Willy Wonker

Annie just loves to perform and muck-about - and do impersonations from movie characters. This is her doing that, but she was a bit reluctant with the camera going... usually it is line after line of nonsense from this one hamming it up...

Memory Game in 3D. 2D is better, apparently.

This is me trying to compete with what the computer can do in terms of providing games and entertainment for the kids.

Annabelle did great at the game - awesome memory - but the fascination with life off-line didn't hold up to the thrill of cyberspace, as you can hear her comment at the end of the game :-)

Big Rain Coming...

Brisbane suffered an amazing week of storms this year. The Gap suffered the most, with roofs being torn off houses, power lost everywhere for days, and some houses leveled completely.

When one of the major storms started, I thought 'Mmmm, this sounds heavy' and went to film a bit of it. The filming ended abruptly when a massive gust of wind blew the rain straight onto me and I lost my balance... it was time to go inside!

If you look carefully, you can see the wave of water blowing off the neighbour's roof top just before I go inside.

Brisbane always was hot and stormy in Summer, and it seems it is well and truly back to its old self after around 10 years of drought (coinciding with 10 years of conservative gvt... the Gods are clearly relieved Kev made it in last year ;-)

Jellyfish Presentation

Charlotte put loads of effort into researching, structuring, editing and preparing a presentation on Jellyfish for school.

She is only Grade Four and yet manages phrases like planktonic organisms without a hitch. Very proud of how she is going... PS Devon if you or your parents need an RA in 10 years time, we'll send her over for the Summer ;-)

Prepping for Prep

This is Annie practising her alphabet.

I got in a bit of trouble at the end here for singing along! I had to help her out though, she was stuck on repeat for a bit there... :-)

zipadeedoodah

It got super hot today, so the kids all hopped in the wading pool out the back, and Charlotte treated me to this song - Johnny Young would've snapped her up, I reckon ;-)

Ben does Charles Manson impersonation :-)

This is Ben doing an impersonation of Charles Mason - apparently he was famous for saying this?!

Ben must have felt kind of ranchy and mad on James's property cause he got on the porch and got all southern n crazy ;-)

I just love this little bit of footage - too too funny!

How to Chuck a Sicki by Oliver C--C

Oliver did an impression of a dying swan this morning, so I let him stay home with Annie.

By morning tea he had made a full-recovery, and I found them outside in the rain doing this.

He is so dead if his teacher ever reads this blog ;-)

Cooee

The girls stayed back instead of going on the big hike through the gorge.

Oliver went on the walk, which surprised us. I guess he lied about (not) being the outdoor type - for those of you who remember that ol' tune by Lemonhead ;-)

I like the way Annie says 'um' before 'cooee' - guess she had think about it!

SNAP!

This is Ben and Annie-Rose playing a game of Snap! on a Sunday afternoon. The deck had been heavily stacked beforehand to make for a fun game ;-)

Big kids were camping with school mates on their farm, so this was special time with Annie today.

Tag with Dad :-)

This is the kids and Ben playing tag at Perrin Park. This was my first Saturday without having to work on my thesis, so it was a pretty special day. It got to 28 degrees and we hosed the kids off when they had finished playing here.

Annie wasn't in the most gracious mood, but maybe it was the heat. As I type this now in the evening of the same day, thunder is rolling around the skies, and it feels like it is going to be a true Brisbane Summer with sultry days and stormy nights. All good.

Show and Tell

Annie got given the show-and-tell box to put something in, and to bring to Kindy to talk about with the class. These items can get pretty random and odd-seeming to adults, but we have learned to go with the flow for show and tell. She chose to take a crystal rock from Ken, a possum bone we found in the yard and a snake skin. All pretty interesting stuff :-)

This is her practice presentation (note the ballet tights ;-)

Splash!

Even tho the children's pool at UQ is seriously heated all year (like a bath!) - I tend to only take Annie there as it warms up. We go on Thursdays, which is my day off to be with her :-) This day, we went shopping, came home, cleaned the house, went swimming and watched a movie before collecting the 'big kids'. If you go to this pool between 12 noon and 3pm there are no lessons and you get the pool to yourselves pretty much. It's a well-kept secret for locals.

KIAY! (Spirit Yell)

This is the children showing off what they learn in Jujitsu classes. Charlotte only just started a few weeks ago, and Oliver has been going for a few years. They go to junior defense, and Annabelle is about to start Little Warriors class :-) The big kids will try for their full yellow belt at the end of this year.

Augustus Gloop!

This is the kids doing an impression of the oompaloompas singing about Augustus Gloop, the great big stinking nicanpoop - in the new Johnny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - one of their favorite movies.

Flying Fox

There is a really good flying fox at a park near ours called Anzac Park. This is Annie trying it out!

Learning to play frisbee!

This is Annie catching the frisbee - she has been keen to play for ages, but has lacked the dexterity until now.

Oarsome Family ;-)

OK, so we aren't exactly keeping up with the Pearse's level of kayaking and white water rafting ;-) but hey, this is pretty good... and is harder to do than it looks!

I had a go, and mainly got stuck in the water reeds. This is from our Byron Farmstay again - the lake provided heaps of entertainment. Apparently you can swim in it in the Summer, so we might go back to try that out.

Annie Feeds the Goat

This is from our trip to Byron at the Farmstay - see the Picasa Album for really nice pics of that! This poor goat finally got fed after much deliberation about whether to throw it, or hand-feed it :-)

Gymania

This is the children trying to do various gymnastic acts in our local park. Ollie has a couple of attempts at a handstand, and then, not to be out-done, the girls rush to join in and show off :-) I love the intense preparation before Annie's cartwheel...

Beats the Drummer from Def Leopard

Here is a little show of Annie beating the drums in the kitchen. She works herself up into quite a fervor at one point! I think she was only about two in this video...

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

This is Annabelle singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star :-)

The Workers Flag

I thought I would start off this blog of our family videos with the classic of our three children singing the Workers Flag. Sometimes at night, when I am too tired to sing the lullabies (I just do a basic little Brahms number, usually ;-) , Ben sings the children this song.

After a short period of confusion wherein Oliver referred to it as the Red Kite and all kinds of other titles, they picked up the words, and could sing it really well. This is them doing exactly that.

Charlotte was 7, Oliver 5, and Annie two and a half.