Agent Smelly turns 10

 

My baby has just turned 10! 

 

 

 

There are so many wonderful things that I love about Agent Smelly. She is a sweet girl, generous, kind with a cheeky and rather dry sense of humour which has us in fits of laughter so often. She is very affectionate and leaves me especially lots of love notes. I am so proud of the beautiful young lady that you are growing into.

Your Mama xxx

Meet our latest addition, Miss Melody

When Agent Smelly got Rory (our totally mad dog!) as her very own pet, The Fashionista was pretty upset as she also wanted a pet too.

Her papa and I discussed it and said that as long as it wasn't another dog then we'd consider it. After much tossing ideas around and lots of investigation she settled on wanting an English Angora Rabbit.

Bad camera photo!

So as part of her birthday gift she received a beautiful lilac/blue (?) baby girl whom she name Melody but gets Melli most of the time. Melli arrived about a week before her birthday as we had to her transported from another district. And even though she is going to kill me for letting you all know this, there were tears when she opened her eyes and saw her on her lap for the first time. It was so cute!

This little monster spends her days outside in a big run and cage and her nights bouncing around her mistresses bedroom before being placed in her new big cage to spend the night. Her breed is very, very, very fluffy and she is groomed every morning or she will matt. One her adult hair comes in around 8-9 months we can start using it to spin for wool. How awesome will that be!

These rabbits are quite amazing and so very tame. She follows us around the house (when Rory is outside as he in love with her!) and even hops over to lay down beside Scruffie. She has recently learnt how to hop onto her mistresses bed for a snuggle in the mornings.

Why do all our animals seem to think they are human?

The Fashionista Turns 12

The Fashionista turned 12 this past week.

 

 

She just amazes, shocks and kind of scares me with how much she has grown in maturity recently. I feel like I am losing my little baby but fortunately I am gaining a really lovely young lady.



 

Happy birthday my first born little treasure.

It's all about Agent Smelly

 

 

My baby turned nine this month. 

Isn't she gorgeous!

Just love her soooo much.

She brings so much fun and laughter into our home.

Home for Mother's Day

After nearly a week in Melbourne I just made it back in time to spend the day with my lovely girls.

They rushed into the bedroom early in the morning wheeling a dolls pram with a basket on it, that had a dolls blanket thrown across it, filled with handmade goodies. Is there anything sweeter than when your young children proudly give you a present that they have made and solely put together for you. So very special.

They lovingly put in the basket handmade cards, pistachio fudge (made at GirlGuides by The Fashionista), biscuits (made at Rally by both girls ... Agent Smelly announced that she had eaten part of the one she had made which made me laugh), a homemade magnet (made at Brownies by Agent Smelly), handmade massage vouchers (The Fashionista knows how I love my shoulders being rubbed) and a lovely cork coaster. Agent Smelly made this a month or so ago doing poker work at Rally, left it in plain view on her beside table but apparently it was a surprise so I had to play dumb. She's one of a kind!

Later in the afternoon I was told I had to watch a DVD with Agent Smelly, so she put on Harry Potter (an old favourite) and drew all the drapes and lit some candles on the coffee table and I had to sit and watch it with her. I am not sure what the romantic candles were all about but they made her happy so I expressed my absolute delight with them which made her even more pleased with herself.

The Fashionista then kindly made some very yummy schnitzels for dinner and did a great job. The Papa had planned to cook dinner but after all his rushing around working and cooking and tending to the girls whilst I have been away this past week, I really felt that he could do with a break. He did make me breakfast and lunch, and if I tell you a secret you wont tell will you, but he is ever so slow when he cooks and it is so very painful to watch and be asked every five minutes where something is or if it looks right. I told him that as he had played mum this past week, that I would cook diner and let him share a bit of mother's day. He was very appreciative let me tell you.

I hope you all enjoyed a happy Mother's Day with your loved ones too.

By the way ... that fudge, OMG sooooo good!

Winter Onesies

The other day whilst out shopping the girls spied these "onesies" and asked if they could try them on.

I should have said no, cause they were so darn cute on, that I had to buy them! In my defence they do need winter PJ's as they have outgrown all their others.

I may have to find a pattern to make them because they would love more of them ... and I am thinking the Papa and I would look pretty hot in a pair too.

