Happy holidays nearly over

We have had such a lovely holiday.

 Hot, hot, hot NYE.  My beautiful sister set up a paddling pool and sprinkler for the kids at her otherwise-very-cool-20something party.  When Dylan heard he said, "what's a sprinkler?". Poor deprived children of water restrictions.

 Splashing on the path.

 I love this one.  Bathing beauty.

 Sharing an inter-generational interest in fart noises.  Something everyone can enjoy!

Okay 2012.  Show me what you've got.  I'm sceptical, but willing to be convinced.


We made stuff too.  My girls love their craft.

Abi's dinosaurs.

 Evie's...something?  Thing With 1000 Eyes.

Abi holding her girl riding a unicorn.

 She requested a better photo of said girl riding a unicorn.

I have many of these pictures.  Abi likes permanent records.

 Snow girl

 Outoor artistes

And introducing....Toby the dog!

Yes, we are now a family of five.  Eight if you count the guinea pigs and cat.  Which I don't really, to be honest (sorry guys).

Abi has been asking for a dog for a while, and I've always wanted one too, so I'd been browsing the rescue sites occasionally for the last six months or so.  After Christmas, I got more serious and found this little fellow up in Mount Macedon.  DH was not super enthusiastic, but very graciously aquiesced, although I did bulldoze him a bit.  Sorry about that my love.

Isn't he cute?  I think he looks like the fox*, Sir Didimus, from Labyrinth.  He's somewhere between five and seven, and apparently a Maltese/Shitzhu cross.  He's very fluffy in reality, but had a slightly wonky clip at the vet's to keep him cool.

Abi named him Toby after the dog in the Milly-Molly-Mandy books, which we are working our way through, a chapter a night.  She loves them, and so do I.  I have such strong memories of those stories from my own childhood and there is nothing worrying or scary in them at all.  We tried My Naughty Little Sister a while ago, but the whole 'naughty' concept upset my sensitive girl, so they were less successful.

MMM though is perfect.  And now we have our own Toby too.

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So here we are at the end of the holidays.  We still have a week and a half to go, but I am sad.  We have had such fun - lots of playing, watching tv, eating ice cream, seeing friends, library visits, swimming, relaxing in the mornings.  It's going to be hard to switch gears, that's for sure.

*I always thought he was a fox anyway, but apparantly not?  Some kind of small dog, it seems.

A Post in Pics

Ever since I broke out the face paints at Abi's fourth birthday party, she has been begging me to paint her face. At one stage it was almost daily. It's faded away a bit now, I think maybe because we got these special paraben-free face paints and they're, um, not as good. Better living through chemistry and all of that.

Also, I got a bit sick of the time it took and the related mess which she probably picked up on. She hasn't asked for a couple of weeks and now I feel sad about it. I'll offer to do it tomorrow and I hope she takes me up on it; I hate that I get impatient with my darling girl sometimes. She has grown up so much this last year, I need to treasure every minute with her and really appreciate it when she wants to spend time with me.

Here are some photos anyway. My little painted lady.