Caleb 11

Caleb turned 11 this month. Still the outside boy he got a fishing rod for his birthday and celebrated with his friends running through the rainforest shooting lasers at each other. Caleb's motto is , 'you only live once', not sure if that's a good motto to have or not!!! Still he is determined to live life to the full and packs in as much as he can.

Tank Museum (Take 2)

Libby took the boys to visit the newly opened tank museum when I was away with Bethany last year. Early in the New Year I had the opportunity to take the boys - along with the males (and one small female) from two other MAF families. The females all went to the beach for 'coffee and chat' instead.

Ruben didn't manage to start any tanks this time, but still had a lot of fun (mostly with the toy soldiers and 'operations' table). Here are a few piccies. (The last is Ruben doing 'pugnacious'):

Beardless Weirdness

Over Christmas I decided to see if I still had a face, after 20 years of it being covered up...

Still there, but seems very weird now - Bethany was completely freaked out - which was half my motivation for doing it :)

Can't see if happening too much in the future - WAY too much work. Kudos to those who bother every day.

Bowling

Last weekend we went bowling with some friends. Ruben really enjoys the bowling but the highlight for him is still the bowling shoes! I'm sure you can see why.

In the news this week!!

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Maybe having second thoughts about swimming in the sea here, at least for now!!

Swimmers scared to take a dip at Cairns family beach after croc spotted in water.

A viral video showing a saltwater crocodile swimming at a Cairns beach has locals scared to take a dip, but a wildlife expert says there's far worse things in the water to worry about.

The 10-second clip uploaded on Saturday shows the croc, affectionately named Snapper Jr, floating towards swimmers at Kewarra Beach before heading back to deeper waters.

 Children stung by 'irukandji' in Qld

Two children have been stung by suspected irukandji jellyfish within hours of each other in Queensland.

A 10-year-old girl was stung at Cairn's Trinity Beach around 12.30pm on Wednesday, two-and-a-half hours before a 12-year-old boy was taken to Hamilton Island medical centre with a sting to his upper left thigh.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said the boy began developing symptoms around half an hour after leaving water off the island, which is a popular Whitsundays tourism destination.

The incidents come after two people suffered suspected stings in other parts of Cairns on Tuesday, prompting beach closures.

A 58-year-old man was stung by an unknown variety at Stratford but didn't require hospitalisation, while a 46-year-old woman thankfully recovered after what was initially feared to be an irukandji sting at Clifton Beach.

Cairns Hospital also treated a three-year-old girl before discharging her later in the day.

Kewarra Beach, also in Cairns, was closed after an irukandji was found in stinger nets, a Queensland Surf Lifesaving spokeswoman told AAP.

Transient Safari Art

In this hot weather, the kids (or at least some of them) like to cool off by hosing each other down in the garden (not quite as calm and sedate as that might sound...)

A development of this has been their discovery of the fact that by getting wet and then pressing various parts of their anatomy against the fence, they can make 'art'. This started with Caleb's inevitable discovery of 'bum prints', but has developed and become slightly more civilized. The result is what I like to call (for reasons that will become obvious) 'transient safari art'.

Here are a few examples:

I'm sure an art critic could find deep things to say about the symbolism of the extinction of species in fragile ecosystems, but I'll let you reach your own conclusions :)

Josephine falls

Today is Australia day, a bank holiday here and the last day of the summer holidays. We've had a great holiday but everyone is excited to be going back to school tomorrow. Yesterday as a final fling we went swimming to Josephine Falls. A natural playground with swimming and water slides south of Cairns. (The camera was not working very well so I only have a few photos)

We have basically spent the holidays swimming in the sea, swimming in pools, swimming in lakes in creeks and in the lagoon. We swam on Christmas day, twice and late into the night on New Years Eve. Good job our family is at its happiest in the water!