It’s been super hot.
Varsha and Laxmi put decorations on the Christmas tree.
Varsha has been watching lots of Dr who and Laxmi has been reading Harry Potter and watching Stampy play Nino Kuni, a game animated by Studip Ghibli.
We watched Thor Ragnorok and another movie by the New Zealand director, Tyko Waititi called Hunt for the Wilderpeople. They were both good.
Then it started raining. So nice and cool and the plants are so happy.
It’s been really hot. Laxmi’s been reading lots and looking up some good words.
A big thunderstorm blew in. We took a frightened dog inside. He was running around panicking. It took a while to find out where he came from afterwards. We walked around town and saw a funny Halloween hand sticking out of the boiler ruins.
We tried a game we hadn’t played before: living landscapes. It is about the connection of all the things in a garden or farm. It was pretty complicated but fun. We liked the illustrations on the cards.
Dakoda came over for a play. They started making fan fiction based on Harry Potter.
We have been making with clay quite often lately.
Varsha’s been working hard on completing things for the opening of their Hydra performance at the Cairns Art Gallery with the Young Creatives. She and Marley gave one of the speeches. We alll went down for it.
Cat and Will and Thiango and Cosi have come home from Indonesia. We had them over for dinner and they told us all about what they did.
We camped at Big Crystal Creek on the way home. There was a beautiful swimming spot.
Laxmi finished The Goblet of Fire in the car before we got home. They didn’t have The Order of the Phoenix in the library so Laxmi has started reading the PDF on the iPad. We watched The Goblet of Fire movie too.
When we got home the poinciana had really come out.
Varsha made peach pancakes. She has been working on another Hydra head and made a cloak for one of the dolls she has painted.
We had a lovely time at the beach house with Grandma and Grandpa and Stu and Stephanie and Katie. There was a pool table. We played lots of games on it and games like articulate and Uno.
We made a mango ice cream birthday cake and went out for a lovely lunch for Grandma and Grandpa’s birthday.
The pool was lovely too. Laxmi and Katie spent hours and hours in there.
We drove to Ingham and camped at the same campground we stayed at on our road trip last November. We read Finding ones way with clay in the car. We had dinner at the pub and the train went past close to our tent 3 times in the night.
We discovered Otto’s in Townsville for breakfast. They had really good sourdough bread.
We had some quiet days at home. Varsha went to Lake Eacham with Tekira.
The next day she spent a long time untangling embroidery thread. She embroidered a birthday present for Grandma and Grandpa.
Laxmi has been reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She wanted to make dinner from the garden so we dig up some sweet potatoes and picked some tomatoes and greens. We scrambled some of our chicken eggs and made a spinach and feta pastry with the greens.
Laxmi has been getting up early to feed the chickens. She and Kiko had a nap together in the middle of the day.
Laxmi made chocolate chip cookies for Grandma and Grandpa’s birthday.
Laxmi made breakfast with strawberries from the gardens she has been thinking a lot about what is healthy food after watching Back in time for dinner.
One day she measured heaps of things and we talked about millimeters and centimetres and metres.
Varsha played Geoguesser where she guessed the location of random street view images from google earth and then she made little watercolour landscapes.
Thiango organised a photo shoot in the burned landscape between Mareeba and Molloy. They all dressed in black. They were really tired when they got home.
Laxmi had a dentist appointment. Her teeth were pretty good. She and Varsha did a colouring in the waiting room.
We have decided to explore more Wes Anderson movies. We watched our third, The Royal Tenenbaums. The other movies we have seen by Wes Anderson were Hotel Grand Budapest and The Isle of Dogs. They are funny and poignant, surreal and they look fabulous.
Varsha made a teddy bear and a card for Tekira’s birthday. She had a 50s birthday party in Atherton.
Dakoda came over to play a few days. She and Laxmi started Monster High Doll makeovers. They cut off the hair and took their heads off after warming them in hot water. They pulled the hair roots out from the inside with pliers and put new woollen hair in. Painting the faces was a bit harder than they expected and they washed a most of the paint off. Varsha gave a few tips and did some drawings.
Things have been much quieter this week. Even the markets were quiet. It was drizzly early in the morning and we weren’t sure if we would go at all. The sun came out and we had a lovely time. We came home with lots of flowers and produce. Laxmi got a really hard puzzle from Cat’s stall.
Varsha had her last Young Creatives session for the year at the Cairns Art Gallery.
Mount Molloy P&C organised trick or treat and a Halloween disco on Saturday night. The Homeschoolers joined in and had a great time.
We have really been enjoying watching the series Back in Time for Dinner on ABC iView. It shows how food and kitchens and culture have changed in Australia each decade. It shows the influence of technology and current affairs.
Laxmi has started swimming classes at the Julatten pool. Laxmi also finished reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. She watched the movie a couple of times and has started reading the next book already. She has also been watching quizzes and commentary of Harry Potter on you tube,
Bila invited Varsha and Thiango to come to Rocky Horror Movie at the outdoor cinema in the botanical gardens in Cairns for her birthday. Varsha made her a card and we all dressed up. There was a best dressed competition and lots of people brought things like water pistols to spray in the air when it was raining in the movie. Varsha was pretty impressed by their dedication to a movie that came out in 1975.
