What day is it?

Wow, I can't remember a more muddled week......

School swimming carnival on tuesday, much excitement and anticipation...... picture little girl rummaging through cupboards for bathers and trying on every pair she can find..... then sitting on the chair in goggles, bathers and cap at 5pm the night before 'mummy can we go swimming?'.

Needless to say she wasn't impressed with the fact that she had to wait. I think it was worth it though, she had the best time in the kickboard, wade, noodle and swim races....... wasn't bothered by what place she came and was so proud of herself for just finishing.

I have to say that I was really proud of her, and so impressed that she was trying hard and having so much fun. I think it was harder for us as parents to watch her and let her go and try for herself, and knowing that all we could do was cheer her on and congratulate her on her efforts.

Thursday and friday were strange too.... thursday was a public holiday, so hubby had friday off as well, to make a long long weekend...... so he and littlies spent two days lolling about couch potatoing while I weeded, dug and planted in the garden, and did lots of washing......




This is the pile of folding facing me at the moment (shudder), I don't want to think about it, I am pretending it's not there ...... I like to fold washing in the evenings while I watch my favourite telly shows, that way I feel like I am getting something done without having to miss dialogue...... and I can do more interesting things like plant seeds.......



These are some that I planted last week, charentais, amish and delice de table melons in the vague hope that they will actually produce something (I am ahead already, they have germinated this year)..... turkish turban and australian oil seed pumpkins, and the butternuts at the front (which I cheated and bought because I couldn't find any seed), and corn which I am looking forward to feeding to children who LOVE corn now that they have gotten over the weirdness of eating it off the cob.

Hmmm so where was I? oh yes, so friday felt like sunday, and I couldn't tell you what day saturday felt like, because I just don't know..... and yesterday I kept forgetting things, at the shop TWICE, and where the swimming gear was (not my fault, moved by children), so after stopping off at three shops, and going home to get the floaties and goggles we got a swim at our local pool..... leaving us all tired and needing an early night.

So monday morning rolls around again, and there are the same battles to get children dressed and organised and fed before leaving, and the joy of a house that has been thoroughly lived in for the past four days, as well as the mammoth task of getting myself back into the habit of Shopping With Children, which can be guaranteed to last at least three times as long as you would like.




I'm not even going to think about it, I'm going to think happy thoughts involving my raspberry canes which are looking particularly healthy at the moment..... and the second expedition of the day to the fabric shop, on a sanctioned buying trip..... what's not to be happy about?

Life the universe and everything or thank goodness the party's over

I didn't realise how stressful having a group of ten children at our house racing around screaming, jumping on the trampoline and hanging out for a visit from a fairy could be.

I needed pain relief for a massive headache when everyone left, and I have vacuumed the house for the third time in two days (a record). Luckily it only took about an hour to deconstruct the fairy ring and decorations that we organised, and to clean up crumbs of chips, cake and fairy bread. Undoing child proof packaging took considerably longer, and stuffing the remains into the garbage and recycle bins took longer still.

So I have my house back and all is quiet..... well considerably quieter than yesterday, so it's back into the routine and washing sheets...... did I mention that my washing machine is great now?

Nature

It's no wonder my climbing beans are being eaten off at ground level, this is what my son and I found under some pots in next to the shed..... 'they not being very sensible' apparently, one fell off just after I took the photo.

The snails were then put into a bucket for him to cart round and keep them out of my veggies, the last I saw of them he was 'feeding' them dirt, and bringing them into the house in a jar to climb all over everything..... my 'WHO BROUGHT THE SNAILS INSIDE?' was met with a giggle and a 'that was ME!'..... boys.......

I've spent the last few days catching up on my washing, as the motor of my washing machine was replaced monday afternoon (insert happy dance here), the luxury of not having to drive several K's to mum's to wash several times a week is amazing, and I am sure that I heard her washing machine heave a big sigh of relief - we are not a low washing household.

This week is also busy because it's my daugher's birthday, and of course there is plenty of last minute party shopping, and present wrapping. She piped up last night and said 'so where are you hiding my presents?' .....denial of all knowledge resulted in a present hunt all over the house and huge entertainment value for myself and hubby.

These ladybird muffins went to school this week, the result of a late night baking and decorating session. I used my quick mix chocolate cake that never fails, I think I got it from agt magazine years ago. It is great for all sizes of muffins and cakes, children will eat it happily, and with a bit of icing it is not too sweet. My lovely husband squashed jaffas into the icing, put on a mini m'n'm head and gave the ladybirds individual spots with decorating gel (just because he could).

I will be surprised if any of these make it home (probably a good thing, I managed to eat the other half of the packet of jaffas just to make sure they were still as good as I remember - they were, and this is the reason that I don't buy lollies on a regular basis).




We have eight little people coming to our house for a fairy party this weekend, thank goodness birthdays only come round once a year.......

The other side of the mountain

It's been an odd week..... my washing machine died last monday night so I have been waiting with baited breath for a repairman to come and look at it. Turns out that six years of serious amounts of washing, the side effects of having two small children have taken their toll and the motor has gone.

NOOOOOOOO..... well actually it's not that bad..... we got extended warranty when we bought it and luckily we have a couple of months still left on it, although I really don't want to jinx it so we'll wait the week for parts to come and then for the guy to fit it, and then we'll cheer and go put a load of washing on (then call mum and thank her profusely for the use of her washing machine).

So after ferrying washing to and fro all week I really didn't feel like being home doing house work all weekend, and with the children getting restless we decided to go for a walk on 'the mountain' aka Mt Wellington. We did the obligatory drive to the top and froze ourselves in the icy wind and rain (it's not always that bad, but the weather came in pretty fast), then went down and around the side of the mountain (which led to some loud backseat singing of 'the other side of the mountain') to the pipeline track at ferntree.... fairly flat and easy walking for little legs.

They loved it..... 'mummy can we keep on walking?' I think we walked for nearly two hours including 'snack stops', and playground stops, and waterfall stops and 'oooh look at that soft moss' stops. Poor daddy got stuck carrying the bag of goodies and the boy whose legs were tired but who could sprint the last five hundred metres to the car and back to mum and dad.