Arnie Jones Minkplush

Dear Arnie Jones Minkplush
I have feelings for you that you probably don't know I have.
You are kind, gentle, caring, loving and I like you that way.  When I talk to you my eyes light up like starts.
Arnie Jones Minkplush, I love you

yours sincerely
Your Secret Admirer

Letter to Csilla

Sometimes your child makes a friend and that friend is just such an appealing person that, if the friendship fades, you feel a ridiculous sense of loss and disappointment. Sometimes you feel that loss far more keenly than your child, for whom the friendship has simply waned in the natural and inexorable way of childhood.
Grace's friend, Csilla, goes to a different school, and they see less of each other than they did at kinder last year. In place of thrice weekly meetings, they have intermittent playdates interspersed with occasional correspondence. I hope Csilla is always one of Grace's'Frans'.

Letters to Santa and an unexpected visitor

Ruby 'I like cute things and yeah'

Grace - 'hug, mini chimney'

Nina - 'if I had to deliver ALL those presents it would be quite hard'

Lily - 'toys, I want'

We live in a very urban environment, so I am usually delighted when nature makes itself felt: the raucous laughing of the kookaburras by the creek, the screeching flock of lorikeets (I think they are) that settle in the gum each evening, even the pesky possums. But the news that our neighbours had seen an Eastern Tiger Snake in their garden, or 'nake' as Lily would say - is more nature than I'm comfortable with.

Suddenly those ideas that foreigners have about all the venomous beasties that threaten Australians seemed slightly less laughable. My kids run around barefoot all the time, and the weed situation is not (ahem) always kept under control. Plenty of lovely long native grasses, and a nice sunny deck to lie on for any passing snakes. One blind terrier that won't see them and one black pug whose only interest is snaffling dropped food present no threat.

Our neighbours called the 'snake man' who couldn't find it and reassured them that it wouldn't be settling in their garden. It was most likely passing through, kicked out of its creek environment in a territorial dispute, and making its way to the more popular snake habitats of Alphington and Ivanhoe, where gardens are bigger and more likely to incorporate the large rocks beloved of these reptiles. To get to our neighbour's place from the creek it would have had to cross a very busy bike path, two sets of railway tracks and a bitumen road. That blows my mind. I'm a bit 'good on you snake' and a bit 'bugger off and stay by the creek whydoncha?'

Probably/definitely

Dear Mousie,
I'm quite sure that Jill will not survive.  We saw the Doctor yesterday and said 'we will be very very very lucky if he survives'.  So that makes it quite surtine to us that Jilly will probably/defintly not be comming back to school.

liv it olone!

I was never one who could leave a wobbly tooth alone, an itch unscratched, a scab unpicked.

At 6, it's all about teeth. Losing them, growing them, show-and-telling them.

Wait a Minute Mr Postman

There has been a lot of letter and card writing in these parts recently.  There was Nina's ongoing correspondence on behalf of and to Miss Snug:

Ruby's lengthy letter to 'Humusonbarly' recounting exploits on the River Nile

Birthday cards for each other:

Nina's card for Ruby

Dear Ruby I hope you love your presents and cards.  Just to tell you my card is these little poeple who love to sing and dancing.  And one day they find a big sign saying Ruby is the Best and another smalla sign that said I Love You and they start Dancing and Singing.

Ruby's card for Nina incorporating within the number 6 the world of the 6 year old - including the bank, cafe, bakery, toy shop.

Never never never have I ever ever ever seen a cleverer 6 year old

And a letter to break the heart of the working mother....