Partying and Tadpoles

Friday was a delightful day. We had brilliant sunshine, not oo hot and not chilly either. it was wonderful. Avril had been counting down the sleeps to this day, as this was the day she was to attend Faith 4 th birthday.

Faiths family lives out in the country. And it is beautiful out there. We were delighted to spend the day out there with them.

Her mum did a beautiful job of running the party. They strated off decorating their own cupcakes, which I was delighted to share with Avril as she isn't a big cake eater, but mummy loves cake, especially the icing!!! Very yummy!!

They played some party games and had an absolute ball.

Now the big kids were having their own adventures in the pond. Damon has always wanted a pet, so on this day he decided to make this a reality by catching some tadpoles. They spent their time at the party walking through the pond (or falling into the pond!!) collecting tadpoles in water bottles.


Damon has decided to call his large tadpole Charlie and the small one Liam, after his friend from school :) Damon just spends all day staring at these wonderful creatures. He is so thrilled by his new friends and so are the rest of the family :) I just hope we look after them properly!! I think Damon will enjoy researching tadpole care and journalling their progress.

I just love that the kids get all these opportunities to explore and enjoy the world freely. Homeschool has really encouraged this in our family. And not only are the kids developing new interests and gaining confidence in new things, so am I.

Other things we have been doing!!

My kids really have settled into their kitchen duties well. Damon has been cooking and preparig some lovely breakfasts for us over the past two weeks. For the next couple of weeks we will be sampling Adeles delights at breakfast, as we have now swapped. One great thing about kitchen helping is the way the younger kids like to help their bigger brother or sister. avril loves to help Damon in the the kitchen at brekkie.

Nearly a year ago we bought an apple slinki (a great way to get kids to eat fruit!!). They are fun and make fruit more interesting to kids who would prefer something else :) My kids all took turns this week using this machine to prepare their apples for fun eating.

Josef has developed a love of books like his big brother, especially if they are train books. He loves trains. I walked into the lounge room last week to discover Josef strateched out on the floor reading a train book with Damon looking on in delight.

Thanks to play school Josef discovered my saucepans and how much noise they can make! And they can make some noise!! He spent some time delighting in banging as loud as he could!

First Aid Workshop

One of the great things about being part of the homeschooling community is the wonderful excursions that the families organise! One of these has been the Just for Kids CPR HELP Safety awareness program.

The kids were split into lower primary and upeer primary/high school groups. And there were a lot of kids keen to learn first aid. When I told Damon he was to practice CPR on a dummy, he went red and exclaimed that he won't be! :)lol.

It was a great day. Adele was first up. She really enjoyed the process and had a few giggles along the way. Adele partnered a boy who had been in her kindergarten year at school and is now also homeschooled.

The younger kids were keeping themselves amused at the wonderful playground outside.

When it was time for Damon to have his turn after lunch, he was a bit nervous about the whole CPR thingy!! But he did a great job, even if when he saw me standing there with a camera he turned red!! lol.

Damon spent some of his free time with some new friends and they all ended up following Damon around looking for wildlife photo opportunities and they found one!! - a swallows nest!

Damons Photography

I thought I would upload some more of Damons photos. He is very keen and is capturing some lovely shots. Last week we had to miss the workshop so my husband took the two kids into Newcastle to take some lovely shots.

I always enjoy looking at the kids photos. I hope you have enjoyed viewing some too.