The progress so far..............

So the extension to the house is started. Here is the progress so far. Today we have the block layers here so I will take pics of that tonight and add them later.

Before - the house as it was.

The kids watching from their vantage point! (they even ate lunch up there after they rigged one of my baskets up to a piece of string and hoisted everything up, we wont go into how they left it tied to the tree afterwards and it rained!)

Uncle Jamie with his digger - digging the foundations and boreing the pile holes.

Sam having a ride - when he saw the camera we got a huge smile!

Reinforcing rods, piles all placed and ready for the concrete

Concrete truck bringing the concrete - was the source of much entertainment for several small people around here! Lucas didnt even notice that daddy had left becuase he was too busy watching the truck back into the drive!

Dad and Sam surveying the work that evening.

Sams first day at kindy

Sam started afternoon Kindy on the 14th of September. He was very excited, if a little nervous. Jess, Charlie and I went prepared to stay for the afternoon if he needed us too but we managed to leave for one of the two hours. He loved it. By the next day he was telling me he was going to stay all by himself "cos I dont need you to stay eh mum?" I am really stoked and very proud of him, he is a shy wee fella and I thought the transition would be a big one for him. He found his mate Dylan as soon as he got there and they have been inseparable since. Dyl was awesome and I think it has helped Sam slot in no problems becuase he has someone to show him the ropes and keep him busy with all the activities there is to do.

Standing at the gate before going in, bag on back and big sister to help!

Sussing out the basket of cars

Charlie enjoyed joining in the singing and activities

Playing with Dylan

Having fun!

Back online

Well I have had two weeks offline. Well mostly, I managed to connect for short, very slow periods of time on Jases aircard but as the signel round here is slower than dial up it made for a very frustrating time!
I was nearly shaking to start with - no internet - how would I cope! I actually got a lot done, lol! The house is clean and tidy for a start, I managed to finish some projects that I had started.

I have now got my speedy internet back, which is awesome, didnt realise how fast it was till it wasnt here!
So I decided while I had my speedy internet back I would clear my hard drive and see if I could get some speed back into this old machine. Given that we wont be able to replace it for a long time it needs to keep going. I was having to give it CPR everytime I used it and slow was an understatement for loading time!
Anyway I am pleased to announce that it is now working really well. I have a few more things that I need to load back up (like the printer driver lol!) but things are looking more stable.
I am just busy downloading photos. Unfortunately the program I thought came with the computer for loading photos obviously didnt and it is another one that is slower at loading, a tad frustrating but I am sure I will find something to compensate at some stage!
Right will go and load some photos to share.

Some randoms.........

Well we have a busy day here today. Jess has her first school visit, she is there until morning tea today. Next week she will do till after lunchtime and after the holidays she will do a full day before starting full times the following week. She is soooo excited. It seems really funny that she is off to school, it kind of snuck up on me I think! I will soon have three children at school, more than I have at home!

Further to that at the end of last week we got the call up for Sam to start afternoon kindy. So this afternoon he starts afternoons three times a week for two hours. He is also very excited, he has his kindy bag all organised. He is somewhat nervous about the fact that mum will be leaving him there though, so I suspect that Jess, Charlie and I might be staying for some or all of the session until he gets used to it. I am hoping when he sees some of the kids he knows from playgroup there he will settle in and we will be able to leave him for a while. (we might need to go and have a coffee and come back ;-)

So it is a big day coming. Probably more for me than the kids too!

A birthday cake I made for a friends son. They had a wee train at home to put on it.

I recently did another yarn swap on my nappy forum, we provided a painting as the inspiration. Mine was lavender fields in provence and this is the delectibly delicious hand dyed yarn I received. It was all wrapped up with a bar of lavender soap so it smelled divine when I opened it. I havnt decided what I am going to knit yet, I am too busy drooling over it to knit it up yet!

Lucas's Birthday

It has been a while since I updated here, mainly just due to the normal busy madness that envelops this house on a daily basis! So here are some snaps from Lucas's birthday in August. The kids all had a great time (not least becuase there was lots of new toys to play with, and Lucas was happy to share his new haul of goodies) He had an awesome Tonka Truck cake made by Gruff and Brenda. Aunty Brenda also made a Sam friendly cake so he could have birthday cake too. He was very impressed and enjoyed his Sammy Spotty Cake as he called it. (dairy free lolly cake, lol!)

Just a quickie before lunch

The other day Charlie went to bed in the morning due to him being up at some very early hour. Sam and Lucas were playing so nicely in the lounge that I snuck off to do a bit of sewing. After 5mins Sam cames through, so I said to him 'why dont you go and play with Lucas while mummy finishes this' his reply in an indignant tone 'I cant hes asleep'

This is where I found him - he was snoring and his wee head was raising and lowering with the snores - so cute!

