Jenga Master Craig

A few weekends ago, the boys spent an afternoon with Aunty Annette. During the visit Craig must have played Jenga to pass the time. When he got home he insisted on playing again with Dad. Graham helped get the Jenga blocks out of the box.

Craig built the tower.

The tower got taller and wobblier but Craig wasn't fazed. His little fingers were surprisingly nimble when pulling blocks out.

He was also very steady when putting blocks on top of the tower and he obviously enjoyed himself, especially when he won.

Craig also plays other games with Dad. He recently learned to play dominoes,

Chinese Chequers,

and, Guess Who? You need some entertainment when you live in a home with no TV!

I Am The Hunter

Easter Sunday was a near-perfect day. The morning weather was beeyooteefull and the trees were full of Easter eggs! Well, that's the way things were in Wanstead Reserve in sunny Earlwood.

At the appointed time of 10am impatient children waited with their baskets for the hunt to begin.

They had to wait for latecomers.

It may have seemed like forever for the boys but it was only 10 minutes for the adults.

Finally, they were off. All the big kids stormed past this little tree and made a beeline for bigger trees where lots of eggs were hiding. Aunty Anne guided Graham to places where the competition to find eggs was less fierce.

Which didn't mean that Graham would actually pick up the eggs himself.

Meanwhile, Craig needed no such help.

He was in there with the best of them and occasionally diving in first.

Aunty Anne worked so hard helping Graham that she probably deserved to have a decent photo. You know, at least one that showed her face but .......

As a result of all that help Graham had plenty of chocolate eggs to enjoy.

Craig had done a great job. He had way too many eggs to eat all at once. The photo doesn't do him justice. His little basket had more eggs than could be easily counted. No one had more.

The boys sat down to enjoy the spoils of the hunt.

Back indoors the boys got busy with a little toy that featured an elevator.

Graham loved it.

After lunch the boys were taken outdoors again. The playground in Wanstead Reserve isn't huge but it's perfect when there's only two boys!

They really had plenty of space. There was a wide grassy area that wasn't being used at all.

They walked along the river and then crossed over to the other side where there's a much busier playground. There were lots of kids having lots of fun. The boys played there until dusk and it was time to go home.

There was good news when they arrived home. The toy that Graham liked so much had become his! It's previous owner had so many toys that this one was being given away.

In fact, both boys quite like it and they've been reasonably good about taking turns.

P.S. The next morning, Graham behaved like it was Boxing Day. When he woke up, the first thing he did was run out of bed to the living room to make sure the toy was still there! The smile on his face when he saw it was where he had left it the night before was radiant. :)

Easter Hat

On the last before holidays every pupil at Craig's school made an Easter hat and some kids made a little basket thingy.

Craig is much better at colouring in than he was in the past.

The local newspaper had a very brief story about the event.

And here is a link to the newspaper story.

Lollipops

The first weekend of school holiday was wet. Not wet all day raining without interruption wet but almost every hour a shower would arrive making outdoor activities unpleasant. Thankfully, Aunty Annette had a plan. She knew of a place in Frenchs Forest where the boys could play indoors, Lollipops Playland and Cafe.

Graham had been a bit bored at home so when they walked inside and he was told "Go play," his little face lit up in absolute delight. In fact, after spending all day Saturday and then Sunday morning stuck at home both Graham and Craig were super happy to have somewhere new to play.

They started on a slide but there's no photos of it. The slide was quite steep and scared Graham a little. By the time they found this area with nerf balls their cousin Bailey had arrived to join in the fun.

Graham loves these machines that suck the balls up. He ran around madly gathering up as many balls as he could to put in the machines, one of which would dump them back on the kids below when a button on the wall was pressed.

They were having too much fun to care about looking at the camera for photos.

There's a tiny spinning tea cup ride.

The boys response to the ride was a bit lukewarm.


There was plenty of climbing to be done. Graham looked tiny when he was up this high.

The blonde boy in the next photo looked unhappy because he was being told off by his mother for throwing balls at Graham. It didn't seem fair to him because Graham had thrown balls straight into his face several times.

You can get away with all kinds of things when you're the smallest.

There was plenty more climbing and running and general messing about. The fun lasted three and a half hours, non-stop! Graham was exhausted at the end.

The only minor mishap was Bailey very kindly giving a chocolate Easter Bunny each to Craig and Graham. Craig only had a bite but Graham managed to finish half of his before Dad took it away. It was no surprise that less than an hour later, Graham didn't want dinner while Craig finished his very quickly.

Talking to Mum on Skype

Even though Mum is temporarily away, the boys have been able to talk to her almost every evening on Skype. On this day, Graham waited in front of the computer waiting for Mum to appear but it was too early.

After the boys had finished their bath, there was Mum.

The calls can be quite long so there's some coming and going at the boys' end.

Graham can become quite animated during the calls.

Due to the time difference it's normally bed time for the boys as soon as the call is finished.