Adorable Hats

 

I discovered someone who knits the coolest hats for kids, so naturally I put in an order and as much as I wanted all of them for my own kids I have put them aside for Christmas presents. I did order smaller sized hats for using in bady photos too. They are so fun. Besides every farm kid needs a wooly hat so its quite a few Christmas presents ticked off the list. Then I just had to use Cai to model a few first. I  adore the licorice allsorts, I think it has to be my fav :)

 

A big thank to Sonia at Creative Aertz for her creativeness :)

www.creativeaertz.co.nz

Boys n Bikes

 

After music today I let Cody out for a blat before he had to write letters. I dont send him to school for the rest of the day after his 3 hours of music on a Thursday (they do nothing after lunch anyways) but he is to write letters to overseas friends and have another guitar practice at home. So before all that I let him out for fresh air.

Cai was close on his heels, he was out there and right ready as soon as he heard the bike start up! So much for his afternoon sleep today! He went out the gate after Cody making all the right noises and trying his darnest to keep up with big bro

 

Parked up, watching his big bro

 

The paper bag princess and Gypsy having a moment in the sunshine

 

 

Giving Gypsy orders to stay put so he could go do some jumps, I had to have a giggle to myself. Maybe its Nitro Circus feeding his brain or watching his bro who is quietly getting very brave and doing such things himself!

 

Trying to send him away home again, if its good enough to come on out, then its good enough to get yourself back again!

Lawn Clippings

 

A beautiful day out and the lawns needed mowing.

So after a lengthy chase of the runaway kid AGAIN, I enticed him into hanging around by mowing the lawns. You know how it goes, men and machinery. Except even more typical of men he ran around telling me where to push it next and what I should be doing! That was until the first catcher was full and then he told me where to dump it. I already knew that thanks Cai, but it got him out of the way.

 

You see we drop the clippings over the fence for Gordy, Cai then climbed through the fence and sat on top of the pile. Which then led to him dropping grass all over Gypsy, which had him in uncontrolable fits of giggles, which then lead to him lying there trying to feed Gordy and finished off by Cai having his own feed of grass clippings. His tongue was green! I was then expecting that to lead onto alot of vomiting, you see I was playing sheep with my sisters as a little girl (as you do) and ate some grass. It didn't take long for me to power chuck it all back up on the lawn!

 

Theres never a dull moment with this fella.

Trifecta

 

You just can't beat this view, well its a matter of opinion I know and there is definitely so many other views that I love too but to have this one out our back door is something not to be taken for granted. We went outside this morning to play on the motorbikes, by play I mean get the sheep in but have a blat while doing so. I knew the day was perfect for spotting our marine life so had thrown the camera over my shoulder. We were not let down, standing on the edge we soon saw the whales, all mummies and bubbies. Then we noticed the dolphins in the waves and while watching them I spotted the seal on the beach. My tail started to wag ;-)

 

Off we roll, off to see a seal

 

I got plenty of photos but so as not to bore you I am being very controlled

 

The only whale that was breaching was way over by Monkey Island, such a shame but you know I was out there for nearly 3 hours, ever so patiently waiting and hoping the ones in front of me would pull off a stunt or two, but no, they were happy just mooching.

 

Off home again, best get some chores done, besides by now it was lunch time, so the gnome was a bit growly with hunger.

The Birthday Girl

So anyway Thursday finally came, which was Cheyennes actual birthday. Felt like she had week long celebrations this time round with a party on Saturday, a day off on Wednesday, my goodness I never got that much recognition with any birthday. She is worth it though :-) and to be honest I actually enjoy having folk round our place, so the more the merrier.

 

 

Got stuck in and made another cake for our birthday girl, a lemon meringue pie and tiramisu cake were on the desert menu as well. Like all birthdays in our family, they get to choose what we all eat for tea. Cheyenne wanted wraps so that was easy. (there was one year that she requested vegemite and pastry!!!) I added paua patties to the menu for those of our guests that aren't used to wraps ;-)

We had her Grandad (Shanes dad), Banny (my mum) and the Polo's ( Shanes best mate and family) join us for tea.

 

The phone rang for her the moment she walked in the door. She got calls from cousins on both sides of the family in the nth island, a long distance one from her Bandad in the States, then there were the Aunties that rang to talk to her.

In the mean time the distingushed guests arrived,

 

The two very best boys in her life, one lucky girl having these boys to grow up with I would think.

He brother is trying to kiss her.

 Both Luke and Max chose a present each for her, when asked for thank you kisses when she had opened them, she refused saying "No, Banny told me to save all my kisses for her"

 

A perfect little stash of gifts.

A very spoilt little paper bag princess x

 

Off to school as a big 7 yr old now.

Can't believe she is now 7, in 10 years she will be leaving home (if not before!!)

I hope I am blessed with another 10 years with her at least.

Riverton again

We are very blessed have my wonderful mother down for a couple of weeks. She is down in time for Cheyennes birthday and to watch the groms while I have a wedding to go photograph. Cody's usual Thursday in Riverton was changed to a Wednesday this week so that is where we spent this morning. We let Cheyenne have today off school to have the day with Banny, an early birthday treat. It was either that or have tomorrow off and just spend it at home with Banny. She chose the day out of course!

Following in Banny's footsteps along the stones at Riverton.

We woke to an awesome frost today, so the air was very cool but the sunshine on our shoulders was pleasant.

We visited the shops, thought about coffee and cake and then thought again and thought best not!

Watching the birds

Birthday girl and her Banny. I am stoked with the closeness of this relationship. Cheyenne adores her grandmother and treasures all the time she gets with her, just soaking up every little moment.

Cai has been relishing her affection too and lapping up lots of cuddles.

 (He is sitting at the table doodling on paper with her as I do this. So much for him being in bed early tonight!)

Self exercising, chasing seagulls, chucked his toys out big time when I said time to go!

Birthday Girl

We are a few days early but it is Cheyenne's first actual birthday at home in NZ this year so I let her invite 3 friends and did the party thing for her. We set up a girls space under the table with fairy lights and all my back drop material. A mirror, pillows, satin sheets on the floor, craft stuff and make up.

Cai got stuck into the make up as well. One finger went into every single colour and all rubbed onto one cheek. Looking like a mud pack there my boy ;-)

Opening her presents

Showing the girls how to do flips on the tramp. I only just taught her this two weeks ago and you should of seen the look on her face when she got it sorted. Her tail was fully wagging.

All having a bounce together, they drew all over the concrete with chalk, they took her presents out to show the horse. A couple of her friends were a little shy of the horse and stayed on the other side of the fence, was cute. I let them have the camera and now have a huge bunch of photos to sort through. There was an endless stream of giggles and secret silly girl stuff. I don't often see this side of Cheyenne, I guess having no sisters it doesn't come out at home. Pleased she gets her dose through her friends.

Her cake............ I am not the best at cakes, I have much better ideas in my head then what I can produce!! Cheyenne knew what it was sraight away though, so thats always reassuring.

The end result after 4 girls searching for the pea. Made the day for a whole flock of birds though.

This Thursday she will turn 7, I am feeling suddenly very old and made the comment to Shane this morning (after Cheyenne kindly pointing out how grey he was getting) that our kids possibly won't remember us as young.

Cheyenne, is her fathers daughter, has an answer for most everything but has him wrapped round her finger. She hates the colour pink, even though she looks pretty in it. Is not girly but can be with other girls. Can throw a punch like nothing else (watch out boys). Loves sport and is competitive (another trait of her fathers ;-)

We love her to bits and are very grateful we have a girl in our family but ever so thankful we only have one,

happy birthday our Paper Bag Princess