OK, I've lost a photo somewhere.........

........ will have to check the other camera when hubby comes home.

OK, first up, a favourite, 3/4 pants, cotton, so comfy, I have 3 pairs, and wear them everywhere, I'm a bit like Sharon, so not into clothes shopping.




















Cameron has been doing lots of french knitting lately, and came home with a knitting book the other day, so we borrowed needles, and I've been teaching him the basics, from what I can remember, but knitting is like riding a bike, you don't forget.

We've stepped up the jobs the kids have to do around the house, they were just taking things a little for granted, so Cameron did a super job folding the towels yesterday, very pleased with it.

Afternoon tea at our house, kids are hungry hungry, especially Wednesday when they come home on the walking school bus, so toasted sammies were the order that day.

Right, first Saturday of the month tomorrow, so off scrapping. Hope to make a small album for my cousins little girl who was 1 yesterday, and then we will go up there for a little party on Sunday afternoon, better go get some jobs done before that.

Day 22, 23, & 24

Catch up, again!

Homemade Pizza's, chicken and apricot, well, these haven't got apricot 'cause the kids made them and they don't like it, but the one I made for myself had apricot...... mmmm.

OK, a very random photo. Favourite in our house, and very hard to find. We love this multigrain bread from Quality Bakers, but for some reason they only seem to get 1 tray of it in at the supermarket, so I have to time it to get it when it's on special, and I stock up.

I'm in loooooove! I got a Wishblade for my birthday! OK, so first I love my husband for buying it for me, but I love my Wishblade. First it was a mission to get it going, (thanks to Andrea for getting it here in time for me to play on the weekend, and to Jenny for helping me out aswell) it had the wrong cable, got that sorted, sweet. Then the second disk wouldn't load, so I could only do basic tasks, until I realised, duh! that I was trying to load the Mac version, so once I got the right disk in, I was away.

Here is my first project, which in hindsight wasn't a good one to start with. It is a dingbat, which I have made into several pieces to reassemble. I got good at doing a general cut, then got a bit more adventurous, trying to take out some of the cut lines etc, which I managed to do OK with the yellow, but now I've gone back to do blue bits to fill in and I can't remember how I did it. So I will finish off here, and go have another play!

Day 19, 20 & 21......

Wow, busy busy, hadn't realised how long since I posted my photos.

Thanks for all the comments, I guess I just have to bite the bullet and be the meanie.

I talked to hubby, and we've come to an agreement about what we both want, that way we can provide a united front when it comes to disagreements about afternoon routine.

As for photos, nothing too exciting,

I am getting a bit annoyed with the weather, OK, yes we were asking for rain, but I wish it would either rain, or not. That is why my washing is on the clothes rack, then when I get up in the morning if it's fine I stick it out on the deck, if not, it just sits inside the ranchslider and gets pretty dry in there anyway.

2 photos from the garden. As I said before I don't do gardening, but these are looking pretty good in my garden at the moment.

Braden likes to plant things, so this year we are trying watermelon. Apparently they are quite hard to grow, so we will have to see what happens. I had all but given up, as I hadn't seen any action, and they were supposed to be ready in 14/16 weeks, and we must be getting close, however upon further inspection I found a dozen of these little guys, so there is hope yet.

Major vent here & Day 18

Aaaargh, why do I always come across as such a meanie.

We need to have routine in our house after school, as far as homework and jobs are concerned, otherwise they just don't happen.

Yet....... all the other kids in the neighbourhood seem to be out and about all afternoon, one has to wonder when they have dinner, do homework, etc. This photo is an example, of the afternoon outside our house. Funnily enough we have all boys in the street, every single family is all boys, or only children, oh, and there are 3 boys missing.

Some are still out and about at 8pm, when on earth do they do homework. Last night mine were in bed, and asleep by 8, admittedly one had had a sleeping tablet, but the other was so knackered he crashed straight away, and they slept soundly through till 7am. Knowing they need to be settled earlyish, they need to come in early, yet I look the meanie when others are still playing.

What do you do, regarding homework? Make them do it before they go out to play, (and I'm not talking about 'playdates' where they go home after school with a friend and the mother, they're different), homework before TV, or let them relax and have some TV time first, homework after dinner, tell me your afternoon.

Now, I know there is no magic answer, and I know you are going to say, 'do what is right for you', but I'd just be interested to hear what your children do after school.

Day 15, 16, & 17

Gosh, where have the last couple of days gone.

On Friday we lost one of our guinea pigs, so even though it is a bit morbid, here is my pic for Friday. My 7 year old was quite upset, and made this little plaque.

It was quite 'cute'. When I asked if he wanted say goodbye in the hole, or leave her in the box, he said he wanted to say goodbye in the box. He said his goodbyes, I tipped her in the hole and filled it in. Then he came to me, very sad, and said that he'd wanted to keep her in the box (forever was what he was thinking, LOL).


Next up, Saturday we had Cameron's birthday party. His birthday is late December, but as all his friends are away on holiday, we postponed it, so had a 'shark' party. The party went well, the kids are now at an age where they can entertain themselves, and not make too much mess. As they are getting past the classic party games I had hired an extra set of buzzers, so we could have a big "Buzz quiz". As most of the kids had this at home (it was very new and exciting to us) they weren't too impressed, and said they didn't want to play. However I set it up for those who wanted to, and all but one ended up playing, and even playing a couple of games, lots of fun.


