Oh brother!

Oh my goodness!!!  I have some serious catching up to do here!!!  I have pictures and stories and all sorts to tell.  So I think what I'll do is give you a few today, and hopefully a few more tomorrow and over the next few days.

Why am I bothering to catch up?  Well, because I think you guys are awesome for reading my blog so I want to continue to entertain you.  And because my friends and family who live a long way away say that they like to see and hear what we get up to, so I want to keep letting them into our lives.

So, here we go!

I am the oldest of four.  I love my siblings and, although we had our fair share of fights as we were growing up, we've always been friends as well.

At the start of the month we had the pleasure of having my brother stay with us.  He lives two states away - about 24 hours drive.  So it was awesome to see him.

He'd flown up and was staying with my sister in our old town, then caught the train to here.  The train was supposed to arrive at 2am but due to the heavy rains and a couple of trains breaking down he didn't get here until 6:30am (or something like that).

Sunrise while waiting for the my brother's train to arrive.

Unfortunately, we were all sick while he was here :(  We had head and chest colds so we ended up spending most of our time reading and watching movies and attempting to sleep.

But we also played some board games, did the shopping and just spent time talking.  And we were really quite happy with that!

The last day of his visit with us was my brother's birthday, so I attempted my first ever sponge cake!  Mum used to make sponges for our birthdays every year so it was fun to recreate the tradition.

The cake turned out great!  It was light and fluffy and delicious!  But I'd forgotten that Mum used to cut the cake in half horizontally, then put the jam and cream in the middle and ice the top.  The recipe makes two cakes though, so I put the jam and cream on the bottom cake (by the way, we'd bought low fat cream.  Turns out you can't whip low fat cream!  So I just poured it over the bottom layer and let it soak in a bit, then put the jam over that), then put the other cake on top of it and iced it.

The Little Big Fella decided he wanted us to put red icing on top.  Well, that icing just wouldn't turn red!!!  So after about half a bottle of red food colouring, I ended up adding some yellow to make it orange-ish.

Okay, fine!  It's pink!

So after a pretty quiet couple of days, it was time for my little bro to go.  The exciting thing is that I'll be seeing him in July when we go to the P!nk concert with my youngest sister!!!!  Woo hoo!!!!

About to say goodbye as the sun sets on the day and our visit.

Our next new adventure for the year actually happened in February!  We went to our first Race Day!

Last year the Big Fella was living here in the quarters and went with one of his classmates.  He called me up telling me how much fun he was having and that we should definitely go next year.

Well, this year he was working so I had to take the Little Big Fella instead :-D  They cater to kids and had a few rides and bits and pieces.  Initially the Little Big Fella was NOT interested!  The slide looked too big and he just wanted to be near me.

That didn't last too long!

And once he'd been on the slide, he had to go on the horses, then the rocket, then the jumping castle.  He had a ball!

Being new to races, I didn't realise there would only be 5 races for the whole afternoon.  But once the races started, the Little Big Fella and I got up to the fence and cheered everyone on, not caring a bit who won!  It was good fun!

There were heaps of people there too, including some of the Little Big Fella's friends, so we had a lovely afternoon.

The funny thing was when the police turned up and drove through the carpark.  Everyone who could see them kind of stopped what they were doing and watched them.  Then once the police left, it was as if someone had turned the music back on or something!

Hmmm, what else have we been up to?

Okay, one more for today.

This is one of our Rhode Island red chicken's eggs.  She lays her eggs in the dog house.  If I don't collect the egg very quickly after she vacates the dog house, the dog retaliates for being kicked out of her house by cracking (and sometimes eating) the egg.

At least the other chicken lays her eggs in the chicken house!

Chook'n eggs!!!!

YAY!!!!!  We finally got our first egg today!!!!  (I'm just a tad excited, can you tell?)

The Big Fella went downstairs this afternoon, just before we left to pick up the Little Big Fella from kindy, and there was this little egg, sitting on the grass at the bottom of the stairs!  Look at it!  It's so little!!!

So now we have the added task of looking around for eggs each day... woo hoo!!!!  Pity the chooks don't like the chook house.

