I knew that one day all those nappy changes and late nights would pay off… ta da… the above captures the kids cleaning the car for $1.  Claire took the rubbish out and vacuumed while Natalie wiped down everything and cleaned the windows.  They were so enthusiastic and I’d love to say it was because they were happy to do the task at hand but the reality was they were thinking of the gold coin at the end.   I set them up and let them go but before I left Claire asked me to “press play on the vacuum cleaner”… video games have infiltrated every aspect of their lives… my little gamers!

It’s good to see that my girls can save… sort of.   At nine, Claire has an understanding of the value of money and even though her Birthday was in December  she still has $26 of her Birthday money left….  six months later!  At seven, Natalie hasn’t grasped the whole “money” thing yet, or maybe she has and she simply doesn’t care. Luke said to her just the other day “you think money comes from the sky carried on unicorns riding on rainbows”.  To her money flows through her hands like water but Chocolate is a different story altogether… she saves chocolate!  Easter was way back in April but here we are in June and Natalie still has unopened boxes of Easter eggs in the fridge.   Oh, and it’s not because she had mountains of Easter eggs… we don’t buy them eggs, we make homemade eggs together as a family.  Her stash is from the grandparents (divorce works well in increasing gift yields) and boy does she make it last!

I was about to watch a TV show with my nine year old the other day when the classification “M” came onto the screen with a voice announcing that the following program was not suitable for persons under fifteen.  I turned to Claire and said “you may hear some swearing” to which she replied “that’s OK,  I hear it all day at school.”

Today I have a guest blogger,  my nine year old daughter Claire… take it away Claire.

OUR LIL IS VERY DEMANDING ON WHAT?

FOOD: SHE HAS TO HAVE HER DINNER ON TIME.  SHE ALSO IS DEMANDING  WITH  PATS, SHE HAS A FUNNY GROWL FOR PATS.

Lil’s aged 13, in dogs years she is 91.

What does the family think of  Lil?

Mummy: “I love Lil the most”

Dadda: “I love Lil more than you”

Natalie: “ I love Lil she is gorgeous”

Claire: “The gem the sparkle the apple of my eye”

Lil’s favourite colour : black and orange

(I got her favourite colour by lick language  )

Favourite  food   : home made doggy chews (OVER COOKED WALNUT AND POPPY SEED BISCOTTI)

How to make IF YOU WANT TO MAKE IT FOR PEPOLE COOK FOR 10 MIN

Ingredients

*2 cups plain flour

*3 eggs lightly beaten

*1 cup caster sugar

* 2 tablespoons crushed walnuts

* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

* 2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1. Place flour in a bowl. Add eggs sugar walnuts baking powder and poppy seeds mix to a  smooth dough.

2. Divide dough evenly into eight portions . Roll each portion out on a lightly floured

surface to a 15cm sausage shape place shape 5cm apart  on greased oven trays  .

3. cook in moderate oven  180c  for about 15 min  or until  browned and crusty, cool on trays .

4.Using a serrated knife, cut into1.5 cm thick slices . Place slices cut—side up on greased oven trays .

5.cook in a moderate oven 180c for about twenty min ( ONLY10  minutes for people ) or until crisp ; cool on wire racks

Thank you for reading

By Claire Nicole Houghton age 9

Down the road from us there is a little park and right next to that little park is an electric fence!  No kidding, there are six signs warning people of the electric fence and as a bonus the same house also has a dangerous dog sign issued by the council.  Needless to say, my kids won’t be playing there!

My kids like to use straws so I buy the big bulk packet because it’s cheaper and lets face it… straws are a luxury not a necessity.  Natalie often complains that the ones I buy are straight and all the same colour … whinge whinge whinge; whine whine whine.  I didn’t change the straws I buy so she took matters into her own hands.  I was unpacking her school bag the other day and I found about fifteen multi-coloured bendy straws.  When I asked her about them she said she sneaked them out of her art class time.  She then went on to tell me that they were clean and new as she took them out of my hands and placed them in the cupboard with all the plain boring straight straws that I buy.

While travelling in the car the kids play a game called “sweet or sour”.  They wave to a motorist and if they wave back they are sweet but if they don’t they are sour.  Claire was playing this game with friends while on a school bus trip when she came across a “super sour” as she puts it… the motorist gave the kids the finger!!!  Who the hell flips the bird to a bunch of nine year old kids?

The other day my nine year old asked me what porn was,  so I told her.  Then I asked where she had heard that word from and her response was “I don’t know, I just rhymed it with unicorn so I could call Natalie a unicorn porn”.  Quite an innocent situation thank God,  I did however ask that she not associate her sister with pornography again.

Cleaning out Natalie’s school bag last week I found ‘a list’ which is not that surprising since she writes lists for everything.  However this list was interesting because it was a FRIENDS/NOT FRIENDS list.  It was on a huge piece of paper that she had taken the time to rule up with columns and rows.  Just yesterday she pulled the list out of her bag to make an amendment, she scribbled a name off the FRIENDS column and wrote it in the NOT FRIENDS column.  Someone had obviously pissed her off at school!

The girls must be playing those trust games at school because the other day they were playing them at home.  You know, the ones where one person closes their eyes then falls backwards and hopes their partner catches them.  Also the one where one person is blind folded and the other person leads them around… basic trust games.  It was this latter game the girls were playing when all of a sudden there was a sickening thud sound followed by genuine crying.  I rushed to see what had happened and there was Claire crying her eyes out with a red lump on her forehead.  Natalie had been leading her around the house and in her own words “forgot to tell Claire about the wall”. It was a double bricked wall that Claire’s face collected… I don’t think there will be too many more trust games being played in this house!