De ... licious!

Tonight Lauren asked me what we were having for dinner.
I told her we were having sausages.

"Errr, I don't like sausages" she said.
I said: "Yes, sausages are delicious!"
She replied: "No, they're de yucky!"

So there you have it!
She's not a fan of sausages.

she managed to eat it all though!

A Bit Of This And A Bit Of That ....

We have adopted a cat ...
His name is Blacky (very original)
He comes around every afternoon to play with Thomas and the girls.
Here he is with T&A and Thomas ...


I'm amazed at how well Thomas has accepted him (given he's a male!)
At first we were calling him Thomas' girlfriend but then I saw the back of him and realised he was quite obviously a boy!
He's a cute thing but the last thing we need is another mouth to feed!

The girls changed over to their winter uniforms last week.
Here they are looking smart in their uniform:


On another note ...
I've always loved the look of braids.
They seem to be the "IN" thing at the moment.
So I practiced once on one of Ashleigh's barbie dolls last week.
Then I tried on Lauren's hair....



I'm quite proud of the finished product - not bad for an amateur!
I probably should have practiced on Ash as Lauren's a bit of a screamer when it comes to hair styling!

So, I turned 35 on Sunday!
Yep, I'm now closer to 40 than 30!
Unfortunately Aaron was in Brisbane for the big day but I celebrated with family.




It's scary when birthday's become "just another day".
I never thought I'd ever feel this way.
I can remember thinking as a kid how my parents didn't get excited about birthdays.
Now I'm doing it myself!
I had a really good day though.
It's always nice getting together with family.

Nanny Smell !?!?

I overheard a conversation between Ashleigh and Lauren this morning.

Here's how it went:

Lauren: "Mmmmm, my clothes smell nice and clean. Do you like it Ash?"
Ash: "No, I like the smell of the clothes at Nanny's house. Like when we leave our old clothes at Nanny's house and after they've been there a while they get that nice smell."

She's talking about moth balls people!!!
My daughter likes the smell of moth balls!!!

We're Going To The Zoo, Zoo, Zoo - How About You, You, You

On Tuesday we decided to go to Taronga Zoo.
It was a toss up between the zoo and the aquarium.
The zoo won because it has an aquarium as well as the rest of the animals!

The girls had a blast!
We walked all day - up hills, down hills, up stairs, down stairs ...
It was a long day but well worth it!

Here are some pics from the day ...

These darned elephants would not turn to face me to take a photo.

So I took a photo of their arses!

Here's Lauren looking at the "dinosaur" or in other words, komodo dragon!

The girls loved the blue tongue!


The snake not so much, but Lauren had a go anyway!

And this is why so many foreigners don't like Australia!
Don't blame them really!

The girls LOVED this "teddy bear", until ...

they realised just how big he got!

Yep, it's thirsty work walking around Taronga Zoo!

"There are far too many wild animals around here for me stand still long enough to take a photo
so I'll keep an eye on them and smile at the same time!"

Lauren feeding the goat!

Here's Lauren meeting Daddy's cousin!

Lauren had her very first easter hat parade at school today.
I went for the lazy option - I bought her a hat.
I just couldn't be bothered making one this year!
Lauren loved it just the same!

Here's a photo of her with her friend Teah:

She had so much fun!!

A Travelling We Will Go ....

We went to Canberra on the weekend.
And had such a good time.
Caught up with family I haven't seen for about 4 years!
Isn't it funny how you can lose touch with some people and when you meet up again it's like no time has passed at all.
The conversation flows and nothing much has changed!
Well that's how it was for me!
The family is still the same - except for a few new additions.

Here are some photos from our family reunion!

MEETING FOR THE FIRST TIME ...

Lauren with her 2nd cousin Lochie. We both wanted to sneak him in to our luggage and take him home with us. Such a cutie - makes me want a boy even more now! He was the most placid little boy. Caz - how did you manage to have such good looking kids!?!?!

