Since we are leaving for Hobart tomorrow, and getting back the day after Graces birthday, I really wanted to get her new cubby house built before we left.
Amazingly, the 52 pages of instructions were easy to follow, and everything just fitted perfectly, so I managed to get it done.
Grace seemed to approve. She loves the phone, sink, and especially the doorbell (where she says ding dong everyone she presses it!)
Maddie's birthday today. Hard to believe our kids are turning 2 already.
One of the gifts Maddie got was this keyboard with microphone.
I was pretty impressed with Maddie's singing, while Grace was more interested in playing the keyboard.
Looks like we have our duet sorted, and they have already chosen who will be doing what.
I hope they are good!
Today I went and got the cubby we chose for Graces birthday, and since we will be in Hobart for her birthday, started building it today so it would be ready when we got back.
It looked pretty daunting with all the parts, but thankfully they were well labelled and the instructions were easy to follow, so it came together pretty fast.
Still need to finish it off with the interior fitout, and some planter boxes, but it's looking good so far.
And of course Grace helped me build...
Tonight we got our old Acer laptop out to make sure it still worked ok.
Needed power obviously as the battery was flat, but one press of the power button and it started straight away, and booted into Windows perfectly.
It appears that we haven't used it since 2009. So we were pretty impressed with how well it started.
Funny how when we bought it, it seemed totally modern and amazing.
Now it looks like something from the Museum.
I saw this at Coles today and had a giggle...
I think they are confusing the chickens with the cows.
Another day where I didn't actually take a photo.
So I'm laying here and thought I would have a look at what I thought was a pretty crappy photo app on my phone.
Turns out it is an awesome app, and you can do a lot with it.
Like turn a boring photo of my feet into a boring cartoon version instead!
Today Grace found this photo and apparently told Leah it was her Dad...
Gee thanks kiddo. Removed your name from my Christmas list!
Oh and all those nice gifts for your birthday, ARE GOING BACK!!!
Tonight after work, Grace and I went down to the plaza to get some groceries. Of course, all Grace was actually interested in was finding a new turtle, which she did!
Then as we were unpacking the trolley, she started smiling and saying cheese while holding the turtle up, obviously wanting a photo.
And here it is....
Big day out for us today, as we treated Grace to the Playschool stage show.
The show itself I could sum up in 4 simple words:
See Are 'ay Pee.
It was Jay La'gaia and some ring-in lady that we have never ever seen on the TV show. Such a scam.
But Grace seemed excited when she saw Humpty and she got a Humpty Plush toy that she is loving now.
After that, a trip to the ever feared CostCo...which I love but hate. So many people there today, and Grace was hating it today too, so it was definitely a hate trip today.
When we were then doing the obligatory 'watching the planes' in the car as we left, I tried to get Grace to say cheers. But she wasn't into it today. As you can see, I was a little TOO into it.
WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO
A cat did this. Seriously, a cat.
Well the cat may not have actually touched me, but when it tried to climb my bare leg after it fell off the washing machine into a bowl of water, I spun around pretty damn fast, and smacked my thumb on the washing machine...
So yeah, laugh all you like, but after I cleaned the blood off the washing machine, I still blamed the cat...
PS - I'm sure I could see bone at one stage.
Tonight we went and had a look at Toys r Us. Grace found herself a little shopping trolley and pushed it around half the store.
I thought it was funny how grown up she looked wandering around checking things out without ever taking her hands off the trolley.
Another Thursday means another snitty in the belly at the Leagues Club, and after that, a play on the stairs for the girls...
They do love chasing each other around and falling down.
Tonight at dinner we were reminiscing about the cool application called "Yearbook yourself" where you take a photo and then use the app to insert your face into a heap of old yearbook photos.
It's hilarious and lots of fun....except it didn't work on my phone, and there is not an Android app for it.
So I have a photo of myself to use, but it didn't get used...
Last Friday we went to Civic to buy a tilt table, in the hope that it helps Leah with her back pain.
And tonight, only 4 days later, I finally managed to build it. Not a bad turnaround really, ;-)
Tonight with my hot chocolate I just couldn't decide whether to have a lemon cupcake, wafer sticks, or twisties.
Clearly the only solution was to have all three...
We bought a couple of network cameras last week, and yesterday I got one of them permanently installed in Graces room.
So much better than a baby monitor. We can view it from the internet on a computer, or using an app on our phones.
I wonder how long we will be able to keep it there before she tells us she needs privacy.
I'm hoping it can stay at least another 17-18 years. Should keep the boys away.
This morning while we were having a play, Grace picked up my phone and wanted to look at us using the camera (which was a welcome change from wanting to watch Peppa Pig Peppa Peppa Peppa Pig).
Little did I realise that you can't see any of me apart from my face.
Really does make Grace look a little Tasmanian with the extra head.
So it's Friday the 13th today, but for me, no bad luck, and nothing bad happened to me.
Instead I went to work, played way too much songpop, went back home and then we went to Civic to have a look at the shops and have tea.
