And then the sun came out....

(look Celia and Mafoo the apple tree you gave us is blossoming!...don't ask about the pear tree..its umm sort of recovering after being munched badly by the goats...but it should come right eventually!)

Hope the sun is shining on you too, where ever you may be!!

Last night was our 17th Bossy Scrapper round at Scrapbook Studio, we have a fun night chatting and scrapping so do pop in and join in every Sunday 8pm in the chat room...feeling super clean and keen at my newly tidied desk lol...I dusted off this pic of me and my cousins...love the summery barefeet in dresses and the classic pic on the steps of our old house....

...man... thats 30 years ago lol!!

Boo.

Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend...weathers a bit chilly for my liking but hey it could be worse....could be out camping in a tent like some crazy people seem to have an urge to do on Labour weekend....rather them than me!! Tents = hot summery weather, people!! not weird four seasons in one day Spring weather!

Well we are on the runaway train towards Christmas....wooowhoooo...all aboarrrdddd!! The school have hosted 6 other local schools for the annual Cross Country event...it was a good day, perfect weather and the both boys gave it their best...

Patrick spurred on by the smell of the sausage sizzle and the prospect of a sausage sarnie coming in 4th in the 5 year olds...

and Joseph kept it steady all the way coming in 11th in the 7 year olds...

...as you can tell it is obviously uncool to smile and look happy as Mum takes your picture in front of your mates...heh, heh, heh!!

Have been busy with Play Centre stuff too...got the Dads working hard out knocking up a raised vege patch for the kids last weekend...Its a small space but should be enough to have some fun growing a variety of veges...a teacher at the school passed on an idea for a very cool project to try and allow us more room to grow things...she suggested we try the upside down bucket idea for growing tomatos...check it out here The vege patch has been constructed in the old sandpit which is under a clear covered verandah so it already has strong beams for us to hang the buckets from in place and will stop those little fingers picking the tomatos before they are ready too!! Will share some pics when we are under way!

The boys are going great guns at their keyboard lessons and the teacher is having to give them extra songs to keep them from getting too far ahead in their songbooks from the others in the class!

Hmmmm I bet you can guess what Joseph was about to do at the end there!! Boys and their obsession with showing their butts huh!! Not suprising really if you know their Uncles lol!!! Just hope he dosn't end his performance the same way at the upcoming Christmas recital!!

The Scrapbook Studio DT have their October inspiration up

Awww....still can't believe it was 10 years ago now!! Love how the Prima Paintables turn out, you really can't go wrong with those and the new Tinkering Ink papers are alot of fun! We had been talking on the forum about using up our older film photos so for my layouts I chose pics from my pre digi camera '90's...its fun to scrap some older memories and good to liven up those old pics!

Thought this was fun check out this awesome wallpaper...you could scrapbook straight onto the wall lol!!

Anyway thats us for another stretch...Patricks birthday next weekend....time to stock up on party poppers and balloons again! He has ordered a Spider man cake...fun times in the kitchen ahead...Jiiimmmmm help....

AT LAST!!

Something momentuous to blog about heh, heh!!

Joseph has lost his first baby tooth...he's only been waiting all year for a tooth to get wiggly and fall out like everybody else in his class. It started feeling a bit loose last week and he's been working it hard out backwards and forwards (eewwww!) until last night after tea it finally gave up the fight! tiny little thing that it is! I came into the bathroom afterwards to find him grinning into the mirror at the gap in his teeth muttering 'At last, at last...!'

The tooth fairy did her duty last night...she was a rich one!! Two dollars!! (dang it was all I had in my wallet!!) You always get heaps for the first tooth and not so much for the following ones I've told him...in case next time all I've got is 20c!

In other news...of which there is none really! we are all fine, the animals are fine, the weather has been fine!! which has been fantastic for the holidays...first bit of rain today though....
The avocado tree is dripping with avo's again this year...spot who was sent up to get the ones at the top....
Everyone wave to the crazy guy in the tree....

Dad and the boys had fun making a teepee out of the plentiful bamboo we have around the place...Might have to try growing runner beans up some this year...the seeds we planted a while back are all sprouting away...they'll be ready for transplanting into the garden soon...we have had to fence off the vege patch properly from the goats...Lulu the wiley one soon figured she could smash down the temporary fencing we had around it...but it looks good now Jim has taken down some of the fencing between it and the house so it has become part of the garden as a whole rather than being just stuck out in the paddock.

The weather has even been nice enough for a spot of this on occasion...lol had to crop this pic to spare you the full frontal heh, heh!!

