Medieval Moments....

So how did you spend your Sunday?

I spent about half of mine driving and the other half walking :)

The children and I along with another HS family, woke our tired sleepy children at around 5am and bundled them into the car for a 3hr drive to Balingup for their annual Medieval Carnivale  It was a good thing I was following, as  "Serena" our GPS, was up to her usual tricks....

But we did eventually get there and a great time was had by all. :)

We did get some head turners though, as the other family we went with were our new homeschool friends with 6 children...and with Jamie being away at work....11 children aged from 2 - 13. Three adults, 2 of which were the Mums....well i can only imagine what thoughts would have gone through passers by ;p

Samuel discovered just how heavy chain mail can be...

We watched the Irish fighting the Irish....

the Irish won by the way ;p

The Royal Parade

The sign seems a bit redundant...

d'uh, we KNOW there were no cars in medieval times!! ;p


You see Samuel over there? I swear he thought he was there alone!
He was #11 in the headcount EVERY TIME     grrrrr!

It even blew smoke!!!
Not sure what the brightly coloured roosters behind it are about though??

Eeeeewwww!  I have to wonder how many little
kids had nightmares after meeting this pair??
Are they even in the right time period???

And can you spot the odd one out??

Kaytie really wanted to have her photo with the princesses and missed her first chance. So after the parade she worked up the courage to ask. The redheaded princess at the front said yes and she slipped up there, meanwhile i was trying to get a good shot, and could see someone 'professional' was also trying to get a shot... I sooooo should have got out of the way and let him take it....NOBODY realised she was there, and everyone no doubt wondered what the 'crazy lady' was doing reaching up into their stand, well they all laughed with surprise when a little 6 yo climbed down the steps :D At least she was matching in her purple shirt   ;p
 PS I never realised Medieval princesses had lip piercings. Did you?

Well that's about all the photos i took. But we did soooo much more, i found some great books to add to our ever growing library. I almost, nearly possibly desperately, wanted too, to buy the whole set of Asterix comics for Samuel, but at $20 a pop, even with a promised discount, i thought better of it :)  We learnt some great stuff and would have liked to have gone on the Saturday, especially for the Saturday night, for the "Dragon Burning"
The children had a camel ride each, I am waiting on a video to be emailed through kindly taken by our friends. They also had a turn at 'crossbow shooting' at some wooden soldiers. There were free Celtic face painting - though we avoid face painting after an 'incident' in 2007! (read as a 2nd chicken pox infection!!) There were drumming workshops, Celtic dancing, all sorts of performances through out the day and a few other things we didn't get to do and see. Oh well there is always next year, though we have heard there may be a bigger one, by different people in March!! Maybe we can drag Jamie along if he's home LOL  so as not to cause gossip again ;D

It was an awesome day out and extremely cost effective as children under 12 were free. I bet they regretted that when they saw 11 children wandering up to the gates with only 3 adults between them  LOL. It was very family friendly also, though a few of the knights seemed to forget that with their antics after defeating their opponent :/ I am also thankful it was a winter event as A) it would have been AWFUL for the people wearing full costume- corsets and petticoats included! and B) I think if it had of been Summer, we would have seen a lot more 'busty wenches' and inappropriately dressed fairies :S 

All the children behaved impeccably, considering how much they had to walk, and how many exciting things were available for purchase. Speaking of money (sort of) I was introduced to a neat website via our HS friends. It is called Zefty  It's an online virtual bank, where you, the parent, are the bank manager/teller/atm.
you can set up allowance/pocket money accounts with 'direct debit' weekly amounts or credits into their 'account' or you can 'deposit' into it dependant on their chores done. There is no actual real money whizzing about cyberspace, and the children are unable to make an actual withdrawl without you, but they can print out a cheque if they require real money, which you then cash for them and adjust their balances. I would consider giving my crew pocket money just to use this website lol :) it is also available as an iphone/ipad/itouch app. for when you are out and about....now if i only HAD an iphone/ipad/itouch to use it with..... ;p lol.

We set off for the long drive home after stopping in at the local info. centre for our obligatory purchases... i was disappointed to find they had sold out of stubbie coolers :( and had to settle for a magnet.


"Serena" was not over her mood from that morning...

Huh??

eh??

