Feasting on Father's Day

Yesterday it was Father's Day.

We all hopped out of bed, ate breakfast and got ready to go to Mass like we do every Sunday. But on the way back home from Mass we did something we don't normally do.

Dad parked the van outside the supermarket and then he and Mum walked into the shop to buy something special for lunch. They came back a few minutes later. Dad started the van and we drove home.

"Everybody out," Dad bellowed from the front of the van. We all piled out of the van, trotted down the driveway and into the house. Imogen started to unpack the lunch and I smiled as I saw a container of potato salad, a packet of cheese, a bag of rolls, followed by some peppercorn ham and pesto ham. We all tucked into a good lunch.

 "Gemma-Rose, go to my bedroom. In my cupboard are some presents," Mum whispered to me after lunch. I dashed off to Mum's bedroom and soon came back out with a big bag of presents.

I chose a present from the bag and walked over to Dad. "Happy Father's Day," I said giving him a kind of square and squidgy parcel, and a big kiss.

Dad opened the present and a smile crept onto his face. "A pair of shorts. Thank you."

Sophie gave him the next present. "Socks! Groovy socks," cried Dad in delight.

"Here you go, Dad," said Charlotte, handing him another present.

"Ooh...arr...Um I can't get into this one," Dad admitted as everybody watched him struggling to get it open.

"Maybe I put just a little too much sticky tape on that," pondered Charlotte.

"Nuts! Yummy hot spicy nuts," exclaimed Dad when he finally got the present open.

"Another pair of shorts! Thank you Imogen," said Dad, taking the paper off another present.

One by one the presents got opened and oohs and arrs kept going round the room.

Mum handed Dad the keys to the car. "Go look in the boot of my car," she said with a mischievous grin.

Dad, Imogen and I headed out to the car. Dad opened the boot and inside was a huge cardboard box. He looked at the side of the box. "Ocean," he read,"You're giving me an ocean?"

"No, no," said Imogen as we plodded back into the house.

"Is it supposed to make all those click clacking sounds?" Dad asked.

"Yes," Mum reassured him.

Dad pulled out of the box lots of black pieces of plastic, then some black square plastic frames and four white plastic boxes.

"It all looks like giant Lego," said Charlotte.

"Does it have any instructions?" Mum asked.

"No. There's only lots of plastic," said Dad.

"I think this part goes here and this one here," Imogen said, helping Dad put up a rather tall tower.

"What is it?" Dad asked.

"Not telling," said Mum.

"Done," said Dad, standing back to view the masterpiece. "It's a cabinet with four drawers, isn't it?"

"Yes. It's for all your stuff that's lying on the table in the other room," said Mum.

After a relaxing afternoon we had dinner and ice cream. We did the dishes and then settled down to watch Oliver Twist. When we had finished that, Mum said, "Callum sent me a text message telling everybody not go to bed."

"Not go to bed?" I asked.

"Yes. We've all got to stay up till he gets home from work."

"Imogen, while we were at the supermarket I bought some crumpets. Do you want to cook some?" Dad asked.

Imogen walked into the kitchen and soon we could hear the kettle boiling and the toaster being placed on the kitchen bench.

We ate crumpets and talked until we heard the front door open and Callum walked into the family-room.

"Good. You are all still up," he said and with that, he walked into the kitchen.

Callum came back a few minutes later with a platter of salmon, olives, a orange dip, cheese and crackers. Everybody scrambled to the table and started filling plates high with cheese and crackers.

"I am full," said Dad as he polished off the last of his crackers.

"So am I," said Mum.

"But it was good," I said, getting up from the sofa.

"We better be getting to bed," said Sophie.

I toddled out of the room.

"Good night," said Mum as she bent down to give me a cuddle.

"See you in the morning ," I said drowsily.

Mum closed the door softly and padded off down the hall.

Everybody enjoyed Father's Day and the feast that came with it. But I was glad it was all over and I could go to sleep.          
   

Zumba Girls

Mum decided to learn Zumba so naturally all us girls decided to learn it too.

Charlotte and Imogen move the table to the side of the room. Mum puts the disk into the DVD player. "This is going to be fun," Mum encourages. I pull a big silly smile. A lady appears on the screen and starts shouting at us.

"Get your heart rate up there. The higher you get it, the more calories you burn. Come on, wiggle those hips. Walk like a crab," she shouts.

I take three steps to the right and then three steps to the left and end up on Charlotte's toes. I pant away. I never thought Zumba would be this hard.A few sore toes later we stop.

"I think that's plenty of Zumba for one day," smiles Mum.

"You have learnt Zumba, but before you start partying, I would like to introduce you to the creator of Zumba," shouts the lady.
 
"It is beyond me how the ladies get their hips all the way round like that," pants Charlotte.

I can move my hips but I keep stepping on Charlotte's toes.    

We keep going back and doing this strange sport. Why? I have no idea. We have no coordination.  
           