I have visions of us all in Christmas themed ones for the annual Christmas Card photo.

The Bobbsey Twins

Today the girls went for a haircut. They asked me if they could have their hair cut short. Now their hair has gotten very long over the years but I decided that it was their hair and that if they wanted to cut it short then it was entirely their choice. I did make sure that they understood that once it was cut, that was it, it would take a while for it to grow back but it would grow back.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive; what is it about little girls having long hair anyway. I even spoke to the Papa to hear his thoughts but he was like "it's their hair" and he spoke to them to make sure they really wanted to do it and also supported them by saying that it would be great to have shorter hair for summer.

So off we went and here are the results of two very pleased little girls and their new dos.

 

The Fashionista's natural wave has come out with her cut bob. She has such lovely hair but she doesn't look after it very well so hopefully this new shorter style will be easier for her to manage and brush!

 

Agent Smelly and her beautiful sleek bob. The Papa and I were a little taken back at how grown up she now looks but agree it's stunning.

I read this article a day or so after the girls had cut their hair and I really felt glad that I hadn't stopped them from getting their bobs. I think Jada Pinkett-Smith made some really good points.

 

quote

When Jada Pinkett-Smith was asked why she let her daughter Willow shave her head, this is what she said:

"This subject is old but I have never answered it in its entirety. And even with this post it will remain incomplete.

The question why I would LET Willow cut her hair. First the LET must be challenged. This is a world where women, girls are constantly reminded that they don't belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power, or self determination. I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit, and her mind are HER domain. Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair. It's also a statement that claims that even little girls have the RIGHT to own themselves and should not be a slave to even their mother's deepest insecurities, hopes, and desires. Even little girls should not be a slave to the preconceived ideas of what a culture believes a little girl should be. More to come. Another day."

unquote

 

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Today I arranged for the girls to have a hair cut with their favourite hair dresser, Debbie. They haven't had their hair cut in absolutely ages so it really was needing a good cut. Especially as I am forever nagging them to do it and they get cross because it's all knotty and want me to do it. When it's shorter, it seems to be more manageable for them and there's less whining (and nagging by me!).

The Fashionista had a few inches taken off and her hair layered again which means that some of her natural curl has come out again. 

Debbie always does a little something with the girls hair once she has finished cutting it. Today she pinned The Fashionista's hair back and it looked just lovely.

Agent Smelly also had a few inches off, in fact she would have liked to have had her hair cut even shorter but, I wasn't sure about her getting a bob. Last year she pleaded for a fringe and then a month or so afterwards she wanted it all back to the same length as the rest of her hair again and so I really didn't want to go through that all over again. As you can see we are having to use bobby pins or headbands to keep it off her face and out of her eyes whilst it's growing out. Isn't that in between length really annoying? 

Debbie gave Agent Smelly a lovely side plait; she looked quite cute. She has such lovely thick hair and I didn't have it layered again as it looks beautiful and glossy when brushed.


The girls have a lot of hair ties and headbands, etc but they all end up in a big mess in their bathroom drawer so were hardly ever getting used. Every so often I would sort all the gear into little containers but in a few days it was all over the place again. A couple of months ago I came across one of those hanging shoe holders for just $5 so I grabbed it as I had seen someone using it on Pinterest (of course) for their craft items. After contemplating it's best use I ended up hanging it (temporarily) on the shower door and placed all their hair accessories, sortly mostly by colour, into the pockets.

Well I am happy to say it has been a resounding success. The girls find it easy to  find what they want but, better still it's easy for everyone to pop the hair ties that are constantly popping up around the house into a pocket. Now that I know it's worked so well, I am going to pop a towel rail across the wall behind the bathroom door and hang it there.


Those big, hard, headbands were a bit too big to sit comfortably in the pockets so we are going to make up some headband holders out of some of those giant Milo tins. We now just need to get through all the Milo!

LEGO in Australia

Both my girls absolutely love LEGO.  I mean what's not to love, I still enjoy getting in and making stuff too. I find there is something relaxing about building something with little plastic bricks that interlock. In fact some of the LEGO that my girls play with are mine from when I was a young girl.


In the last year or so LEGO brought out a girls series called LEGO Friends. This is so great because many of the LEGO sets are geared towards boys. They did bring out the Belville series a few years back and I did manage to purchase a few pieces of that but now that they are older they have been saving to get the whole Friends series.