This poor old paddling pool finally gave in to a zillion little holes and we've since invested in a new one for the summer.

Scrapping wise there is a new Kiwi Jack up for the month so head on over for some home grown inspiration

and why not have a go at this one at Scrapbook Studio 1+1+1 challenge deadline is Friday night..

And Lisa has the new theme up for the ATC dares blog 1950's retro!! very cool...can't wait to have a play with this one....

If you are going to SENZ have a fun time and try not to spend all your $$ on the first day lol!! If like me you are staying home :-( then come and check out the forum at Scrapbook Studio
where we'll have some fun things going on for those who can't wangle it to Welly for the weekend!!).

Now lookee here Rae!! what is the meaning of this tagging me lol!! I've always managed to avoid this before or more acurately ignore this before heh, heh...sorry if you were one of the ones who have tagged me and I ignored it....but for the lovely Rae I will give a go...but later...will have to think up some suitably random answers first!

Meekxx

Revisiting an old layout...because Patrick has passed another of lifes wee milestones today...he can now ride his bike without training wheels....A real triumph because it wasn't an easy one for him....

He loved the little bike in this layout but soon outgrew it and progressed onto the bigger bike he has now, he just never seemed comfortable on this one though..being bigger and heavier I think the training wheels didn't give him as much stability and he became very cautious and much less keen on biking, especially when we moved here and there is only a metal driveway to bike on, which makes the going that much harder with training wheels...all the fun had gone out of it for him.

Every now and then we would suggest he try with out the training wheels and he tried a couple of times and it would usually end in tantrums and tears...fear is a yukky feeling...

Dad had done a wonderful job teaching Joseph but Patrick just wasn't having any of it so it seemed I needed to give it a whirl...which I had been hoping I wouldn't have to as I was just as afraid of letting him fall as he was of falling!!Suck it up girl!! So armed with the promise of being able to choose a new bell when he succeeded and a trip to the warehouse to buy a special diary and some dinosaur stickers to record his daily bike lesson progress we were all set to practice a little bit every day. Patrick suprised me by reminding me all this week after school...Mum...its time for my bike lesson....

Here are his diary entries...

Sunday 7th Sept...today I learnt to put my foot down (which we found is an easier way to stop instead of careering wildly into the fence!)

Monday 8th Sept...Remember to sit straight and steer (rocking the handlebars from side to side as you pedal in a panic does not help you to go in a straight line!)

Tuesday 9th Sept...I am strong! (Mum's little mantra to help convince him that he can hold the bike up and control the wild beast!)

Wednesday 10th Sept...no lesson.

Thursday 11th Sept...I am a Champion!!! (You sure are matey!!)

Yep 3 lessons and today Superman was flying once again!! I couldn't believe it as I was flapping along beside him in my gummies, holding the seat...all of a sudden I just felt him take over and balance the bike and he was away! I knew it would just click eventually, but was expecting it to take a little longer....Warning!!You may want to turn the sound down or better still... off!!...I have a bad case of loudmotheritis!

Joseph was great, cheering him on all the way...and proudly said 'Hey P! you'll be able to come to the bike ramp with me and Dad now!'....seeing a little wave of terror creep back over Patrick's face I was quick to add...yep but I think we need to practice a bit more first lol! One step at a time hey kiddo! So proud of you for conquering your fear and look forward to you being happy and laughing on your bike like you used to be!

Here are a few more pics from the weekend...

A little fathers day help for Dad...

Sowing seeds for the vege patch...

The current crop, can't get fresher than this!...Jamie Oliver's leek and chickpea soup here we come....

Speaking of 'Fresh' thats the photography word prompt #5 at Scrapbook Studio...go here to add your 'Fresh' pics and if you scrap them as well you will be in the draw for a fun Spring RAK from me!

Oh and just look at these babies fresh out of the oven yesterday!! A small blonde person, whom I shan't name, kept sneaking them and we were finding half eaten ones all over the house! They are caramel apple cupcakes by the way...a good way to use up those slightly bruised apples that bounce their way to school and then bounce their way home again in the kids lunch boxes lol!

Jim and I have also been baking our own bread this week...for no particular reason except its a nice thing to do and its yummier than bought! The kids are a bit suspicious of the yeasty flavour but are slowly coming to the party, eating it toasted or slathered in choc spread or both lol!

oh and look...sadly no we havn't got chickens...yet...maybe this summer....but we have been busy sharing the many Avacado's on our tree and were lucky enough to recieve these farm fresh eggs in exchange yesterday and today our neighbour also returned the love and gave us a lamb roast!...shhh don't tell Rosie and Poppy...

