I'm Sorry...

I've been so super duper slack with my blogging lately... although in my defence, the last couple of months have been very hectic for me...

So we moved house 4 weeks ago... into our first home... so exciting... we have spent a fair bit of the last 4 weeks setting up rooms, then re-arranging the rooms, then re-arranging them again... and on and on and on and on... but it's fun, and pretty much everything is now as we want it to remain :)

We are now saving up to do up our kitchen a bit, something we are both very much looking forward to doing...

Cam is a changed kid since the move... in the old house, his nightly routine was to climb into our bed and watch a DVD till he fell asleep... but in the new house, he hasn't even watched a single DVD... at all!! his new bedtime routine is to play a game of memory on the tablet, then climb into his top bunk, and go to sleep... we don't have to sit with him or anything... it's brilliant...

Axel is sleeping alot better also... see the boys are now in seperate bedrooms, it's making such a difference during the night... we love it!

Paris and Josh are tired... as we are commuting them all the way back to Mt Roskill {we live in Papakura} for school... but it's only till the end of the year, as we thought it would be better for them to remain in their school this year and finish year 8 then start fresh at a new school next year.

All in all - things are coming along nicely.

Life...

• Parents suck
• unless you are the parent that she doesn't live with, then you may be exempt from sucking
• rules suck
• all of them
• especially the ones about the amount of time one can't play on the iPod touch that the other {much cooler} parent bought her for christmas
• Chores suck
• but pocket money is expected. for nothing. always
• school is ok
• her teacher this year "is so cool, she even has the game sequence in the classroom"
• even though the sucky parents bought sequence over the summer, doesn't make them cool

Ah yes... Parenting a pre-teen {or tween} is not always easy... but you just gotta love em right...?

Gorgeous

plunket update

Had a plunket visit today...

Axel is 9 weeks 3 days old, and now weighs 6.16kgs {75th percentile} and is 61 cms long {91st percentile}... Cammy sat on and still sits on the 50th percentile, and Paris never made it there lol... yup, Axel is a bigun :)

everyone loves a fairy...

A Week at Home

So the rain set in at the Caravan on Thursday night last week... and along with it came the gale force winds... Friday and Saturday were no better at all... after not sleeping at all on Saturday night due to the wind, I decided early Sunday Morning that we were heading home...

With the help of my parents, I packed up the caravan and awning, loaded all our gear {and what felt like hundreds of wet towels etc} and headed up...

And what do you know...? the rain stopped on Monday lunchtime haha always the way really... but what a lovely relaxing week I have had at home... I caught up on all the washing {for free}, sent Cam to daycare - where he moved from the under 2's to over 2's classroom, and chilled...

On tuesday, I took Paris to the movies, and we saw Tangled... What a great movie... and how lovely to spend some alone time with my darling daughter...

Wednesday, we had coffee at a friends place, and chilled some more...

Today - has been spend doing more washing {I swear, it never ends}, but again - It's relaxing...

I'm hoping to sort the study out today, as that is the room that has been most neglected since moving here, and still has boxes etc, left to unpack... I am wanting to set it up with the desk and computer for the kids homework, but also with the new babies cot, so thats one more thing out of the way...

Goodbye Primary School

Well Friday marked the official end of Primary for Paris and Josh.  Off they went to school, with gifts for their teachers and x-mas cards for their mates.

They informed me on the way to school, that it was "signing day" at school.  I enquired as to what "signing day" was and was promptly told "it's the day we sign each others shirts of course"... well of course - why didn't I know that?? I really didn't want them participating in "signing day" when I could get perfectly good money, for selling their perfectly good second hand uniform items... but alais, who am I to mess with apparently "ancient tradition" haha

School finished at 12.30 and they both headed off to their best mates houses for an afternoon of fun.  I'm not sure it's dawned on them just how different next year is going to be for them...

