The Return of Josie and The Pussy Cats

Josie's pussy cats are growing fast! They have started to attack anything and everything in reach and they are also running more than walking. Only two of them, however, are game enough to check out what sort of surroundings they have. These two are the girls, Argentina and Anastasia. The two boys, Dixie (who is the most unfortunate looking creature I've ever seen) and Edward, are a little less adventurous.
It is very cute to see them tumble about and on top of each other. We have moved them into the bathroom as one day two were found under the washing machine.

Peeping Dixie.

Edward.

Anastasia.

Michael enjoyed having a kitten lick his sock!

Flashback Friday

Theodore, 1994.


No sense of dress whatsoever! At least, not at the
age of 2 and 4.

Snow Domes

This morning I decided to occupy the little boys by making Snow Domes with them. The idea I got from The Picket Fence .

It was very easy, I simply let them choose their own toys (Rob chose a tree, dinosaur, and a wire post, and Dan chose two small trees, a road sign, a little black bull and a dinosaur) I then glued them to the lid, filled the bottles with water and glitter and screwed the lid on.

As easy as it was, there were a few major problems. One of them being that we had run out of glue sticks for the gun and the little bit that I forced out wasn't enough, so the toys are now floating in the water. Bother!

However, I did get a few photos of them before the toys fell off. I was glad about that :).

Saturday Ball

This Saturday, the same day as Caitlin's Birthday Picnic, we four girls attended a Pride & Prejudice Ball.



Beka and Amy's dresses were home made.

Burnt at the Steak

These past few days the little boys have been listening to the unabridged version of "Pilgrim's Progress" on audio tape. They listened to it during their afternoon rest and at night time, when they were in bed, but Mum has now banned it at night as it is the dramatised version.

Today Daniel came out to Mum and said,
"In the tape someone was tied to a stake and burnt and they were turned into ashes. What are ashes?"
Mum replied,
"See the fireplace and all the powdery white stuff on the bottom? They are ashes. The wood burns down and forms them."

Later into the night Daniel brings it up again:
"Mum, can you tell me again what are ashes? I just can't understand how someone can turn into them!"
Rob answers for Mum: "No, Dan! It was the STEAK that turned into ashes! The guy was tied to to the STEAK and it burnt and became ashes!"

Sometimes children's 'understanding' can be quite amusing!

Heart Strings...

These love hearts are a beautiful way to decorate your house. They are striking and, so I believe from Jess, very easy to make. In fact they are so easy that there weren't even instructions, just the template.
You simply cut out the material, according to the template, and sew what ever embellishments you would like on to the material, then sew the edges leaving a little opening at the top/bottom to put the stuffing into. And there you have it! It's as easy as that!


Here are two of the many that Jess made, and also the template:







A rather poor photo of the template. Hopefully
you will be able to distinguish it!

Caitlin's Birthday

On Saturday we went to the park for our cousin's birthday picnic. It was great catching up with family and friends after not seeing them for quite a while. We girls enjoyed debating, discussing, giving personal opinions and just chatting about a whole manner of things. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely, despite a few sunburns!

We had the four younger boys with matching shirts.

Some of the older girls...Caitlin is second from the left.

Charis and Emma.

Bronwyn was attempting to show us

how to play a certain Frisbee game.

Flashback Friday

Irish Dancing, 1998.



Rebekah.



Bethany.



Caitlin.



Matthew and Karli.



Cassandra and Karli.

Icehotel

In Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, there is a hotel made completely out of snow and ice cubes. They make it every winter and have people stay. I can imagine it would be very expensive.

There are creative ice cubes hung on the ceiling, the reception desk is out of ice, the restaurant is not of ice but all the dishes and benches are, and there is an ice chapel.

You can sleep in the cold parlour, in sleeping bags with lots of gear on (!) or in the warm parlour in a bed, or there is even the choice of staying outside in tents. Only daredevils venture that far! You can see the site here. It is a booking site, but I put it up for you to see the photos and the Northern Lights. It is amazing!

If you click on the photos you

will be able to see them bigger.

Wedding Wednesday

Aaron and Donna's wedding, 1991.

Saturday Bushdance

On Saturday night we went to a family friend's 18th birthday bushdance in Bowning. It was a lot of fun, and the dances were plentiful! We let Rob and Jordan have the camera most of the time, which I was glad about because by the time we left they had taken so many the memory card was full, and Rob is very outgoing and asked quite a few people to pose, which I never do. It was great to catch up with friends we hadn’t seen for a while and we all enjoyed the night immensely!

While it was light the kids played at the park, out

the side of the hall.

Listening to the instructions.

Bethany and Ben galloping down the set!

Karli's partner didn't do much.

Spin your partner.

Some of the on-lookers.

Stripping the willow.

The lonely cow-girl hat.