Let it Snow?!

Thank goodness it's nearing bedtime! The sweet lil puppy dog we're taking care of for my cous' whilst she's off enjoying those European delights, is spending most of the night barking at everything that we can't see or hear. After two nights of it, Mr E is thinking the dog may have a death wish but I really think that's just the sleep deprivation talking. Poor bloke even had a tumble stumble down some stairs at work. Fortunately it was stealthy and he only bruised his arm and nothing else. And that'll need to heal quick smart because we have what's called a 'Senjo' on the Sunny Coast this weekend.

Basically a Senjo is grading for our belts for Zen Do Kai and as he's been helping out another girl for the past six months in prep for her black belt red tip something or other, I'm not sure, he really needs to be able to partner her well and be able to perform his best for his, I think, brown belt. I'm pretty proud of him. Two years ago he'd only dabbled here and there briefly in martial arts but he's found a place that he likes to train and has involved us all as well.

Kookaburra is going from his yellow to orange belt and myself, white to yellow. Kookaburra's concentration and commitment is so obvious when he's training that my little heart just swells with pride. Kangaroo has only been going for a short amount of time so he won't be grading this time but his Kyoshi handled it so well regarding his not grading this time that Kangaroo is happily excited about his grading for the next time it comes around.

What else? It's been such a long time since writing anything substantial in my blog that I'm kind of stuck on the details of life and rarely get round to reflecting. Some time soon I hope. I do enjoy my blog but sometimes I feel like there is just way too much to put down and at other times there ain't nothing at all interesting to say!

Mr E's Mumma is staying with us during the weeks and returning home to Brisbane on the weekend whilst she's looking for a place to rent which is incredibly hard to do 'cause she works fulltime and the real estate agents are closed when she's not at work. It's been a month now and I hope they're able to find something soon for two reasons. Mr E's Dad really misses his wifey and the other, well, I have to admit that the impact it's having on Kookaburra who is sleeping on double thick camp mattresses on his brothers bedroom floor is not getting the best night sleep and is waking up looking ragged so consequently the flu we had back in September keeps rearing it's ugly head because the poor kid has never fully recovered from it.

So I have two tired little boys trying to contend with a very tired Mum and Dad and who still do their lesson work and keep up with our busy lives. I cannot wait until the Christmas hol's when all the extra curricula activities come to a momentary standstill out of respect for our sanity. In the meantime I'm teaching our boys to be helpful and that when it comes to chores and jobs our attitude is that even though it may be assigned to someone as their job, if we can see that the job needs doing or that the family member could do with a hand we get in their and help because we are family and we care for each other. Acts of kindness! We're also getting through our lessons quite well. Today the focus was on finishing some of yesterdays SOTW writing and then we were into our FIAR which is just plain enjoyable. At the moment our book is Katy and the Big Snow. We've focused on the weather, the water cycle, how the wind is formed, the characteristic of determination and the use of personification in literature and art. Now that we're nearing the end of the unit we can indulge in a fun game and project. This is easy as and loads of fun for two little boys. First we bought a two dollar plain, white shower curtain then gave them both a permanent black marker each (this is definitely an outdoors activity!!!!)

and we drew a compass rose in one corner and discussed the North East South West and the inbetweeners of North-East and so on until I was sure my boys understood.

They then drew roads and built the necessary infrastructure for a city out of mega blocks, like the Police Department, Fire Brigade, Council Depot, Schools and shops, electric company and so on.

Once this was all ready they got out their little cars and planes and then let it snow!!!! Shaving cream snow!!!!!




They dug their way out of disaster which did get very slippery and resulted in sliding and silliness. Kookaburra was quite serious about the 'job' of bulldozing a clearing through the city like Katy did but little Kangaroo thought the texture of the shaving cream was a scream and just wanted to play.


He tried throwing great globules of the stuff at his brother only to find his 'snowball' stuck to his little hand.

For ages he just picked up handfuls and would clap his hands together to see the shaving cream fly off into hundreds of little puffs into the air. He really had a wonderful time, as did Kookaburra who joined in with the merriment and as I took my inexhaustible supply of photos I reflected on how incredibly lucky I am and how much I want to hold my boys so close and love them up.

A Pratically Perfect Festival :)

My sweet little clown. Dressed up to visit a friend.
On the way over we stopped at the bakery and even
though we were parked right in front, Kangaroo insisted
on hopping out to show people and surprise them.

The real problem with not blogging regularly is that part of our story goes a little bit missing. It doesn't take long until some major happenings haven't been journalled and I find myself uploading a ridiculous amount of photo's to share and trying to figure on how best to tell our tale.

The longer I live in our little town the more I fall in love with it and the friends and connections we're making. It has an interesting history and it proudly lays claim to it's heritage and indulgently celebrates it, beauty and warts and all. The interesting thing about our town is that the author of Mary Poppins, PL Travers, was apparently born here which has led to our town laying claim to 'our Mary' and has turned this connection into a celebration and a festival, culminating in The Mary Poppin's Festival on the first weekend of July.

