Living my dream

Another fun filled day for the McClune kids

Gosh, today was good. I went to my seminar, which was really inspiring. I got alot out of it. Then I met the family at home, and we all went to the rugby club for junior prize giving.

It was so busy, but very well organised.

Jerome Kaino (All Black) was there to present the awards to the kids/coaches etc. What a treat! Our team was especially impressed as our team name was 'Team Kaino' (all the rippa teams were named after All Blacks). so after the presentation and after our own private one outside, we kinda thought it might be nice to have a photo with the teams namesake. So off I trotted to find Mr Kaino. I explained who I was and how the team was wondering if he'd mind having a photo with them once he'd finished signing autographs. We gave him 5 mins, then Jolie and I went in and reminded (hounded) him again. LOL. He was really kind and came outside and obliged.

 

The kids were STOKED! And to be honest so was I. What a nice guy. Nothing seemed to be too much trouble, and he signed autograph after autograph. For the kids (and parents), it was a truely wonderful experience.

Afterwards we went out to dinner to celebrate Sarah getting another Endeavour certificate at school. We were sitting there and the kids kept asking things about the first this or that....

eg: who invented the first Kiwi? Who invented the first hat? Who invented the first people? Who invented the stars? Who invented the..... you get the story.

Well Andy and I have differing opinions on alot of them, and we've agreed to allow each of us to have our say. So of course I'm sitting there going 'God' for most of the biggies, and Andy's making up funny stories. And we're all having a pretty cool time.

Then the kids ask.... 'Who invented kissing' and Andy replied:

I did. I saw your Mum and knew I had to do something, so I kissed her, and after that everyone copied me.

The kids looked at me awestruck and asked is that true Mum (they always ask this when Andy tells them stuff, cause he's alllllwwwwaaaaayyyyys joking around). And I couldn't help myself cause it was such a romantic story, that I just nodded and said 'yes'.

So that's how it became known in our family that Daddy invented kissing. Cool huh?!

Saturday Sketch Day

I took this sketch from my last LO.

 

Then I thought, well, you've already seen this, so how can we make it a little bit different?

So I flipped it around and changed where the title went.

 

And this is what I came up with.

Two LO's for the price of one. LOL.

But seriously, its fun and easy to change things up a bit, so that you don't have to rethink every single LO.

I'm off to a seminar this morning. Is going to be interesting. Then prize giving for the twins rugby. Yay. Have a good one.

Big day, in the McClune household. BIG.

First off Andy came home from China. And made one little boy very very very happy....

 

At the end of the day we picked up the kids from school. And that made 2 more kidlets very very happy!

After some afternoon tea, we headed back to school. The kids love to spend our 'free' afternoons riding their bikes and scooters, and this time, Matt was keen to take his bike without the trainers.

He had his training wheels taken off a while back, and even started riding it, but got scared one time and that was it.

Then the other day I walked to pick him up from a friends house and his other friend rode his bike home. No training wheels and it spurred Matt on.

So guess what the other big news is? Yup, you got it. Matt is now riding his bike, totally solo, totally confident. Totally fine.

 

In fact he was more than happy. He was proud. He was excited.

But then Sarah wanted a turn. And she had to borrow Matt's bike, and he didn't realllllllly want to lend her his. But he did give in and this is what happened....

 

She did it!!! And more importantly, with confidence! She has asked for her training wheels to be taken off and so tomorrow they will be and back to the school with two kids on 2 wheelers.

Andy and I couldn't be more proud of our babies. Its taken a while, but they are there and they are happy and they are having fun and they are ready for it. Soooooo cool!

Ok, back to spend time with my wonderful hubby. Home at last.

Today we went to the farm - photo heavy

 

Today we went to the farm. It was fun. Luckily the weather held out for us, well mostly. The kids all got to feed chooks, lambs, and sheep. Plus they got to watch a sheep being shorn, and a cow being milked.

 

They were all wearing gumboots and I thought this shot was kinda cute. It didn't really work out the way I hoped, but still cute anyway.

It was fantastic. All of it. But I think the highlight for the boys was when the milked cow both pooed and peeed. There were squeals (from the girls) and laughs (from the boys).

