Fireworks!

We don't celebrate Guy Fawkes evening in our house. Well, I vaguely remember buying the girls some sparklers to wave around in the past, but that is the extent of our firework activities.

But if the local volunteer fire-service decide to organise a community display, then we are there with bells on!!! The attraction of firemen in full uniform had nothing to do with it, of course ;-)

The evening began with a fish and chip picnic. Held in Orewa beach reserve.

Later as the sun went to bed, the breeze off the beach was COLD, but a few blankets, live music and playing with glowing toys kept us warm.

....and finally at 9pm the fun really began. The girls and I had good fun with our little digital camera. Playing with different settings to capture the artwork in the sky above us.

At one point during the night Molly (5) turned to me and stated "this is the BEST night EVER"

Unfortunately, not everybody loves fireworks displays. Little Phoebe didn't seem to mind the "pretties" but really hated the noise.

That expression on her face gives us all a pretty good idea how young children and animals will be feeling around the country this coming weekend.

Take care of you and yours if you choose to play with fire.

Keep well

xx

Thankful Thursday

Feeling thankful today. Especially for.........................

lemon and blueberry muffins

felt to play with....

my children's artwork.......

the little bit of ocean seen from my bedroom window..........

and the potential held in a strawberry flower. Yum!

xx

A child's life.......

The past week (for many reasons) I have wished I wasn't an adult.

Here's one more I spotted today......

Day naps

xx

Sunday Specials

Sundays are lovely aren't they?

We live on a monthly salary which forces us to budget carefully and plan our month's activities accordingly. This weekend was "pay" weekend. On pay weekends we always plan a weekend activity that requires payment eg Zoo visits, movies etc.

On non-pay weekends we plan family outings (or in-ings if the weather is silly) that create freebie fun and memories eg parks, beaches, museums, taking photographs etc.

Sunday was icky outside, grey with on and off rain. An inside activity was called for AND we had money. Whoopie!!!!!

So here it is.........was........enjoy some ten pin bowling with us!

The landscape......

Dad has a go..........

Mum has a go.....

Even little Phoebe has a jolly good go!

Anticipating the score.......

The view in the two year old's world.

Another example of sisterly love.

...and where do you find your two year old when the bowling novelty wears off? Daddy's girl, that's for sure!

A Sundae (day) wouldn't be complete without one of these!!!

Completely tuckered out!

I woke with a headache that morn which disappeared promptly during the day.

Just goes to show that a good dose of fun is also good for your health!

xx

A mother's dirty secrets....

This post is inspired by another mummy blogger I follow and love reading. If you don't know her blog already, check Widge out, she is down to earth and fabo!

She posted some parenting secrets that made me laugh until I had tears. Oh how I love to read about other mothers sometimes cutting corners in the search for sanity and order. It makes me feel so normal.

So here are some of my dirty mother secrets. Ooooooh should I ?? Having doubts.......it might burst some bubbles about my parenting. Oh what the heck, here goes.......

1. Bird bath: Mummy bird that is ( or 'Harpie' if I haven't done my hair before leaving for school).

The bird bath is never planned but occurs after realising (often revealed by the rear vision mirror) that my children have not washed their faces before school. Eeeeeeek my pet hate; children with grubby faces. I then do what I remember my Grandma doing and lick a hanky or tissue and rub vigorously over their breakfast cheeks.

I have also been known, when in desperation and lacking any kerchief to lick my fingers, peer around quickly before completing the task with mastered precision.

2. Aqua-dining: this doesn't happen often, but I have been tired, possibly pregnant, totally over messy tables, chairs, bibs and clothes and have shoveled food into naked, bathing toddlers. So easy to clean the mess. Unfortunately, if I remember correctly I had to clean the bath after the last aqua-dining experience.

3. "No greens I promise" smoothies: My youngest girls love the freshly squeezed orange, berry or beetroot juice I make them occasionally. I doubt they would if they knew how much spinach I threw in just before serving. I always get the giggles when I see it in their teeth afterwards ;-)

4. It'll pass with peas: In sleep deprived desperation, newborn screaming and two other mouths at the dining table waiting to be fed I now remember my PEAS theory. I felt at this stage of my life (only lasting a couple of months, I promise) that any plate of food could be called a meal if it included peas. Oh the combinations we created. Cereal......and peas. Spaghetti......and peas. Fried crappy food..........and peas. Exhausted, yet determined I always felt so proud if I managed to get that little pile of green in one quarter of their plates.

5. Second day specials: Sometimes the mornings can be so busy now we have three girls I loathe the "how did that get on there" moments. All children at all ages it seems are experts at revealing a soiled item of school uniform JUST BEFORE WE LEAVE TO GET INTO THE CAR. Jeepers.........did I yell that??!! Appologies :-0

So the second day specials is the T-shirt that has been rubbed with the dishcloth, or might just be the t-shirt grabbed out of yesterdays pile.

