Drive In Fun

To celebrate one of our dear little friends 6th Birthday, we headed to the Drive In.  The kids have only ever been once before, (when I was hugely pregnant with C) and this was obviously C's first time.

I admit I was concerned about how he would go, after all he is only just getting through a 30 minute episode of Playschool. DH, K and C got settled in the back of the Hilux, all rugged up with their popcorn and lollies. C did brilliantly well, why did I ever doubt him and he is still talking about the fun he had.

The big girls hung out on chairs out front and giggled our way through the funny but generally quite ridiculous movie.

The boys were more than happy to hang out on a mattress, stuffing their faces throughout the movie.

Oh so you want to know what movie we actually saw. Ok I guess that might help a little.

Anyway, I am sure most who see this will enjoy it. Whilst I did find myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion I found the whole thing quite lacking. Actually quite typical of most children's movies released in our current era.

It was full of the typical, boy meets girl, boy chases girl, and that wasn't only the humans in the movie but also the birds. Of course there were missing characters and the main premise of the movie was the search for said characters.

Why oh why do our children of today need to settle for movies that in my opinion just simply are not of any great quality? Why?

What has happened to the writers? Not only are children's books dumbed down and poorly written but so are the movies. When did it happen?

When did we as consumers, movie goers and book lovers allow this to happen? Because allowing it to happen is exactly what we have done!

Indoor Play Fun

We had several rainy days in a row last week. Everyone needed to release some energy. So a trip to an indoor play centre was in order.

This is a real treat for my kids, these aren't places we visit very often. In fact it has been nearly 2 years since they have been to one at all and closer to 3 at this particular centre. So in essence, it was C's first time at all :-)

These places are always much more fun with some friends.

We were plesantly surprised to see that it had a refurbishment. Two large jumping/sliding/mazing castle type things had been added.

These had the kids sliding, bounding and giggling for some time.

Trying to get everyone to go together was a challenge.

The centre had also fully replaced the under 4's section, which used to simply be a fenced area with a bunch of toys.

Into a true play centre experience, even for the littles, with climbing, sliding, jumping and the regular play things for the littlest of littles.

So whilst we might not frequent these places often the kids had a blast and they certainly come in handy to have them around from time to time.

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Not Back To School Day

Yesterday was the first official school day here in Australia, so of course we enjoyed it as any Aussie home educating family should, by spending a day at the beach with friends!


Only a small group, I think the beginning of the year has come around much more quickly than most of us were ready for. But really it doesn't matter how many friends you spend the day with, it is always fun.


C had a fantastic time, as he always does. He is such a little explorer, loves investigating everything and making sure that he never misses out on anything that the big kids are getting into. He'd just had his belly full of watermelon before this photo, hence the pale pink face.



B certainly loved seeing his friends and is more than happy to be back into the swing of things with our homeschool group.



In the far corner of the 'inlet' where we spent the morning was an extremely deep body of water (I didn't realise how deep it was until the tide had gone out) however it was also covered in seaweed. Not that really gross seaweed that floats around and freaks you out when it rubs against your legs. Everyone spent a considerable amount of time exploring the seaweed and wondering what creatures may live there, hiding amongst the weeds.

As the tide retreated the hunt began, the hunt for solider crabs and we weren't disappointed, that's for sure. They are the fastest little critters and can hear you coming some distance away. The kids would be on one side of the 'pool' when someone would yell, "Crabs", everyone would make a mad dash to the other side of the pool where literally hundreds of them were scurrying here, there and everywhere. Most found there way under ground but the odd one got scooped up into buckets for closer inspection.

I was so impressed when I heard B remind everyone that they needed to let their crabs go, he didn't need reminding at all that they really belong below the wet sand and not in their buckets.

The highlight of K's day was finding some type of sea snail, she was so excited, we've never found a creature like that at the sea before so it certainly was interesting.


Since mummy forgot our boogie boards, K borrowed one and had a fabulous time kicking and splashing around in the water. Her confidence this summer in the water has grown tremendously and it really shows.



Now what a perfect spot! Here's a few of the mums (the others are off to the side a little) We had that shade the entire time we were there and apart from the odd adult we had the entire beach to ourselves. Cool breezes and lots of shade right there on the beach (when at home it was a stifling 34 degrees) meant no one wanted to leave.

I couldn't think of a better way to spend our first day of the school year.

Weekly Wrap Up - 9th May 2009

Week 2 of dance lessons saw us with a change of teacher. K4 was ecstatic as now we have a lady, B7 not so, but he still had a blast anyway.

We revisited the rock climbing wall this week, after nearly a year (wow how quickly that has gone). It certainly pays to keep this activity up, both of them had lost some confidence but they did regain it as the afternoon progressed.

Soccer, our regular Saturday morning thing, now that the season is in full swing. Thankfully B7 just loves his soccer games and so far we have been very pleased with the club and the way they handle everything with the children.

Our dear friends have this super cool billy cart (be watching for some videos) and we had a whole bunch of friends here on the weekend, did they have the best time or what on this thing! I think we'll have to put our order in for one of those billy carts *wink wink*