Birthday For A Twenty Year Old!!

So here's a rundown of yesterday for those that missed the party. . .

M20 looking all grown up!

 The uncle looking like a psycho killer.

The Aunt looking mad and tipsy.

The littlest cuzzie looking like a party popper.

The bigger one being responsible.

Hope all your birthday wishes come true.

Pic From The Past

P9 emailed me this today. 

Gosh that was a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, where lace up life jackets were actually a thing. 

L&P and I made cheesy bikkies just before bed. You cannot imagine how yum they smelled when they came out the oven.

I started adding faces to my drippy pic. I used acrylics and it was hard after getting a feel for oils. Still working on it.

Growing Up

Got her safely from the airport! That'd be my niece who has her restricted driver's license!! Whoop. 

Oh they are all growing up so fast. My boy who doesn't care at all about appearances cooked up a plan for a funky haircut, and an hour before I headed off to pick up M19 he asked if I coud try to execute it. I'm always game to mess up someone's head, so here, Ingress symbol on this side:

 and Fall Out Boy logo on this side (minus the FOB letters because they were too detailed but if you lift the hair there is a crown there on the undercut):

Gorgeous boy who is beginning to express himself in his own way.  I love that when texting his Dad on my phone this avo while I drove, in answer to the question 'How long will you be?' he wrote '29 mintues', prompting the response 'That's very precise. Is this L12?'

That's my delicious boy. 

ETA - he asked for more off the top the next day, so he could gel vertically :)

Sleepover

Cousins E10 and P9 cooking breakfast for everyone.

Spooky

Pictures by P9. Eep.

Top Hats Save Lives

So says L12 this morning, many times. 

 Looking psychotic over Dad's shoulder.

P9 writing stories, posing for a pic.

 The rest of the day, and indeed the last two, have been mostly about mud.

 We have re-shaped our land, practically by hand, shifting rocks in freezing mud, and laying 30 metres of drain coil in 3 cubic metres of scoria. I'm scared of the next rain, and waiting for it to warm up enough to sow grass seed.

Here's L12, my hardworking little trooper, and I at the end of another tough day. Just the last of the scoria and some BIG rocks to go on top. (This pic shows about half of the total length - eep.) I did not know there was such a thing as gumboot burn, but now I do.

Painting Again

Seems like it's been far too long. I had a bunch of kids here today, so the girls braved the cold outside to do some fluid painting:

and I did this rather wild-eyed portrait of black and white movie star Alice White:

I quite like her.

Birthday!

Had a lovely day and was so nice to talk to the Nelson whanau on the phone. Thank you for the gorgeous prezzies - too many to mention even I was so spoilt!

Lunch with my lovelies:

Walking home after dinner out - oo lookie, footpath even - fancy!

Turquoise

This evening it seems all the best things come in turquoise. . . 

If you have not tried the sea salt caramel lindt, then you need to.

OO July, How I Love You