Oceans of Fun

“Have you started your project yet? You’ve known about it for a couple of weeks. How are you going to get it finished on time if you haven’t even started?”

Sound familiar? Seriously, I think I’m beginning to sound like my mum. Oh the horror! LOL.

Welcome to 2RS semester 2 assignment. Environment Dioramas. They had to choose between a Natural, Social or Built Environment and build a diorama. The even had the boxes supplied for them. I’m sure Cheyenne chose the biggest box. No shoebox for her. Oh no, that would be too easy. She ended up with a file box. Which then sat untouched on our lounge room floor for about two weeks!

She decided to make an ocean diorama. With that initial decision made, she figured there was no rush to get started. In an attempt to try to motivate her, I raided my craft cupboard for things which she might find useful.

Cheyenne knew she wanted to have starfish made from kitchen sponge (not sure where she got this idea from, but they do look pretty good), rocks, seaweed, coral, anemones, jelly fish, an eel and of course, fish. She didn't think she would be able to draw fish that looked like fish, so we compromised and I printed out some pictures she could colour in and cut out.

This was all well and good, but she couldn’t start putting it together until the painting was done first. After much nagging by me she finally got stuck in.

The bottom and three sides of the box had to be painted blue for the water, and the fourth side was smeared with PVA and covered with sand (from her sand pit). In lieu of real rocks (which may have been a tad heavy and tricky to glue down, LOL), we grabbed a few smallish chunks of styrofoam from the Great Mountain of Styrofoam behind Steve’s brother Brett’s shed. Don’t even ask... Trust me. These chunks of styrofoam were painted a sandy colour and glued into the box. Coloured pipe cleaners twisted together became seaweed, coral and anemones, and poked easily into the foam. Yet another good reason to not use real rocks, LOL.

I’d saved an individual pudding container “just in case” (yes, I’m genetically predisposed to hoarding, LOL) and this became the jellyfish, with kitchen string for tentacles. Cheyenne was unsure how to make the eel. After a bit of thought, I suggested a wiggly balloon, stuffed with cotton wool, with googly eyes stuck on.

Much fun can be had with an assorted pack of googly eyes, LOL.

All that was left to do was to decide where to position the star fish, shells and eel, and where to hang the jelly fish and fish by their fishing line. 

...Oh, and write up a materials list and draw up the plan (which, of course, was supposed to be done first, but hey, whatever, it’s grade 2 not high school).

 

The finished product.

As practising in front of Steve and I was deemed to be “too embarrassing”, I was unsure how her presentation would go. They were to be marked on how well the construction "followed the plan" (ROFL), their discussion of their strengths and weaknesses and general oral speaking skills.

This afternoon I asked her how she did and what she said. Her reply? “Good. I just said some random stuff.” Good grief!


Her teacher reassured me that she did do quite well, apart from not making eye contact. Apparently she was too busy facing her diorama, pointing out its features, LOL.

Collection or Obsession?

Ah, Lego. You never really grow out of it. In fact, I still have an ice cream bucket full of random Lego from my childhood.

Back then the Lego men (there were no women) came in city characters or space men (they may have just started to do a limited range of knights as well). They ALL had the same yellow heads with the same smiley faces, and that wasn't really a bad thing. It was just they way Lego men were.

Somebody at Lego finally came up with the idea of updating the figures. They now have awesome facial features. No more boring smiley face, lol.

Last year I was waiting in a checkout line at Target and saw a box full of packets of individual Lego figures in what appeared to be a “lucky dip” type arrangement. I bought one just to see which one I would get. That was Series 1 of the Minifigures. Had I known that in Series 1 each of the 16 different figures had individual barcodes, I probably would have gone back the next day to find the ones I wanted.   I didn’t.    I never saw another box of that series again.

Earlier this year I noticed a box or two of what turned out to be Series 3. (Not sure why I never saw any Series 2 figures.) This time I was determined to get several of them. I guess you could say I became obsessed, lol.

