But I'm Not Tired

This is what I heard minutes before these pictures were taken, in Taylor's defence she didn't say it, I just thought she looked cute. We had a great Halloween with friends, got so much candy and now its time for bed. Goodnight and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Last Halloween post tomorrow.

Drug Free Week

So this week Masie and Taylor's school had drug free week. Each day they had different things to wear like PJ's & favourite sports outfit etc. Friday they went all out and had crazy hair, wild socks and shoes, the whole school also paid $2 each for a matching drug free T-shirt. It was a wild morning, its so good for the kids they really get involved and take their pledged seriously. Masie came home the day before and said she wanted to have her hair stand up, I was thinking 'how the hell am I going to do this" Masons Mum Rachel gave me the idea of using a cup, it was great but I had huge doubts that I couldn't pull it off. I know it was meant to look crazy but I wanted it to look neatly done, and I think I NAILED it completely. I was so proud of myself and Masie couldn't have been happier.

Taylor on the other hand had a little bit of a rough morning, she did not want to take part in looking crazy. She cried when I tried to do her hair, in the end we settled for two pony tails that looked cute not crazy. I wanted to spray it but the tears came again so I told it was fine if she wanted to not join in. Then our daycare kids Faith and Nikki turned up with crazy hair and Taylor said "do we have time to spray my hair" then she started having a good time and relaxing.

Hailey wanted to join in with the crazy socks:)

"Foto Friday"

So here we are again, another Foto Friday. This week has been kind of weird, I haven't done anything that interesting (not that I usually do) but it dragged a little. I still managed to take pictures though.

Friday- Masie and Taylor have started to not listen when we tell them to pick up after themselves and generally have stopped paying attention to their chores. I'm pretty soft in some ways and although I punish them its never anything major. When I asked them to clean the play room I found them playing instead. I was so mad at them and told them to follow me, I then took an item from their room that would really bother them. Which in turn made them scream, cry and slam doors. When they calmed down I had "the" chat with them and told them they had to earn their items back by getting 20 points on the board, if they didn't get the points (by doing chores etc) within two days their items would be gone forever!! They did it just in time.Saturday- Welly and Boots are heading inside for the winter, its getting far too cold for them now. This is their last bath in the sun shine for 2010.

Sunday- Masie went out for a little ride on Daddy's bike, she was shocked when he actually took off with her on the front, she smiled the whole time.

Monday- Pajama day at school, this was Taylor's very first time going to school in PJ's and she was so excited.

Tuesday- I have triplets!! Lately that's what it feels like, but its brilliant. I am watching my friends little boy until he gets his placement, they are all 3 and it is my new favourite age!!

Wednesday- Play dough, this stuff has only just been allowed to enter my house again. I banned it awhile ago when I left Chris home alone with the kids and came back 2 hrs later to an unbelievable mess E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E and Chris laying on the bed watching TV. I was not a happy bunny!! But, I let it back in with close supervision and we had a good time.

Thursday- Hailey had fall festival at school today and she came home like this, how adorable. I just love the blue eye shadow.

So there you have it, my 5th "Foto Friday".

Too Big!!!!

Masie and Taylor love to play in the huge pumpkin each year, this year they were just too big. It didn't stop them having a good time though. Wish me luck, tomorrow I'm taking THREE 3yr olds to the park for a photo shoot in their Halloween outfits!! We will see how that goes shall we.

My Very FIRST Apple Pie

I did this all.by.my.self. I haven't tasted it yet but hopefully it will be wonderful.
If you refer back to my last photo Friday you will see my very unsuccessful pastry story. Following that post I received an email from my Fab sister in law Kristi, telling me to never ever buy pastry and gave me instructions for the PERFECT pastry. I was a little doubtful only because its me, I burn cheese on toast! But I gave it a go this weekend and got a whole batch of successful jam tarts. I was so happy and so surprised at how incredibly easy it really was, and CHEAP to make. I was going through my tin cupboard today and found a can of apples for pies and decided right there and then that I was going to make a pie. Apart from the apples everything was done from scratch. So proud!! Check me out baking.

Baby Steps

Check out this gorgeous little girl!!! Boy is she changing.

