Day 212: It's that time again

Today I had my 6-week appointment to get my hair trimmed and highlighted. As always I am very happy with the results. I really want to do something a little different though. I think next time I'm going to ask my stylist about phasing out the blond and putting some dark brown in instead.

Day 211: New business cards!

Today I got my new business cards from moo.com! They look great! The cards are quite thick, but the finish is really nice, and the pictures look great. Now I just need to find some people to hand them out to! I have a couple of opportunities coming up, at the Knights of Columbus Luau next month, and the parish picnic in September.

Day 210: Bible Study

This is the new book we're using for our bible study at the moment. It's quite deep, and each chapter really needs more than one reading for everything to sink in. It's very interesting though, and I think I will learn a lot. Sadly our group leader, Ashley, is moving away. We're going to try and continue without her, but we'll have to see how it goes.

Day 209: Kishka finds a patch of sunlight to sleep in

I found Kishka asleep in the middle of the floor in a little patch of sunlight, surrounded by sheets of paper today. I tried to get a picture of her and all the paper, but it didn't really work, so instead I went for this close up shot of her face as she relaxed in the sun. I like how the light and shadows are playing across her face. Oh it's such a hard life being a cat! If I believed in reincarnation, I think I'd want to come back as a cat!

Day 208: BFFs

This is my daughter and her best friend from preschool, Lindsay. Today we hung out with them at her house and their local community pool. The kids had a great time, and I had a lovely chat with her mom, Liz. I really hope the girls stay friends, and I'm really happy to have a new friend in Liz. She shares a similar faith and parenting style to me, and we just get on really well. Although the girls are going to different schools next year, I hope we all stay in touch. Elizabeth is always asking when she can see Lindsay again!

I tried a new technique on this picture to add a soft focus. I think it works nicely.

Day 207: Lector meeting at church

Tonight I attended a meeting for the lectors at our church. It was very interesting, and really made me think about I'm doing when I read. I realized that I didn't fully appreciate how important it is that I am proclaiming the Word of God to the people, and that I need to prepare better in future.

This is a picture of our sister church, St Elizabeth Seton, where the meeting was held. It looked really pretty in the evening sunlight, but I didn't have time to get a really good picture before the meeting.

Day 206: Mr Pickle!

This is Mr Pickle. He's advertising a local sandwich shop, Mr Pickle's Sandwich Shop. He usually has an advertising board too. We pass him nearly every week on our way to church, so know we always look out for him. The guy they have in there at the moment is very animated, he's always dancing all over the place, so I decided it was time we had a picture of him! I've never eaten there, but Dave has, and he said they're pretty good.

Day 205: Splash birthday party

Today Elizabeth went to the birthday party of her new friend Julian. He's the son of one of the moms I met through my MOMS group, and they live right round the corner from us. They are so close that we actually walked there. She had a lot of fun. As you can see, they had a big water slide for the kids to play on. Elizabeth was a bit scared at first, and I had to hold her hand as she went down, meaning I got soaked! I eventually persuaded her to go down on her own when we turned the sprinkling water off, and after that she was fine even with the water on. There were a couple of the other moms there from my group too, so it was nice to see them and have a chat.

204: Edward is teaching Kishka...something

I looked up today and saw Edward sitting on the edge of Dave's desk talking to the cat. I know he shouldn't be up there, but I couldn't resist taking a quick picture before I told him to get down. He was pointing at various things and talking to the cat, I assume he was telling her what they were! He's so cute with her.

Day 203: Freebies. They don't make up for it.

I had my 4-monthly check up today. It actually went quite well. My gums are stable with no bleeding, and I'm cleaning well. Still not flossing quite as good as I should (no big surprise), but x-rays came out good too. All clear for another 4 months!

