Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Glad today is nearly over ...

It's been a day and I am sure glad it's nearly over. Tom Turtle's cage needed to be cleaned again this morning. Not sure the bench is the best place for him with my sensitive nose! ;-) He was very busy exploring the basin while I cleaned up his mess.


Friday night we started having problems with the power in the master bedroom - lights flickering and ceiling fan slowing right down, power outlets turning on and off. Lyndon spent several hours on Saturday fixing various problems in the switchboard, but decided the fault was in the mains board outside our unit. Anyway it seemed to come right late Saturday, but last night power to the master bedroom, guest bedroom, family room, foyer and washing machine was cut. I sent of emails to those concerned and today have had to deal with nincompoops! Seriously I am so over people shuffling paper and not wanting to take responsibility! And the excuses! (They are something else altogether!) Anyway after several heated discussions (on my part!) the problem got solved today. This is what the mains board looked like! No wonder our lights were flickering!

This afternoon (partly due to one or two of my "heated discussions") management also arranged for a supplier to come and measure and quote for a new glass panel for our balcony. I sat on the couch and watched and then just couldn't stand it any longer, I just had to say something! The guy was measuring the length of glass needed with his HAND!! Seriously, how unprofessional and incompetent is that. I stood up and said "Are you guys serious? Would you like me to find my tape measure?!!!" I couldn't believe it .... how could they turn up to do a measure and quote without even a tape measure!
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The cleaner has been here today, but you wouldn't have thought so after the kids had finished dinner! Luckily Maddison was persuaded to help clean up the mess! :-)

The banana muffins I was planning to bake this morning finally got baked about 5pm tonight due to all the interruptions of tradesman and power being turned on and off. I used some of these sprinkles to decorate the icing. :-)


Tomorrow is a holiday ... we are planning a trip to a pet shop to ask some questions about looking after turtles! :-)
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Thanks for visiting.

Monday, January 30, 2012

New Family Member!

Met our new family member! :-) One of my crafty friends is moving to India soon and of course couldn't take their pet turtle with them. So we were lucky enough to adopt him. :-) I kept it as a surprise for the kids and this morning told them that I would have something very special for them when they got home from school! Maddison asked if it was food and Aaron asked if it was Hotwheels or the new ball game he had seen on YouTube! (they have a one track mind sometimes those two!)
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He's quite large ... bigger than my hand actually.
I love watching his head pop in and out hehehee
Maddison's comment was "I LOVE turtle, thank you Mummy"!
Samuel's comment was "Uppa Uppa Uppa" which interpreted is Up Up Up! :-)
Aaron couldn't keep still enough to take a photo he was so excited!
After a while they asked me what his name was. I said the people that looked after him before just called him Turtle. Aaron looked kinda funny at me. So I asked if they wanted to choose a name. In the end they decided on Tom Turtle :-)
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After showers tonight Samuel found a way to uppa uppa to see Tom Turtle! He pushed a dining chair over and climbed right up on the bench!
Yes don't mind me at all! (I am hoping that the turtle doesn't snap his little fingers! Turtles might not have teeth, but I am sure their bite would hurt!!).
Was difficult to get Aaron and Maddison to go to bed actually because they kept wanting to come out and see Tom sleeping. Aaron actually crept into Maddison's room and they "hid" behind the curtains talking about him heheehee
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Looking forward to more adventures with Tom.
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Thanks for visiting.

Lion Dance

Last Friday Aaron's grade performed a Lion Dance in front of the elementary school. Well they all did except for him! He refused to get into his Chinese outfit and didn't want to do the Lion Dance. :-( Very disappointed since we had made an effort to get to school and watch. Anyway, we enjoyed watching the other kids. I helped put the eyes and "whiskers" the lion heads for Aaron's class :-)


Aaron sat with us and endured several kisses from his sister!
After the dance we went back to his class and each child got to pose with the teachers special lion head.
I was lucky that Maddison got a turn too hehee Love the little hats :-)

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

"Your Highness"

Overheard at breakfast this morning ...
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Maddison speaking to Aaron - "Aaron will you marry me today?"
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Aaron just looked at Maddison with one eyebrow raised and eyes opened wide.
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Maddison - "It will be fun and we'll be happy ever after!"
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This afternoon after Aaron got home from school Maddison was wearing a pink baby blanket knotted around her waist because it was "like a princess dress"! (I should have got a photo) She went and got a cup of water for Aaron and put it on the table and said "There you are your Highness!!" heheee
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And this evening our little princess declared she was sleeping in her car tent!

