It's raining, it's pouring

The promised rain has come but luckily not until after Mum and the girls went to visit Oma and Opa Middeldorp today. Ali and Lily had a great time at McDonalds climbing all over the playground except that Mum had to crawl in to rescue Lily-anne when she got stuck in a tunnel that she couldn't climb down.. Oma and Opa both seemed well and happy. Now Mum is tired and off to bed. Love to all. xxooxx.

Monday

We popped around to see friends Megan and Walter yesterday. Ali had a lovely time playing with Theo and Ruby. They spent ages 'swimming' through the lawn and climbing up onto the island (large rock) and being ship wrecked. Lily disappeared off into the play-room and entertained herself with Theo and Ruby's toys for extended periods of time. Lily has learned how to sing the Wiggles version of "Quack quack quack, cock-a doodle- doo" and these are her only words of more than one syllable at this stage. I think she quite liked Ruby's handbag:-)

Today Ali went to daycare and Lily helped Mum in the garden - lol

Saturday

It was off to the farmers market for super fresh fruit and veges first thing this morning and then a leisurely breakfast, browsing and 20 book-out-loud-reading at the library. We managed to sneak in a grocery shop before the kids had a total meltdown and fell asleep in the car on the way home.

The best line of the day went to Ali (she has good odds since she talked non-stop for most of it). She pronounced that Lily was a "Funny bubble muppet" when they had a bath together. Unfortunately the bubble muppet and her big sister wouldn't pose nicely for a photo so there is none today.

Just to let everyone know that our dog has been renamed "Jecta" and Ali will henceforth be known as "Pressca" because she presses things. We have two new pets, they are unicorns, called Tania and Fiona, and they sleep in Pressca's bed.

Anzac day

Well we missed the dawn service again this year.
Phil still went to work - no rest for the wicked.
The highlight of the day was when our neighbour Craig (Ali calls him Cragg) turned up with his digger and dug a hole for the trampoline so it's not so far for littlies to fall off the edge if they do happen to take a tumble. After watching for about 1 minute Ali announced that she wants her own digger just like Cragg's but yellow. When he was finished he offered to give her a ride up the driveway but she was a bit nervous and just posed quickly for a photo.
Lily-anne slept through the whole thing.

Free the frog

This morning we released the frog that Ali rescued from a bucket of water about a week ago. It has been happily living in the bug house she received for her birthday during that time but it had a habit of eating the other guests (1 grasshopper, 1 butterfly, 6 houseflies) and so it was time for it to go free.
Ali's friends Summer and Karli came today and kept Mum very busy trying to keep them all in line. Here they are enjoying a story from Ali all about a poopoo man who flew a poopoo airplane into a barn and got poos on his head. They all thought it was hilariously funny.

Ali and I made her first garden today. It's next to the shed, we weeded it, topped up the soil, put in an edging and then Ali planted coriander seeds and lettuce seedlings. She did pretty well planting sage and a small variegated geranium as well. Then it rained so we didn't get a photo sorry. However I did get a picture of the girls playing with the blocks nicely.

In the afternoon Dad was home so we went for a walk around the paddock to survey the damage. The tree Ali is standing next to is a pohutukawa that we planted for her when she was born. The gorse is not.

Mad Cows

We've spent the last few days chasing cows around the paddock. Wayne's cows came around to mow our paddock but they have little respect for electric fences that are not electrified and thoughtfully did some tree pruning while they were here. Ali got to have a good pat with Oscar (ex calf-club bull) while Lily chose to watch from a small distance. Buddy thought the cows were great fun and he especially enjoyed helping Bob (Wayne the farmers dog) to round them up and herd them up the drive and out the gate.
Lily has mastered the fine art of tickling and has taken to attacking the dog without warning and going " tickle ickle ickle" and scratching his chin or tummy. Thank heavens she has stopped tickling me because her fingernails are quite sharp and her tickling is not very gentle.

Rainy Sunday

Well, not the weather we ordered today with rather more wind than rain but we kept the girls inside anyway. Ali is still not 100% well and was up again coughing last night.