At the park our talented friends volunteered their time for a week before the festival to create stunningly, magical pavement art creations which awed and amazed crowds on the Sunday of the festival. There are more beautiful pictures below showing the end of all the artist's work.

Mary madness has permeated the air. In the lead up to the festival I'd been fortunate to participate in theater workshops, meaning that most weekends for the past two months were dedicated learning as much as we could in a short amount of time about theater craft and preparing for a play which was written by the director using ideas generated by the workshop participants. The plays' end result was pretty funny and featured a few slapstick elements and completely escaped reality - so well suited to the Mary Poppins festival.

We found some time for things other then Mary related last week. There was some exploration with collage materials trying a Matisse style artwork.

I found that Kookaburra needed encouragement to let go of preformed ideas of how his art should be structured. By having fun with tearing his papers randomly and letting his art work unfold was a little bit of challenge but he did well and we had some great discussions about Pompeii during our work together.

There were lines to learn for me for the play on the Sunday but I was also fortunate enough to learn lines for a commercial which was shot on Thursday. A strange and funny experience which I was lucky enough to share with a friend.

Do I look like a receptionist? That was my part so hopefully....

So many opportunities roll our way when I have my eyes open. Whilst waiting to have a dress rehearsal in our art galleries forecourt, my boys and I stumbled upon a basket weaving workshop run by Aboriginal ladies in preparation for NAIDOC week this week. They were open and patient and I really wish we had of had more time before our performance to do more weaving.

Nervously I waited with friends before our first performance in front of a live audience... well, we thought they were alive but apart from a few sniggers the reaction was definitely lifeless. We were a little concerned how this play we'd worked on was going to go over during the festival.

When Sunday arrived our boys were up before dawn I'm sure, dressed and ready to go. Our first sound check was at nine am. When we arrived and saw the set in a carpark I was really impressed by what our stage manager had procured for our backdrop and that there was even seating! Lots of seating!

By the time the workshops had come to a close, as always, I'd managed to involve my family to some degree. This was Kangaroo's first time on stage and all he had to do was cry on cue and follow direction. He did beautifully!

Hubby lent some know how and muscle where he could.

And as for Kookaburra...

there's a black box sitting on top of his satchel in this photo which contained a remote control for the animatronic parrot which during the plays he directed the parrots eyes and beak when it took it's turn to narrate our story.

The play went off well and people laughed in all the right places and I even remembered my lines well enough to enjoy the show. Such a relief! When I try to remember something like this I worry, panic and then my mind goes blank. Just terrible :O!

The rest of the festival was full of colour in the finished art works.

There is a great joy for us, hanging with our family doing something unusual and fun. I admittedly did get a bit stressed out, but the benefits of having everyone involved as opposed to not was worth the fraction or so of tetchiness that came from me.

A very happy Kangaroo after his performance.

One of the highlights of the Mary Poppins festival is the Great Nanny Challenge. Our director borrowed a skirt and dressed as a naughty nanny so he could give it a go. The Nanny Challenge is a race for Nanny's and their baby carriages. They compete against each other over a short course and the first to cross the finish line wins But! there are rules like no running, no elbowing or jostling each other and then they must change the baby too in order to win. Our Naughty Nanny lost and he was hilarious about it too. Jumping up and down on his hat, whilst gnashing his teeth and tossing his baby bundle from the pram (thankfully it was only a teddy bear) not mention the run/walk!

My niece in red had a go too.


This is me and a great lady, we're dressed as Mary Poppins and the Bird Lady.

After the plays were done we still had more to do , so much to see and do. Our favourite is always the Chimney Sweep Challenges but absolutely best of all this year was going to high tea attended by none other Australia's own Mary, the star of the Mary Poppins musical, Verity Hunt-Ballard.

Kookaburra described the occasion afterwards as being incredibly exciting because he had met his first real celebrity!

It's was a very busy and full week but the highlight was meeting Verity and listening to her speak of her life in the theater and her role as Mary in the Mary Poppins musical. She was well spoken and lovely and she claimed to love our town and it's baking too! It was pretty embarrassing when our compere asked our lovely guest if she'd like a doggy bag to take back with her. Sheesh! But honestly it was difficult to resist a spread like this one at the High Tea. As always, we were amongst the last to leave and we were fortunate to run into friends talking with Verity so we got to have a little up close and personal dose of this practically perfect gal.

So this entry was massive and I wonder if perhaps it may have been better as a dot point. Never mind. I'm so glad I got it up and haven't missed this opportunity to share. Can you see why I love our town? The longer we live here I see just how very a special place it is for our family to grow together in. It etches itself deeply in our hearts. and I think of it truly as our home town. We can't wait until next years festival and I know we're all wondering in what capacity we'll be attending, as visitors or volunteers?

As long as I'm with my family, it'll be just ace.