Living my dream

Matt and Sarah turn 6

 
As I write the above title I wonder why I always use Matt's name first? Is it because he is the firstborn? Today I had already thought about it as we sang 'happy birthday' and I ensured that I sang Sarah's name first the second time. Interesting.

So they had a fantastic day. According to Sarah it was a two thumbs up, two arms up, two anythings (that's pretty darn high praise!). Matt said it was mega great. Which again, is very good! I'm glad.

I spent last night cooking up cakes. 5 to be exact, to make up these.....

Sarah had a ballerina party. All the girls came dressed in their most beautiful ballerina outfits and they looked AMAZING.

Matt chose transformers. I didn't have a 'birthday cake' book to go by, so googled one and this came out pretty well....

I'm tired and heading off to bed, but will try and get more details up tomorrow. Just glad that another birthday was wonderful for them and me and us.

Birthdays are the one day a year we get to celebrate as our own (even as twins) and I want them to remember each and every one as a celebration of them being alive. Being part of our family. Being wonderful people. Happy birthday to two wonderful, and totally loved and adored children.

Saturday Sketch Day

Good Saturday morning to you! Well if you blinked you missed summer. LOL! Today has dawned grey again.

Today we're in 'prepare' mode. The kids turn 6 tomorrow, so its buying all the food, last minute cake details, getting hair cut etc etc to ensure we're ready for tomorrows festivities. The twins have had a countdown chart for the last two weeks and the last few days have been particularly exciting. There is only one more sleep!

So here is this weeks sketch. Getting it done nice and early so I can go enjoy the rest of my day without worry. LOL.

A different shape, just cause we can. And yes, its similar to another one I did a while back. But I love the shape and size of the photos and just tweaked it a bit to make it new. Enjoy.

T 

Thankful

I know its Thanksgiving in the USA today (their today, not ours, LOL). And I've been watching blogs with ideas of what they are thankful for, and decided that I might record some things I'm thankful for.

• It goes without saying that I'm most thankful for my beautiful family. Andy, Matt, Sarah and Daniel. They mean the world to me and even through the arguing and nagging, I am still grateful for the lessons they teach me each day and the love we share.
• Being able to read and write. I've recently started reading again, and its so wonderful.
• Planning parties. Preparing for my kids birthdays makes me feel so warm and fuzzy. I love to provide them with memories to show them how special they are. I don't care if they are 1, 6 or 15. I will always make a big deal of their birthday to celebrate THEM.
• Our garden. Our chickens. Love getting fresh eggs and fruit/veges from the garden, eating stuff straight off the vine.
• Friends. I have one big group of friends who have taught me a lot about friendship. Especially how they put up with me. LOL. I also have one particularly special friend who lives along way away, who has been through thick and thin with me and who will always be a huge and important part of my life. I am thankful that I am rich with my friendships.
• Scrapbooking. A therapy, a memory preserver, a creative outlet, a job.
• Summer. Loving these hot summer days. Can't wait to go camping!
• Holidays. We are fortunate to be in a position where we can plan and carry out wonderful holidays. Cheap and quick, or long exotic. We plan years in advance then look forward to them. I'm grateful we can do that.
• Health. After a year of illness. It looks like I'm getting through each month without getting sick again. Yay! I'm very very very grateful for this!
• The carpet cleaners that came and cleaned all that nasty purple crayon/paint from our carpet. Its still not totally gone, but looks a heck of a lot better!
• Living so close to the kids school so that we can walk to and from, and have lots of friends back frequently.
• A washing line that dries our clothes so they smell so fresh and feel so warm when I pull them in. Gosh I love clothes that are dried on a line.
• The fairy shop that I went to and brought some lovely little ballerinas to put on Sarah's birthday cake. What a shop!
• Dan's desire to hug lots. I don't remember Matt and Sarah being quite so affectionate and I love the little hugs he freqently bestows on me.

So many big and little things to be grateful for. I don't know where to start and stop. But in reality, I lead a dream life. And the title of my blog is aptly the title of my life. I am grateful for being me. Warts and all.