Last night I had a mega tidy up in my scrap area, purged lots of stuff to sell/give away/throw, and re-sorted what was left.

Today I spent a little time making some 6x6 pages for this cause, these were so easy, there are 10 pages here, only took about 4 pages of cardstock, and a piece of patterned paper, which were all in my pile to give away, but hopefully these nice bright simple pages will do the kids photos justice. I know we have a similar charity here in the form of making an album for a child, but I found this to be something much easier to do, and would quite happily do it again if it is found there is a cause in NZ. As they don't have to be ready for another few weeks, I will definately do some more.

Thanks so much for the comments on my canvas, I think my hubby liked it, I wasn't there when he opened it, but he did say he loved it, so I'll have to take his word. The fact that he hasn't bought it home, means it must be displayed at work, which makes me happy. The title, has special meaning to me. When we first started going together, he wrote me a love letter, and thats how he signed it, so we often use it when appropriate.

Day 14........

..... as posted about last night, I finished it! I was working on it literally as he walked in the door, threw it in the cupboard behind me when he got into the room, then whipped it out again while he was in the shower.

He left early for Auckland, hopefully back mid afternoon, so I have wrapped it, and gone down and left it on his desk at work. After work tonight he is away to golf, so I don't want him to go the whole day thinking I've forgotten him!

Me, well, we don't normally do Valentines pressies, but I am fortunate to be getting a Wishblade for my birthday, so I said that would count for Valentines for the next couple of years aswell, LOL.

Day 13.......

... and I'm working away furiously, trying to finish a canvas for tomorrow. Yes, I know, it's the night before, why haven't I done it before now, but that's me, 'last minute minnie'.... so on that note I'll leave you with a treat my hubby just came home with and go work on the canvas while he is in the shower

Day 12......

Just got beaten in a round of Trivial Pursuits!!! We played the original version while we were at the beach, so wanted to buy one of our own, but decided to go for the Pop Culture one, which is far more entertaining, (especially 'cause I suck at geography and history), and there are even some questions the kids can answer. Lots of family fun, we team up, one adult with one kid, makes it lots of laughs, and we are very competitive!

Day 11

Yes, it's been a busy few days, and I'm feeling very tired at the moment, but I think there is more to it than school. I'm going to stop drinking Coke Zero, and see if that will have any effect, as I heard aspartame can do it to you, so will try that for a bit and see if it helps.

Speaking of school, the kids have gone back, they seem to be happy with their class/teacher. Braden would be happy whoever he got, he is such a happy go lucky kid, I'm thankful, because Cameron can certainly make up for it. He does seem happy with his class, and I'm quite happy with his teacher. I've already been to speak to her, and she seemed genuinely interested, asked questions, and was very approachable, so that's a great start.

I've had a couple of questions about the frames I used in a couple of my photos. I refused to pay all that money for Photoshop, just 'cause I wanted some cool edges, so I found this program, "Professor franklin's instant photo effects", it's pretty basic, but that's all I wanted. I think you will be able to download it here

So, to finish........ meet Arthur. Arthur is the culmination of weekly magazines, Funny Bones. We are now receiving the skin to put on, but I really want to sit down with the kids and look at the insides first, as it's quite difficult to put together, and once I do the skin we won't be pulling it apart all the time.

Day 10..........

A favourite.

Sorry, too tired to blog properly, will get back to it once this school stuff is settled.

Day 9 ........

Yay, I finally caught up.... day 9 posted on DAY 9.

Bowling, a favourite past time of ours.

Except today. Our first lane broke down so we got moved, then our second lane played up a bit.

Day 8....

Homemade spaghetti...... mmmm

Day 7.......

Yay, all done. I actually had twice as many as this, and ran out of time before school started to get them all finished, so sent Cameron's off to school with him, just so that he was sorted, otherwise he gets flustered, and Braden bought his home for me to do.

Day 6......

(Day 7 will come soon, promise)

We only just got our PS this Christmas, so we are only just discovering all these cool things that everyone is familiar with already, Buzz being one of them. We borrowed this, but will have to see what happens for birthdays coming up. The best part, once the kids are in bed, it's all on! Jon and I are very competitive, so we have great fun with it too!

... Day 5

I don't seem to have much of a green thumb, but am impressed at the pots of colour on my back doorstep, I guess because they are right there I am reminded to water them.

Day 2,3,.....&4

Flat out couple of days, nothing exciting, .....

Went to our local crop on Saturday... did absolutely nothing, as usual. Well, thats not true, 2 almost finished pages, but in 10 hours!?!?!?

Umm, that's about it. Oh, yesterday, spur of the moment we went to Baywave in Tauranga, and had fish and chips at the park.

Today I caught up with a couple of jobs at school before I officially start back on Thursday, which I'm not looking forward too. Well, I am looking forward to going back, but number 1 son is adamant he is not going back to school..... we'll deal with that one on Thursday.

29 photos

I've looked several times at doing the 365 photo a day challenge, and knew I could never do it, but I think I can do 29, as challenged over at Janine's blog.

So here's #1.

We've been eating heaps off the BBQ lately. Now, we've owned our BBQ for about 5 years, but only ever used it when we had heaps of people, but since we've been to the beach, and used it there every night, we've been using it at home, and trying different things.