The other hilarious thing that happened today was this morning.  The Big Fella and I were sitting on the couch, taking a little break before facing the next task.

I heard a noise and couldn't work out what it was.  I looked out the door and saw both dogs lying down.  Nope, not them.

I heard the noise again and still couldn't work it out.

A couple of minutes later I saw our female dog, Choccie go over to the dog house.  A moment later I saw a flash of feathers.  Our Rhode Island Red chicken had chased the dog into the dog house, pecked her and effectively kicked her out!

I nearly cried laughing!  Our chicken thinks it's a dog???  Hilarious!

So it turns out that the noise was the chicken pecking the dog house, probably looking for spiders and bugs I guess.

In other, non-chicken-related news, the Little Big Fella did great at kindy again today and then did really well in his swimming class this afternoon.  We've been asked by the teacher to practice his freestyle arms and breathing motion at home so that he can catch up with the other (bigger) kids in his class.  Am I a proud Mummy?  Yes, I am :-D

Old MacDonald had a farm...

Our little chicks, Salt and Pepper, have grown too big for their box, and too big for the cage.  So during the day we let the big chooks out in the yard, and let Salt and Pepper scratch around in the chook area.  If I'm outside, I let them out in the yard as well (the big chooks pretty much chase them down so I prefer not to have them together too much).

Anyway, this afternoon I'd let them out into the yard then went back inside (the Fellas were outside playing on the trampoline and in the sprinkler).

A little while later I hear the Big Fella calling out to me.  He was on the back "deck" (okay, it's not even a metre square, but we'll call it a deck because it has decking timber, okay?), laying down and enjoying the breeze after hanging out in the sprinkler and getting totally soaked.

I looked out the door and saw him laying there.

Then I noticed the two dogs laying right next to him.

Then I noticed the chicks, sitting on his bare tummy!  And while I watched, the black chick wandered up on to his face!!!!

Apparently they'd climbed the stairs all by themselves and perched on top of him.

Guess you can't help it when you've got... animal magnetism (tee hee hee)!

Horror in the backyard

Yesterday morning I received a text from a neighbour who has chickens.  Apparently their chicken gate wasn't closed properly the night before and a dog had gotten in and killed all 6 of them.

I was so glad I'd shut our chooks away that night, because sometimes we leave them to sleep wherever they like.  Probably a bit stupid being in the country with the possibility of foxes and feral cats or whatever.

Well, later that day I was in the garden pulling weeds (seriously, that is not my favourite job!) and I noticed a visiting dog in our back neighbours' yard.  I assumed that they knew about it and were trying to get this beautiful Husky to mate with their Labrador (or maybe she's a golden retriever - I'm not sure of the difference).

Our little male, Frankie, was not happy to have this Husky hanging around.  I mean, he thinks that yard is his as well, so to have a strange male dog hanging about (and I'm pretty sure he thinks Chloe is his girlfriend) was making him cranky.  The two of them were having a pee contest all over the fence too!  Ew!

After quite a while (at least half an hour, maybe even an hour) the Husky suddenly jumped the fence and attacked our silky chook.  Thankfully the Big Fella was around and chased the Husky away before it got our other chooks as well, but I watched my poor Silky stumble for about 30 seconds before collapsing and dying.

I know it's just a chicken, but honestly, watching that was horrific.  Silky, although she'd been quite shy of us, had become part of our family and it was awful to see her go like that.

The Little Big Fella had heard the commotion and come outside to see what was going on.  He saw Silky and knew that something wasn't quite right.  I explained to him that the dog had attacked her and that she was dead - her life was all gone.

You know, he amazes me, that child.  He accepted it.  Just like that.  It wasn't that he didn't care or understand either, he just accepted it.

The dog was collected by its owner a little later.  Apparently it gets out often and has attacked chooks before.  There's a bit I could say about responsible pet ownership but we'll leave that one alone for today.  Suffice for now to say that he offered to replace the chickens (ours and our neighbours').

The whole incident makes me very wary about letting our chooks roam free in our yard though.  But I don't want them to be locked up in their area all the time either (as nice as it is).  I guess we just have to gamble and hope that they'll be safe!

New Year? Bah, humbug!