Finally something to share

I've been working on this today. Think I'm ok with it, even if it does have flowers on it! LOL. Its based on the Prima Nov sketch.

Its a double LO which gave me room to play a bit. And finally get another birthday page done. Dan turning two!

We were looking at it today, and going through the birthday albums and I asked them which cakes they liked the best? Dan told me the 'hickory dickory dock, clock' was his fav. Sarah being ever so tactful said 'All of them'. She's gonna do well! LOL.

And here's a couple of close ups...

The end of the school year is coming up very quickly. So I've been talking to the other Mum's in the class and we think instead of a card from everyone, I'll make a book and all the kids can do some artwork to go in it. I'm actually quite looking forward to it.

What have you got planned for your teachers?   

Who flicked the switch and turned summer on?

Whoever it was.... I LOVE YOU! LOL! What a stunning day it is out there. I've even managed to get 4 loads of washing washed (and nearly all dry), I've let the chooks out for a roam around, I've made 9 paper bricks for the fire. Its been lovely.

I've also created a new sketch in place of Saturday's missing one....

I seem to use a lot of flowers at the moment, and my sketches reflect this too, but of course you can swap out the flowers for anything. Stars, diamonds, clocks (my other fav!).

This one is another simple one. Getting more than one photo on, plus some journaling. Even some stitching. Now don't panic! If you don't have a machine, just hand stitch it! hehehe.

I've also been creating, some stuff for the SBO Ezine. Look out for it in your inbox in the next couple of weeks. Also I started my Cairns mini album. Its looking pretty good....if I do say so myself. I've never made an album from scratch before and so I'm extra proud of achieving that! I promise to share when I finish it.

And a big hi to my friends who I went away with this weekend. When telling other people I was off for a girlie weekend with 11 other girls I was met with lots of 'wow, that sounds amazing' and it was and is. I feel very priviledged, thankful and lucky to call these girls my friends. And even more so that we can hang out together away from the normality of our lives and just be. Bring on next years version!

I'm off for a girlie weekend, leaving my wonderful hubby to hold the fort and deal with the kids.

I tried to get a sketch done for tomorrow, but haven't made it. Sorry. Will do one for early next week.

Have a good one.

Where has this week gone?

Ok, so we've done the norm, the swimming lessons, the city nippers (junior surf lifesaving), the netball and Andy off to Sydney one day. But everything just feels like its going so fast at the moment, and we're not even really into the Xmas swing of things, eeeeek. LOL. So I've been trying to just be in the moment. Enjoying things and in so doing, have been enjoying some time with the kids, like when Dan and I made these scrummy biscuits....

Or Sarah and I hunted amongst all my ribbons/material to find just the right piece of scrap to use for Po's blanket.....

 
 
(She then asked for it to be 'made pretty' and for it to have LOTS of ribbon on it. So this is what I did this morning. I don't really do much proper sewing, so this is pretty good for me!)

Or watching Dan play in the sand while the kids were at city nippers.

I haven't really been doing any scrapping, making sure the memories, are down on a page, but I have been making those memories, and one day I'll get around to scrapping them.

Hope you've been having a good week.

T

Saturday Sketch Day

Here is this weeks sketch. And an example to go with it.

 Lots of little photos for you to play with.

And my example

 and a couple of close ups

Have a great weekend.

T

Busy week

We've had a very full week. I think I mentioned it earlier. So thought I'd share some pics.

On Tues we went to my BIL's place to have a swim in their pool. Uncle Rob brought out this wonderful turtle boat and the kids had a ball paddling around in it, jumping off it, pulling it around. I was planning on getting in, but they'd had a power cut and the pool heating was turned off. So I was a total wimp and stayed dry. It didn't seem to bother the kids though, especially when they got warm under the hot water shower on the deck. So good!

Yesterday (yep in that horrible drizzly rain), M&S started their City Nipper surf lifesaving course. They had a BALL! They learnt all about slip/slop/slap/wrap, they played games and ran races. They learnt how to run in the water. It was amazing. And on top of all that they look darn cute!

