An afternoon in the back yard

I'll return to Christmas at some point.
In the mean time, I took some gorgeous photos of the boys in our backyard this afternoon.  Without further ado, here they are.

Little water gun

Ridiculously huge (unliftable) water gun

Cuddles with the puppies

Mr Bossy Boots

2 kids and 2 dogs

Ben can't miss out.

Well...

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve.  Weather was much improved.  Got to go the beach and make a sandcastle. 

This is Sheena and Roy building a sandcastle, we were at a different beach

Ryan appears to be a bit of a nudist.  When we went the first time to the beach, we did not take swimmers as it was a bit cold.  I took a towel just in case and to dust sand off.  Anyway, Mark could not help himself and took off his top and dove in.  This inspired Ryan who stripped naked and started to pee before anyone knew what was going on.  Then he jumped in.  Stayed in for a bit and then started to turn blue.   By this stage Sheena was in up to her waist.  Roy had fallen in (see attached pic) and then even little Benny fell in, nappy and all.  So we ended up driving home with two naked, unhappy and cold children.

Perfectly timed photo of Roy falling in the ocean.

We also put out some reindeer food for Santa, got them to bed before we did the whole milk and cookie thing.  But to be truthful, Christmas is not about Santa.   No one seemed to miss it.

Sheena and Ben cooperating

All the kids trying to share some Reindeer food

More distribution.

Holiday Time - Day One Inverloch

Maybe this was day one, or maybe day two... the first two days were DREADFUL weather.  Freezing cold and rainy.  The kids mainly played Lego and cars inside, but we eventually ventured out to playground where these photos are taken.

Roy and Ryan on the bee

Roy and Ryan being posers

Ben on the bee

Opening their sandcastle making kits from their grandparents

Rewind a bit.  It's the Saturday before Christmas and we have rented a large 5 bedroom holiday house in Inverloch which is about two and a bit hours out of Melbourne.  The house is lovely, some strange furniture (ie the lounge room) but otherwise comfy with a great kitchen house.  We have come with my sister and her husband and their two children.

December Daily - 9th

Went to see Bon Jovi with Jamie last night.  It was at Etihad Stadium... very large and very full.  Not their best concert.  The songs I knew were amazing.  The ones I didn't know... was not that thrilled about.  But it was lovely having a date with my gorgeous husband.  He's settling down.

Hot choc is serious business and delicious

Love you Benny

Thoughtful Benny

Eeek I love these boys

Cheesy Benny

December Daily - 8th

DToday was FUN.  Busy and tiring but FUN.

Met my sister and her kids for brunch at the Pancake Parlour.  I thought mine was delicious (bacon, eggs and a blueberry pancake), Jamie had hot buttered walnuts, Mark had Bavarian apple, Jo had a short stack with strawberries.  Sheena and Ryan both had ice cream (!), Ben had an "Alice in Wonderland" (one pancake with ice cream, choc topping and sprinkles) and Roy had 2 gluten free pancakes with ice cream.  Not sure why we needed to know that, but now you do.

Cousins having a lovely time together

Roy enjoying his gluten free pancakes

Sheena

No that was not too much icecream and choc topping

Then we went down the road to the Box Hill Miniature Trains.  It was fantastic.  The train ride was quite reasonably priced, it took a decent amount of time and most importantly the kiddies loved it.  Jamie had some pressing business to deal with so he didn't go on the train but caught up with us at the park afterwards.  Here is a smattering of pics from the afternoon.

 Then some more...

Ryan was chatting up some girls and then coaxed Roy to play too

On the miniature train.

Cutie pie Roy

Mark does not look like he's enjoying himself.

Ben driving the train

Sheena is a star at the Monkey Bars

Uber cute one of Ryan on the train

December Daily - 7th

Today was a Gingerbread kind of day.

I made my own chocolate gingerbread house shapes last night.  Then this morning we (Ryan, Ben and I) went to Connie's house to decorate them.  It was a freaking disaster.  Our royal icing was a little thin (we think) and didn't let the sides of the house set for long enough.  My roof came apart.  The decorations were crap.  Then when I was moving it to the car to drive him home... the house came tumbling down.

The I went to the Crossways Church Annual Gingerbread Making Day in Craigieburn.

That is my finished product.  Very happy with it.  I like my cross-hatching on the roof.  I don't think I'll do it next year.  Not really worth it.  The S is for our family - the Storers.

Jamie and Mark did quite a bit of work on the car, our 4WD which needs new bearings in the gearbox... and now needs a new something that was unexpected as part of the gearbox got broken, along with a mighty impressive bruise on Mark's knee.

Today was also DAY 2 of transition to big boy bed.  So impressed with this transition.  There was no planning... the bed has been in their room all year with a cot in the middle.  Its been a crowded room.  Last night Ben said to me "I don't want to go in my cot, can I go in my bed?"  I said he could if he stayed there.  They did a bit of swapping and a lot of chatting.  But then he settled down and went to sleep.  The same thing tonight.  This was taken about midnight as I was heading off to bed.

Mark has been a corpse sleeper, Ryan is fairly corpse like too, but Ben, he belongs on another planet - like his dad.  He's a bum in the air, upside down, never covered up, PJ's half down or half up, arms flailing, messy sleeper.

Mark and Ryan are the "soldier", Ben and Jamie are the "starfish" and to be honest I'm a "freefaller" but the physio says that it is not good for my back.

December Daily - 6th

Busy busy busy - trying to remember if anything happened.
Benny was sick - a sore throat and a bit of temperature.  So he stayed home with Jamie.  When I got home the boys went to the park and drove the monster truck again.

Daily December - 5th

Today was a dark day for our family.  Quite a lot of hurt and anger, not a day to take pictures. 

December Daily - 4th

Otherwise known as RYAN'S BIRTHDAY.

HAPPY 4TH TO MY LITTLE BOY, the exciting story of 4 years ago is here.

This is my foodie blog version of the cake I made.  I used the following recipe of Vanilla Cake and added heaps of sprinkles to make it a funfetti cake.  

I made two rounds and a ring cake

Trimmed and then smoodged them together with icing

Filled the middle with M&Ms

Topped with the second full round cake

Then iced the whole thing

When cut, it becomes a piñata.

The day started with a very excited boy asking for a present!  The present was yet to arrive, so thankfully we had some Matchbox cars and he was very happy to get that.

Off to school with grand announcements all day of "its my birthday" they had a cake and he requested PINK icing, and got it.  The whole class sang Happy Birthday and he was made a fuss of all day.

Then the big news came in the form of a text message "call asap"  The present was at the Post Office and we needed to get it.

opening the gifts

Excitement of a BIG car

Is this remote really MINE?

I can do it Dad

Zooming along

More zooming

One happy little boy.