Proud Moment

Wednesday was Paris and Josh's Primary School Year 6 Graduation. I went along, proud as punch to be watching both Paris and Josh graduate {as I think any parent would be}
It was so awesome watching them go up on stage to collect their Graduation Certificate along with the rest of their classmates.  And they looked so nice too all dressed up in their Sunday Best.

What I was not expecting was to hear my baby girls name called out during the awards presentation. Out of 6 kids nominated for the 2010 Attitude and Effort Cup, Paris won!!!  I was soooo shocked, and proud, and close to tears all at once {luckily I held the tears in}.  I know that Paris does have an awesome attitude at school, and always gives 110% in everything she does.  I also know that she is well liked and respected by teachers and students alike, but I never in a million years expected this :)

Well done Paris, I'm so very Proud of you xx

And here are some pictures

Paris with her trophy and medal

Josh looking very swish

The two of them together



Tis the season...

 

building and "fluffing" the tree

Just about ready to decorate

a little boy waits

Finally able to help :)

Nearly finished

All done

with lights

And that folks is our Christmas Tree

boxes, boxes, and more boxes...

let the record state here and now - that I hate packing... I love moving, but I loathe packing my house up... I also hate unpacking lol...

right now - my house is in total disarray - there are boxes here, there and everywhere... it's unsettled the cat something wicked, not to mention Cammy...

Paris has been brilliant with packing her room up... Josh on the other hand - hmmmmmmmmmm... well lets just say that if I have to pack it up, none of it will make it to the new house at all...

My bathroom, is a pretty empty space... as is my kitchen... my tupperware collection takes up 3 massive boxes *whoops*

The upside of packing of course - is the sorting one does of their life and belongings... we have delivered so many bags of clothing to the local clothing bins, and still have more to go I'm sure {after all, I haven't even started on my drawers yet}...

right - well, I'd best be getting back to it... if you don't hear from me for a few days - it's probably because the boxes have swallowed me whole...

School Holidays - 1 week down

Well we have come to the end of the first week of the September school holidays... Josh has been at his mum's all week, so I've only had Paris to worry about.

She has spent the week with my mum {she has still been home at night though}... the first day they discovered a massive sale at the Quicksilver shop at Dressmart - 70% off everything in store... my sister spent up a storm... and when they told me it about, it got me thinking... so I sat Paris down and asked her if she still believed in Santa - thankfully her answer was no... Phew - I avoided THAT talk haha...

So then I told Paris that she could go to the quicksilver with Nana and choose some items for her Santa Sack... she got several great items and it didn't break the bank {$400 worth of gear for $120}...

Over the week they did a few things, but the best day according to Paris was today... They caught a bus into town, spent the day there, then caught the train home! Paris loved it!!

Next week, both Paris and Josh are off to Rotorua with my Aunty from Tuesday to Friday :)

Memories... Part II

Paris

May 2003

December 2004

July 2005

November 2006

April 2007

October 2008

April 2009

June 2010

Paris' Birthday Cake

after much deliberation Paris finally decided on a toadstall cake for her 11th birthday... so I set to making one... 

This cake challenged me more than other cakes I've made for two reasons... it was my first time using fondant icing, and it was my first ever "double" layer cake...

1st Layer

second layer - and some detailing

The finished product

Now at this point, I must mention that I did not make the fondant fairies at all.  These were made by a good friend of mine, with the help of her daughter and Paris

Bieber Baby

I'm not sure if you are up with the play on Justin  Bieber or not, but he's a pretty big hit with Paris in this house... she LOVES him... she has gone all "bieber" on me lol...

But I have in the last couple of days heard Cammy singing these words... "baby, baby, baby, oooooooo" now I know it's cute and all... but still... does my "baby" really have to be beiberfied too!!

My baby, No longer

Today is Paris's 11th birthday...