I spent a lot of time, in various stores, squeezing foil packets to try and figure out which figure might be inside. Random shoppers would give me odd looks (naturally) but several were intrigued enough to actually stand there and help me squeeze packets! (Lego had wised up that the identifying barcodes reduced sales because people only bought the ones they wanted, and they now had no obvious identifying marks). After many wasted hours a nice lady told me that, although they all looked the same, there were apparently some Braille-like dots on the back of the packs which would help. Five minutes on Google and I had the code breaker, so I managed to get the Fisherman, Biggles, Snowboarder and several others.

Series 4 has been harder to find. They were released in April but don’t seem to be stocked at the usual places.  The Braille dots are a wash this time round (damn you Lego), so I have gone back to squeezing packets again.  sigh...

At long last I have FINALLY found the Hazmat Guy that I’ve been searching for.  The expression on his face is priceless.  

Now I just have to find the urban skateboarder…

...sigh.

This could take a while.

Slack!

I really didn't think it had been that long since I last posted.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered my last post was in February ! February... Seriously ?

It isn't that absolutely nothing has happened since then, it's rather that it has all been so mundane and not worth blogging about. (well... that and the fact that Facebook games have kind of sidetracked my life, lol)

I promise I will try to make more of an effort from now on.

Not right now, obviously, because I'm off to do a bit of shopping and meet a friend for sushi. Mmmmm... sushi :)

Another Childhood Milestone Reached

Yesterday, for the first time ever, Cheyenne rode her bike without training wheels !

I'm so proud of her :)

We were beginning to wonder if she'd ever find the confidence.

She used to ride her bike a lot, and last year we decided she seemed ready for Operation Training Wheels Removal. So we did... and she wasn't. She flat out refused to pedal. Wouldn't even try. So we caved in and put them back on. Since then, she has not really been interested in riding her own bike, opting instead for trips on the Tag Along, behind Daddy's bike.

We frequently see little kids, 3 or 4 years of age, riding (without training wheels) beside their parents on the way to pick up their older brothers or sisters from school. "If they can do it, you can do it too", I'd say to Cheyenne. "No I can't. I'll fall off." Now, I have terrible balance and I know I was a lot older by the time I finally learnt to ride a bike, so I wasn't going to push her into it if she truly wasn't ready. Steve, however, felt that as she is already 7 it was high time the training wheels came off for good.

On Saturday he went out and bought a kick stand to suit her bike (along with a new inner tube for the back tyre) and removed the training wheels. Yesterday she had a few reluctant practice runs on the grassy footpath outside Nanny's, then after lunch we hit the local bike track. We figured it would be perfect as it is nice and flat and not particularly busy (it's more of a dead-ended scenic track rather than a commuter route).

After numerous minor stacks (mostly caused by her looking round to check that Steve was still holding the back of the seat, therefore throwing her off balance) she had mentally given up and was whinging that she just couldn't do it, but we weren't going to let her off that easily. We told her she had to ride all the way to the end before she got to turn back. At least she got to ride. Both Steve and I were running along either side of her! NOT my favourite thing to do in this heat!

The return leg was where her confidence kicked in. After one wobbly stop, Steve revealed to her that she'd just ridden about 30 metres all by herself, without him holding the seat, and she realised she could do it after all. After that, the few times she came off she picked the bike up and got straight back on without hesitating. She was even remembering to use her brakes to stop. By the time we got back to the car, she was still a bit wobbly, but the only time Steve was holding on to her was to help her start off. She'll get the hang of that with a bit more practice.

Now that she has the confidence in herself she'll be keen to practice, so next time I'll be taking the camera. I'm sure it won't be long before she's able to keep up with us and we can all go riding together.

Happy (Belated) New Year

Well, it's 2011 already! I'm sorry it has been so long between posts.

My New Year's Resolution was to keep my blog updated more often. Clearly, not going so well with that, as it's almost the end of January already and this is my first post of the year. Hmmm...

