Twistine's daycare does Easter

Another glorious day at 'Twistine's Daycare'...Our wonderful Christine truly outdid herself today and had Trin and Arkie making hot cross buns for Easter!! Who attempts making their own hot cross buns full stop, let alone adding two two year olds into the mix?? She's incredible. As per usual, Arkie couldn't wait to get to Trin's house this morning, asking me to hurry to Trin's house from the moment we got in the car to drop off Aski at kindy. We came home today laden with a little paper Easter basket full of eggs, a butterfly, string of paper Easter eggs and a wooden Easter egg. It's wonderful to see the impact that Mondays with Trin and Twistine have on Arkie's vocabulary, her determination, social skills and fine and gross motor skills. Such a blessing!

baking birthday treats

Sunday, Heidi and Arkie enjoy a cupcake chaser on the front deck post-baking

Aunty Liss and Heidi Ho get amongst it

Granny assists Arkie Parks with the delicate application of candy hearts

Trinity and Arkie blowing out the candle together

Some eating and some decorating....they seemed to love creating...

A bit of a belated post for Arkie Park's second birthday party. Five little girls, five matching aprons, lots of blond hair (!!) and pastels...They had a wonderful time decorating the cupcakes, vanilla sugar cookies and gingerbread men with a sorts of icing, lollies, and sprinkles. I was amazed at how long they all stuck at it, the oldest being 2 1/2! We followed up the 'baking' with Arkie's birthday cake (little stack of cupcakes) and ended up having to light the candle over and over for her to keep blowing it out. She absolutely loved it and had an hilarious goofy smile on her face as we did the 'hip hip hoorays' over and over. A wonderful day, so lovely to see Arkie Parks have a ball with her four little girlie friends.

We love mondays!

We recently started a new experiment with our dear friends the Larsens...Jen recently started working again and was needing someone to care for her little one Trinity (six months older than Arkie) and I of course am working and had Arkie in an occasional daycare one day a week. What was a long and winding journey (that also originally included Emma's little one, Sienna) looking for a nanny to share, ended up with the best solution ever! Jen's mum, Christine, put her hand up for the job and offered to look after the girls on a monday! So Christine is now our new nanny! So, every monday morning I drop Arkie to Trin's house to stay with her and Christine for the day. Arkie is just beside herself every monday and this week kept saying to me in the car "Hurry hurry Trin's House"!

Christine is absolutely amazing with them and Arkie is learning so much from both her and Trin. They do wonderful things like collecting leaves for autumn crafts, learning how to mix colours with paint, painting with food-dye ice cubs (see above!), sand craft, reading, cutting and sticking collage. I should be paying her quadruple what we are, and if I could I would. She's just amazing. We're trying this arrangement out until Easter and if all works out well, we'll keep doing it. Arkie just adores 'Tristine' as she calls her and I think it's safe to say that monday may well be her favourite day of the week now.

the little man is 5!

very low-key birthday cake to finish the day

a very happy camper after buying lego and having a milkshake

perusing the lego catalogue with said milkshake

the train trip into the city

checking out the brand new birthday tool belt with grandad

Wow, what a day. Our little man turned five! I can't really believe that my gorgeous little man is so tall and so old! Seeing we do birthday parties only every second year in our family, and Aski had a party last year, this birthday was a little bit more low-key than the last. On Aski's request we had a train trip into the city to buy his present, a lego petrol tanker, following by a vanilla milkshake and an extremely tasty 'jam fancy' (I just love saying 'jam fancy'!). The kids had a ball in the city and on the train. The beloved cousins Chez Wez and Heidi Ho came over for Aski's favourite homemade pizza for dinner and a very simple birthday cake (which ended up with so many vehicles and characters added on top that you could hardly see the cake!). He had a great day and declared his favourite thing to be buying his treasured lego petrol tanker and running up and down the cafe in the city with Arkie. Happy birthday wonderful little Aski Pooks!

spaghetti and sleep

now that's what I call enjoying your food!

then later that night with a full tummy....

Arkie is definitely your full immersion eater. I had to take this photo at dinner recently as it's typical of the way she eats. I don't know where all the food goes though as she's still tiny.

the talented mr starr

These photos don't need any words....other than that we are very lucky to have such a talented photographer as a friend. Thank you Jason Starr!

Blantant plug for Jason...visit http://www.studio60.com.au

two chairs in two hours

Ok, so Cal is too humble to boast so I'll boast on his behalf because I'm always so proud of him...When visiting some friends recently, we came across The Pallet Project, a great design initiative of a UK-based designer using recycled shipping pallets to build furniture. Cal worked his usual magic, figured out the dimensions of these Pallet Project chairs from the website and voila: two chairs in two hours! They're fabulously comfortable and very cool, and a great spot for an afternoon cafe au lait whilst the kiddies burn around the yard.

after the rains...

"Mummy, does the rain make mushrooms?" This was our first question for the day as we trotted out the front gate on our way to meet Sally for a coffee this morning...I proceeded to embark upon a long and involved description of why mushrooms pop up after rain which no doubt confused more than anything else! We now know we can look at mushrooms but not touch and to only eat the ones that Mum and Dad put in yummy yummy meals. These cute little mushrooms in our front yard are the result of non-stop rain for a week. Fair amount of cabin-fever in our house at the moment!

yummy invites

I've been sewing cookies....Arkie turns two in a couple of weeks (ahhh!!!) and I'm planning a little baking birthday party for her. The invites will be little felt cookies with a recipe/invite attached so I've been sending myself blind by sewing the fiddly little puppies together.
I'm not sure if she'll know what's going on but I'm sure she'll have loads of fun with a bunch of little girlie friends baking and icing together. I can't wait. Just need to get my act together on the date and send the little cookies out!

create, inspire, laugh, run

This is what i hope for this year; lots of creating, inspiration, laughing and running around having fun.
I'm hoping for a year in which Cal and I both find new and exciting creative outlets; together and individually. I hope Arkie and Aski both explore new ways to express themselves and keep growing into unique little individuals with great character.

a new year... a new blog

pumpenickel...

i love the word pumpenickel.

it has always made me smile.

i don't know why, it just makes me smile.

i often call my kiddlywinks 'pumpenickel'.

it just sounds fun.

so my new blog is called pumpenickel.

this one will be for thoughts, creations, memories & inspiration.

pumpenickel.....