An escape from the city

 Sometimes its just nice to get away from the house, the chores and all the things you "should" be doing and soak up some nature.

 

That's what we did last weekend.  Yes I brought the text book for study and yet another book on nutrition and cooking Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.  But didn't crack the spine on the text book and couldn't resist the book on nutrition.   Really I just enjoyed being outside!



 

For the first time Gav had a school friend join us camping.  He was good as gold and the boys all got on very well.  There was bike riding (without going to crazy, whew!)

 

 



Did I mention the bush fires nearbye?  No?  Well yes we did get a heads up by they camping office there was some small bush fires but not to be alarmed.  It was alarming (!) but we camped by the creek and right by the entrance...just in case!  But no, we weren't too worried.

 

The fire was necessary as it was quite cool the first night and early the next morning. 

 

With the camping occupancy down there was even room for cricket.  Lochy does love to bat.



There was lots of playing on the creek where it was nice and cool.   The water was FREEZING but still Ben took the boys down the swimming hole down the creek a bit.  It was a quick trip as the water really was Cold.  I decided not to join them....  There was loads for the boys to explore right where we were.

The skin the Cicada left behind just like a snake.  They boys were fascinated.

 

As well as the little frogs found in the creek.  That's one on Gav's finger.

 

And some hanging around the camp site as well.  We did all our cooking on that fire.  Wish I'd taken some photos.  Ben did the most yummy pizza's on the campfire hot plate as well as bacon and eggs each morning.  He was a super bbq camping chef and the boys just loved the food too.

 

We had marshmallow roasting and glow stick throwing at night.  Mind you after the late night the first night and a 4:30am wake up the first morning the next day was quite the early evening!  We even got a sleep in of 6:30am the second day!

The last day was much the same with the majority of the time spent exploring the creek.  It was a wonderful break.

 

The drive home was very green and we savoured it until we got to the city.

 

 

Well, some of us did, others were too tuckered out!

47/52 Camping

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013 via Che and Fidel."

Lochy:  showing me the very special rock he found 
Gav:  showing me the frog (yes its the blurry thing on his finger) he found in the creek

I am savouring this age when both the boys are loving sharing the things they find exciting and interesting to me.  I know all too soon they will be too grown up and I want to memorise every moment until they do.

Shows, A swimming carnival, Markets, and Santa came to visit... just a regular couple of weeks at our house!

I am a little behind in my posts so let me just share with you a play put on by Lochy's Joey's group.  He was very confident and loved doing his part.  Absolute gold.

The week continued with Lochy's swimming carnival at school.  It was gorgeous with no actual winners but everyone got a ribbon.

The sun stayed out for the swimming carnival but it we did get the rain later in the week.  Love our deck which allows us to still spend our time outside lounging around.





I went for my usual weekend shop at the markets.  Some amazing prices with the fruit in season.  One whole tray of Mangos was $15.  I've frozen some for some fruit soft serve and some has gone in to lunch boxes this week.  The bananas were also a bargain with Cavendish at $2 kg and Lady finger $3.50.  The Cavendish (on the bottom of the bowl) have ripened already and tonight have made it into the freezer.  The Lady fingers are still good for lunch boxes.  A lot more veg and fruit was bought but not in these photos.  Its a pretty early start to the day but its also quite beautiful to get there early in the morning. 

This is one of my early mornings at the markets.  Love it.



 

Yes and we even got another day of rain (boy do the plants need it).  Lochy in his Mummy loves you purple home made shorts playing a tackling game with Gav.  Be careful with those mangos boys!! Doesn't Lochy look handsome in his 3D glasses.  I couldn't resist showing you that photo.

 

 

We also had a family day at school complete with a Jester, who did some pretty good magic tricks and the kids thought he was hilarious.



 

Along with the snake and bunny of course.  Lochy declined the snake photo and ran off to play at the playground.  Cant say I blame him, I did the same!

 

We even had a visit from Santa.  Lochy and Gav were thrilled.  So gorgeous.

 

 

Even with all that going on there is still time for a bit of cricket!  Lochy's favourite game to play with Dad.  He's still dead set on playing soccer next year though.  Ben is coming around taking the boys to soccer and kicking the ball around with them.  He's now the soccer dad while I stay home and catch up on my cooking!

 



46/52 The 52 Project, A portrait a week once a week every week

 

Gav:  Playing in the living room in his new "Mummy loves you" home made striped rainbow shorts.
Lochy:  Showing me his "orange" smile!  I may have cut those a little big?!

A busy week in our family with some crazy weather just to make it interesting.

Yes its been a busy time in our house.  I am still cooking up a storm and strangely enough making food from scratch is mostly "normal" now.  I don't think I ever went into the "why" I am doing away with typical grocery shopping in favour of whole food cooking. 

Gav has been Gluten free since he was four, Lochy in the last couple of months and I've been Gluten free for about a month, Ben since I've stopped cooking Gluten food!  Since discovering the amazing difference taking Gluten out of Gav's diet I've been interested in the effects of diet on his behaviour and health.  Lochy came home with a sore tummy one day from school and my GP told me the only way I can improve my psoriasis is by taking out Gluten so that ment now our whole family was going Gluten free and Ben didn't mind.  Our Biomedical Dr we had for Gav really wasn't moving us forward so I was searching for someone else to help us explore what supplements and diet could do to improve my family's health.  A friend suggested Dr Heather Way and The Gaps diet for natural digestive healing.  I read the book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome and I was very interested and
excited.

So now here we are, lots of cooking from scratch, soaking seeds, making my own condiments and hopefully soon yoghurt and fermented vegies.  Dr Heather Way is also helping us with supplements after we joined the study she is running and we had some tests done.  The kids are loving it and we are feeling better and better all the time.

So we've been busy this last week, not long until school holiday's.  The boys brought out some games we haven't seen for awhile.

I got a day of casual Teacher aide work in a Prep class as well.  I do love it and I am hoping to get more days next year.  I still have study to complete but will be finished by Nov 2014.

Gav went to a classmates pool birthday party and it was something like that gameshow "Wipeout".  Gav full on threw himself into it!

Then Sunday we went on a bike ride to Southbank which ended up with a swim and play in the water park.  Pretty good motivation for a bike ride don't you think?  It was lovely to have a cool off swim too.

 

 

Lovely sunny day right?  Yes it was but in the afternoon we had such a storm there was a severe storm warning issued.  We got hail and I haven't seen that ever at our house since we've lived here!  It didn't last long but the wind blew the rain sideways.  We were downstairs in the garage at the time.  The bi-fold doors were open upstairs so it even blew the hail right into our living room!  It wasn't much but sure was extreme.  Gav and Lochy weren't frightened and even thought it was pretty cool they could pick up the hail and eat it!

 

Then tonight was a Talent show at Joey's/Cubs so we all came to watch the show!  The boys were awesome, enjoying themselves heaps.  I am loving watching them trying all these new things.  So gorgeous watching them growing in confidence.