The Dreams of Little Boys

We still like craft

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:41:00 +0000

One day last week I found a new recipe for play dough and made a big batch of pink dough. It was squashed, rolled and pummelled into shape.

Here there is a moment of intense concentration.

And then we move onto painting which both boys love.

Mum can I have a drum kit?

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:31:00 +0000

My boys are musical. There is no disputing that fact. They both play CD's all day long (often a CD player each at the same time) which does not make for a happy mum............ Oliver loves to dance and creates moves that I have never seen. He moves as his imagination guides him. William is the technician. He has a passion for CD players and speakers. He wants to know how everything works. He also wants to play the drums. My ongoing sanity has the upper hand at this point. He makes do with saucepans and plastic tubs for now.

And one year later................

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:10:00 +0000

Yesterday was the last day of school holidays. I was trying to think of something fun for the boys and I to do when I settled upon a train ride. We rarely catch trains as there are so few suburban routes here in Adelaide and it is just easier to take the car. However as this adventure was to be more about the trip than the actual destination we set off for the grand old Adelaide Railway Station ready for anything. The business and noise of the station set the boys' excitement high to start with. We had no time to waste in finding and boarding our train. I was able to spend a fairly leisurely time looking out the windows at an Adelaide I rarely see while Oliver and William validated their tickets many times, and explored the carriage in the greatest detail.

After a 25 minute journey west we were at the end of our journey and the end of the track at Grange Beach. We wandered along the boardwalk looking at the 19th century architecture and then found a table at the Grange jetty kiosk overlooking the sand dunes. The boys had ice creams and I had a bottle of water. All was right with the world on that cool sunny afternoon.

Ice creams finished we wandered back to the station and made our way back home again.

An Autumn Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:35:00 +0000

The last few days we have started to see true autumn weather. The skies have been grey, the winds have been cold and biting and we have had sudden downpours of much welcome rain. We all took it as a great excuse to rug up in our winter gear. The boys are peering in through the letterbox of a Japanese restaurant in our street. We were on our way off to breakfast at Mama Carmella's.

His nose pressed up against the window, William needed a closer look.

William looking very much the young man about town. You will notice that he is carrying his 'paperwork' which he never leaves home without these days!

The Wacky Warehouse

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:53:00 +0000

Today the boys were invited to the 4th birthday party of Nikolas, a friend from kindy. The party was held at the Wacky Warehouse, a big indoor playground. The place was teeming with very excited children, all running around, climbing and squealing very loudly! There was a fantastic facepainter at the party. William asked to be a tiger which I think matches his personality perfectly!

Here is a short video of Oliver playing with the ball machine which shoots soft balls out on a press of a button on the handles. Oliver loves playing with this and heads for it every time we visit.

Nikolas' mum had put great deal of effort into the party. She had made some beautiful treat bags topped by helium bags for each child to take home. Of course the boys couldn't wait to get into their lollies as you can see here!

Adelaide Fringe Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:11:00 +0000

It is that time of year again. The Adelaide Fringe Festival has started so the streets are alive with musicians and street performers. The boys and I went into town earlier this week to get some more craft materials from Spotlight. They stood for ages watching this guy juggle fire sticks.

Back at home we all got stuck into making a collage about dinosaurs. I had found a bag of foam dinosaurs, some black card and pieces of gold paper which we stuck on with the glue pens. There was still plenty of scope for squeezing the life out of the pen until there were big globs of glue across the page but it was way less messy than the glue pots of clag that we have used before. We filled in the black background with chalk drawings of dinosaur habitat.

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 12:13:00 +0000

This is pretty much what things have been like here lately! Some things seem to have gone bottoms up and we have all been left reeling. Just when life felt like it was getting into some type of routine everything changed. I guess the biggest thing of all was that the boys' nanny left just over a week ago. This was unexpected and has left us all feeling very confused and sad. She had her own reasons which don't need to be reiterated here. She had been part of all of our lives for the past five months and her loss is greatly felt. Today William asked if she had gone to yoga class and I had to explain to my dear little boys that she wasn't coming back. I saw the confusion and pain flicker across William's face but he tried to pretend that it didn't matter. Since when does a three year old have to hide his feelings? His hurt was mine in that moment. I don't know what the boys understand about what has happened but I wish that they didn't have to go through it.

