Thursday, November 8, 2012

Garden update

And a little update on the "garden"

From this:


To this:


They are growing so well!! Our thumbs are green this year!! I even gave Tilly a pot of dying basil and made some rather crude cuttings and let her dig up the dirt in the pot (there was a grub in the soil, hence the dying plant - she transported the fat monster into our courtyard and wouldn't let me kill it), anyway. We broke up the soil, got it looking healthy and wet. Then I let her loose with eight cuttings of the basil. And wouldn't you know it? Four of them actually took and are actually growing!!



With the dying plant and planting the cuttings.


Setting up to catch some sun and hoping it will grow. Can't believe it actually did!

This means a lot to me as in past years, there has not been the happy healthy growing of plants. It means a lot to Tilly too ~




She's a wonderful little gardener. Snow peas now, we're waiting with bated breath.



Evie on the other hand is more concerned about the next mouthful of mummy's baked goods. She does like to sit with her sister of course and add cuteness value to the activity.


Sunday outing

The next day after the previous post we went on a family outing. Friends of ours had spent the Saturday celebrating a birthday at LeoFoo Village Amusement Park. Not to be outdone (!) but really just needing some family time with daddy, I suggested randomly at 9am Sunday morning that we go also. I always keep Sunday free for church and sunday school, etc. However, that day we decided to brave a popular amusement park on a weekend, because daddy had a free day!

It was a traffic jam free trip down, relatively uncrowded, well worth it trip. Five hours we walked around and we had fun. The girls slept on the way home, happy and enjoying the family time.










Tilly was all about the horses. She couldn't get enough of it. Evie particularly enjoyed the Pony Express pictured here.


Daddy flexing his muscles.



Evie, I think expecting she would get this as a result of the flexing of muscles. She did not get the teddy, or anything else!


Daddy and Tilly on an ultra slow canoe ride. Evie wouldn't get on it, apparently too scary.


Maybe this, which was right beside the boat ride and in full view, put her off....... But it was actually because we took her on this right before the mega slow boat ride...


A seemingly harmless dragon ride that turned out to be too fast and scared the pants off her (and mama). Truly, the workers should not have suggested the baby be allowed on. We walked up to it as it was slowing down and hadn't seen it's full throttle before we got on! Well, it wasn't too bad, but for a two year old it was hellish.


Saturday, October 20, 2012

Saturday babysitting fun


Just chillin, reading together. No big deal.


Hangin out.




Cheeky monkey.


Tea party. Mr. Abram in charge. John John totally relaxed.


At peace and in harmony the whole day.

Plus a little bit of fun:



Monday, October 8, 2012

A day of firsts

Apparently these days blogs need to be funny and well written, or deep and meaningful (and also well written). Or have gorgeous photos of ones gorgeous life. Well, this blog is none of those things. Even though my photos may not be gorgeous, the subjects certainly are! Today we had an action packed day full of first times:


First time to do her hair all by herself. We were both chuffed! Here she is standing in our 'garden'. The front balcony. I reckon it's about three metres long by one wide. And with a dirty great big a/c unit make that two long and one wide. Though it acts as a nice shelf. Note the basil. Love me some basil. We use it all the time. Back to the hair, isn't she just gorgeous??

And then:



First time to do her sister's hair all by herself. Evie is not at all sensitive with her hair, unlike Tilly. Doing Tilly's hair in the past was nothing short of a nightmare.... She's much better at it now though! I could not see the picture I was taking for the bright sun shining in my eyes.

And then:



First time to put her own shoe on all by herself! She got a bit side tracked with the book and the other shoe got lost for a while and then we found it and I put it on. But anyway, Bravo Evie! She was most pleased with herself.

And then:




First time to ride the bike all the way down to the park without the training wheels!! This is her friend's bike as her bike is a little taller and not as easy to ride without the training wheels.So we're learning on the little one first. The park is a good 15 minute walk from our house. I was super proud of her. Also, another first in the video is, turning all by herself. She wanted to go into that skating rink to practice and I told her she'd be better off on the straight paths. She came back to the rink and was clearly better off in the rink as she had predicted (there were too many people on the straight paths)....... So proud of our big girl.

And then:

We went to the zoo in the afternoon and she was, for the first time, bitten by a squirrell!! I nearly died. Poor Tilly! Shocked and no doubt painful..... No photo evidence of the horrible incident. Much panicked race from the scene of the crime down to first aid. Lots of blood, though being on the tip of the finger and it only took a nip to produce the spurting blood. Lots of panic about possible diseases..... Lots of reassurance from first aid (apparently it happens a few times a week - get a sign or something Zoo that says, stay away from the squirrels?!?! Really.... Actually it's more like, get a clue stupid Mother (that would be me) who stood watching while still very young daughter put her (empty) hand out to nasty squirrel) 

Anyway, we still stayed another two hours after that having a blast at the zoo. She got over it pretty quickly. Evie wanted to see the E-pha-lent and Sarah and Tilly wanted to see the butterflies. Of course they're at the two opposite ends of the zoo, so the visit was a long one.

And that's about it for our big day of firsts. Why all the fun? Tilly's class has been shut down till Thursday due to hand foot and mouth. Two cases, we escaped unharmed.


Clearly we are too cool for this photo.


Tomatoes. Brought back from sister in law after she went to visit the family down south. Fingers crossed they grow!!


My basil.


Our little patch of sunshine and green.




And last week, reading to her little sister.
Though it really makes much more sense just playing 'tickles' instead of reading!


Saturday, September 15, 2012

Eastern Spinebill

This little beauty just blows me away. Took me six weeks to get the shot. He (or she?) would come and drink the nectar of this tree while I hung the washing and I was always too slow to catch it. But this time I got it! Well worth the wait. I'm a total bird nut and this one takes the cake. Apparently they weigh only 11 grams. Their legs are like pins.... So delicate.



Thursday, September 13, 2012

Winter blooms


Tilly arranged these herself. So gorgeous.

Magic Misty Mornings