No pictures today - sorry

Well today got off to a rocky start, I managed to pick up the kids bugs and spent some time reaquainting myself with stomach muscles I didnt know I had. (read vomiting!) So I have had a very quiet day of doing the essentials (like feeding children and changing nappies) Luckily Jess, Sam and Charlie were tired too so we all had a nap this afternoon.

It was the last night of swimming tonight with the club champs. Daniel is too young to participate but Laura had several races. She is doing so well. I have to admit my 'feel like I have been hit by a bus' state and three hungrey preschoolers were a little tiresome and I was glad to get home. But really enjoyed seeing what Laura can do.

BOT meeting tonight so Helen came to look after the kids as Jase is away with work till tomorrow night. Was not a late night for once and nice to have a cuppa and a quick chat before she went home.

Well it is late now so I will go and try to catch some zzzzzz's. Sams special authority number finally came through. Thanks to the persistance of the lovely lady at the hospital. (the place that issues them said they werent doing them till the 14th april! But she managed to sweet talk him) So we will have to go to town in the morning and pick up the prescription. We are down to the last half tin. Might do some groceries while we are there too and see if we can find Jessa some nice winter shoes.

ttfn xxooxx

Kindy days..........

Here is Jessa, all ready for Kindy today. She is wearing the skirt I made a while ago and a hat I made last month for her. I think she is a bit of a cutie pie. She absolutely loves kindy and asks everyday if it is a kindy day, even on the weekends.

As requested by mum, here is picture of the boat.
Is a quiet day today. Sammy is tired and was in bed by 12noon. A whole hour earlier than normal. I have been working on a submission to the local council to get the speed limit reduced past the school (with my Board of Trustees hat on) we have also requested they put a footpath on the road for kids to walk to school safely. Apparently it is all red tape and politics and not just as simple as changing a speed sign. *rolls eyes*

Also have been working on an enviro fun day at the school for preschoolers. We are meeting this afternoon to try and organise something. Should be fun so I hope it works!

Anyway watch this space for updates.

Laura has her first netball practice this afternoon so she was very excited. Daniel wants to play too.

We're all going in a skink hunt

Daniel took a picture of Charlie wearing his new jersey. He was smiling and chatting away and so cute. He is such a happy wee man and so snugglable.

The kids decided to go on a skink hunt this afternoon. So off to the wood pile they went. They found one. It is a common skink and apparently they like our wood pile. They are kind of like little newts, you can just make out the little legs. They are really quick and dont like being found much! The kids were very proud of their find.

Laura made a little sand garden while the wee kids were asleep. She found all the flowers in the garden.

She also took a picture of herself while taking pictures of the sand garden!

Boating on Lake Te Anau

The troups lounging in the cabin.

Charlie in his pint sized lifejacket (well his cousins one)
Laura - it was a bit chilly on the way out but really warm as the day wore on.
The driver.............

After breakfast we decided to take the boat out for its first trip. So we packed up a lunch and all piled in the car for the journey to Te Anau. (see here -http://www.travellink.co.nz/media/category.asp?UID=110.) We put the boat on the lake and ran it out to a wee bay on the South arm where we stopped for a picnic. (and got nibbled on by the sandflies!) Then we put a couple of fishing lines down. Although the fish finder told us there was lots of fishys down there they didnt want to catch our bait and we left empty handed for the trip back to the boat ramp.

Unfortunately the motor got a bit of dirt or something into it and it stopped before we got there. Jase managed to get it going long enough to get us to the shore and we popped it onto the trailer and headed to a friends place for coffee.

Picked up fish and chips (since we couldnt catch any!) for tea on the way through Winton.

Easter

The stash after the hunt!! 7am and the kids were up, Jessa was eating chocolate bunny within seconds, before we even got to the lounge! The had fun hunting and then eating chocolate before breakfast. Nothing like kids on a sugar high at 7.30am. Haha.

