Home again

Back from the mansion as of yesterday. I must say, I didn't realise the weather was so miserable when we stayed there, must be the central heating and massive fireplaces. Or maybe today was actually worse, freezing and grey the entire day.

Ho hum.

But we had a lovely time as usual.

We....

tried rollerblades for the first time....

tooled around on the world's most impressive tricycle...

watched movies of ourselves doing the above activities...

bounced...

a lot...

gathered (and ate) many oranges...

visited the museum...

hung out in the tents, in the 'playroom that is bigger than our house'....

made s'mores, thanks to the massive open fireplaces...

made pizzas, using the pizza machine...

and did some impressive cookie decorating

As well as caring for the dogs, which the boys enjoyed, although Mum was definitely on poop-scooping duty.

Much time spent walking dogs and riding bikes.

Had a couple of play dates, who were suitable impressed with our digs.

Made it snow by tipping torn up paper towels over the dining space from the second level.

And my youngest magpie spent a long time gathering bits and pieces from all corners of the mansion to keep in his tent. Including the eyepiece from my beloved camera. Which I only noticed missing when I discovered it as I emptied out the tent and attempted to relocate everything back to it's correct position the day before we left.

Phew.

Thermomix heaven, anyone?

What's better than one thermomix?

Two, of course!

Oh yeah, looooove staying at the mansion!

What we've been up to

Making potions...

Collecting hail...

and eating it...

Playing outdoors...

Making bread.....whoops

(that hole was big enough to fit my fist in!)

Brewing some lemon-ginger water kefir....

Squeezing a bazillion lemons...

Playing a bit of air guitar...

And isn't he cute?

Where's Mr 6? He's around, but I'm finding when I have both of them here, my camera comes out less 'cos I'm busy mediating.

Or Mummypolice, as I call it.

School holidays coming up and we're spending the first week at the mansion.

Lots to do there, less Mummypolicing I hope :)

Well hello 2011......finally. And........baby news!

Thank you to those who have been enquiring both here and behind the scenes whether I am in fact still alive....

Blogging has been on the backburner for a while now as life has felt just too darn busy, partly due to the fact that we're unexpectedly expecting baby number three.

Yup, number three.

Make that BOY number three.

Eeeek!!

So I'm trying to enjoy the quiet life, or what passes for that in our house, until August when the game is ON.

Recently, the quiet life has included....

A stay at the farm, the farm being the weekend retreat from the mansion.

Yup, terrible hardship that one.

This is the view from one angle...

And from another...

The boys did some of this...

And plenty of this...

A wee spot of this...

A little bit of this....

(that's not me in case you're wondering, that's one of the farm managers)

Had a try out with the machinery....

(Thanks to the other farm manager)

Investigated the tea plantation...

And generally had a fabulously good time inside the homestead as well as out...

Then there was start of prep for Mr 5....

The start of pre school for Mr 3.

Still settling in to this one.

Mr 3's birthday.

Turning 3, obviously.

We are now undertaking a re organisation of the inside of our house and garage, rearranging things to fit in an extra person, albeit, a rather small person.

Not sure if this is just an issue if you have boys, but sports equipment seems to breed in our garage and our seemingly huge collection of footballs, soccer balls, basketballs, tennis balls, golf clubs, cricket bats, t-ball bats, badminton rackets, tennis rackets, scooters, bikes and skateboards has taken over the garage to the point where it's difficult to find a safe path to the rear garage door.

Not to mention mine and hubby's snowboards, from the days when we were footloose and child free....

So, to free up space in what will be the baby's dresser, I need to get Mr 3's clothes out of there and into the wardrobe in his room, where he is with Mr 5.

Which means some of the things in that wardrobe need to be moved to storage in the garage.

Which means the garage needs some major organisation to be able to take aforementioned things AND have anyone find them ever again if needed.

So, guess what we'll be doing over Easter weekend?

Yup, organising the garage and working backwards from there.

Update on this long neglected, half-written post:

We DID organise the place over Easter.

Mr 3 started pre-school, hated it and has since stopped going.

Mr 5 is now Mr 6 and we're gearing up for a birthday party this weekend.

Ok, hopefully more regular blogging will happen from now on.

Life continues!