The dangers of not emptying the bath

The baby might just jump straight in - clothes and all!

Bah!

[She obviously likes the bath!]

Cinderella by Clare

Every night Clare asks Ariel to tell her a story. Sometimes Ariel convinces Clare to tell a story. Tonight Clare told the story of Cinderella:

Once upon a time there was al.ittle grl called Cinderella and her mum died. Her dad married again and she had two daughters and when they had grown up they had big feet. The next morning there was a ball and the step sisters didn't want her to go because they wanted to be Cinderella. ["Isn't that right?" Clare asked Ariel, "What's next?"]
Ariel continued: The fairy godmother came and said "Stop crying. You can go the ball but you have to back by midnight." So she put a very pretty dress on Cinderella and made a coach and Cinderella went to the ball.

Clare went on: She went to the ball and went in the ball and the prince said "She's the prettiest." And then it was midnight and Cinderella went away and left one of her slippers. The prince tried it on all the ladies and the last people were the step sisters. But it didn't fit. Then Cinderella said, "Can I have a go?" [and the sisters said] "She's just a servant". [The prince said] "Let her have a go". They tried it on her and it fit, they put the dress back on her, they got married and lived happily ever after.
Not bad for a four year old I guess. I have added the parts in [italics] to provide some context. Ariel has told the story a number of times and Clare quite likes it.

How to fold a shirt

For all of our readers that find folding shirts a hassle, this is an amazing video showing how it is done - efficiently!

(Found at Marginal Revolution - an interesting economics blog)

Philosophy via Audio

Peter Kreeft is a very good philosopher and has a great ability to bring complex philosophic points down to earth for the rest of us mere mortals.
He has a collection of his writings and audio at his website www.peterkreeft.com.
It's a good way to catch up on important things when driving - certainly a lot better than the radio!

Audio stories for children

We have just found a new source of audio books in MP3 format - and free. Storynory says it has "iPod ready stories for kids". As the audio download files are all in MP3 format, you can play them on any device that supports MP3, or load them into your iTunes software and write them to audio or MP3 CDs.
Recent stories are Sleeping Beauty, The Christmas Carol and Hansel and Gretel amongst others. Go to the archives page for all of the collection.

Today's Cute Shot

I just thought it had been while since the last cute shot of Rose. Here she is in an empty laundry basket waiting for someone to carry her around.

A joey comes to our birthday party

Today we had a birthday party and had two families join us. This made about 24 people all told plus one bonus visitor. One of our friends saw a very recently dead kangaroo on the roadside and went to investigate. In the pouch was a joey which would surely have died if he hadn't been found. So they rigged a makeshift pouch from an old jumper (sweater) with the sleeves tied up. (you can see the clothes hanger is still attached so it can be hung up) They are feeding him from a bottle regularly and he seems quite happy. To make sure it is more like being fed in his pouch, they hold him tight closing his eyes and the joey sucks away merrily.

This photo is of little Ella enjoying the joey's attention. (The bandage is a result of her getting too close to the wrong part of a toaster. Ow.) Her look indicates how much she is enjoying the Joey's company!

The older boys spent the day wargaming Lord of the Rings, whilst other children played on the trampoline, played bingo, built Lego, or just ran around playing whatever games they thought fun. The adults had a great time chatting and enjoying each others company. Basically a typical gathering using a birthday party for the excuse.

Some Australian Christmas music

Leigh Newton is an Australian children's songwriter and entertainer from South Australia. He has a number of albums containing distinctly Australian songs, such as "Christmas in the Scrub"(*), "Christmas in the Shed" and "Grandma rides a Harley". The children have been enjoying the songs today after I downloaded some samples from his website.
Unfortunately he has no electronic method of paying him other than an International Money order. Still it is worth downloading the samples he has and enjoying some music with a great Australian flavour.
Then let him know you enjoyed it and send him something.

(*) Scrub is the Australian word for the bush or non city/residential areas.

