photostory friday - two down, two to go

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

when i was pregnant with my first child, a mother of 3 tried to explain what it's like when you give birth to your 3rd. i still remember how she tried to explain, and how i didn't really 'get it' - until 7 years later when i had my 3rd child.

i won't try and explain here, but anyone who's given birth for the 3rd time (melinda, auntiegwen, amanda, cecily, mom of 3) - you know what i mean.

i had a 5 year gap between daughters 2 and 3, and it was like re-visiting an old friend. i've always been a fan of those 'first few weeks' and the third time around, it was just wonderful. having 7 and 5 year old helpers meant i could take a nap without the house falling in around my ears, and the baby slept in a bean bag in the middle of the family room for 3 weeks while life went on around her. at one point, DH said 'are you ever going to put her to bed?!' like i said, casual.

miss 11 (like miss 19), has made it through the last 11 years relatively unscathed. that is until this happened.

oh, i should say, if you don't want to see a toe that looks like it just went through the mincer, look away. ooops. too late. this is what happens when you take on a double piano stool. piano stool wins and you break your first bone - the 3rd metatarsal.

apart from that, it's pretty much been plain sailing, and when i mean plain sailing i MEAN plain sailing. that is until the hormones set up camp. if miss 11 was a cartoon character, she would be the one with thick black clouds above her head shooting streaks of thunder and torrential rain. she can go from sweetness and light to angry pre-teen faster than you can say 'dude, where's my car?'

you would think 3rd time around the puberty track i'd have it 'down', but they're all different. amen to that.

so without further ado, here's a few pictures of the most photogenic child IN THE WORLD!!!

1st and last days of primary (elementary school). check out how the fence shrunk lol...

i am so jealous she can wear hats

DH organising his trip to san fran on the morning of her birthday party. being a platinum frequent flyer means you get your very own personal shopper, so booking his fares the day before he left was a breeze

present opening - happy faces (and modelling new clothes). she is the EASIEST child to buy for

we took the girls to the "MAMMA MIA" movie singalong and decided to go in theme (why not?!) i bought these wigs and jangly belts in hong kong. hidden in a market, i found the BEST dress-up shop EVER!

junior dancing queensafter feeding the masses pizza, we played charades. i'll give you $100 if you can tell me which disney character tara's DH is trying to be!

ok, photos out of order.

during one of the kissing scenes, one of the girls was overhead to say "sheesh, haven't they done that - like 10,000 times already?" so cute.

'we wuz here'. those bloody dollar store feather boas SHED like nothing else!!!

happy 12th birthday! (and by the way, you are forbidden to turn 13 next year...)

photostory friday - 5/6ths of a family lame day

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

DH decided to take last friday off as it was the last day of our term 2 school holidays. somewhere along the way, one of the younger girls named it our 'family fun day'. as miss 18 was back at university, she felt most left out, so her sis, miss 16 leapt to her defence and renamed it '5/6ths of a family lame day'. teenagers. pfft.

before she went off to class however, she had time for waffles. she's catching up a class-mate on something terribly important. it has to be terribly important to be talking on the phone whilst eating. helloooooooo! not good table manners! we likey waffles at our place...

she also had time for a game of cluedo...

but then she had to go (doesn't she look happy?) we settled in to watch this then this
when you watch them together, you realise that the second one isn't as funny as the first. also that the timeline is totally screwed as ICE AGE 3 is about the dinosaurs and in the FIRST movie they talk about dinosaurs in the past. i know! i know! it's only a MOVIE!!!! but i'm one of those annoying people that spots stuff like that. like the 'bad edits'. you know the one where the cigarette is all the way smoked down, then in the next frame it's barely lit. yep, i'm one of those annoying people that notices shit like that.

later in the afternoon we headed into town to see the MV Doulos. not only is it the world's largest floating bookshop, it's recognised as the oldest active ocean-going passenger ship (1914 - 2 years younger than the 'titanic'). staffed by over 320 volunteers from 50 countries, it basically sails the world spreading the 'good word' (see pic below). i don't know why my kids say i embarrass them. i really don't.

the bookshop kinda had a theme...we decided to stay in town to bring miss 18 home and killed an hour at a local bar with some age-appropriate liquids (from left to right: gingerale, beer and a merlot).

we finished the day with a family meal and another movie. not so lame huh?

monday morning weekend report

well, the school holidays are over for another 10 weeks, and we had a wonderful two week break. of course the weather is beautiful and sunny now that everyone's disappeared back into their classrooms, but isn't that always the way?

on saturday i went to a local farmers market and found THESE!!!

yuuuuuuuuuuuuummm!

we finished the holidays with a trip to a local winter carnival. we watched around 100 crazy folks leap into the water in fancy dress. DH figured the water temp to be around 11 deg C (that's 51 to you north american folks out there). it was around 11 OUT of the water, but probably less with the windchill as we were right on the beach.

miss 10 and miss 11 ponder what possesses people to swim in the ocean in the middle of winter
i don't know this guy, but he was pretty happy to give me a 'post-swim' smile!
this guy won 'best dressed'. he apparently makes a big effort every year
after taking photos of the crazy people, watching some street theatre and going to a photographic exhibition, we shivered our way home. the carnival's closing event was a fireworks display at 7.30 that night, but because it had been postponed from the day before and i was going out, DH took the girls on his own. this annoying street lamp doesn't do too much to detract from a great shot!
while they were watching the fireworks, i was at a fundraiser watching this movie. when the promoters tell you that this is the most fun you will have at the movies this year - they are right! i peronsally don't warm to meryl streep as an actress, but i did last night, and she acquitted herself admirably with the singing, particularly with 'the winner takes it all'. when this came on at the end, it was all i could do to stop myself from leaping up and busting a movie in the aisles. tara and i left the theatre planning parties and turns!