The next thing that happened was that Oliver woke at 3am last Sunday and was struggling to breathe. I rushed him to the Women's and Children's Hospital where he was diagnosed as having an asthma attack. We were there for nine hours while Oliver was treated with oxygen and ventolin. He was not at all happy about the oximeter taped to his toe or the oxygen mask over his nose so for a very long and somewhat delirious nine hours I struggled to keep both in place while he did his best to remove them! He responded well to the ventolin and continued to have it for the rest of the week at home. A nurse stopped in each day to check him over.

If that wasn't enough the chooks went on a marauding rampage through my vegetable patch this week and made a very neat meal of all of the emerging seedlings!

We have all had a nasty respiratory virus for the best part of two weeks and one of the main symptoms is a relentless dry cough which is worst at night. Inger had a shocking time of it last night and coughed until 4am. In desperation I suggested that he take some ventolin as well and it seems to have had some effect.

This morning so as to give Inger a sleep in I took the boys out. We had our usual Sunday morning at Mama Carmella's and then visited some local playgrounds for lots of running and climbing. A couple of times recently we have come across boys playing cricket. I have no love of cricket, finding it extremely boring, but on both of these occasions the boys loaned us a spare bat and ball and we have made a passable effort at playing. William hit his first ball which we all thought was terrific.

Here is William sitting holding his 'paperwork'. He likes to place a pen over one ear and carry around a wad of papers which he refers to from time to time.
Oliver relaxing after a busy play in the third playground for the morning. We had just returned from a careful inspection of the stormwater drain to see if there were any monsters.

Oliver is becoming very independent and was keen to show me how he could make this roundabout spin very quickly.

William on the slide at Unley Oval

William on top of the pirate ship. With a very hoarse voice it was my job to sing the whole of 'I Am A Pirate King' from Gilbert and Sullivan whilst the boys steered the ship and looked through the binoculars.

What a Week!

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 11:14:00 +0000

Well this has been a week I would never want to go through again! The scenes of devastation from the Victorian bushfires have left everyone speechless. How will those families involved ever recover?

It has been a busy week for us. The boys have started back at all of their usual activities and the days seem to fly past. I attended my second and last felt-making class and made a handbag. It is still drying and I haven't yet attached the straps so I will photograph it when it is finished. I learned so much in the classes and am full of enthusiasm about making some slippers for the boys and some more bags for myself. I'll have to see if Inger would like a pair of felt slippers as well! Felt is so forgiving and fairly unpredictable in terms of what type of pattern emerges.

Next Sunday I am doing a course on Oriental Bookbinding. OK, I admit it..........I am a craftaholic. I just so love making things with my hands. Oh, for more time................

This morning we went out for our usual breakfast at Mama Carmela's. We seem to have become regulars. It was such a surprise when we arrived there this morning. The chef came out and asked the boys if they would like to come and help him in the kitchen. He showed them how to poach eggs. Now that is a skill I have only just perfected through a lot of trial and error so I will be very happy if they would like to take over from me. Not only that but as we were leaving he came out with a bag of home-made meringues for each of the boys. Oliver the sweet tooth was overjoyed! I hadn't tasted meringues like these since my childhood. They were large, golden and smooth. They had a crisp, brittle exterior and just the right degree of chewiness in the centre. The mass produced meringues you get in bakeries these days don't even come close.

After arriving home Inger started to re-stain our wooden driveway gate. The boys were mad-keen to help but I was concerned about them running out on the road. I had to find an activity to amuse them long enough for Inger to paint the gate and for me to water Seasol into the front garden with my watering can. Water play was what we decided on. They had such a lot of fun pretending to have their own cafe.

There were the usual disputes over who owned what but they managed to sort it out themselves.

Here is Oliver carefully pouring the water back and forth from the jug to the teapot.

At some point everyone always seems to end up in Mummy's office. My office seems to hold an air of mystique for the boys who see people come and go up the hallway. The boys come in and want to play Dr Brownlee and the ladies or otherwise they want to search through all of my belongings, use the fax machine or computer.

I have photographed them in this shot not because it is a great photo but to show them both wearing some shorts I made for them lately. They are very simple but cool and comfortable. William who is a Superman fan loves his shorts which are made from some groovy fabric I found in a quilting shop.

This afternoon we went off to a very child-friendly cafe in Prospect called Cafe Komodo. The cafe has been designed with a decidely retro feel and is decked out with second hand furniture and fixtures. This gives it a 1970's living room disaster look which is totally comfortable. I have no worries at all about the boys spilling or breaking anything there because it is all so lived in. We sat in what must have once been someone's converted garage and watched this duo called The Minstrels.
The boys played cafes and had fun playing with this aged cash register with a couple of other children. Oliver who has a penchant for china cups was very pleased to have his babycino served in a tiny floral cup on a matching ceramic tray.

