ANZAC weekend

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Lest we forget."

We spent a quiet ANZAC morning watching the dawn parade and other memorials on TV. We talked to the kids about ANZAC cove and tried to give them some insight. Taryn baked the most scrumptious Anzac cookies I've had in ages. Ken (Jayden's rugby coach) came over on Sunday morning to pick Mike up for a coaching seminar. Ken and Mike thoroughly enjoyed the better part of an entire batch! Here she is making them and then the final results (batch 1 of 4).

What he packed in his overnight bag...

I forgot to mention, when I took the kids up to camp last week, I waited while Jo dropped her two kids off, then she said she would stay there while I went and did the grocery shopping. When I came back, Jo was untangling some rope. "Where did that come from" I asked. "Jayden brought it with him" was Jo's reply. "Oh" I said "That looks like Mike's tie down rope, I hope he doesn't need it today". "Well" says Jo "the rope was one thing, but when he produced the hammer and the axe, I was a bit shocked." "What" I said. "He packed a hammer and an axe in his overnight bag" said Jo - "cause he was going to build a hut up here at camp didn't you know." Well, I quickly checked his bag to make sure there wasn't anything else I didn't know about (like perhaps a stick of dynamite!!!lol). But there was nothing else. I asked him, "so what were you going to build the hut with" "Oh" he said, "I was just going to chop some branches with the axe." "And tie them up with the rope?" I asked. "No" he said, "I brought nails to hammer them together." I quickly found the nails and we then had a discussion about tools, trees and other people's property. The rest of the time at camp went just fine.

Basic math is Okay but....

The more complicated stuff seems to still be a bit beyond Jayden. I took 6 kids to camp with me. My own two, a friend's two and my sister's two. Yeah I know some might think I'm crazy, but 6 actually worked way better than just having my 2 up there. Anyway, Jayden is on a nightly tablet that helps him calm down and drift of to sleep a bit better (usually about 8.30pm now, rather than previously finally going off at 11.30pm, thanks very much). It is a slow release tablet given 2 hours before bedtime. I knew camp was going to be an exciting time with all the kids, so I opted to give him 2 tablets on our first night (he can actually have up to 3, so no I wasn't overdosing him). He asked why I had given him 2 instead of his usual 1 tablet, to which I replied, well I know you'll be very excited and might find it hard to go to sleep tonight and you need lots of energy for our games and scavenger hunt tomorrow, so you'll need your rest. He promptly swallowed them, then added: while that's a bit silly really, cause 1 helps me go to sleep in 2 hours, giving me two will now take 4 hours!!! Oh - of course, how silly of me!

My Son the Diplomat - Not!!!

Today I ventured out with the kids to do the (well overdue) grocery shopping, which had been neglected seeing as last week was ScrapCamp. Both Jayden and Taryn (in between mucking around and play fighting) were moderately helpful, which made a nice change. At the checkout, Jayden wanted to be helpful as always (as so many ADHD kids are when they feel things are just not in 'order'), so he sorted the confectionery that had been turned the wrong way or put back in the wrong place, then proceed to help the checkout lady by passing her the items. I told him to just let the lady do it, but she insisted he was fine and just helping. I bet she wished she could eat her words as Jayden started handing them to her right in front the scanner and she had to keep checking which item had scanned, the one in her hand or the one in Jayden's. I could have stepped in again, but hey she said he was fine, so I figured okay lady I did try, so you cope with it then!
Then came my embarrassing karma for leaving her with Jayden - Jayden looked up and down the outside of the checkouts and promptly announced - hey look mum, all the checkout people are brown! Hmm! Yes Jayden, thanks for that and thanks for saying it in a loud announcing sort of way that turned a few heads from 2 checkouts in both directions!

Book Of Me

At ScrapCamp we were discussing the fact that many of us were always behind the camera and so weren't featuring in many of our own scrapbooks. Tania had decided she was going to do a mini album all about herself and her life. Several of us decided to follow. Titles were quite varied and included: Me Me Me Me Me, Pieces Of Me, Book Of Me, It's All About Me and more. Mine was originally going to be Me, Myself and I, but Tania and Wendy thought it reminded them of the movie Me, Myself and Irene, so mine is now called This Is Me. (photo attached). We brainstormed a few layout themes and came up with a theme for each month of the next 10 or so months. It will be great fun to do and we can reveal progress at each weekend workshop or ScrapCamp, so will be neat to see how others are progressing as well.

I created my mini album with my new Bind It All machine. Love it, love it, love it. So easy to use. I used precut covers and pages for my first album, covered them in KaiserCraft paper and bound them together. Couldn't have been easier. I highly recommend this tool and they can be purchased at Spotlight stores for a very reasonable price.