It still feels like just yesterday that I was holding my darling 6lb 2oz baby girl in my arms.  I can still remember her first word {mama}, her first tooth {4mths 2wks 4days, 2 at once}, her first solids {potato and gravy *oops* - bad mummy moment}, her first steps {9mths 3wks}...

of course there have been many firsts since then... first day of school, first wiggly tooth, first scraped knee, first hockey goal...

and there are many more firsts to come - some I'm excited about - first bra, first day of intermediate and highschool, and some I'm nervous as heck about - first period, first boyfriend, first broken heart...

parenting doesn't get easier as they get older... the problems and firsts just change...

*sigh*

love you my baby girl... wish I keep you this size forever... xx

Little miss so and so...

It appears that as Paris gets closer to turning 11 {1.5weeks} her attitude is becoming worse... as is her laziness... we are having constant battles about both...

I'm kinda at my wits end... and this really is just the beginning isn't it... god - if this is 11 what the heck is 16 gonna be like???

I think, I'm going to go and bury my head in the sand for the next, say, um 6-8 years... that oughta get me through this testing time shouldn't it???

Kids in the Kitchen...

My kids love helping out in the kitchen... We have one meal that they can make without any adult assistance... it's the ever so yummy Chicken Pasta... a firm favourite in our house...

Doesn't it look wonderful!! The kids do so well making this meal... and there is hardley ever any left over for my lunch the next day...

School Disco

Last week the older kids had their school disco.  Paris loves the discos, as they are a great excuse for her to get dressed up, get her hair done, and dance the night away {ok, it's really only 2 hrs but you get the idea :) }

check out the shoes :)

The hair - this style is one of my specialities for Paris

Josh enjoys the disco too, but isn't keen to pose for pictures, and doesn't have his hair all done up flash by me lol

Kids Birthday Season is fast approaching

• July 20 - Paris
• August 4 - Josh
• September 29 - Cam

So now is the time to start thinking about presents, parties and cakes...

Presents - this is hard, I have no idea what to get the older two this year, and have a couple of ideas for Cammy...

Parties - the kids have been told they have a couple of friends over to do a fun activity with ie: ice skating, go karting... OR they can do something awesome like the shark cage at Kelly Tarltons. {Paris is finding it very very hard to decide between the two options}

Cakes - now this is the part I have no issues with at all... the kids just need to tell me what they want cake wise, and I will try my very hardest to make it for them... at this stage Paris has mentioned she wants a guitar cake {she doesn't even play the guitar}, I dont' think Josh has realised that the birthdays are fast approaching, so I may have to gently remind him lol... and well - Cammy is still too young to understand fully, however, he LOVES his toy doggy, and doggy comes everywhere with us, so I am thinking about a Doggy Cake

home at last

The day finally arrived... Paris was coming home... YAY... so I finished work early, then went to daycare and picked up Cammy and my niece CJ. CJ was so excited, and Cammy just bounced off her excitment...

here they are in the car on the way to the airport

We arrived at the airport at 3.30pm which is the time Paris' plane landed - in hindsight this was the WRONG time to arrive, as it's a long wait for little people... and closer to 4pm would have been sufficient.



Waiting ever so patiently


The kids were so well behaved... Cammy was happy people watching... CJ on the other hand... well she just wanted Paris to come through the doors "aunty, Paris is taking for a long time" "aunty, Paris is lost" "No she's not darling" "yes she is, cause she can't find us" "aunty, when is Paris coming home" and it went on...



still waiting... but this is fun too aunty....

and cammy was ever so patient also


and then.... FINALLY {at 4.40pm}... here comes Paris.... {it's a really shit photo - sorry}


then CJ was asking if Paris was allowed to come home with us... it was too cute... she wouldn't let go of her hand... and the two of the happily posed for some pictures...




Cammy was pretty excited also, but was trapped in his pushchair lol... once in the car, him and Paris kept giving each other kisses... it was very cute... it was clear that he had indeed also missed Paris, but is just a little to young to understand and express his feelings...





I apologise for the photo overload...but as you can probably tell, I'm just so darned happy to have my baby girl home... and she has said she had a great time... and has even said she will go back and spend more holidays with her dad, however, she has also asked if it can be a shorter holiday next time... I'm cool with that :)