Holidays in Dorset

Beautiful view from left side of beach in Swanage
Daddy and his girls
Ainsley was very intense about the design and construction of this sand. Perhaps she'll be an architect like her uncle. She is very creative and still says she wants to do hair, and I always add that it would be a great way to earn money while she is at university studying...other things.
Saxon is winding down and feeling chilly here. He went in the water a lot with our blue dingy.




This is Swanage on the Tuesday. After putting up our tent in the spitting rain the night before, this did not seem a bad day. The water was gorgeous and the beach was not over crowded. A perfect start to our holiday. I thought Simon would be very guarded about his eye after just having surgery two weeks ago, but he could only sit at the sidelines for a few minutes before hopping off and going over to dig in the sand with the kids. By the end of the week he was ready to drive again. It may be my driving, or it may be that he had recovered so well by then he felt confident enough, he didn't say. I had a lovely time people watching and went for a nice walk along the pier with Simon and Charlotte to find some food for our crew. We ended up with some having Cornish Pasties and some having Margarita Pizzas (fancy way of saying cheese pizza so you aren't so annoyed by your unadventurous children). There was a guy who had a crepe stand and you could get pretty much anything sweet or savoury in a crepe or thin pancake. After our failed trip to Cornwall (because of the emergency eye surgery) I wanted a pasty and it was worth eating a days worth of calories in one go. Most food tastes delicious when you have been out walking on your holiday and you do not have to prepare it. We spent three hours here before it did finally rain us back to our protective tent.

Bronwyn goofing

Charlotte having a go on Saxon's Go-Kart

Bouncing Boy in Speedo

We do speedo in England.

Ainsley's First Cello Concert

Sweet Charlotte after church on Father's Day 2009

It is Summertime!

It's official. I am a Student Nurse.
Posing after church on Sunday. Got some new clothes for summer!

On a PoSiTiVe NoTe

Summa time. 5 Reasons I heart England:
1. This place is GREEN CITY. Imagine what the Garden of Eden would be like...this is it only with a little bit more toil than they had to do for our lifestyle.
2. I heard a piper piping his bagpipe this past week. It was across the street from the pre-school, in a field with horses roaming. Do you have this by your pre-school?
3. The air I breathe in is clean and I feel it is doing my body good. It also smells sweet right now due to the quantity of flowers and grass about. In Phx I sometimes wished I could go inside a sterile environment like Bubble Boy so that I could breathe clean air.
4. The earth cools off on summer evenings here. After a gorgeous day of sunshine, when we've had our fill of UV rays, it gets cool and fresh which seems very natural unlike the hot oven like nights of urban heat I was used to.
5. I am very happy my children elocute properly at least sometimes now: wa-ter instead of wa-der, hate-ed instead of hade-ed, and my all time favourite: impor-tant instead of impor-unt.

We started to sew!

Ainsley finishing off her PJs at home


Ainsley and Sage both made some pyjama bottoms with the YW. They had a sleepover and this was in preparation for it. It was fun, a project with a goal and they both had fun working on it and going to the sleepover. Ainsley was able to find out how to work our machine, and I found the handbook when I cleared off my ironing board. We found some good instructional videos on YouTube. So wooo hooo! We can let the sewing begin. We found a fabric warehouse in Cowely close by and thought of beginner level projects for both Ainsley and Sage. We decided on some soft fabrics to make some blankets. Also bought some cute plaid to sew more pyjama bottoms. We will post the results! I love Easter Break:)

Charlotte Turns Three

Big sister after opening the gifts in the morning. Ainsley had fun planning. C is chewing one of the gifts. Gum is wonderful to a three year old. I later had to scrape it off my dishes after lunch... it melted in the hot water:)
Pure delight preparing to take dolly for a test drive.
Showing some love to Auntie Gwen after opening her gift
This is where she recognises her new trike that Saxon brings in.



Saxon held the matches patiently waiting to light the candles.



Charlotte Iona had a birthday this past week. I must say this child is super girl. She can do everything for herself in her minds eye, the trouble happens when we don't support her assumptions. It sometimes takes every ounce of wit inside of my slow functioning brain to induce cooperation for simple things such as wearing clean clothes that match. Even when two choices are presented, she has a specific purple skirt and a specific shirt that was worn two times already that she believes she must wear or the sky will fall. Really it is my ear drums that are falling out or failing because she has wonderfully strong vocal chords and equally healthy arms that swiftly remove clothing I flailingly attempt to force on when my schedule is no longer to schedule. Fortunately the milestone of birthday number three has arrived, and now we can see the distant frustrating behaviour disappearing every hour she is three! She was delighted to find she was showered with lots of cards and gifts. Her sisters wrapped some gifts for her to open in the morning. We then went to our local park bringing some ice lollies as a treat. They ended up being very strange, they were just not the right texture to feel like you were eating a Popsicle. They had gelatin in them. I was going to throw mine away still in the package but my nice pal Simon said he would slurp mine up for me. We spent the afternoon there playing soccer, frisbee and on the park equipment. Charlotte copies most things Saxon does and because he took off his shoes and socks to run up and yes down the big slide standing up, so did she. I made a few grunting noises and held out my arms in case she slipped, because I am a good mom like that. The big birthday surprise was a 'new bike' as she calls it. She later had her first mega owie as Saxon had hijacked the new bike and she tried chasing him down and ended up with a bleeding knee. Saxon has since been forbidden to get on the trike.

Dunstaple Downs

A yummy end to our hike.
Being a family is so FUN!
Sister love.
A recently furrowed field shows off what I love about England.
We go together like rama lama lama kadinky dinky do! or something like that.
Saxon kindly lent his Spidey Hat for Dad's chilled ears
We headed out for the top of that hill in the distance.
The hair tells you it is very windy here.
Do you see a glider somewhere here? nice clouds any way, I have always loved puffy clouds
These are a few of my children in the distance.. First thing when we got there they ran down this hill.
Our family are on Easter Break from school. We have been soooo chilled out and have enjoyed staying home without a schedule. On Wednesday we tore ourselves out of bed to go to the orthodontist. After ten years of wearing my plastic over the teeth retainer I had a simple small wire cemented to a few of my bottom teeth that morning, why did I not think of that nine years ago??? Ainsely had her wire changed. When we got home I felt like celebrating my new found freedom from my old retainer and we took off to a place called Dunstable Downs. It was a beautiful scenic place that is very high up. We saw many people flying kites, and we saw both glider planes, and hang gliders. The wind was so strong in places it could hold us up when we lent into it. We looked around at all of the kites being crashed and flown, then we went for a stroll, then turned around and followed a path out to the top of a hill overlooking the beautiful green land. We made it back to the visitor's ctr and ate some hot chips before heading home.