Pictures

Busy weekend

Tyler's birthday wasn't the only event happening over the weekend. We had a really full-on few days!

Friday: I took my Dad to a live filming of NZ Idol on Friday night. The tickets were his Father's Day present. We ended up sitting right up the back in the corner, so unfortunately we didn't get on TV :-(
But it was still a lot of fun and I was surprised at how much better all the contestants sounded in the studio. They honestly sounded 10 times better, and I don't think they get the mix right for TV. It was a pretty cool show to be at, the theme was "what gets you in the groove?" so there was heaps of variety.
Dad really enjoyed himself too and it was nice to go out together :-)

Saturday: After Tyler's party, Rob's sister Liv, her husband Hamish and our newest niece Georgia came back to our place to stay the night.
They asked if we would like to go Ten Pin Bowling since they don't have one up in Whangarei. We'd never taken the kids before but we decided to go for it! So after Tyler and Georgia had a sleep, we went up and played one game.
Ethan played with the gutter guards up and he used the ramp for rolling the ball down, but he did great! He beat me and Liv, and he was beating Hamish until round 7! He ended up with a score of 88 I think! Ethan really loved it and was so proud of himself whenever he knocked some pins down. And he didn't get upset when he missed, either. He had such a great time and we're definitely going to take him again!
Tyler was very well behaved. I had visions of him chasing the balls down the lanes, trying to carry heavy bowling balls around, and running around the whole time. But he sat for much of the time, watching and clutching his new Buzz. Near the end he got a bit restless and was climbing all over the bench seats, but generally he was very good considering he wasn't playing! Next time we might let him have a turn as well, I'm sure he will love it.

Sunday: In the afternoon we took the kids down to the beach. It was quite hot so they were wearing their boardshorts.
Ethan decided to go for a swim, despite the water being icy cold! He was in there for about 10-15 min before we made him get out. He wasn't just paddling, either. He was completely immersed in the water, running in and out and lying down on his stomach. I gave him a warm shower when we got home and dressed him in trackies and socks, but he still took a little while to thaw out. Crazy child!
Tyler didn't swim. He took his shirt off and stood at the water's edge, but he didn't go in. I don't blame him!!! I dipped my foot in and ran away yelling!
Rob actually found a crab in the shallow water. The boys were really interested in it and wanted to hold it (don't worry, it was dead).

I want to post some photos of baby Georgia, Ethan bowling and the boys at the beach. First I need to resize them and upload them to photobucket, so I'll do that tonight.

My baby is 2 today!

Wow. I can't believe that my baby is 2 years old today! The time has gone by so quickly. He's not a baby anymore, and hardly even a toddler, but a preschooler!

It is his actual birthday today (Sept 24) but we pretended it was yesterday since that was the day of his party. He was so excited to open his presents from Ethan and Mummy & Daddy. He looked so proud sitting in his chair in his PJs, and he was genuinely delighted with each and every gift. When he opened one, he would say "wow" and then smile the biggest smile ever.
We had his party at my parents' place, and it was lots of fun. We just invited family and close family friends. Tyler had a blast, and when we all sang Happy Birthday to him, he was so proud and happy! He was grinning from ear to ear, and then joined in the "hip hip hooray" at the end :-) You can see from the photos just how happy and excited he was.

The party had a Buzz Lightyear theme (the child is obsessed) with a rocket cake and green & purple balloons. And of course he received a lot of Buzz paraphenalia, as well as heaps of books, art supplies, clothes and other cool stuff. I guess his best present was a new Buzz figurine from Nana & Grandad, to replace the old one with no hands, one wing and a broken propeller. The new Buzz is half soft/half plastic, which makes it much more practical for taking to bed :-) He doesn't, however, have a helmet. Tyler was a little unnerved by that in the beginning, as his favourite thing to do with the old Buzz was to make sure that Buzz had his "helmet down" at all times! But now he seems unbothered by the lack of helmet :-)

Yesterday was a wonderful day, and even though it wasn't his real birthday, I felt quite emotional about it. It did feel strange waking up this morning and not giving him a present or singing Happy Birthday to him. But hey, he's 2! And it doesn't really matter in the big scheme of things.