Day 202: 1kg of heaven

My mum brought this huge bar of chocolate over for me when she was here in May. It's 1 kg. She always brings me some Cadbury chocolate from England, because it tastes better than the American stuff, but she's never brought over a bar this big before! In fact is was my dad who got it. I've resisted breaking into it until now, because I know I'll be tempted to eat and eat and eat! Today was the day though, and I had two rows after lunch :)

I had to have my hand in the picture to give a sense of scale.

Day 201: Drawing by Elizabeth

Elizabeth did this drawing yesterday of Jesus on the cross. It's the first time she's ever drawn something like this, and I really like it. It's going to go up on my wall with her other drawings that I like. It's interesting to see what her brain is thinking about.

Day 200: 200 days gone!

Today is my 200th post. The last 100 days seem to have gone much quicker than the first 1oo did! I had the idea for this shot a long time ago. It's a page from my bible. I wanted to use a book with the page numbers at the bottom, and I would rather the number was on the right hand page. But books always have even number pages on the left, and I couldn't find a nice one with the numbers at the bottom. This works well though, and I'm pleased with the result. I used my macro lens to get the shallow depth of field.

Day 199: Birthday party at the park

Today we had another birthday party. Elizabeth's friend Shaelyn from preschool had her party today. It was at a local park. There was pizza and cake, but no games, they just played on the playground. There were 4 others girls there from her class, so she had a great time playing with them, and I had fun sitting and talking to the moms.

Day 198: Pirate Party!

Today was Elizabeth's birthday party, and it was a big hit! We had 9 kids including Elizabeth and Edward, and they all had a really good time. All the activities we planned went well, and the only real problem we had was that we overran the 2 hours by almost an hour! First they did the treasure hunt, but that didn't last long because they had already spotted most of the clues that Dave had put out before they started! They did enjoy digging in the sand box for the treasure chest though. Then we had some food, and then did the cake. Dave made an awesome pirate cake. After that we got them to sit quietly while they decorated their own treasure chests, and then we did the pinata. It was much tougher than it looked, and took longer than we thought to crack it open! Once they'd filled their treasure chests with loot, we played pin the tail on the parrot while Dave filled the pool up, and then it was time to walk the plank. I think that was their favorite part! Because we were running late they didn't have much time to play in the pool before they had to go home, which was a shame. After everyone had left Elizabeth opened her presents, and got another good haul. So all out preparations were well worth it, and our first children's birthday party can be marked as a big success!

Day 197: Testing the new pool

Tomorrow's the big party day. We're having a pool so the pirate's can walk the plank. We got a new pool weeks ago, but I only got around to inflating it and checking it out today. It passed the kid test, so we are good to go. There's still lots of other party prep to be done though!

Day 196: Happy 5th birthday Elizabeth!

It's my daughter's 5th birthday today. So far we have opened one batch of presents, and talked to Nannie, Grandad, Great Nannie and Great Auntie Linda on the web camera. When Daddy gets home tonight we'll open the rest of the presents, and we're having a pirate party on Saturday.

The dress Elizabeth is wearing in this picture came from the 400 Dresses Project, which makes and donates matching dresses for girls in Uganda, and also donates money for a well in their village. She'll be wearing it for her party on Saturday too.

Day 195: Bedtime cheese!

Another day when I left it until the last minute to take a picture. This is Edward (and Elizabeth under the covers) in bed watching a movie before bed. As soon as he saw the camera he put on his cheese face!

Day 194: A hard life

Since we moved the swing seat, Kishak loves to sleep on it all day long. It must be cooler now it's in the shade.

Day 193: Water park picnic play date

Today we went to one of our local parks for a picnic play date with some of the monkeys. They have a water play area there, and all the kids love it. We had a great turn out today, there were 7 ex-monkeys there, plus lots of siblings, and they had a great time.

This afternoon I also took Elizabeth to the dentist to get her gap checked. He took an x-ray, and said everything looks fine. The tooth came out cleanly, and the root was already beginning to dissolve ready for the adult tooth to grow in. We don't need to do anything special to care it. She's very proud of her gap now!

Day 192: That wasn't supposed to happen!