We had bacon and eggs for brekkie. As soon as the dishes were done we hauled out the playdough. Ali made an aeroplane fish, and plain "spianata spaghetti" with hers. Lily rolled it and cut out shapes. Then she ate some for good measure.

After lunch we made animal bikkies and the girls did the icing. Ali chose pink icing and Lily got green. They both mixed it up, then spread it on and decorated with sprinkles. At which stage Lily licked all the icing off, and Ali pfaffed about with more sprinkles until her butterfly was just beautiful.

The blocks also had an outing, along with plenty of stories and tickling games. Wonder of wonders we all (thats right all!) managed a nap at the same time this afternoon. Maybe it should be yucky weather every Sunday.

It's the weekend!

Lily's scraped nose had just about healed today, with the scab falling off last night, when she took another tumble today and it opened up again. We think she was pushed by Ali but no one saw it and Ali swears she is innocent so we'll just have to give her the benefit of the doubt. Karen and I got off to a late start today after a lovely night over at our friends' house. We didn't get home until around midnight although both Ali and Lily had fallen asleep long before then and we all fell into bed. We began the day with digging over a garden bed while the girls amused themselves feeding worms and tomatoes to the chickens. We then planted a couple of Walnut trees down the bottom end of our paddock and put up some electric fencing in preparation for Wayne the farmer to bring his cows in to graze next week some time. As I write the first of the forecast rain showers is beginning to fall and we are hoping it will last. We are down to about a foot and a half from the end of our water supply. We have had an unusually long and mild Summer this year and I am also wearing a pullover for the first time this year. We have a couple of DVD's to entertain ourselves and the girls tomorrow if the weather should prove too inclement for outdoor activities however, if it doesn't rain, we'll be out there in the garden again planting our crops for Winter. Well I'm very ready for some shut eye and I'm pretty sure Karen is too so that's all for now.

Thursday

We missed playcentre today because Ali was up last night with an asthma-sounding cough. It has been a niggling tickle in her chest for a few weeks but she seemed worse today so I kept her home to help her get over it. My plan was to keep her warm and well-rested indoors.... it only worked until about 10 am when she started playing on the swing and bouncing on the trampoline. How can you make a four year old rest?

Lily looks like she's been in the wars. She has learned to run over the last few months and now she runs everywhere, even when there is no reason to hurry. She was running, carrying two little pumpkins inside when she fell over on Sunday. She didn't let go of the pumpkins so her nose was the first thing to make contact with the floor. Poor girl, now everyone asks "What happened to her nose?"

Mondayitis

Ali went off to daycare today where they did painting and she got clay in her hair. The teacher tells me that she is popular with the other kids and that they refer to her as "the pretty one" but we won't tell Ali that :-) She was reading with her friends Mikayla and Amity when I arrived to pick her up and she seemed in no hurry to come home for a change.

Lily's day was a more sedate, she was up for a bit last night so she was pretty tired today. She helped with some gardening and played with the dog.

Photos at last

This is Ali with her birthday floor puzzle. She seems to really enjoy doing the puzzle and then singing the alphabet pointing to the letters afterwards


These were taken at the beach last weekend while Dad was fishing. Ali Lily and Mum went for a walk and climbed trees.
How cute is this? Ali spent about 20 mins reading Lily books in her bed. How can we get them to be this quiet and this loving to one another all the time? Any suggestions gratefully received.

Thursday

The cable was posted yesterday so I'm guessing we'll have piccies again tomorrow.

We went to Playcentre today. Ali's mate from next door came with us and they had a great time dressing up and running riot all over the show. We made pizzas for morning tea and they must have been a hit because Ali decided we had to make them again for dinner.

Lily has learned to say "No" in the last few days. It has the same inflection as "Maaaaaam" and it seems to be her new favourite word. Anything that you ask from changing nappies to getting in the car or leaving the dog alone, the answer is a pout and "Nooooooew" I hope this isn't the terrible twos starting at 18 months already.

Love to you all and goodnight.