Just a spoonful of sugar...

You can tell by the packaging that it's going to taste revolting and it didn't disappoint.  A horrible virus has been going round the school and Tess' teacher is paranoid so she sent Tess home for coughing too much.  Tess was feeling fine and I suspect that the issue was the "100 day cough" that continues to linger but because she was sent home I felt duty bound to keep her at home the following day just in case.  Tess has never been particularly brave about taking medicine, even the ones for children that are supposed to taste good, and we've tried all sorts of bribery but this required the seriously heavy guns.  At the end of my tether I suggested a spoonful of sugar and it was a winner - there clearly is something in those old wives tales!  

Some of the natives have got too close for comfort this week.  The fellow below gave us an almighty shock and we had to get the tape measure out to prove how big he really was.  

Not quite six inches.....

The kids and I have been trying to grow a few vegetables on our deck and we've been doing really well and getting really excited and then either Squish or Roofer, or potentially both of them, come and eat everything before we can harvest.  This week I bought a beautiful lemon tree.  Two days later the tree had been massacred by one of the possums so once again I brought out the heavy guns and swathed the entire tree in netting.  Woe betide if I find a possum stuck in that netting one morning!!  

Happy non-campers

We were supposed to go camping this weekend but the weather forecast was so dreadful that we called it off last minute.  Instead we had all the happy campers round at our house for dinner on friday night.  It was quite a calm night and we were beginning to regret the decision to call it off but we woke to torrential rain and gale force winds on the Saturday morning which lasted all day and through the following night.  We have more leaks in the house than we have ever had before and it's so humid that everything feels damp and sticky - revolting!
  

The upside of not camping was that Tom was able to go to Callum's birthday party.  Grazia was foolish brave enough to have 18 boys round at her house for a spa disco.  The boys mainly ignored the disco part but discovered that shampoo in the spa makes awesome bubbles!  I stayed for the 2 hours as lifeguard and needed panadol and a lie-down once I got home.  

Tom's favourite spot for some ipadding

Given the horrible weather the kids have spent more time on their electronic devices than I like.  Tess has discovered an app called Kik which allows you to text message your friends using your ipod touch - I figure it's going to be cheaper than them spending hours on the phone!  She also discovered an amazing app called Video Star which allows you to record your very own music video using lots of special effects.  I suspect we'll get a lot of use out of that one.  Tom still favours Minecraft preferably whilst on the floor under the coffee table.  

The picture above is from one of our very favourite books "Kiss Goodnight Sam".  We were given this book when Tess was a baby and it has formed the basis of our goodnight routine ever since.  "We go once, twice and then twice more.  What do you say?  Again!  Once, twice and then twice more."  I love this little routine of ours - it doesn't matter how tired we might be or whether we've had a big fight before going to bed - we always do kiss goodnight.  I'm keeping fingers crossed they don't grow out of it anytime soon.