Charlie enjoyed watching the kids running around and since he cant eat chocolate yet he borrowed Lauras bunny for a quick snap. (oh and I ate some chocolate for him so he could have chocolate milkshake later, cant have him missing out can we!)

Nappy inserts - I made these last night. I am getting a bit more adventurous and colour coded these with woolly nylon on the overlocker. They are made out of microfibre, hemp fleece, bamboo fleece and bamboo terry. Red for large, Green for small and Blue for all size.

Tonight I made this duvet cover for Sam. I got the panel at spotlight the other week when it was on sale. But needed some extra of the backing material to go around the panel to make it big enough for the duvet. I put snaps on the bottom. I am really pleased with it - my first attempt at anything like this.

This is a wee jersey I finished for Charlie a couple of weeks ago. It has been waiting for me to press it lightly and stitch the buttons on. I started it just after he was born so 10weeks to finish it is getting quite good for me! It is made out of a lovely soft merino wool. I will try it on him tomorrow so I hope it fits. It is 3-6mth size so it should do.

I also stitched up Lauras sports shorts as she had ripped the pocket. I am getting quite a dab hand with this sewing lark - who would have thought me who could never sew a straight line would be able to do all this!

We went into Brodie and Antons this morning. Anton has been drawing our house extension plans up on his computer. It is looking good. We have a bit of tweaking to do but it is great to get the ball rolling. Did the groceries while we were in town and discovered that Invercargill has been bought out of easter eggs! The Warehouse was manic and only had choc bunnies and gourmet eggs left. The supermarkets only had marshmallow eggs. So I guess I should be more organised next year and get them earlier! We have set an easter egg hunt up for the kids so it should be fun in the morning. We will just have to keep an ear out incase the kids sneak up first and start demolishing the chocolate. Ha ha.

Trip to town (Invercargill)

Went to town this morning to get Sams' prescription formula. The hospital faxed the repeat through on Friday.

When I get there I find that apparently the special number we have for subsidy has run out. (this makes the formula $6 a tin as opposed to $120!!) So she let me take two tins and I had to ring the hospital and ask them to sort it out. (you would think they might have noticed when they did the prescription wouldnt you) Anyway on ringing they tell me the doctor is away until the beginning of April. So on a little bit of discussion as to what I would do if we ran out of formula she said she would find someone who could sign it for me and she would sort it out!

While we were in town I went to Spotlight (gotta love that place) and got some cheap cotton material to try a sling with. I have to admit to being a little sceptical as to my abilities to balance a baby and tie them in without droppping them on the floor.

Anyway I overlocked the edges, sewed two pieces together and walla, 15mins and $16 I have my very own wrap sling.

It is so easy to get Charlie in and so comfortable. Charlie seems to like it too, he was asleep after five mins.

Saturdays, nappies and running races....

Winning the 60m Final

So Saturday Jase took the kids to Armagh (well actually the oldest three slept over Friday night) I had a lovely Mental Health day. Charlie and I just cruised.

I cleaned the whole house and it stayed clean all day!!!!!

Then I set up the sewing machine for the afternoon and made some nappies. Had a play with my new snaps that arrived on Friday, I now have lots of colours and have snapped just about everything in sight lol!

Sunday I decided to bake so churned out 3 dozen oat cookies, a marshmallow crunch and Date scones. All of which have gone down very well!
I mowed the lawns while the kids had their naps which also included unwrapping a stray trampoline spring from the rotors after it was found in the grass!! Not sure who was guilty of that one but it took about 45mins to prise it off the damn thing!!! Anyhow no damage to the mower and only minimal damage to my hand! The lawns now look much better.



Monday was Central sports. Again Laura did really well. She came first in the 60m. 3rd in the long jump, 4th in the high jump and 4th in the 100m.

The 100m was so close there was about a second splitting 1st and 2nd and another second splitting 2nd and four runners for the 3rd place. Laura was one of them. She must have missed out by a hair. There was the best out of 8 schools there so she has some pretty tough competition.

She will be going through to Southland wide for the 60m so it is a great effort.