Well it's a good thing I knew my way home!!!

But we made it home safely, but woke up this morning with the 3 eldest children sick with fevers and nausea :( (they didn't eat anything at the fair, we packed lunches in the camp fridges.) I guess 'time travel' doesn't suit them ;p
Claire and Sophie on the other hand made up for them and destroyed the house faster than i was able to keep up with them :S Then again, maybe they did the normal amount of Tag Team Terror, and i just didn't have the extra 3 pair of hands to help??

and ....
So humbly craving the continuance of your honorable favor towards me, and th'eternal establishment of your happiness, I humbly take leave.

B(J)slkcs
OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox

Homeschool Bucket List

So after becoming stuck in  a homeschool rut, and after some finger freezing, late LATE night web surfing, i came across, not a new idea, but one good for us at this time. I tried to find again, where i got the specific idea from.....gone-skees!

Introducing....(as the title suggests).. Our "Homeschool Bucket List" Ta Daaah!!

Yeah alright, so it's not exactly a bucket.

So what is it i hear you ask?? (no, not really, my hearing isn't what it used to be) well I'm sure everyone knows what a 'bucket list' is, heck there was even a whole movie about it (maybe it was the original idea...nahh Hollywood can't be that clever!)

Anyways, Our bucket list consists of a heap of activities ranging from full day, half day and less than 2 hours to accomplish. We have one week to achieve our bucket list item. or...or...or else OK! The children rotate through them according to their mail day. (no coincidence that i have 5 children and there are 5 mail days hmmm..oh,... well, i suppose it is really?) 

but i digress...again.
Lily picked out a 'movie marathon/afternoon with friends' for our first item.
Now being the sometimes clever mummy, it isn't all fun and games, well it is for them because they haven't realised I'm actually getting them to do school work also - this is where the clever mummy part comes in ;D In order for us to have our "Movie Marathon" Lily had to come up with and format on the computer an invitation to our HS friends, which she did, and it was all movie themed too! woohoo plan working so far ;)

you see that mass of bodies!! that wasn't even ALL of them!!

In the end we had 14 children ranging from  2 -13years, and a popcorn covered floor to boot!! they watched Kung Fu Panda 2   *ahem* and the Road to Eldorado.  Was a great start to our bucket list.

Next up was Clairebear (whose mail day is next) She drew out.
"visit the zoo and do book report on your favourite animal" well, we only went today, so we'll try manage that book report tomorrow. We are heading back next week with friends since we bought a 'zoo friends' pass also.

We took a one hour 'zebra car' tour to get our bearings and a feel for the layout of the zoo first. I was mighty chuffed, when the driver complimented the children on their impeccable behaviour during the ride :D

Next we had a bite to eat at the huge picnic area. (we didn't get to the zoo until 12, and after the tour it was now 1:30pm) then we headed off to one of the keeper talks.

you see the puppy in the grass??

It was SUPPOSED to be at the African Painted / Wild Dog habitat, but they decided to move it to the rhinos next door instead which ended up being about 500m away!, Samuel was disappointed, as the dogs are his favourite animal.

I think there were 9 pups in the litter.

The so-called talk was a let-down, the didn't tell us anything, and were answering 'pretend' questions from their friends (other keepers possibly on their day off?)

next up were Giraffes and Zebras

You know that famous giraffe first kiss photo??

Well it was taken at the Perth Zoo!! how about that??!?!

lol,  funny story here, the children decided that these tortoises represented our family... The five children eating, Mummy on computer (see near the blue light in the 'cave'), and Daddy 'away working' (in a different enclosure). Well, yep it's pretty close, ESPECIALLY the children eating part!! :D

she's 'crawling' down the 'muddy bank'

The elephants were doing their 'tricks' showing apparently 'natural' behaviours. I overheard a girl asking why the younger (21yo) elephant was swaying, and the keeper replied  that he thought it was a learned behaviour first starting with boredom, but when keepers  tried to stop her by using food incentives, she realised, she could get extra food. Whether this is true or not i don't know, but i did notice a lot of repetitive behaviours from some of the animals. which is sad, but considering the zoo opened in 1898 in the middle of a capital city, there is only so much space available for enclosures. Did you know you could still feed the animals there until 1974? i wonder if that was early or late in comparison to other zoos?? Good news is a lot of construction work was going on for re developed bigger enclosures sorry, habitats for the animals. It will be an interesting thing to watch over time. OK off my soapbox.

yayy! finally something Sophie could see at her level

naaawwww, who doesn't love meercats :D

You see how TINY that little monkey is!!
I've never seen one of them before!
That's Kaytie's hand (and no, she's not touching)

This big boy, Dinar, shares Jamie's birthday, though is 14 years younger.

