We're coming home

Jack rang his mother and said, "we're coming home. Can we stay with you?" Mum and dad decided they didn't have room in the house without moving the current occupants around so they opted for getting a sleepout for the yard. It duly arrived and the yard went from this...

to this...

via these steps...

The sleepout was backed up the drive on a trailer...

carefully removed...

lifted with a small hydraulic crane...

and swung over the cars that were parked in the yard.

My GKB and I were on hand to watch the process

 having gone over to daughters home for a visit and a coffee. It was interesting because they had a tight space to do it in. 

Of course we were not being nosey :)

Regardless, Jack and his partner are now safely ensconced and I think everyone is happy.

A busy week

When I was a child growing up summer began in August and lasted until March. We ran around in shorts and sun frocks and by Christmas when our southern cousins arrived for a holiday we had lovely suntans. They didn't. Now I live down south near those
 same cousins and summer is much later arriving :( 

Sometimes by Christmas, like this one, we are still wondering whether summer will arrive at all and whether we will get a suntan.

But family time is still as good as it ever was and that is what really counts.
************

So what has my family been up to this week? 

rain beginning at grandson Jack's assembly

First of all Jack had his final assembly for his primary school and parents, grandparents and all the pupils gathered at the appointed hour. Rain had been threatening but we were all ever hopeful the assembly would be over before the rain arrived as it was being held outside. We decided to put our rug and cushions under a tree and took our umbrellas with us, just in case. Well you guessed it, just as proceedings were about to begin the heavens opened and the rain bucketed down. The upshot was that the kids were all herded inside, those who could fit went in with them (small hall) , and people like me went home. So I missed Jack's final assembly.

Caitlin (grand daughter)  and her proud Mum

The next night both my GKB and I had Christmas breakups to go to for different organisations. So we went our separate ways and met up at home again later in the evening.

 I didn't miss the next important event on the calendar though, this was Caitlin's graduation from her Tourism and Travel course, the end of two years hard work. My GKB and I both went and we are so proud of her as she was also nominated for the Integrity and Development Award. It was an interesting graduation with a couple of items from the cultural group - the Pacific Island community lent a lot of colour with several of them graduating as well. We thoroughly enjoyed it all.

Sunday brought a special seasonal church service, Lessons and Carols. Once more we sang several carols we had sung the week before at the Carols in the Park and we listened again to the Christmas story unfolding. A bonus was that people from the congregation who had not been able to attend the park were able to join in the songs with us.

Yesterday my little mother had her 87th birthday. Tonight her youngest grandson is taking her out for a meal, she has been resting all afternoon so she is able to stay out for a while this evening. She is much better than she was but still awaiting a date for her heart op. All of her overseas Christmas and birthday parcels arrived at my place so I took them around yesterday (two boxes full) and she enjoyed opening them and putting her Christmas ones on her decorated hearth to wait for Christmas Day.

And that has brought us up to today. I've taken my little Mother shopping and in the afternoon my GKB and I went and, hopefully, finished our own Christmas shopping. Phew, if I haven't done it now it probably won't happen :)

************

And so to end I would like to share a couple of photos of some of the fun things around the neighbourhood. 

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas,

filled with, fun, laughter and love.

Diana

Chloe and Jack

Just touching base with everyone to let you

 know I am still alive and kicking. 

Last night my youngest grand daughter Chloe got in touch to see if we wanted to  join her in a girls only afternoon tea: coffee and brownies. So my little mother and I went out with her to a nice cafe/bar and  had a very relaxing afternoon out. Two of the 'girls' couldn't come, my daughter and her youngest daughter but we were still a nice little party. This is the first time Mum has been out socially for a long time, months in fact. She has been back in hospital since last time I posted and they have put one of the stents in. What a big difference it has made to her but we are still awaiting the main op. and so she is still staying with us. It was nice to go out and not be visiting the hospital for a change :)

My little mother is tired tonight though.

Vanessa (daughter), Chloe, Monica (eldest grand daughter), mum and me.

On Wednesday night my middle grandson, Jack, had his year 8 formal. Girls a dress and boys trousers, shirts and tie. That would be a novelty for the boys in particular I think and possibly for some of the girls as well :) They have been practicing some ballroom dancing for several weeks now as well as some more fun stuff.

The photo below is Jack all scrubbed up and ready to dance (reluctantly in his case). This is his final year at primary school and next year he will travel into the city to attend high school, growing up and starting a new phase in his life. They are all growing up so quickly, I don't know where the time is going to, sigh.

Sorry about the quality of the photo, it has been through many incarnations before I managed to get this pic on the page. 

Keep well,
Diana

Totsy and friends

Many moons ago I showed you two of my dolls 

and said that one day I would show you a couple more.

I don't have a lot but today is a nice warm spring day 

and I though I would get Totsy and her friends down 

from on top of the cabinet in the lounge.

(I'll have to get back up there one day very soon and do a spot of dusting - it's been a case of out of sight out of mind :( ugh).

Totsy had her cute name when she arrived 

but the other two were poor little un-named tykes,

 so I call them Bella and Billy.

We had been out for a drive one day and spotted them in a little shop in a little town that is not a destination but the sort of place you pass through on the way to where you're going.

