Scribble day

There's not been much to report of late, except that today is the start of the school break and I am over it already.  And it's hot. We have busted out the drawing things and a roll of paper and are partaking in a bit of art therapy.  I have been back to the brown paper table about two dozen times myself already today, trying to get my happy back.

However, I'm thinking Cameron might need a roll of his own.  He is a very quick and prolific doodler and is able to draw at one metre a minute, thereby muscling in on my patch of happy-making space, which is not on when I'm already snippy.

But I guess it doesn't really matter, because Sophie just scribbles all over my drawings anyway.  Her story is that she's making them 'look better'.



Hooray! - my own little editor.  What would I do without her?

I Robot.

We went shopping for some buttons today and came home with a new hat.  Sophie has been wearing it for most of the day -  she went walking in it, ate dinner in it, fell asleep in it, and has told me she will wear it when we go shopping tomorrow.  She has taken to punctuating conversations with beeps because she is a robot now, and beeping while chatting is the way that robots talk, apparently. 

And here's an another amazing fact about robots - they don't eat salad.  No surprises there.  But, they do love chocolate, particularly Smarties, because eating Smarties is what makes robots so smart.  So, now you know.

The sorry cake.

I made my friend Cheryl this "I missed your birthday!" cake which I will deliver to her in the morning.  It was her birthday earlier in the month and I totally forgot.  I feel bad, because she never forgets mine (but that probably has something to do with the fact that her husband's is on the same day).  Anyway, it will be nice to catch up all the same, even if it is purely because I am grovelling for her forgiveness.  And her cat has had kittens, so it will be extra fun.

It's midsummer....

...and it's 44 degrees celsius, and everyone's grumpy.  We were set to spend the morning at the beach, until the ranger came and closed it because of sharks.  So I spent the day taking photos.  Unfortunately, there's no relief from the heat tomorrow either.  And, as luck would have it, I have to crank up the oven and bake a cake for this one's birthday on Monday.  Maybe I'll just buy ice-cream instead.

It turned out to be one of those days...

This has got to be the most perfect quote for this picture.  William Shakespeare must have encountered my daughter in one of her former lives.  She has had a face like a thunder-cloud all day, and has been twice as loud as one.  Ha!  I'm turning this into a postcard, and then sending it off to all my friends and relations.

Ahhhhh, peace.  And thank goodness for bed time. 

The last plum...

...drats!  I wanted that.

Hand down

I made this outfit out of one of Paul's shirts.  The top bit, anyway.  I like the freshness of the fabric and it's a little crispier than regular shirting (which unfortunately makes it a real bother to iron - grrr).  The weather-men are forecasting cooler days next week, so something a little stiffer than the light cottons Sophie's been wearing of late might be just the ticket.  It will look cute with one of her little cardigans, too.  If they still fit. 

The ubiquitous bloomers are made from some cotton linen left over from something I made for myself (!) a while back.  The ruffly hem is not what I usually do;  it's cute, but would be better in a lighter, girlier fabric.  

 

These look like frilly combat shorts, and somehow, not quite right.  

But that might just be me.  My beautiful dog of 15 years is being euthanased in the morning, and I guess nothing is looking quite right today.  I will miss her terribly.  She is the most loveliest soul in a big bear of a body, but she is very old, mostly blind, completely deaf and can barely get off the ground, much less walk.  A recent visit to the vet has also revealed a nasty lump in her stomach, which they can't properly diagnose and subsequently treat without operating on her and I can't put her through that.  Not on top of all of her other ailments.  No way.

Still, knowing this is her last night hurts.  I'm off soon to give her a piece of chicken and a big snuggle.  I think I may have to wake her up (I can hear her snuffle-snoring from here!), but I won't care, not tonight.  And she is always happy to be woken up for a cuddle.   Oh, my big, furry, gorgeous girl - I love you!   Life will be very different without you.

Oooops, tearing up.  Sorry. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Oh, look...

.

 ...there's that lovely smile again.

Yay, it's school holidays!

A three-eyed spot monster drawn by Cameron (aged 7) using his new pens

Cameron's dance-card has been full over this school break thus far; he's enjoyed a scientific sleep-over with his Joey Scouts mob, water-slides at the local aqua rec-centre, ten-pin bowling and today, he's off to the a local indoor playground with a vacation-care group.  And it continues over the week-end and next week, with visits to museums, the movies, dinner with relatives, a play-date with friends, a sleepover at Nanna's, and a birthday party.  Phew!

We had a free day yesterday, so we all went out for churros and coffee. Cameron spent some of his pocket money at Smiggle, settling on a huge pack of crystal gel pens that come in every colour and smell like fruit salad.  These are quite the in-thing in his class at the moment, and he was very pleased at saving up enough money to buy his very own set.  Well, he still owes me five dollars, but good effort.  And I love a kid who saves up to buy stationery! 

Usually, he prefers to draw with (one of my) pens, which means his sketches are blue and black and rather bland, so it's lovely to see him drawing with lots of colour for a change.  Even if it is slightly disconcerting that he sniffs at his paper every thirty seconds to see what his drawing smells like.

My children...

...are driving me stark-raving bonkers today.  They are generally great kids and I love them dearly and with all my heart, but this is one of those days that I could easily trade the pair of them for a glass of red and a bag of chips.  Seriously.

