Crumpled Home

Here are some random drawings and pictures that have shown up lately.

Mouse Avenger #12, by RJ

Mouse Avenger is an original series that RJ has been creating. Each has a detailed, full-colour front cover with a series of black and white drawings inside. Most episodes involve battling some kind of dragons and/or scorpions. Mouse Avenger is pretty ruthless with his sword and shield.

The inside of Dad’s birthday card, from LR:

Why yes... Yes it does...

Dad and the kids were doing some drawings on the weekend and they were particularly proud of what they came up with…

Horse and Tree, by LR

Haunted Mansion, by RJ

Haunted Mansion (colour), by RJ and Daddy

Haunted Mansion is a book in the school library that RJ hasn’t read, but seems to know an awful lot about. Those are ghosts chasing the people and I do believe those are severed heads hanging off the legs of the evil crab monster.

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!

Continue reading

Recently discovered in RJ’s class… a new planet with a composition unlike any discovered before….

The recently discovered Planet Cheese.

“It’s a planet made of cheese. Cheese grass, cheese trees and cheese houses! It’s a warm planet, but isn’t too close to the sun because otherwise it would melt!”

Apparently, it all started with a ballon, and required a whole lot of “paper massage” before it was finished.

Each year, we invite a few friends up to the farm at Gingin to celebrate the winter solstice. After spending the day pruning the fruit trees and tending to the orchard, we fire up the pizza oven and serve a nearly endless stream of delicious homemade pizzas. We follow up by lighting a huge bonfire to brighten things up through the long night. It’s heaps of fun (despite things often going awry because of rainy weather).

Citrus is in season at the moment, and the trees are totally loaded with fruit. LR gets to work picking some mandarins. Delicious!

Continue reading

RJ: (frustrated) You just have to climb a tree, Dad! That’s all you have to do. Ugghghhhhh… (throws up his hands)

Don’t you know that zombies can’t jump? Don’t you know that zombies can’t climb? They don’t have brains — they can’t figure it out!

You’re just going to have your brains eaten and die.

Is that what you want??

Really??

(shakes head in disgust)

This year we flew to Melbourne to spend Thanksgiving with a different set of friends and family. Because a lot of Australians don’t know what pilgrims are, except perhaps characters in John Wayne cowboy movies, we don’t get the day off to cook over here.

Instead, our friends invited a group of us (including three stranded Americans) over on the following Saturday and got the ovens fired up.

Before things got started, Dad took the kids to a nearby park to try and get some energy out. The dinner itself was fantastic — everyone loved it and all the necessary Thanksgiving staples were on the table. Afterwards, the dads took the kids down to the nearby school playground for a run around and a play before the rain started up again.

Massive thanks to our friends for inviting us over and sharing Thanksgiving with us! We had a GREAT time!

Ahhh, Thanksgiving. Delicious as usual!

Continue reading

After our first few days in Shepherdstown, we took a quick road-trip down to Charlottesville and Nelson County, Virginia to catch up with some old friends. We only had a few days, so we didn’t get to catch up with everyone that we wanted to, and it’s something we unfortunately have to get used to (until we become ridiculously wealthy and can extend our vacations to months at a time). After getting back, we had some more fun with Grandpa Jeff and had some more cuddles with Baby V.

We drove down to Nelson County, Virginia to visit Jimmy & Jane, great friends of ours. The customary cookies and hamburgers were very popular.

Continue reading

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.

Continue reading