Hunting Caterpillars!

That's what I have been doing this morning ... something I haven't done since I was about 6! Here's a pic of my sister and I and some friends in 1979 collecting caterpillars from the ragwort.

The caterpillars I collected today though are vastly different to the tiny little furry black ones we collected as kids! They would have been around an inch long and smaller in diameter than a pencil. The ones I got today are massive! They are green with black markings, thicker than my thumb and between 3-5 inches long!

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Some were heading up the tree (I left them there!)

There were lots on the ground.
A lot of dead ones too.
I gathered up 4 and some leaves and branches and bought them home.
To give you an idea of the size of them!
They can hang upside down quite nicely hehee

And the size of their poops! Oh My! (yes that is a poop, not a pine cone!)
Opps, better get the gladwrap lid back on!
After Samuel and I picked up Maddison from school we went down to the pet shop and got a proper container because I was worried about them not getting enough air. (I did have a great idea of putting an onion bag over the top, but their little feet kept getting caught in it, so that wasn't such a great idea after all!).

One is already trying to escape! :-) Look at his little feet clinging on to the branch.

Can't wait for Aaron to get home and see them :-)

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One of the teachers at Maddison's school told me where to find them - she had got some over the weekend and this morning one spun itself a cocoon! So awesome for the kids to see. She thought that these would be moths.

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Can't wait to see what happens :-)

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Thanks for visiting.

Another LO

Are you surprised that I have done 4 LO's this week? Yeah I am too! haaha

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I actually used my sewing machine on this LO ... and some mist & masks :-) The hen fabric I've had for a very long time ... ummm soon after we got married actually. I bought it to cover some boxes and had a small piece left over.

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My Days have been filled with ...

Tissues, medicine, panadol, snotty noses, coughs, chest rubs ...

Laundry (this is about 3 loads of towels!)
Keeping the kitchen rubbish bin up on the bench out of little hands!
Cooking with clingy sick little boys ...
Watching swimming lessons :-)
And of course thinking of the earthquake that hit Christchurch two days ago. I am not going to show any pics or put any links here - just type in Christchurch earthquake into Google and you get more than enough info!

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Thanks for all those that have asked about our friends and family. Our family are safe and so far we haven't heard any different from all our friends back there. But some do have damage to their homes and property. Glad it's just "things" though.

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We have a short home visit to New Zealand coming up in 3 weeks ... lots of things will be different in Christchurch this time to when we were there last.

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Right ... I best get on with things while Aaron & Maddison are at school. Thanks for visiting.

"Outdated Transport"

I've been thinking a lot today of our family and friends in Christchurch (New Zealand) and all the effects the earthquakes today have and are having on them. So to keep myself occupied I decided to play with the Weekly Challenge that Iris posted on the Scrappin Studio Blog yesterday.

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I don't have any Studio Calico things in my stash (yet! hehee), so just used what I had. Took inspiration from the beautiful LO that Iris showcased and decided to dig in my strap box and gathered up several off cuts of patterned paper, stickers, Scenic Route chipboard, tissue tape and a punch and just pasted and stuck. :-)

Here's a few closeups.

I did mist the white cardstock on the base - but most of it got covered up! The only thing "wrong" with doing a LO like this is even though it's using up my off-cut stash it's not helping me use up my even bigger stash of patterned paper hehee :-)

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Another LO done for our holiday album.

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Thanks for visiting.

Get Picky Sketch #5

I had a go at the sketch at Get Picky this month.

I flipped it and because my photos were already printed at 6x4 I just trimmed them down a bit.

The patterned papers are really old and have been in my stash forever! Nice to finally use them. I used the piece with text mainly because it was sort of like a newsprint and it fitted in with the photos. Also some of Tim's stuff there - clocks, gears and tissue tape. :-)

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More pics from our 2009 NZ holiday!

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Thanks for visiting.

My Man!

Thought I'd better do what I said in my last post that had anything to do with scrapbooking and do a LO about Lyndon! It's not ALL about him, but you get that when you're wading through stacks of photos from a certain holiday (nearly 2 years ago!!).

Using up some old stuff as usual :-)

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Thanks for visiting.

We made it to Friday!

It's been a week! I am over coughs, colds, snot & vomit! Oh and the little fella is teething on top of it all and is very miserable (and clingy!). Maddison hasn't got to school the last couple of days. Yesterday she was very snotty (nose wise not mood! hehee) so she came with Samuel and I down to watch Aaron's swimming lesson at school. She was pretty good and sat colouring in her Barney colouring book for a while ... but the last 15 minutes the water seemed to be calling her name as she kept wanting to touch it!!

Aaron showing off his "diving" skill in the shallow pool heheee ... a complete full length body flop! :-)

Last night Samuel was just so miserable, he had a fever and just cried every time I tried to put him down in his bed. So he slept in with me (Lyndon slept on the spare bed!) ;-) (Nothing like sick kids to kick you out of your own bed huh!). Samuel slept okay (for him) during the night considering he's got 2 teeth coming through, his nose is blocked and he was really hot. Maddison decided to do a rather large vomit at 3am ... so there was a bit of activity at that hour of the morning cleaning up, changing beds and showering her. Aaron slept right though! :-)

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So today is a quiet one. We are dealing with the laundry!

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Samuel has had a big morning nap (usually I only get 40-50 minutes, but he slept for nearly 2 hours this morning!). He woke up happy too and is quite taken with his "new" shoes. :-) We bought these for Maddison when she was 13 months old, she was walking and they were too big for her but they are the smallest pair of crocs you can get! They fit Samuel perfectly hehee

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You can tell he's not well can't you! Look at his eyes the poor little chap.

Doing the taste test!
(Maddison did exactly the same ... she even carried one in her mouth rather than wearing them - you can see some pics here.)

