Crumpled Home

On Sunday, we took our last trip to the old house (before ownership transferred to the new owners on Monday). We wandered around, admired the veggie patch (now overflowing with food ready to eat), and gave the kids’ trees a farewell climb. We were all sad to go.

In 2005, when they resurfaced the street and redid the curbs, we took the chance to leave our mark!

RJ says goodbye to his tree.

LR and RJ have one last climb as they say goodbye to LR's tree.

Mum reaches to switch off the lights for the last time. Goodbye house!

Near the kids play room,
There was a frog pond,
And a swingset too,
And a piano,
That had never, ever been tuned.

And there were three gum trees,
For climbing and feeding bees,

And two veggie patches,
And a pool that splashes,

And rooms full of light,
And no palms in sight,

And a study with a desk, always covered in mess,
And a street full of neighbours who were the absolute best.

Goodnight house.

On Tuesday, Mum and LR went on an excursion with the Year 2 class to plant and restore a local area.

We planted spinifex, knotted club rush, coastal daisy, fan flower, snake vine, and cotton heads. All these plants would once have grown on the site before rabbits and people destroyed the local vegetation.

Find out the whole story and see more pictures at Cottesloe Coastcare!

We took a quick trip up to Gingin over the weekend and discovered that some of the trees had fruit on them. We also drove around the farm, stopping at the big pit for an explore. On the way back, we scouted for bones in the fields and discovered a complete fox skeleton, with teeth and everything else intact!

Foxxy made the rounds at the kids’ schools for show-and-tell, and was a big hit!

LR is fully loaded up with mandarines from the citrus trees.

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Easter and the Autumn break rolled around once more, so we took off down south to unwind and relax a little. We brought our friends M, J, J, and I along with us and we all had a great time. Big events this time around were several extreme rock climbing sessions, decorating eggs, the Easter morning hunt, a hike through the Karri forest and the required horse riding.

We made it to the top!

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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.

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.

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Mum was away working this weekend, so it was a bit crazy at home. LR had her big piano recital, so we spent the morning playing around to relax. Afterwards, we went to the ‘farm-zoo’ and got ice-cream!

Forced smiles? Maybe?

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On the weekend we visited a couple of places and went mulberry picking. It’s a messy, messy job, and people were only too happy to have us come along and make a dent in the huge number of berries falling from their trees. Grammy came along to help out and we ended up with a few buckets full.

RJ helps get the mulberries into the bucket.

LR helps Mum by keeping the bucket steady.

Grammy came along too. She was usually helping out on the smaller ladder.

Mum really gets up into those trees.

RJ climbed this tree so he could reach the berries better.

Grammy brings the bucket over so that RJ can drop his berries right in.

LR explored the highest reaches of the tree, picking a huge number of berries.

The curse of the mulberry picker... Purple hands!!!

The reward... Mulberries!

Here’s a smattering of pictures from the first half of the month: RJ’s sudden fascination with Superman, a visit to K and J’s place, trips to Gingin, lots of tree climbing, legos, marbles and painting, oh my!

Compared to his obsession with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, RJ’s interest in Superman is fairly mild. You’re more likely to catch him pretending to be biologist Nigel Marven.

Don't fear, Superman is on the way.

RJ and I made some Superman badges. I told him, "We don't need no steenkin badges!" but he just wouldn't listen.

K and J’s have an amazing treehouse. It’s multi-level, and is outfitted with a flying-fox, a giant tyre swing, a climbing wall and harnesses and attachment points for everything.

LR and K ride the tyre swing to pretty amazing heights.

LR tackles the climbing wall at K's place.

RJ and J discuss some of the problems they've been having at home.

LR’s tree has grown into one of the best climbing trees imaginable – kid capacity, 15. We’ll find out for sure at this year’s Halloween party.

RJ and LR found an egg shell under LR's tree. Does that mean there's a nest up there somewhere? They've searched all the lower branches and haven't spotted it yet, so maybe not.

RJ climbs up without assistance these days. The monkey genes... they run deep.

Some other recent moments…

Sometimes he just has to yell it out. Negotiating with a hungry three year old who needs a nap is not always possible.

LR tries out Dad's camera while RJ attempts to escape.

LR and RJ worked on this massive castle project. We still haven't managed to use every piece of lego yet.

RJ and Mum adjust their complicated marble run and sling marbles all around the room.

LR adding some details to her big canvas, "The Planet System". It depicts an asteroid crashing into a prehistoric volcanic landscape leading to the collapse of the dinosaur populations on Earth.

(LR had an emergency services officer visit her school yesterday)

LR: I know when to call the emergency number.

Dad: Oh yeah? How about a test?

LR: Okay!

Dad: If someone gets hit by a car?

LR: Call them!

Dad: If we can’t find your bike helmet?

LR: Don’t call them!

Dad: If there’s a tree falling on the house?

LR: Call them!

Dad: If the house is on fire?

LR: Call them!

Dad: If there’s a cat stuck in the tree?

LR: Don’t call them…

Unless the tree is falling on the house!