My New School Hat!

So it is official, the holidays are over and we had to go to back to school.  Naturally the day began with the obligatory back to school photo session.  Now that photo session may or may not have ended with someone muttering that "being in Grade 6 doesn't mean that you can be an ar$e-hat!"

Do you think a comment like that would have been directed at me?  This isn't an ar$e-hat, it is me being sun smart and cool!
Love AJ Pickle

Hooray, School is Back :-)

I know that I should probably be complaining that the holidays are over, and that I am disappointed to not be able to sleep in if I wanted to but I am not.  I love hanging out with my holiday friends but I have missed seeing all of my school friends.  I will miss being able to do whatever I wanted and just chill out all day long but secretly I am happy to be going back to school to be able to catch up with my friends and catch up on all the holiday gossip.

2013 is going to be a great year.
Love Princess George

A Letter to My 11 Year Old

Dear AJ,

This time 11 years ago my world changed, you entered my world.

I can't believe how fast that time has flown by, it seems like only yesterday.  Tomorrow you start Grade 6.  I know that this year will be big and exciting for both of us.  There will be so many changes and challenges that take place but know that I will always be by your side, supporting and encouraging you.  

You have grown to be an amazing young guy.  One who is caring and understanding, brave and smart,  perhaps a little lazy but very cheeky and definitely easily excitable.  I look forward to watching you grow even more.  It won't be long before you are bigger and stronger than me.  Already we can share shoes and some hockey gear.  You love ice hockey and have been playing for a few years now.  This year you start development league and you will get to play real games.

I love that you still like to curl up on the couch next to me for a snuggle.  I love that you are not too big to want to hold hands as we walk together.  I love even more that you still want a cuddle-kiss every day when we say goodbye to one another and again at bed time.  Somedays I wish you would cut your long scraggly hair, other days I would be happy if you would simply drag a comb through it so I can see your gorgeous smiling face!

AJ - I loved you with all my heart then and I love you even more now
Love your very proud Mama xo

Growing Up

Do you know what the coolest thing about growing up is?  It is actually growing UP, and by that I mean getting taller.

Almost as tall as Nan with my skates on!

I am guessing that this time next year I will be taller than Nan.  Look out Pop, it won't be long before I catch you too!

Thanks for coming all the way to Melbourne to hang out with me for my birthday.
Love AJ Pickle, the birthday boy

Almost 11

Goodnight my cheeky monkey.  Sleep well and see you when you are 11  :-)

Decision time

It has been six long and lonely weeks since Lucky disappeared. Tornado is sad and has no one to play with.

Now that the holidays are ending, we thought it was time that we did something to make sure that Tornado didn't get too lonely.

We headed to the Lost Dogs Home and then to Lort Smith Animal Shelter to see if we could find a friend for him.









Between the 2 different shelters, there were only 3 kittens there ready for adoption.  They were all really really cute.


Pepper was a beautiful little girl but she looked so much like Lucky that it broke my heart.


Then there was Phoenix, he was really cute and a little bit playful too.


Finally there was this little guy who was crazy, even too crazy for us.  We had heaps of fun playing with all of the kittens but they just weren't the perfect fit for our family.  As difficult as it was, we said goodbye to the kittens and hoped that we would eventually find the perfect kitten to join our family some time soon.

Love Princess George

If wishes come true...

I really really wish wishes would come true, there are a couple of kids who still have broken hearts.

We all miss our cat Lucky.

Wishes for Everyone

An amazing afternoon of exploring and we found not only a Labyrinth but a Wishing Tree.  

The Wishing Tree

The tree was covered in wishes from many different people.  It was beautiful.

... when I grow up

Love and Laughs

Contentedness, Beauty, Peace

Super Powers :-)

I wish for a Kitten too!

Happiness for all

The Labyrinth

A public holiday and with school about to go back, it was the last day we were all likely to be home together for a month or 2.  It was the perfect reason to get out and about.  Dad planned an adventure for us to go exploring around the Yarra, in the Fairfield area.  We jumped in the car and headed out to have some fun.

