dare we say that Spring is actually here?
im a bit worried that as soon as we say it we’re gonna jinx it and get the horrible weather again…LOL

anyway, i know i promised to post some photos from the Spring Festival, so now that i have a spare few minutes
im gonna share some gorgeous tulips pictures from the botanical garden the last time we went.
They were in full bloom and so beautiful….and they add a wonderful splash of colours all over the garden…
i really wish we can see them more often than just a few weeks in a whole year…

just wanted to share some recent pics of my cute snow bunny…
i had to bundle him up in the warmest and snuggliest jacket he has seeing how cold it was yesterday…the wind chill made
the temperature dipped to 1 degree and its suppose to be Spring! yikes! i think winter still trying to snuck-in every now and then…

anyway, i knew i had to wrap him up nice and warm when i have to take him outside, specially since he is still recovering from bronchitis
i have to be extra careful not to expose him to the cold weather…not that i can help it seeing that i have to drop off and pick up his sister
from school everyday, so regardless what the weather is like i have to bring him out with me. But dont worry i also made sure the pram cover
is on to shield him from the cold & the wind, so i think he was nice and toasty inside the pram when i took him out for a walk.

Anyway so I took some quick snaps of him in his cute bunny jacket….here is my cute snow bunny (coz it looks like he was ready to brace the snow LOL)

one of my fave quote from Storypeople:
“there has never been a day i have not been proud of you, I said to my kids, though some days i’m louder about other stuff so its easy to miss that…”

and today i want to say something about that, mainly because i feel that these days i always seem to be yelling
or growling (like my daughter would say) about one thing or another…so i just want to take one day to say
how proud i am of my daughter and how much i appreciate her in my life…

this morning as i struggle to wake up i saw Claudia slide into bed beside me because daddy has just gone to work…
she was already armed with her writing pad and her glittery pens at 7am in the morning.
i managed to squint and lift one eye open as i saw her scribbling into her writing pad.
as i was dozing off she touched my shoulder and ask me “mummy i made a song for you, do you want me to sing it?”
i was still half asleep so i said “that’s nice honey, but Logan is still asleep so can you please wait until we go downstairs
then you can sing it to me while we have breakfast…”

about half an hour later i finally gave up my attempt to catch a quick snooze and we went downstairs for breakfast…
of course she wasted no time to sing me her song which she created specially for me….and do you know what the song is about?
its about how much we wanted to complete our family with her having a brother and she wrote in the end that now we’ve got a family…
isn’t she the most thoughtful, loving and talented lil girl?

her other fave thing is of course is making cards and drawings…our house is full of them.
she uses a LOT of papers and usually her creations involves almost an entire roll of sticky tape (cello tape) but of course
those cards and drawings meant a lot to her so we have to keep it safe (along with a gazillion other stuff that she makes daily LOL).

I know shouldn’t complain because it is very sweet to have your daughter showers you with attention and showing how much she loves us…
like yesterday when she came home from the park with nana with a handful of flowers picked specially for mummy…
awww, seriously sweet rite? btw, if anyone asked who is that kid that keeps on picking random flowers in the park,
just act like you know nothing of it… LOL

and get this, sometimes when im tired and i complain that my body is sore she offered me a back rub to make me feel better….
if only daddy is quite that forthcoming with his back rub offers! LOL she put a lot of effort to her back rub too,
she even uses my massage oil and doing the little chopping motion at the end.
“howz that feel mummy? do you feel better now?” she asked after a couple of mins. ”
“ohh that feels so much better sweetie, thank you so much!”
come one now, what mum in the world is not touched with her daughter’s thoughtfulness like that?

she also gave me another thoughtful gift the other day….made specially of a toilet paper roll and cotton buds,
surely by now you cannot deny her creative talent….and she also made a drawing of our family eventho her proportion size
might need adjusting a bit because for some reason a picture of Logan is somewhat bigger than hers
and seeing that Logan is still a baby a lot smaller than her you can say the picture is a bit misleading LOL

Yes, there is nothing like a gift from your child to remind you that it really is the little things and the thought that counts.

check out the song she wrote this morning about our family…

and these are our collection of cards, drawings, notes that she made for us from all around the house…

the drawing she made of us and her toilet roll creation…lol

and of course we can’t forget the flowers she hand-picked specially for mummy…

this last note was for my mum…Claudia wrote it a couple of weeks ago and she wants us to mail it to Oma, but god knows how long it takes
to send mails to Jakarta these days, so im taking a picture of the note specially for my mum so she knows how much Claudia misses her…

I know i have missed a few days of blogging…it is mainly because of the school holiday as i have no time for anything else but the kids,
however it is also because i just re-opened my Etsy shop again and i have a few hat orders that i have to do,
so im trying to get those orders out in my spare time (been knitting furiously lol), which is usually after the kids are in bed for the night….
that time is my downtime that i usually use for blogging and uploading photos, but now i have to divide it evenmore
between uploading photos, making hats and quality time with hubby….so needless to say im behind on blogging again.

