Twin Speaks

Scar: You shut up
Joe: No, you shut up
Scar: No..you shut up
Joe: no you shut up
Scar: No! YOU shut up
Joe: No..you, you ,you, you, you!

*sigh* Thank heavens it's almost the weekend! Not much planned for this weekend other than a BBQ with friends. Joe's been very frustrating this week so am looking forward to not having to take him to school for the next two days and listen to his tantrums going there and back
Did this layout of Scarlett too which I love and will share here:



Other than that it's been a fairly quiet week here. School holidays start soon so I guess it won't be quiet for much longer!

A B C D E F Gee, What Was I Thinking!?!?

Joe is watching TV so Scar and I are sitting on our bed with a pad of paper and a pencil and I am trying to teach her letters A - G.
She has a book of ABC stuff and we get to letter F and I say "what's that picture of?" and she looks at me
"it keeps us cool in the hot weather" I continue.
More blank looks from her
"it starts with the letter f" I tell her

"It's a faccuum" she informs me.

I Wish Every Day Could Be Like This

Late yesterday afternoon I had the absolute pleasure of meeting for the first time Manda's husband and eldest daughters. They were all just lovely and I just wish we had been able to hang out a bit longer.
We met up at the old Magic Mountain site in Glenelg, which is now revamped as "The Beach House" probably because only rich people can afford to go there. It's touted as having loads of arcade games and rides etc for the kids and at that time of day I was expecting it to be busy with afterschool teenagers hanging out..but it was pretty quiet and we virtually had the whole place to ourselves!! Obviously the creators of this place missed their target audience as the youth of the area can't afford the price of all the games etc either!
Amanda's oldest two girls are twins who are pretty much the same age as Abs, and her youngest daughter is pretty much the same age as Joe and Scarlett so it was great fun to see them getting along after a little while of shyness. I think the dodgem cars was the real icebreaker as none of the girls ( oh and G) could stop giggling with their bad driving.
I think Abs really enjoyed meeting the girls and I would glance over at her quite often and catch her having a chat and a laugh with either Georgia or Kelsey. After dinner at McD's we walked along the shops a bit and then down to the beach which was just blissful by that time of night (around 7.30pm) and the sun just setting. The kids ran around collecting shells and watching the huge planes fly over after taking off from the nearby Adelaide airport.
Scarlett was very quiet, she was tired but I was so proud of her for walking along the beach as she really doesn't like the beach at all. She's not at all comfortable with water and when we walked along the jetty a bit she made me carry her once the water was underneath us and held on tight but didn't kick up a big fuss.
I could tell by the time we got off the jetty that Abs was really tired. She'd been on a school excursion during the day and it was already past her bedtime and we had a 40-odd minute drive home to get through with her as well.
I was so sad to say goodbye to Amanda, she is just such a lovely person and I am so lucky to have her as a friend. I hope she and her DH (also a G) make it back to Adelaide so we can catch up again. I really enjoyed meeting her whole family and look forward to getting our clans back together again.

Let Them Eat Cake

..or just the cake mix will do! Today we decided to make chocolate cake..yummy. Kids had a ball as I don't do that much cooking with them as it's usually more of a hindrance than a help but they were great today taking turns.

Here's some pics:Dig in to that chocolatey goodness!

Back away from the cake mix..it's mine!

Giddy up!

Yes following in the fine foot steps of G and Manda here is a blast from the past from me.

I'm aged 4 here and in my fave place of all time -North Beach, Wallaroo. We used to go there several times a year practically from the time I was born. It's been a couple of years since I have been up that way so might have to see what we can do about getting back there later this year with the kids.

I also love this photo because it shows my very favourite pair of sneakers. Around the sides of the shoe were little indians and alphabet letters. I was never a girly-girl but these shoes I *loved* I must say judging by the size of the collar and the obvious breeze at the time it's amazing I didn't fly away!

Oh and yes G, you can see my dimple!

Warning: Bragging Mother Alert

Just a couple of quick things so that an entire week doesn't go past without me updating here.
I am just so proud of Abs at the moment as she seems to be doing really well in everything she is doing right now despite some of the issues we have had with her recently.

On Friday she came in from school excited to tell me she had a note in her diary that only 4 other kids got, and 5 from the other Yr 3 class had also been given. Seems she has been chosen to do some kind of Literacy Extension program on Fridays at school and they are planning a magazine. I can't tell you how thrilled to bits she is as she has been talking about making a magazine for ages (thanks to The Bratz Magazine!)

This morning she burst through the door after swimming, she had the biggest smile on her face and her eyes were absolutely shining with excitement as she had just passed her Level 2 of swimming and as of next week goes up to Level 3. She's been working really hard at this the past few weeks as she set it down as one of her goals to achieve this year in an exercise they did at school so now she has done it. I am so proud of her, and it's great for her to see her hard work paid off!

I think it topped off a great weekend for her as G and I took her shopping on Saturday (twin-free!) and she had us to herself all afternoon, got loads of new (and very cool) clothes, got some new books from the Go Girls series which she has just discovered and had lunch out as well.
She's been so good this weekend, she cleaned her room this morning, did her piano practise early instead of leaving it to the last minute and even had time to go play with her friends this afternoon and have a dip in their new spa!