What a sap....

....Moon, that is :)

Sap Moon, Wolf Moon, Super Moon, Maple Moon, Sugar Moon or even Worm Moon - whatever you want to call it, we've just had the biggest one in about 18 years.  It was cloudy here on Saturday night, so we missed it at it's peak, but Sunday night was lovely & clear, so we went out to take some photos.  It's times like these I wish for a really good digital SLR, but alas, our regular camera had to suffice.  The moon didn't look particularly large, but it was very bright - actually too bright for our camera to pick up the craters, but you can see them in the reflected blue moon.


One of the (very few) benefits of having a nocturnal child is that we can sit outside late at night while the rest of the town sleeps, waiting to see shooting stars and discussing the various constellations.  I love hearing the awe in Jasmine's voice as she asks questions, and when I'm pointing out the Southern Cross, the saucepan, various planets & other celestial bodies, I have flashbacks to my own childhood as I remember my Mum pointing them out to me :)  Thankfully, for the stars I'm not so sure about, there's Stellarium.  This is a great free program that gives you a 3D view of the stars from your local coordinates.  The only problem we have at the moment is that it's on the PC inside the house - not exactly practical when we don't have a transparent roof!  I think we're going to have to snatch D's notebook when he's not looking so we can load it onto that & take it outside with us.


What else was on the cards this week?  Well, cards!  We bought a new deck of cards & they're getting a good workout with Snap & Go Fish, Jasmine's favourite card games (AKA number recognition exercises ;)). And........

More dancing

Lots of bubbles - a good lesson in wind direction & speed today!

A mumma duck created to look after all the little chicks Jasmine bought the other day

Saving seeds from the parsley, ready for planting out soon

Jasmine's garden bed got a tidy up, ready to fertilise & grow the next crops.  I was impressed by how long she spent on this - usually, she lasts all of about 2 mins.  She REALLY wants to be fully self-sufficient in the fruit & veg department.  I suggested we'd need a few more beds made before that could happen.  She decided to pull up the plants & dig up the bulbs in the 'decorative' half of the bed so we could plant veggies in the whole thing.  She thinks it would be a great idea to grow everything we need so we don't need to buy things from the shops.  Smart chicky :)

And yes, she's had her hair chopped short.   I'm so glad she finally agreed!  She was really anti-brushing, so we had about 2 months worth of dreadlock (yes, one massive mat) to get rid of.  Nearly a full bottle of conditioner wouldn't shift them/it, so instead of freaking out when I suggested the scissors, she said "OK". I nearly died of shock!  Now, she loves it so much that she never wants her hair long again.  

Even Crusty tries to "help" :/

She spent ages checking out this little snail

And wanted to hug the surviving parsley plant - LOL

The 98% cleared garden bed - the parsley will probably stay there

(you have no idea how many pics there are of him!)

And I didn't think I'd ever say this, but here we are at 'The Wiggles' concert.   I'll admit, it was actually a good show, despite my general disdain for them.   Jasmine laughed lots & I was admiring how fit they were....win-win ;)  I was disappointed by the adults in the crowd, though.  They really weren't giving a lot back to the performers, which always makes it tougher for them.

I came across the MathRider game the other day via a Yahoo! Group email.  I thought it sounded great for Jasmine, but I wasn't sure if she was ready for it.  They say generally from Grade 2 upwards, so it would be better suited next year.  I downloaded the trial anyway so she could check it out.  Yep - a bit to fast for her at this point & she started to crack under the pressure of coming up with answers in a short time frame.  She's just starting to get some maths concepts, so I don't want to push anything that's going to turn her off.  Maybe next year...

In the mean time, she's been playing lots of games on Nick Jr & Sesame Street.   She's also SUPER excited to have mastered Dino Den on the PS3.

And for anyone wondering - no, we didn't get to the other gymnastics class last week.  In fact, we haven't really been getting to anything remotely in the first half of the day for a while now.   Maybe we should just go outside & hang with the bandicoots & potoroos all night ;)  Still, I'll keep trying to get her to go to sleep earlier.  I'm having a stall at the Huon Valley Growers & Makers Market this weekend, hoping to sell some more jewellery, so I have to be out of here about 8am.  Sufficient sleep would be really nice!!!

Alrighty - signing off now xx