Doesn't look that comfortable to me, but she was happy as anything! :-)
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Thanks for visiting.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Another week gone by

Here's some pics since I last did a blog post.
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Maddison showing me New Zealand on the map they made in her class.
We've had a couple of days holiday this week for Chinese New Year and it was nice having Lyndon home (the last few years he's been in Finland during this time). He did some science experiments with the kids. One they did was with milk, drops of food colouring and dish wash detergent.
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1. Flat dish with a layer of milk. 2. Add in drops of food colouring.
3. Squeeze a few drops of detergent in the middle of the milk.
4. Quiver with excitement watching what happens heheee :-) (Grandma ... can you just picture Aaron?!!)
It's almost like there's something underneath stirring it up - kinda weird to watch.


The final result.
Later that day we cleaned the pie dish and made Apple pie with some pastry sheets I had in the freezer.
Monday the kids had a swimming lesson. Other kids were away so it was just them and we changed the time to the morning which was nice. Aaron had his usual time in the sun!
But he cooled down when Maddison came and watered him hehee
I have been working away on my December Daily album! Yes I know ... it's a month ago! But I haven't finished it yet. Still have some journalling to do. Will post pics when it's done.
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Thanks for visiting.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Swimming Pool

Just so some of my lovely readers don't freak out whenever I post pics of the infinity pool, I thought I would post some pics, but this time so you can see it isn't a straight drop over the side to the ground! :-)
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Last night Samuel discovered the lights under the lounge deck ... or maybe it was the stones hehee. Either way he got himself comfortable and stayed there for ages playing with the stones and trying to get the light.

Aaron has decided it's okay for him to sit on the far edge of the pool! He might have a Superman swim top on, but Superman he's not!! Good job I know there's a ledge on the other side, I still think my nerves need to toughen up a little bit more though!

Thanks for visiting.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Another week gone

Just a few photos of what we've been up to.
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We have had some amazing blue skies for about 3-4 days during the last week. In the 4 years we've been here, we've hardly seen blue sky! It's usually cloudy or hazy. Of course I had to record it! :-) Took a pic of our condo walking back from Maddison's school one day.

Last week Aaron had a playdate with a school friend while Maddison was at school. I took the boys down to the playground and they had fun on their scooters and Samuel tried to keep up with them on his trike!

Actually anything Aaron does Samuel tries to do! hehehee

Having a see-saw with me :-)
Aaron and his friend zoomed off and I discovered them up a tree a few minutes later!
Kids started back swimming lessons again and this year they have a lesson with other children. Maddison with another little boy a bit younger than her and Aaron with 2 other boys a bit older. It was interesting to see the competitive nature kick in!! The little boy in Maddison's lesson had no probs putting his face in the water, so of course she had to go one better and get right under. Awesome for me to see because she hasn't wanted to do that before. :-) (She's picking up plastic sharks off the bottom of the pool)

Aaron has no fat on him whatsoever and after about 15 minutes in the pool he usually gets out and does a lounge lizard impersonation on the hot concrete! His teeth are chattering and his little body physically shaking! But this time he actually completed the lesson! Mustn't have wanted the other kids to get ahead with their laps!! :-)

Tuesday night at exactly midnight actually, I heard this bang and thud, so went to investigate (Lyndon was in Singapore). Discovered that a glass panel on the lounge balcony had exploded! What a mess. Not sure why it happened as it's proper safety glass.
Took ages to clean up and we are still finding little wee shards of glass on the deck.

Currently there's a big piece of perspex taped across the gap. Fingers crossed it will get fixed sooner rather than later!
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So that's been the excitement around here! Some of it I could have done without!!
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Thanks for visiting.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Back to school ...

Today for Maddison, so it was just the boys and I home in the morning! Will be interesting to see how she goes as her new class is FULL of boys! She's the only girl! :-) I think there's 10 boys. I asked her this afternoon how was school and her reply was "It was great thanks Mummy"! haha Long may that last! ;-)

We settled Maddison in her class and then the boys had a turn in the ball pit!

They had a turn on the i-Pad's while she was at school (no fighting as they could have one each!!)
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Then when we went to pick Maddison up again Aaron asked if he could have a turn on the slide (the gate is shut to it when it's not playtime). It's a tunnel slide from the mezzanine floor to the ground floor - so cool. Of course Samuel scampered up the stairs as fast as he could when he realised what was happening! hehee He came down with Aaron and had the biggest grin on his face. I can see it's going to be even more difficult tomorrow to get the boys to leave when we take Maddison to school!!

Thanks for visiting.