Meet May

May is my Christmas gift from my brother and his boys. 

On the 28th December there was a huge banging on my front door.  When I opened it I found a box on my front steps with no delivery person in sight.  I was a bit miffed that the delivery man was in such a hurry that he didn't wait around.

Then I noticed that the box wasn't taped closed and I began to get suspicious.  When I opened the box it was to find little May inside.  

That was the moment my two nephews jumped around the corner of the house yelling 'SURPRISE' at the top of their voices.  They were so excited to be giving me this special gift.

She has been a big hit with the kidlettes.  Master M is needing a quite a few pointers on how to look after a puppy.  He's a little rough!

Little Miss R has taken it upon herself to be our number one animal expert and I have to keep reminding her that May is a dog and can walk by herself.  As lovely as she is to cuddle, she doesn't need to be carried everywhere!

Patch is not quite sure about this new addition.  He's still a puppy himself really at only 15 months old and just wants to play with his half sister.  

Yes, May is Patch's half sister.  They share the same mother but have different father's.  Patch is nearly the spitting image of his father and May looks more like her father than mother.

I know you're a little jealous right now my boy but you have such a placid, gentle nature that I know you'll be fine, especially once May grows a bit bigger anyway.

During these really hot and humid days we found the best way to keep her cool as well a contained was to bring out the old playpen.  Unfortunately she's still small enough to squeeze through it and escape so we ended up wrapping some shade cloth around it today.  That way she's contained but can still keep sort of cool if there's a breeze around.

Lets hope she starts to sleep better soon as our Little May and both my kidlettes are banding together to give their mother very interrupted sleeps lately.

xx Susan

(P.S.  This is for Kylie:  Yes she does remind me of Anna.  You know how much we all loved that beautiful girl and I think that's one of the reason's why I fell in love with May the first time I saw her.  Time will only tell whether she has as big a personality as our Anna did!)

Boondooma Dam - Part 2

I did mention that it was hot while we were at the dam.  Well it was in the high 30, low 40 degrees celcius pretty well every day we were there.

As a result we had a few good storms.

Watching them build up was pretty exciting but then we had to make sure that everything around camp was tied down and secured properly.

We even had some hail but luckily it wasn't very big so it didn't damage the cars.  The kids were a bit scared of the hail until I told them it was just chunks of ice.  I then had to run out into the storm to collect some and ate it to show them that it was fine.  

Bad move!  After that all they wanted to do was run out into the storm and collect the hail!  Ah well, they had fun, got soaked, cooled down and got to chomp on ice.  Then it was back in the dam for another swim because after the storm it was so hot and steamy again that it was like being in a sauna.

The main reason why we went to this particular dam this year is because they have redclaw.  The boat went out a couple of times a day to put the pots in and to check them.

The kids even learnt how to take the heads of them...

Even the little ones had a go although Master M didn't cope too well and freaked out a bit.  Nephew R was pretty happy with his though.

We also celebrated a birthday.  It was Nephew J's 9th birthday so we had some party food and a cake that was baked in the camp oven. 

Presents were opened around the campfire...

...and played with at the first opportunity.

Unfortunately there was only a small area we could fly the kite near our camp and there wasn't much wind.

But the dragon did get to fly and looked great.

It was another fantastic family camping trip and more wonderful memories for the kids especially.

xx Susan

Back in September - Boondooma Dam Part 1

As I was absent from Blogland for a few months I thought I'd let tell you about a few highlight events for us during that time.

The first was our camping trip to Boondooma Dam (near Murgon and Kingaroy) during the September/October school holidays.

It's our second time there and even though it's dry and dusty, there's redclaw in the dam.

There was a small group of us who went including my parents who brought along my two nephews and my Uncle (he towed the boat).

Luckily there was no fire ban so we got to have a campfire everyday.  Camping without a campfire is fun but with a campfire really makes it camping in my opinion.

There was lots of swimming.

When you have a whole dam on your doorstep and it's REALLY HOT, why wouldn't you swim as much as possible.