i know that meryl, christine and julie were probably wearing state-of-the-art push-up bras and industrial strength magic knickers, but i fully intend to be looking this fabulous and having this much fun when i'm pushing 60.seeing girlfriends young and old dancing and having so much fun together reminded me i need to organise another girls' night! it also got me thinking that my upcoming trip to NY will not be complete without a girls' night.

the only thing i'm only missing a bunch of girlfriends with which to dance and share an evening of fun - soooooooo i'm calling all new york female bloggers in the 30-50 age group who know how to have fun, love to eat, drink a cocktail or three and dance the night away (80s and 90s music preferred). daryl i hope this is you!

photostory friday - good old fashioned movie afternoon

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

and yes, it does make it more fun if you put the words 'good old fashioned' in front of the title (name that TV series).

tara and i have been having these since the kids were this big

you don't particularly need a rainy day. any cruisy day will do. school holidays, weekends - they all work equally well! today it's a rainy school holiday friday.

miss 10 was in charge of making the tickets...tickets please!!! hey! you forgot to click my ticket! tara was in charge of the snacks...

got mine! settling in for the afternoon
tara and i were even left alone long enough to make THREE CARDS EACH!!! it felt good to create with a friend. i haven't had much scrappin' mojo lately and tara had forgotten what her scrapbooking supplies looked like!
now that's a great afternoon!

be sure to check back here tomorrow for my 5000TH VISITOR GIVEAWAY - YEEHAW!!

don't shoot me

but i only give sex and the city a 7 out of 10

and that's for the sum of its parts.

the parts i have a problem with:

• waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much product placement. shameless in fact
• too much real life. i go to the movies for escapism
• the fact that poor old harry and smith barely had two lines to rub together between them
  

LOVED

• the changing of the seasons
• how the city of new york is, has, and will always be the 5th girlfriend
• the affirmation that your girlfriends are one of life's treasures

so there you have it. i may be the only person in the world who thinks this movie didn't live up to the hype, but it's my blog and i can say whatever i like.

and if i saying lots of interesting [chubby, urban, amateur housewife, crazy kiwi, giveaway, tits, bums, rock'n'roll, poop bomb, big thighs, hamsters are cute] words - all manner of folks will come and visit and see just how i feel about the most over-hyped movie of the year.

and speaking of crazy folks, can anyone tell me where the "root folder of my site" is? i'm trying to verify my site through webmaster tools and all i've managed to do so far is yell at my computer that google IS a tool!

monday morning weekend report

i like using the words 'monday morning' in my monday morning posts, because it has a tendency to freak out some of my northern hemisphere readers when they surf in on a sunday and wonder in a moment of terror, if they have forgotten to go to work!

i know. sick sense of humour. get used to it.

friday night we watched our rugby team lose (on the telly, no rainy madness this time), but still hold onto their place in the semi-final to be played next week. YAY!

miss 10 decided to make this for dessert

but first she needed to take a burn with her daddy to the supermarket to buy fixins'

looks great!

other weekend events included a movie marathon. miss 16 and i watched this...

then this,

...and finally this

in preparation for this; a one-man star wars trilogy; "a gallop through the galaxy which condenses the three original films into a 1-hour show." miss 16 and i are going to see him on thursday night.
i also dragged missuz 10 and 16 out for a run. i'd like to say all participants were willing, and were happy to leave the warm house on a cool, crisp late sunday afternoon, but i would be lying.

"where are we going anyway?"

"why do we have to run uphill? it's just STUPID!!!"

strangely lush fitness plan participants (post-run). we started as 3, but lost one on the way. don't worry, she found her way home!

saturday morning dawned sunny and warm for the first games of winter netball. i was set to umpire 3 games, but was only needed for 2.

the first few weeks are grading games, so the games tend to be very one-sided and rather scrappy as players find their feet. miss 11's team lost 26-9, but they played a fabulous second half, and they are going to be a great little team.

miss 10 played TWO games - one for the A grade and one for her regular team (who are in the B grade). the A grade team won an awful 37 to nil. i say awful, because that kind of hiding is just no fun for anyone. i know, i watched my guys be on the losing end. her second game was a much more even 12-3 (they won that too).

that's me in the yellow all business with me whistle. the woman on the far left (in the sunglasses) had the tamerity to question one of my calls! i wasn't sure whether she was one of our parents (i don't know all the families in our team yet), and that's the only thing that stopped me from handing her my whistle!!!

miss 11's team photo. the grass was quite dewy (sp?) and they were all worried about getting wet knees!

photographing kids is like herding sheep!

hope you all had a fun weekend too!

Friday - again

not sure where the week went - that ever happen to you?

won tickets to see this today

for anyone keeping count, yes that's twice this week i've won something. i've been told i have the midas touch. who am i to quibble?

random photo from the city today. part of me wishes i was that guy up there with the joystick - LOOK OUT BELOW!!!!!