So feeling rather like the 'Good Life' couple at the moment!

...although it does have its ups and downs...planted 12 lovely strawberry plants yesterday only to have the goats get into the vege patch and scoff the lot this afternoon lol! lucky for them I was on to much of a high from Patricks cycling success to be too upset....otherwise goat ragout may have been on the menu for tonight!!

The Bossy Scrapper is still going strong on Sunday nights at 8pm in the chat room...so if you would like to liven up your evening with some chatting and scrapping...do come and join us! This was my layout for last weeks Bossy Scrapper #10...

Have a good weekend everybody,

Ka kite!

Ok move over rally cars, its time to get the scrapping show on board again! ...by the way Jim it has been noted that you are a paparazzi extraordinaire and that dude! the date stamp on your camera is whack!! lol.


Ahhhhhh...there we go, a nice layout.... that feels much better heh, heh! If you want to see what else I and the rest of the Scrapbook Studio DT have been up to recently check out our Design Team Blog for lots of fun projects, muses, ideas and layouts and updates on the forum happenings...


..... ooh even better a nice pic of the kidlet reading his birthday books from the Bulls Toomey's...thanks gang! My favourite is the tree one...but without a doubt the kids favourite is the goldfish one...because it says Poo. Several times. Even funnier when its a Goldfish saying 'Poo to you' to a funny little dog. Mum rather likes it too...alot...especially when it produces great guffaws and belly laughs from the boys.

In fact the small boys in our house say the word Poo alot at the moment for some reason...it is deftly swapped for any word at random during any conversation and the person who says it then doubles over in convulsive laughter...and the giggles being highly contagious as we all know usually rapidly infects any small person standing in the vicinity...which tends to leave the grown up standing there in bewilderment until said grown up wanders off to see if they can find another grown up for some saner company or maybe even to talk to the dog or goats. Dogs and goats cannot say 'poo' you see so you are quite safe from 'poo' conversations in the company of dogs and goats. only goldfish can. apparently. and kids.

Oh and by the way no Samuel is not reading heh, heh...just pointing! But he has connected to the fact that the black squiggles are letters which make words and when Mum says the words of the story she is looking at the black squiggles and so he likes to point at them in case I lose my place.

Our Samuel is really into all manner of games at the moment...except he has his own set of rules for each game.

Beetle...flick the spinner but if you don't land on something you need..just stick something on anyway..the object is to build the beetle as fast as you can so you can play pretend games with the beetles afterwards...with Mum....




Connect Four....put the counters in as fast as you can...the first one to use up all their counters is the winner....when you win...you punch the air with both fists at the same time and say 'yay I win'!

Buckeroo...first insist on playing this wretched game..... watch Mum mutter under her breath cause the silly donkey will only stay down if you hold your tongue right and have pressed it down a jillion times until you are about to give up and have to tell your expectant 3 year old that it won't work...then by some miracle it sticks and the game is on...pile things on quickly, but stop midway to pretend to play the little guitar...laugh and run away when the obstinate beast now refuses to Buck despite having everything piled on his back!!! aggghhhh!! Funnily enough Mum is not laughing but muttering under her breath again!

Now you might remember Joseph was trying out for parts in a cultural performance the school is attending...they are going to be performing the Maori legend 'Rata and the Totara Tree'...happily Joseph was given the part of one of the creatures that helps resurrect the Totara...they were allowed to choose what sort of creature they wanted to be and they have to sort their own costumes...Joseph is deciding between either a grasshopper or a weta...Mum is deciding whether to panic now or wait til closer to the time....rofl!!

Now if you are up for Scrapping type challenges this September be sure to check out the new

Kiwi Jack

The Nz dare...to scrap a weird photo...

The Scrapbook Studio September Sketch...I played around with the elements on Scrapblog to create this months sketch....if you want to give this one a go have some fun with it..you can interpret the elements in your own way and feel free to add in more photos if you wish!

have a good one all...might even blog again this weekend if we do something worth taking pictures of lol!

Meek

This blog is interrupted for Jim to show off his pics from the weekend at the WRC...the normal program will resume shortly....

Friday morning


Getting ready to leave to start on friday morning



Start of SS5


SS9 Mystery Creek Saturday Hirvonen
Hirvonen in Service before SS10 Te Akau South

Sordo on SS3 Pirongia West

Wilson on SS3 Pirongia West

Solberg waiting to leave Mystery Creek on day one. Heading for SS1 Pirongia West.

