We met someone very famous...

Wanganui is well know for it's rowing on the beautiful Wanganui (or is it Whanganui?) river. Every year for the last couple of years they have had the Bill.y W.eb challenge and since it is just about right outside our house, we decided to go and watch and look who we saw?

Ma.he Dry.sdale. Unbeknowst to be Albert e-mailed this photo to our local paper and the paper published it! Wow our girls are now famous. From left to right, Kate, Ma.he, Grace and Michaela.

Our girls watching the female rowers.

The winners!

Some Catch up pics...

I haven't blogged for a while but I would still like to keep a record for the girls on what we have been up to. So I'm plannin to 'catch' up with the photo's for the next couple of weeks. So much has happend and so much fun was had. So please bear with me.

Here we are at Virgina Lake with our very good friends Elizabeth and Peter (who took the photo). We invited them for a sausage sizzle at the lake in the school holidays.

Some Photos of our holiday, blurb to follow!

On the Westcoast, at the pancake rocks. 

A family picture by one of the blowholes. 

Christmas 2010!

The girls with the Cookietime Monster!

Kate

It's rare to get a good picture from Kate and so here is one!

Just a little bit about Kate, just in case you don't know her!

Kate:
- Loves Pooh bear, Lumpy (if you don't know who this is, you are missing out!). She loves Pooh bear so much that she struggles to watch the "Pooh Bear" movie as Pooh gets into trouble (just between adults, Pooh is a pretty stupid bear who only thinks about his stomach ;)!)
- "mama' Doggie - the red one. In fact this is doggie number three. We started with two once we realised Kate couldn't be without it. One got lost and so another one was bought. Dog number 2 is pretty worn out with just a few threads left for a tail! (She seems to suck his/her tail, don't know why when his/her ears are so much softer?) and so Dog no 3 arrived at the scene, brand new! She hasn't wanted to sleep with Dog no 2 again! Earlier this year we bought her another dog as a present but this time it is a smaller version of her beloved dog hence Dog no 3 is "mama Doggie" and the small Dog is "baby Doggie"! (there is also a jumbo 'doggie' available, might have to buy it for her birthday next year, just imagine her face!)
- soft toys in general in fact sometimes I wonder where Kate is in her bed as her soft toys have 'taken' over the bed! Roly from the toilet paper was a huge hit! (thanks to OMA for buying more toilet paper than she knew what to do with in order to get us another Roly!)
- her favourite colour is ..... you guessed it RED. She even asked for her new profile at Kindy House to be red! The teacher said that she was the first one to ask for a specific colour.
- She doesn't like wearing pants or 'old/kindy' clothes for that matter. I make her wear pants when she is biking and "old" clothes for Kindy. As soon as she gets home from Kindy, on go her skirt or dress! (with matching socks, red ofcourse!)
- Puzzles - she is very good and patient at doing puzzles something which the other girls have done but not shown the same enthusiasm

The Beach Part 5 - After....

and here they are WET! ok I did let them get wet and experience the waves, you can't go to the beach and not get wet can you? Thankfully being the good mother I am I had bought spare towels (although not enough for everyone, ok maybe I'm not such a good mother after all!) and some spare clothes for the younger two girls!

A very proud Gracie, completely wet. Just for the record, I didn't take off my jersey all day!

Oh, here is Kate wet. I'm a bad mother now as Kate fell in the water as the waves went back out to sea, it scared her (I WAS watching don't worry) but before I calmed her down I told her to stand still so that I could take a photo from her completely wet. Grace had deliberately got wet, being this wet was not what Kate had in mind! I suppose having some healthy respect for the sea is not a bad thing at all!

Sisters having water fun!

This ended our day at the beach. It didn't end my day however it only just started! I de-sanded and dried the girls as much as possible and put them in the car. I fed them an icecream from McDonalds (aren't they the ultimate cheap treat?) I figured a bit of icecream mixed with sand will come out in the wash! When we got home, the girls showed, I de-sanded the clothes and washed! After the girls and me were clean again I very nicely texted Albert that it was his turn to cook. Being the very nice Wife I am I e-mailed him some dinner suggestions. (thanks D.ominos!). He obliged (thanks heaps!) and so all in all, a very nice day out!

It's the simple things in life that count isn't it?

The Beach Part 4 - Before......

And then there is the sea....

After the girls had enough on the playground (or maybe it was me?) it was time to return to the sand once again and this time with spade in hand! Michaela (thanks) carried all the buckets, spades etc to the beach and once there they started digging.

Kate doing some digging as well.

Zara ofcourse had to help as well. Grace digging.

Grace again, I love that picture.

Ah, there is hope at last in my training of the girls to become ladies! See 'ladies in training' lift up their skirts so that it doesn't get wet!

Ok, all does not end here, You will have to wait until tomorrow for installment number 5, I'm sure you can imagine what happened.........

The Beach Part 3 - Playground

Ofcourse a visit to the beach wouldn't be the same if we didn't visit the playground as well!

Michaela on the balancing beam!

Grace on the balancing beam!

Zara and her concrete boat!

Kate and Zara in a 'fire engine'!