Last night Elizabeth ran into a wall and knocked her tooth out! I was already in bed, and I heard a bump and then her start crying, so I got up to see what was going on. Dave had noticed she was bleeding so he took her into the kitchen to clean her up, and the tooth just fell out! She was very upset, I think she was in shock about the whole thing. The bleeding soon stopped and we managed to get her calmed down, then gave her some painkiller. She was still upset, and was worried that she wouldn't be able to eat! Then she decided she wanted to put the tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy. While Dave was trying to get her to sleep I wrote a little note from the tooth fairy, and covered it in glitter. This morning she was very excited to find the note and some coins under her pillow! She is fine about it now, but we will get her checked out at the dentist as soon as possible, just to make sure everything is okay.

Day 191: Party prep

It's one week to Elizabeth's birthday party, so we started making some preparations today. In this picture Dave is fixing eyelets to a drop cloth he is going to hang around the patio to create some shade. Elizabeth and Edward are 'helping'. He's also started making a treasure chest for the treasure hunt, and a parrot for pin the tail on the parrot. Tomorrow we have to go to the party store and pick up lots of pirate party accessories.

Day 190: Colors

I was looking for something to photograph today, and noticed one of my kids' toys that had been left outside. It was catching the early evening sun beautifully, making the colors really stand out.

Day 189: Love

I found this leaf in the backyard, and was immediately struck by how it looks like a heart. Maybe God just wanted to give me an extra little sign of His love today :)

Day 188: Monkey playdate at the park

This morning we went to the kids gym again, and were joined by several of the Monkeys, and one of the women from my bible study group. The kids all had lots of fun, as always. Afterward we decided to all go to a park and hang out. There was water there, so of course the kids got soaked, but at least I had a change of clothes in the car, even if they were winter clothes that were too small! It was really nice to just hang out and relax while the kids played though, and they had so much fun. This is Max in this picture, he's one of Elizabeth's old Monkey classmates who will be in her new class with her in September.

Day 187: Picnic in the backyard

Today Elizabeth wanted to have a picnic, so we had one in the backyard. She's perfectly happy with a few snacks in her lunchbox on a blanket on the grass! Although this picture is a little blurred, I just love the look on her face and the way she is sitting.

Day 186: Reaching new levels of adorability

Edward missed his nap again today, I think he's on the verge of giving them up. But when he doesn't nap he of course gets tired earlier in the evening. Tonight he fell asleep curled up on the floor of the playroom. When we found him he had the cloths on him (they're his lovies). Elizabeth said she covered him up "so he would be happy". It's nice to know that despite the fights and arguments, there's a lot of love there too :)

Day 185: Happy Independence Day!

We celebrated the Fourth of July today with a traditional barbecue. We usually just take it easy on days like this. We might go and see some local fireworks later, it depends how the kids are holding up.

Day 184: Music & Movement birthday party

Today Elizabeth and Edward went to a music and movement birthday party for the son of one of the moms from my MOMS group. It was lots of fun. It was basically a Music Together class, which is the same music class I used to take Elizabeth too, so we actually knew lots of the songs. She had a good time running around with some of the older kids, but I think Edward really enjoyed the songs, especially the actions.

Day 183: This never happened before

Edward missed his nap today. After spending a lot of time playing outside during the day, then having an evening bath, I checked in on him to see how he was getting on with his dinner, and found him like this! He has never fallen asleep in his high chair before, and even Elizabeth never did that. I managed to get him into his crib after taking the photo without waking him up. I guess he was tired!

Day 182: Icees at Target

Today we had to go to Target to get a birthday present for a boy whose party the kids have been invited to on Saturday. Shopping in Target with the kids on my own, especially in the toy section, can be a nightmare. So I decided to load them into the double stroller and get them an Icee each as soon as we arrived. It worked pretty well. Edward did want to get out when we got to the toy section, but I parked them next to some toys they could reach from the stroller, and I was soon finished. I was even able to look at the clothes, and got a few new cute tops for Edward. Success!