My favourite part was watching the kids all run across the farm paddock and then we took a class photo in front of one of those huge scenic photo frames.

I can't show alot of photos cause there are kids in them that aren't mine, but here's a few of my fav's.

 

These chooks were gorgeous. I know, how can chooks be gorgeous, but they were. So healthy looking and BIG! Apparently they were about 4-5 years old so that could be why.

 

The cow. Looking ever so innocent.

Very happy lambs.

 

Very happy Sarah. Feeding one very happy lamb.

 

Tooooooo cute!!!!

Some very happy but very tired children went home today.

Hey, did you have an amazing storm at your place last night? I got woken up by the thunder and was quite disorientated for some time as it just went on and on and on. Seriously. The thunder seemed to go for minutes. Quite amazing.

Happy its Friday tomorrow.

Later.

Just had to share

I put this together last night and just had to share.

 

I think its one of my current faves.

I tossed up whether to use those photos on this LO for a while. They look very 'boyish' with Sarah in her rugby top. But I just adore them. And figure they can be part of a very pretty girly LO.

 

 

Can you see that beautiful leaf ribbon? I got it from Stamp and Create in Milford. I met Judy, the owner and she showed me this. Had to buy it even though I was only going for white cardstock and dimensional magic. LOL!

Unfortunately you can't see the beautiful tulle very well that is following the round curve of the paper. Its one of those LO's that looks better IRL. But hey. That's life.

Talking of life. I made one of those 'bad mother' mistakes this morning. I forgot it was Daffodil day at school. Every other child in the class was buying and wearing a daffodil. And I had left my wallet in the car. Argh! Sigh. So After scrounging around and finding most other Mum's also left their wallets behind (see I'm not that bad! LOL), one Dad very kindly lent me $1 and the girls selling them very kindly let me take 2 for $1.

Now I KNOW that I shouldn't pander to every little whim and fancy the kids have. And I don't. But when every . single . other . child in the class has a beautiful yellow flower pinned to their chest...... you get the story!

And washing. I have decided that I really don't like washing. Not the actual job of washing. That's relatively easy, but the fact that it never ends. Ever. I left the washing for a couple of days cause I wanted to put it out on the line. Then when it started raining again yesterday morning, decided that I really needed to get it all done and did 4 loads of towels and sheets, and 3 of clothes. My goodness. The machines were going all day. And now, guess what? I've got a heap of folding to do. LOL!

And its raining again this morning, so the rest of it (yep, I told you there was alot!) can be done today.

Wish me luck.

Later.

LO Share

I wanna show you a couple of LO's I created in the last couple of days. The first one - soccer practise - took literally 5 mins to put together. Once I'd worked out what photos I wanted to use. I based it on my sketch from this week....

 

I've blanked out all the kids faces that aren't McClunes, but you get the idea.

This next one is kinda due to some awareness of late. A friend mentioned to me a while back that she was using heaps of white in her LO's. Then I noticed another couple of favourite scrappers were also doing the same. So I thought, why not? I could give it a whirl.

If you're a follower of my blog you'll know I tend to use alot of colour, so this is a little different for me, but it feels good. I like the starkness of the white. Might try again?

 

 

And while I'm here, I thought I'd break my silence. If you're a scrapper in NZ, you will no doubt be aware of lots of rumours going around about the new magazine Innovations. Unfortunately, I don't know what is going on or what is/isn't true. I've always been a very trusting soul, and hoping that what I'm hearing isn't true. But if the rumours are true, its not looking good. Hopefully we will all hear something soon.

Have a great night.

T

Its all worthwhile

Every piece of paper that has taunted me as I shuffle it around a page.

Every flower that drops on the floor splattering glue just as I'm trying to align it.

Every colour that hasn't been right, every piece that I love, but can't use, every little bit of frustration at finding just the right embellishment or the right words.

Its all been worth it.

See, recently I moved all my albums into the lounge from out in the sleepout. I was concerned about them getting damp. And since then, our children have been looking at them every . single . night.