Finally it gets warm enough to run outside and we give up Zumba. Zumba is fun but we prefer running.

Yummy Cakes

We always celebrate a special day with a yummy cake.

                                           
                                             My eighth birthday cake    

                                                           Happy Anniversary cake

                                       
                                                              Epiphany Crown Cake                         

                             
                                                            My 9th Birthday cake

                      
                                                Charlotte's First Holy Communion cake  
                                                           

                                                   Easter Egg Nest Cake

 
                                                           Pentecost Cake

                                                        Imogen's 18th Birthday Cake

                                                             Fathers Day Cake

                                                       Sophie's Confirmation Cake  


Tomorrow we will be having another cake. It is Mummy's birthday!

Uninvited Fleas

"Imogen, could you please give those cats a bath? I got bitten last night by a flea," says Mum.

Imogen sighs and turns to look for the first terror (bathing cats is hard work) .

"She is probably in the settee," calls out Charlotte.  

Imogen grabs the first cat and hauls her out of the settee.

I try to clog up my ears and read my book at the same time but it is impossible with those cats yowling and hissing all the time.

Imogen throws Poppy out of the laundry after her bath.  (Poppy is the worst cat in the bath.)

"I bathed the cats, Mum," says a VERY wet Imogen.


"Poppy tried to climb the wall," says mostly dry Charlotte, who has been helping.

"Thank you. Do you think it would be possible to look through the cats' fur?" says Mum.

Charlotte marches into the family room armed with a comb and a cup of hot water.

One after the other the fleas got plucked  out of the cats' fur and into the hot water.

A few months later, Imogen makes a terrible discovery while hugging Sammy.

"Mum, I found a flea on Sammy."

Mum takes Sophie and me to the shops.

"We will see if we can find some flea shampoo and some flea collars."

We come home some time later with a yellow collar, a blue collar, a red collar and a bottle of flea shampoo.

Imogen starts putting the yellow flea collar on Jenny.

"That shade of yellow looks like the worming paste they get on their paws," I say.

"What if she chews through her collar like she did with the one Imogen got her for Christmas?" says Sophie.          

"I doubt it tastes that nice," says Charlotte.

A few days later Imogen is out.

"Charlotte could you please go through the cats with a comb and see if there are any fleas?" asks Mum

Charlotte nods and picks up Poppy who is lying sprawled out on the floor in the sun.

Again in the family room, with a comb and a cup of water, Charlotte, Sophie and I sit down on the settee.

Charlotte holds the struggling animal who doesn't like anybody that close to its tummy while Sophie combs through the fur.

I have a cup of water all ready for the fleas but no fleas come.

We trudge off to Mum's bedroom.

"We couldn't find any," says Charlotte.

"Not a single one," concludes Sophie.

But Mum keeps getting bitten. There are fleas hiding somewhere.

Mum suddenly has a great idea.

Mum jumps into the car and we go off to buy flea bombs.

We come back home with eight flea bombs.

"What are we going to do with the cats?" asks Charlotte. The instructions say the house must be empty when the bombs go off. The house has to be empty for two hours.

"I don't know," says Mum.

The next day we put the cat question to Callum.

"Why don't you put them in one of my cars?" suggests Callum, after a lot of thinking.

"They will boil in the car for two hours."

Finally Mum has another one of her fantastic and strange ideas. "Why don't we take them down to the park."

To the park? We all look doubtful.

"People take dogs down to the park so why don't we take our cats?" says Mum

 We all grin at the thought of us taking the cats for a walk.

Sophie, Charlotte and I hop into the van while Mum and Imogen get ready to set the flea bombs off. We have the cats in their carriers. Mum and Imogen come running out of the house.

"I set off all the flea bombs," says Imogen proudly.

Imogen and Charlotte are in the middle of the van with our cats Poppy and Jenny, while Sophie has to look after Sammy in the back.

Mum starts the van. I listen from the front of the van as the cats start meowing and yowling.

We finally reach the park. Sammy and Jenny stop yowling. They are fascinated by the ducks but Poppy doesn't like it at all. She starts trying to dig her way out of the pet carrier.

Lots of men with big dogs walk by and ladies with puppies. Two ladies stop to have a look at our cats.

"What have you here?" says two ladies.

"What an adorable cat you own," they say pointing to Poppy.

Mum reads part of a book to Sophie and me, while we are at the park. After a while Mum closes the book and I pick up my drawing.

"We can start heading home now," says Mum eventually.

We all get up and Imogen goes to find the cats' bowls which she fills with water, so she can give the cats a drink before their ride home.

Mum pulls in at the driveway. She goes into the house with Imogen and opens the door and all the windows. Imogen then returns to the van.

"Mum is airing the house. She told us to get ice-creams."

We walk up to the village shop and buy big ice-creams.