Today we got a visit from an old friend Abby. She used to look after the kids, but when she moved to the South Island it was well, kinda hard. LOL. But she was up visiting and we got a chance to catch up with her. It was fantastic. The reception she got when she arrived was amazing. Huge big hugs, giggles, lots of glee. Sarah then set about face painting. She did all of them. Including herself and I recon she did a darn good job!

After that Sarah and I met with a friend and created a 4 man team to complete a fun event at the zoo (Great ape race). We had to run around with lots of clues and work out the answers, then get back to base within a certain time frame. It was really different to anything I'd ever done and neither Deb or myself realised it was going to be so sporty. But we pretty much ran between every clue. It was GREAT. The girls also LOVED it. We took buggies for them, realising it would go late, and not knowing how they would handle it, and it was a good choice. We got home much later than Sarah would normally go to bed, but I think it was one of those really cool things she'll remember in times to come. It was the inaugural event, but we'll definitely be going back!

Looking forward to tomorrow with the kids twilight fair.

I feel like I haven't done any scrapping in forever, really only about a week, but I'm going to get a chance in the weekend, so am looking forward to that. Yeah.

Hope you're having a good week!

How to feel good

Ok, so today is only half way over, but I feel good. And there are a couple of reasons. So I thought I'd share them (in no particular order) cause I've realised that these things ALWAYS make me feel good. And if I know that there are some things that always make me feel good, then maybe I can do them a little more often. How's that for deep and profound thinking? LOL.

1. Helping the planet.

Cor that sounds dramatic, and its only one little thing, but it really does make me feel better about myself. We recently brought a paper log maker from New Zealand Nature. The basic idea is that you mulch up paper, create a brick, and let it dry out, then in winter you use it in your fire with wood. It takes approx 1-2 hours to burn. It means we are recycling the paper we use, plus it leaves no ash, plus we are saving money as hopefully we'll need less actual wood. So a win/win. Yay.

2. Making a difference in someone elses life.

As I was driving home this morning I saw an elderly lady get pulled over by the dog she was walking. I pulled over and went to help her. She was a bit shaken, but ok. She didn't live too far away (a couple of streets over), but wasn't feeling up to continuing her walk, so I drove her and the dog home. I know these opportunities don't present themselves everyday, but even something like ringing a friend who's feeling down, or smiling at someone you don't know can make a difference in someone elses life. It was so nice to be able to help this lady today. I'm glad I did.

3. Catching up with friends.

I managed to chat to one friend on the phone and had coffee with another this morning. The social interaction, the exchange of ideas, the mental stimulation always makes me feel happier.

4. Helping my children grow

Helping them challenge themselves to grow and develop is one of my all time fav feel good things. To see them overcome an obstacle, work out how to do it, try something new, eat something they thought was yukky, all those little things give them a bigger idea of their world, stretches thier ideas of what the boundaries are or could be. I love that. I grew up pretty sheltered. And in reality they will too. But to allow them to make choices, and safely test boundaries will help them now and always.

5. Exercise.

I know, this one is something that doesn't happen everyday, but today I'm looking forward to netball tonight. The idea that I'm gonna run around like a mad thing later on is making me feel excited about the afternoon/evening. Its good to look forward to things. Plus its actually proven to make you feel better!

6. Having goals

Talking about looking forward to things, I find I function better if I have goals. Whether its a little trip, a girls weekend away, a birthday, a facial (hmmmm, yeah! LOL), a picnic, a day with the family etc etc. Something to keep you going when you don't want to has got to be a good thing!

Have yourself a brilliant day!

Netball

Tonight I played netball. I'm really enjoying it. But I'm sure I've already said that. Wink. LOL. Well I always thought we were playing in a 'social' grade. But tonight we were playing a team that had a silver fern in it. What the?! She was amazing. It was so cool to watch her. So graceful. Always seeming to know exactly where the ball was going to go. Pity I was marking her. I was no where even close to her standards! It was laughable! LOL! But it was fun all the same. Seems we were in a grading week. Well our team got thrashed, so I'm figuring it'll be the last time I have to mark her! Gosh it was fun.

