One for OPA!

Kate called me today to come and have a look what she made, "please Mama come quick!", "I've made a computer and look here is the mouse"

Kate at 'work'! (notice that most of her 'keyboard' is red, her favourite colour!)

"Look my hand is on the mouse!"

OH dear, do I spend that much time on the computer that Kate would like to have her own?

Kate's work of art!

Kate has been into drawing 'around' her animals and then cutting them out and colouring them in. Today I took pictures while she drew around 'doggie', cut it out (left handed) and drew some eyes on him. Kate told me today while I was taking the pictures that she has to be careful because she doesn't want to draw on 'doggie'! Tigger has had the same treatment as well. I wonder which of her animals (stuffed ones) is next?

Dear Mum and Heit...

Michaela wrote us a letter today on the computer at school. They have been practicing writing letter for writing and so she wrote this one of her own bat to us. Here it is:

Michaela C
Address

12/8/10

Mum and Heit
Parents
Home
Address

Dear Mum and Heit

I am writing to you because I want you too no know much you have done for me.

Firstly you always help me and have patience with me when I work on my homework. That way I always get my homework done on time.

Secondly you have helped me learn more and more about God by doing Bible study every day. It has helped me learn more about Him.

Thirdly I like it the way you always try to take me to church. The opportunity to learn more about God makes me eager to go to church to learn more about Jesus.

I don't know how I can ever thank you. (Maybe by giving you heaps off XO) I really love and enjoy everything you do for me.

Yours faithfully

Michaela C

PS Spelling/grammar mistakes are hers :)

Isn't this lovely?

Thank you and bragging rights!

 

Grace was home from school on Monday as she had been sick on the weekend and spend some time playing with her birthday presents. Here she is making 'melting beads' pictures. She made a red doggie for Kate, a green duck for Zara, a blue flower for Michaela and a colourful butterfly for herself. What a thoughtful girl!

 

Some people brag about their catch of Fish but we brag about the number of rats we have caught this year! We caught about 6 (with some help of Pesto, Tabby was absent or just very clever!) with the help of traps in the ceiling space. We have tried to eliminate them by removing the foodsource (ie cat biscuits, dog biscuits, spare groceries etc), by filling all possible holes with chickenwire/wood, we've put stones next to the house and removed the foodscraps that were next to the house but yet they keep coming! The RAT latest food source seems to be the snail bait, no death so far! So Albert went out and bought some more traps bringing the total traps to 4 and scattered them around the laundry with various treats in them. We waited, saw them run past, over Albert's feed, under the fridge/washing machine but we struggled to trap them. Finally on Monday night (while I was out :() Albert heard some noice and went to check it out in the laundry and low and behold, the rat got a fright and ran straight into one of the traps! Despite the traps being rat traps, the trap only caught it's nose! According to Albert it was still breathing and so he helped it die by drowning it in a bucket. The picture is the final result. I can't believe how big the thing was! I wonder whether the rat has anymore friends?

Grace's School Friends Birthday Party

Here is a picture of the cupcakes I made for her party. One of the girls is egg and dairy free and so I made the cupcakes egg and dairy free from a recipe from Sophie Gray. From the amount left, I can conclude that they LOVED them!

The girls having afternoon tea. Strangly enough from all the food that I had prepared for them including 'My Little Pony' bought biscuits, they seem to devour the plain popped popcorn and the (very reduced in price!) carrot sticks! Maybe I shouldn't bother next time with 'special' party food?

My girls write a list of games they would like to do at their party. A very firm favourite is 'Pass the Parcel'! This is a slightly tricky game for several reasons: 1 You need to make sure that you have the same number of layers as there are kids. This is made difficult when people do not RSVP. Thankfully I had some spare layers and thought that in an emergency my other girls would have to miss out on a layer. 2 The adult supervising the game is to make sure that everyone gets a turn at unwrapping the parcel (we wouldn't want anyone to miss out do we? think tears!). 3 Who gets the final present? The birthday girl? Albert solved this problem very well by letting Zara have the last layer! (PS I include a small treat in each layer so that no-one misses out!)

Another game that was requested by Grace came from Aunty Joanna. Peg race. This involves putting a peg between your knees and walking/running to a container to drop your peg in. The group that finishes first wins! They seem to enjoy this game. Thanks Joanna! (we're busy practising for the next family weekend!)

The Party (although hard work from both parents) was a great success. The volume in the house was raised quite considerable, I've been reassured that this is a girl thing. No serious accidents, girls were are pretty well behaved, what more could we have asked for? Pesto (the dog) enjoyed a dinner of icecream and fries (since the girls seem to favour carrot sticks?), Pesto left the apple, strange dog? Tabby (the cat) seemed to really enjoy the chicken nuggets although I did tell him that although they were called chicken nuggets that I couldn't guarantee how much chicken there really was in them. Tabby did not enjoy the attention and only appeared at dinner time!

After dinner the girls proceeded to play tag in the house something which I can't understand! How can you run around with all that food in your stomach? Oh to be children again! Carefree

Grace's Birthday Cake

Grace's Rainbow Dash My Little Pony cake, not a bad effort from someone who does not count cake decorating as part of her talents!

The Rainbow Dash Pony PJ's, aren't they cute?