:)

Ahh Grandparents!

Don't you just love Grandparents! We sure do! We have had a lovely day being spoilt by David's parents while they are at the Gold Coast. They kindly gave up their quiet, leisurely day to spoil us and let us see their fantastic beach views, make a huge mess of their dining table, spread toys all over the floor, take us to the beach, let us enjoy the downstairs pool and spa and all because they love us! And what is more, Grandma had spent the previous day, with Grandpa at the shops thinking about how they could spoil us when we arrived. They had strawberry milk for the kids, lots of yummy salad and chicken for lunch and a few bags of treats and chocolate frogs to top it off! And all of this on their week away! If this wasn't enough they spoilt us constantly by asking what we would like to do... brought us drinks constantly and made sure we were topped up with food and kept happy all day long! Rosa was seated on a chair surrounded by cushions for her "highchair" and ate like a queen!

I drove the kids home after our big day out. Owen and Rosa had fallen asleep within minutes of being put in the car. And do you know what? When I put Rosa to sleep she fell asleep with a very special little dolly given to her by her Nanny! I don't think she really understands yet, but she is surrounded by grandparents who love her... indeed who love us all!

This is how she likes to sleep:

While we were at the beach today we met another friendly family... or should I say, our very sociable seven year old introduced himself and chatted away. They built a sand car for the kids to sit in and here it is:

Feet

How beautiful upon the mountains

Are the feet of him who brings good news,

Who proclaims peace,

Who brings glad tidings of good things,

Who proclaims salvation

Who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Your watchmen shall lift up their voices,

With their voices they shall sing together;

For they shall see eye to eye

When the Lord brings back Zion.

Break forth into joy, sing together,

You waste places of Jerusalem!

For the Lord has comforted His people,

He has redeemed Jerusalem

The Lord has made bare His holy arm

In the eyes of all the nations;

And all the ends of the earth shall see

The salvation of our God.

Feet. There is one pair of little feet in our house that have just recently begun to take some steps, about 4 or 5 steps at a time between one person and another. She has been declared "the best girl in the world!" by her big brother who is obviously so extremely proud of her efforts. Owen likes to stand still, too and have her collapse on him after she has taken some steps... or at least most of the time... sometimes he is not so sure

We hope and pray that this little pair of feet will one day be the deliverer of good news, proclaiming to others the joy of Christ in her heart! Ah, Rosa it is so exciting to see you begin to walk!! We love you. Mwahh!

Art Gallery

After walking Owen to Prep. we jumped on a bus and headed to the Art Gallery in the city. We met up with some friends there and had a look at the Andy Warhol exhibition for kids. They drew a picture of their favourite toy, then they went into a room filled with silver pillows which were floating around. Rosa was quite facinated by them. There were also some interactive computer games about Andy Warhol and then went to Joshua's favourite activity, the slow motion, black and white video. The children stood in front of a silver screen and had 15 seconds to "perform" then stood back and watched it all on the screen, slow motion. It seems that Andy Warhol was quite an interesting character - he loved collecting ..... and more collecting, lining things up, painting things silver... and changing the colour of things so that they were not normal (hence a picture of Mao Tse Tung with orange face/blue lips type of thing). A quote on the wall said that he described himself as very superficial... hmmm... At any rate, the kids area was lots of fun and Joshua even had his picture taken with his friend Sariah:

Up, up and away

Well it was goodbye Daddy today. We took David to the station where he caught the Air Train to catch his flight to Sydney (eventually Czech Republic). David felt it would help avoid the awful traffic on the roads this way. We were all sad to see him go. Owen was so facinated by the trains I am not sure he knew all that was going on. I think he is hearing better though because for the first time ever he covered his ears at the sound of an approaching train!

Daddy was going over and over in his mind to make sure he had everything, passport, paperwork, etc. etc. It was big family hug time and Joshua ran alongside the train for a bit, anxious to see him as he left.

Here is a recent family picture:

You are in our prayers, Daddy! XXXXXX

Our atmosphere

Joshua has been learning about our atmosphere its many different layers. We decided to vary the suggested activity in his book a little and came up with this model to roughly demonstrate the comparative sizes of each layer. We made our layers with food colouring and gelatine.

What is truly facinating about our atmosphere is the incredible way that God put different layers in just the right spot/to contain exactly the right gases to protect us from the sun (ozone layer) as well as to protect us from falling meteors, stars, etc. Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below!

We love you O

It was off to the hospital early this morning with Owen. Owen had a little operation to put grommets into his ears and to clean his ears out again. Owen was singing all the way to the hospital!

He really enjoyed the play area - in fact he had so much fun with this little black ute that it was very hard to pry him away when the anesthetist came for a chat.

I always like to be with Owen right up until he is going to sleep so I had to dress in the funny clown garb.

I wonder sometimes what goes through his mind as he is going under anesthetic - he must just wonder why these adults seem to continually want to make him feel funny, put painful things in his in his arm, a mask over his face, etc.... Despite his occasional fears, he really shows a great deal of trust and I guess he just knows that he is loved and that it is all for his good. If only I could sometimes see the lessons God takes me through with such trust and confidence.