Whilst in Melbourne many of the stores are having massive mid-year toy sales so the girls were able to use some of the Australian birthday money that they had been sent in the past year and saving. As they like to play with them together they often go halves in the bigger items. So today, together they purchased the LEGO house. Agent Smelly's birthday is in a couple of weeks so I was able to get some extra pieces to put away for her which she is so going to love!

Agent Smelly really enjoys building the pieces and enlisted her Gramps as her helper. She would tell him what part she needed and he would find it.  I am pretty sure they both had a great time putting the house together. He said to me that when we were younger he remembers mum spending a fortune on LEGO (yes they were even expensive back then!) and thinking she was mad but, considering how much my brothers and I and now all the grandkids have played with them that they would have had to have been the best value for money toy that we had possessed. My parents in fact still have a huge bucket of LEGO's at their house for the enjoyment of the grandkids.

Off to OZ

Today we left for Melbourne, Australia. We hadn't intended on going to Oz this year but one of my baby brothers, Mr Plod, asked me to be god-mother to his absolutely gorgeous 18 month old son although he offered to have a proxy, I just wanted to be there in person on this special day.

The girls outside a duty free store at the Auckland Airport before we boarded our Arab Emirates flight. This is the first time we have flown Emirates and we were really looking forward to it, especially after hearing such positive things from people we know who have flown with them.


Once we boarded and the captain started speaking he announced the languages that the attendants on board spoke in case anyone needed any help with translations, etc. I was blown away by the number of different languages he reeled off. I was wondering if he was every going to stop. In our section we were looked after by a beautiful Mediterranean lady, a stunning Irish lass and a very elegant British fella. Nothing was too much trouble and they were delightful with the children.


As soon as we were able to, we had our individual TV's on. I watched "They Bought A Zoo", with Matt Damon, which I highly recommend and the girls selected "Chipmunks Chipwrecked". Once they finished, we were able to select some TV shows to watch; they had the biggest choice of shows to choose from. Agent Smelly started to get a bit wriggly towards the end of the flight so I showed her the games section on her console pad and she was in heaven. The Fashionista soon noticed and started playing them too. All the choices made the flight go in the shortest of times. 


I really liked their chairs too. Not only do they recline but the base slides forward so they are sort of like a recliner. There is nothing like a comfy chair on a long flight.

The girls were so happy with their meals that they asked me to take a picture of it for them. The had spaghetti bolognese, salad, pudding, a bread roll in the shape of a mini loaf and a water. Added to the tray was a snack boxes, that could be removed and saved for later on. Inside the box was a bag of shapes, a plastic container full of mini M&M's (this Mama's fave!), a juice box, a muesli bar and a kit kat! It was a really impressive meal. I sort of wish I'd had the youth meal but, then I had the fish which came with prawns ... yes big juicy prawns ... Emirates I love you.


The girls have declared that we will never be flying with anyone else ever again and I am pretty sure they were serious!

A Lovely Mother's Day

Today the girls treated me to the most lovely Mother's Day.

I jumped out of bed (OK slowly hauled my fat butt out bed) at 7.00 am and jumped into the shower, thinking that I'd better get moving and feed the girls cause Daddy was at work. When I emerged I was made to get back into bed by my two bossy little girls (where do they get that from I wonder?). I was then served, luke-warm / cold baked beans on soggy toasted muffins served on one of their plastic toy box lids, as they couldn't find the breakfast tray, along with a really lovely cuppa (Miss 7 may have a new job!), while both of them propped on my bed intently watching me eat every bite. I made the appropriate yummy noises for them (cold baked beans grow on a person ... ;) ).

When I finish my cuppa, they escorted me down to the lounge for another surprise ... wooohhooooo. A lovely homemade card, beautiful homemade new bookmark and under a big pink sheet I found a new wireless printer, copier, fax, scanner. So love MY family, just what I wanted and need!



The Fashionista turns 10!

My first born turned 10 today, yes double digits! Those of you with children will know what I mean when I say the years have flown by.

