A couple of weekends ago we went for a long drive & had a play in the snow, so time for a photo-heavy post - it was a great opportunity to get some fabbo pics  

Day one was fab, it was warm & sunny though very little parking, I jumped out of the car with a Tee on, thought I better chuck my Fleece top on because the plan was snowball throwing – at mummy!  Paije loved it, Ashton hated it of course.

Paije the snow angel loved it

Ashton wasn’t so keen on it

The 2nd day was very windy & a little wet, we went around to Turoa for a nosey & it was so windy, we were scared to get out of the car, the kids would more than likely have been blown away

Paije & her Sn-Man. My fingers got so cold in the snow (my gloves just sucked up the snow that melted in my hands grrr) & Ashton got so upset over the snow, he had to be made on the Squat side or it would have taken aaages & we would have had WWIII starting with a stroppy boy.

Someone needed hugs, hehe

I love this shot, it  almost sinister I look at it & think a vulture should be sitting up there

The kids were all enjoying the lovely day yesterday & they were following daddy around the yard while he cleaned up.

It had been quiet for awhile & Peter had been mowing the lawns – which haven’t been done in about 3 months, yet they were only about an inch or so high – so I wandered out to the front yard to see what was happening. P was just turning off the lawnmower when I saw Ashton’s face take on a look of surprise, he stood dead still & started crying. The poor tyke copped a stray stone off the mower   He wouldn’t even move, I ran & grabbed him ’cause I suspected right away what had happened & as I approached, saw his chin/lip bleeding, so ran him inside to clean it up.

I was a pretty deep cut so we decided to take him to the A&E - One Stitch & no Local later, we were home. The poor boy had to be wrapped & held down to have a single stitch placed just below the lip in the indent on the chin (if that makes any sense). The lovely Dr tried steri-strips to start, but they weren’t holding, so he mentioned a stitch with a local, then it turned into no local the Dr decided that it would be quicker & better off without it, but he took it so well! There was some crying of course, but it can’t have been any worse than the nasty stone that clipped him, though I think someone learned his lesson about placing the mower on or near the stones in our parking bay (silly man!) but I didn’t give him too much flack over it, probably felt bad enough!

Now I just have to keep an eye on Ashtons lip as its looking like a puss filled blister where an edge of the stone must have hit, so I’ll put some Foban on for today & see how it looks in the morning, or it could be another trip to the Drs   I don’t really want to give ABs, but he might just need some.

I didn’t take any pics of his big fat lip, but I’ll have to at least take a pic of him stitched up with his lone stitch for the Photo album

And all things nice…..

Time to load the lovely parcel I received in the TNN Yarn Swap methinks

This was what my parcel contained, a lovely Sugar & Spice themed yarn & Stitch Markers – I love it all & am currently starting on the Pattern supplied ~Monica~ from knitty.com 

I will post pics as I progress as there’s not much on the needles right now

Carwash time Uh, no, BATH TIME!

A little boy wandered out the door & down the drive to help daddy wash the car, but interest was quickly lost when he spotted a bucket full of water!

This wasn’t any old bucket, it was a bucket filled with warm soapy water – ahhh, the temptation was just too much for a boy who loves the bath, so the scantilly clad child climbed in the bucket   ;)

Looked like lots of fun, but at 5 in the evening, it got chilly pretty quick, so off for the real thing to wash away that nasty carwash stuff.

Looks like the Tubtrug on this weeks shopping list for my washing will come into good use for outdoor baths this summer

A fun Swap I recently took part in on TNN, it was something that the lovely Kelly came up with, it looks like she’s started something

The swap was to be done to a theme of your choice and consisted of 5 parts.

*100g Hand Dyed Yarn

*A Pattern

*A piece of Knitting Paraphernalia

*A Recipe

*A small Gift

I only participated the once (you could choose to send more than one, resulting in receiving as many as you sent), but I think next time I’ll challenge myself & try two

My Theme was Barbie’s Mariposa

(Clever me forgot to take a photo of the whole package before sending, so this is a pic from my recipient)

I Dyed the wool with Cake Gels, attempting to catch some of those vibrant pinks, purples & greens that you see in the movie, I also added a darker shade to contrast hoping to replicate the what looks like a deep purple in Mariposa’s wings, it was Black Cake Gel with a little Fuschia added & it turned a very deep purply-brown. I loved the end results as I wound it up & almost couldn’t part with it

My Knitting Paraphernalia was a set of 3.75mm DPNs & the Pattern was Twinkletoes Ballet Style Slippers & the Receipe was for Butterfly Cakes

My gift was a set of Swarovski Crytal Stitch Markers in Shades of purples.