Dad's plans went out the window when we saw a signpost that said 'Labyrinth' with an arrow pointing in the opposite direction.  Naturally we ignored Dad's directions and headed off to find the Labyrinth.

Now I don't know about you, but until now, all I knew about a Labyrinth is that it is a movie that is kinda scary, where everyone gets lost in a ginormous maze.  (I probably should watch the movie again now that I am older, hopefully it won't be so scary!)

Luckily the Labyrinth we found was nothing like that Labyrinth.  This Labyrinth was made from rocks and was a single pathway that we followed around and around until we made it to the middle.

Follow the Path

I tried to relax and enjoying the slow wander through the Labyrinth, but I don't wander slowly very well.  We are kids so going slow really isn't what we do.  In fact, we went through the Labyrinth twice and still managed to get back to the start before mum!

Getting there

Almost to the middle

One of the biggest challenges was to stay in between the rock walls instead of jumping over them!

We had a great time exploring the Labyrinth.

The Wishing Tree and the Labyrinth

Sometimes it is great to change plans at the last minute, to see what surprises are just around the corner.
Happy exploring,

Love Princess George

Kids of Social Mums Say...

Every now and then mum will go off and meet up with some other bloggy folk and have a great time.  She will come home talking about all the cool people she met and the fun things that she got to do.  Well finally mum let us come along to a bloggy day - we went to Social Mums Say at Fed Square.

I overheard mum tell dad that if we thought it was lame that we could go hang out in the park and she would have fun with Milla.  Well I am happy to say that I had a great time and didn't want to escape at all, I could have stayed even longer!

The highlight of the day for me was hanging out and using all of the Micador products.  I decorated a folder that will look awesome in my new bedroom.  Who knew you could have so much fun with a folder and some washi tape!

Once I finished decorating my folder, it was time to try out the Clouds Modelling Foam.  I loved playing with the foam but because so many kids had played with it all morning, the colours were all mixed up.  I fixed that - I started to sort it out into colours so that the other kids could play with it properly.

OCD much?

Even Milla liked playing with the Cloud Foam and sorting it into proper colours!

It seems OCD may just be contagious!

Thanks for a great day Kids Business, I hope mum drags me along to another blog event soon!
Love AJ Pickle

PS - shhhhh, don't tell anyone but someone may just have smuggled home some Clouds modelling foam so the fun could continue!

I said not to tell anyone!

This is the life!

You know, I really could get used to this!
Love AJ Pickle

When Holidays are Hard Work

Some times it is hard work having holidays.  There are sleep overs to be had, late nights, junk food, far too much running crazy and with friends and this time of year, too much swimming and sun.

I have had an awesome holiday so far but at this rate, I think I will need a holiday to recover from my holiday.
Love Princess George

Keep Out! - or what to do with Post It Notes

Sometimes people like a little privacy so we thought that we would help Nanny an Poppy get some privacy.

Do you think our sign will work?

Love AJ and Milla

Being helpful

Yes I know that AJ complains that there are too many girls and that they are always hanging around at Nan and Pop's place but it isn't my fault that I am really good at making friends and that I have great friends living so close to their house that we can visit each other all the time.

Anyway, AJ should remember that having girls around isn't always a bad thing, sometimes they can be extremely helpful (instead of completely annoying), just like when we went fishing except I didn't want to do any fishing.


Instead of getting in your way, I let you guys do the fishing and I did all the hard work - I took all the stinky carp to the dead fish pile for you!

You're welcome AJ!

Love Princess George

Look what I caught!

I love being on holidays, especially when I get to stay at Nan and Pop's house.  The only bit that I don't like is being sick and throwing up every night (fingers crossed that is over now!)  Oh there is one other thing that can be annoying - I am always surrounded by girls, they are everywhere.  Seriously, this entire neighbourhood seems to be made up of girls!  Luckily Nan took me out to Tungamah to catch up with my cousins, well my mum's cousin and her boys.  Hooray for having boys to hang out with!

