Moonlight, from our back deck tonight.

“I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.” 

― Georgia O'Keeffe

School Dance Night

Any excuse to dress 'em up. L9 went as a toothy monster.

 With blood.

 And P6 was a little Taylor Swift.

Daily Bread

Somehow I managed to get L9 so used to homemade bread in his lunchbox that now the bought stuff is no longer acceptable. Hmm. . . rod for my own back for sure. Only now I've realized he's well old enough to sort this problem himself.

 L9 was made to follow a recipe. PRECISELY.

These pics make me realize that although he's quite grown up, these things are really aimed at grown-up height.

Excuse the wet hair. Great post-bath job.

Something Beautiful

Art by Kirsten Hassenfeld. Just 'cos it's beautiful.

Two Little Girls

who need ballet bun hair for the end of year shows they are performing in. No wisps *finger waggle* Hmmm, both are kinda lacking in the long-enough-hair department right now, so we thought we'd have a wee practice. Many bobby pins and much hairspray later. . .

ta da! As long as they dance veeeeery gently, we might just have cracked it.

Seaweed Siren

I got my hat. 

Big day. 

Mexico

Lunch with my husband last week. Cute little place with walls just how I like them: busy. 

 Good food too. Proper stuff. Nom.

Wet Hot Beauties. . .

do pledge me. < - - - click it! Promote promote!

 C'mon, win yourself a pool party. . . you know you want to :)

If you look real hard you can spot me in the vid looking dorky.

Something Else

Dr. Who Weeping Angel tutorial. 

I'm sure I can rustle up some Barbies for this. . . .

BFFs

Painted playdate after school. They were a witch and an angel, but were far too busy playing for photos once they were in full costume.

Apologies

If You Do Chose

to get up ridiculously early for the weekend and to voluntarily exercise in public, you might as well do it painted as a zombie.

Believe It, Or Not. . .

 I have a number. With pins. And I'm going to put it on and meet people at 7am to do exercise in public. I know. I might die, only we have vowed to walk.

I'd better win that bloody car. 

Almost as unbelievable. . . this is the pink bud from Wednesday's post, all grown up. 

Cuzzie Love

Me, This Morning

Got my hair tamed. It's a big job.

All The Pretty Things

 P6 had a friend over, so I tried to get them interested in rock painting. They were way too busy huddling in huts, but I was keen to shamelessly copy from here and give it a go, so I did it without them. Oh goodness it was fun.

Haven't you always needed a collection of rocks painted with houses, hearts and small chirping birds? I think I have.

Once her mate had gone P6 was keen to have a go.

I drew the pencil outline for her, but she did all the painting and pen outline

 and decided to name each of hers to give as presents to her friends at school tomorrow. Aww, she's too sweet.

And one more prettiness to gentle you into the day. I always thought it'd be a sign of being wealthy if you could justify cut flowers each week. I don't know why I never thought that it'd be just as good and less frittery to actually grow your own and cut them. I tend to leave mine in the garden, but I have a new pact that it's okay to cut them to enjoy them more fully inside. So, three home grown roses for today.

The world needs more frivolous prettiness.

What We Did

L9 came home from school full of plans to make a ballista. Yes, I had to google how to spell it, and had no idea what he was on about when  he told me all about it. But when he showed me his efforts, I was impressed. Beware unsuspecting neighbourhood cats for sure.

P6 meanwhile, wrote a letter to the queen.

 I'm so lucky they were independently busy in the afternoon because it gave me the chance to finish off my mad-woman-all-day-wall-painting-escapade. Decided over the last few days that the greyish-blue-neutral parts were still not quite right in the evening light and bugging me, but perhaps I could perform a miraculous fix by just painting half the house? It's those dang shadows causing chameleon paint on me. So in a mad adrenaline burst I started hard out this morning, and now. . . it's all done. And it's better, hurrah! But yet again I can't really blog it 'cos it'll look like a white wall. But for the record here (you can see how it ties with the turquoise lounge walls too) - sly baby blue effects begone!

 It needs a second coat really, but not sure I'm up for it since it really is the length of the whole house that got changed. Might have to wait a week or so. And yes, I am painfully aware that from here on in any more changes are almost certainly indicative of poor mental health.

Reliving My Youth

P6 today declared the Mandy Anual from 1977 her absolute favourite book. Personally I think she's onto a winner.

 Oh, and a few more random pages to give my sister weird flashbacks.

Was a bit startled when L9 began to re-read the whole of the Eragon series last week, when there are so many other good books for him to get stuck into, but when I see how eerily familiar those pages are, I remember the power of a good familiar read.

I Am Alive

but the wifi has gone bung on my computer. Thank goodness Geeky Husband managed a workaround for me. Feels like my hands have been cut off otherwise.

Since it's working again - quick pic of L9 in a bubble at the school fair today.

Sunshiny Day

and busy P6

Must Be Time

for a chicken post. I was looking back and I used to blog about chooks all the time. Today I
have been a Very Bad Chicken Mummy. I forgot to let them out. I shut them in at night to
keep safe and warm and to stop them making a racket at dawn and annoying the neighbours.  Horror of horrors. . . I forgot to open the door this morning :(

When I remembered I felt so bad I not only let them out into the run, I let them frolic in the veggie gardens and eat my spring veg just so they could get their revenge on me.

Sorry girls!

 (I think they are having a wee gossip session here about how mean I am, but I could be reading things into it, being a bit oversensitive.)

So Proud!

The good thing about being one of those pushy mothers and blogging it, is not that no-one can roll their eyes, but that everyone can, and you remain oblivious! 

My clever boy has done us proud again. This year he was invited by his school to take the ICAS tests in maths and English (Australian maths tests if you are as old as I am). He achieved a credit in maths and a distinction in English, and since he's competing against all the academically inclined kids right across NZ, Australia and 20 other countries, I'm super proud of his well-rounded awesomeness.

You rock kiddo!

Happy Birthday S3!

Can't believe you are three! It was nice to hear you growl at us this evening ;) See you soonish little chap.

P6 will read you the story she wrote this evening - The Gient Apple Tart

 Mary, Ellie and Jony all fell into a gint apple tart! It was so yum. All that was in it was apple, custed and cinamin.

(This is the blurb on the back) Mary ellie and Jony fall into an apple tart! delishis! Wisker-likeing too! Yum!

 At last I have one that loves to fill up bits of paper! I love finding these treats all around the house.

I Promise

this is the last time I will ever blog a new paint colour in this lounge. It's been three years, and four colours. Well, five if you count the original murky purple that was here when we moved in. So now it's turquoise, much greener than it looks in these pics on my computer anyway. I had to paint the rest of the house to remove the beige, and now that is too blue in places (even though it's really entirely grey) which made the red that I kinda still liked look ick, so turquoise it is. I missed getting the turquoise chair in the pic, but it's very much that theme. Still in two minds. The house looks bigger, cleaner and lighter, but not as cosy. And the outside seriously needs to change if this is gonna stay.

Good news is I found these fab cushions to go with:

How cute are they?? I reckon they will make it home.