Ben age 11, just starting year 6

Gone but not forgotten

Forever in our hearts.



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Down stairs mini renovation/makeover

We have been busy over the last 6 weeks giving our downstairs area a bit of a makeover.

The area I am referring to has our garage (which we haven't done more than tidy/organise). We also have a 4th bedroom, toilet and laundry. These rooms, along with the stairs and landing have been our focus.

Here are a few of the “before” pictures. We didn’t take any proper ‘before’ pictures, so these are from the photos we took of the house before we moved in. Most of the furniture is not ours, but you get the idea of what the rooms looked like.

In no particular order……

The tiles of the laundry and toilet

The walls in the laundry – some exposed brick, some unpainted rendered and some dark blue rendered wall. And a big gouge out of the wall below the power point.

The stairs. Sorry for the terrible quality, its from the video i took. The stairs are covered in a terrible grey carpet. Under the carpet is even more terrible tiles. They are unevenly laid and not grouted.

Downstairs bedroom. We had just started our work patching all the holes in the green wall in this photo.

The laundry brick wall

Looking down the stairs. (before we moved in).  Not long after we moved in, this area flooded and we had to remove the carpet on the floor. It’s been only concrete slab for 4 years.

The down stairs 4th bedroom. We only ever used it as a storeroom for the last few years. This was taken before we moved in.

The toilet. – See the magazine rack on the wall and how they didn't paint the orange paint behind it!

The laundry - before our time. See the rusted sink at the bottom. Terrible tiles too. They were lifting off and able to be removed with our fingers!

 

The next pics are some of our work in progress pics…..

Removing the laundry tiles and sand and cement base. You can easily see the rusted sink in this photo.

Toilet gutted. We also had to remove the rear wall as it was rotten at the bottom and smelly. It was glued on, and those green patches are glue. They had to be scraped back a bit to smooth it out for the new wall to go in.

And the final pictures…..

The toilet – new paint, new rear wall (gyprock/drywall), new toilet, new light switch, new tiles.

 

The laundry – new sink,  new taps, new light switches and power points, new floor tiles, new paint on all walls, including the exposed brick (not seen in this photo)

The 4th bedroom – now our guest room.

New paint (no longer green), windows now white. New floor (wood look floating floor in the room and landing), new light, new light switches. New blind.  Same curtains. New bedside table and dresser. Same bed from upstairs.

 

The stairs.

Now with white risers and wood-look treads. This is close to matching our stairs that go up to the bedrooms upstairs.

We still have a few jobs to do. None of the rooms have new doors yet, and the bedroom still needs some skirting boards. We are going to get the doors done by a pro…

We did most of the work our selves. We did employ a plumber to install the taps, toilet and sink, and a tiler to lay the tiles in the toilet and laundry. We did the rest!

Week 1 of big school

It's Friday and we've officially made it through our first week of big school.

The boys love school. They are keen to go every day, and come home with lots of animated stories about playing with their friends at lunch time.

So far we can only establish they played a game counting to 10 and did some colouring in. I guess they are easing them into it! The boys are not very forthcoming with information about actual class activities. They have told us that their classroom has a toilet and a smart board! (Important info for a kid)

They formed the classes on Wednesday and both Ben and Ethan are in Mrs Flood's class (KF). She seems nice, she is also assistant principal and head of kindergarten. We are happy so far :)

The boys have been learning their getting ready for school routine. It's a basic getting ready routine, but we need to do it in a timely fashion, and not fuss and play around too much. Play time is after they are ready!

Here's our routine boards







They close the cardboard flaps when they have done that step. They are allowed to play before breakfast if they wake up before us and do those first few jobs.


We have only used this for 1 day, so there is still some excitement about it. I'm sure it will wear off and won't be used in a few weeks. Hopefully by then they will learn the routine and the right time to play. Playing when they haven't finished getting ready is the main problem we had before this chart. They would play all morning and we would constantly list the other things they should be doing. Apparently every morning they need reminding of the same jobs!

