(during a family lunch with everyone sitting at the dinner table)
Poppa: So does anyone want to get up and fetch me a glass of water?
(no volunteers)
Poppa: (gets up and walks into the kitchen) I guess I’ll get it myself.
LR: (with mock dismay) How come Poppa has to do all of the work around here?
Despite the hot weather, we made it up to Gingin for the grape harvest, but Grammy, Poppa, Kath and Brad had already picked all the grapes and crushed them the day before we got there! We made the most of it anyway, picking a lot of figs and table grapes that were ready to eat. Mum cooked up some fig jam and we had a big sewing ’sesh’ during the heat of the day, before going for an explore out in the paddock.
Our incredibly brave**, heroic** and good-looking** dad rescued us from this marauding beast** that had been ransacking the countryside and was intent on destroying the farm.
We found this guy having a drink from the dog's water bowl. He's a bobtail lizard which are pretty common around here.
**Hyperbole employed as official privilege of the author
Another momentous event: tooth #2 has been ‘fairied’ away by mysterious forces.
LR took advantage of this to continue her experiments on tooth fairy behaviour. Apparently, tooth fairies have trouble fetching teeth in white styrofoam cups, but coloured plastic cups appear to be okay. Who knew, eh?
There goes number two!!!
(over breakfast)
LR: Hey! Why is there peanut butter in my dice cup?
Dad: Did you squeeze the dice too hard? The peanut butter might have squished out the edges.
LR: (sighing) No, Dad. I don’t think so.
RJ: Those dice are from peanut town! Everything is made from peanuts there. Houses. Clothes. Trees. The cars.
Dad: Anything else?
RJ: Yes, everything… (horrified) Even the breakfast cereal.
I had to stop at the quarterly photography market to try to find some filters and LR came with me. I left empty handed, but she walked out with this monster!
LR shows off the camera gear she picked up on the weekend.
(The reason the picture looks weird is that I shot this on film that expired 10 years ago, on a 30 year old camera, and I don’t have a scanner.)
(in the car on the way to school)
Dad: (starting an imagination game) So you two head down to the park one day and there’s something strange there that you’ve never seen before.
RJ and LR discuss exploring it, identifying that it’s an alien rocket ship, and finding the door.
Dad: You can’t find a door handle on the outside.
LR: So we run home and get some saws and come back.
RJ: And we grab an axe too!
LR and RJ: And we SMASH and CHOP the door open and run inside and steal the spaceship and fly it home!!!
Last weekend, we took another trip down south — this time much shorter, but still lots of fun. We went exploring a Karri forest, visited a wildlife park and climbed some huge rocks.
Not siblings... Just friends. These are three of the many rescued joeys at the wildlife park.
(while eating breakfast)
LR & RJ: (singing) Five little ducks went out one day,
Over the hills and far away…
Mother duck said, ‘Quack, quack, quack, quack,’
But only four little ducks came back…LR & RJ: Four little ducks went…
LR & RJ: Three little ducks…
LR & RJ: Two little…
LR & RJ: One…
LR & RJ: No little ducks went out one day,
Over the hills and far away…
Mother duck said, ‘Quack, quack, quack, quack,’
But only a fat little snake came back…LR: It was listening for the quacking noises.
RJ: And it ate ALL of them, even the mother.
(Looking at LR’s new learning-to-draw book)
LR: That werewolf is really scary, daddy. I don’t like it.
Dad: Yeah, they made him pretty freaky looking.
RJ: I love werewolves. I like it when they hide.
Dad: Have you seen them hiding around here?
RJ: Yes. In the… in the kitchen.
Dad: In the kitchen?
RJ: Well they use their magic and turn into a tortoise, or vegetables, or magnets, or a picture… and… and…
Dad: Yeah?
RJ: (whispering) One time I saw him turn into a fridge.
(LR wanders into Dad’s study, looking very proud of herself…)
LR: I wish mum would talk to me.
Dad: (confused) What? She’s always willing to talk to you, provided she’s not trying to get you guys out the door or something.
LR: (grinning) No, I just wish mum would talk to me.
Dad: I’m sorry your mother wont talk to you…?
LR: But mum wont talk… she just mumbles.
