aaaarrrrrgggghhh internet cut out and lost my post darn it - I need to go and make tea before we faint from starvation and Ben looses the plot becuase I am ignoring him trying to get this put up!

Pet Day 2010

So I have so many photos that I want to share and I have been so busy I can barely sit down for 5mins and when I do I am usually mutlitasking and feeding a baby or sleeping!! So my apologies to my avid followers (both of you!)

Today, under clear blue skies and soaring temperatures, we had school pet day at Lochiel school. What an awesome day, the PTA have done an amazing job (including organising the weather!) The kids have had an absolute ball.

There was pet judging, wacky hair, face painting, cake and lolly stalls, a clown, the southland stag mascot, tug o war, an obstacle course, jump jam demo, ice cream van, sausage sizzle, lolly scramble and the kids favourite was mini jeeps. Who knew Jess and Sam were such good drivers!!! I am sure there was other things they did that I have neglected to mention but the result is happy, exausted kids and mum!

The kids requested dress ups for thier lambs for the grand parade. So I made a wizard, a princess and two cowboys.

Here are a few piccies...........

Photo overload - Lauras 11th birthday party

Laura had a cupcake party for her birthday - was supposed to be her 10th but due to house alterations it became her 11th!!

Photos of the day backwards as for some reason they upload that way!

Eating home made individual pizzas for tea....

Daniels concentrating....
The icing centre hub.....

Jess enjoying the fruits of her labour.....

Sam and his cupcake....

Making little cupcake boxes to take the cupcakes home in...

The cupcakes - half kids made, half mummy made...

playing the chocolate game, where you have to dress up and eat chocolate wrapped in newpaper using a knife and fork...

getting ready for baking..

The giant cupcake cake...

Blowing out candles on her birthday day, she asked for a cream sponge and I made a Sam friendly choc cake too...

Sunny days

Laura playing in her Yr 7 rep Netball Team

The newest tigger (who has just woken up as I write this!)

It is a beautiful day in the deep South. Nice breeze, warm sun, washing fluttering on the line. Mmm there is something about fresh dried clothes - they smell so yummy.

I have finished all my work for my diploma this morning. Soon to be a fully qualified CBE. Kids have been 'camping' all morning. Apparently they are nomadic, having camped at the sandpit, woodpile and trailer. We are now also free of killer rabbits, I am told they have come to a macabre end in the fire pile. Charlie has been extending his vocabulary - in Spanish. Sam managed to work out how to make Dora play in her national language!

Just have some paperwork to complete, the bathroom to clean and then I might do some knitting I think. Might have to do some baking for the lunchboxes this week too.

We are sitting down to tomato and cheese on crumpets for lunch, yummy.

as promised the new floor

The new wooden floor, all stained and polished - looking pretty good huh?

And the new carpet, Sam and Charlie were trying it out, they were very excited. Sam told me

" wow, it doesnt hurt when I fall over now" lol! It is soo nice to walk on the carpet again, it has luxury underlay that is really thick and is quite a thick carpet. We have gone for a very good quality carpet for the living area since that is the place that gets all the hard wear. It is really lovely. Very pleased with it.

viewed from the kitchen

Daniel is all warm

Daniel has been asking for a while (since last winter actually) for me to knit him a scarf, he asked for flames. Well I picked up some wool a while ago for $2 a ball so we decided to use that. There was enough left to do a hat too. He is very pleased with it and it should be warm becuase it is 80% merino. One of the girls on TNN has just released this pattern for handwarmers (Embeca on Ravelry) she is having a competition for people to knit the handwarmers and embelish them. So some more $2 balls of wool from Spotlight and he has his flames :-) One happy, snuggly warm boy.

My gorgeous baby......

For the last couple of weeks Ben has been giving us random 'real' smiles, he is really funny becuase once he has done it he cant remember what to do and sticks his tongue out and contorts his face but cant figure out how to smile again.

Well today I was sitting at the table with him on my knee having a wee chat and he gave me the most gorgeous gummy smile, followed by another and another - lots of them. It was sooooo cute and adorable. So I went and got the camera - of course I couldnt get him to smile for the camera, but as soon as I put it away he gave me the biggest grin!

He is wearing his new cardy I knit for him too, fits perfectly and looks great, I am really pleased with it.