We have a pretty solid bedtime routine. dinner, desert, shower/bath, story, bed. And now instead of asking for a storybook, they ask if they can get out an album. Sarah is really into the 'older' ones (from when I first started scrapping) as they are pretty much only about her and Matt. Dan likes the new ones, and has figured out which one has the most of him in it and asks for that one every time. And recently when Jan has been here, she's had to endure our stories, and she's been very complimentary about our albums. Even the old ones. I keep saying "but this is when I first started scrapping. They're no good". But they are. Because they still have our stories.

And its reminded me AGAIN how important these stories are. And how grateful I am to have found this hobby, and how satisfied and full I feel each time we look through the albums together.

So I encourage you to get out your albums, either alone, or with your children/husband/partner and enjoy looking back on the stories of your life.

It will be so worthwhile! Promise.

Saturday Sketch Day

 

This weeks sketch is all photos. Throw on a few embellishments, and a title and call it done. Quick, easy and in your album before you can say "Jack Robinson".

I first saw this done by Vicky Gibson maybe a year or two back, when she did I think a double LO with all photos? So this sketch has kinda been stolen from her. Thanks Vicky.

Today was a great day for the kids with their end of season parents vs kids rugby game. Aunty Sue came to watch which was wonderful and she took a couple of photos for us. Thanks Sue!

 

I especially love this photo. Dan was playing for the adults and got the ball and went for it. He got knocked over shortly after and clung to me, which was good as we got a try together. LOL. Then he hung out with Aunty Sue while I continued playing.

I put together this LO today.

 

 

I was inspired to create this LO from the Aussie Scrapsource blog where each week they are giving colour combos for people to use. If you enter you might even win a prize. So I thought 'why not?'.

Speaking of the Aussie Scrapsource blog, did you see Nic's work on Basic Grey there yesterday? It even showed one of my sketches and LO's. That was neat!

And I think thats about the news from here. Later.

Dan the man

Our little man has been home sick this week. He's got a nasty cough and is just not himself. Unfortunately, we also had a hearing test this week, which with a cold isn't 100% accurate. But it did give us an insight into what's going on. And its not all good news. But not entirely bad either, and at least we now have a plan in which to go forward with. We are hoping that the slight loss that was recorded today is only due to the cold he's got and the fluid on his ears which is due to the cold. But time will tell.

I forgot my camera, well, not so much forgot, but didn't think it would be worth taking, until I was there and he looked so cute playing the games (doing the tests).

 

Thank goodness for cameras on mobile phones!

And while we're talking about Dan. Thought I'd share a couple of funnies he's been saying lately.

He is at that age where he is constantly asking questions. What's this, or that? Sometimes I just don't have the answer, or the energy to answer, so I answer "I don't know", he looks thoughtful and then replies "same". LOL! I love it.

The twins are into 'knock knock' jokes at the moment, and as with anything they do, Dan just wants to be included. So he's made up his own knock knock joke....

Knock Knock

Who's there

Nana Skin (as in banana skin)

Nana Skin who?

Silly Nana skin (followed by huge laughs!)

I love that he is using his mind to try and be part of things, to try and show his sense of humour. Cool dude Daniel!

Alrighty, kids ready for bed, must go. Later.

Birthday LO's

Until recently I'd only done 1 LO of the kids birthday parties. Matt and Sarah's first one. On Dan's birthday, when they were all looking at the past years of birthday photos I realised how important it was to get them into an album. So started the process. It reminded me why I don't do them. Getting the photos sorted and printed is the worst part. And of course as we take so many photos I'm then 'forced' to do a double LO and that's with really small photos! And I've got to admit I much prefer to create single LO's.

Anyway, I've now got two done.

Dan's first birthday:

 

and a couple of close ups

 

 

and then this morning I finished off this one for Matt and Sarah's 2nd birthday.

 

and a close up

 

So I've got 3 birthday parties done and only 5 more to go before the next birthday hits.

I've now got a seperate album for these pages and the kids are loving looking over the pages again and again.

Dan is home sick today. Poor wee tyke. Has a rather nasty cough and high temps. Hopefully won't last long.