The best part of the day was going fishing.  We wandered down to the Boosey Creek, the same place that we went camping a few years ago, and threw in a line.  It wasn't long before there was a tug at my line.

AJ and his first catch

I couldn't believe it - I had caught a fish!

It wasn't long before I caught another fish, and then another and another.  We caught heaps of fish.  The others were a little disappointed that the fish we caught were European Carp and no good for eating but I didn't mind, I don't eat fish anyway!

I like the country life, hanging out by the creek, catching fish and having fun.  I could get used to this.
Love AJ Pickle

Another Day, Another Beach

Like I said yesterday, being dragged along to hang out with girls can be a pain and being stuck hanging out with 3 little(ish) girls can be very painful.  Luckily we were in another pretty awesome place again today.

When we arrived at the beach we had the whole place to ourselves. 

I was able to go bodysurfing before the crowds turned up.

Once it was too busy in the water and I was thoroughly waterlogged, I decided it was time to join the girls on the beach. They were digging holes to see who could dig the deepest hole. I knew that I could did the biggest hole so I started digging.  Then, once my hole was the biggest, the girls helped bury me.

                           

Hmmm, I really didn't think this through!

Luckily I could get my arms free then I had to start digging my way out.  Let me tell you, it is much easier to dig a hole than it is to dig your way out of a hole!

If you don't count the wicked sunburn that I now have, maybe hanging out with girls at the beach isn't so bad!

Love AJ Pickle

Sleep Out

It is no secret that we love camping, the only problem is that we are always so busy that we never make time to go camping. A few weeks ago we wanted to go camping in the backyard but it turns out that our tent is bigger, WAY bigger, than our backyard so that didn't work.

Well all of that has changed now and we are the proud new owners of a new tent that we can all fit in but still fits in our backyard. To celebrate, we went camping the very night we got the tent.

It was great camping in the backyard. The best thing was that we could quickly run inside to get anything we had forgotten.  And yes, you do need to have a cow with sunglasses when you go camping!

We tried to convince mum and dad to join us on our camping adventure but we had no luck.  Hopefully  our whole family we will get to go camping properly soon.
Love AJ and Milla

Such a drag!

Sometimes it is frustrating when I get dragged along to things with Milla, to places where there are only girls or little kids to play with.  Then other times it is awesome, especially when the places that I get dragged to are at the beach!

I hope that you had a chance to enjoy the sunset too.
Love AJ Pickle

Visiting with friends

Sometimes I get sad that some of my best friends moved to the other side of the city and I don't get to see them all that often.  The sadness disappears when I get to go and visit them at their holiday house and we can spend the evening playing on the beach.

We didn't swim but there were waves to chase...

Trying to stay dry (NOT!)

Sand dunes to explore (and by explore I may just mean slide down!)...

Slip sliding and having fun

Even AJ, who spends most of his time complaining, seemed to have fun.

Boy time

Do you know what the only problem with going to the beach for the evening is?  

Celebrating Summer with cartwheels

The sun setting and us having to go home for the night!  Luckily we are having a sleepover.  Hopefully we will get to go back to the beach again tomorrow.
Love Princess George

Loving the Beach

It is only the second day of the year and we are visiting our second beach of the year.

It was stinking hot today so we had a pretty quiet day with friends at home then mum surprised us and packed a dinner picnic to take to the beach!

Beach love

Perhaps 2013 is the year of beaches!
Love Princess George

A New Year and a New Beach

What better way to start the New Year than by driving to a 'new' beach.  OK, it isn't really a new beach but it was a part of the beach that was new to us, we stopped here to avoid the crowds on the main part of the beach.  Anyway, spending the day at the beach is always fun, there is so much to do.

Of course you can splash around in the water, go for a swim, search for sea creatures or find pretty rocks.

Enjoying the beach

You can also dig holes in the sand. We had this great idea to dig holes and bury ourselves in the sand to avoid the sun.

Almost buried

If you are lucky you can find some seaweed pom poms and pretend you are a cheerleader!

Ready, OK!

What a great way to spend New Years Day,
Love princess George and AJ Pickle