There were a few bubs about

this little fella was very curious,

in our esky! -
 that's his Mama, she was eating that blue egg carton??

I felt really awkward, I kept telling Samuel to shut the esky, because it had fruit and stuff inside, which i wondered if the little guy would've liked, were we 'teasing' him?? but Samuel resisted shutting it because the little orang was so interested in it, he did eventually, but not before i was able to snap this...

cute huh :D

There are plenty more photos, but i should probably leave it there, as this post was supposed to be about our "Bucket List" not our visit to the Zoo.

It was Kaytie's turn tonight as it is her mail day next, and she has drawn out "visit 3 garage sales" (in one day)
I'm planning to give them all $5 ea to spend. with conditions... they must not buy complete rubbish, they must figure out their own math, and whether to spend it all at the first or wait till the last or spread across all 3 plus some other things i can't think of at 12:30 in the morning!!.

so since it is so late i'll toddle off to bed, but before i do i'll leave you with one last photo. We went to an Animal Farm for a friends birthday just recently, and this photo with Samuel is a crack up!...he certainly has a way with animals lately ;D

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox

B(J)slkcs

"King of the Jungle" a movie by Kaytie age 6

So in case you didn't get it, the story goes...

"The Snake saw that the Lion didn't have his crown, so he went to the Lion to ask him, the Lion ROARED at him and scared the Snake. So he went to find the crown, and the Lion went back to sleep. The Snake went to the tree, but he knew it was a poison tree so didn't get too close. The Snake saw the Monkey and went to see if he wanted to find the crown. The Monkey did and they went looking. The Monkey went near the poison tree and the Snake said LOOK OUT! so the Monkey jumped over the tree but landed in the mud. The Snake helped the Monkey out of the mud and they saw the crown behind the wall. they had a race to the crown and the Snake won, so he was the new king of the jungle" THE END    "ooh ooh Ah AH!"  (monkey noise)


Sorry it's soo fast, but i'm new to this video sharing, and i don't know how to compress it small enough at it's decent speed - 2 frames a second :( .

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

A winter cinquain by Samuel

Despite the fact it took him FOREVER!! i think he did a good job :D

Our longest Stint ever!....possibly? or "what we've been doing lately.

So..... Jamie has gone back to work again, as of Friday 1st, 5am :( He will be gone for 32 days! I won't see him again 'til August, the longest time apart so far, It could be shorter, as they send the workers home if they run out of work. - not likely for him though.
He worked a 28/7day shift at Cape Preston - or "Cape Depress-ton" as it has come to be known. Once sorted at Barrow he should be doing 26/9days, so slightly better for us !! :D yay!!

 It's a little complicated, He's employed by Coates, contracted through Theiss and working for Chevron....I think???

Anyway in the lovely 3 weeks preceding Friday, we had Jamie home for most of the time.Our first weeks adventures i have told you about already, but some of our weekend/afternoon adventures, were just as fun :D

Pinching the idea from a friend's blog, I issued Samuel the task of building a floating crane. BUT, because he is older, after showing him L's creation, I told him he could NOT use his boat bases.

Well it wasn't long before we were all sucked into trying to out-do each other *ahem* trying our own ideas,



Yes.... there IS a shark in the bathtub ;D


Lily chucked a wobbly  decided not to participate after her first attempt  failed.

