Anyone with young children will know that children LOVE to hear stories. Reading books to your children is great but writing a book for them is better. A parent knows exactly what the child enjoys whether it be dinosaurs, robots, fairies, animals or any number of things, there is always a story to tell. Add a moral to the story and off you go! Let the child choose names for the characters and watch them hang off every word you write. It becomes a special story just for them and to make it extra special allow them to unleash their artistic side and illustrate it. Most of us do not have little Rembrandt’s living with us but no matter what their drawings look like give them praise and watch their little faces fill with pride. Type your story out, print it, add the childrens illustrations and bind – DONE! I have the book I wrote for my oldest as you will see the illustrations are not great but they sure are special. It’s a project Claire and I worked on together and we had fun doing it.

POST SCRIPT: This post was written over two and a half years ago… Luke was a little slow in posting it to my site!  Needless to say Claire’s drawings have improved since the “Murtle Turtle” days and her storylines are now filled with mind bullets, time travel, ancient mystical crystals and an evil character named “Victor”.   What remains the same however is a talking animal as the main character, nowadays it’s a talking horse named Meeve.

Most people knock on the door when they turn up to someones house… us Houghtons have a unique way of announcing our arrival. You see we went over to my sister’s house the other day and we were a little early so as we made our way to the front door my sister pulled into her driveway. It must have been quite a sight for her… a child spewing on her front lawn and a dog taking a shit on her front porch.  I have to say that Natalie had been quite car sick and she blew chunks everywhere… it wasn’t pretty.  And Lil… well… Lil needed to go and when a dog needs to go they go no matter where they are.  I was too occupied with Natalie to notice Lil taking a dump, otherwise I would have made her go on the grass.  I wonder if we’ll get invited back anytime soon?

While transferring files (ok… movies) onto USB sticks the other day, Natalie picked one up and the following conversation took place.

Natalie: What are you doing mummy?

Me: Filling up the USB sticks.

Natalie: (placing the usb stick down and reaching for another one)

Me: Don’t mix them up honey, one of them is full already.

Natalie: Is that the one you filled up? (she starts shaking it)

Me: Yes honey, it’s full already.

Natalie: It doesn’t feel heavy.

She made me laugh!

My big girl went on her first school camp this week, two nights and three days at Mapleton.  It was the same camp I went to when I was in primary school… Obi Obi road! The facilities must have been improved since I went there because Claire told me all about the huge indoor rock climbing centre and the massive flying fox and giant swing… it sounded great! I was a bit concerned that she would freeze up there but when she told me our house was colder than the Sunshine Coast hinterland, I was floored. I must insist on insulation when we buy a house because I’m not happy getting lower temperatures than the hinterlands and not even getting the scenic benefit… my neighbours brink wall is hardly a breath taking view. I was also concerned about her personal appearance upon her return and as you can see in the photo above… I had good reason to worry… the boff was back!

Earlier in the week I phoned my step father for his birthday but he didn’t answer the phone, my mother did.  The poor birthday boy could be heard in the background vacuuming!!!  It got me thinking, John is my mothers third husband… did she make all her husbands vacuum on their birthday or was this a training process that was finally complete on husband number three?  Once off the phone I told Luke about the birthday party game called ‘vacuuming’ and he replied with “that’s nothing new, you had me vacuuming on my birthday”.  So maybe vacuuming is the secret to a happy marriage and it just took my mother a couple of husbands to discover it.

I celebrated my 33rd birthday a few days ago and my children got me the best present ever…. a flight control T.A.R.D.I.S!!!!  It has eight motion activated interactive sound effects, flashing lantern, opening doors as well as opening telephone door.  Now I just have to buy myself an eleventh doctor figurine and I’ll be as happy as a pig in mud.  Oh and my awesome children also bought me a sonic screwdriver… got to love sci-fi kids!!!

Last weekend Natalie’s guinea pig turned one so of course being a family member he got a present.  To a guinea pig a pot of parsley is worth a million bucks so that’s exactly what our little treasure got… and he loved it! I never expected to love guinea pigs as much as I do but they are so packed with personality it’s impossible not to. The end photo shows Cookie in his night time cage and if you look closely you will see that his front paws are on the seed block and that’s where he stayed for about an hour.  He had gone a few days without a seed block and when he found the new one he wasn’t going to let it go,  his little eyes seemed to say… “my seed block!”  He makes me laugh that little piggy.

At age seven Natalie is still learning to spell so it’s only natural that she makes mistakes.  Most of the time the mistakes are simple little mix ups with vowels,  like this little corker.  I was on the phone and the kids were having trouble with the TV so Natalie passed me this note…”we cunt watch”.  I’m sure she meant we CAN’T watch, but close enough I guess.

The school holidays are almost upon us and as usual the kids are bringing home ten pin bowling vouchers and vacation care notes etc.  Usually they just go in the bin but this time I thought we’d make use of the $6 bowling voucher so I e-mailed my sister to see if she had the money to go bowling.  Here are our e-mails:

ME: Hey, did you guys have enough money to go bowling some time over the holidays?  The kids brought home a $6 per person voucher if you play before 10:30am.

NICOLE: We’re up for bowling…I’m ready to kick Dibby’s arse!!!

ME: Ha ha.. aim high… flog the seven year old!

NICOLE: She was 5 when she beat me!

ME: Time for payback!!!

Glad to see it’s not just me who enjoys beating young children.  Let’s see if Nicole will be the victor this time… perhaps it will be a repeat of  last time and Dibby will get the last laugh.

I have always loved geraniums but because we move so often I have only ever had them in pots… until now. My mother gave me a whole heap of cuttings so in the ground they went and boy did they take off.  I must have planted them in the perfect location because I have never in my life seen leaves so big and healthy before.  They are as big as my seven year old’s head, just imagine how big they’d be if I fertilised them!