If I wrote this post when I planned to, which was about a week ago it would have looked a lot different. I was actually going to take her to see a professional, as you know she has been acting strange in public, and it was becoming a big concern of mine. I spoke to her teacher about it who has also noticed, I asked if this was normal for Kindergartners. She said she has taught Kindergarten for 10 years and only seen it less than a handful of times. She said her behaviour is excessive and she shouldn't be that worried at this age about what other people think. This freaked me out more because she agreed with my thoughts on the matter so I didn't feel like I was exaggerating. Taylor and I have had many chats about how she makes me feel, she hates hurting me but didn't change, in fact it got worse. I started changing myself around her and treating her like one of my daycare kids that I was dropping off at school. Instead of a quick hug and "have a great day sweetheart, I love you", I was saying "Bye Taylor" and walked out. After talking to my Mum I realized that I was taking this too personally and giving it too much attention. It wasn't about me at all really, Taylor was struggling to figure out what was socially accepted when it came to hugs and kisses. So I decided to ignore the behaviour totally and not let her dictate to me what was going on, I gave her her space and wasn't affectionate with her in public but when I held her hand to cross a busy street and she looks embarrassed and yanks it away, that's ridiculous. I grabbed her hand back without even looking at her and held it tight, half way across the road she relaxed and looked like any other 5yr old walking across the road with their Mum. So by giving it no attention at all and giving her boundary's to this kind of behaviour she seems to be coming around. She see's her class mates hugging their parents and holding hands down the street and I think she has figured out that its OK. Today I took her to class like normal and she lifted up her arms shyly so I would pick her up, I did and she held my face and kissed me on the lips. Did I do a happy dance in the middle of the class and ruin the big moment of Taylor taking a huge baby step? NO of course not, I wanted to but I gave her a huge smile and told her to have a lovely day.

Hailey in a Pumpkin 2010

Yes I did!!! Four years in a row, my little Hailey has been in a pumpkin. She actually enjoyed it this year again, I couldn't get a bigger pumpkin so she only just fitted in it this year. IF I can get away with year number 5 then I will have to get a huge pumpkin:) We will see.

2010 2009
2008

2007

Halloween Costumes

Up until yesterday it was just Masie, Taylor and Hailey that were dressing up. Then we were invited to a party that encouraged adults to dress up, we weren't going to and then we thought "what the heck". We don't really do crazy things anymore so we (when I say we I mean me and Chris is forced into it) went to the store and picked out our outfits. Chris decided he had to be a hotdog, it was totally his choice and I think he looks really cute.

Click the pictures to make them bigger. When we got to the party all I heard for about 20 minutes was "I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you" There were no other adults apart from the hosts dressed up. So incomes the hotdog all dressed up and not a happy bunny oh I mean dog,lol.. Luckily for me more adults showed up IN costume (phew). He even won a medal!! The party was so much fun, the hosts were great entertainers and had the kids laughing all night long. Masie won a medal also for the scariest costume (Taylor and Hailey refused to join in this part). Tony was the Dad and he made up a funny story involving all the kids by making them do animal noises whenever he said the key word, and right at the end I was hired to scream, which I nailed I may add and the kids were scrapped off the ceiling. A great night.

School Pictures

Masie has had school pictures done twice a year since Kindergarten (not including re takes), apart from one time which was quite a nice one. They have all been awful, not sure how they can get a bad picture of her but they manage it every time, this time was no different. Taylor is the most photogenic child ever and she just came home with her school pictures and she is pulling the weirdest face. So I'm done with those people that call them selves photographers and I did it myself. I contacted the lady who does the year books and she said I was allowed to add my own pictures. This is the reason I wanted the school pictures to be nice, they go in the year book which I buy every year. So here they are, my version of the school pictures. Hailey hasn't had hers done yet but she felt left out so I took hers too.

"Foto Friday"

This week has been a little weird, I have been a day ahead of everyone else all week. Monday I thought it was Tuesday and from then on I couldn't get it right. Anyway we had a good week I guess. We are still having problem with Taylor though but I think I will post it some other time so I can go into more detail, but I think she has got a serious problem that may need help later on. Anyway.

Friday- Mason, Hailey and I were playing outside with Mango the bunny, yes the name has changed from Marshmallow. We locked the dogs inside as Rex tries to eat him and Pablo likes to play with him but he is 50 times his size. We had Welly and Boots out too and Mango took a fancy to Welly, it was pretty cute. Saturday- After the pumpkin patch we carved the pumpkins and the girls had fun playing.