I'm so proud of my baby, because he is really growing up. He's talking in huge long sentences now (5+ words) and is becoming much more of a playmate for Ethan. They enjoy the same things now, and Ethan particularly loves to teach Tyler how to say difficult words.
Tyler still has a temper at times, and he can squeal and scream better than any girl, but he's the cutest little guy ever and we love him to bits. Happy Birthday, bubby. I love you!! Mummy xox

Weight loss

I'm just over 2 weeks into my renewed weight loss efforts, and I'm so happy because I've already lost 1.5kg (almost 3 1/2 pounds)! Today I got some new clothes and I was happy to find that a couple of things I tried on were too big and I had to get the smaller size :-)

I can only hope that by Christmas, I will be able to wear my dream dress. The size 12 one that I got in Melbourne 6 years ago and that I wore on Christmas Day 2000. The one that fits me now but doesn't look good. I hope that it will fit properly this year, because I really want to wear it again. That's my goal, and I'm determined to try my best to get there.
I'm determined that this summer I will be more comfortable and less intimidated about wearing summer clothing. I won't ever wear a bikini again because I have stretch marks for Africa (thanks to my lovely children). But at least I'll feel happier in myself, and that's the main thing.

Brock, buttons and a big boo-hoo

First, I have to say that I'm feeling much better. Thanks Janine, and others, for asking :-)

Brock.
He's my newest nephew, and he came to stay last weekend. With his mum & dad, of course. He was so good, and he is so smiley! I got a few really nice shots of Paul (my brother-in-law), Ethan & Brock. The ones with Tyler in the shot as well were not so good. It seems it is impossible to get a grown man, a preschooler, a toddler and a baby to sit still and look at the camera at the same time. Sigh.

Buttons.
My boy did his OWN buttons up last night, when he put his PJs on. I was so very proud of him! I know lots of other 4-year-olds have probably been doing their own buttons for months, but it has been more of a challenge for us. So this is great progress!!
He was so proud of himself, too. You'll see from the picture that he didn't get the first button in the right hole, but overall it was a good job :-)

Big Boo-Hoo.
This is in response to the Final of RockStar:Supernova last night. I am completely and utterly GUTTED that Lukas won. I was such a Toby fan (I mean come on, who wasn't??) and when he was sent home I came seriously close to shedding a tear. So after that I was rooting for Dilana but I knew they weren't going to choose her. I knew they were too chicken to have a woman fronting their band, even though she is a zillion times better than Lukas.
I'm sorry to all you Canadians who probably love him, but I really don't like him. And there is no way I am buying their CD when it comes out. But I will be looking out for Toby's CD (uh oh uh oh uh oh) ... EVS forever!!

Monday-itis

I really don't feel like being at work today. Hence the blogging.

Last night we were at my parents' place for dinner and I noticed my throat was a bit tickly and my voice was sounding funny. This morning I wake up with NO VOICE whatsoever and my throat is really sore. It feels exactly like the laryngitis I had earlier in the year. GREAT.

My kids are still sick, they have had the same cold for 5 WEEKS. Yep, that's 35 days. They got sick the day I left for Canada and haven't fully recovered. They have improved, but they haven't recovered. I guess I should be grateful that neither of them have ear infections. This is the first year since Ethan was 1 that he hasn't had an ear infection. The doctor told me last winter that he would probably grow out of them and he has. Tyler has grommets now, so he hasn't had any ear infections either. I'm positive that if he didn't have grommets, he would have had several.

I started Weight Watchers again last week. It wasn't a particularly diet-friendly weekend. We had family staying and on Saturday night we went to an engagement party with excellent catering. But hopefully it won't put me back on the "I don't care, I'm not strong enough to do this, I love food too much, I'm happy to be a size 14/16" path. I only have 10kg to lose and I really want to reach my goal and never have to deal with this crap again. Having kids really wrecks havoc on your body, I tell ya!

