Wednesday, March 28, 2012

A LO

I was hunting through my patterned paper stash looking for something and found this die cut paper which I have had for ages. Even though it wasn't what I was looking for I decided to pull it out and use it (nothing like being side-tracked!). ;-)
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I don't think I have scrapped any pictures of Maddison's first birthday, so here's the first one!

The pink trim and stickers are from Studio Calico kits (available at Scrappin Studio) and the journal stamp is from Darkroom Door.
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Here's another little conversation I had with Maddison ...
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On Monday afternoon the kids had their swimming lesson and after Maddison had her shower and was getting dressed, she sat on the bed and inspected her fingers and toes.
Maddison - Look at my hands and toes Mummy.
Me - They are all wrinkly like walnuts from being so long in the water.
Maddison - Yeah ... they look like I'm a Grandma!! :-)

heheheee (sorry Grandma)

Monday, March 26, 2012

And another week gone!

This post is going to be full of random things! The days seem to be a bit of a blur at the moment and I am having a little trouble keeping up!
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A couple of weeks ago we started some extra tuition for Aaron to help him with his spelling. He's a great reader and his reading comprehension is above average for his age, but he has trouble writing and has very good avoidance tactics when it comes to that! After looking into things we found he didn't like writing because he had trouble spelling. So we are really hoping that this tuition will help him overcome his avoidance of writing :-) He has an hour in the evenings 4 nights a week. Two of those my helper comes and looks after Maddison and Samuel for me, but the other two nights I have to take all the kids. His lesson is from 6-7pm, and because of the timing and traffic we need to leave at 5pm. I have to be super organised ... been a learning curve for me hehee
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So the kids have their showers around 4pm and Samuel gets into his pj's. At 5pm we jump into the car and I give the kids their dinner in little take away containers. (When it's the 3 of them it's something that's easy for Samuel to eat like sausages and chippies, or pizza cut into squares, but when it's just Aaron and me I can do rice/veges and meat as he doesn't make such a mess!) ;-) Samuel will eat and then fall asleep!

The parking at the tuition place is hideous! That's why we leave so early!! I double park (along with at least 1,000 others) and as soon as someone leaves, I dive into that vacated park as fast as I can! This street below is one we go along near the place and it's usually 3 cars deep on the left and cars are parked up the centre line. Sometimes people even stop in the middle while they wait for someone to get in, or load something in their car! It's rather frustrating to say the least!

Every Friday Aaron has a spelling test at school and on Friday he bought home his spelling journal - can I just say that I was SO excited to see his progress! :-) He got 8 correct but the thing that most impressed me and made me super proud was that he even tried the ones he didn't know!

Sorry this is sideways - but this is what his spelling test results usually were - he would only write the first letter (if he even bothered to do the test!).

So happy that the extra tuition is giving him confidence to try :-)
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On Saturday Maddison went to a school friends birthday party. They had face painting and a clown! (I won't dwell on the fact that she decided to go swimming fully clothed and as a result had to go home with a eco bag wrapped around her as a skirt! Or the fact that I put the wet clothes on the roof of the car (why on earth did I do that?) and forgot them and now they have disappeared! I even retraced where we went but no luck. So cross with myself. The most annoying thing was, I actually thought at the time that I shouldn't put them on the roof because I would forget them! Duh!)


Samuel was a good boy and stayed in the pram for quite a long time and then played on the scooter.
Samuel has a new hiding place! In the cupboard under the sink! I can hear him chatting away and find him like this.

Anyone else out there chat to potatoes? hehee
Sitting in there clutching some potatoes out of the vege basket!


Also want to share some things the kids have said recently.
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Coming back one night from spelling Maddison exclaimed "Mummy ... look there's Paris!"
Me - Where's Paris?
Maddison - Over there ... see ... way up high - it's Paris.
Me - Oh I see, you mean that crane looks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris?
Maddison - Yes ... see Aaron, it's Paris!

Heehehee :-)
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Me to Aaron & Maddison - What are you two playing?
Maddison - We are playing smurfs. Aaron is hiding and I am finding him in the "billage"
Me - Village, vaa vaa village
Maddison - Yes billage, Aaron is hiding from Gargamel and I have to find him
Me - Okay that's fun, but you say village with a V not a B. Vaa vaa village
Maddison - vaa vaa billage!

hehehee after a couple of times correcting her I just left her to her billages! :-) She can say it correctly now though :-)
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Samuel is saying new things every day. I have to start writing them down and do a separate post I think before I forget!

My most favourite though is his word for shower ... it's "wha wha" :-) heheee He stands at the bathroom door lifting up his tee shirt saying "wha wha, wha wha". Makes me laugh :-)
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Okay better go and do some chores I suppose. Thanks for visiting. Happy week to you all.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Some LO's

I have scrapped 3 LO's using some things from Scrapping Studio's kits :-)
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"Hosing the Truck" uses nearly everything from this month's main kit 'Story Hour'. (Except for the little tag and the paper with grasshoppers on it - they are from kits last year.) Another LO done for our 2009 holiday album!