Easter Sunday

I hope everyone is enjoying Easter Sunday!  We are feeling a little worse for wear after spending yesterday evening at the annual Easter carnival, twirling on the scary rides (well, only one really, that was all I was able to get Cameron on.  Boooooo), watching the fireworks and playing the creepy clowns.

Wholesome-looking couple, aren't they?

The kids got loads of chocolate from Nanna, and I knew this would be the case, so I didn't buy too much for them.  I made them each a toy Easter bunny in lieu of more chocolate.  And luckily, I managed to get their bunnies finished just in the nick of time (which was no mean feat, as my boss at work has injured herself and I had to work a couple of extra shifts).  I will be more organised next year! (Ooooo, I just got de ja vu!)

Sophie May's has been dragged about by every appendage it has and has already got a splodge of breakfast on the back of its head.  Poor thing.

 

Cameron is much more interested in his egg, and is more than likely just humouring his mother, because he's a sweetheart.  Can I ask, is seven too old for giving boys this sort of thing?   Please excuse the state of his hair by the way (you can't even glue it down once it grows past an inch!)

Stay safe everyone, and enjoy the rest of your weekend x

January is birthday month...

 

...and today,  it's Cameron's turn!  He is 7!!

No party, this year, unfortunately.  Cam is still slightly mimsy following his operation, and we knew this would be the case, so it was a very quiet affair.  Besides which, this time of year is a rotten one for a kid to have his birthday.  It's right at the end of the school break, so it's been ages since he saw his classmates (and being the dreamer he is, he doesn't even remember who was in his class last year).  And it's H O T.  The mercury has been teetering between 40 and 43 degrees celsius for the past week, and entertaining a houseful of kids in that sort of heat is asking for big, sweaty, miserable trouble.  We  get around these problems by having his party two months early.

Well, that's what we did last year, anyway.  I had the added dilemma of Sophie being due two weeks prior to Cameron's sixth birthday, and there was NO WAY I was going to be able to deal with party preparations, the scorching January heat AND a newborn.  I am not one of those Super-mums.  So, we held it in November instead.  As it was his last birthday as an only child, we decide we would make it all about Cameron.

So, Cameron on the invitations...

...the reply slips...

...the loot bags...

 

...and the party game (although we didn't get round to playing this.  Bummer!)

Nothing so grand and egocentric this year, I'm afraid.  And waaaaay too hot to ride the bike he got as a present, which was disappointing.  Although his Dad did make him a pretty wacky and delicious cake...

 

...and cake fixes everything.

Happy birthday, gorgeous boy!  I love you! You made my dreams come true. xxxx

Sophie May is 1 today!

The cake says so! 

But, gosh, how did that happen?  It seems like only yesterday she was a compliant little bundle, sleeping lots and occasionally blubbing if I was late with a feed.  Now, she's a small, unstoppable force of nature (albeit, one of the cutest kind!) that has a holler that can drown out the sound of lawnmowers and whose favourite thing is to sneak up on our poor, old, clueless dog and grab tufts of fur from her rump.  Ohhhh, Sophie May!   I love you, squiggle!

I also have to say a BIG thank you to Cameron, who had his tonsils out just yesterday, for helping me with the cakes this afternoon.  He plonked those stars on perfectly.   You are a trooper *kiss* !

The absolute best things I ever made.

 

I love this child to a million bits, even if she does have her entire family on the hop.  She knows how to get what she wants from everybody.  So, be warned, world. Plus, she knows no fear.  I imagine she will turn out to be a lion-tamer or a star-ship captain, or something equally fearless.  

While this adorable, funny, chatty, dreamy, loopy creature....

....will be taking me to the Academy Awards.  Sweet.

Paper dolls (and an anxious wait).

We made paper dolls this week, which went a very small way in distracting Cameron from thinking about the tonsillectomy he is scheduled to have on Thursday.  He is, in his words, "a little bit scared". 

I drew some basic body, arm and leg shapes on some thin card, and then Cameron got his scribblers out and started colouring.

Then I outlined them with thick marker (just because they looked better that way!)

After we cut out our shapes, we glued some heads on the body bits.  These bunny and panda heads were snipped from Symphony brand tissue boxes.   (Note:  I have been snipping these heads from tissue boxes for five years so I have literally hundreds of them.  It seems a tad OCD, but they are too cute to throw away!)  You could check out magazines for a suitable head for your dolly.

Then the arms and legs were connected with brads.  Oooo, and they needed party hats, too.

Happy days!

You'll notice, however,  despite the festivities, the puppeteer still looks a bit antsy.  Poor, little man.  Don't fret, this time next week, it will all be over.

Yippeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!  I hope you've had an excellent start to the new year!

I've been a bit slack with the making, lately.  We spent Christmas on the Gold Coast, riding rollercoasters and scaring ourselves witless on humongous water slides.  We arrived home the day before New Year's Eve, and I've only just managed to get on top of the unpacking and the laundry.  Sophie May has been on Queensland time for the past week and waking up at 4.30am every morning.  What fun!

We had a great time, but I must say I am happy to be back home, pottering about in my work-room and traipsing through my garden, pruning trees and picking tomatoes.  You appreciate home so much more when you're away from it, especially when you've spent eight days living in a space measuring 20 by 8 feet with your darling family, which includes an 11 month old who was sick with a cold and only slept three hours a night.

I'll be back on track soon.

Just because...

 ...I love them so.   Even when they do this.