You can see what I mean about the decor! It was a fun and relaxing afternoon. The little boys could hardly keep their eyes open as we drove home.

The End of the Heatwave

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 11:52:00 +0000

The 13 day heatwave ended today. I don't think we could have taken much more of being cooped up inside. There are only so many games of doctors, offices and shops that one can manage without being driven completely crazy!

On a more serious note though the bushfires which have ravaged parts of NSW and Victoria have been horrifying. The death toll hit 181 at last count. It is so hard to believe that some of these fires would have been as a result of arson. We can only pray for the families involved at this time.

I was looking back at some earlier photos of William and Oliver and came across this one of William with his teddy. He was only one month old at that time.

Now here is Oliver this week with that very same teddy! Quite a difference in size!

As I mentioned, we have had a week of playing doctor. Here we can see Oliver playing the part of the patient. He looks suitably worried. We went through a lot of Wiggles bandaids that day.

Oliver is now the doctor and has come to William's aid. They had both been camping under the table and had skinned their knees.

Most things can be fixed with a cuddle!

Or if not with a cuddle then certainly with a nice hot cup of tea for both doctor and patient.

It looks like the patient has recovered! You will notice though, that he has a bruise in the middle of his forehead. He hit his head on a didgeridoo. I kid you not! William was given a cut-off but still very heavy didgeridoo by a stallowner at the Eumundi markets in Queensland. He used to be frightened of didgeridoos after I demonstrated how they worked one day at the Australian Geopgraphic shop in town. While we were on holidays he mustered up the courage to investigate didgeridoos more closely and for his troubles he was given one. The other day he had his didgeridoo out and accidentally hit his head on it with some force. He ended up with a lump and a big bruise.

Here we had another attempt at painting inside. You'd think I'd learn....................... I had the idea that I could dilute some paint and get the boys to blow the paint through a straw to achieve some interesting effects. By the time they had finished there were more interesting effects on their faces, clothes and the table than there were on the paper. After that I introduced my our next craft activity. Yes, it was the old glue the dried pasta and peas on the painted box to make a treasure box idea. I won't even tell you what happened with that idea except to say that I am still occasionally stepping on the odd hard chickpea.

I think we'll take a break from craft.

This morning we walked down to Mama Carmella's for our usual Sunday breakfast. The boys always like to play in the ambulance station grounds in this big old tree.

William was being a terror with this stick which he found.

Here he is demolishing his pancakes.

And then enjoying a leisurely read of the Sunday newspaper.

Before I finish my weekly update I must introduce little Maddelena who is now two months old. She and her mum, my dear friend Marianna, came over for coffee on Thursday.

Maddelena is Marianna and John's youngest child. She has three older brothers!

Scandinavian Hand Felting

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:39:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I attended a felting workshop at the WEA Centre. This is my creation. We learnt how to make a flat piece of felt with wool roving, silk/alpaca, warm soapy water and bubble wrap. It was a surprisingly strenuous activity! We also learnt how to make felt beads. I think I am going to make my felt into a clutch purse with some surface embroidery. Next Saturday we will be making a bigger project and learning how to make seamless hats, bags and shoes!

Our hardy chooks

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 09:36:00 +0000

Here are the latest updated photos of some of the chooks. This is the fellow we think is a cockerel. I guess we won't know for sure until he starts to crow. All of the chickens are in the same coop now. The transition was surprisingly easy. Dragon, the white silky is still at the bottom of the pecking order. She just looks too darn pretty to be a chook.

This is the chick named 'Tickled Pink' by Oliver, after his favourite cupcake. She has quite wavy feathers and 'bed hair'.

This one is named 'Dot' by Uncle Rowan. She is a funny little absent-minded sort of girl who scurries around everywhere.

Here we have our oldest girl, Mrs Diamond, who is the neighbourhood stickybeak and also at the top of the pecking order. The little ones are scared of her schoolmarm presence.

Lastly, here is Stella, a fine figure of a bird, who is somewhat standoffish.

