Progress of the Cubby House

Here are the progress photos of the cubby house that was given to the kids as a family present at Christmas time. The instructions said that it would take 2 people 6 hours to put it all together. At the end of it, Craig decided that they would have to be master builders and pretty speedy workers!


This first photo is of all the parts laid out on the table and the first walls going up. Some of it was pre-made, such as the cladding for the walls and the shingles for the roof, other parts we had to put together ourselves, such as the frame work for the roof. Needless to say that some of it doesn't quite line up! It was a fun process though and the delight the kids showed was great.



The walls are up, the roof frame work up and the kids are already enjoying it!



Almost finished. Window frames and a few finishing touches to go at this stage.



A close up of the finished item! Caitlin and I went to Bunnings shopping and decided on some petunias and impatiens for the window boxes. This pic was just before Cal discovered them and decided to pick every single flower and bud from the flowers in one of the window boxes just for Mum! Caitlin was rightfully very upset. She has been watering them regularly and keeping them free from Callum's eagle eyes.



This is a pic of the wasps nest that Craig found in the eaves outside the laundry. We were a little worried about how to get rid of them. In the end, we stayed inside and Craig would run out with the fly spray and give them a squirt and then run back inside as fast as possible. It is comical to think back on but is was pretty serious at the time!

I have been getting creative and trying to make up a few hand-made gifts to have as a stash for during the year. I have already started playing around with Christmas cards for the end of the year! I would love to give only hand made gifts and cards, so if I can get even half way there I would be pleased.

Summer rain

Right at the moment in Kalgoorlie, it is raining iceblocks (as Caitlin would say). The weather has me completely baffled! The picture above is of the wet grey sky, and below is a little video of the hail hitting the ground. The hail stones are between the size of a 5c piece and a flat stone of about 50c size!

Pool Time

Summer has really hit here! We have had a run for the past week of super humid weather and hot to go with it. I am so ready for some "normal" weather!

We have had the paddle pool out for the kids and they had so much fun in it. I have taken a video of them, but after two attempts to upload it, it just isn't happening. I will post some photos instead.







I was at Cindy's on the weekend and she had some water pumper things that I might get for the kids to use in the paddle pool. Caitlin had heaps of fun sucking up water from their pool and squirting it out.

Our fridge has broken down and has been out of action for a week now. It started with it making a terrible loud noise, but deteriorated into it keeping a temperature of between 16 and 21 degrees! We have moved everything into the bar fridge and has been very interresting to say the least! Samsung and also Harvey Norman have not been as helpful as they could have been. There seems to be no service person in town, so that has made it extremely difficult. The last lady I spoke to on Friday told me that she would have it sorted first thing on Monday morning. Needless to say, we haven't heard a thing from them yet!

It has been reconfirmed over the weekend that there are some people in this world that are not as nice as they could be. It always disappoints me when people are mis-informed and will not listen to another point of view. Those who think they are "right" seen always to be "righteous" (unfortunately there is a really good reason for this gem of wisdom!).

I just did a dash to the clothes line because there is a thunder storm brewing. While I was out there Caitlin was jumping on the trampoline with her umbrella so she didn't get wet! She is such a funny little bunny!

I have been having some fun with my scrapping recently. I have been making some Christmas decorations out of paper and also some altered glass ones. I am so happy with how they have come up. I will post a photo when I have some.

I have found some cool web sites recently.

Wednesday's Wishes is a new online shop by Maxine Hazebroek and Audrey Underwood. They make the most divine off the page items and sell kits for them on their site. I love drooling over their great works of art!

Tammy's Recipes is a cooking site that I came across when following some links from someone else's blog. I love the look of her apple brownies.

Empire Beads is a bead shop (obviously!) and it has great beads for craft work. I love their huge range of pearls. You can get a bag of about 20 8mm pearls for 88c. Wow, that is great value!

Caitlin is itching for me to play and paint and draw (she just won naughts and crosses), so I had better get moving!

Photo catch-up

I took Callum to be weighed today. He is 10.95kg and 83cm long. He is below average on the graph for weight but given they were made for American bottle fed babies, I am certainly not worried about that!

Cal is so active at the moment. He can spontaneously walk half a dozen steps now, so I think in a few weeks he will be off on his own! He also prefers to walk just holding one hand and doesn't look for support from walls etc now - he actually guides me so that he keeps away from the walls. My camera is on the blink, so if I can get a decent movie of Callum having a toddle, I will post it on the blog.

Caitlin has decided that she loves to get her face painted, so on market day we went to see Candy the Clown. I keps prompting Caitlin about what she might like tohave her face painted as - Princess, fairy, butterfly, flower - NO! she wanted to be a clown just like Candy! I have scrapped this photo with a new technique that I am working on that I cal distress and roll.


We had a lovely family of doves in a nest by the front door. Only 2 days after this photo they had flown the nest.


Mum and I have a new cook book called "Grub" by Jane Lawson. It is all about those old favourites that we used to love and make heaps - french onion dip, corn relish, apricot chicken and home made crumpets! Caitlin and I had a go at the crumpets and I must say that they were super easy. I was really impressed at how they turned out - heaps and heaps better than the bought ones. We will be making them again soon I think.