Proud Mummy (& Daddy) moment.........

Parent - Teacher interviews at school this afternoon.

Laura is doing exceptionally well - she is on the 'superior' level 9. Average is 5 and superior encompasses the top few percent in the country. This is for Maths and English. She is reading at a 13yr old age. She is enjoying it and says it is too easy!!!! Way to go Laura!!!!

Daniel having only been at school half a term got a glowing report also. Is working independantly a good few months earlier than the average and doing really well. His teacher thinks he may be like his older sister. So Yay for Daniel.

Must be some good genetics in there!!!!

Sports Day.................

Today the weather finally allowed the school sports to go ahead. The Eastern Southland zone compromises of four schools who compete in age groups from age 8+. The wee ones just compete in fun games of mixed school teams.
Laura did exceptionally and came first in all of her events, she got the most points in her age group and will go through to Central Zone Athletics next week to compete against other schools in the area.
Daniel had heaps of fun and participated really well. He came second in his running race against kids that were over a year older than him. He was very proud as was I.

Long Jump - 2m 95cm - Good effort!

Daniel running back to the base in the relay race

Jumping the elastic
Coming in second in the running race (60m)

Laura clearing the high jump with ease. She didnt knock the bar down once.

Coming an easy first in the running race, only three competitors but a clear streak!

This week......

So what have we been up to this week. Laura trialled for the local netball team and starts playing in a couple of weeks.
Touch was cancelled due to the rain for two weeks in a row. Jess got some new sneakers (trainers)
Sam managed to get hold of a chocolate biscuit at playgroup, but had a minimal reaction to it - so it was actually a positive experience!
Charlie is almost 9 weeks and getting so big, he seems very long so it will be interesting to see where he is at when he has his plunket visit next week. He is sooo cute, smiling and gurgling away. He appears to be quite the conversationalist.
Laura and Daniel have just been running around trying to catch butterflies and Laura has manged to get one. They are very proud of themselves!
Jase has just gone to pick up his new boat, some controversy over this purchase but I am sure we will have pictures soon of a trip out in it. Assuming that the weather plays its part, we are planning an easter trip.

Pictures are here..............

Charlie has had his first photoshoot, so I thought I would show off my wee model.

And I had a play around with the pictures for different effects, cool ah?

This has got to be one of my favourites.

Charlies Photoshoot............

to be continued..........(having problems uploading the photos!)

Busy days and exercise!

Wow where does all the time go!!! I missed another day. Yesterday was taken up with a nappy meeting. A couple of us are starting a group for mums (and dads!) interested in using modern cloth nappies. Charlie and I are getting to try out heaps of types and brands. I dont think Charlie was quite so keen on the yellow flower one though!
Then we posted a parcel and went to the library. Sam and Jess both chose a book. So do I. I have this really great idea that I am going to have time to actually read it before the three week borrow time is up - yeah right!
We picked up sausage rolls and raspberry buns for lunch and Jase came home and joined us on the way past.
Last night I finally got out my bike that I dusted off a few weeks ago. Pumped the tyres up again and went for a ride. I realised that it wasnt actually working just looking at it I was actually going to have to get on and move it lol!!!

Today was playgroup - the kids enjoyed it and Jess made some gingerbread men. Sam unfortunately isnt allowed them but he was more interested in the ride on tractors anyway!
Tonight I am planning a walk somewhere (probably not far away haha)

Weekends

Just a random photo of Charlie - I thought his grumpy look was quite cute!!

The muffins and choc slice went down well at playcafe - and I forgot to bring my tray home. So I will have to get it next week.

Yesterday was an exciting day of cleaning - are you jealous lol!!!

Jase is shoeing a horse this morning (after stealing my sleep in again!!!) and I am baking little apple pies. I still have a heap of apples left to stew so if anyone has any ideas of yummy things to bake let me know!

Sammy is much better and is totally off the ventolin now. Apart from a runny nose you wouldnt know he was sick. Amazing how quick they bounce back isnt it.