They have all survived another day of terrible heat. I had water containers dotted around the yard today. The chooks all look so hot but they tend to burrow down into the cooler soil under the fruit trees and seem fairly content. Tomorrow the temperature drops to 39C so it will seem almost cool in comparison. Last night at midnight everyone in SA received a text message from the state government warning us to stay inside and drink plenty of water.

Boys will be Boys!

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:06:00 +0000

On Thursday when we were at Kirsty's house William, Oliver and Heath decided that they were going to raid Amelia's costume collection and they all dressed up as fairies! William sashayed around the room swishing his mauve dress while Oliver watched on, gracefully waving his arms like a butterfly.

Here we see Heath holding Maisy the Mouse and walking as if he had been on catwalks all of his life. He even has that somewhat vacant expression that models often adopt.

Heatwave

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:29:00 +0000

We are in the midst of another heatwave. On Tuesday this week the temperature was 45.7C and it has been 44C since. It is unbearably hot, dry and windy outside. I have had to let all of the chickens out to free-range all of every day simply so they can find a cooler spot under a tree. I have even been putting ice cubes in their water.

It has been very difficult to keep the boys amused inside. Yesterday we visited Kirsty and today we went to see Marianna but apart from that Britta and I have been trying to come up with interesting things for the boys to do inside. Today they enjoyed pasting, cutting and stamping and each made a colourful collage.

Ladybugs and Bees

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:37:00 +0000

Someone is always dressing up at our place. We have a couple of big boxes of dress-up clothes and I am adding to them all the time. I have found that op shops and garage sales can be a great source of costumes and accessories. Only last week we found a new St Vinnies op shop and I purchased a long red wig suitable for a clown. Here you can see the boys dressed as a bee and a ladybug playing in our garden.

Just Tickled Pink

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:01:00 +0000

It is the Australia Day long weekend this weekend. Rowan has come over from Sydney for a visit. Yesterday we went to one of Oliver's favourite places - 'Just Tickled Pink'. It is a cafe near our house which specialises in ultra-delicious cupcakes. Rowan kindly treated us all to a cupcake and coffee. William chose a Mars Bar cake, Rowan chose a Banana Caramel cake, Oliver selected their signature pink iced cake, and I chose a trifle cupcake. Inger showed great willpower and resisted. Oliver has a current passion for collecting china cups so he was in his element!

This shot shows just some of the pretty cups which adorn the cafe.

The cafe also acts as a gallery for the owner's personal collection of Audrey Hepburn memorabilia.

A selection of the mouth-watering home-made cupcakes.

Today we invited our dear friends Margaret and Peter and their two girls Kate and Alice over for a barbecue. The boys adore Kate and Alice and had a ball playing with them for the entire afternoon. It meant that the rest of us could have a fairly relaxed afternoon sipping champagne and chatting around the table out under our shady tree. It was just such a wonderful day. The boys fell asleep at 6.30pm while I was preparing their shower. We just slipped them into bed, grubby little feet and all so they could dream about their lovely day. They are very social little boys.

Summer Days

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:38:00 +0000

We had a fairly cool December but January has brought some hotter days. We dug out our old game of totem tennis and have been having fun playing tennis in the back yard. We are all fairly mediocre at hitting the ball but it has us all laughing and that is the main thing!

Britta and I took the boys to Tusmore park last week. It has a lovely big toddler pool with fountains in the centre. The pool is covered by a big sail which makes it very pleasant on a hot day.

Splashing and jumping in the water makes for a big appetite.

William has always had a keen interest in collecting and examining rocks and stones. He climbed down into the creekbed at the park and enjoyed himself fossicking amongst the rocks. He was also keen to peer into a stormwater drain which he said was the home of a monster!

Baking Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:04:00 +0000

It was a really hot today so it wasn't possible to spend much time outside. We have been giving the playdough a pretty good work-out lately so I decided to swap it for real dough. The boys are always very excited at the prospect of cooking. They cooperated very well with all of the steps in making gingerbread biscuits. They especially enjoyed using the cookie cutters to press out hearts, pigs, stars and teddy bears. They were very careful when they were mixing and measuring and made some very good biscuits.

Four Little Monkeys!

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:46:00 +0000

This morning my friend Marianna brought two of her sons, Joshua and Marcus, to our place to play while she attended a doctor's appointment with her new little baby, Maddelena. The four boys got on like a house on fire. Both Oliver and William love playing with older boys so Joshua was definitely popular. I took William out to the supermarket to do my weekly shop while Britta held the fort for an hour. William enjoyed the luxury of my undivided attention. Demonstrating that he was a very big boy he went to the Wendy's ice cream shop by himself, asked for a rainbow ice cream and paid for it. He came back with a smile from ear to ear. He (and I) was so proud of himself.

