Work life balance

Declan and I were chatting about occupations last night, and Declan said that he really didn't want to do any work when he grew up. I asked him where he was going to get his money from, and this was clearly a new concept to him - that he would have to work for money.

He eventually decided that he would work three days a week only, and that would be sufficient for his needs.

Waiting room

Evan went to the dentist in the city this week, and had to take Callum with him, as he wasn't feeling quite well. When I got there, 45 minutes into the appointment, Callum was happily sitting in the waiting room, most of the way through his Roald Dahl omnibus.

It's quite handy, sometimes, having a voracious reader.

Absent minded

We were having dinner the other night and Callum was musing over a way of making something invisible. After coming up with a couple of ideas he found one he liked. He then calmly explained that he'd just bitten his finger while working it out.

Maybe you had to be there...

Houses

Recently we went through our periodic angst about possibly moving house to Cammeray, when we found a very nice house near the school. Callum and Declan were both definitely against the idea, which surprised us. Callum because, "I like living in Glen Ayr" (which is the name of our house). Declan because, " that house is very brown" (it was, in a very trendy way).

And the Cants up the road (Jane, Peter, Griffin, Isabel) have finally moved back in having finished their renovations. Both boys were very taken with Isabel's new room, as it has a secret cupboard! Inside Isabel's wardrobe is another door which takes you to attic storage.

We're now trying to figure out what these fragments of house commentary mean for what, if anything we should do to this place, now we've decided we're staying for a while.

This message will self destruct

Callum has to give a speech each term at school. This term the topic was what he wanted to be when he grew up. No prizes will be given to anyone guessing: inventor. The only problem was that he couldn;t say very much because it's all SECRET!

He did more practice than normal with this one and the teacher seemed to like it, commenting (as reported by Cal) that his eye-contact was excellent and he spoke in a very clear voice.

Merger of great companies

Over dinner Declan delcared he would be an inventor when he grew up or maybe a designer. There was some discussion about who should work for whose company. Then it became apparent they could each have their own company and connect them via a teleport machine. Declan's face just lit up and there followed much enthusiastic inventing.

(They came up with a variation on Cal's aero-car which has jets which use carbon dioxide for fuel thus cleaning the atmosphere while it flies.)

Virtual worlds

Callum is very into Club Penguin and his two best friends are too. This has lead to them having a Club Penguin Club where they discuss, well you can work it out, at School and arrange meetings and tasks for when they are at home.

It does seem to work well and allow some interaction when they are in their various homes. However given none of them can type well, the interaction is far more effective when they phone each other up or visit each other's houses. So they can't quite lose themselves online yet.

Marshmallow Gun

Callum's friend Angus has come over this afternoon for a play. Because it's a rainy, grey day, Evan has found an activity for them - making a marshmallow gun. Take lots of bits of PVC pipe, put them together, pop a marshmallow into it, and then blow into one end, so that the marshmallow will come out of the other end.

Even better is when you attach the gun to a bicycle pump, and get the marshmallow to go over the back gate! Hopefully the possums will eat it.

Sleepover

Callum and Declan went for a sleepover at Milly and Alice's house last night (who are also in Yr2 and K at Cammeray, and live around the corner). Declan had spent pretty much the whole afternoon in a state of incandescant excitement at the prospect.

The highlight was a Nintendo Wii, which was new for Milly and Alice that day, and may well lead to a bit of purchasing pressure from the boys once they realise that we could actually buy one here also.

Slapped cheeks

With the aid of Dr Google, Evan and I have diagnosed Declan with Slapped Cheek disease. He started on Sunday with bright red cheeks, then last night he pointed out to us a rash on one of his ankles, and now this evening he's got a "characteristic lacy rash" on both arms, legs, and starting on his torso.

He's completely fine otherwise. The symptoms (again according to Dr Google) seem to be less than the common cold, apart from the rash. So we've just been trying to explain viruses to Declan ("why does the virus make my face red?") with limited success, and letting him go to school regardless.

Indiana Jones

We've been gradually going through more and more of an Indiana Jones phase in this house. This week it just got a whole lot bigger. On Friday, Evan gave the boys the Indiana Jones lego game (Declan was sick home from school as he had been vomiting, and Evan let Callum stay home as well with a claimed headache), and today we all went to the new movie, after watching one of the old ones on DVD last night.

The lego game has given them a whole new insight into the series - Callum's main point of conversation is that "girls have more agility than boys, they can jump higher" - mainly because that's what the main female lego character does.

Birthday weekend

For my birthday this weekend, we went up to the mountains and stayed in Leura. It was a surprise, which Callum and Declan did very well in keeping a secret (although their faces did give away that something was up!)

We stayed at the Fairmont resort, which is a large complex. The boys have said that we will always have to stay there when we go to the mountains in future - the swimming pool was the clincher.

When Declan and Callum were sitting in their pyjamas having their room service fish and chips in front of the movie Ratatouille, having just had a swim, and a game of pinball, Callum said happily, "this is the life!" We left them contentedly finishing off their dinner with a babysitter while we went and had a nice grownup dinner of our own.

Then today we went back down the mountains via the Langdon Linigens, to admire their new goalposts, and let the children run around with every possible form of ball sport while we had lunch.