This weeks project

The kids 'bob couch' (named becuase of its bright red upholstery in the theme of bob the builder) was looking a little worse for wear after 7yrs of enthusiastic lounging by several little people. So I decided to recover it. I got some gorgously soft minky (the spotty stuff) so used that for the seat part and contrasted with dark chocolate drill (for durabilty) The project seemed simple until I had unpicked the previous cover. Despite labeling everything in permanant marker it wasnt quite so simple to stitch back together! I have done something wrong at the front as it doesnt sit quite right. I will have to have a look at Lucas' couch next time I am there and figure out what I did wrong. My last fopar (is that how you spell that?) was to reuse the zip, as I was zipping the finished cover up over the foam, eager to admire my work the pull part fell off, I managed to prise its inards open and reattach it for it to break into two pieces. So rather than unpick it all and start with a new zip I have temporarily sewed the zip together!!! I will get back to it and replace the zip.......one day!

So the kids have renamed 'bob couch' as 'spotty couch'

oh yes and the new floor

So we have just spent the week down at Gruff and Brendas while they were on holiday (in Oz, in the sun, lucky things!) It has been so nice to have a fire and a dishwasher - oh how I have missed the dishwasher. Anyway it allowed us to be out of the house while the polyurethane went down on the wooden floor, so it has been a tiring week - for Jase who worked all day and then spent his evening staining, polishing and painting and for me who had sole responsibility of all six children for the week and then on the weekend while Jase was away ploughing. I did however get a bit of knitting done without the call of sorting, housework etc etc, so it was in effect a nice break for me too.
So before the disco we had to call in at home to get a couple of things and, of course, to take photos, so you will see in the background the floor with the first couple of coats of polish on, I will add more photos in the next few days of the finished floor.

The carpet was due to go down today but unfortunately when Jase went to paint the skirting boards (they had to go down after the polishing but before the carpet) the paint contained a foreign material that made it all bumpy and looked like lots of little hairs were in it. So that had to go back and the boards had to be all sanded and repainted - hence we had to put the carpet layers off until next week. We should know by now that nothing goes to plan shouldnt we!!!

School Disco

Last Friday was the school disco and the kids were asked to dress up as someone from a different country or in a sports strip. So I present to you - the all black, the flamenco dancer and the little chinese girl. Lauras dress is the result of about 6hrs of pattern drafting, altering and sewing but I am pleased to say she was stoked with my efforts and loves it.

My gorgeous wee man

Hanging with daddy while mummy has a shower

see I can open my eyes!


First bath at home, not too terribly impressed

Sams Birthday

Sam's birthday on the 19th April. Ben and I came home from the maternity centre the day before so the day of Sam's birthday I set about making his cake. He decided he would like a 'moo' cake. Not up to my usual standard, there are a few things I wasnt happy about - like using the white icing for the fences, I should have used chocolate. Also Sam cant actually eat the choc fingers because they have dairy in them, but I didnt have time to organise anything else. Anyway, Sam was very pleased with his cake and we bought some cool candles for it too.

The inspiration for the cake is on the right - Sam's beloved 'moo'

With my brothers and sisters

Benjamin Thomas Robson

Ben is now just over two weeks old, so getting a little late for a birth announcement! But here it is anyway. I have to say in my defence the only time I get on the computer is usually when I have a little boy attached to my boob or over my shoulder and my patience can only take a limited amount of one handed, two fingered typing before I revert to clicking the mouse and one word sentences. But I thought it might reach Bens 18th birthday before I finally get his newborn pictures on here so had better get onto it!





So, back to the announcement part.......





Benjamin (Ben) Thomas, born on the 15th April 2010 at 4.16pm. Weighing in at a small (for us!) 9lb 2oz and 55cm long. Born in the birth pool after a cruisey, pain free labour (apart from the last minute which farking hurt!) no pain relief needed. unfortunately Ben didnt wait for daddy to get home from the ploughing match so he was born under the watchful eyes of two midwifes and his aunties Brenda and Brodie, who I have to say did a stella job of maintaining my comfort levels with water, cold flannels and hand holding and Brod took some awesome pictures (some of which wont be shared, for modesty's sake!)

Brand new, still in the pool, I cant rave enough about waterbirth - it was the most fantastic experience. A truely beautiful birth.