You might have noticed that I like the Christmas period... just a little bit.  But when it comes to New Years, I am so bah, humbug!

I've been trying for three days to write a 2012 review and/or 2013 plans post but it's just not working for me.  I'm not a new year resolution kind of gal, and generally I'd rather go to bed early then wake up with the sunrise for the New Year.  So, seeing that my heart just isn't in it, I'm moving on!

Yesterday the Little Big Fella "discovered" a bunch of little presents in a box from my parents.  He'd already opened it on Christmas Day but didn't really pay attention at the time.  But on discovering paints in the box, it was on!

We got out the messy mat and an old t-shirt of mine to protect his clothes then I let him go for it with the paints while I took photos :-D  He ended up painting his fingernails (guess what Mummy's been doing lately that's slightly unusual!) and getting it all over his hands!

For some reason I've also had a bit of a clean out bug over the past week so I've been going through the cupboards and drawers and tossing lots of stuff into bags for the Salvos.  So far I have three and a half garbage bags of clothes and linen, about 3 shopping bags of toys and a bag of Christmas decorations all loaded up in the car for the next time I go in that direction.

I also started copying all of my photos from CDs to an external hard drive today.  Seriously big job!  Mostly because I get distracted :-D  I got to remember lots of fun times so I thought I'd share a few of them here:

You've seen this one before, but here's my little boy learning to ride his motorbike.

My 21st birthday!  Isn't this cake cool?  Unfortunately the staff at the restaurant threw out all of the toffee pieces :-(  Fun night though!

This is Alvin.  He was one of our first attempts at owning chooks and ducks.  Yeah, that didn't turn out so well!  The first three chicks all died, then Alvin was all alone so he moved to a new place with lots of ducks.

The Big Fella and I remember this photo being taken.  It was one of the most awkward moments EVER!  We were keen on each other but not together and our friend who took the photo kept trying to get us to stand closer together.  Awkward.

The Little Big Fella was mucking around trying to get into one of our large suitcases around the time that the Big Fella was driving back and forth from here to our old place.  This photo makes me smile, but feel sad at the same time because it reminds me of how much we missed the Big Fella when we were living mostly apart.

Obviously our wedding.  We had so much fun that day and I thought he looked SO handsome in his suit!

This is my Big Fella trying to catch my sister's bouquet!

When we still lived in Victoria I danced with these girls.  For this concert we were dressed as dolls and danced to Gwen Stefani's "Tick Tock".

Here's my Little Big Fella in his first week of life!

The Big Fella and I lived with a couple in Darwin for a few weeks before we moved to our last town.  The couple were in their 60s and 80s and were hippies.  The bathroom that we used had about 12 or 14 of these little frogs in it all the time - they're only about 3cm long.  One day I was showering and screamed!  One of them must have been on my facecloth and had jumped onto my tummy!!!!  Once I realised what it was I laughed.

Here's my biggest fish catch ever!  A barramundi :-)

I finally graduated - it took me about 6 years and I didn't quite complete my degree so graduated with a diploma.

These are my grandparents - my Dad's parents.  I was stoked when I came across these photos on my CDs!

And in the front here are my other grandparents - my Mum's parents.  And all of my Aunts, Uncles and cousins celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary.  We all stayed together for a weekend to celebrate, and dressed up for a bit of a fancy dinner on the Saturday night.

Here's a rare photo of us together - I think it's at Mossman Gorge.  This was definitely the worst holiday we've ever had, but it was good to see the photos and see that we actually had some good times amongst it all.

Lining up in the plastic bags are some of the staff where I worked.  The students got to throw plates of cream at them :-)

This is one of the Big Fella's favourite places!  A Polish deli with all kinds of meats and salamis and smallgoods.  We sometimes went here (it was about an hour from home), bought a whole bunch of things from this deli, and some breads and dips and whatever else caught our eye.  Then we'd find a park or just take it all home and eat it together.

Here's my best friend!  This was at my goodbye dinner before I left Victoria.