A Slug is eating our Quince tree

Our Quince tree (a member of the pear family) is having its leaves skeletonised. This little slug like thing is having a feast. It is a "Pear Slug" (scroll down on the link). Actually it isn't a sluig - it's the larvae of the sawfly, a pest introduced into Australia in 1891.
It's an ugly thing. The fat end is the head. You can click on the picture for more detail. We're spraying it with some natural pesticide which should hopefully knock it off.

Anti Airborne Fruit Eaters defences

Our apple trees have finally started to bear fruit. Now we have to defend this prime crop from the birds. Last year the birds enjoyed the whole crop whilst Lana's parents were away. The family minding our house whilst we were away were unable to get even one ripe apple.
This time we bought some bird netting and plastic poles to cover the trees. As we all helped erect the shroud Clare commented excitedly, "It's like a wedding!" She pulled all the corners out very carefully so it was even more like a bride's wedding dress train. Dad tied a rope around from the poles to the tree so it wouldn't blow away and then tied knots in Clare's lovely "trains" and put a brick on each corner so the birds couldn't get underneath.
Phew! After all this effort I hope the apples taste OK.

Birthday Ice Cream Cake

This is the best way to have an ice cream cake big enough for all the family and friends and fit within a budget.
Get a 4 litre (1 gallon) container of ice-cream and turn it upside down. Then decorate it and plonk down a few candles.
Decorating with lollies (candies) is the best as each child then wants their piece with a lolly or two. We used a marshmallow at each corner, grated chocolate on the edges, red and blue M&Ms on the top and 100's and 1000's (cake decorations/ sprinkles) on the sides.
And the best thing is that there is no cooking required and no cake left over after the icing has been licked off. Just eat it quick before it melts!

Absurd Maths

by Ariel
While I was going through the archives on Melissa Wiley's blog I came across this maths game that is very interesting. I wanted to keep going but Dad said I had to do a blog entry first.
The bad guys, Powers 2B, have captured the internet except for one page owned by the Society of the Half Closed Eye, who are the good guys. You have to do certain things such as saving a being from another dimension. To get to the next page you have to answer a maths question. If it's wrong you must try again. Sometimes if you get it wrong the question changes.
It's not easy - it's challenging. I want to get back to it so I have to hurry up and finish this blog entry.

The eye of Sauron

I think I know why Sauron was such an angry fellow in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He must have had conjunctivitis (also known as "Red eye or pink eye). Just look at the movie - there is the eye with all those red bits radiating from the centre of the eye. It must have been really annoying.
This photo is of my eye. Luckily I don't have vast armies of evil creatures to unleash on the world. With some drops and time the eye should clear up but the hardest part is to avoid touching my eye with my fingers.
Also, I must only use tissues that do not get re-used. And wash my hands often and don't use towels as this may spread the infection. And don't start fights with the forces of good. That will really ruin your day.

Teaching Children to ride a bike

During Ariel's perusing of the blogs on our blogroll, she came across a great method for teaching children how to ride a bike on Melissa Wiley's blog. This is well worth reading.

Getting closer ...

The nativity set is up. This year we have used the wood stove as the base as it is conveniently surrounded by a fire grate to protect it from Rose. This is a very good plan considering this photo caught her trying to scale the fence already.
The stable only has a couple of animals and an empty manger. Over the next few weeks Joseph and Mary will make their way through the house to arrive there by December 24. Then baby Jesus will be there on the 25th with the shepherds too. Currently the shepherds are lurking nearby with their sheep scattered around them.
The tree is up, but bare of decorations. In the week before Christmas the children will get to add one decoration per day. On Christmas eve the lights go on and the rest of the decorations around the house. Then compulsory celebrations!
From Christmas to Epiphany the three wise men wander throughout the house with their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. The children will awake each morning searching for the wise men's new location - on a cupboard, under a chair, on a bench, behind a box and so on.

Garden Beds for all

Lana's dad has built three new garden beds. Today was the day each bed is filled with a nourishing soil mix of manure, mushroom compost, noral dirt and whathever fertilizer would make vegetable plants happy.
All the children helped with each garden bed assigned to two children. Here Rose is "helping" by plonking a toy fellow into the watering jug. At least she will if she lets go before James works out what she is doing!
Soon we'll see what begins to grow.