6. Magic powder: Nope, I'm not endorsing any drug taking while parenting. But at some point in the last ten years I discovered that baby talc powder neutralises the smell of baby vomit and pee! Yes! So true! I even had a tiny bottle (sample given to me after one of my babes was born) that traveled everywhere with me. What ever landed on me during the day, I could usually make it through to dinner time smelling like a very clean baby's bum!

7. Inside-out 'fashionistas': I am actually pretty good at getting my ENDLESS washing piles under control. But a sleepless night or ill child can completely throw the laundry routine out the window for a day or two. In desperation my girls have been sent out of the house with tights or socks turned inside out, bibs on the wrong way (ickys hidden on other side). The trouble with this theory is that some items of clothing just look plain silly on the reverse and I fear would attract some playground mockery. I hope I never do this one again :-(

8. Sticky fingers: Sorry, you're going to hate this one. Sometimes mums just can't be super-humans. They don't always have enough hands or a tissue available. Imagine if you will....

Toddler dressed beautifully, about to venture out somewhere special. "BUTMUUUUUM, I'm hungeeeee ('hungry' for non toddler speaking adults).

Child having devoured the given snack, hands outstretched screams "hans hans hans".

A mother's whirring mind will automatically go into KEEP THE CLOTHES CLEAN mode, grab both hands keeping them off the beautifully clean outfit.

With both hands full of your own childen's, what must one do? How will one complete the cleaning task? With ones MOUTH of course.

Oh come on..........I gave her the food, know what she's eaten and know where she's had those digits.....(mostly).

So. I won't reveal anymore. I can't think of many more anyway.........do you believe me? ;-)

For the record. I'm a good mum and the kids are doing just fine! Life's a little easier now that all three are not babies and we have full nights sleeps and routines. The washing is normally complete and back in the drawers by the time they get home from school and my kids actually hate peas now.

Life is good.............but I guess there will always be a few secrets.

xx

Be proud of those mammaries!!!!!!!!!

Ok, today's subject..........boobs, breasts, rack, the list could go on and on!

Us girls all have them unless of course they have been removed.

It is not my style at all to talk about body parts, especially such public taboo bits. But I feel today is an exception.

Today I got my proud, three times breast-feeding, clever mammaries examined. I'm only 34, but I felt it was something I needed to do this year. Peace of mind and all that.

I have three GORGEOUS young girls, a yummy husband and I quite like ME too. So I decided to be proactive and get the examination done.

Well it wasn't that bad. I had found a little lump, but have discovered it is harmless and quite normal. So the experience really was also for peace of mind.

I am pleased to say that mine flew through with flying colours. (ABSOLUTELY no photos on this post LOL )

The REAL reason why I wanted to post this is because I get concerned at the number of breast cancer stories I hear about young mums who don't yet qualify for the free breast screening here in New Zealand. Breasts can contain lumps and bumps which are very normal............but normal can change.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE..........mums out there love yourselves enough and listen to your bodies.

A 10 minute check could either save your life or at the very least make you feel empowered and peaceful.

Have a gorgeous weekend!

xx

We love the holidays!

Our holidays were spent in North Canterbury and Christchurch.

We love that place!

We love giant babies found at the Ron Mueck exhibition at the Christchurch Art gallery. (AMAZING!)

...and an enormous woman lying in bed!

We also love big hairy men who have left their pants elsewhere (smirk)

We love to crawl across grass!

We love the Christchurch sunny days and the wind in the Willows!

We love our mum ( photo by Molly)

We love watching punting on the Avon River.

We love hundreds of coloured balls.

We love big red cars,

We love babies that sleep through playground noise and madness!!!

We love the 'mid-play' snacks

We love cars that MOOOVVVEEE!

........especially with our cousin Tom who is a really good driver!

Seems to us.........he really loves his cousin Phoebe too :-)

To all of you who have just had school holidays. We hope you loved them too!

xx

DORA...you rock!

Monday the 11th october Phoebe will turn two.

As Sunday is such a great day for eating cake and playing with presents, we celebrated quietly at home today.

Happy Birthday Phoebe.

Phoebe begins unwrapping hesitantly.........I guess it has been a while since she was allowed to rip open a pile of goodies.

Excellent technique quickly established though!!

You can never go wrong with more play-dough tools and bubble mixture.

Big sister there to help with the tricky bits.

(I wish I had video footage of this moment. She was literally shaking with excitement)

Oh...........Dad.........Mum.....how did you know?

Stairway to Heaven or Smoke on the Water everyone???

I salute thee!

This Dora 1st edition preschool guitar plays 20 songs, three guitar riffs, four string action with superior tuning and bending of notes. For a preschooler who loves music this is almost as good as the real thing ;-)

xx