Tomorrow Joseph will turn six...somebody pinch me...I can remember bringing my little baby home and laying him ever so gently in his cot fast asleep, a tiny dot wrapped up in his blankie, walking out the door and saying those exact same words...somebody pinch me, we have a gorgeous baby boy in the house...although these days I definately know he is there lol! he thumps around the house with those growing, getting ganglier by the day, legs and feet, talks ten to the dozen, and sometimes I could swear his ears are drawn on...as he just dosn't seem to tune into my constant squawking about doing teeth, bringing wet swimming gear home from school, homework, remembering to put your undies on (yes its true he seems to have a penchant for going commando under his school shorts and conveniently forgets this small item of clothing which drives me insane!)

What can I say though...I love him to bits! I love sneaking up quietly at school and waiting until he spots me so I catch a glimpse of the face that lights up when he sees me before it is quickly replaced by the whoops hang on I'm at school cool face...the oh hey Mum, its you face rofl!

I love the determination he puts into things that are important to him... like riding his bike and conquering the big ramps at the skate park with his Dad...biking is his thing and he is a constant blur on our street!

...I love the way he will complete a project from start to finish...like in the weekend he found my stash of plastic and cans ready for the recycling pick up and decided he was going to make something with it all....so drew a design on paper first then enlisted his Dad for drilling help and put together what we call his 'water feature'...thought it was so cool he had a vision and actually brought it to life....

Anyway we are all geared up for his big surprise tomorrow...while he is at school we are making over the baby room to become his very own room and Samuel will move on to his big boy bed in with Patrick....Patrick is keen to be the boss too so a good move for everybody I think! Can't wait to see his face when he finds it!!

The NZ dare this week is a goody but a toughy...street art! This is what I came up with, the grungy stencil look lent itself well to a masculine type layout..

And a bit of a heads up...tune in and check out the NZdare site this Friday evening...there is an extra special something.....oh somebody stop me....suprise.....mustn't let......the cat out of.....the baaaagggggg........

Saturday morning we went to the local Farmers market and picked up a bunch of gorgeous sunflowers...i'm not a huge fan of cut flowers but these really made me feel happy as I looked at them during breakfast this morning....the sunlight streaming through the white blind behind them made a great neutral backdrop...although I quite like this one too lol....looks like Patrick is about to break into a wee operatic number!

Nice to take pictures of still subjects for a change!!

I'm sitting here absolutely stunned that it is Friday again!! flip that went fast! and yes Nana brought cream donuts for lunch today too YUM lol!! Afterwards we went to the park, Patrick took his bike and Samuel took his ride on fire engine...one of those ones that you can stow stuff under the seat...at one point it tipped over and out fell the dough part of Samuels donut....with all the cream expertly licked off of course...funny!


Heres what I did with one of last weeks photos for my NZ dare layout


The dare is this round is to use a 70's album for inspiration...you can see the one I used on the No.8 wired NZdare site and while you are there check out the cool new banner Lianne has put up...yes mum and dad those are your cows lol! and no those cows do not represent the dare girls Jo! rofl!!


Anyway this dare was fun, fun, fun!! and I do hope you give it a go...just reading a few comments on blogs lately I get the feeling some people are shy about entering their layouts for the NZDares...for whatever reason DON'T BE SHY!! we love seeing each individual interpretation of the dares and we want to see you do things you otherwise might not do for your every day scrapping...have some fun, be inspired by the dare girls,have a go...and the bonus side to the creating and sharing and having fun is you might just score the prize draw as well so what are you waiting for??


(You know I think I could get a job selling vacuum cleaners or something with a spiel like that rofl!..)


I must sit down and write a list of things I will need for my day Freestyling in Auckland next month because what with the UK whanau arriving in a couple of weeks and a weeks R&R with them up in Tutukaka its all going to sneak up very quickly....I am so looking forward to this day...just me and lots of other scrappers doing our thing....bring.it.on!! Hoping to put a few names to faces too! Tia Bennett has posted a wee sneak peak of the creating goodies that will be used for her classes...


Ta da! and once my list is done I can clip it onto my little todo list fridge magnet...now, now don't laugh...Tia did say it was crafting month so I started fiddling round for the heck of it lol! really I am pysching myself up for the following...trying to get myself into an altered project frame of mind!!




So who is having a go at the DT call for SBO...love the whole survivor style idea...should be great fun even if I just end up voting! Have had a light bulb moment for my altered item so hope I can translate the idea from my head to the real thing...but I can't wait to get stuck into it this weekend...

Every Friday Mum comes for lunch and brings bakery goodies....I caught Bert up on a chair eyeing up the left overs and thought it would make a cute shot...wasn't til later that I noticed the other two there also hee hee...funny!

So its March already...Josephs birthday in 3 weeks..his first 'proper' party with school friends to be invited...its only ever been family affairs before now....but luckily ...for me he only wants to invite 4 kids WAHOOOO!! I had visions of trying to entertain multitudes of 6 year olds and failing miserably...but this I can handle! .. not nervous at all....heh heh..*gulp*

off to surf for kids party ideas now...