This was a constant source of amusement when the Little Big Fella was younger.  He'd often grab the vacuum cleaner from me to suck up his hair, skin, clothes or whatever.  It brought a lot of giggles :-)

This is one of the first times the Little Big Fella and I cooked together.  It's also the time that he fell backwards off the chair and bumped his head.  I ended up calling 13 HEALTH to check what I should be looking out for (in case he had a concussion) and they put me through to the ambulance.  The ambos were absolutely wonderful, and the Little Big Fella was back to his normal self by the time they got there (of course!).

This is the Little Big Fella on the "Little Red Tractor" with Poppy.  This is one of his absolute favourite things to do when we visit Poppy and he normally starts asking as soon as we get there (often before we've even walked in the door).  Luckily Poppy likes it too :-)

The Big Fella and I went to IMax 3D last time we were in Victoria (before the Little Big Fella was born).  There happened to be a group of school kids in the theatre with us and I screamed more than any of them when the shark appeared (it was a sea movie).

The Big Fella decided to smoke some meat using his BBQ.  Unfortunately he "smoked" the patio too - putting a hole in the roof and also on the side, behind the BBQ :-D

Ever wondered why I call myself "ScooterShell"?  This is me on my scooter, long before the Little Big Fella came along.  I ended up selling it while I was pregnant, and bought and awesome camera instead.  I loved my scooter, and one day I'll have a big one!!!!

I was a volunteer at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, before we moved to Queensland.  It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed meeting lots of different people.

This is my Dad on the trampoline when we were kids.  Nothing like a parent jumping :-D

This is Poppy with his motorbike and sidecar.  When we first moved to Queensland we stayed with my grandparents for a couple of months and the Big Fella helped Poppy re-paint his bike and sidecar yellow :-)

Oh!  And I saw an idea on Facebook just before Christmas where you write down things that make you smile throughout the year and put them in a box.  Then at the end of the year you get to look at what a great year you've had!  So I started that tonight.

Wanna know what I wrote about?

Of course you do!

I wrote about the Little Big Fella and I having a jump on his new trampoline for about half an hour this evening, when he probably should have been having a shower.  We laughed and giggled and tickled and crashed into each other and had a great time.

Yeah, that's a good memory :-)

Boxing day busy

Traditionally Boxing Day is movie day for us.  We go to the cinema and check out the latest blockbuster release.  But our local cinema doesn't have "The Hobbit" yet so we ditched that idea for this year.

We had a yummy breakfast - the Big Fella made garlic and lemon turkish bread toast, topped with melted bocconcini and triple-smoked ham, with an egg on top.  We followed that with a little fruit salad and greek yoghurt.

Then we got up and got going around the house and yard.  Seems like we weren't the only ones too - we saw a lot of trailers heading up the road to the tip today :-D

I cleared the yard of dog toys etc. then the Big Fella whipper snipped and mowed, while I harvested all of our mangoes.  Did you know that they spray sap when you pick them?  Maybe it's just me and my spastic mango-picking technique?  But we ended up with half a laundry basket full of them, now sitting downstairs and ripening up.  Mmmmmmm, mango!

I don't think I actually ate a mango until my family spent a few days in the Philippines, when I was 16.  I discovered that I actually love them!  Since we moved to Queensland I've eaten quite a few :-D  Turns out the Little Big Fella loves them too :-)

After all that lovely harvesting, I had the awesome job of sweeping up with a broom that I hate.  Seriously, it's time for a new straw broom!

Then we trimmed some bushes and watered the flower garden.

The next task was predominantly the Big Fella's, I have to be honest.  I don't think I did much, and probably made some things a bit trickier for him :-o  Yes, it was time to put up the Little Big Fella's trampoline!

It didn't take that long, and it wasn't that tricky, but I don't know that I could have done it on my own.

But the Little Big Fella loves it and has spent a good portion of the day bouncing around.  It's a good height off the ground for him too, so he can get on and off easily, without the need for a step.

Hmm, what else did we get up to?

Oh yeah!  We emptied all of our camping gear out of the back shed and put it in our camper trailer, discovering a couple of mice in our lantern along the way!  Looks like we'll be setting some traps over the next few days!!!!  I am not interested in having mice, or the snakes that come looking for mice, in my back shed!

