We chickened out

We take our australia day celebrations seriously in this household. We were hoping to have a BBQ for 3 days running over the Australia Day weekend. On Friday we were kindly invited next door to Megan and Brett. A great BBQ, very traditional - total segregation of men and woman. The men even ate separately from the women. I had a great time as did the boys. I don't know how much Ella and Sarah enjoyed it since we only saw them when we were going home. The only radical thing the whole afternoon was the noodle salad - cooked by a man.

On Saturday we caught up with our friend Pam from uni and her lovely quiet family of James, Emily and Thomas. The boys could learn a few things from Emily and Thomas about how to communicate without talking so loudly.

Prior to the weekend, on Wednesday we had Andrew, Louise and the girls from across the road over for warm up BBQ.


However after BBQs on Wednesday Friday and Saturday I couldn't face another steak or sausage. I had had steak and sauasage at six meals in total since I was also eating the left overs for lunch. So when Chris, Margie, Matthew and Thomas came over for dinner I caved in and we had chicken for dinner. We also had cous cous (aka North Shore rice)

Chris and Matthew checked out the latest blog entries and commented on how well written they were. We all sat down outside for a lovely dinner. The boys had a great time with their cousins. Simon remembered that the cousins liked the playstation so we had that instead of the usual computer games for the pre "goto bed activity"

Return of the lost soldier

Sarah took the boys to visit their cousins Timothy, David and Edward this morning. The boys always love going over to play with their cousins' toys especially the fantastic train set.

Anyway Simon returned with on old suitcase that looked familiar. It was mine and it contained a collection of my old toy soldiers and some old ones of theirs. Sarah said she had given it to the cousins when we were cleaning up a few years ago.

Happy Australia Day and other ramblings

Happy Australia Day to everyone out there from the Harris Family

This post was written by Michael even though the photo is of Sarah.






It is just past the middle of summer and while I was sitting outside on the new ($50) banana lounge I was think about my vital stats for a good summer.

• Number of beach visits - going pretty well this year - a lot more than we have ever done since we had kids
  
• Number of pool swims - everyone loves the pool and it is getting a lot of use. However I wouldn't mind a bit more pool time sans my pink limpet aka Ella
  
• Amount of cricket watched - not quite enough - had to watch too much "Thomas the tank engine" and the movie "cars" when we should have had the cricket on.
  
• Hammock time - not nearly enough - I am going to hang out in the hammock as soon as this post is finished
• BBQs - how much red meat can you eat over summer? We started off slowly but with the new gas BBQ this stat is going up. Stay tuned for further BBQ reports.
  

What a threat

Simon: Mumma and Daddy I am going to stay with you forever.

If only it was true

Simon has reecently developed a bit of a competitive instinct and has quite a lot of confidence in his own ability.

Some reecent quotes form his lordship:

"I think I might be quite good at soccer"

"I know a lot about dinosaurs" Dinosaurs could be swapped for a number of other topics. A good summary quote would be "I know a lot about everything"

"I am stronger than Grandpa"

The 747 has landed

After seven (amost eight) years it was time to say goodbye to the Vectra. The airconditioning had given up, there were numerous rattles and the feeling was that its time had come.

The Vectra has been replaced with a nice silver Honda Odyssey. Pa has named it the 747 based on its roomy interior, size, sleek appearance and fancy dashboard.






While the cars were being swapped over all of the child seats were taken out and were sitting in the living room. The kids decided to check out various seating options for the new car.

Ella made it to one

Ella, congratulations you have reached one. We forget that you are still so little as you chase around after your brothers trying to do whatever they are doing.

You are still the smiliest baby we know and just like the old saying, when you are good you are very very good but when you are bad..... Lately, you've been teething a lot. Or at least we hope you've been teething because thats been our excuse for your behaviour. You used to be a great eater and now you just lose patience after a few mouthfuls as if its extremely boring and there are so many other things to do. Unfortunately the way you communicate this to us is that you scream and writhe around usually flinging food in every direction except inside your mouth. You are a real Daddy's girl much to his chagrin when Mummy is allowed to float on the lilo in the pool while you hold on tight to Daddy. You like climbing over everything including any kind of table or chair. Once standing on the chair then you like to rock the chair. You have started to sleep a bit more thank goodness as the sleep torture was really wearing thin on your parents. You seem to enjoy sleeping downstairs with your brothers a lot better than upstairs in the attic.

Foodwise you have discovered a love of cheese and sand. You could eat cheese til the cows come home and the sand that bothered your big brother Simon at the beach is heaven to you.

You love getting out of the house and have a short attention span at home. You'll just wander from room to room at home trying to find out where you can create the most havoc. You especially love breaking up Ben's train track and cuddling either Ben or his precious teddy bear. Of course this drives Ben mad and we often hear "Ella's annoying me!!" and quickly have to rescue you before Ben kicks you away. Simon is a little more tolerant usually allowing you to give him a couple of hugs before he too gets fed up.

Fastest Draw in the North

Ella has tremendous reflexes and speed of movement. These two photos were taken within half a second of each other. She doesn't like wearing a hat. They don't last on her head for very long.

On a good day in the sun you can be putting her hat back on at a rate of 15 times a minute until you are exhausted and give up

We survived the first year

This post is about a month late. I was very busy at work for most of December but I am now on holiday for a week. In December we had a family birthday party for Ella. I don't remember many of the details. Granny made a very pink cake. We drank French champagne and Ella looked very cute in her new dress. Sarah even wore a pink shirt for the occasion.