Kookaburra Cabin...

Here is the interior of our lovely "Kookaburra Cabin" which awaits family, friends but is also rented out via www.stayz.com.au and www.airbnb.com for holiday rentals.

Usual bedtime clobber?

I thought Barn and Tenz had gone to bed this evening (Dunc is in hospital having a shoulder operation today) when suddenly these two crazy things appeared wearing sparkly capes, Mexican hats and waving various flags. The 2nd shot is apparently when they have both been shot by bandits!

One of my favourite kids' paintings so far this year - Tenzie's rendition of his quail, Jo.

Iona sends Sid into a trance!!

We still love Pumpkin & Lulu 11 weeks old

With all the attention in the following posts of our new arrival, Lulu, I had to just remind you all how stunning my favourite orange dog is. Pumpkin is still a totally loved, spoilt member of the W-M family.

Dunc snowboarding in Thredbo

It may have been ten years since Dunc last went snowboarding but he had an awesome weekend in Thredbo with three guys - Stu, Allan and Rod. Dunc managed to come home the only one without some form of injury. They had stunning weather and great snow.

Zoo and Mexican day

Below we have two Mexican bandits - Barney and his mate Tyler. A themed day at school.

I love the piccie below of Tenzie and his special mate, Charlie, at Taronga Zoo.

Rabbit hugging...

It doesn't happen often as the dogs are usually around but every now and then the boys bring the rabbits into the house and cuddle them/brush them/feed them in front of the fire. The bunnies seem to love it despite having very little human contact at all other times!

Of course - yet another picture of Lulu!!

Kindy photo - whole gang

I don't normally like the staged photos taken at kindy/school. However, there is a funny story behind this one, which incidentally I LOVE!!

I was dropping Tenzin off at kindy but as Arthur was off school with a broken arm (hidden in the picture behind Tenzin) and Barney was off school with his 'acute torticolis' (ie his neck was trapped in the position shown for 5 days straight) we decided to throw all the kids into the picture. Barney had played footy (rugby league) on the Sat AM and despite being covered in mud I had agreed for him to wait until the Sunday morning for his shower. That shower never happened as he put his neck out on the Sunday morning while running across the garden. I had never seen a kid in so much pain. We had to prop him on pillows with ice and Nurofen and for 4 days he had to sleep on the sofa as he couldn't get up into his bunk bed! Anyway, this photo was taken on the Tuesday (so now 3 days after the footy game) and Barney still hadn't showered as he was in so much pain - check out the muddy knees in the front of the photo!!!

Gummy's flying visit - June/July

I convinced Mum to book a last minute ticket and fly over for just 12 days at the end of June. We had a couple of lovely dinners out and shared my 41st birthday but sadly the rest of her trip was overshadowed by all the kids having a hideous cough/flu virus. I then got it and was wiped out for a week and Mum caught it just as she was leaving Sydney so the poor lamb had to suffer that 24 hr flight feeling like cat poo. We hope we haven't frightened her off doing an impromptu trip in the future.

The day after Mum left Pezza, Annie and wee Sam arrived for the weekend. It was the first time that we'd met young Sam so it was very exciting to see him in the flesh.

Lulu and Pumpkin

Lulu gets bigger visibly by the day. She joined us at just under 4kg and literally doubled her weight in a couple of weeks. Pumpkin won't believe it when Lulu towers over her!

More Lulu pics...

This tiny little black puppy aged six weeks would need a huge nap after just a few minutes in our vast garden.

Lulu our new puppy...

Dunc had recently suggested that we get a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy now that we have the space at our new place. We had wanted a huge dog originally but with the small garden at the old house had decided to get the labrador/spaniel cross - ie Pumpkin as she was significantly smaller than a Ridgeback. Now we had no excuse and Dunc's friend has a stunning, majestic, male Ridgeback - Felix - so we decided that our aim would be to buy one of Felix's puppies when he eventually had some. Shortly after this decision was made we received a text telling us that Felix had been over friendly with a chocolate labrador while camping and that the end result was a litter of eight gorgeous pups! It took us about a minute to agree that we had to at least 'have a look' at the litter - especially as they were just 10 mins away from our house. We saw the puppies aged one week and knew we wanted one - however with their eyes closed it was impossible to choose one. Two weeks later the owners brought all eight pups and the mother to our place!! We had agreed that we wanted one of the three black females but the brown puppies were equally stunning - it was so hard to choose! At one stage each of our boys had a black puppy in their arms and each of them was insisting that they had found 'the one'!!! I honestly thought that we might end up with THREE Ridgeback/lab crosses!!

Barney is pictured just below holding little Lulu - our final choice. We discovered a huge leech under her foreleg as she had momentarily been put on the grass at a house before they came to us. She became known that day as "Leechy Lulu" and once Dunc had removed it and disinfected her wound, we felt so sorry for her and she was the only pure black female with a ridge so the choice was made for us. She is utterly gorgeous.

Iona and I went to collect Lulu aged six weeks while the boys played footy. It literally was a 'puppy for Xmas' as she arrived the day of our Xmas in June!

Xmas in June

We hatched a plan with the Howes to celebrate Xmas in June (the 25th to be precise) as our house is so wintery with its log fire and wood panelling. We had the huge turkey and all the trimmings, Xmas lights, crackers, a token present each, mulled wine, way too much food and it has to be said - it was the MOST Christmassy Christmas that any of us adults had ever experienced in our 14 years in Australia! It just never feels right having Xmas in the sun. A definite for the calendar each year from now on. The kids loved having a 'fake Christmas' as Tenzin so delicately put it!

Ellie visits from Kenya - 6-8 May

My wonderful friend, Ellie, lives in Kenya and works at the highest possible level of World Vision - she is an amazing woman. The last time we saw her was in Sydney in 2000 when I was heavily pregnant with Arthur. Now 10 years later she was able to spend a weekend with us and meet all four kids, 9 chickens, 3 rabbits and Pumpkin (she missed the new puppy and 4 quails by a hairs' breadth!) She regaled us with tales of her incredible life and we felt quite inadequate and ordinary once she had gone, she has achieved so much in her 40 years - we WILL get to Kenya one day to visit her with the gang. We had fab weather so Pumpkin and I took her on a stomp to Manly Dam and the whole family took her to The Basin on our boat for a day in the sun.

Manly Beach with Ellie and the kids.

Ellie inspects a sleeping blue tongued lizard on the path.

Iona felt very at home having her regular boat snooze on Ellie's knee.

Seal Rocks Easter 2011

We set off from Sydney on 16th April in torrential rain that you could hardly see through even with windscreen wipers on full blast. Despite a wet tent erection we were then blessed with ten dry days all around 20-25 degrees. It was just perfect. We had five days as a family on our own and then Matt, Laura and Hamish Howe came to join us for another five days. The best Seal Rocks trip yet we all agreed. Awesome.

More Seal Rocks Easter 2011

Bean and his little sister adore each other.

The gang on the dunes.

Iona's first go at dune surfing.

Big brother shows her how to do it standing up! Not quite her level just yet.

More from Seal Rocks Easter 2011

All zinc on and ready to go...

Barney's unique 'flying' style on the boogie board.

Base camp.

More from Seal Rocks Easter 2011

An early morning fishing trip for the boys while I jogged with Iona in the pram for 5kms up and down the beach - we had the whole beach to ourselves like this most mornings before breakfast!

The one successful fishing trip of the holiday - a squid each for Arthur and Barney!

Small boy fishing at Lighthouse beach.