Unless you live there, of course :)

Totsy is 40cms or so in height and she has 

the most glorious red hair with beautiful ringlets.

Her eyes are a lovely blue grey

 and I think she has quite a pensive look on her face.

I had her for quite a while before the other two arrived.

Billy and Bella are both 32cms in height 

and I tend to think of them as twins.

Both of them have lovely red gold hair,

 just like two of my grandkids :)

Maybe that's why I was so attracted to them.

Their eyes are a lovely bluish green, 

and to me they have a look of utter astonishment on their faces.

All three of them look like they are dressed 

in their 'Sunday meeting clothes'.

I didn't buy them but when I got home 

I discovered my GKB had bought them for me. 

What a gem!

************

And this is nothing to do with dolls 

but is the medal my pre teen grandson won 

at the end of the footy season, for good sportsmanship.

Way to go Jack :)

joining Stephanie at:
roses of inspiration

Have a great week.
See you next time,
Diana

Blob in a bottle

It's a bit nippy outside at the moment. 

Just on freezing point so good soup weather.

Usually I make homemade vegetable soup

from whatever veges I have on hand and a bought base.

But sometimes we have it out of a packet

especially if it is at lunch time.

And depending on what's at hand

 we have toast or cheese rolls or scones to go with it.

These scones were made by my GKB and they were delicious.

This was my lunch today, yum.

As I was cooking tea tonight I had a text from youngest daughter. 

"The boards are on display between 5:30 and 6:30 tonight".

The 'boards' referred to the science fair competition at our grandsons school

and I had a grandson with a board on show. 

So of course I had to go to have a look.

Tea was quickly cooked, eaten and cleared up 

and I was on the road just after 5:30pm

leaving my GKB to get ready for his night out at darts.
I can't believe how dark it was, so early,
 but of course we have just passed the shortest day and
so it was to be expected really. It's a long time since I've driven at night,
not since I finished work when I drove home in the dark regularly. 

I pulled up outside the school at the same time as daughter and the kids.

We were quite early but one or two people were there ahead of us. 

More arrived as the hour passed.

It was all set up in the hall  and there were

 some quite impressive experiments on display.

Some of the kids had interactive displays but most were 

boards like Jack's with photo's and explanations of what they had done.

Very impressive for years 7 & 8 I thought.

Jack's experiment didn't go through for the big inter-school 

competition but I thought he did very well and am a proud Granma.

Keep well until next week,

Diana

Two boys on Anzac Day

Saturday was April 25th, Anzac Day.

The day New Zealanders and Australians around the world remember those
of our countrymen and women who have taken part in conflicts around the world since WW1.

This year our youngest grandson was taking part in a small parade

with his cub pack so of course we went out to watch him.

His big brother and a mate came to watch as well.

Jack

Being a boy with ants in his pants he couldn't just stand 

on the footpath but had to find a better vantage point. 

Good on him.

His father did stop him from getting up on the roof of the bank though,

 we didn't want him being hauled off by the local bobby, haha.

Anyway we didn't have to wait too long before we heard the bagpipes 

and the little parade came down the street led by the army cadets.

our cubs

There weren't many people there watching 

but we discovered later that the main parade was after the church service

 when they marched down to the war memorial and laid wreaths.

We didn't wait around for that but later went out to the cemetery 

for the service there and see the cubs put poppies on the soldiers graves.

Danny

Looking for a place to put his final poppy.

It was a big day for some of the younger boys 

because they had met at the Scout hall at 9:30am 

paraded down the street twice, had a church parade, 

bussed out to the cemetery and back again.

I went with his mother to pick Danny up just after 1pm.

joining with:

roses of inspiration

Wake up Wednesday

I hope you're all having a good week,

it's wet and miserable here today, 

so I'm inside doing 'inside stuff'.

Have a good week,

Diana

Celebrating double figures

This week my middle grandson reached double digits.

Jack turned 10.

 And what better way to celebrate than to head 

down to the lake with a couple of friends, 

a picnic lunch 

and a birthday cake.

The boys had a lot of fun, 

Jacks Mum and Dad have a mate who owns an inflatable dinghy

with an outboard motor

and he came down and took them for rides around the lake. 

The boys that is, not Mum and Dad. Then while he relaxed with the adults the boys had a go at paddling, rowing or whatever it was they were trying to do. Sometimes paddling and rowing was happening at the same time. They went in circles quite a bit, but no-one cared, they were having fun.

And of course they were taken out to the pontoon and enjoyed mucking around on that. As boys do.

When they came back to shore some older boys took it over, 

young teenagers, who when they saw some bikini clad girls not far away began doing push ups and generally showing off.

 Quite funny really as it was 2 of my grand daughters they were trying to impress and getting nowhere. We all had a bit of a chuckle because the girls hadn't even noticed them - or so they say.

Anyway, I digress. 

There was plenty for the boys to do both in the lake,

and on the shore at the playground.

At the end of the day after finally rounding them up,

(it's amazing how hard it is to round up five 

young lads when they are having fun 

and don't really want to be rounded up)

 they all went happily, or not, home to their parents.

Some were a little sunburnt too, I think, 

even though the adults were diligent with the sunscreen.

All in all it was a fun way of celebrating the big 10.

Wishing you all some fun and

sunshine in the days ahead.

Diana