When we arrived home all of the boys clamoured for an ice block and proceeded to eat their way through our current stock. I guess this is a sign of things to come! I couldn't resist this shot of them all on the couch watching Toy Story and eating ice blocks.

The Wiggles

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:14:00 +0000

It has become something of a family tradition for us to attend the Wiggles Concert each year on the day after the boys' birthday party. This year I was determined to get 'hot potato' seats which are the best seats in the house right in front of the stage. We were sitting in the second row and the view was phenomenal. The Wiggles present a spectacular show which keeps the thousands of pre-schoolers who attend on the edge of their seats.

This year the boys wore their Wiggles costumes. William was dressed as Murray and Oliver was Geoff. Imagine our surprise when Murray picked William out of the crowd and gave him a hi-5!! We were all so excited!

3rd Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:38:00 +0000

Oliver and William had their third birthday on 8th December. I couldn't help looking back through some of our earliest photos of the boys that morning before they woke. This was their first day at home after spending three weeks in the Special Care Baby Unit. They didn't even reach from my hand to my elbow. It is so hard to conceive of now.

An early photo of William with Grandad.
Uncle Rowan and the little boys.

Tiny Oliver and his favourite little teddy.

Brothers

And now after that little trip down memory lane we zoom through the next three years to the morning of their third birthday. Prior to this birthday the wrapping paper had always been the greatest point of interest. Times have now changed! It was ripped off without a moment to spare!

The boys received some German Bruder trucks which are very lifelike and contain plenty of interesting doors to open and shut. This truck is a cattle carrier.

William's favourite present was his Superman costume. He has become an absolute devotee of Superman over the past couple of months. Since receiving his costume he has hardly had it off. It is all I can do to peel it off him at night to get him into the shower!

We had a fantastic birthday party at home again this year. Inger and I made a birthday cake each. Oliver has a great interest in tea and coffee cups so I made his cake to represent a tea party.

William continues his interest in telephones so Inger made him a fabulous red phone.

The highlight of the party for all of the children was the bouncy castle. There was non-stop bouncing for over two hours. The boys were in tears when the man from Jay-Jays came to collect the castle!

Two gorgeous little guests, twin sisters Abbie and Lily.

Our family room in party mode. We had lots of balloons hanging from the ceiling.

The moment William had been waiting for - blowing out the candles!

And then - cutting his cake.

Mia exploring the contents of her take-home party bag.

More bouncing..........................
Britta and Tom were on hand for crowd control!!

Their experience shows!

Time to go home but not before a shot of our twin group.

The Luck of the Draw!

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:17:00 +0000

It is now nearly eight weeks on and my four little balls of fluff have become adolescent 'peeps'. Like any mother I have been anxiously watching how my babies develop. Being new to this game I wasn't sure how I would tell the sex of the little ones. So, I submitted these photos of them to 'Backyard Poultry', a very popular website of chicken enthusiasts to see what the experts thought. My first photos were rejected on the basis that I didn't show good 'comb' shots. This was somewhat disappointing as I had spent a good half hour trying to compose nice profiles of my chookies as I lay next to the coop. I had to enlist Inger to help me catch each chicken and then take a nice macro shot of each comb which could then be submitted. I am not going to subject you to the detailed comb shots as they are altogether too technical for a blog of this sort.

After some deliberation the experts have come to a verdict on my 'girls'. It seems that three of them may not be girls at all. The three grey chickens may in fact be cockerels which will be a bit tricky. The local council does not allow people to keep roosters in suburbia as their crowing is too noisy. So, they will probably have to be re-homed when they get a bit bigger. The other interesting point which came out of photographing the chickens is that they may be araucanas, a breed which lays blue eggs.

Twin Group Christmas Party

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:47:00 +0000

On 4th December I hosted the Christmas party for our twin group. We had 13 twins at our place which made for a pretty cosy time! We have a new mum in our group, Virginia, who not only has identical two year old twin girls but she has just given birth to her second set of twins. We were all speechless when we discovered this!

Despite all of the toddlers running around the party was very relaxing. All of the mums indulged in one or two champagnes each which may account for the level of bonhomie! We have all become so close over the last year, sharing a level of understanding that many of us have not found elsewhere. We are looking forward to the next year together. Another friend who is also a mum of 5 year old twin boys dropped around to deliver some tupperware I had ordered and she joined in with the fun as well. I was thrilled with the Madagascar lunch boxes I had bought for the boys.