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First Day of BIG School

Ben and Ethan are currently at their first day of “big school”. We have been excited and nervous about this day since Christmas. The boys were great at drop-off. They happily went into the classroom and Ben ran to find his friend Hayden straight away. We had to keep calling him back to talk to the teacher and put his bag and hat away. We left after spending a few mins talking to one of the teachers. There will be 4 kindergarten classes, and they are not yet formed, so the 85ish kids are all together for the first few days until they work out the final classes.

Here are our photos from this morning.

Snake-Sitting

Last weekend, we decided it was time to have a MASSIVE pre-christmas toy clear out and reorganisation of all the boys toys. Tracie got out all the toy we have in storage upstairs  (that’s a lot) and put them in piles in the living room. Pile to keep, pile to sell, pile to throw away.

On Tuesday, Trace went to work, and boys went to pre-school and I had my usual Tuesday alone. I went grocery shopping in the morning, and came home to continue organising the total mess of toys on our living room floor. About an hour or so into organising the toys, I walked into the living room and saw a snake tail disappear behind the TV unit. Then i heard it making noise as it moved behind there. i couldnt see it. I didnt know what type of snake it was, or how it got inside, or how long it had been there!!

I made a few phone calls, and finally got onto a wildlife group who had people that come to your house to remove snakes. I spent the next 4-5 hours sitting on the couch, snake-sitting. I didn’t want the snake to go somewhere in the house where i might lose it. I can’t say I was happy about it behind my TV, but at least I knew where it was!

At one point, the snake poked it’s head out one side of the TV, I moved and it went back again. A while later it poked its head out the other side. I got a better look this time, and was relieved to see it was a diamond python. (Better than the poisonous and aggressive brown snake or red-belly black snake). I stomped on the ground to scare it back behind the TV

At around 5:30pm the snake catcher arrived. About 10mins after Tracie and the boys arrived home, so they got to see the show!!) He poked the snake with his long pole and made it come out from behind the TV. He calmly picked it up and put it in a bag and took it away. He said it was quite fat, and probably a pregnant female. He was planning to let it go in local bushland.

We are now a little nervous about another snake visitor, and more careful to keep our doors and windows shut!

Santa Pic 2013

We went shopping the other day and saw Santa! Ben wanted to get his picture taken. Ethan took a little more convincing as he wasn't ready, and didnt know what to ask for!

Both boys asked for a surprise.

Santa was lots of fun. He told the boys that Dancer had been a bit naughty lately. Apparently, Dancer keeps sneaking into the workshop by head butting the door to let himself in. Once inside, Dancer eats all the chocolate. This has made Dancer quite fat, so Santa had to put him on a diet. Santa asked that Ethan give Dancer a stick of celery this year. Santa then asked Ben to put out 11 carrots for the other reindeer. Santa gave both boys a little bucket. filled with sand toys. Santa said that the carrots and celery can go in the bucket for the reindeer.

Ben and Ethan thought that this was fantastic, and loved hearing the story about the reindeer!

Preschool Graduation

Ben and Ethan graduated from pre-school this week. They have been going to the same day care/ preschool since March 2011. They have formed many friendships and loved going to ‘school’. This year, they have been attending 2 days a week (Tuesday and Friday). After Christmas they will begin Kindergarten.

I blogged about the start of school here. This is how my little boys looked on their first day.

 

This is how big and handsome they looked at their graduation.

 

And of course a picture with their best friend Hayden

And with their favourite teacher, we will miss the wonderful teachers at their preschool.

Graduation Cupcakes!

The graduating class..

 

On presentation of their certificate, Nat announced what the children would like the be when they grow up.

Ben would like to be a policeman

Ethan would like to be an actor, or many other things..

I did take a video of their graduation, but their certificate shows their last name and school name, so for safety, it will not be uploaded.

Well done Ben and Ethan for graduating preschool!