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT ...

Lauren with Aunty Laurel (her great Aunty!) and Kenzie the chihuahua! Lauren would have loved to have taken Kenzie home too!! She just adored her!

TOUGH LIFE ...

Here's Lauren taking a break from all the hard work of catching up with her cousins!


BUSTED!!

"Now ..... here's how this works, you WILL pretend to be my baby whether you like it or not!"

EASY DOES IT ...

"OK, you're dismissed now!"


THE GIRLS ...

BACK ROW: Ashleigh B, Ashleigh H, Laura
FRONT ROW: Casey and Lauren

The girls with Piper the dog!


GOOD TIMES ...

Here's where we hung out all afternoon! Such great weather!

QUACKETY, QUACK, QUACK ...

Here's Lauren chasing the ducks - they're pretty fast!! It was good exercise for her!!


MY LITTLEST PETS HEAVEN ....

Here's Ashleigh and Casey surrounded by My Littlest Pets toys!!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST ...

The two Ashleigh's with Lochie!

Hopefully it won't be so long between visits next time!

Harmony Day

So much has been happening lately!
I can't keep up!
I seem to go to bed exhausted every night!
There just aren't enough hours in the day!
And I thought things would slow down once Lauren started school!
Boy was I wrong!

Today was Harmony Day at school.
The girls got to go to school in mufti - as long as they wore orange.
It was Lauren's first day wearing "normal clothes" not a uniform.
She now wants to go to school in normal clothes every day!
I managed to find two orange t-shirts - one in a size 7 that Ash wore last year and another in a size 6 that Ash wore in Year 1 at school.
So Lauren wore the size 7 and Ash wore the size 6!
Go figure!

Here's a photo of the girls before school ....


Here's a photo of Ashleigh lining up ready to sit down for assembly with her classmates (notice the size 6 top - poor kid!)


Here's a photo of Lauren walking up to the hall for assembly with her friend Alexander .....

Lauren was given her very first award at school today - the Harmony Day 2010 Everyone Belongs Award!
Only one child in each class is chosen to get this award and Lauren was chosen for her class. We're so proud of her!
It says "This award is presented to Lauren Brown for showing respect and fairness and promoting a sense of belonging for everyone."
Well done baby!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYRJPaYfIRc

We're off to Canberra tomorrow to visit my cousins!
Aaron has a job to do so we decided to go along with him for the ride and we can spend time with my family while he works!
Sounds good to me!
It's supposed to be nice weather which is good!

Funny

So I was driving to church the other day with Ashleigh in the car with me.
I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a car I thought looked like a police car.
I said to Ashleigh:
"I wonder if that's a police car behind us?"

She replied:
"I don't know. Go really fast and we'll find out!"

So there you have it - problem solved!!

School 2010

As you may or may not know, Lauren was accepted into a Support Class at one of our local schools which is an absolute blessing as these classes are impossible to get in to.

She started at Sherwood Ridge Public School in Kellyville on 1st February this year and she absolutely loves going to school every day.
She has taken to school like a duck to water.
She loves her class and her two teachers.
There are only 8 kids in her class so she gets really specialised teaching.
She is learning so much every day.
She particularly liked being picked up by her big sister Ashleigh last Thursday to go to the canteen for the very first time and buy herself a chocolate Paddle Pop ice cream.
This was the best part of her day - I think it was Ashleigh's best part too!

Ashleigh loves having Lauren going to school with her!
She loves knowing that Lauren is at school as well as her and not at home having fun with Mummy!
Ashleigh LOVES the new school.
We changed her from Ironbark Ridge Public school this year so she could attend the same school as Lauren.
It makes life a lot easier being able to pick them up from the same school and not have to try to be at two schools at the same time.
She loves her teacher and has made heaps of new friends.
Every day when I pick her up she has a huge smile on her face and says she's had a really good day which is a big difference from last year - thankfully!

Here's a photo I took of the girls on their first day at their new school!