Did I tell you we have two new little chicks?  They're about a week and a half old now - a black one and a white/yellow one.  We've called them "Salt" and "Pepper" - the black one is "Salt" and the white one is "Pepper".  Don't blame me!  That was the Little Big Fella's decision!!!  :-)

Anyway, I decided they needed some outside time so took them out and let them run around a little near me.  The dogs came over to check them out and Frankie wasn't even interested, but Choccie watched them constantly!  She was really good though, but I wouldn't let her with them unsupervised at this stage.

We ended up putting them in a cage so that they could wander around on the grass, but be protected from the dogs and bigger chooks and they loved it!  I think it'll be a daily thing, unless it's raining, until they're ready to join the rest of the flock when they're a bit bigger.

The Big Fella and I ended up talking to a guy next door who was setting up to paint the outside.  Turns out we're on the internal painting list for the new year!  Yay!!!  I wonder if we get any say on colours?  Probably not, but it's nice to dream :-)

As well as emptying the camping gear from the back shed, we also took out some of the gym equipment and set it up under the house.  The Big Fella has decided it's time to get back into shape, and I'm ready to get back into Fit Yummy Mummy, so we'll try to do our workouts together whenever we can, starting tomorrow afternoon.

I'm still trying to decide if I'll do Tough Mudder in August, after being invited by a couple of friends who are putting together a team.  I think I might be talking myself out of it though.  The electricity thing really freaks me out!

We watched a little bit of the Boxing Day Test (cricket, for those not in the know) in between everything too!

When the gym equipment was set up we rearranged a few things under the house so hopefully it's a little more use-able.  It's so frustrating when you have such a great space but too many options and ideas for what to do with it!  (And too much stuff to squeeze into said space!)  I guess each time we try a new idea we get closer to what will actually work for us though!

The Fellas took a load of stuff to the tip this afternoon and found that our old washing machine and microwave that we put there the other day have been taken.  That makes me happy :-D  I like that our local tip has no regulation so people can take stuff that doesn't work properly and can't be sold, but other people can collect it and make it work for them (or bring it back I guess).

And we all went "bush bashing" for a little bit this arvo too!  The Big Fella bought a 4WD about a month ago that is pretty run down but works okay.  It has been dubbed "The Bush Basher" and the Fellas have had a couple of little jaunts about the tracks just up the road.  They both love it!  So today I got to join them.

I don't mind 4WDing, but I'm not a huge fan.  I mean, it's uncomfortable!  And it seems kind of pointless to me.  But, to those who enjoy it, it's just plain fun so I won't go bagging you out about it ;-)

We dropped around to a friend's place after that but they weren't home, so we came back home.  The Little Big Fella and I had a bit of a bounce on his trampoline - mostly with him laying down and me gently bouncing him around :-D  He loved it!  I'm guessing there'll be lots of requests to do that more over the next few days :-)

And now the Fellas are asleep (the Big Fella starts work at 3am), and I'm writing about our adventures for you!  We're hoping for lots of adventures in the coming year... hopefully I'll remember to take some photos of them for you :-o

Happy Boxing Day everyone!  I hope you've enjoyed it, whatever you've been up to!

Spiders and the Kitty Cat Disaster

The Big Fella called to me the other day, "Shell, grab your camera!"  Thinking it might be a great blogging opportunity, I obeyed :-D

I find him in the kitchen with red cordial, soda water and ice-cream.  Oh God, this is going to be messy!

The Big Fella has decided that it's time the Little Big Fella tries a spider.  In America you'd call it a float (a typical example is a root beer float).  The idea is that you put a scoop of ice-cream in the cup then pour fizzy drink over the top.  It all bubbles and foams up and the ice-cream (well, what's left of it) floats to the top.  Then you drink/scoop/eat it.

Unsurprisingly, the Little Big Fella LOVED it!

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Our neighbours at the back fence have their sons for the school holidays and the Little Big Fella wanted to go over and play.  I ended up taking him over and we spent a fair portion of the afternoon there.

It was fun and chaotic with kids coming in and out, toys everywhere, Nerf guns, remote controlled everything, TV, music, people, phone calls, dramas... you get the gist!

