Up the tempo!

When we got home last night Eli declared that we should make some music. He grabbed his guitar and he told me to play either the harmonica or the keyboard. I chose the keyboard, but not being blessed with any musical talent, I decided to play with some of the features on the keyboard that really don't require any knowledge of music at all. My favourite game is to alter the rythym, bass and chord volumes for the pre-programmed tunes and if you add in some changes in tempo, well it creates the illusion that you are being musically creative (at least Eli and I think so).

Anyway, after playing around for a while and noticing that Eli played his guitar and jumped around according to the style and speed of my background music, I filmed a short piece of him strutting his stuff as I upped the tempo - here are the results for your viewing pleasure...

Bring on summer!

It has been a while between posts of our adventures at Noosa, but now that we're into spring and enjoying some warmer weather (and since I've often been accused of being a fair-weather friend), it's time to get back to the beach. So, that's exactly what we did last weekend. We paid our customary visits to the sandbank in the river and although we had to contend with high tides, Eli managed to entertain himself by climbing over the vegetation covered dunes and running and jumping into the water.

Here's some of the dune vegetation, with North Shore in the background.


Eli enjoyed jumping into the water, especially when waves created from the wakes of boats came ashore.


On Sunday we had better weather and it was much warmer. Eli was up for plenty of fun...


...and he'd brought along some toys from some previous sandbank trips...



It was another beautiful day on the river.


The high tide provided Eli with some great opportunities to jump off the dune grasses and into some waist deep puddles.



This particular puddle is Eli's favourite spot on the sandbank and he thinks that he owns it. In fact, he took great pleasure in telling me that he was going to chase away another group of people that had arrived at the sandbank and were starting to show some interest in this spot. He was delighted when they passed through without stopping on his turf. I'm not sure how, or when, I'll be able to convince Eli that he doesn't own the sandbank, but I'm thankful that he didn't have to deliver on his promise to chase the other people away...

Here's a happy Eli after reclaiming his territory!


After some great fun at the sandbank, Eli finished the visit off with some sprints along the freshly dredged beach on the canal.

Eli writes Eli!

Eli has recently really taken to drawing. He's always enjoyed it, but has only just recently opted, without prompting from me, to sit and draw at his table quite a lot (and I must say that I've been very thankful for his interest in this partly sedentary activity).

Now if I had to characterise Eli's works of art I'd have to say that they are predominantly a) blue, b) scribbly, and c) did I mention that they were blue? Here's a typical masterpiece...



Eli's favourite media are crayons and pencils - in fact I think he'll be a sketch artist and not one that works with paints, because he still claims that "painting is too messy" by virtue of his obsessive compulsive perspective on cleanliness. Having said that, he has just graduated to washable marker pens (which tends to mean that I am met with requests to wash his hands more often) and has recently also expanded on his style, most notably by mimicking an aboriginal dot painting that hangs on one of our walls.



Finally and very significantly in my mind, he's also recently mastered writing his own name. Here's his first legible effort at "Eli", with limited coaching and no physical assistance from me. Pretty impressive for a 3 year old I think - although Christy and I did grant him a short and rather angular name to work with...nevertheless, I think this is a pretty solid effort.

Three times one!

This past weekend we celebrated the boys' (Oliver, Harrison and Charlie) first birthday with a party in the park.



Happy Birthday dear Oliver...



...Harrison...



...and Charlie!



Of course no trip to the park would be complete (for Eli) without a kick of footy, so here are a few pics of him showcasing his skills...



After a run around and a sausage for lunch, it was time to cut the cake! Not many things come in threes (aside from triplets of course), but Anne and Tyden cleverly sculpted a birthday cake in the shape of cricket wickets, with one stump dedicated to each birthday boy.



The fun and games didn't end at the park (at least not for Eli and Alora), because we went back to the house and started unwrapping all of the gifts (while the boys had a nap!).




After bath-time, Harrison, Charlie and Oliver came downstairs to check out the loot...



We all had a great day. I can't imagine what next year's birthday bash will be like, but I'm sure Eli will enjoy it immensely...

Cycling at Sandgate

After a bit of a strange winter (weather wise), we have finally been treated to some typical winter-time conditions over the past week or so. To make the most of them, Grandma suggested that we should go for a bike ride down at Sandgate. So, after buying a (blue) helmet for Eli in the morning, we headed down to the bike path. Although Eli rides the bikes (tricycles) at daycare a lot, this is the first time he'd had his own tricycle out and about on sufficiently flat surfaces. He was pretty excited...



Grandma and Grandad had wondered how long this ride would last (Grandad said we'd be lucky to last 5 minutes!), but having seen Eli riding at daycare I knew that it would be a) a fast ride, and b) that Eli would take us a long way. It turned out that I was right. Eli sped off as soon as he hit the bike path and Grandma and Grandad actually had to jog to keep up with him (I think they were particularly concerned about the water's edge being so close - lucky Eli is a competent rider!). It was actually pretty funny watching them trying to keep up with Eli, but I'm sure the run was good for them too.



Eli rode for 1.5 km, from where we parked the car up to the jetty, before we stopped for a while and turned around for the return trip. He was a bit more restrained (ie tired) on the ride back to the car, but a round trip of 3km meant that Grandma and Grandad were tired too (and thankful for his restraint).



It was such a nice day down by the bay and Eli had a great time on his tricycle. We'll have to do it again sometime soon, although I might need to ride my bike too, just to keep pace with him. Come to think of it, I might need to put some training in, because at his pace he'll leave me in his dust by the time he's 7 years old (if not before).

Showtime!

It's that time of year again. We've made it a bit of a tradition to get along to the Mt Gravatt Show and this year Eli was particularly excited. I'd talked up the prospect of going to the show and riding the dodgem cars all week, so by the time the weekend rolled around Eli was almost bursting with excitement. We met Alora, Grandma and Grandad at the front gate and then Eli and Alora were off, with a real sense of purpose, making a b-line for the rides.



After some careful consideration, Eli decided that he and I should drive the blue dodgem car. Unfortunately, the guys running the dodgem cars told us that the really blue one was a bit slow, so we had to settle for a purple and blue number. Eli didn't seem too distressed with this change of plans, just as long as we 'crash into Alora and Grandad'...and I was only too happy to hold up that end of the bargain.




Next on the agenda was the clowns - I think Eli even broke his previous speed record for putting all of the balls in the clowns mouth as fast as he could. I'm not sure if he's speedy strategy always pays dividends, but since every player wins a prize it's not too bad...now I just have to keep those water bombs away from him until summertime...




After a short break away from the rides, Eli and Alora took us back into the thick of the action. They both wanted to have a go on the jumping castle and Eli showed us how good he is with ropes...just look at that concentration and determination as he scales the climbing wall!



One of the real hits, from Eli's perspective, of this year's show was the mouse circus...he was absolutely transfixed by it and took a fair bit of convincing when it was time for us to move on and let some other kids have a look...



Time for a break from all of the action and I finally, after several failed attempts at previous fetes and shows, convinced Eli to try some fairy floss...happy to report that he liked it, but not as much as I did. And yes, I know that it is strange that I want Eli to eat fairy floss...



After a short lunch break, Eli and Alora started playing with some of the toys from their showbags. Eli was quite taken by the blue racing car in his showbag and he raced around with it, with Grandad in tow.



Another fun day at the show...I wonder how big it will be next year...I'm already thinking that there will be more dodgem car requests and I expect that we won't be able to get away with skipping the fireworks either...