Grass!!!!!!!!!

We spent most of last weekend digging & clearing the front lawn. Scott hired a rotary hoe & my job was to collect all the stones, concrete & other rubbish that was in the front yard. At some stage in the distant past there was a pond under what is now a deck; it collects water (obviously) & breeds mozzies. So that is where I was putting all the lumps of concrete. Yes those are my feet. I did not meet any bugs or critters under there :) Look!!!! Grass!!! So exciting!!!!Nicola's class went to Omana reserve to study the 'Rocky Shore' & I went as a parent helper. They had park rangers talk to the kids about all the animals, etc. It was cool. My finger is pointing to a blue crab we found. That other thing is a 'Feathery Sea Hare' I had never seen one of those before. It was sort of like a mix between a jelly fish & a rock!?! It retracted when you touched it, but looked solid, very weird. Nicola & her friend Gabby like playing wheelbarrow.
Exciting new tires.......
And finally a lazy pic of Zak, he likes to sleep on the path (or stairs) by the front door so he can keep track of us ;)

Another LO!!!!

I wanted to have a go at the new technique Liz demostrated at our Stampi' Up! party. It doesn't look at all like hers, but is kinda cool anyway. Lots more stamoing than I usually do. I even made a mask on the Cricut to stamp the title & of'course I used my new fav stamp set 'Extreme Elements'.

Scrap the Boys

This is the LO I did for the Scrap The Boys March Challenge; Freeze a moment in time. As soon as I read the challenge I knew which photos I wanted to do. 4:40 is not a good time for me. We are late almost every week & we get stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home. This seems to be the only time the kids regularly fight & argue too.; but at least they are both in the same class so I don't have to go there twice a week! The paper is Bo Bunny Pospicle Pina Colada which I love!!!! Beautiful bright, happy, sunny colours. The numbers are whitw Bazzil cut out wth my Cricut, the small letters are Basic Grey micro mono stickers. And lots of dimensional magic :)

Valentines Day Surprise

Valentines Day this year was our 19th 'together' anniversary. I was so excited by the present I had bought Scott & few months ago & had been waiting impatiently to give it to him. I got him the personalised plates he has been pining over for ages on the web. The tricky part was the money as all of our accounts are joint how was I gonna withdraw $900 without him knowing? The solution came from the kids bank accounts, I got permission from Daniel to use his money (as long as I pay him back) they are bank accounts we set up ages ago & have been depositing regularly but seldom look at statements, so I was counting on that & Daniel not saying anything when he checked h is balance as he was in on it with me. The actual plates have finally arrived!!! (I hope he isn't expecting anything for our anniversary cos now we are broke! hehe)

Daniel's Sea Cubs in having a great term this term. The other week they went fishing at Half Moon Bay Marina & he caught at least 12 baby snapper & pipers. He threw them all back, he is very much into catch & release. He did so well he even let some kids who weren't doing so well reel in some of his fish. (insert proud mummy icon here).Then they went to Mechanics Bay to visit the Sea Police & the Rescue Helicopter. I went with & it was very interesting. (I even went on the Police Launch!!!! I hate boats but talked myself into it as a once in a lifetime experience)

I had a Stampin' Up! party in the weekend. It was really cool, Nicola helped me & mum ;) I bought heaps!!!! & got even more free!!!! As soon as I got them I had to play. I am pleased with my first grungy LO. Daniel doesn't like it, it is too messy for him, he likes straight & clean like me. I went with 'Spunky' cos that is what I call Scott IRL.

February already!

As you may have noticed I have not been going to well with the photo a day thingy. I have been taking more ordinary photos than usual trying to catch some normal things that we do. I was really upset when they demolished a local landmark building so now I have no reminder of the many hours I spent there as a child, you don't think of buildings changing when you are a kid. So I took a pic of my messy desk at work (must take one of building too). For those of you who saw the pic of the fence fallen over & have voiced their concern, here it is after Scott fixed it. Good as new :)

Anyway school is finally back!! The kids are happy with their new classes & teachers. I bought Nicola the new school uniform dress today, she is very excited & didn't want to take it off. It was expensive but all the rest of her uniform as been hand-me-downs (except the new polar fleece) so overall she has been cheap. I just couldn't stand the state of some of her tops anyone, I hated sending my beautiful baby to school looking like that..... Daniel decided he wanted to be more organised this year, so we made 'mini' pencil cases to fit inside his big pencil case. Red for red pens, blue for blue pens, etc.... Hopefully it works for him, he was very pleased with our results.

The second week of Youth Town went really well too. Nicola made a new best friend & Daniel traded Pokemon on his Nintendo with some of the other kids. The had Laser strike & a trip to West Wave pools also.

Nicola has decided she doesn't want go to Pippins this year, she wants to wait until she is 7 & go straight to Brownies with her friends. Pippins is the same time as the Hip hop dance lessons she wants to go to. I don't mind her skipping Pippins, our one is pretty lame, they only play for an hour a week, no badges or anything.

I went to the Mega Crop at NZScrapbook last weekend. I am making a mini album of our alterations while it is still fresh in my mind & people are still interested in it. I met Louise & her mum there & we had a lovely time with not alot of scrapping done ;) I found a cool new OTP project too, cos I need more UFO's!!! LOL! Here it is coated in gesso & ready to go....

Talking about unfinished projects & the house.....with all the crap weather the other week our house has developed a leak. It is downstairs in the old bit, not the new. The new mdf skirtings have swelled & the new carpet in our bedroom & wardrobe got rather damp (stinky being wool). One of the tiles in the en suite had water coming up through the mortar joints when you stood on it :( So where is all the water coming from?????? Today Scott dug up part of the garden outside the wardrobe. There seems to be no waterproofing or drainage, the dirt is hard up against the bricks. Bricks are not water proof so this could easily be tracking dampness inside, however the dirt that Scott was digging was surprisingly dry for all the rain we have had lately. So we have come to the conclusion that this would cause dampness, but not the amount of water we had coming inside. So now what? Guess we wait till the next down pour & see if we can see anything then. We should still dig down the bricks & fix that, but it is not a nice job, it has to be done by hand, & it is too hot today.

Our Fisherman

Today at the kids holiday programme, Youth Town, they went to Waiheke on a fishing trip. The kids were so excited. It was funny, but when I waved them off on the bus this morning I actually had a lump in my throat, they looked so little compared to the other kids. They had a great time, the weather was fantastic after all the crap we have been having this week I was worried. Nicola didn't catch any fish but she had a great time anyway. Daniel caught 2 snapper, 1 had to go back, but the other......... guess what they had for dinner??

Look what I made last night :)

I went to Scrapaholics to look for some chipboard albums, but fell in love with the new "Once Upon a Princess" Cricut Cartridge.

I HAD to make the castle straight away. I wasn't sure how well it would work so I didn't use flash paper. It requires 7 sheets of 12x12 (max size 208mm). I have aleady made modifications to the original, it isn't very stable, so I made another floor in the bottom. Now I need to figure out how to modify it in Design Studio or SCAL cos it needs a few more mods (see the floor going thru the windows over the door?) Nicola thinks it is very cool, but not big enough for even her mini barbies, so guess what I will be doing next?