Crumpled Home

(while eating dinner)

Dad: So what happened to you guys at school today?

(silence)

Dad: Really! Something must have happened!

(crickets chirping)

RJ: Well! You are totally not going to believe this.

RJ: (puts down his fork and becomes quite dramatic and intense)

Today, we were playing at lunch time. There were four of us, me, L. and the other guys and we went back by the Sheddies. You know where they’re doing the building? Past there, past the edge of the concrete.

(pauses)

We decided to dig a hole. A big hole.

(motions digging with his hands)

We started digging. It got deep. Really deep.

(excitedly) We kept on digging and digging, deeper and deeper. We were digging like crazy, making this huge hole!

We kept digging and all of a sudden there was a flash along the bottom of the hole! WHOAH! SCALES. We saw SCALES!

(suddenly stops)

Do you know what it was?

Can you guess?

Dad: No idea… A fish?

RJ: (glares at Dad)

(channelling Steve Irwin) It was a SNAKE, it was in the bottom of the hole and it was a big one! (holding up hands showing the size) We couldn’t believe it!

Dad: Wow! A snake? At your school?

RJ: I know. It was REALLY exciting.

Dad: So… Did you tell someone? Perhaps a teacher?

RJ: No. We didn’t want everyone to freak out. It would just ruin their day…

RJ: Anyway, that’s not what you do when you see a snake. You just, “Say G’day, and walk away.” and that’s exactly what we did.

In October, we drove south to Eagle Bay with some friends for a few days, and north to Gingin for a weekend with Grammy and Poppa. RJ had his first t-ball game and… his team won! In the middle of all of this (and the Royal Show AND Halloween) we somehow found the time to visit Scitech with some friends to see some of their new exhibits. Wow! We need a break!

We took a trip down to Eagle Bay and had a great time in the water. It's a lot easier to do now that the weather's warming up!

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On the weekend, we all drove up to Gingin to help with the second stage of winemaking. The first stage, picking the grapes and first pressing, was already done a couple of weeks ago; it was time for the second pressing and getting the wine into vats for fermentation. We also spent time working on LR’s latest project, “The Museum of the Universes of Science” — a showcase for all the amazing animals, bones, plants and rocks that we discover up there.

Obviously, winemaking is a very serious business!

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(in the car, on the way to school)

RJ: Minty eyeballs… It’s a terrible sickness.

Dad: It does sound terrible.

RJ: Our cousins have it. P, M and their whole family, Aunty B and Uncle T.

Dad: What!? Where did they catch it from?

RJ: From Dora at Dora’s house. Dora went in the Poisonous Jungle and got sick. Then they caught it from her.

Dad: Is there a cure? Can they get medicine or something?

RJ: The only way to get better from minty eyeballs is to drink the nectar from a flower that grows from the tallest tree in the Tiger Snake Jungle.

Dad: We’d better plan a mission to find it.

RJ: There’s no way. There are too many tiger snakes…

RJ: They’re going to die, I presume.

(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.

(over breakfast)

RJ: The doctor chopped my head off one day. Want to know why?

Dad: Sure. Why’d he do that?

RJ: I was bumping into everything and falling over too much. They chopped it off so they could look at my brain.

Dad: Was everything okay in there?

RJ: No. They had to put in a new one. I don’t bump into things now…

RJ: … It’s also better at remembering to put shoes on when I go outside and watching out for snakes.

While mum was away, dad kept the kids busy and tried to completely wear them out during the day. On Saturday, we went to the zoo. On Sunday, we went to a Wild Fairyland Festival.

We’ll be going back to the zoo again sometime.

LR goes for a close-up of a snake.

At 5 metres long (16feet), he's not a giant, but he is still impressively large.

RJ and LR get face to face with the salt-water croc.

LR takes a moment to record some observations while RJ wolfs down a sandwich.

RJ and LR stop for a moment to let Trisha get past.

They're quick, but dad's pretty fast with the shutter.

Gotcha!

The kids thought this kangaroo needed some exercise.

LR was careful to take pictures of each animal.

The wildflowers are still blooming everywhere.

On Sunday, we went to the Fairy Festival. Just look at the delight on the kids’ faces! They eventually cheered up, but it took most of the day.

Her face painted, LR is ready to have her nails done!

We tortured LR by leaving her in the middle of a tent full of fairy-obsessed 4-7 year old girls. How could we be so cruel?

On the other hand, the Drippy the Dragon puppet show was a huge hit.

RJ was pleased to have cake provided for him.

See? Sparkly nails AND face paint!

A fairy delivers some magic dust to LR so she can make a wish.

RJ: There’s a snake in the backyard.

Mum: I don’t think so.

RJ: Yes. It’s in the grass. I can see it.

Mum: It would be very bad if we had a snake in a backyard.

RJ: It’s a caecilian.

Mum: No, it’s not. It’s just a ribbon.

RJ: Just be careful, okay?