Little leader??

Our story of the week for last week was one that Greg was told when he went to pick up Ellen from Kindy last week. Apparently at some point during the day she called out to all the other kids in her group: 'Come on everybody, let's listen to a story'. All the kids apparently came and she had them sit in a circle and then proceeded to pick up a book and pretend to 'read' the story to them. The kindy teachers were impressed and said that she's a real leader - Greg replied that he thought that it was probably just that she's bossy! Either way, it's a cute picture of a group of 18 months to 2.5 year olds.

Ellen will go up to the next age group soon, so we'll miss the lovely teachers from that room - particularly Julie who is a grandma from South America who has been teaching the kids to sing and say words in Spanish among her many other special things that she does for them. Thanks Julie - we've been blessed to know you and have you influence our lives.

Digging in the garden

I arrived back from chilly Canberra late Friday night, so on Saturday we girls had a day together while Greg went to work. We decided that it was time to dig up the potatoes in our garden that we planted weeks ago to see how they had fared, and here's Ellen holding some of our homegrown produce. We also have lettuce, basil, oregano and roma cherry tomatoes planted, so it's exciting to see how they have grown when we check on them each day. Ellen's favourite part is the watering (and now the digging up!), so we frequently get rather messy as we get in amongst the plants...lots of fun though, and best yet we get to eat the results. Cheeky Olivia also likes the hose - although she isn't as interested in watering the plants...

Winners are grinners

Mums likes to do puzzles in magazines, and while she mainly does them to keep her brain active, she also sends in the entry form each week. Finally persistence has paid off, and last week she won a Jamie Oliver Roaster/Slow Cooker as a prize. As you can see both she and Ellen were very excited by the whole event! Will go perfectly in Mum and Dad's new house and we look forward to trying out some of the new recipes in the months to come Mum...

Home again

Well, it was a big week last week, and Greg successfully survived the 3 days with the girls on his own, and in fact they all seemed to have a great time. I was shivering in the cold of Canberra (I'm not a fan of the cold), while they were taking trips to Mainly Music, visiting friends, swimming lessons, playgroup and he even braved the shops with them - I was impressed.

Not a huge amount to report - felt a bit strange not seeing the girls for an extended period and being in work mode for pretty well all my waking hours to make the most of the opportunity, so it was great to see them when they woke up on Saturday morning. I only work one day this week to compensate for the 3 last week, so that's an opportunity to catch up with everything.

Our vegetable garden has gown a huge amount with a bit of rain - about 40mls or so in the last week, so we'll be eating from there soon hopefully. Will try to get a photo of the potatoes that are growing huge and very quickly - great for the kids, who's attention spans aren't all that great for slow growing things...

Not my best week...

This week has not been one of my best - after a long day at work on Tuesday I hit a low point in tears at Mainly Music courtesy of the girls, who chose that morning to try out every button that they could until they found the right combination to cause my undoing. This continued through a few harrowing days of our pterodactyl-mimicing one year old trialling the full range of her vocal chords (all in less than appropriate places - shops, swimming lessons...pretty much anywhere that she felt like it!). Finally hit rock bottom today when I reversed into the side of our new letter box this afternoon. I think I need a holiday....

Thankfully I have a very calm and clear thinking husband who handled it all very well - (the letterbox incident that is), so we now have a lovely new letterbox minus the piece that was sticking out the side waiting for us to put the number stickers on - fortunately not the most important part of the structure (as we have numbers displayed elsewhere). Still, our poor second car, which was looking and feeling decidedly old and tired anyway, now has a big scratch and dint on the rear panel. I don't normally drive that car, but due to the car seats being in 'the big red car' (as Ellen calls it), I decided to take that car to the beach with some friends who were visiting - I was so careful to avoid all the paint tins, drills etc. that were lying on the ground (Greg was building the new gates for the fence) that I completely forgot about the new letterbox... They say Mums need eyes in the backs of their heads - for more than the normal reasons with me obviously!

So - from busy and competent business woman and manager at work on Tuesday to teary-eyed mess on Wednesday and dangerous driver by Saturday - I think I might sleep in tomorrow!