the past few days...

toast shapes

a little lost duck found on the beach

pavement chalk drawing competition

smoothies at the farmers market

duck eggs from the farmers market

robot shoes

1st Prize

We had another glorious day yesterday. Perfect for the Courtmacsherry Festival Beach Party. It was such a great day and so well organised. There was a sandcastle building competition. We met up with a group of friends down there and all the kids collaborated and made 2 castles, one was actually a mud castle, but they had a ball gathering the mud from the shore line. The other was basically a mound of seaweed with a dead fish on top...needless to say they didn't win. I've no pictures to post as I didn't ask mummies about putting up pictures of the kids here.

There was a puppet show (we missed that though somehow), a bbq, disco music and balloon sculptor, pony riding and face painting.

My beach baby fast asleep in the wagon.

There were also running races and sack races for the kids. Rebe was really up for it this time, having had her practice with Andy. She was itching to run. Benny wanted to have a go too, he stood in line with the (3 other) under 3 boys and waited for the 'Ready, Steady, Go'. When the lady shouted 'go', he crossed his arms, pouted his lip and stomped off the other way 'Noi'. It was very funny. He decided to have another go though when it was Rebe's turn in the 4 and under race, and the kind lady let him run with the girls. They both shot off this time and Rebe ran so fast... faster than anyone and she won!!

Oh I was so delighted that she had taken part again and was confident and what a bonus for her. They took her name and to our surprise and delight towards the end of the day, her name was called out and she was presented with this...

'My very own trophy!'

She is just so proud of it, it is going everywhere with her and has been shown to everyone...

What a great day, we certainly are loving this wee festival, and where we live!

(For some reason I have uploaded all the photo's twice and I can't seem to delete them so the post finished here really unless you want to look at all the pictures again) x

chirstmas comes early...or rather late

Just starting today's post with this picture of Joshua and I... just because I really like it.

Anyway as the title suggests Christmas came early (or rather late) yesterday. A huge parcel arrived for us yesterday morning. It was a Christmas present from a very sweet aunt and uncle of mine. It had been posted to our previous address, returned to the UK again and then resent to our current address. What a great surprise and super presents. Benny got really fab paint markers in the shapes of little animals and Rebe got these brilliant water flutes.

You fill them up to the correct level giving you the right pitch and then follow the colour coded music. They work really brilliantly and Rebe got the hang of it really quickly! Musical bathtime!

Andy is off work sick at the moment, so we unexpectedly had the car and went to visit our friends for the day. She lent me these brilliant books...

Inside are loads of sewing, crochet and knitting patterns. All dating from the 60's funky!
I am kind of itching to learn to sew clothes and on advice of my friend and my mum they think I should be able to manage it, if I start with some simple patterns. All of the designs in the book come with complete instructions, patterns and tutorials.
I looked through them last night and here are a few that I am going to make...

I just love this for Rebe.

For the boys and possibly to sell?

It would be almost cruel to make any child wear these...but I think I'm going to have to, they're to cool not to!

Rebe wrote me this letter this morning in reply to a letter I wrote her thanking her for her help yesterday...

Translation:

To Laura

Thank you for my letter.

You are a lovely mummy.

Little Joshua is cute.

Love it!

it was a lovely day in Greendale...

the sun was shining, the birds were singing, but where was Postman Pat?

Ahh here she is... busy writing letters and making envelopes.

She got herself dressed in her posties uniform...

then went delivering her letters to all our neighbours.

I think in total about 14 people will have come home to odd little pictures and letters posted through their doors...still I'd say it's better than junk mail :-)

While she was doing this Benny was busy doing the button snake.

I made this about a year ago. It's a very simple idea; a button at each end of a length of ribbon and then shapes with a large button hole to thread and make into a snake.

Benny is really enjoying his new found buttoning skill and spends a lot of time each day at the moment taking the buttons on and off.

We're going to a 3rd Birthday this weekend so I'm hoping to find the time to make the birthday boy a snake too.

and 1st prize goes to . . .

As I mentioned before it is the Courtmacsherry Harbour Festival at the moment. Yesterday evening there was a children's party held on the pier and although it started at our usual going to bed time, we decided to go as a treat. It was so much fun! There was loud music playing over the tannoy...
perfect for dancing with your shadow!

There was face painting...

woof!

This was the first time Benny had his face painted by anyone other than Rebe. He was very serious about it!

We tried candyfloss...but to be honest neither of them really liked it and we just ended up very sticky. But sometimes you need to try these things :-)

There was an under 6 pass the parcel game. Benny needed a bit of extra coaching to pass it to the right person, but he got the hang of it in the end.

exciting...

Rebe won the prize!!

There was also a cupcake competition. We decided almost at the last moment to enter...

Luckily we had some gold coins in the cupboard that Bubs had sent us in the week, so we put them and a few jelly jewels on ours to make this pirates treasure.

Here is the cupcale table at the party and the kind lady with the buggy is actually pointing at our entry....

And it won 1st prize! Rebe was so delighted when the tannoy announced; 'The winners of the under 6 cupcake competition are Rebe and Benny Angel !'

They won some lovely pens and crayons.

And best of all got to eat their cupcakes on the way home!

It was such a lovely evening and so exciting to get to stay up late. They just fell into bed!

What a lucky, lovely day :-)

On your marks, get set...

Joshua has been the golden boy the past few days! He's fed really well (nothing new there though) and has been lovely and calm and has slept really well, giving me lots of time with the other kids and to catch up on some rest. He even had a 6 hour sleep the day before yesterday. So in celebration (as if I need an excuse), here's a picture of a much less tired mama and Joshua 'the cheeks' Angel.

And because Benny wanted one with him too . . .

Here is another one of Rebe helping Joshua with his fennel tea, is it just me or does he seem really big?

Andy and I have been a bit heavy on the sugar recently (all in the name of energy boosting), however we have talked a lot about how we need to limit it more. So we decided we are going to keep treats and puddings for weekends only... I also think that it would be nice to introduce having a special baking day into our weekly rhythm, especially when Rebe starts school. I was thinking I might bake/make that treat with the kids on Saturday mornings.

I found a packet of chocolate chips in the cupboard and so we made simple chocolate chip cookies from this recipe.

They were yummy, Peter Pan came specially to try them.

Friday saw the start of the Courtmac Harbour Festival. There is loads on to do over the coming week, which is so great! Yesterday Andy took Rebe down to see what was going on while I stayed at home and the 2 boys had their naps. They had a great time and found that there were races going on. Rebe entered the under 6 running race. Andy said that she was so nervous that when the whistle went she started to cry with stage fright. So, Andy jumped in and held her hand and ran with her half of the way (about 3 metres) until she got her confidence.
She was so delighted to tell me all about it when she got home. She set to work straight away making herself and Andy medals and a trophy and a flag.

And here they are the champions (well, they came 7th) in the under 6's girls race. We're as proud as proud!