eyes as wide as saucers

By Mama

His eyes just about popped out of his head. K10 repeated over and over and over "Oh man, oh man, oh man".

We had pulled into the carpark at Gengys Restaurant and K10 had thought we were pulling their legs, and were about to drive out again. But then someone spotted Grandpa's car. And if Grandpa were there, maybe it meant we were going to stay for dinner.


It was a surprise too big for anyone to hardly believe! What a way to finish Dadda's week home with us. Eating this Mongolian food made EVERYONE eager about the day Dadda leaves work behind and we are all together - just like this last week - and hopefully in Mongolia!!


Eating out meant we didn't need K10's birthday cake.....so we get that tonight. YUM.
It looks like pizza and a glass of fizzy drink, but don't be fooled; there's a chocolate cake and carrot cake underneath copious quantities of sugar and food colouring.

THURSDAY

By J11

Mama and Dadda have been whispering to each other and have told us there is a surprise in the air. Yesterday we thought it was going to be going out for lunch, because we all got in the car just before 12 o'clock. But it turned out that we went to the plant shop for plants and had a late lunch! That wasn't it!
Actually, Mama said if we haven't seen it by 7 o'clock Saturday night, they'll tell us what it is.
We think it might be going out for dinner on K9's birthday, which is on Saturday, because Mama has got a soup simmering for tomorrow night and sourdough bread rising to eat with it. So it's not tomorrow.
At lunchtime today the girls went out for lunch by themselves. They packed sandwiches and bought a *special something* from the bakery - one whole thing each. The boys stayed home with Dadda and had a special lunch too. Dadda said it was a surprise, but we don't think it was THE surprise!!!! At least, K9 hopes it wasn't!!
In the afternoon, Dadda took the eldest six on bikes to a park 5km away. By the time we had ridden round the park a few times, the whole ride ended up 15km. This, also, was a surprise. But hopefully not THE one.

We'll have to wait and see.

TUESDAY

By J12 and J11 (self-editted without any Mother-Help)

In the pouring rain we dashed across MOTAT to the Robot Exhibition. There were some remote controlled robots, which we were allowed to have some fun with. J11's favourite was a dinosaur that could run quite quickly and move its tail and head. K9 directed one of the dinosaurs *almost* under one of the cars that was parked there. There was a robot robot (do you know what we mean by that? it looked like what you expect a robot to look like) - it could bend down, roll over and say Hello, as well as move anywhere you sent it.

Do you have any idea what this is?
It looks like a piece of cardboard with straws and string, doesn't it?
What you can't see are the rubber bands attached to the back.

They work all together as a robotic hand.
When you pull a certain string, it will move a finger, stretching out the rubber band (just like a tendon). Of course, when you let go of the string the rubber band pulls the finger back straight again.

When we got home Grandpa used this to explain to us about his Carpal Tunnel surgery.
It was also easy to see why the end of Mama's finger hung lifelessly when she snapped one of her tendons.

Very Interesting.

MONDAY

By K9 (and without Mama's help) - that's me in the photo!
On Monday Daddy said that we would go for a walk on the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day. We packed our new packs with raincoats just in case it rained and lunch and one with lots of clothes just to make it heavy.

At the beach Dadda took photos of us all by the car and on the beach too.

We walked along a track to the beach where there were lots of big sand dunes that we walked along. We came to a fresh water lake sort of thing. Daddy said that he would take us to a track that would take us back to the car, but he never found it. So we stopped at a hill for some lunch after walking for an hour or so. We made slides out of grasses and played on the slides for an hour.

plodding on

Do you know how far we walked the other day?
a l....o....o....o...n....g way!

We had spent all day walking round the Science Fair and had spent an especially long time at the physical education activity jumping over hurdles and side-stepping cones, kicking soccer goals and shooting baskets.

We were feeling a little tired, but there was over an hour to fill in before Dadda would finish work and so we started walking from the city towards his work. We must have looked quite a sight with our board games and balloons and bags and stroller and other paraphernalia! After about 2km M4 got tired....grizzly tired. Just at that moment Mama spied a sparkling coin on the ground and she told him he could keep it if he could carry it without complaining! After that he managed to go another 4km.

Yes, we walked 6km before Dadda came and picked us up.

Mama said it made her more hopeful that we'll manage to travel round the world without having complete meltdowns every day! It was a good day...and a good walk.

Judgement Day

K9's Story

Today was the day I had been looking forward to - the Science Competition Day.

It was the day I could take my game about a science topic to the university.

My game was called "Animal Hide & Seek". There is a Hider and A Seeker - the Hider puts one of his animal cards in the cave and the seeker has to try to work out which one it is. The Seeker reads out the question cards and the Hider tells the answers. If they don't know the answers, there is an information chart they can look at. The Seeker takes out any of his cards that are eliminated until there is only one left. It *should* be the same as the one which is hidden!

I really wanted to get a Highly Commended, but when I saw all the other games I wasn't so sure I'd get anything.

There was a solar system game that was very impressive. I thought it might get first place, but it didn't actually end up getting anything. The people on either side of me had made their games in two weeks. One was a spider game and the other was a dinosaur game.