This blog would be G rated

This symbol is on all Australian film and literature and gives a guide as to what to expect when watching a film or playing a computer game. (More information is here). A similar system exists in the US, but with one very big difference. In Australia the symbol is prominent, coloured and on the front, side and rear of case and on the actual DVD, Video or CD.
In the US the rating is hidden in microscopic print somewhere on the packaging. Also the typical Movie Rental store had all the movies grouped alphabetically - without regards to whether the film was rated G (General viewing) or R (Restricted to Adults only).
We brought back quite a few movies and were pondering how to distinguish the US films from the Australian ones. It was very easy. We just look for the rating! If we can't instantly see it, we know it is a US movie.

Another Family Activity

Yesterday we spent some time getting ready for Eric's birthday party next week. He is having a wargaming party when some of his friends will be coming over and playing Lord of the Rings wargaming.
We undercoated with spray paint lots of the orcs, elves, men of Gondor, Rohirrim, goblins and the rest of the crew. Then Ariel, Eric, James, Peter and I began painting the figires in more detail. This all started when Eric visited the Games Day in Atlanta earlier this year.
This photo shows the model of Faramir I painted. The Games Workshop site gives examples of how to paint all the figures which we use as a starting point. My style is different to the "layered" method Games Workshop prefers, but the results work out pretty well.
Ariel painted her batch of yucky orcs quite well.

I stomp on your floppy disks. Bah!

In going through all of my computer gear I came across a drawer of floppy disks. This is a good time to transfer their contents to something more stable. Of all the disks at least one third were no good, one third OK and the balance has some damage. These were all stored reasonably well and the salvage rate was terrible.
Are any of your backups on floppy disk? Quickly see if you can restore the data and put it on something more contemporary. If you are currently backing up to floppy disk, STOP. Use a USB drive which has more space, is faster and is much more stable.
The best thing for floppy disks are as children's toys. You can make castles, forts, patterns and so on. They also make a nice clatter sound when thrown onto the floor. Rose is showing the contempt all floppy disks deserve!

Parish Christmas Carols

Last night our parish held its annual Christmas Carols by Candle light. Actually the candles were citronella to keep away the mosquitos, and the candles were torches (flashlights). Various groups in the parish took turns singing. A children's nativity play was also planned, but on Tuesday our homeschooling group received an urgent phone call asking if we could help. The play hadn't actually been organised. Quickly the homeschooling families had a rehearsal on Wednesday and planned a quick nativity play based on a Golden Book someone had.

Before the activities began, we arrived early and all donned costumes and practiced in the gardens at the side. The first photo is of four little girls who were the angels that appeared to the shepherds. Little Elizabeth watched me whilst the rest paid attention to her sister reading the story, waiting for their cue. Our boys were the three wise men with their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. James did his best to look wise! The children did a very good job and we are glad we were able to help at such short notice.

At the last moment Rose decided she wanted to join so she became a sort of angel looking very pretty in a white frock. Whilst we were waiting she noticed lovely little stones and dirt on the pavement so naturally started playing with them. Who cares about being dressed in white when dirt beckons! Towards the end of the night the children were able to go back on stage and sing some lovely Christmas Carols. When they were deciding which carols to sing, Ariel and Eric mentioned the ones they knew from their time with the children's choir in our US parish.

These ended up being the ones chosen, even singing the first verse of Silent Night in German, as they practiced in the US. This photo was taken without a flash - just extended shutter exposure - and worked very nicely. All in all it was a lovely way to begin the Christmas preparations in this season of Advent. The children are getting more excited as each candle is lit on the Advent Wreath, meaning Christmas is another week closer. Once it gets to Christmas Eve we will be putting up our tree and the children should awake to a house transformed. Then it is compulsory celebrations of the birth of Jesus for the next 12 days of Christmas until Epiphany. Mmmm. Christmas celebrations. Yum.