I can clearly see her in my mind the day we brought her home from hospital, not quite a week old. She was so very tiny, like a wee doll, that she hardly fit in her car seat and had to wear premmie clothes. Her Daddy, very carefully carried her down to the car and then drove home so slowly that I thought we'd never get home. We stopped along the way, at a cafe, as I was dying for "real food" and before we knew it half the cafe was over poking their head into her capsule to see the tiny, little baby.

I don't have any of her baby pics on my lap top but here's one of her on her first birthday. I may be biased but she had beautiful eyes. Eldelry people used to comment on her eyes when we were out and she was terribly shy and used to really scowl at them ... I used to be so embarrassed.

These days she is a very smiley and friendly young lady. So very sociable and could talk the ears off a deaf man! These days I am more likely to ask her not to talk so much to the elderly people that we meet on our travels.

I love you my Little Princess.  We hope you enjoyed your special 10th party. xxxxx

Birthday Cake and Cupcakes

For the first time ever, I ordered a birthday cake. It was the best money I ever spent!

It was a white chocolate mud cake which is Little Misses favourite chocolate and made in the shape of a Matryoshka doll. The Fashionista was simply thrilled with it, as were all the little girls at the party.

But did I stop there, oh no I didn't, I placed my trust in Rachel and she didn't disappoint. She made us a mixture of chocolate muffins filled with raspberries and also vanilla cupcakes and popped them in some Matryoshka cupcake holders that I had purchased from Aussie. The triple layer cake stand looks gorgeous with all the cakes on it but, unfortunately I only remembered at the last minute to grab a photo, but you get the picture (oh dear bad pun!)

Rachel is a local lady, and you will find more of her cakes on Facebook under "Cakes By Me". She is so helpful and accommodating and quite affordable and I can highly recommend her.

Our Easter Egg Hunt at Night

This year, because the Papa had two very early morning starts (4am!) over the Saturday, Sunday and Monday we couldn't have an early morning Easter hunt ... the Papa loves them as much as the girls do me thinks!

So whilst the girls and the Papa were down planting a new tree in the orchard, this Mama ran outside and quickly hid 20 eggs and left their Easter baskets and torches on the front porch waiting for them. It was just getting dark early now which made it easier.

We can't hide our eggs too early as one year we found them we little mice nibbles in them (that's what you get on a farm block) so in her haste the "Easter Bunny" wasn't very clever at hiding some of them and they were slightly obvious.

They still had a great time walking around with their torches hunting out the eggs. There was one egg that they couldn't find so the Papa even went and got his big industrial torch and started helping them.

And as you can see they were rather happy with their "loot".

Our New School Uniform

Whilst we were away our new homeschool t-shirts arrived from the U.S.

Here are the girls each proudly wearing one of them.

They have declared that they will be their new school uniform ... they are such nerds!  \
I was thinking that we could wear them when we were out and about so they don't have to say "we are homeschooled" when asked if they are having a day off school. Am sure other homschooling families know what I mean by that!

We purchased them from Great Products and they were just so lovely and helpful.
http://www.shopgreatproducts.com/2012-hsl-t-shirt-designs/
I'll try and post pics of the other tops (they chose different ones this time), soon.

Matryoshka Invitations

In our house, we do not give our children a big birthday party every year but simply celebrate what we consider to be special birthdays, IE their first birthdays, fifth, 10th (double digits), etc. Well this month the Fashionista turns 10 and so she is going to have a good old fashioned birthday party with lots of friends.

In her typical way she chose a theme that has been a little challenging, you see she loves Matryoshka dolls. You know those little Russian nesting dolls; she collects them. So I basically started scouring Trade Me (NZ's EBay) and E-Bay Aussie and Europe for whatever I could find in the way of Matryoshka party goods and let me tell you there was not a lot out there.  I bet there will be after the party ... does that happen to anyone else?

I ended up purchasing an expensive Matryoshka stamp set and stamped and water-painted and cut about 20 invites by hand!

The colours we were going to use were red, pink and blue based on some cupcake holders that I had sourced from Aussie but little Miss didn't like the strong colours for her invites so chose a very soft pink.  I placed some scrap booking paper down the centre of each card, FINALLY found some ribbon that nearly matched and hung our little Matryoshka paintings with the brad. They weren't exactly how we had planned them but we couldn't find a "You're Invited" stamp of all things and so we simply had to redesign and redesign until we were happy with them.