But don’t worry, eventho i didn’t get a chance to update the blog, i have been keeping my promise and still taking daily photos.
Ijust dont have the time to download them from my memory card, edit and upload them or update my blog as often as i would like….

Anyway, so we finally had a decent weather over the weekend after a whole series of crappy weather…
so we decided to take advantage of the fine weather and went to the Spring Festival in the botanical garden over the weekend.
The tulips were in full bloom and was soo beautiful….i took some tulip photos of course which i will post a bit later or maybe tomorrow
if i get some free time to download the photos from my memory card and upload them here.

in the mean time…while we were in botanical garden over the weekend we saw a Tree Climbing Competition for kids,
which was one of the school holiday activities that the City Council have going during the Spring Festival.
Along with the competition, there were people there who were teaching newbie kids on how to climb a tree properly
with safe rope and proper harness. After observing a few kids having a go at learning how to climb, Miss C decided she wanted to give it a try,
luckily i have my camera with me so i took some snaps….we were impressed that she was brave enough to climb pretty high up…

oh and btw, these pictures were damn hard to take in a full sun as well as dappled light underneath the tree so there are a lot of harsh shadows
and blown highlights….but i dont care, i have mommy goggles on when i took these coz we were so proud of her, she was very brave
and we were impressed that she have the guts to do it as it was pretty high up (specially for me coz im petrified of heights! lol)
and most importantly we were glad that she had a great time.

getting ready to climb…safety first, so she has to put the harness and making sure the rope is secure…

being taught how to handle the rope…

making sure everything is safe and secure before the climbing start…

okay so here we go….being hoisted up first…

a bit higher…

and she is off….

now she is trying to go back down…

going down is easier than climbing up…

just like a pro at handling the rope now….lol

almost there…

and…touch down! yay…isn’t she brave?!

its school holiday this week and im trying my hardest to plan activities for the whole week so that i won’t have a restless
and bored 5 year old in my hands…and let me tell you im almost running out of ideas already and its only day two! *yikes*

So far, we have been to the malls where they usually have some sort of school holiday fun activities….
it keeps her occupied for about 10mins max during the day (yeah that wasn’t a lot of help), and then we have been to the park
and to the library, and to give mummy a break we have coffee together while Logan is asleep LOL

Luckily for me, tomorrow i have her Nana to help me keep her occupied….and i just found out from WCC (Wellington City Council)
Spring brochure that there are kids activities in town that we can take the kids to during school holiday,
which we are planning to go to depending on how the weather is like tomorrow…

Today i took her to see Dora and then we had lunch together, then go to the park and of course we can’t forget my coffee break.
Don’t get me wrong, i love spending quality time with my kids….however im not sure i can survive the whole 2 weeks.
its pretty full on when im constantly on the go since i wake up in the morning until 7pm (if im lucky) when my hubby gets home from work…
well lets just hope i have enough energy to keep up with the kids for the next couple of weeks…

at the park, burning off some energy…

then off to my coffee break…this is my mocha, let me just say that this was the only break i get the entire day *sigh*

and a slice of chocolate cake that we shared together…oh my it was sooo yummm! this is where i get my energy from LOL

this is her “babyccino” which consist of frothy milk and marshmallows…

Claudia insisted that i take a photo of both our coffee together, obviously the big one is mummy’s and the little one is hers…

she gets this cool Dora Passport that keeps her occupied during the time i had my coffee LOL

and her reward for being good for mummy…a rocket pen which has 4 different colour (red, blue, green & black),
not that she doesn’t already have a gazzilion pens at home…coz thats what she does, she loves to draw and she loves cool pens.

and lastly we can’t forget her picture with Dora…

we had a Plunket appointment this morning and now that my baby boy is 6 months old the nurse recommended that we introduce solid food.
as usual the very first solid that they suggested was rice cereal…so we decided to give him his first solid lunch today.

well let me tell you one thing….introducing solid food is one messy business!
we had gooey cereal everywhere because he keeps wanting to grab the spoon…
so in the end i just gave it to him and he seemed to really enjoy playing and eating at the same time…LOL

im sure there will be plenty more messy business for us in the future…
however just to see his face and his reaction the first time he tasted the rice cereal was priceless!
sure glad i got it on camera….

i guess spring is kinda here after all….only because spotted this little lady in my garden while i was pottering about.
i think she usually comes out of hiding only during Spring time. I never saw her in any other season….
or maybe is it because i never really look for her when its too cold? LOL

For the first time in a long time i had to use my tripod again….i had to dug it out from our storage space quickly
just because i don’t want her to leave or fly away before i had a chance to take pictures.
The reason why i had to quickly grab my tripod was because it was quite windy (what a surprise there…NOT!)
and also the way she was moving around i cannot lean on anything to keep my grip steady on my camera when i change my shooting angle.