As for me ...

I've been flat out ever since they started back at school.
Monday and Tuesday, Lauren only had half a day at school so I had to pick her up at 1pm.
I was so busy those first couple of days catching up on house work and grocery shopping.

I've been able to potter around the house and sit on the computer as long as I want without Lauren pulling on my arm saying she's either hungry or bored.
It's fantastic!
I must say, I really miss having her around though.
She was my little friend and companion.

I've tried to organise our study.
It's difficult because Aaron and I both share the study and let's just say he's not the tidiest or most organised of the human race.
So I've had my work cut out for me trying to make sense of the debris that's called our desk!

I bought this to sort out the paperwork and it seems to be working so far.


Next thing I need to do is get a part-time job to get some spending money!

Fingers crossed!

New Shoes

We had a bit of a bad start to the year this year.
I thought I'd be super organised and buy the girls school shoes early on in January so that they had their shoes ready to start the school year.
Problem is I wasn't anticipating Lauren's feet growing so darned fast.
By the time the first day of school rolled around her feet had outgrown the new shoes.
Then when I went to take them back to get some bigger ones all the shops had sold out of shoes in her size!

So I've got some on order - yep, only the expensive ones are available now so I'm paying almost 3 times as much as the original pair I bought.
Let's hope her feet don't grow anymore this year so they last her 12 months!

Then on Ashleigh's first sport day I realised I hadn't bought her any new sneakers!
So, on the weekend we went for a drive in to the city to the New Balance Outlet store and bought the girls some brand new sneakers!


They love their new shoes!
Lauren loves hers because they are pink.
And Ashleigh loves hers because they are "cool".
We got them for such a good price. Lauren's shoes were $110 down to $45.
Ashleigh's shoes were $99 down to $45!

So we're set for shoes now!!

Camping + Heatwave = Not Much Fun!

So we decided to go camping on Monday.
All was well in tent city ....



To my surprise, we erected the tent with speed and precision for first timers!
(Well, Aaron and the girls did!)
I supervised and took photos! Phew - it was hard work!
But the finished product was very exciting:



Then the girls decided to chat to the locals to get a feel for their surroundings and what it had to offer:


They got along well with the locals - even the big ones!
Watch out for that bull on the right - he's a nasty character - very protective of his 32 heffas and calves!

Driving with the cows was interesting:


Don't get too close or they get a little agitated!
We slowly drove past them and gave them space.
But then Aaron decided he'd toot his horn at them to see what would happen!
We then had to drive a little faster - out of necessity!
"Get me outta here - quick!"

The scenery was gorgeous though.
High up on the hill - this was our view:


The first night was warm so needless to say the sleeping bags were not needed!
Aaron was too scared to have the doors open for fear of mozzies and creatures crawling through the screen in the middle of the night so we sweltered a little the first night.

The first night ended up being the last night as the next day we woke up to a HEAT WAVE!!
The temperature reached around 38 degrees - and that was in the shade!

We spent most of the day here ...

GERRINGONG BEACH

Love the sunnies Ash!

Ash looking for little fish and rocks!

The girls walking around the rock pools looking for crabs and fish!

Lauren enjoying the shallow water - Aaron in the "big pool" in the background!

As you can see, it was very relaxing and cool.


The rock pools were great. They found all sorts of things:


Then we had lunch at Berry at a little bakery that make THE BEST Custard Tarts!!! YUMMM!

Then we browsed the local shops.
They have the most quaint little shops in Berry - very unique.
Here's just one of the many available - it's full of cuckoo clocks and babushka dolls!
The girls loved it!! They were in there for ages looking at all the bits and pieces.

Then there's my favourite candle shop - Candleberries!
I'm on a first name basis with the owner! Love it!

Yes, there are a lot of cows in the Berry area!
And they're proud of it!


All in all, despite the heat and the early departure, we had such a great time!
Very memorable!
We plan to do it again real soon!