Our garden

We are very lucky in that we have a reasonably large garden surrounding our home. However, when we moved into the house last summer, it was obvious that very little had been done in the garden for quite a long time. A neighbour told us that the front lawn hadn't been mown in over a year! Because our house was originally the show home for this estate, we had the basis of a very nice garden under all the wilderness, it just needed some attention. Mark and I have therefore been working quite hard on the garden in our spare moments this year. We've been mowing, pruning, digging, weeding and planting and it is really starting to look lovely. We don't know a thing about gardening, but we're quite proud of how it's turning out. We're learning as we go!

However, as I mentioned before it is a large garden. As you'll see from the last picture, we still have a lot of work to do!

We still have lots to do!

Lily's 2nd birthday

I went in to get Lily this morning and told her it was her birthday today. "Hooray!" she replied, "Birthday cake!". She obviously had a fair idea what is involved in a birthday! We opened the presents gradually over the course of the morning and I was really pleased that she loved the apron and the lamb I made her. In fact, she insisted on wearing the apron all morning!

We spent the morning playing with her new toys and books. The Podlings spent over an hour playing with the plasticine set that she received (thanks to Fiona for this...it was a big hit!). Mark's mum and dad arrived while the Podlings were resting, so I got Tom up a bit early so he could play outside with his Nanna and Grandad.

When Lily woke up from her nap, they got to enjoy the two 'big' presents from her Nanna and Grandad...a Wendy house and a sand table. These were, hands down, the favourite presents of the day. Thankfully the rain that was forecast for today held off and the Podlings were able to play in the garden all afternoon. They had a wonderful time. Lily told me, whilst shovelling sand into a bucket, that she was having a "busy day".

Mark was able to get home from work early so he could come to Lily's birthday party. Her birthday cake was the usual Smartie cake, but I put a few little farm animals on top because Lily is currently farm obsessed. She loved it when we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her (even Tom joined in) and we had to sing it to her several times over the rest of the day!

I love that both Tom and Lily's eyes are glued to the cake stand with the sweet treats on it!

Both of the Podlings enjoyed today. In fact, Tom pretty much thought it was his birthday anyway! They both went to bed late tonight having had a wonderful day. I just can't believe my baby is two years old!

After her party, Lily invited her Nanna into the Wendy house for coffee.

Look who's two!

27th May 2006

27th May 2008

Where does the time go?

All ready for the Birthday Girl...

Blog the frog

This little guy frightened the living daylights out of me today. We had bought a load of peat to add to the border along our driveway as I wanted to plant some flowers and our existing soil was pretty poor. Mark and I had spread the peat while the children were resting (we figured the Podlings would spread the peat further than we wanted!), then we all went out to plant the flowers when they got up. I was happily putting my Chrysanthemums in the ground when this frog jumped right by my hand. Worms and spiders I was prepared for, but the frog was a bit of a shock! We think it must have been in the sack of peat we bought yesterday. The poor thing had met with an accident at some point as it was missing one of its back legs below the knee. It seemed pretty mobile though as we have no idea where it is now!

The Podlings were absolutely thrilled with the frog. They watched it for a while, then pretended to be frogs by jumping up and down the driveway. After tea, we sang 'five little speckled frogs' and read a couple of stories with frogs in them. Lily was still talking about the 'fwoggy' at bedtime.

Incidentally, I have a new respect for the bravery of my husband, who took this photo of the frog by lying on his stomach right in front of it and using the optical zoom on the camera. I would have been terrified of the thing jumping in my face!

Made with love

I always wear an apron when I am baking, so whenever the Podlings and I do baking together, I have to make them 'aprons' out of a tea towel and a peg. Granted, this seems to satisfy the apron craving in both of them, but I wanted to make Lily an apron of her very own for her birthday. I used the leftover fabric from the lambkin and made up my own pattern. My first attempt at machine applique (the heart on the patch pocket) is frankly a bit of a disaster, but I don't suppose Lily will be over-critical of my sewing. Overall I think it is a very sweet little apron and I am pleased with it. I am going to wrap it up with a wooden spoon she can call her own and a packet of chocolate chips. One of her favourite parts of the whole 'baking with mummy' thing is when we come to add chocolate chips to something and I give her and Tom a few chocolate chips each. I expect she will be happier with her packet of chocolate chips than she will with any of her other presents!

In addition to the lambkin and the apron, we are also giving her a new doll, some farm animals to add to her collection and a stack of books (what would a birthday be without a pile of new books to enjoy!). She will also be receiving presents from family members and friends, so I think we will have to spread the presents out over the day so she can enjoy them all. I'm hoping she'll enjoy her handmade presents as much as I enjoyed making them for her.

Little lamb who made thee?

Since our visit to the farm a couple of weeks ago, Lily has become inordinately fond of lambs. Whenever we come across a picture of a lamb in one of her story books, she immediately starts stroking it and repeating "I wuff you too!" over and over again. The little lady will be turning two next week, so I made this little lambkin for her to open on her birthday (the pattern for the lambkin can be found here). The fabric arrived this morning and I started making it during the Podling's rest time. I finished it off this evening, so it was a nice quick project. I am rather proud of the result.

I am especially pleased that I got it done today as I was in no small amount of discomfort thanks to a wry neck. This is something I have suffered with on and off since I was a child. Basically, the muscles in the right side of my neck go into spasm, with the result that I spend a couple of days in pain with my head over at a funny angle. When it is at its worst, my head goes so far over to the side that I have to rest it on my shoulder. Thankfully it wasn't that bad today, so I was able to make Lily's lambkin. I hope she likes it as much as I do!