skip to main |
skip to sidebar
What a gorgeous hot day we had today! Not sure how hot, maybe 26 degrees or so, anyway, this photo was taken after 5pm and there was still a lot of heat in the sun. Bella refused to get into the paddling pool but was quite content to play with it 
from the safety of terra firma! Earlier, Lockie had been running in and out of the sprinkler on the front lawn, with lots of squealing and shrieking, before he finally soaked in the pool for a few minutes [it had warm water in it] and then headed indoors. It took a bit of persuasion to get Bella in for dinner though. Sure hope this lovely weather continues.
Only about 9 more days till school holidays are all over. Boy that's gone fast! Lockie is sooooo looking forward to his birthday party next Saturday. Have to dredge up some enthusiasm myself - my little boy is growing up too fast. Can't believe he's nearly six. 
Bella helped me unpack the groceries the other day and developed a fascination with the pack of bog rolls. She found she could easily drag them around the house, and sit on them when she tired of this. 
I eventually managed to pry them from her grip but she wasn't too happy about it. Mean ol' Mummy.
We recently went to see the kids' favourite TV performers "Hi-5" in concert. Somehow we ended up sitting in the very front row, centre stage, just a few feet from the stage! This was great as our tickets were for upstairs in the gallery, but we were told 'go find a seat over there' [pointing towards the front of stage downstairs] when we asked for directions to our seats. Lovely stuff we thought, although I cursed the fact I had left the digital camera in the car as I figured we would be too far from the stage to bother with it... Lockie and Bella loved the show and I enjoyed it too, despite the absence of Kathleen, who was 'a bit unwell'. She was replaced with Noni, who was very good. I wonder though whether Bella just thought it was a particularly large TV screen, rather than real people on a stage. She never said a word to this effect of course, so I shouldn't presume anything.
I admit I was a bit disturbed by the appearance of Charli - she was positively skeletal - her head looked too large for her skinny little body, like a lollipop on a stick... in earlier videos we have, she is the 'fat' one of the group, i.e. has the most normal body shape, but not any more. Must be what marriage has done for her?! She looked happy enough, but she is a role model for young girls...
I have read another book I wanted to mention on my blog at the risk of appearing to be a complete bookworm! It's "Behind Closed Doors" by Ngaire Thomas. It tells the story of Ngaire's life with the Exclusive Brethren, in Auckland, and the eventual excommunication of her family and the struggles they overcame after being cast out from all they had ever known. It is a really fascinating insight into a subject I knew nothing about. This book was first published in 2004, and is still extremely popular in NZ - at least at the library - I had to wait several weeks on the Reserves list to get a copy. And then I read the whole thing in a day - very very interesting reading to say the least. It is the only book of its kind on this subject. Find a copy and read it now!!!And now for something completely different - Bella can say some words!!! [She is 15 months old now for those who are struggling to keep up]. She can say 'glasses', 'crackers', 'carrot', 'milk', 'hat', 'peas', 'car', and the usual Mama and Dadda of course. Actually, to be totally truthful, her versions of most of these words are only translatable by me, but that's a start I reckon!
Here Bella is sampling a home-made chocolate palmier [pastry heart] and is caught mid-chew. Note the pink hat - she is OBSESSED with her hat and wears it every waking minute that she is allowed - to the point where we forget what she looks like without it! Today the poor hat is a bit smeared and smudged with the remains of her lunch [marmite sandwich mostly], so I will wash it tonight and make sure it's dry by morning, or all hell may well break loose in our wee house...
Fraz is off at his friend's wedding today - at Westpac Stadium no less - and the bride and groom are being helicoptered into the stadium! Fraz was helping out with the music [not performing it], and is a guest also. I did have the option of going but didn't have anywhere to put the kids so decided to skip it. Would have been fun...
My latest pick from the library is a book I really recommend - "Misha, A Memoire of the Holocaust Years", by Misha Defonesca. It tells the true tale of a small 7-year-old Jewish Belgian girl who sets off on a 3,000 mile journey on foot that takes her 4 years, in search of her parents who were taken away during the Second World War. Along the way she witnesses horrific events and herself commits murder, she is befriended by a family of wolves and doesn't speak to another human for most of the time. She clings to the hope that her parents will be there in the end and it is this hope that keeps her alive. It's a gripping story - I couldn't put it down!
In this photo Fraz is giving the kids his famous 'double-tickle' and they love it - despite the look of severe pain they have on their faces. Bella has become rather attached to her 'Dadda' lately and when he's at work she will sometimes wander over to me and ask for him, so we phone him up and she laughs to hear his voice down the line.
I have been going to the gym regularly since joining a couple of weeks ago and am feeling good about it. I have lost a stone in weight and some of my clothes are actually getting baggy! This is lovely, although now I have to buy some more summer gear, especially as I have done a 'Trinny & Susannah' and cleared out my wardrobe and drawers of all clothes that don't suit my colouring or shape - there's not much left actually. I have been ruthless.
A couple of days ago Lockie and I made marzipan shapes, out of a kids' craft book we got from the library. The damn mixture was soooo sticky though that I had to add way more icing sugar than I was supposed to and consequently the final products were pretty dry and cracked a bit... not that Lockie minds. We even coloured the mix with red and blue [creating pink and green as the mixture was yellow], and made mice, complete with peanut ears, currant eyes and liquorice tails! They looked pretty good I reckon.
We also used the same book to make bird pudding - we had some half-open pinecones and stuffed the mixture into them and hung them in the trees. We used birdseed, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cooked rice, sultanas, peas and corn kernels and mixed them together with melted dripping [stinky]. It was a nice gooey thing to do but took a while to get the dripping smell out of the house.
We are coping with the holidays I feel. The other night we walked to the park after dinner and enjoyed a good play, before coming home and crashing into bed.
I will need to start thinking about Lockie's birthday party looming at the beginning of Feb. He wants a cake with 'codename: Kids Next Door' on it, "or something like that". He'll be lucky.
from the safety of terra firma! Earlier, Lockie had been running in and out of the sprinkler on the front lawn, with lots of squealing and shrieking, before he finally soaked in the pool for a few minutes [it had warm water in it] and then headed indoors. It took a bit of persuasion to get Bella in for dinner though. Sure hope this lovely weather continues. 