When they called out the highly commendeds I was disappointed, because I thought I wasn't getting anything. Then they called third place and it was me. I was really really happy and couldn't stop smiling.

The two other things I enjoyed at the Science Day were making slime and dressing up in the clothes scientists wear to Antarctica.

J&J's Story

Our many years of weather watching proved to be the inspiration for this year's Science Competition Entry. Our task was to design a board game. But we didn't stop at that! We constructed a weather station as well - complete with barometer, thermometer, ananometer and rain guage...all of which would work apart from the rain guage as we wouldn't put the game outside in the rain!

To play the game, you race around the board answering questions, predicting the weather, collecting Information Cards and gathering signs until you have made your own weather station. Would you like to come and play?

The judges obviously liked it......so they gave us first place. For the Second Year In A Row! (but, shhhh - we didn't tell them we had won last year too!)

This lovely Lady Judge, who intereviewed us, was very friendly and interested in our game. She asked lots of questions and laughed at our funny information cards (for example, "In Bedfordshire, England, a tornado is said to have plucked the feathers off several chickens. Surprisingly they survived their ordeal.") She was particularly interested in how the thermometer worked - and we can understand that! We love watching the liquid race up the straw too when we put our hands around it!

When we saw all the other games we really weren't sure we'd get anything, because some of the others looked most professional and they had had a lot of work put into them. Fortunately for us, however, the judges liked the weather records we had been keeping (scientists do like measurements, don't they?)....and we have a sneaking suspicion they enjoyed blowing the anemometer around! We think Lovely Lady Judge would have liked to have seen it blow away the night it was really windy - she laughed when we told her about that escapade.

All in all, we had a great time....but the BEST was that K9 won a prize. We knew just how DESPERATE he'd been to win so we were very very happy for him.

HAIL!!!!

We saw the biggest hailstones we've ever seen today! Some were as big as golf balls and most were at least as big as our bonkers (our largest marbles). Mama thought someone had thrown a stone at the car when the first one hit - it wasn't even raining and suddenly a big stone hit the windscreen...but then more and more fell and we realised what was going on! It got even better when the rain joined the hail - it absolutely poured from the sky - all the cars slowed down, because you couldn't see very far ahead. Some even pulled over to the side of the road.
That's our kind of adventure.

an autumnal stroll

We just completed our first Walk With Real Packs. We crunched through fallen leaves and picked flowers and noticed new fences and talked about China.

We had walked a fair distance the other day with all our gear to the backpack shop in order to try out different packs, but that was harder, because our bags didn't have decent harnesses, and it's simply More Fun with these ones!


Today we did the 3.5km block and even M4 managed to go the whole way with his pack full and without complaint. His self-encouragements ("I'm doing so well") spurred him on to the end where he sprawled on the ground!

CHOP CHOP

"Chop chop, hurry up, into the car" Mama called out to us.
We had to go out for the day, because we were bombing the house to try to get rid of the fleas L6 brought back from the hospital last week! We had one of those days Mama calls "productive"....revised memeory verses in the car, looked at a section, picked up some card for the games we are making, popped into Kathmandu and snapped up a bargain (they had made some gloves too small so were getting rid of them for $2 and our little girls need extra-extra-small!!!), did grocery shopping, visited some more sections, had lunch in the car, drove into town to pick up packs for the Big Trip (now it seems like it's really happening), played in Albert Park, watched the flower clock, listened to the university clock in the clock tower, zipped home, emptied the car, tidied the house, read some stories, watched some Gladys Aylward movie, cooked dinner...oops chop chop again. J11 chopped the end of one of his fingers. Not a little chop - a chop that required visiting the neighbour-nurse who advised getting it seen by Someone Who Knew What They Were Doing. Good ol' Grandpa dropped his going-out-dinner-plans and came over to watch the rest of us kiddos (coz of course today was the day Dadda was working til 7pm!)....we raced down to the doc and got it patched up nicely. His verdict wasn't the most encouraging: "I can't promise you won't lose the end of the finger, but we'll have a better idea in a few days. Come back tomorrow and we'll have a look and change the dressing." Hopefully it will be fine...and in the meantime, J11 is sporting an impressive-looking bandage!

catch up

There's so much to write about.
We had four days without Mama and L6 who went to hospital. It was really nice to have Dadda round more and to spend time with our friends and with Grandpa.
We've been doing things like visiting open homes (Dadda looks like he wants to build another house!), gardening, working on our science competitions, shooting baskets, making glasses and weather recording equipment, tidying the house for when Mama came home, riding bikes, playing cricket and lots of board games....
Last week we learnt the whole National Anthem. AllFiveVerses.

it's hard....