Later in the afternoon their next door neighbours handed a 2 week old kitten over the fence for viewing and cuddles.  It was so tiny and cute!  A little black with white markings kitten, I'm not even sure its eyes were open yet.

Anyway, I was holding it, giving it a cuddle when the Little Big Fella saw it.  He wanted a hold but there were heaps of kids around and the golden retrievers were very interested in the kitten too, so I told him he could pat it, but not hold it.

Oh.  My.  Goodness!!!

He completely lost the plot!!!  I mean, tears to the point of sobbing!!!

Right!  This kid was overdone!  Over stimulated, over played, over it all!  The kitten went back over the fence, we said our goodbyes and I took him home.  He continued to cry for a few more minutes before being warned of the consequences of continuing, then he continued to ask for a "kitty cat" of his own throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening.

"Can I get a kitty cat for Christmas Mum?"

"No, you have two dogs and 5 chickens, you're not getting a cat."

"Can I get a kitty cat for my birthday Mum?"

"No honey, you already have dogs and chickens, you're not getting a cat."

"Can give them our chickens and get a kitty cat Mum?"

"No, they're our chickens.  You're not getting a cat."

"Can we take the dogs back and get a kitty cat Mum?"

"No, we are not taking the dogs back and you're not getting a cat."

"I like kitty cats Mum."

"I know honey."

The funny thing is, I'm WAY more clucky about a kitten than I am about the new baby next door... maybe I'll get a kitty cat ;-)

Argh me hearty!

You guessed it!  We went to a pirate party today!  The Little Big Fella and I dressed up as pirates, only to discover when we got there that none of the other adults had dressed up!  Embarrassed?  Only for a fraction of a second... I love a good dressup and I looked pretty good ;-)

My son is such an anti-socialite sometimes.  He begs to play with his friends, or go to someone's house, then plays all by himself!  Actually, it's normally only in larger groups - if it's one-on-one he's pretty much fine, or even a group of 2 or 3, but after that he's very much a loner.

It doesn't bother me that the Little Big Fella likes to play alone, but I do wonder how it will affect him later in life.  How will he go at Kinder next year?  How will he go at school?  Will he get picked on for playing on his own?  Or will he be different when I'm not around anyway?

Our chickens have started to become a little more adventurous.  They spent last night out in their chicken house rather than in a box in the house (it was a really warm night last night).  And today they've been "flying" off the landing of the chook house, down into their little yard.  I've had to try to catch them several times and get them back up into their house.

So this afternoon, the Big Fella decided it was time to teach them to use the ramp up to the chook house.  So we caught them all, 1 or 2 at a time, and helped them walk up the ramp.  I think they were slightly traumatised by being caught and handled so much, but after a few times, they seemed to get the hang of it.

So hopefully tomorrow when we go out to check on them, they'll either be in the chook house, or happily scratching around on the ground and able to get themselves "upstairs" without any worries.

One of the things the Big Fella did today was to move our shade roller from over the little verandah to over the kitchen window.  It's quite hot in the kitchen in the mornings and he has a shade sail he wants to put out over the verandah (hopefully soon because it was HOT in the lounge this afternoon without that outside blind).

I'm looking forward to seeing how the kitchen feels in the morning with less of the sun streaming in.  Maybe it'll even be cool enough to stick my hands in hot water and wash the dishes ;-)

Summer already???

It was 33 degrees inside my house today.  33 degrees!!!!  (That's Celsius, by the way - about 91 degrees Fahrenheit.)  And it's only September!!!

And even though I've lived in Queensland for the past 6 years and am somewhat acclimatised, I'm worried!  If this is what it's like in September (which is normally one of my favourite months), what is it going to be like mid-Summer???

Yes, we do have air conditioners in the bedrooms, and they'll certainly be a relief, but I don't actually like living in a temperature controlled environment.  And I don't want to pay exorbitant electricity bills either.  Yep, I'm cheap ;-D

I decided around lunchtime to pull out the Little Big Fella's "swimming pool".  It's maybe a 1.2m circle and about 15-20cm deep.  But it's served us well.  And just as I was about to do this, the little girl from next door started playing with the Little Big Fella through the fence.  So I asked her mum if she could come and play in the "pool" too.  She was over here in a flash!  :-D

They happily played together for the whole afternoon, including having a hold of the chickens, having some fruit and a sandwich, and playing in the sandpit (yes, they were still wet!).  It was nice to sit in my chair in the shade and watch them play (occasionally suffering the little splashes that came my way).