Anyway, i love how photogenic she was and i was lucky that she allowed me to have a quick mini session…
which was about 10-15 mins before she flew away.
I didn’t take my eyes of her the whole time i was shooting just to make sure i wont loose sight of her,
however i did checked my LCD screen for a few seconds and the next second i looked back, she was gone…i guess my 15 mins was up LOL

So here is the little lady who came to visit our garden…..isn’t she beautiful?

my baby is 6 months old….
wow, i still can’t believe its been six months since we brought him home from the hospital…that went by really fast!
he is growing beautifully and hitting his milestones as he should be….he can roll onto his tummy and back really well now,
in fact he just rolls around all over the living room floor everyday LOL

we are soo gonna be in big trouble when he starts crawling…
nothing in our tiny living room will be safe because everything will be within his reach…*gulp*
ohh btw, we just spotted his first tooth peeking out and seeing from the way he is chewing his hands and drooling like crazy,
im sure it wont be long before his other chompers will show up too…

he is talking up a storm eventho we have no idea what he is going on about….LOL
he loves his big sister, no matter what mood he is in (even when he is crying) he always smiles and grin when he sees his sister…
we love his smiley face, his laughter, his squeal, and everything about him….just love LOVE love him to bits!

I can’t even describe the feeling when we look into his crib/cot in the morning and seeing his beaming smile when he sees us….
its just the most amazing feeling and it makes everything worth while. He really is a delight and he makes our family complete…

Miss C had a special day at school yesterday…her class was doing a “Pirate Day” so she was going to school dressed as pirate
and the kids are supposed to be bringing a plate of finger foods to share instead of their usual packed lunch.

The thing is, i only just found out about this the day before, however the little miss told me that she has been trying to tell me about this all week
but apparently i had not been listening as i was too preoccupied with other things in my mind…*whoops, bad mummy!*

So i was feeling quite guilty about this as we looked around the house for things she can wear for her pirate outfit.

Since  we could not find anything decent i told her we should go to the $2 shop to get an eye patch and a pirate hat….
she told me she did NOT want to wear an eye patch because only boys wear eye patch! She was quite adamant about this,
so we proceed to get her a bandanna instead and i had to buy her a pair of new black boots because of course pirate wear boots she said…
and i cannot argue with her on this one. LOL

Well after looking around her whole wardrobe we decided on a stripey top and black and white tights to wear with her boots….
she said she also wants to wear a skirt because she wants to be a pretty pirate….hell i dunno if there is such thing as a ‘pretty pirate’
but considering this was a last minute effort we settled on a red skirt for her to wear and she was happy with that…thank god! LOL

So i took a couple of snaps of her in her pirate outfit before i drop her off to school, but because it was so cold outside yesterday we didn’t take many….then as i dropped her off to school she asked me to come visit her at lunch time. I told her i can’t promise anything but i will try my best.

By the time lunch time came around i was feeling pretty lousy as i was coming down with a cold…but i still remember that made promise to try and document our day to day life more often and i know it will mean a lot to Claudia if i come and visit her at school during lunch….so i braced myself, bundled up with a few layers of jackets in my attempt to keep warm and headed off to her school.

I thought i’ll stay for only a few mins to take some quick snaps and then i can go back home to rest….so i took a few pictures inside her classroom
while the kids were having lunch and left after about 20-30mins when it was time for them to play outside.

I was going to post these pictures yesterday, but i was so crook (sick) and i crashed right after the kids went to bed so im posting this today.
The first 3 pictures were taken at home before i dropped her off to school and the rest are the pictures i took at lunch time in her classroom.

I asked her to give me a scary pirate face and this is what i got LOL

this is her “don’t mess with me” pose lol

check out these cute and creative pirate food for their lunch…

having yummy chicken and popcorn for lunch to be a lean mean pirate machine hehehe

and then eating her so called “pirate sword”

with her friend Arno…

I just love Arno’s full pirate outfit…

and this is one of Miss C’s friend, Stella and her awesome pink sword…

Miss C and her girlfriends…

another one of Claudia’s friend, Jonty showing off his awesome pirate arm muscle to the ladies…LOL

Claudia and her wonderful teacher…

and of course we can’t forget her best friend, Denise….

and lastly, Claudia and Stella playing together during lunch…

Miss C loves reading…everytime we go out she will go to the bookshop and ask if she can get a new book to read.
Last week she brought home a book from the library and started reading it while i was feeding Logan…
he seems to be fascinated with it, so today we decided to do a reading session together.

She wanted to read to her little brother, so i asked her to choose a few books from her bookshelf that she wanted to read to her brother.
He loves looking at all the colourful pictures inside the book while listening to his sister reading…

I think we are going to continue the reading session… its a good bonding time for all of us, and the kids seems to enjoyed it.
I really hope he grows to love books and reading as much as his sister…