...to get a photo in which we're all looking at the camera and smiling.
It's even harder to get us all jumping at the same time






but it was a lot of fun!

they fit in a small box

We've been keeping our clothes in one box each in preparation for travelling.
This week we're preparing by playing with only the toys we expect to take with us.....they fit in a small box.
So tidy-up is easy!!!!
We have two tennis balls, a pack of cards, half a dozen travel games, pens-n-paper-n-watercolours (and we want to make a mini flower press and get a compass too).
Yesterday L6 and M4 played with the balls for hours on end...they commandeered a broom to be a bat for a while!
Usually the neighbourhood kids play cricket with us afer they've been to school, but today we didn't have cricket gear so we all rediscovered the joys of "Go Home Stay Home". We're planning on climbing trees, spying in the bush and making obstacle courses another day.

look what we caught!

the 3 fish fed 7 kids "fish-n-chips" at the 1st dinner sitting

and then 5 adults (at an adults-only sitting) had an entree

(one fillet each on a bed of red and yellow peppers and green basil
with chilli sauce drizzled over

and a hailstorm of freshly-ground black pepper)...

and there'll be fish stock to turn into Spicy Sunday Soup.

The Blog Hog

Sorry guys - I really am hogging your blog, aren't I!

Today's message is for K9. That's you spunky:


Sometimes I would like to be like you! You and I are v.e.r.y. different.
It's interesting getting to know you more and more as the years pass by!

We were sitting there today at MOTAT, waiting in line for a ride on the horse and buggy. waiting. waiting. waiting.

You sat down and after a few minutes declared, "Time goes so much quicker if you switch off and don't think."

switch off. don't think. I need to learn how to do this!

I was standing there thinking about baking bread when we got home, reminding myself not to forget the errands on the way, wondering if I would get any sewing done today, trying to work out if I should cut all the pieces out first or make them completely one by one, dreaming about our trip, feeling confident that you kids will cope, wondering if we should pop in to Dadda's work and say HI.......

switch off. don't think.

Do you remember the day you were waiting at the bench for your turn to help with kneading the bread? I suggested it might be more interesting for you if you helped cut up the apples we were stewing rather than just sitting there. Your reply: "I'd rather just sit and do nothing."

favourite friends

We really enjoy going to the Eds' place or having them come over or going away with them or going out with them or even bumping into them at the museum (that was fun guys). We just wish Mama and Dadda would organise get-togethers more often! We used to do things with them every week and we LOVED that, but it hasn't happened that way this year. About four years ago we both read about Ancient Egypt in our families and we were going to have an Egyptian dinner together....we've all read about Greece and Rome since then, and the Middle Ages aswell. Now we're both reading about the Renaissance and Reformation.....but still no ancients dinner!
However, last week we got together and enjoyed soup and bread and Mrs Ed's famous chocolate pudding.

The biggest boys:

The littlest girls:

A Grand Visit

This time last week "ranma rampa" (T3's name for Grandma and Grandpa) came to visit. We played lots of games and they told us all about the trip they're going on soon to Europe.






Last time they were here they brought some special visitors....Grandma's half-brother (and his wife) who only just found her in the past year. Imagine getting a new brother when you're over 60 years old!!!!!

This time they didn't bring anyone with them - but they did bring a music video and marshmallow Easter eggs, which we all enjoyed together.

What A Country We Live In!

Yesterday we had one of our favourite-est adventures....hiking in the bush.



We climbed this cliff - it doesn't look very big in the photo but when we got to the top of it we looked down and saw our van and it looked like an ant, so it must have been quite high.
Halfway up M4 found a birds' nest, which he carried, because he didn't want to miss it on the way back down.
Some of the trees were so low to the ground that we had to crawl under them - even Mama got down on her hands and knees with ER(10mo) tied to her front!
From the top we could see a waterfall - and we could even hear it. We could hear the sea too as we sat there eating Easter eggs!!!!!

Mama and Dadda helped the two little ones and J12 and J11 helped M4 and L6....coming down was really slippery in places and we skidded down the hill.

T2 walked all the way by herself. Usually Dadda ends up carrying her for the end of our hikes, but this time she walked and didn't even ask to be carried.

Then we went to the Angoves....they have a huge garden and they had hidden eggs in it for us to find. We put the wrappers in M4's nest.

It was a wonderful day.

Christmas lingers

Thanks Mr and Mrs H for such a wonderful Christmas present.......you'll be wondering if we ever finished it....this proves we did....every single one of those 1000 pieces! We'll get it out again when winter sets in and give Mama a few more hours of Peace and Quiet. Incidentally, Mama thinks this picture (which she is sure is of a family carvanning around the world) is a miraculous sign!!!!!!

Sir Edmund, here we come!

When we did the Try-athlon we were given vouchers to go rock-climbing.

THAT promised to be a real ADVENTURE.

On Saturday Dadda took us. And it was every bit as good as we had imagined.

Now we're ready to climb Everest!

snow, sea lions and sleeping bags

On Saturday night our homegroup had a movie night at our local church hall organised by "Grandma and Grandpa Boyd", the oldest couple in our group. They had set up an In The Dark By The Light Of Torches Easter Egg Hunt to begin the evening and then provided popcorn and icecreams to munch on during the movie. We all snuggled down in our sleeping bags and watched Eight Below (or Seven Under as L6 kept calling it all week!) There was one very scary part on the movie when a sea lion jumped out of the whale's stomach. L6 jumped right off the couch where he was giving Mama a cuddle. M4 would like everyone to know one of the dogs got bitten by the sea lion.

The End.