Shhhh, I'm knitting

Two gorgeous skeins of sock yarn arrived today from http://www.vintagepurls.co.nz/ . It was very exciting. I can't decide which to use first and for what pattern (and how I can justify knitting when there is so much else to do.)

Gorgeous, aren't they.

All this knitting goodness has inspired Hayley too.

Off to the beach

that's where we were heading after milking the other night! And it was beautiful. The water was still warm, but the heat of the day had passed. The kids had a great time.

Carly got dunked off her boogey board by a wave

Hay watched sensibly from the shore

and Emily tried to eat sand.

We walked round the mountain searching for treasure and then had ice creams while we watched the sun set. We need to do this more often.

In real life

We went to the Toy Castle in Tirau today for a bit of an outing. The kids were so excitied to see the castle and Carly exclaimed "Look Mum, they have castles in real life!" She is constantly trying to work out what is real and what is pretend or only on tv or in books. At the castle we saw a show pony that was only about the size of the kids - another "in real life" moment. We had a lovely day finished off with ice creams at the top of the hill.

New bikes!

The kids got new bikes yesterday. It was all very exciting - streamers on the handle bars and a Barbie bell. Carly loves hers and was out at 7:30 this morning to ride it again. "Come on Hay, let's ride our bikes!" she squeals. Hayley is getting the hang of it, but is quick to pack it in if it's not going right (where does she get that from??) Carly is looking forward to having the training wheels removed at some stage and really wants a helmut too. Hayley just likes putting her "babies" in the back carrier and ringing the bell!

You never know what you'll find...

Brad and I were out inspecting all the baby apples growing on the apple tree when Brad said "Hey, what's that?" He grabbed at a branch and a wee baby bird fell out and onto the lawn. At the same time we both yelled for the kids to come over and have a look. The little bird darted all over the lawn until Carly finally caught it. We went to put it back up in the nest and another 3 fell out! They couldn't fly, so were just hopping over the lawn madly flapping their wings. We managed to round up two of them and get them back in their nests. The kids were so excited. We found heaps more nests in the trees and Brad climbed up to the top of the apple tree to inspect another one (I wish I had a photo of that!)

Emily's shoes

Aren't these just the cutest? I wish these little feet would stay this small forever. Emily is 4.5 months old now. I think she'll be rolling soon - she can get halfway over, but dragging her big nappy but over takes a bit more effort!

Rip it

I've decided. The monkeys must be frogged! I've even started the cuff on the second one, so this isn't the second sock syndrome (SSS) talking either. The yarn and the pattern just don't go together and I'm just kidding myself by lamenting that they are only a practice sock, or that it simply doesn't matter. It does matter. So I'm on the hunt for a better pattern - maybe just a plain stockinette sock, or the Leyburn sock?? I think stockinette will look the best, but I know I'll get bored. Anyway off to frog that sock. (I can't believe I'm actually going to do it!)

Bowling

Carly and Hayley had great fun today playing with the bowling set. This thing has been a real hit! I managed to sneak a bit of learning in there too, by getting them to count the pins, knock some over, and work out how many were left. Of course it was much more fun to get a strike! I must take them to a real bowling alley one day and play a game. I remember doing this a bit as a kid and it was always a real treat (even if I could never knock anything over!)

Monkeys

Monkey socks, that is. First one done and the cuff on the second one started. I think it looks terrible.! This yarn is not ment for anything more than boring old stocking stitch socks, but I just had to try this pattern. The up side is I will have enough yarn leftover to make a pair of kids socks and they do feel really nice to wear. I will get the yarn-pattern mix right next time.

Becoming a farmers wife

Well I feel mighty chuffed with my efforts this week. The much anticipated departure of our employee left Brad with a lot of work to do and as it so happens, the opportunity for me to muck in. Now, I quite enjoy doing the odd farm job although I'm quaified for very little, and with the three kidlets in tow, there's not a lot I can do. Nonetheless, I have been busy. We have been getting the cows up and locking them away, and doing a bit of waterblasting at the shed. (Carly particuary like running through the water coming out of the hole in the hose!) But the main achievement these last few days, is learning how to do a vat wash. Now, I'd always seen Brad do it and thought it looked rather complicated, but now that I know what I'm doing it all seams so blatantly obvious that I wonder how I didn't just work it out for myself. Anyway, today was my first go at doing it without the security of Brad watching over me, so I needed some notes in case I got messed up. Just a few notes.

Brad gawked when he saw my sacred notes. "How the hell can you write so much about doing a vat wash?" he wondered. Ha, I showed him. I did the best vat wash that vat has ever seen (I hope someone was watching, because they would've thought "God, she knows what she's doing!") Anyway, I'm just that much closer to milking a cow now, but I'll save that for another time - don't want to amaze Brad too much this week!