Last market day Caitlin came along to help with the market stall, which I absolutely love her doing - she is actually a great help. She drew on a heap of our paper bags to decorate them so that people who bought a balm on that day got an original piece of Caitlin's art! Just look at how grown up she looks here manning the stall.


Here is a pic of our little man who can be found anywhere within the perimeter of our fence at the moment. I am sure he would go even further if he could figure out how to get the gates open! He is certainly not afraid to explore! I found him down near the stable only a few days ago! He loves it in the laundry too and I have to check the washing machine before I put anything in there now - today there was a jewellery box in there! I also found him with one of the laundry buckets on his head - testing it out for size. He thought it was a great game.


Caitlin has speach therapy again this afternoon. She is going so well. Craig and I are so very proud of the progress she is making. We have been working on words that start with G and other words that end in S. We have noticed a huge improvement in those words, but also in many other words that she had been having problems with. I am trying to get her to say "the" in the right spot now too, because she has previously replaced it with "a" so breaking that pattern may be a trial.

It is card swap time again (I have only just finished mine - I am so slow with them at the moment). Margie has set the challenge as a baby card. I think it is a great one because we haven't done anything along those lines yet. Good thinking Marg. I may post some cards in a later post.

The daily grind

We are home again. The trip was long to say the least! We were straight back into the daily grind. I have had vegie packing, school has started, scrap classes have started, L and I have been making some balms to sell at the market this sunday and the kids have had a round of illness! All in not even 2 weeks! And I have to get back into the routine of house and home. I must say that even though it is nice to be away (esp. when it is with family) it is always nice to come home again. I have also painted the scrap/toy room since being home, so every thing is happening at once!

I will post some photos of the kids and the new paint job next time I post.

This post is just to let everyone know we are OK, we haven't forgotten any birthdays yet and we will be in touch soon.

C

Kung Fu Panda

I took Caitlin to see her first movie today!

My friend C and her son T wanted to go to see Kung Fu Panda, so we tagged along. The kids had so much fun. Towards the end of the movie they both got quite fidgety, but that was to be expected really. On the whole they were both great. Caitlin was frightened at one stage and sat on my knee, but was generally OK with the big screen and the dark. I thought the movie was great too!

Poor Cal and Craig stayed home! Callum slept pretty much the whole time that we were away and Craig pruned some more of that hideous vine (now dead) from a tree at the side (near the dove cote) that has suffered from it being so invasive. He got just about all if it trimmed out I think.

It is raining here. The bureau of meteorology says that we have only had about 5 mm, but I believe we have had quite a bit more. For about 3 days now we have had heavy rain at night and drizzle on and off during the day and the garden is looking great for it. Now the weeds will be even more out of control than they were before! My patch of spinach that I had to re-sow is up and looking good. The new patch of corn is still not up, but I think that takes a while.

CSI is about to be on TV, so I had better go and get my weekly fix of TV!

Long time no post!

Yes, I have been reminded that I should post at least as many times as Mardi Winen! (every other day!). Do I have that much news? Maybe...

I think winter has hit here. Finally the days are below 20 and the nights below 10 degrees. I am not looking forward to the really cold nights because I am still up at least once a night to Callum, so I think I might freeze (or be doing some serious controlled crying to get him to sleep all night!).



Callum has been changing heaps lately. This is his usual pose at the moment - hands shoved in his mouth to sooth his gums. He had his second hair cut last friday and is completely blond now! He is saying mum mum all the time and when he is really upset he calls out Mummm eeee! He has also started saying bub bub, which is pretty cute. He is building his language pretty fast compared to Caitlin, I think, because he is also babbling heaps and putting two sounds together already, such as goo ahhh, which I can't recall Caitlin doing so early.

On Tuesday a little tooth popped through at the bottom. He now has 3 teeth at the top and 3 at the bottom. I was having a feel a little while ago and I think the 4th tooth at the bottom will be next - I can feel it just sitting there. I can't wait for all these teeth to come through because he has been so unsettled and in heaps of pain with them. At least he has started eating again. He had 3 days where it was far too painful for the spoon to go into his mouth (even the rubber ones we use).

Today, for the first time, Cal put up his arms for me to pick him up! Yay! I love it when they start to do that. I know when he is excited to see me because he kicks and wriggles all over the place, but actually making a "pick me up" gesture is just great.



Caitlin and I had our review at the naturopath last week and she is impressed with how well we are both doing. Caitlin is just a changed girl. Not that she has ever been a really naughty kid, but she could get really grumpy and difficult sometimes but she is now mostly a very agreeable girl. She chatters all the time, sings the most amazing songs that I have never even heard before (and she knows all the words) and is just the best company. Neither of us have had a cold either, so that is the best news of all considering how sick we were last winter. Craig has his review next week and I think he will be doing well too. He is almost off his reflux tablets and feeling well.

Craig has been away in Perth for 2 nights for a business meeting and will be home on the last flight tonight. It is our wedding anniversary today, so it will be great to have him home . We are going to get some nice take-away from Villa Maritana and have a romantic tea in! Then tomorrow, he trips off again with Big Yammi from Mitsubishi in Japan and won't be home again until late Sunday, so I will be missing him heaps by then.

Time to give Cal a snack! I will post some scrapping stuff after the snack.