This is how they turned out ...

We printed the wording on white paper and stuck the inserts into the cards which looked pretty classy I thought.

Next job is to order a cake. I usually make them myself but with such a large group I don't want to place any extra stress on myself.

Agent Smelly's New Fringe

Agent Smelly decided today that she wanted her hair cut into a bob. We then determined that what she actually wanted was a fringe (whew), so The Mama thought she would give it a go ...

I went a little short but she looks adorable don't you think.

Is there a Doctor in the House?

There is nothing more that my daughters enjoy than dressing up. We have accumulated quite a few costumes over the years and we don't restrict ourselves to "girly" stuff either. Along with a Japanese and swiss costume, cat, lady bug, beetle, pig costume, they have a cowboy costume, along with Superman and Spiderman.

It is a really good activity for children as they make their own plays and it is stretches their imagination. Also in mixed age groups everyone still seems to be able to play along. Role playing comes naturally to children and therefore it is great to fill the dress up box with normal, positive and inspirational costumes, along with those princess, faeries, etc.

Yesterday we picked up a surgeons / doctors outfit from one of those shops like the $2 shop.

The Fashionista in her new scrubs.

Agent Smelly is the receptionist / nurse.

The Dr. had to place a bandaid on her nose as there was the tiniest of scratches.

Note the lolly pops given to the "good" children (dolls) after their appointment.

 

They turned their club house into a doctors / hospital.

 

Often The Pig or I get called into one of the roles (when we aren't being made to sit and watch one of their performances) and today was no exception. I was given a "physical" by my doctor and nurse with them using all their little plastic doctor tools on me. Their stethoscopes are in fact real and they loved listening to my heart and then "yelling into each others". I even let them place some of my eye drops into my eyes, which they found totally fascinating (and helped my tired dry eyes). There were many giggles especially when they kept taking turns hitting my knees with their hammers, which despite being made of plastic actually hurt ... apparently my cries of "ouch" are giggle-worthy and mean hit even harder next time!

 

At the end I was given a prescription that reads as follows:

cold cream medison (what can I say, they have a bad spelling teacher)

Pretty good but come back next week for an eye check

Okay     The Doctor

 

I had to see the nurse on the way out and produce a "card" to pay for my appointment (she actually pretended to swipe  piece of cardboard on an invisible swiper) and then was booked in for my next appointment as per Dr's orders.  Between us though, I am not sure that I will return for next weeks check up as I didn't get a lolly pop after my appointment!

New Years Eve 2011

Sadly NZ has been experiencing rather awful weather. We have had lots and lots of rain (although it has been very, very humid), so much for a sunny summer!

Taken New Years Eve afternoon from the ranch slider to my dining area

Due to this, our local New Years Eve event at the Huntly Speedway was cancelled and we ended up spending a quiet evening at home.

We played lots of board games, much to our daughters delight and shared a block of chocolate and drank loads of ... water.  We really kicked up our heels people.

Despite the rather wet beginning to the year I am feeling very positive about 2012.

And did I make a New Years resolution, well heck yeah!  I am planning to be better organised this year. Last year I felt like I was just "winging it" and life seemed like hard work. It never seemed that I ever got on top of things, (ie housework ... groan) and so this year I want things to go a little smoother.

Lets hope prior planning prevents poor presentation! Wish me luck ... and wishing you all a content and satisfying life in 2012.

Thank You Notes

I think it is important for the girls to write thank you notes to the people who have so kindly given them gifts.

I don't push them to make them for the people who they thank personally at the time but, I do make them write them for the people they don't see at the time. I think if someone doesn't get to see them open a gift they especially should receive a note or card thanking them, and letting them know what they thought of the gift.

They are pretty easy to write, we keep them simple but, as they get older they will be expected to write a little more.

We usually make cards as they like to decorate them. We write first, then decorate ... sometimes, painting, pasting paper, or drawing, etc. They can let their imagination run wild and decorate them however they wish to. They do like to fit the card to the person they are thanking.

Here's Agent Smelly with a card she made for her Aunty S with a picture of said Aunty's "Mad Dog Meg" on it.

They only need to work on one card or letter each day and they are finished them in no time. They don't complain, in fact quite enjoy the decorating process, and I know the recipients really appreciate them.