Sorry

Nobody in Whangarei has a USB cable to replace our faulty one so we've ordered a new one over that new fangled interweb thingi - trademe. So we should have pics again in a few days.

It's been a busy weekend, Mum went into town shopping by herself, Dad went for a surf and a fish, the girls got to go to the beach two days running. There was plenty of cleaning, washing, cooking and moving of chickens. Tadpole expeditions, Baking of brownies, Hunting bugs in the vege garden, and building blocks seemed to take up the rest of the time.

Tommorrow, Ali is off to daycare and Mum is down to Ak with Lily to see Opa in his new placement. Poor Dad will be working hard as per usual.

MIA

Sorry about the blogless week. The USB cable has been isolated as the cause and I should be able to buy another one tomorrow. Til then, all is well. "Buuuye" as Lily says.

Ali is searching for a Prince

Our favourite frog turned up again today.

Sunday

Last night after the blog was all done we had a visitor. Phil and Buddy chased it around the yard and up the washing line and around the yard again a few times before it took off.
Today we constructed Chicken Coop mark VI. We have some experience now with building coops that have met with various levels of disaster and disrepair, but now we believe we have perfected it! Hopefully the chooks will think so too.
Phil's mate Shane came up from Auckland about lunch time and was followed around by Ali talking incessantly all afternoon. Thankfully she and Lily popped off to bed just now with no fuss. Goodnight everyone!

Ali's birthday

This is Ali all dressed up after everyone went home. She sat nicely and posed for me and she was very patient considering the amount of sugar she had consumed in the three hours prior.
Buddy spent the day with our neighbours so he would be safe from the children and they would be safe from him. After we walked down and picked him up Ali and Lily set about popping the balloons by sitting on them and bouncing.

Ali turns 4

Ali turns 4

Wow, a big day today. We started at 5:45 when Lily's crying woke Ali and they both piled into bed with Mum and Dad. We had Ali's new bubble machine going before breakfast and she had a blast jumping on the trampoline as the sun came up.

We popped out to the markets and then back home for the party. Ali was jumping out of her skin with excitement as her friends arrived and there was a marshmallow treasure hunt in the garden. We played pass the parcel and had jelly with ice-cream. There was a pink cake and plenty of pink balloons. The kids had great fun playing together and especially squirting the dads with little water pistols. There were lots of dress-up presents with feathers, sparkles, wands, handbags and beads. In short it was just like we remember little girls birthday parties.

It's always Friday

Yesterday was a completely full on day at playcentre. Lily was so into the paint, getting it on her hands and then hunting me down to take her to the sink to wash them... and then 2 seconds later, back into the paint. She managed to get it all over her clothes, all over the floor and all over Mum too. Ali's best mate Karli was there so they just had a riot as per usual.
I snapped this picture of Ali on her swing at home when Lily was having a nap. She was leaning right back as she swung forward and her hair and dress were billowing behind her, she was singing some nonsense rhyme that she made up as she went. She is so beautiful...
Today was Good Friday so Phil dashed off for a surf and then went to work of course. The girls and Mum stayed home and got ready for Ali's birthday party tomorrow. Ali is sooooo excited to be having a birthday, she really wants to be a big girl. As recently as last week she was convinced she would be 5 this birthday but we think she knows now that it's going to be 4. We'll post birthday photos tomorrow night but now it's nearly 11 pm and I gotta go. Ps Thanks for all the cards and pressies in the mail.

Tuesday Bluesday.

Well Lily is crying as I write and Karen tells me she did a lot more of it than not today so she (Karen) was very happy to have me home this evening. Well I think really it was the bottle of champagne I was holding that she was happy about but I would like to think it was me. The girls went to playcentre today where Ali painted a hardboiled egg in preparation for Easter and Lily cried and cried and cried. Apparently she missed her nap this morning and well..... I know what I'm like when I miss MY nap!! I had a lovely day painting today. Window frames, not landscapes but perhaps one day I'll take it up. It was about 24 degrees celsius and right now at 8.02p.m. it doesn't feel a whole lot cooler. More fine weather is forecast, all we need is a little bit of swell and the surf will be looking good too! Yippee!!

Sunday Sunday

Wow, last blog was on Wednesday - we're getting slack already!
Oma and Opa John left on Friday morning leaving behind some very sad Mummys and children. We popped over to see our neighbour Mel in the afternoon to cheer ourselves up. Ali had lots of fun playing with her friend Asher while Mum went out for groceries.
Ali was so pleased with her new swimmers that she insisted on wearing them in the bath.

Yesterday we had friends Anneke and Clayton over for dinner. Their children Hayley and Jayden are delightful and we all had a lovely relaxed evening. We went for a big walk around the loop of Eilean Donan Dr so everyone slept pretty well last night.Today Phil went for a surf in the morning while Mum attempted to garden. And in the afternoon we went and caught some tadpoles in the neighbours dam. They are now in our water trough, although one may have already hopped away since it was so close to being a frog.

Wednesday

Yesterday we went into town with Oma and Opa John to the pools and then to do groceries. Ali's favourite part was climbing out and then jumping into the water. She was getting really good at floating on her back as well.This morning we made bead necklaces before we went to Mainly Music. Ali chose her own clothes and Lily's, and Mum's clothes as well. Oma and Opa John met us at Music and did well with the parachute and the drums(maybe they've been practising at home). Afterwards we popped down to the park to check out the new playground. When we got home Lily had a nap and Ali did puzzles and games with Mum and Oma. Ali and Lily both had a go at making tiny teddy bikkies out of gingerbread dough, they did pretty well except that silly Mum left them in the oven too long and they came out as toasty teddies.