Samuel, (as usual) copied Daddy's plan for making a barge type thing, where-as Kaytie and I made more 'traditional' type boat shapes. Even Sophie joined in, and in the floating stability part of the criteria, she aced it!! 'points' were taken off for her lack of a working crane though ;D

Jamie decided to go with a 'hydraulic' set up for his crane, so got full 'points' there, but lost 'points' for design and stability.



you see the water line?
It was a lot worse before i adjusted
 the crane arm for the photo :D

and you see the propellor? MY idea -
you just can't see it on mine,
as it's UNDER water - where it should be ;D

 Samuel, as i said, copied Daddy's idea for a barge, and there was conjecture as to his interpretation of the design specs. He ended up with more of a winch than a crane. but cos we're nice we let that slide ;)

He got extra 'points' for his safety considerations :)

Kaytie struggled, because she was adamant about the zillion foot long propeller, and couldn't compensate for the displacement(???). but a great effort i thought :)

Though the fact that she couldn't find a big enough base
, didn't help the floating part.

And why have i left mine to the end??? Cos i think it's AWESOME lol - nothing humble and modest about my feelings about my effort ;D  Mine was the only one that stayed level, took the longest to seep water into it, had 360 degree crane movement AND it was functional,.....in theory. i even had a gruesome collection of 'booty' on board - My pirate was salvaging lego heads eeew :D
Samuel asked why i had a "magnet" head for the crane if i was salvaging heads? I said it was because of all the gold in their teeth...until Jamie reminded me that gold isn't magnetic. D'oh!!




I couldn't tie the wool tight enough on the crossbar, but everything turned
I promise ;)

So we learnt that no matter how tight you lock the blocks together, and/or stagger them, lego blocks are not water tight. I'm sure we learned other stuff too....I hope!
But our little competition has spawned a whole new creating madness in the house. My front room has now turned into a "legoworld"! and i am awoken each morning to sounds of handfuls of lego being pushed around a mat and children arguing  in deep conversation over 'important' pieces.




halfway through the process of a tidy up :S



A close up of our collaboration....

The white tower is "Rapunzel Kaytie's" tower next door to the eco-friendly, self sufficient windmill.
The blue plates running through it all is the water/river (d'uh) complete with sharks!! The white low building is the zoo, with various animal display/enclosures - a work in progress. The white car is/was meant to be Herbie the Lovebug. The yellow car is meant to be a Mustang i think? another work in progress. And the truck cab you can see head-on?? WOW that thing deserves a post all on it's own!! a mammoth effort!! by Samuel and  Daddy (and Steve) has been worked on and refined for months!! it also has a trailer and accesories out of shot. The vehicle between the cab and mustang is a support vehicle for the zoo and truck. Oh yes the little yellow vehicle in front of the zoo, is a airport baggage car/truck/thingy, (built by moi)  which has inspired some aeroplanes - in progress -  to fulfil it :D - they call that strewing don't they??  heh heh heh.
And last but not least is the blue/black building, which i believe is the staff quarters for the Zoo. that's a team meeting table, and a vet surgery somewhere?

WOW, maybe i should rename the post Lazy days in Legoland or something?? Well it hasn't ALL been Lego, we visited the local Wanneroo Museum/Library/Cultural Centre with homeschool friends, didn't get many photos though. They have an AWESOME play area at the front for the littlies, but some older children found it hard to drag themselves away also :)




It's a kinda farm theme, as that's what the areas history is.
In fact the unofficial mascot is a cow, i.e City Of Wanneroo




Balancing on a 'surfboard'
apparently Quinn Rocks (a bit more north of us)
 was a popular holiday destination


Jamie got all domesticated and pretty much cooked dinner every night (and did all the washing!!! thank you thank you!!) He has re-perfected his roast vegies again, he lost that skill for a couple of years, i think about the time he became so busy with the lightbars?? He is also becoming an expert baker, baking biscuits and things for the children. We cooked up a batch of sweet chilli sauce, with homegrown chillies from our neighbours - It was an "epicurean delight" according to them :D He also made (under my supervision ;p) us a loaf of bread too, completely from scratch - no mixing in a  breadmaker! 



He's telling me to go away
and stop taking his photo



Half of the finished result. Mmmm nom nom

I must go now as my fingers are quite frozen and i keep hitting the wrong keys, but i'll leave y'all with just one more piccy, it's one of my fav's :D



Sophie the intellectual :D

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

PS I've re-opened this post and edited dodgy spelling here and there, when i re-publish it, does that mean it gets sent to your inboxes again?? Let me know, and I'll try be more diligent with my spelling in future...or you can just ignore my bad grammar and spelling errors??? (LOL had to re-correct spelling, I keep writing 'speeling' HaHa)