On a more positive note, I have updated my Recipe Blog (there is a link on my sidebar for futre reference) and I hope that some/all of you will visit and enjoy some of the recipes. There are some great ones on there and I'm more than happy to share with others since I love trying new recipes myself.

And while I'm trying to think of happy thoughts to make this post end nicely, let me just thank my darling husband and my wonderful brother-in-law for installing a rockin' almost-new CD player in my car! My old one had been dying a slow death for some time, and had gotten to the point where it would no longer play 99% of my CDs. Rob picked up a CD player from a guy at his work for $100 and on Saturday Paul helped him to install it. Did I mention that it ROCKS?

Til next time, ciao.

Canada photos

It has taken me a while to get around to downloading these! Here are a few pictures showing some of the things I did in Canada. I took heaps more but I don't want to bore you!

1. Jenn's beautiful street in Ajax, Toronto
2. Jenn herself, and half of her other half (sorry, Chris!)
3. At the ball game!
4. Cobourg Beach, Lake Ontario
5. View from the top of the CN tower
6.-9. Niagara Falls. These were the best photos I got, I was really happy with how they turned out. I don't have a spectacular camera so wasn't expecting anything great. But I'm pretty proud of these ones, if I do say so myself :-)

Here is Ethan's card ...

I was pretty impressed (and surprised, actually) at how well he copied the letters. He really wanted to write it all himself, but I knew writing the message inside would take too long and he would get frustrated. But he was fine doing the cover and the names.
I love how he wrote "Ethan Blair" instead of just "Ethan". Like Daddy might think it was from another Ethan! *giggle*
Oh, and the pictures are of a goat (on the front) and a TV (on the inside). In case you couldn't tell ;-)

Father's Day

We had such a great Father's Day yesterday!

On Friday I took the kids up to the shops to get a present for Rob, and one for Grandad. We got a mug for Grandad that said "Groovy Grandad" (thanks Mum for telling me about them!) and Ethan chose a Simpsons DVD for Rob. I chose some pyjama shorts to put with the DVD, even though Ethan said he didn't like them.
Ethan made cards during Tyler’s nap. I wrote “Happy Father’s Day” on some paper and Ethan copied it onto the cards. He did so well! He got the "P's" back-to-front on Grandad's one but they were fine on Daddys' one! Then he told me what he wanted me to write inside, and he drew pictures on the front and decorated them with animal and outer space stickers.
We wrapped up the present and I attached a card that said:

The Blair Bistro
Breakfast Menu
(a whole lot of choices and little “tick” boxes next to them)
Please make your selections and give this card to the waiter (Ethan) or chef (Hannah) by 7.45am.

Yesterday Rob and I were woken up at 6.30am by Ethan whispering “Happy Father’s Day”, clutching the present in his hands. Of course Rob loved the card and the present, and he had fun ticking all the breakfast selections (porridge, french toast, bacon, apple juice and coffee) and giving the card to Ethan. Actually, we all ended up having french toast and bacon for breakfast :-)

At church we had a special Father’s Day service which was really fun. Leah & I sang a few songs with Dad, some of the ones we used to sing when we were little. Dad even played an old tape of us singing, when I was about 5 and Leah was about 2. It was pretty embarrassing!
After church we had lunch with Mum, Dad & Leah at "Kaizen" in Orewa. Unfortunately they were really busy and we had to wait quite a long time for our food, but they had colouring in stuff for the kids and that kept them pretty happy. Lunch was great and then we went back to Mum & Dad’s for the afternoon.
I cooked a special Father’s Day dinner last night (French-style Lamb Shanks), but it wasn’t ready in time for the kids to eat with us so they had scrambled eggs. We ate at 7pm, by candlelight, with music playing in the background. SO very different to the usual dinner time routine :-)

Rob, I hope you had a wonderful Father’s Day. Like I wrote in your card, I thought you were pretty perfect when I married you, but after watching you become a Father, there are now so many more things to love about you. You’re a great Daddy and it always warms my heart to see how much our beautiful boys adore you. And I do, too.