Woodland Antics

 The last day of term ,Friday, was Footy Day at school. Australians take their Aussie Rules Football pretty seriously. As you can only imagine we're lost in this arena. Nonetheless, my kids were going to participate in the fun day. I brought them shopping for their team's colors. Actually their teams became their teams because of their colors. Fiona liked the blue and white scarf so she's now a Geelong fan. Reed liked the brown and yellow so he roots for Hawthorn.  {I too have adopted the Hawthorn Hawks as "my team"} It was great to see all the kids schoolmates decked out head to toe in their colors. It's in such moments I remember we are far from Packer and Patriot country. We're in a land of footy, cricket & netball.  I realize my babies are becoming Aussie. Beyond their word choices or arguments as to how a word or name is pronounced. The subtle cultural differences that are apparent to me are normal to them...

It's humbling when  she asks for her "going out hat", puts on my clothes and announces she is me. I wonder if Ryan feels the same about Reed? {ha ha!} Speaking of parents we look up to... Today is my mom's birthday. If you don't know much about her maybe Fiona can fill you in... I got this idea from pinterest.  Fiona completed an interview for each of her grandparents.  We've had intentions of mailing them out along with school pictures for the past 3 months but I haven't finished Reed's interviews yet. {SLACKER} Soon enough.

Father's Day in Australia is at the beginning of September. I gave both the kids $5.00 to spend at the school Father's Day stall.  This is what they came up with... Farting bottle opener from Fiona. A FANTASTIC water bottle from the dude. The essentials for car washing  A watering can,soap & hankie Later, we made a trail of yarn throughout the house for Ryan to follow to his very special Father's Day gift. making a "Start here Dad" sign with a heart exclamation point. I think he liked it. Happy Father's Day to the best dad in town.   xoxo

Spring is here. Daylight is lingering just a bit longer. Allowing us extra time for a late afternoon bike ride & picnic.. Fiona was in charge of packing and setting up the picnic. {a job beautifully done} . As the light faded I relaxed on the grass and watched the children play together. playing, What's the time, Mr Wolf? when looking back on their youth they most likely won't remember this exact day But it depicts how I hope they'll remember their childhood. Long, Fun, Happy & Carefree days. That's how I remember my wonder years playing games, riding bikes, catching bugs and frogs. I'm extremely fortunate to have had the childhood I did. I can remember my parents saying, " You don't know how lucky you are!!! "  and they were right, I didn't have a clue. Now  Ry and I say that about our kids.  They think it's normal... to move from one country to another.  to have parent...

I'm sure glad they had this mini-Halloween. This year We'll be in Thailand for Halloween! {and I'm certainly not bringing costumes}

Last night the kids earned their black stripes. Reed flashed me his jack-o-lantern smile and gave me the thumbs up.     After Fiona recieved hers, Reed gave her the biggest hug ever. The two of them had all the parents melting. Needless to say, we're proud of our little ninja's.

At school yesterday Reed lost his front tooth and swallowed it. He was really insistent that we search his poo for it. After a long talk about how the Tooth Fairy really doesn't want dirty teeth... Me: Well honey, how would we get it out? Reed: We'll just use a couple of sticks . upon hearing that Fiona ran and got a pair of sticks. {mind you we are about to use a public toilet} With Fiona armed with "tooth retrieval tools" in we went. Every couple of seconds she'd yell into Reed's stall, "How's everything going in there?" He was VERY annoyed by this. Then I heard the flush. He was over it. For the first time ever I was grateful for sibling rivalry. Reed and his teacher wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy explaining the whole situation.   Apparently the Tooth Fairy was understanding and still left a two dollar coin. She's good like that. Gotta love that gap A huge congratulation...