Science Centre - Part 2

Here's a few more pictures from our visit to the Science Centre last week.

Fishing - Part 2

Here's a few more photos from our fishing adventure the other day. Lots of pictures of the crabs that a fisherman caught and had to throw back because it was female which is the law in Queensland, not sure about everywhere else. A few more pictures of the kids fishing and a picture of the Loo.

Yes, I said Loo. These are automatic toilets that are self cleaning, they play music, they talk to you and apparently if you are loitering around outside the toilets for more than 10 minutes something happens. Maybe sets off an alarm or something, I can't recall what it was because I was so amused at reading all the instructions.

You also only have 10 minutes in the toilet so if you are unwell not sure if you have to go out and come back in for your next 10 minutes. It was very space age and a really funny experience that Sienna just had to go to twice while we were there. The person's voice welcomes you and then beautiful piped music is played while you do your business. When you need toilet paper you press a button and it rolls down by itself. Then when you put your hand underneath the soap dispenser the toilet is clever and realizes you must be finished so flushes by itself. Next up is the water then the air dryer and with the push of a button you can unlock the door and leave. Trust me, it was a giggle and an experience in itself.

Fishing Part 1

We went fishing today with some friends to Redcliffe Jetty for a couple of hours which was great fun. I had bought the kids fishing lines in January and took them to Moreton Island however we didn't get the opportunity to fish because of all the rain. As an adult you usually learn that fishing means spending time trying to catch a fish and enjoying the outdoors, not necessarily catching fish even though you throw your line into the water for a few hours. Before we left James asked if I could cook the fish for dinner tonight and I said, it's hard to catch fish but fishing is about enjoying the time trying to catch fish. Trying to put some reality into the situation without being totally negative. To an 8 year old if you say you are going fishing one would expect to catch fish other wise why would you do it. I just didn't want him to be too disappointed if we didn't catch any fish.

It was extremely windy and I had told the kids to wear a hat that wasn't their favourite hat in case it flew off and landed in the water (speaking from experience when James was very little we lost his Spiderman hat over off this very jetty and he was devastated). I, on the other hand wore my one and only favourite hat which sits low on your head and I know it's tight not like a cap which sits loose on your head. I nearly lost it a couple of times and I was throwing a hand line in for Sienna and as soon as I tossed the line in I decided I was going to take my hat off and put it away. Well I was 10 seconds too late and it flew off my head into the water and there was nothing I could do about it. Actually it was a hat that I had bought from the Farmers Markets some years ago and I haven't seen them around since. I naturally was making a song and a dance about losing my favourite hat when Sienna piped up and said "Mum I thought you told us not to wear our favourite hats so we wouldn't loose them". Ummm very true... what's that old saying, "do as I say, not as I do". Next time I'll have to take my own advice and I'm very sad my favourite hat is gone as I find it hard to get a hat to look okay and I'm not that into caps myself.

Now back to the fishing story, we didn't catch any edible fish, James caught a little baby blow fish (poisonous) and some bloke helped us get it off the line and threw it back in the water. He said they were only poisonous if you ate them but you could touch them. A few blokes had crab pots and while we were there caught 3 crabs, all female so they had to throw them back in the water as it's illegal to catch females as they need to breed. It was a fun afternoon so on the way home I ended up buying fish and chips for dinner since we didn't exactly have "a catch of the day".

Observing different activities

Yesterday afternoon we had a visit to the library and James picked up another Tin Tin book to read. He is obsessed with Tin Tin and I love the fact that he chose reading over watching TV last night which says a lot for Tin Tin.

Sienna on the other hand was trying out her drawing of a chicken on the blackboard using her hands as wings which I thought was very cute. Over the holidays I'm going to get the kids to do some drawings and paintings to go in our art gallery above the blackboard so that it looks finished.

PS. This morning Sienna took some rubbish to the bin through the garage and there were no screams which means no unwanted visitors this morning. Fast forward 10 mins or so when we were ready to go and the kids got in the car I heard the car door slam and Sienna scream at the top of her voice. The scream that sent a shiver through my spine (yes....more than yesterday's snake scream). I ran as fast as I could and apparently Sienna had put her hand where it shouldn't have been and James had slammed the door on her fingers....seriously my heart was now racing a million miles and hour and James had the door opened, I ran in to get the ice pack and got back to the car and they were both crying.

They were both in the wrong as Sienna often gets in my side of the car while James is getting in behind the drivers seat and I've trained Sienna not to use the bit of the car between the two doors to hoist herself up onto the seat. She's pretty diligent about this but not this morning. James was in tears, Sienna was in tears and I tried to explain to them what to do so in the future it doesn't happen again. James said he checked and her hand wasn't in the door...however that statement doesn't wash when clearly her hand was in the door. Sienna needs to make sure her hand is never near that part of the car and James needs to wait until she is in her car seat before he shuts the door. He was feeling really bad and upset about it. Talk about exciting mornings (not!!) I don't think my heart could take anymore of this. On holidays for 2 weeks now so no rushing out to school in the morning and hopefully we all won't be so tied when we start back with our school routines....life is never dull in this household. Thankfully both kids and Mum survived but I could have done without it that's for sure.

BBQ DINNER

It's starting to get a little bit cooler in the evenings and early mornings now however the other night it was nice enough to have a bbq and eat at the table outside. I'm still loving our little Everdure bbq (equivalent to a Weber Q) rather than the big Everdure one we previously had because it's no trouble to turn the gas on and cook 8 little sausages. I never bothered turning the big one on to cook a few sausages as it seemed overkill however, this little one gets used without a moments thought. I cooked some delicious steak on the bbq as well this week. Big is not always better!!!

EVERYDAY LIFE

I love taking photos of the kids doing things and on this particular afternoon they were both in their rooms occupying themselves. James was into his lego and Sienna was cutting a butterfly out of paper. Project Life is a reminder that it's the little everyday moments that make up most of our daily lives and I just love photographing them.