Laura had a couple of friends here last Sunday and they got the dress ups out and dressed Charlie up - who then promtly went and got in the sandpit! (his favourite place)

Last Sunday I made this dolly - its for my antenatal classes and I was stoked how she came out. Although Jessa has decided that she should look after her till I need her and named her Lily Beth!

This is the Merino hoody I made this week for Laura - she has school camp next week and has to have some warm tops.

Flipping blogger thingy!

Well I went to login to add these photos and apparently they have changed how it all works so it took me 15mins to work out how to access the blog. Thought I was going to have to start a new one!

So I have finished a couple of tops. Lauras jersey has been waiting a while so I could hunt down another ball of wool. (I managed to run out half up the collar) but I couldnt find one so I decided to make the collar shorter than the pattern and managed to find a ball lf similar colour to stitch it up with so I did that last night.

I also made Daniel a merino top to wear on his school ski trip on Monday. I finished it with FOE (fold over elastic) and it was so quick and easy. And best of all he loves it!

Show us ya belly!

We had lots of balloon fun for Lauras birthday tea - the kids blew up some balloons and then we found some rocket balloons that you blow up and let go and they shoot off around the room. That gained lots of excited from kids and adults alike - although Brenda and I were slightly light headed from blowing the darn things up so many times!

Then Uncle Anton showed Sammy how to make a magic balloon - it sticks to the roof! So the others all wanted a turn too!

Birthday Girl

We had birthday tea last night for Laura. Pizza and chips was ordered so Laura and I set on and made half a dozen stuffed crust pizzas. We made meat lovers, hawiian and chicken and apricot. They were very yummy indeed. Laura made a huge self saucing choc pudding and I got the $10 special at Deep South (10kg of ice cream from the factory yummo!) we got vanilla again (it is random and you dont know what you get until you open it) but it was perfect for the pudding.

Of course, even though that actual birthday isnt until Monday, no birthday tea would be complete without presents so the lucky nearly 10yr old got to open her pressies early!

All ready to open pressies and being sung happy birthday!

Let the opening begin...............

Lucas helping out.........

WOW an ipod 'cooooolll'

'OMG' yes they are tickets to Starlight Express and yes we are flying to Christchurch tomorrow for the weekend to go and see it. (Mum and Laura for a girls weekend!)

Boys in bed

The boys were hanging out while I was sewing (sewing machine in the bedroom)

Sam and Charlie were saying 'Cheeeeeeaaaaeeeeaaase' hence the wide open mouths!

Pink and Purple Twirly Skirts...........

I have recently borrowed a pattern from someone for these very girly girl skirts. The girls were very excited. So yesterday and today I sewed up one for Jess and one for Laura. They are really easy to make, which suprised me because they look really good. I am so pleased with them and the girls just love them. They got to choose their own colours. (do you recognise the material mum? Its the stuff I bought when you were here. )

I added a frill to Jessas to finish it off and thought it would make it last a bit longer. Laura chose to have hers as it was because it twirled better.

More sewing..........

On Tuesday Laura went to a craft class at the library. She made felt flowers for hair ties. Very cool. So when her friend came around the other day I searched out some old scraps of felt and they made some more.

I found a pattern for some little animals so today Laura made a little piggy. He is so cute. She has called him scraps. (she dismissed my suggestion of pork chop ;-) dont know why!)

One of the swaps that was sent in my recent yarn swap included a really cute cow apron. I commented on how Sam would love it and could the person who made it please let me know where I can get the material from so I could make one for Sam. Anyway I met a lovely lady from TNN the other day and she gave me a present. It was a cut out of the material for Sam and one of the other material that she used too. So I made Sam and Daniel an apron each. It is absolutely perfect becuase they often bake biscuits. Sam was so excited he would be able to help Laura now that he asked if she would do some baking so he could help! Anyway on her declination he decided that he would use it to make a sandwich and eat his lunch with instead! Oh yes and of course Jessa wanted one too. So I used a cut of the material I took off Lauras blanket when I rebacked it and upcycled it into an apron for her. I ran out of ribbon for the straps so I dug out a bit of bias binding and used that instead. (thanks to a hint off Grandmas apron that hangs in my cupboard) Apologies for the less than perfect picture - it was just before bedtime and they wernt the most co operative!

Recycling.......

I have had an old lambswool jersey sitting in my sewing pile for years. It was one I used to wear to school and then, after it started getting holes, I wore it on the farm. It was really warm but had so many holes in and was unravelling. But it seemed too good to throw out.

Anyway, today I decided to recycle it. So I cut it out and made a jersey for Charlie.

There are a couple of things that annoy me - like I couldnt use the ribbing on the sleeves becuase it was stuffed so I had to hem them. And also I cut the neck too small - forgot to allow for large Robson heads. So although the jersey is big on Charlie it only just fits over his head. DUH!

Before

After

Modelled