Kate's Easter Basket

Kate came home from Montesorri today and she had made this cute bunny basket.  Inside were four eggs 3 chocolate and 1 hard boiled with a shrinkie on it.

All she wanted to do was eat the hard boiled egg and she gave Nicholas the chocolate ones (Nicholas knew he had scored big time).

I wanted to take pictures of Kate with the basket and she was not impressed she just wanted to eat the egg (hence the sad face)

The Walls Are Up

On Friday the wall frames arrived, EXCITING!! times. Dave organised his helpers which included Haki, Bradley, Leon and himself.  Friday night Dave did not sleep very well due to nervousness and perhaps a little bit excited too. 

5am Dave arose and went for his 3 hour morning bike ride out to Portobello today, just a casual ride to clear his head for his big day. On his return he loaded up his car with tools which included his brand new nail gun (the best tool ever) and off to the section he went.

Nicholas, Kate and myself headed to town for Nicholas's last game of T-Ball for the season and unfortunately we lost by one run.  We stopped at Carters on our way home to pick up the metal brackets and we headed to the section to see what progress had been made.

Progress was in full swing with a few frames up.  The men were in deep concentration soughting out the big puzzle.  ( I think they needed Nicholas our puzzle king to help them).  I quickly zoomed away to get some bundies and a meat lovers buns for morning tea.  After taking a few more snaps I went home to make lunch for the hard workers.  I made 8 filled rolls and 12 large banana chocolate chip muffins and threw some hot savouries in just in case they were extra hungry. 

This is Leon trying to convince me he's working?

On my return they had put up all the external walls they had definitely earned lunch.  I stayed on and watched the house take shape it was awesome to watch and explain to the children which room was theirs. Kate for the rest of the day walked into her room saying my bedroom. Nicholas thought his room was too small.  The children enjoyed playing in the gravel filling their gumboots with it and emptying them. Somehow Kate forgot to empty her gumboots, because when we went back home the gravel ended up inside.

The patio, Nicholas is standing in the lounge.

The hallway from our bedroom

The Lounge/Dinning Room

The house takes shape

What a wonderful day and now all the frames are up and we have rooms to walk in and now I can visualise how big each room will be and already I'm thinking where to put each piece of furniture plus where to add extra furniture (unfortunately it does not include a hot tub).  Thanks to Haki, Bradley and Leon for all there help (not to mention their spouses who lent them to us for the day).  Over the next week Dave will be preparing the tops of the frames so the trusses can sit on top.  They arrive Easter weekend (oh my gosh its nearly Easter!!!!)

The Hot Tub

So over the summer period Philly has been hard out building a deck and a concrete pad to place his trophy on.  That's right they have a hot tub and it is awesome. 

The kids have lots of fun in it and the adults have some relaxing time.  All your hard work paid off Philly awesome job. If your're ever looking for Amiee just look in the tub.

Kate 08 says the darnest thing

Yesterday when i got home from church Kate 08 was asleep on her daddy.  When she woke up Kate was very concerned for me. She kept looking at me and with a worried look she said ök mummy" She proceeded to tug at my skirt and kept wanting to look up my skirt.  Then she looked at me worried again and said "you done poos" to which I replied "no, poos go in the toilet"she continued to look at me and then she said "oh just wees then" Funny Kate 08

The Slab is Down

Today the foundations of our house was poured.  They started pumping the concrete in at 8.30am and I arrived at the section at 9.15am amazingly they were halfway.  The pumping machine was awesome to watch and they had another machine which blew out air bubbles and stuff and helped spread the concrete out.  I could have watched the whole process but I got the feeling the men were somewhat uncomfortable with me running around like a paparazzi taking photos.

The pump

Nice smooth surface

Screeding the concrete

Floating and finishing

When I went back to the site in the afternoon the man was floating and finishing off the slab.  It was the perfect day because it was cool and damp which meant Dave didn't have to panic about watering the slab at night. Bring on the wall frames they arrive this weekend and hopefully Dave will have his merry men to help him stand them up and so the fun and exciting times begin.

Amiee's Beetroot

My dearest friend has an awesome garden which tends to grow rather rapidly and for a few weeks Amiee has been talking about bottling some of the veges before they go to seed.  So I went over to help her out as she hadn't bottled beetroot before and I have had some experience in this field.

First I went and picked the beetroot and WOW!!! they were the biggest beetroot I have ever seen they were like bowling balls.  Whilst ripping them out of the ground it started to rain and so I did get rather damp but it wasn't going to stop me. I had a mission and I was focused on getting that beetroot in a jar.

Bowling Ball Beetroot

Now I am use to preserving normal/baby beets so my initial thoughts were these babies are going to take alot longer cooking than the norm.  I generally use just a basic recipe ie vinegar, sugar, and water.  However Amiee mother has a special recipe which involved pickling spices and cider vingegar and sugar.  As we didn't have the recipe we just made it up and I must stay it had a diffinite punch.  So two days later we finally finished those beasts We managed to get 12 large jars.

Building Continues

To date the house is on schedule and now its ready for the floor to be poured.  Dave has been lucky enough to have help from Phil, Darcy, Bradley and Haki thanks guys you all rock!!!

Laying the mesh

Ready for pouring the floor

Bring on the concrete

Kate 08 turns 2

Kate 08 Pretty in Pink

Our beautiful baby girls turned 2 years old today, oh my where has the time gone?  Over the last two days she has been so excited about her birthday. She even went up to Mr Tucker at school and told him "it my birthday" so random and forward.  When we asked her who's  having a birthday she placed her hand on her chest and says "me"

The past two years have been such a blessing from the day she came home from the hospital she has always been little Miss Independant, never liked sleeping with us always likes her space and her own bed.  Took to daycare very easily and moving daycare centres not a bother at all.  Unless she asks for help you don't bother trying to help.  Very particular about who kisses her and she decides who can have cuddles.  For awhile when daddy went to give her a kiss or a cuddle she would tell him "get off me" or "stop that".

Kate is very caring and motherly she is a girly girl loves her babies and dressing up in her pretty dresses.  Kate loves to sing and she quite the dancer.  Her favourite singer is Stan Walker or as she calls him "Stan the Man"  At night she loves story time her favourite stories are Billys Bucket and I Know a Rhino.  Kate loves horses and most days we go and feed carrots to them.  I'm sure she'll like her very own pony one day or we'll just send her to her Uncle Petes and Aunty Cheri who own horses.

My goal for all my children was to have them toilet trained before 2yrs.  However, I have failed miserably with Kate and so the process continues.  I suppose being little Miss Independant she will do it in her own time.

I'm not such a big fan of birthday parties.  I don't mind going to them but I hate organising them. I just get stressed out and I always worry about the food and is everyone having fun.  So I wasn't going to have a party besides she wouldn't even notice. How wrong was I? I'm sure Nicholas planted the seed but she seemed very excited about the thought of having a party.  "My party" My Birthday"  So at the last minute I texted a few close friends to come have cake and juice.

"Happy Birthday to you"

Cake time

Not too close

I did it!!!!!!

Kates friends

Kate had a great time and it wasn't stressful for me.

I look forward to many more years of fun times with baby Kate and thank Heavenly Father everyday for such a beautiful sweet Missy Moo!!!!