Sunday- This proves what a terrible baker I am, Taylor really wanted to make Jam tarts. This is meant to be extremely easy but I just can not make pastry, next time we will buy it and roll it out. Anyway this one was the only one that survived, but when we picked it up it fell apart like the others. They taste good though, the kids loved the pile of broken pastry covered in warm jam. (Note to self: Don't let Masie pick it up until it is really cool. She didn't take my advice and grabbed it when it was just minutes out of the oven, it broke in her hand scolding her with hot jam, instead of dropping it like a normal person, she shouts Mummy!! and throws it at me, so it scolds me too.)

Monday- Chris and I were just chatting when we realized that his coke had disappeared. Hailey came in and said "yummy water" I said you have water Hailey? "yes" she says with a straight face, I look in her cup and find Coke, she poured the can in there so we wouldn't know. Little bugger.

Tuesday- Hailey again, I was making a salad, got all the ingredients out and then found Hailey doing this!!

Wednesday- Parent day, 2nd grade had "bring your parent to school day". As I don't have the baby anymore I thought it was possible to take Mason and Hailey and go for an hour. I'm so glad I did, it was so much fun and I learnt a lot about how they are teaching Masie. The little ones acted perfectly. The thing about her neck is 'player of the day award' it means she got the most points on the online math game.

Thursday- We got a little display done in the play room, I was going to cut out the feet and hands but I really liked them like this. My play room is looking really cool.

So can you believe this is my 4th "Foto Friday?" Its getting easier to remember to take a picture everyday now.

Playing with Guts!!

We love pumpkin guts, and if I wasn't so highly allergic to the stuff from just touching it I would be in there too. They had such a fun time daring each other to lick the stinky, slimy pumpkin yuck. It was fun to watch them, have you had enough of orange posts yet?? LOL, its almost over I promise.

Mason and Hailey

Mason and Hailey had so much fun when they got home from the pumpkin patch. These two are so close! We first played with the pumpkin potato head things, that was cool watching them use their imaginations. Then we cut the top off and played with the guts, that was f.u.n. Then we carved shapes out and tasted the fruit, which I may add did not go down well. A great morning.

Field Trip

Masie and Taylor are both going on field trips this week so I decided that we were going to go on one too. Now we have no babies I am starting to feel the freedom, we can go anyway at anytime. We went to the pumpkin patch and met our friends Andrea and Luke there to add to our fun. We had a great morning, they ran, climbed, played and picked the perfect pumpkin.

How to Train Your Dragon

Masie is such a good artist, she takes her time and does a really good job. I love this picture of toothless.

Masie's Last Game

Masie has really enjoyed the whole season, her first few weeks she was just getting the hang on things. Being the only one on her team that hasn't played before she did very well. She put in her all every time and enjoyed herself, her coach was a little too serious and uptight I thought but she didn't seem to mind too much so I didn't make a big deal out of it. She is a strong little girl!! Her last game was a good one, she really played hard and had a great time with her peers, she loves throwing in the ball from the side line, every chance she gets she throws it in. They had a leaving party a few days before and they had a bouncy castle, pizza and cake. In the evening they gave out the awards.

Taylor's Last Soccer Game

The season went really quickly and soccer is already over, the first few practices and games I thought Taylor couldn't wait for this day. She wanted to quit so many times, I told her she didn't have to sign up again but she has to finish what she started. We had 1 game where the coach had to keep subbing her out as she just stood and cried. We have had many practices where she will literally just follow the ball and pray that the time goes quickly. Then the past two weeks she has been different, she knows her team mates better now and has developed this confidence I didn't think I would see, she started really enjoying herself and laughing and smiling on the field. On her very last game she stepped it up and she was fantastic, as you can see from the pictures she is really getting in there trying to get the ball, she did get it quite a few times and she was so proud of herself. Her coach is going to try and keep the team together for next season which will be brilliant for all of them. After the game they went to the park for pizza and cake. After they gave out awards and certificates, Taylor was delighted with hers. She can not wait for the next season to start. Never say never but I think Ballet might be in our past now.