When we get home, Charlotte opens the front door and a terrible smell wafts up to our noses. Flea bombs smell awful.

I am glad it is all over. The fleas are gone and the house now smells okay.


  

Swimming

I have swimming lessons. I go to the swimming pool every Saturday. It is a chlorine pool.

Mum got me a wonderful pink wet suit because the water there is very cold. I also have a rash shirt, a pink swimsuit and pink goggles. I like pink.

I go and play for five or ten minutes before my lesson. Then I have a half an hour swim lesson. I love my swim lessons. They are lots of fun and I soon warm up. I can do tumble turns, I can dive with a big splash and I am learning breast stroke.  I think I am lucky to get swim lessons.

After my lesson, I play till Charlotte has finished swimming laps. Then we go and get changed into our clothes.

I was glad that Mum got me swim lessons when Dad, Charlotte and I capsized the canoe, while we were on holiday.  We all fell into the freezing cold water. It was deep. I went down to the bottom of the lake. Then Charlotte grabbed me.  We got back into the canoe and Dad towed us to shore.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Kangaroos

There is a lot of kangaroos in Australia.

When Charlotte was little, Mum and Dad lived on a 100 acre block and when they went walking in the bushy bits they could see lots of kangaroos.

At Penrose Park (monastery) we see heaps of kangaroos just dotted around the place.

We have seen kangaroos on our street as well. When we were saying morning prayers one day, Mum said, "Look there is a kangaroo."

I rushed to the window and there was a kangaroo happily hopping down the road.

We also saw a kangaroo when we were going running.We were walking up to the bush track in the early morning.

"Look, it's a kangaroo," said Imogen.

It sat there in the bush looking at us, then it hurried away as if it was late for something.

Dad hit a kangaroo late one night. I think the kangaroo did more damage to the car then the car did to it. Imogen was afraid that the kangaroo would go through the windscreen and it would sit in her lap. Dad managed to get the car home. Luckily for me I was not in the car but I did get to see the car afterwards. It had kangaroo fur on it. Both the kangaroo and the car ended up dying.

I like kangaroos and their big legs.         
   

Angelica

Angelica is my guinea pig. She is about seven years old which is very old for a guinea pig.

We bought another guinea pig at the same time. That guinea pig's name was Pia.

Angelica

We already had two guinea pigs at home. Their names were Scarlatti and Hercules. They were more black then orange, not like Pia and Angelica.

Scarlatti was Sophie's favourite guinea pig.

One day Sophie and I are sitting on our beds before going outside. Duncan suddenly bursts open the door.

"What is it?" I ask.

"It's Hercules," says Duncan. "He died last night."

I burst into tears and run out of the room to Mum.

me and Angelica

Another time we are giving all the guinea pigs a cuddle except for Hercules (because he is dead). I am holding Scarlatti.

"The guinea pig is very quiet. Is he ok?" I ask.

"Yes!" says Sophie confidently. "He is just settling down."

I'm not so sure but I decide to believe her.

We take Scarlatti and Pia back to their cages and close the doors.

 I skip off to the house with Sophie to get Angelica.

When we come back I look down at Scarlatti and cry. "Sophie, he has not moved."

Sophie thrusts Angelica into the cage and grabs Scarlatti. Together we run into the house.

"Dad! Dad!" we shout. "Scarlatti is not moving."

 Dad picks up Scarlatti.  "I think he is dead," says Dad.

Sophie and I start crying in unison. Mum gives us a cuddle and tries to comfort us.

Duncan moves Pia and Angelica to the now empty boy guinea pigs' cage because it is a safer cage.

Angelica in her cage

Pia died while Mum was doing our hair and Charlotte had been feeding the guinea pigs and had found Pia dead.

I was strong and didn't cry.

Angelica in the sun

So now we only have Angelica who didn't really notice that Pia was gone except that there was more food. She is now the fattest guinea pig ever.                                                               

Making Muffins

Yesterday Sophie and me made muffins. We got our packet mix muffins out of the pantry. Mine were chocolate and caramel muffins. Sophie's were Apple and Cinnamon. I got to crack my own egg into the bowl. I don't normally do that, only when I'm making packet mixes. Charlotte had to help me measure the water. Then I stirred the ingredients together.

Sophie made her muffins at the same time. She did it all on her own. Then we put them in the muffin tins.Charlotte put them in the oven because I'm not allowed to do that. While the muffins cooked, we got to lick out the bowls. I shared my bowl with Charlotte. It tasted really nice. I love licking out bowls.

Then we cleaned up the kitchen while the muffins were still cooking. I liked cleaning up with Sophie. It was fun. Charlotte took the muffins out of the oven. The muffins smelt really nice. Sophie's smelt the strongest.
We ate them for afternoon tea.

I like cooking on my own because I get to do everything myself. When I cook with my sisters, I don't get to do things like crack the eggs. But I still get to lick out the bowls. Yum!