I suspect water is going to be a fairly big part of our summer.  And probably staying indoors in the middle of the day.

Oh!  I went to a Nutrimetics party last week (haven't been to one of those in a LONG time) and the lady had a machine that shows the state of your skin.  For example, white is the dead skin cells, orange is oil, and brown is skin damage.  Surprise, surprise, my skin is seriously sun damaged!  Guess who's been wearing her sunscreen and hat every day since!

It's not that I don't wear sunscreen or hats, it's just that I don't wear them all the time and I haven't worn them at all over winter.  My poor skin is paying for it and will probably pay for it as I get older too!  Bummer :-(

The Big Fella is going to be home for the next 4 days (in theory) so the list of things to do is long ;-).  A bit of yard work, okay, a lot of yard work!  It's a mess out there!  Cleaning out the shed, fixing my poor car... and that's before we add in anything food related :-D

So goodnight, keep cool (or warm if you're in another state or country), and don't forget to tell your loved ones how special they are to you - they can't read your mind ;-)

Photo catch up!

Yay!  I love photo catch up posts!

I was going through my phone photos and decided that there are a few that you guys might like to see :-)  So here we go!

The Little Big Fella needed a new helmet because the dogs chewed his other one to pieces (yes, I'm rolling my eyes!).  So we went to the nearest "big" town and found a shop that sells them.  I think I mentioned our visit in this post.  The Big Fella thought it looked ridiculous, the Little Big Fella was determined that this was the one he wanted.  The Little Big Fella won :-)

The chickens when we first brought them home.

The chickens hanging out in the chook house.

Our chickens are growing!  We've started putting them outside in the chicken house during the day and they seem to love it.  We did have them running around in the chicken yard but they're still pretty small and got through the fence!  There's also a gap at the back of the chicken house and I think a couple of them fell through it the other day because they were under the chicken house when I went to check on them.  I've since put a block there so they can't fall down.

This afternoon, I was weeding the vege garden and looked over to see the Little Big Fella inside the chook house with the chickens!!!  I'm not really sure how he got in there because the door space is pretty small!  The poor chickens were a little freaked out.

Later on in the day though, he was sitting on the little landing and had one of them perched on his hand quite happily.  Those chooks are going to be quite used to being handled!!!

The dogs, Frankie (the black male) and Choccie (the brown female), desperately want to play with the chickens!  Here they are eagerly hoping to be allowed into the chicken yard :-)  They have actually "met" the chickens but until the chooks are bigger, it's definitely a case of separation!!!

And finally, I've been having some delicious meals so I thought I'd share them with you too :-)  As I've said before, I'm doing Fit Yummy Mummy and the main focus with food is to have a protein (lean meat, legumes, eggs etc) and produce (fruit and vegetables) every time you eat.

Breakfast the other day was a bunch of yummy, fresh veges cooked in the frypan (just with spray oil), then crack a couple of eggs in, season and add a bit of fresh herbs or chilli.  Instead of mixing it all up in a mess to cook it, I finished this one off under the grill.  Mmmmmmmm!

This was my "snack plate" lunch the other day... it got a little out of control!  A bit of smoked pork, some cheese, leftover steamed veges and some fresh veges.  SO filling and the green beans were amazing because they were so fresh!

This was today's lunch.  A wholegrain wrap with salad and more of that delicious smoked pork (thanks honey!) with a little dijonnaise.  I had a little trouble wrapping it up but no trouble eating it :-D

And finally, tonight's dinner, courtesy of Delicious magazine!  It's spicy meatballs in tomato sauce with a "little" side salad (it's funny how my "little" salads keep growing until they take over the plate!).  The meatballs were made with some garlic, parsley, rosemary and pancetta, as well as the mince, tomato paste and egg.  It tasted amazing and would go well on pasta or garlicky toasted sourdough!

So there you go!  A few little bits and pieces from the last week-ish.  Hope you enjoyed it :-)