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Okay off to sort out lunch. Thanks for visiting.

Standing ...

Standing all the time! Samuel isn't really happy sitting anymore! He likes to be standing ... the fridge is a favourite place - especially when he can put magnets in his mouth! (That's an orange '0' he has in his mouth, no he doesn't have orange lips hehee)

I looked at him standing at the fridge this afternoon and thought he's too little to be standing there!

He can fit under the dining table and it's a great place to annoy one's big brother when they are taking AGES to eat their dinner! (very distracting for Aaron!)
You know how I like taking photos right!? Well this week I realised that I have taken over 10,000 photos since we got this new camera (that's over 10,000 photos in 2 years and 2 months!) Wow I take 5,000 pics a year! Thank goodness it's digital and I don't feel I have to scrap each and every one of them hehee I am having trouble though some days just picking one photo for our daily album! Some days it's easy to choose, but other days it's really hard. Does anyone else have that problem or is it just me? haha

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I am feeling a bit better this afternoon, managed to eat some dinner, but I am still not 100% yet. Going to have an early night!

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Thanks for visiting.

PJ Day

Today Aaron's school were encouraged to wear their pj's to school! He's got long pants on so will be interesting to see if he comes home wearing the shorts I put in his bag. :-)

I was supposed to go to his class this afternoon and do some crafty stuff with the kids. But about 5pm yesterday I got a very nasty attack of vomiting & diarrhea. I am not sure if it's some sort of nasty bug that's going around or if it was food poisoning (we had McDonalds for lunch yesterday as a treat for the kids and I had a couple of pieces of chicken - some treat if that was the cause!). Anyway today I feel more wrung out than a used dishcloth ... so I am lying low! I don't even have a desire to eat chocolate! Very sad! So I have postponed the crafty stuff till another date.

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More exciting things ... yesterday morning Lyndon said there was a big moth outside the door.

It was dead, but that didn't stop Maddison from having a good look at it :-)
I told her it was a moth.

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Maddison - It's a moff Mummy?

Me - Yes it's a moth.

Maddison - It's a big bad woff Mummy!

Me - No it's a moth - like a butterfly.

Maddison - Ohhhhhh. A woff lives in the woods.

Me - Yes a wolf does live in the woods, but this is a moth.

Maddison - Yes it's a big bad woff - can I show Aaron?

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heheheee

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Yesterday afternoon we headed to the playground. Samuel went in his car and thought he was just the bees knees!

Look at how dirty his little toes were when we got back home! :-)
Right off to have some dry toast for lunch! Thanks for visiting.

Special Gifts

Last night when Aaron went to get his library book out of his school bag for me to read before bedtime, he "found" the card he made me for Valentine's Day :-) First time I've ever had a Hello Kitty card! heheheee

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Inside he'd written "I love you Mom, Love from Aaron" (huh ... American spelling!) ;-)

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Today it's a public holiday, but unfortunately Lyndon has to work :-( When the kids had finished breakfast I asked them to take turns with the little camera and get a picture of each other with me with what they had made me.

Maddison bought this heart home on Friday ... we had actually gone home when she realised it wasn't in her bag and was SO upset we had to go back to school to get it! :-)
And of course one with the little fella ... he gave me a sleepless night! hahaa
Today's going to be a busy one ... I have laundry PILED high on the couch to deal with (nothing unusual in that I suppose), I need to bake some cookies for school lunches (and when I need something to snack on!), and tomorrow I am doing a crafty something with Aaron's class in the afternoon and I haven't even done any samples! It was supposed to be a Valentine's craft of some description, but because the only time available for me to come to class is Wednesday I don't think I will make it strictly Valentine's. The girls might like to do something with hearts, but the boys probably won't! ;-)

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So I better get to it while Samuel is having a mini nap!

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Thanks for visiting.

Valentine's Day ...

What's that you say? heheheee Valentine's Day isn't a big event in this household ... in fact Lyndon can't even have dinner with us tonight as he has a work event :( Oh well ... you get that in the big jobs.

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Here's a pic of the kids this morning before school. Aaron has "spirit week" at school this week. Haven't got the hang of all that means, but each day they have different colours or themes to dress up to. Today was pink, red or white or a combo of the three. I asked him if he wanted to wear one of Maddison's pink dresses heheehe ;-) Got a definite NO as an answer! He was super pleased (fake smile and all in the photo) to be wearing his Ferrari top that Lyndon bought him ages ago. It's still a little big for him, but we just roll the sleeves up! ;-)

Last night I wrapped a box of chocs for their teachers (they have 2 each) and Aaron helped me with the cards. They are nothing flash ... mainly because I left it to the last possible minute!
So this morning we put Aaron on the school bus then Maddison, Samuel & I hiked (well actually I hiked while they lounged back on the pram!) up to Aaron's school so I could get pics of him with his teachers.

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Then hiked back getting very sticky in the process (man it's hot out there today), and then took Maddison to school. You can tell she's hot ... look at the sweat in her hair ... this was at 9am this morning!
After Samuel had a mini sleep! (story of his life these days). I popped him in the little stroller and back I hiked to Aaron's school to watch his swimming lesson.
I take this silly little pram down for swimming because of the stairs ... man it's horrible to steer after the mountain buggy!
Yesterday he was 9 MONTHS OLD! Goodness me where has the time gone?
Last week Lyndon got this car with an activity centre for him so he can scoot around a little, but mainly stay in one place!! He think's it's a bit of alright! :-)

Heheee ... he's a bit of a trick - as soon as he sees the bathroom door open, he's off like a rat up a drain pipe! He also loves going into the kids bedroom and "sorting" out their toys :-) You can imagine that his "sorting" doesn't go down very well with Aaron & Maddison! heheee

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Thanks for visiting. I am off to sort out something for dinner.