Thank you Veronica

Veronica (or Vonny) is my sister. She's the next one down from me. We used to fight alot as children. I know why now that we're older, but alongside that we actually became friends. She decided that as I was away for my birthday, and it was one of those 'big' ones, that we still needed to celebrate, even if it was later. She organised for my family to get together for dinner - all my favourites - and then she and her family had the kids for the weekend.

It was one of those really special times. One of the things she arranged was that when we were sitting around the table, they all told what they liked about me. It was embarressing, but really lovely.

The whole evening was. I felt really special. She and the rest of the family had gone to a lot of trouble, and I really appreciate it. Thank you Von.

She and her family dropped the kids off this afternoon, and we got talking about geocaching. If you haven't heard of it, then its kinda like a treasure hunt for adults using technology. A friend of mine told me about it a while back and I found one really close to home (actually there are a few close to home), but I never worked out how to find it as I don't have a portable GPS.

Anyway, today we went and found it. It was fun. The kids especially loved it. And of course it wouldn't be a family outing without a family photo....

We are so keen to find another, but will need to wait until next week as we've got a full on week coming up.

All three kids have swimming lessons tomorrow, then we're swimming at Uncle Robs on Tues after school, and then the kids surf life saving starts on Wed. Linn comes on Thurs, and the kids school fair is on Fri. Before we know it we've hit the weekend again. Whewee.

Speaking of which, must go get some shut eye. Like I haven't had enough this weekend! LOL! Hope you've had a good one.

Saturday Sketch Day

Here's a sketch for this coming week. Let me know if you use it. Would love to see how it turns out....

 

Thanks to my sis and BIL we are kid free today, which meant one of the things we did was to go fishing. Unfortunately, we didn't catch anything. We both had a few bites, but no luck otherwise. Nevermind. But I thought I'd share a typical conversation between Andy and I....

Me (getting in car): yahoo, we're off!

Andy: I've never been fishing with anyone who's been so excited to go fishing.

Me: Yeah, you have! The kids! They love it.

Andy(grinning): Yeah, but I can tell them to be quiet.

Hope you had a good day too.

T
 

Aren't these the cutest?

Aren't these the cutest summer sandals? I got them the other day when we were buying Matt his summer school sandals. I love the ruffles and can see a LO or two being inspired by them.

Talking of cute. Check out our big boy Dan....

Unfortunately I have had to take this photo down as I found it on a site I wasn't happy about!!!!  

In the weekend he wandered around without a nappy. Quite happily going to the toilet in the right place whenever he needed to. So this week, after many times of Dan taking off his nappy to go toilet, I decided I needed to bite the bullet and toilet train our wee man.

And I have to say its been easy. He was well and truely ready and it was only this mothers hesitancy holding him back. He's had a couple of accidents. But both times when he was really engrossed in play. We are really really proud of our little man!

And today I got my man back. He's been in China again. He wasn't meant to be home until tomorrow. But I got a call last night saying he was on his way. I kept the news to myself, so when we both picked up the kids today, they got a surprise. And what a wonderful surprise it was! They really missed him this time around.

Thankfully his trip to Pakistan later this month has been cancelled. Not looking too friendly over there right now.

Wishing you a fun and safe Guy Fawkes.

T

YUM

I was a bit late having breakfast this morning. I got the kids ready, took them to school, came home cleaned up and went to feed the chooks. While I was down there, I checked out the raspberry bush. It had heaps of ripe berries. So I picked some. As I was coming back towards the house, I suddenly thought about our strawberries. I wondered if we had any ready to pick. Thinking to myself that fresh raspberries and strawberries would be a great form of 'live' food to add to my breakfast. There were. And this is what I ended up having....

I added some yoghurt and tada, the perfect healthy breakfast. So lucky.

I created this LO last night. In response something that happened with Sarah and her friends last week. I wanted to keep the focus on the journaling. I hope that it might help Sarah in the future as she grows up.

And a couple of close ups...

 
Went for a short run yesterday. Only 2kms. In the past I wouldn't have thought it worth me putting on my running shoes for such a short distance. Yesterday it nearly killed me. LOL! My how times have changed. LOL. At least I got out there. Tonight its netball. Am looking forward to it.

Have a great Wed.

T