How did you spend your Sunday afternoon??

Mine was spent in the Joondalup Hospital emergency dept. Nothing drastic, just an X-Ray for Samuel's thumb.

Okay, let's rewind and start from the start.
I'll take you back far, far into the past, aaaaaalllllllllll the way back to Friday morning. Friday's are our homeschool group social days and this particular day was very VERY wet. Friday mornings, we meet up at one of the families homes, and play ball/team sports in the park across the road. As i mentioned it was a very wet day, so team sports were re-directed inside. now usually it is our little family that makes up the half of the players, literally my mob, against the other 2 regular families  OK well not against, but you know. Anyway we had 2 new families join us this day, One family has just moved from Minnesota with wait for it....6 cherubs!! hurrah, we are no longer the biggest :D, oh! but pooh! we are no longer the biggest ;).

So long story short (I'm really building this up far too much!) lots of kids inside, playing rambunctious games, he tripped/fell/was pushed, and landed his knee, CRUNCH! on his thumb.

doesn't look like much huh?

So we left it, it was 'fine' he didn't complain at all.  Saturday came, we headed into Perth for the library book sale, he even managed to 'interact' with an "art installation" (see further below) without discomfort.
Sunday morning, and after over hearing me speak to Jamie about it, it was 'oh so sore and i can't bend it.'

So 2pm Sunday (today) we headed up to the hospital ED. and waited...and waited...and waited :) we were 'lucky' 2 of the parents waiting had been there since 11am! (but, to be honest i think they only had croup, and a mild case at that) Now, is it just me, or am i just completely negligent in my children's health?? The mother who i chatted with, was surprised we'd never been to the hospital before, even still, when i mentioned we'd only been here since November.  In Samuel's 11 years of life, we have been to the hospital ED twice...including today, the first time was for stitches which SHOULD have been done at the Dr's surgery. but he said the chemist would have some 'glue', they didn't, and so the hospital was closer than going back to the Doctors. Kaytie is the only other one who has visited the ED, when i fractured her fingertip, after accidentally running over it with an overladen trolley :( and they didn't even do anything for her. just washed it and put tape on the open wound...i had already done that!

So how did we spend our 3hrs? well we did a bit of this

We did a bit of that

And we made ''stop-motion" movies on the camera,
which i would love to add in, cos they were pretty good i thought! (they are all mental about that 'vodaphone/virgin' ad about the Gary the mime who can now practice his passion, because of the free txt deal??) they are always trying to be mimes around the house...good thing we've started a "drama club" with our HS friends ;D Anyway i digress (again!) So he got his x-ray, Completely fine and a finger splint, we went our merry way home. i tried to scan in the X-ray, but it wouldn't work, so here is Mr Cheez showing off his battle wounds. apparently if it's not healed properly in a week or so, he is to go to "hand therapy" Are they serious!! -bend...straighten,bend...straighten - it's not rocket science! besides, i happen to know two O.T's i could ask ;P

So... lessons learnt today, don't complain and whinge about it, unless it's actually broken, as hospitals are DEAD BORING!!!  Oh and guess who thought he had a valid excuse for not doing school work!! HA! "nope, your brain still works my dear boy ";)

Mishaps over, what else have we done, well this post was going to be about what we did SATURDAY!. We discovered also Friday afternoon that there was a library discard Sale on and that the next day (Saturday) would be the last day!! So 12pm Saturday we headed into the city to the state library, (slightly disappointing, but it was the last day after all) I did still manage to find some good looking titles, i might have found more if it wasn't for Jamie 'rubbing off' on the children who were insistent that i stop buying books and spending money!! I had promised myself i would only spend the $60 cash that i had on me, and wouldn't use my card, well that idea fell through, when she crossed over that total, and stopped at 75. i twisted my arm and said it's only 15 more, that's not so bad.... "because it's the last day, children's books are half price, so that's $37.50 thanks" "Alright!! awesome!" says I, i was tempted to grab a couple I'd culled, but i had 5 impatient (but beautifully behaved) children and a phone reminder about the parking meter to contend with so we headed back to the car - happy we'd brought along both strollers - and added money to the meter. Since they had behaved so well, we headed back inside to the children's section, i was again slightly disappointed, it was more of a play space than a library, with maybe double the amount of books we own...and we sadly don't have that many! They had an 'artwork' there taking pride of place.  They called it a 'book totem'

ppffftttt Me, i called it an abomination!!! I had a look through some of the titles they had stabbed through the heart! i cringed every time i saw one i owned/liked/wanted or NEEDED!! *sigh* some were in such good looking condition :(

after a tip off from another parent, we headed across the courtyard to the PICA where we had an 'experience' saw an "immersive installation".   Brook Andrew's "The Cell",  basically a huge zig-zagged bouncy castle, with the added fun of costumes!

Apparently they thought the suits made them Ninjas
LOL yeah real stealth-like ninjas too!

Oh believe it or not, but i also donned one of these striking outfits, mine was blue like Samuel's, from here it gets a little hazy...not because i don't remember, but because i only had the phone camera, so, well, the photos are....crap. :/

Lily is consoling Sophie, she HATED it!
even though you have to drag her
kicking and screaming from the trampoline!

that's the kid with the 'broken' thumb remember.
He looks like he's in agony doesn't he :)

After our play ahem immersion , we were able to do a related art activity, we had to make our own black/white pattern. Mine's the triangle-y spotty one ;p

To be honest, after reading the bio of the artist, i have to wonder if anyone has actually "got it" I seriously doubt, except for the pretentious lame-os.

So by now it was nearly 3pm, meter was running out again soon, so we had a late afternoon snack of raisin toast and banana bread, before we headed home, with plans for a full day next time.


Have i told you lately. I.LOVE.PERTH!!
Seriously, i do! it's awesome, y'all should come visit us sometime :)

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

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)