Working in the Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:18:00 +0000

We have spent most of this weekend in the garden, tidying it up in preparation for the boys' third birthday party next Saturday. We have invited several of their little friends and have hired a jumping castle for the occasion. It is sure to be a great hit! The garden looks lovely now after all of the weeding and trimming. Inger mowed the lawn and I trimmed the edges with kitchen scissors! It looks very neat now but my hands and back are a bit the worse for wear! There must be an easier way................. I used the electric hedge trimmer for the box hedges and lavender and was becoming fairly gung ho by the end. I think Inger was a bit concerned that we might end up with twigs rather than topiaries.

Our cherry tree has borne a bumper crop this year but as is usually the case just as the cherries are turning red they are decimated by our friendly possums and wattle birds. Overnight the tree was stripped bear. Now our first peach tree is heavy with fruit. The fruit is smaller but more plentiful this year. I don't know whether to put that down to the load of fertiliser I used or the lack of water the tree has had this year. Anyway I am going to need to find some recipes for the peaches before they all fall to the ground and rot.

The Hoya on our lattice has just flowered for the first time. The flowers have cream and crimson stars in their centres.

A Single Blue Egg

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:11:00 +0000

Look at what I found under our peach tree this morning! A single pale blue egg with mottled brown spots lay nearby. Sadly it was cracked. I don't know how it came to be dislodged from its home in the tree. It is a mystery...........

Ladybird Manor

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:56:00 +0000

This week was a landmark week. The boys started their transition to Kindy at a Montessori Kindergarten, the Ladybird Manor, near the Central Market in Adelaide. It is the first time I had ever left them anywhere so it was a big day for us all. I needn't have worried. They took to it like ducks to water and didn't want to come home at the end of the day. What seemed more incredible to me was that they had a nap in the middle of the day with all of the other children. Anyone who knows them knows that getting these boys to sleep is usually a feat of human endurance! Oh, the power of the peer group!! The centre itself is beautiful and exceptionally well run. It is in a 19th century heritage building which was formerly the site of the original Advanced School for Girls. The rooms are light and very spacious. The ratio of staff to children is one to five and the atmosphere is one of peace and serenity. The staff are highly trained and focus on each child's individual needs. They even have a chef to prepare the meals. They focus on play as a vehicle for learning. The boys will be attending each Tuesday.

Today was overcast and drizzling. We decided to take a drive up to stirling in the Adelaide Hills. Our first stop was the Steamroller Park. William and Oliver had not been here before. The park held a couple of challenges which the boys were keen to meet. They both climbed up and along this metal bridge which I thought required a great deal of concentration and balance.

They then had a lot of fun clambering over the old steamroller and playing in the cubbyhouses. We all played out the story of the three little pigs with myself playing the wolf threatening to huff and puff and blow the house in.

We then walked down through the Stirling township to one of my favourite little bookshops, 'Matilda Bookshop'. It is so well set out and has a lovely children's section. I could have stayed there browsing all day. I found some Christmas gifts for family and friends and the new Nigella Lawson cookbook 'Nigella Christmas' for myself. I'll be studying its pages for our Christmas lunch this year.

No trip to Stirling is complete without lunch at the Organic Market Cafe. The food is organic and largely vegetarian. It is usually buzzing with customers and hosts a changing display of local art. We enjoyed a platter of delicious dips with Turkish bread to start with. Britta and the boys then had Provencale bruschetta and I had a carrot and lentil soup which William shared. The boys finished with babycinos.

The next part of our journey took us to Sunset Rock which has been a favourite place of mine for many years. It is the site of a Uniting Church which is perched near cliffs which look directly out onto glorious bushland. It is always a place of peace and tranquillity where the only sounds are those of the abundant birdlife. Kookaburras flew overhead and laughed. The boys and I looked at the bushland and examined an ant's nest, moss rocks and different coloured pebbles. We threw little stones as far as we could out over the rocks.

The final part of our journey took us to Nairne to visit the Flower Garden the Nairne home of David Austin roses and beautiful outdoor furniture and water features. It was so relaxing to wander amongst the gorgeous flowers and shrubs. William and Oliver searched for fish in every fountain.

These Danish elves were a quirky reminder that Christmas is just around the corner!