We also noticed the ice rink they set up over the road so we went and had a look. I admit, after living here for 3.5 years, I had no idea where they set it up every year. But now I know.
Grace is still a little too small for the ice I think, but she sure would have liked to give it a go.
They even had big ice skating penguins for the kids to play with.
Had a day at home today as Grace and Leah are still not well.
This afternoon Grace and I had a quick trip down to the plaza where we saw the coolest toy ever.
Its a hermit crab enclosure with plastic hermit crabs that have interchangeable shells, and run around the little enclosure by themselves.
So impressed....well I was, not sure about Grace.
Today a package arrived at work for me, direct from China.
From the minute I saw it I wondered if it had been thoroughly checked by Customs, as the packaging looked so dodgy.
And as I started opening it, and saw the layers of styrofoam, I was thinking it was looking worse and worse.
But it was all good...turned out being the IPad car mounts I ordered a few weeks ago, from an Australian website.
Well, new car for the day at least.
My Ute was at Gentech Automotive getting a service today, and this was the courtesy car they gave me.
I'm not entirely sure just how "Performance Enhanced" it was, but that's what it said on the sticker at least...
I have to say awesome service from Gentech, the Ute feels like a new car now, and the courtesy car only cost $12 to fill for the day.
Had the day off work today as we are still not feeling 100%.
This morning Cass and Maddie dropped in to provide some get well medicine in the form of lemon pies from Pie Face. Delicious.
But Grace disappeared while they were here and when I went to see what she was up to,I found her in our bed , tucked up staring at the ceiling.
I think she was a little tired!
In other interesting news we bought an eyefi wireless SD card from Harvey Norman for the camera today, only to discover it was USED and had been in at least two cameras before. There were more than 20 photos already on the card!
Unbelievable.
Not a lot to report for today. I got Graces wardrobe mostly finished this morning and i did get a bit of a sleep in this morning, until 7:45, after Grace initially woke upset at 5:50.
we have all been unwell over the weekend, so I can't blame Grace for not feeling well and not wanting to lay with a snuffy nose and cough.
Generally as you can see, she is still pretty happy, and as cheeky as usual!
Here after having a nutella icy pole that Leah had made for her, she was trying to take my photo and saying cheese.
I don't think she has quite got the hang of the camera yet.
Amongst a day of going to the recycling centre, a trip to bunnings and building the wardrobe in Graces room, we managed to find some time to have a bounce and bit of usual plane spotting on the trampoline...
Graces favourite trampoline activity these days seems to be to stand on my belly, wave her arms like mad, and then jump off! As well as stand at my head, and then dive over my head onto my belly.
Lucky there is plenty of belly to soften the landing for her...
Of course I then had to have my turn jumping on Graces belly.
Pretty quiet day today, until Grace and I had a late night shopping trip with Nathan to KMart and Target.
We barely made it in the door of Target though, before Grace found the chalkboard, drawing table and then the Thomas the Tank Engine bed that she just loved. She certainly made herself comfortable.
Today I got a surprise in the mail at work when I received a package with this little man in it.
To be honest I had forgotten about it, but its a prize from Intel for entering a very basic competition for their new range of Ultrabook laptops.
Normally I don't enter competitions like this except it mentioned that the first 100 entries would win a gift guaranteed, and I saw at the time that there had been less than 100, so I entered.
Pretty impressed with the little guy. He is a 4GB USB drive when you pull his head off.
So today after work I realised I had to renew my licence,as it expired TODAY....
So a quick trip to the (thankfully) very quiet RTA in Queanbeyan saw me pay a fortune for a new bit of plastic, with the usual happy snap on it.
Don't know if I will be able to repeat this look if I'm ever required to use it as photo ID.
Unless of course, I'm kidding myself and this is just how cheerful I always look.
This morning we went to the Mawson Club with Cass, Claire, Maddie and Hugh, where the kids had a great time playing together, while we had a great time sending photos to Nathan of all the delicious food and drinks he was missing out on by being at work!
Hugh didn't seem too photogenic today, so I didn't manage to get a photo of the three of them together.
Tonight we had Tacos for tea, and as usual Leah and I ate them totally differently.I find them impossible to eat the way you should, so I break up the shells and put the fillings on top, like Nachos (presumably because I am not Mexican, and therefore I am useless).
Leah eats them normally (presumably because she is more talented than me, or she is Mexican).
Grace usually eats them broken up as well (she's not Mexican either) but tonight she decided after watching Leah that she needed to fill the shells and try to eat them whole....
I wonder whose eating technique she will eventually follow.
Next it will be toilet paper...will she be a scruncher or a folder I wonder?
Grace got to open her Disney Cars appMATes today.
I hadn't seen them before but they are just so cool..
Basically they are little plastic Cars (from the movies) that you use on your iPad, after you download the app for them.
By touching the car on the iPad, you control the whole game, including the direction of the road, headlights, dodging obstacles etc.
It is really so cool.I can't wait to find some time to sit down and have a good look at them.
Oh, and Grace liked them too.