Poor Owen was so upset and distressed afterwards it really broke my heart. I must admit I had to keep back the tears to hear him in pain. It didn't last too long. He managed to gulp down some lemonade they brought him and a cookie from Mum... I know it is a bit hard to eat a cookie when you are still sleepy...

On the way home I stopped to pick up some medicine for Owen at the Chemist. Owen was so sleepy that he lay on the floor at the Chemist while I quickly made the purchase! He seemed a bit more awake later on, however and was once again singing his heart out in the car!

Grandma Campbell and Daddy helped out at home looking after Rosa and Josh. When we arrived home we found that Grandma had made a lovely salad (not to mention brought in my washing!) for each of us and Joshua had made this beautiful sign which he stuck up on the wall inside the front door. I don't think you could really ask for a more beautiful welcome home. Thanks Grandma, David and Joshua!!! And now one very exhausted Mum is going to enjoy some quiet moments while the younger two sleep!

Mummy and Daddy are going on a date night

Joshua announced to Owen's teacher this afternoon "Daddy and Mummy are going on a date night tonight!" Ah... yes, it is true and indeed once our seven year old knows about it you never can tell who will find out next!

We thought it would be great to get out for a quiet evening together before my beloved choofs off overseas. We had a lovely evening together just chatting about the regular stuff of life. I am looking forward to hearing of David's experiences in Czech soon - how our dear friends are and all the news of the church in Kladno. I am so glad David can have this opportunity to catch up again as it sometimes seems so very long ago. We have been praying that somehow the Lord would be able to use David in some way to encourage believers there.

David's Mum kindly looked after our tribe and they had a grand time by the sounds of things. Joshua was bursting with news about the 'picnic' they had downstairs with almonds, plums (he tells me he ate quite a number of them!), chocolate and other goodies. Owen and Rosa were sound asleep when we arrived home so I think Grandma must have had them running laps around the lounge room!

Oh, and in case you are wondering about the Pearl Tea experiment on our Czech friend.... she loved the lemon ice tea with pearls but was a bit unsure about the coconut flavoured drink (a first for her). She ended up making herself a bottle of the ice tea with pearls to take along to her English class today.

Boba Tea

Here is a wacky family treat we like to make/buy every now and then. It is called Pearl Tea (also known as Bubble Tea, Boba Tea,Tapioca Milk Pearls).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea
I was introduced to it by an Asian friend. It is quite popular in Asian circles. Basically it is a cold drink (iced tea, iced coffee, chocolate, coconut, etc.) with tapioca balls in the bottom. When you drink the tea you need a thick straw (available from Asian shops) so that you suck up the tapioca balls with your tea! It is quite an experience. I really like coconut pearl tea and so decided to make some for our Czech friend, Martina to try. I popped it in her fridge downstairs and I will let you know what she thought when she has a taste (hmmm... I guess I should warn her of the choking hazard!)

Here is how you make it for any who are game (you can buy it too at shops that sell Asian drinks - there are some other interesting ones with red beans, grass jelly, ice and coconut - if you are adventurous)

Recipe

• Tapioca balls (this time I found some that cook quickly - otherwise you have to cook for a very long time in a stack of water - packets have instructions on the back if you can read Chinese!) It is really important to cook the pearls long enough to make them soft otherwise your pearls are


• Sugar syrup - made from white and brown sugar brought to a boil together then cooled


• Iced drink of your choice. I like coconut so I use coconut milk powder (Rasaku brand from Woolies) I also add fresh coconut juice from a real coconut or from freezer section in Asian shop (comes frozen is small sealed bag). Blend up coconut powder with fresh coconut juice and cold water

Mix your iced drink, sugar syrup and tapioca balls together. Serve with a thick straw (trust me a small one will make your lips pucker!) Please note my pearl tea should have more pearls at the bottom - just that my seven year old wanted to drink it all up the rest before I remembered to take a picture!


Today Joshua was thrilled to get a parcel in the post from the Aussie Kids magazine (magazine for parents with parenting articles and a special activity page for kids. This is the second time he received a prize from them for sending in the answers to the kids activity page. Well done Josh.... ah and boy does he get excited when something comes in the post for him!

Nerada Tea Factory

Josh and I joined about 60 other homeschoolers (this is our tiny huddle) for a trip to the Nerada Tea Factory. I really enjoyed it and I think Josh did too. We learned all sorts of interesting things about how tea bags are made and packed. I really liked the huge vacuum that is used to pick up and move huge bags of tea leaves from one place to another (need one of those to pick up my heavy four year old). We also got to try some different types of tea. Joshua declared his favourite tea to be the peach ice tea (sweet of course!) He looks over my shoulder just now and asks me to let you know it can be had hot or cold!

Nerada black tea, green tea and white tea (only difference is in the processing) is grown in Australia - Cairns tableland area. They import their herbal teas from various places but mostly from Egypt(not enough farmers produce herbs for tea in Australia).