Loeb at Mystery Creek Super Stage SS5 on Friday after finishing Waitomo SS4

Wilson on SS11 Te Akau North on Saturday afternoon

Loeb leaving SS4 Waitomo 2 Friday afternoon

Loeb and latvala following back SH3 from Otorohanga

Latvala overtaking on SH3 heading north on Friday afternoon

Hirvonen Waiting at Mystery Creek to start rally

Loeb going through Otorohanga

Snapped in Mystery Saturday afternoon

Ahoy there Cap'n Gran and Matey Pop....look at me in my new pirate bed!! The face says it all huh! Thank you both...hugs and kisses xxooxx and awwwaaarrrr's Samuel!

Its my birthday and I'll be silly if I want to!

Samuel pleases Mum by tucking into some fruit...after ploughing his way through a whole packet of pink pig jelly lollies in one sitting for breakfast lol...thanks Gran and Pop they went down a treat, enjoyed by all the boys!

Zee artist at work....cheers Aunty Celia and Uncle Maffoo!! a big hit!

Another Jim and Meek birthday creation...I'd asked Samuel earlier in the week what sort of cake he would like and his criteria were Banana and Yellow so we created our 'house on fire' cake from my Big Wonga Banana Cake recipe and painted on some nice yellow icing walls and added a little lego fireman and truck to fight the flames and save the jelly baby people from certain disaster!

For starters we just brought out the cake and no truck, Samuel was delighted with his 'house cake'.....

but then Dad lit the candles and instructed them to yell 'Fire, Fire' and the fire brigade was there in no time to fight the blaze...

So after copious games of his new Go Diego Go game (thanks Toomey's in Whiti!) we ventured out for a wintery walk before the predicted rain arrived...

Can't wait til those branches are leafy green again!!

Joseph spurred on by the mountain biking he has been watching on the Olympics the last few days was right into the rough terrain!

However 'hoodie boy' was having none of the biking lark (as usual) and prefered to beat the feet with Mum and Dad and entertained us with his larrikan ways the whole way round!

A brave little weed persists through the dead winters grass...well come ...on this post has to have a few arty farty pics with no children in it lol!! this was all I could come up with!

Uh oh its spitting...head for the car troops...

Aha...the promise of Spring is here after all....

Bert and Samuel provided the netball girls with a few giggles as they raced by...have they never seen a mad hairy white dog dragging along a kid in a potato head helmet before?

Um...dude...you've got brown on you......

Then it was home for a siesta before we hit Keri Keri for a night out on the town! lol....it was Dad's part of the birthday and we went for a curry....the kids were suspicious but gamely tried the onion bahji, Pakora, kebabs and tandoori chicken platter we got for starters...Samuel declared everything 'YUKKY' in a loud determined manner everytime we tried to tempt him..... but as there was only one other couple seated nearby at the time we wern't to concerned at scaring away the other patrons away lol!

Joseph liked the chicken and the Pakora, P not keen on 'this Chinese food' so far (lol)...Out came the curry's next...butter chicken for the kids, Chicken Saag for mum (eeeeewwww Mum its green!!) and Dads du p'aiza had them gagging and reaching for their water glasses...much fun...but the rice and Naan breads went down well at least!

All in all a good learning, tasting experience and not a darn chicken nugget or french fry to be seen YAYYY!!

For dessert we strolled up to the top of the street to the Petrol Station and treated them to their choice of icecreams from the freezer...stopping for a beam me up scotty pic on these funky lights amongst the palm trees on the way back to the car...

AND THATS NOT ALL....lol...going for the most pics on a blog post Olympic medal here....

today we suprised our fire engine mad birthday boy with a trip up to the local Okaihau fire engine museum...The owner has a huge collection of models, uniforms, memorabilia and 9 real fire engines from old to modern...needless to say the boys loved it! They got to explore inside them, sit in them and 'drive'...Samuel was in firetruck heaven!

The owner got little flickthe fire truck out afterwards and took them for a wee drive with the siren going...Samuel declined the ride...'too loud' lol! but enjoyed watching the big boys and happily climbed on once the engine was turned off!

...pretty good weekend in all from a three year olds point of view!

now we just need to get rid of all the coughs and colds and sneezles that have taken up residence!

Jim....'havn't you got a pic of my new shed wall'....um no. sorry no room. you can have a special little post for that all on its own...when you take a pic that is...

Have a good week everyone...

ta ra for now!