Pharmacy Photos! 3 months old

It doesn't feel like 2 years since we first lined up for the pharmacy photos but it is! Here starts the chronicling of Lucy's first year...




And we're constantly asked if Lucy looks like James. We don't think they're much alike but there are certain similarities (especially their noses!!!). Here you go, you can decide for yourself...

Open letter to the Under 30s

I'm not 30 yet, unlike Matt, but as I'm in my 30th year I've had a good hard giggle at the following email I received from Chantel White today...

Enjoy!
_____________________________

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!

If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... barefoot... BOTH ways Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!

Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take, like, a week to get there!

Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3' s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone. Cause - that's how we rolled, dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... forever!
And you could never win.
The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!

NO REMOTES!!!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little brats!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or before!

The Over 30 Crowd
_______________________________________

Amazing how you forget some of these things!!! I laughed extra loud at the taping the song on the radio bit and the card catalogue at the library!!!

Stampin' Up!!!!

So the latest party plan / excuse for a night out in my group of friends is the phenomenon of 'Stampin' Up' parties... It's taken me a while to get along to one but now that I've done it I'm totally and utterly hooked!

You turn up at the party with your $10 to participate and receive your pack of paper ready to create 3 cards. Then the fun starts! Here are the 3 I did on my first attempt!



The pram was fun and a little bit fiddly... The truck was pretty straight forward but pretty cute... But Tess on the birthday card at the front of the picture was the time-waster!!!! She was a stamp that you put onto plain white card as well as printed card for the pants, jacket and bag. Then you cut out the fiddly little lady. Then colour her in how you'd like and finish it off cutting the other cards out and sticking it all together! Fortunately there was a passionate 'cardy' demonstrator there to help me out on my maiden card-making voyage!

The idea is that you then develop an addiction and buy all of the materials and tools to make your own cards at home at your leisure. I can't see myself doing that but spending the occasional afternoon or evening chatting and 'carding' with friends, and coming home with 3 cards for $10 sounds like a great plan to me!!!

Retained at last!

The hard work is done! Or, errrr, maybe the hard work is just starting????

Mossy Jim and his side-kick finished off the wall late Saturday afternoon. And we are delighted with the results...




So imagine lush green lawns between the rocks and the house, and plants along the top and through the mid-level of the wall, and then tell us when you're volunteering to come and help us out!

What's Cooking???

Somehow I've started to bake. And I'm loving it!!!! I think a very enthusiastic 2 year old Masterchef helps...

The new breadmaker for Mum's Day brought back memories of days in Blackmans Bay - and especially the cinnamon scrolls I remember Mum whipping up and us devouring... So I googled them and eagerly anticipated the day I would get the time to bake them.

Well, Sunday was the day.... YUMMO!!!!!!


And we weren't finished there. We decided to whip up a batch of jam drop biscuits to keep in the cupboard for mid-week (and mid-night) snacks...

So I guess here is where I casually suggest that a really good 30th present would be a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer in Pistachio. And if Matt doesn't read this then everyone can tell him!!!

May days...

We've had a few sickies in our house lately. Firstly that nasty gastro bug hung around for a week or so, then the kids have been sharing this dreadful chesty coughy cold for the last few weeks. We've stocked up on extra humidifiers and Vicks vaporub, plus a few pharmacy only supplies...

This was one of our lowest days - James barely moved from the couch for the whole day...

But still managed a kiss for Lucy - a great way to keep the germs circulating ;)


They enjoy spending time together... Lucy beams smiles at her brother and James is pretty besotted with her...

Lucy is growing so quickly, and we're so busy we barely get time to notice...

Backyard Blitz!

Hot off the press - here are the pics of our backyard and new retaining wall (well the first half of it anyway!)

The excavator started on Thursday while James was in childcare. He was home on Friday however and glued to the windows all day!!!!


Then in came Mossy Jim to deliver the rocks and then start to construct our walls!

And here's how they stand at the moment. They'll be back next week to finish it off..

ABC...ish

The last lines are...

Now I know my ABC,
next time won't you sing with me...

Now he doesn't really know it yet but, by George, he's cute trying!



And Lucy gets a mention for her first blog video! Welcome to action blogging little one ;)

(And I should mention the stuff all over his face is icing. We'd just iced a cake we baked earlier and apparently it is ESSENTIAL that James 'lick,lick' the bowl and beaters!)

Tweedledee & Tweedledum. And B1&2!!!!

James has got some gorgeous little neighbourly friends now and spent the entire morning this morning playing with 3 lots of neighbours outside in the dirt! He's developed a great little friendship with Jesse who will be 2 in June. They'll be trouble in a few years time but for now they're thoroughly enjoying being boys!

I was on supervisor duty the other day and had Lucy in the pram asleep while James, Jesse, Isaac and Alyssa played between the 2 yards. I turned around and this is what I saw...

Only enough time to snap it with my inadequate phone camera. There they were sitting and chatting on the water meter at the front of Kellie & Dylan's.

Gorgeous!!!

This morning Kellie and I were laughing about the boys and called them Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Alyssa (5 years old) asked what that meant. We explained they're two characters who are very alike as are James and Jesse. Alyssa then suggested her and Isaac should be called B1 & B2 so that they have special names too!

So there we have it. B1, B2 and Tweedledee live next door to Tweedledum ;)

We decided Lucy was too little for a special name yet...