Letters from Canada

A little while ago Melanie from Meli-Mello contacted me to see if it would be ok if her daughter sent Lillian a  letter, all the way from Canada. Lillian LOVES getting mail (can you tell?) and sending mail so of course, I said yes.

It was good to hear from Melanie anyway. She’s on a 100 day internet break and only checking her email infrequently. I’d been wondering how she was doing so I was very excited to check the mail box one day and find TWO letters from Canada. One for Lil and one for me.

This week we finally sent our replies. It was nice to write a ‘real’ letter. I should do it more often. (What I should be writing right now is a real assignment but my brain has fizzled for the night.)

So thank you Melanie and Moira, if you see this when you’re back online, and we hope you enjoyed receiving our letters as much as we did yours.

Hot Day Kid Activity – Cleaning Toys!

Last week we had a few stinking hot days in what seemed like Summer’s last grasp at actually being hot this year. One afternoon we needed to cool down so after some hose fun on the trampoline I suggested Lillian wash the outside toys (which were given to us a while back by the older next door neighbours.)

A bucket, some detergent and a scrubbing brush lead to a fun and cool activity that kept her and Edward both occupied for quite some time.

Before:

Scrubbing:

Clean!:

Unfortunately the worms didn’t like the detergenty water so much and came up out of the grass in droves. Lillian picked each one up and carried them off to a safer part of the yard and we moved the scrubbing station onto the pavers instead.

Another hot day activity that I think would be fun is freezing toys in a container of water and getting the kids to chip them free. That one requires a bit more planning ahead. Maybe next Summer!

Life Lately

This week:

- I can’t even remember what happened on Monday.

- I went along to my first Tuesday Night Craft Group and started a new crochet project. Met some new nice people.

- Uni officially started and I spent most of the two days the kids were at daycare printing readings. I just prefer to read from paper. I ordered new printer ink.

- Went to 6am yoga twice, Monday and Thursday. Went on Thursday even though I was late to bed, then woken at 3 by Lil, at 4 by some choir outside (really, a friggin choir singing at 4am), and then Ed woke at 4:50am at which point I just got up. Actually, Dave ordered me out of the room so Ed would settle better. I may have said some bad words.

- Playgroup Thursday. More new nice people turned up. I was probably a bit tired to be very social.

- I finished a book: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Highly recommend it. Have now got The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud. Will have to squeeze it in around uni reading.

- A rainy day on Friday and the kids were acting crazy. Lil had gymnastics in the afternoon so at least she got some activity.

- Friday night I went to my first once-a-month Dessert Club. More new nice people. And a yummy chocolatey thing and red wine.

- Saturday, groceries (woo) and then Dave and I had a date afternoon thanks to birthday art exhibition tickets from Nonna with babysitting included.

- Tomorrow holds swimming lessons, fruit and veg shopping and hopefully a restful afternoon.

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Xanthe took some photos at Dave’s surprise party last weekend. Here he comes on Lil’s bike:

Surprised:

And with Edward:

 

 

 

February Photo a Day is Finished

I made it through the month without missing a day!

 

While I’m on a roll I thought I’d keep on going into March:

Once again I’ll be taking the photos with Instagram (@thingswedo) and you can follow along there or on facebook or flickr.

Something New: Hot Yoga

This is a post I never imagined I would be writing. I’ve been doing yoga. Hot yoga, in a room heated to 30 degrees. At 6am. Multiple times. That means I have to get up when the time starts with a 5 which is usually against my rules. Xanthe talked me into it, but I’ve surprised myself by actually enjoying it. Who would have thought?

I took this photo on the way there the other week for day 16 of February Photo a Day: Something new.

And now, to bed. I’m getting up early.