Yesterday it was the kids teachers birthday. I made some fudge and wrapped it nicely in a little white bucket with tissue. The kids made cards and it looked very nice. But as Sarah was having a shower last night she told me how Miss 'x' told her the fudge was 'beautiful'. And then she queried that. "But Mum, you don't bake. You don't make beautiful stuff".

What the?

LOL! I really had to laugh. I know that Andy does alot of baking with the kids, but seriously?! LOL! At least it was appreciated by the recipient. Grin.

Later. 

Fun times for the McClune kids today

Matt and Sarah got to take Pinochio to school today. They are studying farms, so at the parent teacher interview Andy offered one of our chooks. It went very well. She went in a cat cage, with food and water, and Matt and Sarah got to take her around 4 other classes apart from their own, and were able to talk about her and what she does. They were ever so proud of being able to do this and so were we!

I just wish I'd thought to take a photo. Sigh!

And Dan had his first swimming lesson without me in the pool. So good!

 

This is him diving towards a big foam rubber thingee. The idea is to dive in, and reach out for it and then climb up. The first time he tried, he dove so far, that he landed directly onto the foam float. LOL! The next time he went first and it was put alot further out. He was sooooooo good. I really enjoyed sitting on the sidelines watching.

Ahhhh, lovely times.

Wild goose chase?

Today we went for a drive. 2 hours North of Auckland. It was a good day for driving. We went to investigate a piece of land that we might be interested in? This is what we found....

 

 

OMG, I just wanted to sit down, watch the weather all around us and never leave. It was amazing.

But I have a funny feeling about it. Some things don't have answers. So it might be back to the watch the papers.

Either way, it was nice to get out of Auckland, take a walk with the kids, and just hang out.

Matt loved the long grass...

 

Hope you had a great weekend.

Saturday sketch day

Well I've been trying to finish a double LO for 2 days now so I could base my sketch on that, and show both together. But ya know, it just didn't work out. So instead I've put together this one....

 

Keeping everything square, and thought I'd add some beads for fun. Everyone knows how much I love beads.

Had a good, busy weekend so far. 2 of Sarah's friends over yesterday after school, 3 of Matt's friends over this morning after rugby. Plus a wonderful family dinner with the McClunes last night.

Some kayaking from the back garden this afternoon. And lots of weeding.

Hoping for a more quiet one tomorrow, but fearing not. LOL.

Later.

Why didn't someone remind me?

You know that last line of my post last night about veging in front of the telly? That was before I remembered it was Dan's daycare day today which meant his birthday party at daycare was happening which meant I needed to make something to take! ARGH! LOL.

Actually it wasn't that bad, and I quickly whipped up these cupcakes and had them all ready to go, before I went to bed. Yay.

 

 

Happy Birthday Daniel

 

We had a fabulous day. Started with pressies, Dinosaur hotwheels from Matt, a bridge hotwheels from Sarah and a ELC rocket from Andy and I. He LOVED it all. Its not hard to please this little man.

From there we went to the mall to buy some new shoes for him. His feet are growing and he's now got some lovely JK shoes for nearly half price!!!! He's a size 11. Which for his age, is pretty big!

Through the mall, he stopped at every single ride that was placed strategically so harressed Mum's have to stop every 5 seconds. Thankfully we weren't in a hurry and since it was his birthday I even put money into one of them. What a treat! LOL.

At home, we played with his toys, and made a chocolate log which is a bit of a McClune tradition. It was a lot of fun.

This afternoon, (after an impromtu photoshoot) we spent a good 30-40 mins going through old photo files of the kids birthdays. It started out with me downloading some pics from the camera to celebrate the day, and Sarah asked if she could see pics from their 3rd birthday, then we went back through all the birthdays. Both the day and the party. Both M&S and Dan. It was a wonderful time together. 

 

This was one of the photos of the day and I love it.

But I have to admit after a full on weekend and my first day 'back on board' as a full time Mum I'm pretty shattered and feeling a little fragile. Thankfully the birthday and the party all went off really well and I can take things a little easier now. Whew.

No time for scrapping. Maybe tomorrow. Right now I'm gonna veg in front of the telly. LOL.