The next ones are a double LO and apart from the background paper everything else is from the 'Stepping Stone' add on kit from last month, including the alpha stamps. The house plan background paper I have had in my stash for years, about time I used it! :-)



I will journal on these, but didn't want to blog about that :-)

Thanks for visiting.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

That week went fast!

Can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted on here! We have been busy - dealing with colds, wiping up snotty noses, school stuff, swim lessons, homework, laundry, ironing, cooking, wiping more snot! You get the idea ... just general life really I suppose.
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These pics of the kids are from last Sunday - they had been playing with the hats and wore them while they had their snack :-)

Goofy kids hehee


Here's some pics of the little shoe box I altered for Janine for the tea towel swap. She likes hydrangeas and this was the only piece of paper in my scrapping stash that had hydrangeas on it! :-)
I put some paper inside as well just to make it pretty :-)

I have several unfinished scrapping things on my desk to complete and really want to get to them today, but since one of the noses I am wiping is my own, the energy levels to do anything don't seem to be there! Wondering if I sneak back to bed for a snooze Lyndon would notice hehee ;-)
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Hope you are having a great weekend. Thanks for visiting.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Who has the most spots?

The dress or the lady bug???!

Maddison had art class today after school and they painted a rock like a lady bug. It's very cute with it's googly eyes, but I sure hope that black paint comes off her dress!!!


I asked the art teacher why Maddison didn't wear an apron today and she assured me she did and then when she saw Maddison's dress she got such a shock! ;-) (so did I haha)

Thanks for visiting.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Happy Mail

The lovely Janine organised a tea towel swap ... I joined in too, but I got whoever bought for me to send to my Mum! (so I didn't have to wait 72 days hehee).
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Mum sent me a text to say it arrived so I phoned her and said "don't forget you have to take photos for me!" :-) So here's what I got from Kim. :-)
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Beautiful card.
Beautiful package.
Lovely bright tea towels and some stamps and trinkets (well that's what Mum said it was!)
Cool stamps huh ... I likely very much. :-)
Thanks so much Kim. Can't wait to pick this up in the next couple of months when we go back for a visit.
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Here's a wee sneak peak of what I put together for my swap buddy :-)


Did you know that finding nice tea towels in KL is very difficult!!!
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Thanks again to Janine for organising the swap and to Kim for her lovely gift.
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Thanks for visiting.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Green is great!

Well that's what the kids think anyway! :-) Aaron told Maddison all about his green eggs and ham breakie at school so of course she wanted that too (actually she wanted it for dinner last night, but I said I would make it for breakfast today). So that's what they had. (Nice and bright thanks to the apple green food colouring I had.) :-)

There was a little bit of smoked chicken left over from lunch the day before so they had that for their ham (I didn't colour it green though!)

Samuel just had his usual rice bubbles and yogurt :-)

On a different note ...

The problem with living in an apartment is when the kids decide to dig in the dirt it's a bothersome mess! If they were digging in a garden in the back yard it wouldn't be a worry. But on a balcony it's a great deal of work!

First you have to physically remove the kids from the mess and plonk them in the shower (because they don't just have dirt all over the balcony it's all over them as well). Then, when they are clean and occupied with something that's dirt free, the shower and balcony needs to be scrubbed! The dirt can stain the tiles, so you can't just hose it down, it really does need to be scrubbed.) About an hour later it's all clean! (Till the next time!)
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Happy days. Hope you are all having a great weekend. Thanks for visiting.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Today is Dr Seuss's Birthday

The grade 1 students at Aaron's school celebrated by having a "green eggs & ham" breakfast in honor of Dr Seuss. I went down to take some photos and it was so fun to see the teachers had dressed up as well (although Aaron's teacher won the prize for best dressed!!) She looked fabulous.
Green Eggs & Ham ... Aaron said it was quite tasty hehee

When I left they were all back in their class and the kids from their buddy class (grade 5) were reading Dr Seuss stories to them. Sounds a pretty fun school day to me! :-)

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Real life around here ...

Some pictures taken over the last 10 days.

Samuel has learnt to open the dryer door and I often find him hiding inside!
Bit harder to get out though hehee
Last Sunday we made sandwiches for lunch using Aaron's "recipe" :-) I cut everything for them and they made their own.
Between 4 and 5pm every Tuesday to Friday usually finds us doing this ...

Maddison reading quietly by herself (or sometimes drawing).
Aaron doing his homework and Samuel sitting on my knee having cuddles! (He'd just woken up from a sleep.)
I think we finally have this homework "chore" sorted! It's taken a while. Roll on the day when I don't need to sit with him so he stays in his seat!! ;-)
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I suppose it would be more real life if I had pictures of me sweating my way through a huge pile of ironing late at night in the 30deg heat wouldn't it! haha I think I'll pass on blogging those sort of pics!
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Thanks for visiting.