(It was 40 degrees celcius the afternoon we arrived and set up.  It's also very difficult to convince 4 children that they CAN'T go swimming in the middle of the day when they're really hot.)

Watersports were a must for the whole week we were there.  It was either swimming, or kayaking, or getting dragged along by the kayak......

......or going out fishing or putting the redclaw pots out in the boat.  Then there was the time the two biggest children decided to swim over to the other side of the inlet where we were camped.  Luckily they had life jackets on because hubby had decided to go for a paddle in the kayak and couldn't hear their calls for help.  

They had a boogie board with them but got a bit tired and didn't want to swim back.

Poppy to the rescue in the boat!  The two little boys were part of the rescue crew and shouted out many instructions at the top of their voices and became so jumbled that no-one knew what they were saying.

Once Poppy arrived the elder two wanted to be dragged along, no getting in the boat for them!

Other fun pursuits including riding bikes.  There's plenty of room and lots of tracks at the dam which mean Master M finally gathered enough courage to ride without training wheels.

Within about two hours he had gone from training wheels, then demanding they be taken off, to trying his first ride without them (no help from anybody).  Next thing I know he's pushed the bike up a hill and came hurtling down it at full speed with a HUGE grin and bouncing along over lots of bumps.

Talk about giving your mother a heart attack!  He certainly learnt how to handle a bike pretty quickly though and only had one crash that  I can remember.

Of course all the swimming, bike riding and exploring does tire you out and naps are taken wherever it's remotely possible.

I'll write some more about the week next time.

xx Susan

Boxing day and the best gift of all

I forgot to mention that we also gave the kidlettes a trampoline for Christmas. 

They've been wanting one for years and we finally got one for them

It's a little bigger than I thought it was going to be.

But with his helpers (briefly), Daddy was able to get it put together.

Then came the exciting moment when they got to try and out.  It became more fun when cousins turned up about 5 minutes later.

I can see I'm going to have to watch Master M as he's already trying tricks.

Of course the wig had to come too.

Then Uncle Jeff arrived and had to try out not only the wig but the trampoline.

  

I can see many hours of fun being had on it.

xx Susan

A lovely day

Christmas is always a pretty casual affair with us.  

It always starts pretty early in the morning (around 5.30am) with footsteps and excited whispers that Santa has been.

It's then a matter of having to jump on Daddy to try and wake him up so that presents can be opened.  

Santa was good to the kidlettes this year and they were very happy with all of their gifts.

Breaky was an outdoor affair again mainly because there was no room at my dining table with all the Christmas day stuff.  Pancakes and bacon al fresco.  

After breakfast it's time to get back in and play with new presents until we headed off to mys sister's for Christmas lunch.  There we were joined by the rest of our family and Stella, my parents elderly neighbour.

Crackers were pulled....

...salads were eaten and cold roasts and ham were devoured.

Then it was time to open the presents which always much excitement with the kidlettes.

Stella was absolutely loving her day.

It's amazing just what small things can entertain.

There was also much more excitement when really cool hobbit lego was opened.

There wasn't as much excitement when it had to be put together.  Little Miss R who has the attention span of a micro gnat, lost interest very quickly.  Her cousin stuck it out for a bit longer but it was up to Uncle Jeff in the end to put most of it together.  Thanks Uncle Jeff!

Christmas Day also means one other thing.  Swimming!!!

It was a really hot and muggy day so the kids had a couple of swims before then well after lunch.

Master M got to try out his new crocodile which he LOVES.

He can pretend he's Steve (Irwin) and jump on the croc to catch it now.  He's always jumping on his toy ones at home and tying a top jaw rope on them so now he gets to catch them in the water too.

Another great way to cool down is to drink a slushy.  I bought all the kidlettes a slushy maker cup which you put in the freezer then when the inside compartments are frozen you put your cold drink in there and keep squeezing the cup for about a minute.  A slushy is made!

It was a lovely afternoon spent with family and the kids were all pretty exhausted and in bed early that night.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

xx Susan