Not that it's really any excuse, but the last part of the year always seems to get rather hectic, so naturally a blog falls by the wayside. Surely though, I must have had something to write about in the last 6 months?

Let's see... Cheyenne turned 7 last September, then in October I turned 37 and Steve turned 39. Then we had the end of grade 1 for Cheyenne and Christmas holidays, and rain, rain and MORE rain.

We had a very soggy and muddy week away at Borumba Deer Park between Boxing Day and New Year. What should have been a pleasant week of fishing, swimming, watersports and trips in the boat became a week of squelching about in stinky mud, daily checking the waterlevel of the flooded creek against the powerpole on the lower campgrounds, and playing about on forestry roads. All because we were trapped between two flooded creek crossings and couldn't get up to the dam or back into town for fresh supplies. Did I mention NO SHOWERS ? That's right. As the creek was flooded, the pump had to be removed for safety, so the limited supply of tankwater had to be used for flushing the toilets, rather than on showers. Still, there was copious amounts of rainwater to be collected from our tarp, so no shortage of water for bucket washing, lol. When the floodwater receded, the bridges had been damaged, but at least we could get home.

Of course, that was still an adventure, compared to the flood devastation throughout the rest of the state. Emerald, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Chinchilla, Condamine and so many other areas in between. Then Toowoomba, the Lockyer Valley, Ipswich and Brisbane had their turn, before the floodwaters headed south into northern NSW. Now Victoria is also in the grip of flooding. So much devastation and it isn't the end of the wet season yet.

Today is Cheyenne's first day back at school for 2011. New teacher, new classroom block, a mix of old and new classmates and lots of new things to learn. I'm hoping she will enjoy grade 2 as much as the two previous years. I promise to keep you posted.

Rainbow Dreams

I can't believe it has been a whole month since we were on holiday at Rainbow Beach. We have been going there for the last week in July every year for years now, for the Rainbow Beach Fishing Competition.

The beach? In Winter? Ah yes, gotta love the Queensland climate :)

This year will have to be the last for Cheyenne and I, as she really shouldn't be missing out on a week and a half of school. They don't seem to be really learning all that much in Grade 1 and we did take schoolwork with us, so it wasn't as scandalous as it sounds.

While the "boys" (Steve, his Dad and a couple of mates) fished and won some daily prizes, it was all about the beach holiday for Cheyenne, Steve's Mum and I. Cheyenne really is a little beach bum.

It's a shame we had to come home.

If I won lotto, the first thing I'd do would be to buy a holiday house there.

Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows

... marshmallow socks, that is, LOL.

The chill of Winter is in the air, and that means it's time to drink hot chocolate and break out the bed socks.

All my life I've been cursed with bad circulation, so that means my hands and feet are usually like blocks of ice during the colder months of the year. When I'm lounging around the house, watching TV or headed for bed, I have my marshmallow socks. As you can see, I have a few pairs. OK, more than a few. I'll admit it - I may be obsessed with them. The aqua ones with the non-slip flowers on the sole were bought to match my paisley PJs, and the black, pink and white ones match my Pink Ribbon PJs (and they came in a 2 pack with the hot pink ones). The brown leopardy print ones were just too pretty and snugly to be left on the shelf in the shop.

Actually, that seems to be my downfall. I'm a tactile sock shopper. I don't obviously need another pair, but you can bet I'll see some in a colour I don't have, and once I touch them, I'm done for. Oh, they're so soft, so snugly, and pretty. I'll get them.

I've also recently bought a set of micro polar fleece sheets for our bed. Yes, you heard correctly. Not flannelette. Polar fleece. Sounds a bit odd, but they are to die for snugly, soft and warm, and I'm so glad I got them. Steve, however, is not so impressed. He reckons the pillowcase sticks to the stubble on his face like Velcro during the night. I've yet to see any actual evidence of this though, LOL.