Weekend's over, stand on your heads

Oma and Opa John came around for a quick visit Saturday morning before heading down to Orewa to see John's daughter and granddaughter. Our neighbours Craig and Gina popped in for a cuppa too since they were up from Auckland for the weekend. Their dog 'Winston' the long haired daschund and Buddy had a great time racing around the yard.

In the afternoon we went to Phil's mate's house for a 40th Birthday party. It was a beautiful day for sipping wine on the lawn looking out over the ocean. There were plenty of kids for Ali and Lily to play with too.

Veryll from next-door came to babysit the girls while Mum and Dad zipped off to another friend's anniversary party in the evening. Ali was excited to have extra bedtime stories from Veryll.

On Sunday Mum and Dad were a bit fragile from lack of sleep so we took it easy with a gentle stroll around our paddock to inspect the trees and collect some pine-needles from over the fence for our chooks. Ali enjoyed climbing over and around a fallen pine tree and walking through the long grass. Lily did a bit of climbing too.

Mum's friend from Auckland popped by for lunch and brought her miniature fox terrier puppy to play. Ali and Lily were enchanted by 'Hector', and Ali played lots of running, chasing games with the dogs.

Ali also managed to talk Dad into hunting for crickets. While turning over a bit of concrete paver to search for bugs they found a frog.

In the afternoon our friendly mobile hairdresser came by and trimmed us all up neat and tidy for the next couple of months, except for Lily who wouldn't sit still.

Now we're all exhausted from such a social weekend and very ready for a rest :-)

Friday again

I've decided that updating the blog every day, or even every second day is just too time consuming, so we're training Lily to type so she can do it herself soon.

This is the girls yesterday afternoon after playcentre. They were climbing the gate looking for Oma and Opa John. Lily did some good painting, and got plenty on her overalls, and a bit on Mum too.

Oma and Opa John arrived yesterday evening and they have been reading endless stories, watching the girls on the trampoline and the swing (especially Ali, "Look at me, Look at me") and generally being Grandparents. Today they took the girls off to the beach and fed them up with ice-cream, bikkies and chocolate... and then we went out for dinner, Ali had softdrink and lollies for dinner... and then we came home for cake and ice-cream... Tomorrow it's salad with bread and water for everyone!

Sorry about the lack of recent Ali photos. She refuses to sit still or she pulls terrible faces every time I get the camera. Maybe I'll get some while she's sleeping.

It's 11:00pm now and Lily will wake at 5:00 am so I'm off to bed. Goodnight.

WAAHOO WEDNESDEY

Ali chucked a nana this morning when we couldn't reach an agreement over what clothes were appropriate to wear to Mainly Music so we stayed home instead. It turned out to be a great decision. Ali and Lily played with the playdough at the bench together so nicely anyone would think they were sisters. When Lily had her nap Ali and Mum did the Sesame Street number puzzle together (Ali can count to 10 all by herself but she starts to go astray at eleventeen). Ali was super helpful drying the dishes as Mum was washing. She said "I love helping you Mummy".

When Lily woke up we walked up the road to Burnice's house for a tupperware party. Ali found it a bit boring until Pinty the dog and Sooty the cat turned up to play with. Lily played gently with the animals too.

Daddy was home when we came back and the girls were very pleased to see him. They all enjoyed holding hands and bouncing on the trampoline together singing "See saw majorie daw".

Ali has a new pet this evening, a medium size friendly looking bug called tinkerbell. Lets hope she doesn't kill this one with kindness:-)

Crazy Tuesdey

Ali's friend Karli came to play for the day. They had lots of fun playing dress-ups, doing drawing, playing babies, making mudpies, jumping on the trampoline, swinging on the swing, dancing, eating, jumping on the bed etc etc.

Lily managed to sleep through the worst of it. It's not a great photo but I really loved where she chose to eat her bikkie.

Mondey

Well we popped down to Auckland yesterday to see Opa in hospital. He was in good spirits and giving all the nurses a hard time which is the most important thing when you are stuck in a hospital bed. Ali and Lily spent the afternoon happily with Opa Noel and Granny Rosie so a big thanks to them both for babysitting.

Today Ali was at daycare and they made bug biscuits. She was so busy dancing when Mum came to pick her up that she didn't want to leave. Lily-anne didn't want to leave either, she seems quite keen to start daycare but Mum isn't ready to let her go.




Here are some cute pictures of them in the bath this evening. The focus is terrible so don't bother blowing them up :-)

Sunday A.M.

We're not looking forward to today. Karen is going to Auckland with the girls to visit Opa which would normally be something to look forward to except that he is in hospital at the moment after a fall last Wednesday. At Ninety years of age, one expects these things to happen but of course always hopes they never do. We explained to Ali that Opa was a bit "wobbly" and that's why he fell and she suggested that he should first practice walking more often and then when he gets good at it, get a walking stick! Ali and Lily will be in the loving care of Noel and Rosie today. We only hope Noel doesn't wear the girls out too much with his antics. I am going over to One Tree Point to paint a kitchen as today will be my only opportunity to do it. The housing market may certainly have slowed nationwide but building and renovating are showing no signs of slowing around here! That's all for now.