big sister, 2 ways

thanks for the amazing cardigan, beppe

we love it - great buttons!

weekending

making playdough trees

hunting treasures at a birthday party

watching chickens

performing daring feats on our friend's slide

looking after our little housemates

a lovely weekend with friends!

keeping busy

big sister has been enjoying her generous new supply of art goodies

while little sister has been becoming increasingly dexterous -

feeding herself breakfast with a spoon

and dipping the bubble wand all by herself

(and sometimes her blowing even makes actual bubbles!)

27 degrees

birthday shoes

clapping from on high

painting with water til soaked through

(and with three bouts of tears and "she tipped my water out!")

happy birthday, big sister!

a purple cow cake

a party with lots of friends

hide and seek and other games

painting cow pictures

a ballerina dress

amongst the many gifts...

happy 3rd birthday, big sister!

drawing faces

big sister has just started drawing faces.

i've never shown her how, so it's fun to watch her discoveries.

little sister has just started drawing all over herself.

and any shopping list or half-written birthday card that i leave on the table!

the fashions of big sister

big sister has started acting as her own stylist this past week...!

this face

this face:

loves to say no

and "go away"

and call "mummy, mummy!"

she is keeping me so busy

i can hardly get anything done

while i constantly supervise

or interact with her.

today she's got a fat lip

from climbing on a chair,

and black ink on her neck

from a drawing incident.

last night she broke off

the head of her toothbrush

inside the faucet on the bath.

she makes us laugh,

and my life would be much poorer without her.

the past week

our traditional sunday morning pancakes

little sister blowing in the wind

big sister colouring quietly in a cafe

big sister enjoying her long-awaited blue ice-cream

images of a 15-month-old

15 months today!

little sister was at her most adventurous this morning:

including herself in random social groups,

wandering far and wide,

jumping in puddles,

standing for ages under the dripping canvas awning...

our rough and tumble girl.

marigolds

we've been in blog-land hibernation over winter,

but it's time to resurface...

today we planted marigolds -

perhaps too early in the season,

perhaps too generous in our sowing 

(we used the whole pack of seeds over 7 buckets),

but much fun was had together,

and that's what matters to us!

fun in the sun

little sister: 14 months

14 months today

wearing hard-soled big girls shoes

losing her baby cheeks

 spoken vocab growing every day

a mini-tornado at times, especially in the kitchen

learning to fall asleep by herself: round 3

 our treasure

school holidays: thursday/friday 2

decorating our space, in readiness for term 3 music

keeping inside, out of the cold

school holidays: wednesday 2

school holidays: monday/tuesday 2

we made some star biscuits,

just like justine on our playschool dvd.

big sister did a great job of kneading the dough,

and loved doing the icing with her paper cone!

(the recipe even survived being fructose-reduced,

having half the brown sugar swapped for dextrose 

and all the golden syrup for rice malt syrup.

let's not talk about the icing...)

school holidays: sunday 1

hunting for a lamb,

the first for this cold season -

 but it was hiding!

school holidays: saturday 1

at the aerodrome,

first time seeing pake's plane.

beautiful sunshine.

school holidays: friday 1

this morning's mood meant

we went for an 8am

run at our local!

(last night:

husband's return caused

great delight for all his girls

who slept so soundly.

ahhh...)