Recent Snaps

 Trains. Always trains.

 Date. Boy gets my phone. Beach. Crazy smile.

 Tea time.

 Don't let the sweetness fool you.

 My favorite!

First day of school and losing teeth.

Annmarie started Year 1 the last week of Jan! All went well and she is happy to be back at school. 

Oh this picture.

She started back up on a Wednesday, so it was a nice short school week. We went for a after school swim at the beach that Friday and it happened to be low tide. Always awesome when you can time that.

 Ben misses Annmarie when she is at school and pouts after we drop her off, it's pretty cute.

Then the following week Annmarie lost her upper tooth, her two top teeth have been wobbly forever. Jamie pulled it out, I couldn't look, and Annmarie was happy to have it out.

 

Then a couple of days later her other tooth went. Jamie pulled this one out as well while Skyping with Grandma and Papa. I still giggle a bit when I see her smile. Oh I'm going to miss those baby teeth.

So back to school and losing teeth, it's been a big couple of weeks for that girl of ours.

xx

Summer Holidays, Other Stuff and a Recipe

For the remaining Summer Holiday from school we had a good balance of activities, going to the beach and time spent at home. Here is a look at some of it.

We did a nature/frog walk at a local wildlife garden with some friends. Annmarie was very proud of her little craft (a frog pond) that the kids did after the walk.

Annmarie loves making things with these beads from Ikea. I would often set her up during Ben's nap and this would keep her plenty busy. Coloring together, the best.

Annmarie got her hair cut! It was out of control, this was much needed.

Holidays call for puffed pancakes (recipe below), perfect for lazy mornings. We made these a few times. And isn't this picture sweet, too bad he had just bashed Annmarie over the head and he is apologizing.

We live in the bush.

Ben is always trying to trap a bug. We were a bit off schedule during the holiday, the kids were staying up late and Ben would often take three hour naps. Awesome, but if I ever wanted him to go to bed at night I would have to wake him up after that three hour mark. He's still in his cot. I plan on keeping him there until he's 18. There are only a few predictable things with this boy, his general behavior is not one of them, but sleeping in his cot, that, he loves.  We'll go with it as long as we can.

Probably the most exciting thing that happened over the holidays was Annmarie learned to ride her bike sans the training wheels! Yay! I take no credit for this. She did it all herself. For about a week she kept saying she was ready and wanted to learn to ride her bike (she had previously been too scared), so Jamie took off the training wheels and pretty much that was it. She got it really fast. Her balance really improved when she got the two wheel razor scooter, so it was just a matter of mastering the pedals. Obliviously, the bike is small for her. We'll probably wait until after summer and look into getting her a new bike. In the meantime, she is still having fun on this one.

Annmarie started back up with nippers (they took a break during the Christmas holiday). And lots of riding and scooting in the street.

Other happenings not pictured during the holiday include; a swimming intensive class for Annmarie (basically she went to a class everyday for a week), painting, other crafting and puzzles. We had a couple of barbeques with friends. Jamie went to Japan for five sleeps and I drank a lot of wine by myself. 

The summer holiday/break was a little over six weeks and it ended up being the perfect amount of time. I thought for sure I would be counting down the days for school to start back up, it helped that Jamie was around for the first two weeks. I know I enjoyed the time and I'm pretty sure everyone else did too. It wasn't all perfect, but there was more fun than not.

Any who.

Here is the recipe for the puffed pancakes:

Enjoy!

In other news. Annmarie started Year 1 and has lost some teeth. I'll be back with more on that!
xx