I’ve been giving my sewing machine the evil eye from a distance, it sits on my dining table & its been playing up from the day I got it (its less than 6mths old).

You see, the tension has never quite been right no matter what I did to it, so I played with the tension – no luck.

Put it back on the table for another week & deconstructed it & managed to fix the needle position which was also never correct (roll eyes), it was constantly hitting the foot & it wasn’t bent needles… the I played with the tension & whoopee! it worked just for all of an evening!

Last deconstruction – so I try to put the little lever behind the tension dial in a different position - when I pulled it apart slowly the first time I saw how it came out & put it back the same way – but I put it back together & set all the tension back to normal & we have perfection!

The darn stupid people who put it together put the tension arm in incorrectly at the factory – what happened to QC??!! 

I really hadn’t wanted to have it sent away because a) I figured they’d find a reason to charge me for a service or b) it would be gone for some time & I needed to get things done.

Thankfully I used to watch my dad do allsorts when I was a kid, so have a little mechanical inclination

We’ll I’ve been super-slack & haven’t updated this in ages.

The kids are just growing too fast, Ashton turned 1 in July, we just had family around for a birthday dinner & he enjoyed his cake - Devils Food Cake in the form of a duck!

He’s been walking since he was about 10mths, 2wks & now is a climber who also loves light switches & power sockets – arggghhh!!! – so I now have to invest in more of those socket thingies because our old ones from Paijes days have perished away. He also now has 6 teeth, a 7th has just cut through & looks like no.8 won’t bee too far behind, but I am soooo over teething! I think its time to invest in a teething necklace & see if it works

(Corn freak No.2 – both kids will eat corn or peas till it comes out their ears!)

Paije is a funny little thing – more like a teenager than an almost 4yr old though  She has become very affectionate lately & always kissing us & telling us she loves us, also still gets along very well with her brother, apart from when she pushes him away from her or locks him out of her bedroom. She will be 4 at the end of September – I’ve already had to send off her enrolement forms for school ! we want to try to get her into Opaheke School & being out of zone I had to apply now for them to put her enrolement to Ballot for an early Sept Ballot, I just pray she gets in, so fingers crossed!

Anyway, her current “things” are High School Musical & Ben10 – so I’ve been slowly getting an education on how many/what aliens Ben10 turns into & also hearing her wandering around the house singing to HSM – and to the PussyCat Dolls – here’s the 4yrs old who walks around singing “when I grow up I wanna have Boobies” & shaking her booty & stripping off in time to the music, can you guess that Daddy turns on MTV & leaves it to go when Mummy is not home from work?  You can probably also tell Daddy sings with her because its really  ” I wanna have groupies”   

Ashton is also getting very good at shaking his booty too he has much better Rhythm than Paije, just the tiniest amount of music needs to come on & he starts shaking it & the shoulders & head bob away, its so cute!

Its all just going too fast now!!

DH & I were talking about PT the other day, her speech has taken off & gosh she has some attitude (along with being a little smartbum!) and then we clicked – she goes to school next year, I had just been thinking, “yeah, 18 months or so” but when DH put it that way   it made me want to get out the tissues  (sniff sniff) just realising that yes she will be 5 next year & starting school!

AJ is now 7 months! He’s a big little boy & cheeky. He’s now sitting & full-on crawling & even standing & trying to climb things. He’s had several teeth annoying him for awhile now, but still nothing, just some bumps, grrr! As you can see, he loves his solids so much, he tried feeding everything!

I also have done a straight PUL one with no size difference between that & the Minkee (I’ve done plenty of standard front snapping nappies, just a bit more proud of them now ) this one has a cute little devil ironed on the back, now I just have to find more to put on the next lot I have waiting for the sewing machine… It turned out pretty good considering I started to iron the print on with the wrong side facing down.

I made these up for Ashtons stocking, but they still are not complete over a month later but thats really only because the little bells I brought aren’t very loud, so I’ve been looking for more to go in there. I even managed him a little rugby ball!

ETA: 25 Aug ‘08:

Well… I never got the chance to take a photo of these, but recently completed them & gave them to my SIL as part of her Baby Shower gift – she was embarrased to ask what they were    no-one knew what tag balls or blankets were, but they all were quite impressed by the nappies I gifted her!