So it’s school holidays for us at the moment… well kinder holidays. We’re still running at a mile a minute, with birthday parties and this crazy family wedding, but this week I was determined to do something fun with the kids, something they’d wanted to do for ages.

We got out the paints.

I was just going to let them paint with boring old paint brushes but then we began chatting about patterns and printing so I gather a few interesting house hold items and we got busy…

The potato masher was a lot of fun to print with, as was a toilet roll. We also tried various play dough cutters, one of those little rolling play dough cutting wheels, a dish brush, and some bubble wrap. We could have used fruit or vegetables but I generally don’t like to use food for art or play (though we do love play dough – I am hypocritical like that sometimes)

Muski was able to join in too, though I corralled him in the high chair so painted fingers didn’t escape all over my house. Even I had a go at the bubble wrap printing!

Heaps of fun…. Now they want to know what we are doing tomorrow!

He looks good in navy and orange… but the helmet really makes the outfit don’t you think?

I play at Wordless Wednesday and Five Minutes for Mom. Find more wordless wednesday at Technorati.

His big sisters put the idea into his head… he wanted a car cake.

Oh man… a car cake!? How on earth was I going to make a car cake?

I headed for trusty google and found a few ideas and options. An easy version involved a race track and matchbox cars, but at that stage we didn’t own any (now we own about 50!) so I began dreaming ideas for a cake, shaped like a car.

I cheated a little… I bought the sponge cake from the supermarket. At $4 for a two layered sponge I couldn’t go past it, not with cup cakes to cook for my niece and a million other things to do. At least I knew the cake part wouldn’t be a disaster… the decorating part I wasn’t so sure about.

I chopped off one side of the double layer sponge to get a basic rectangle shape for the car, then suddenly decided it’d be a convertible. So I just chopped two of the left over bits on an angle and wacked them on top. Wallah!

I glued it all together with jam and cream between all the layers… mmmmmm Then came the icing. I went with cream icing cause I had whipped cream left over… and it had to be “Boo” according to the two year old who pretty much knows his colours. (yep genius child!). I am sure there is some magic trick of coating the cake with something to stop the crumbs getting in the icing, but I didn’t know it, so the icing is a little crummy but turned out ok.

I went with double chocolate ripple biscuits glued together with more cream for the wheels and stuck one up front for a steering wheel too. Marshmallows for head lights and tail lights and it was done.

I’m really pleased with how it turned out and better than that… it tasted great!

Ok so I bought a dress. I’ve even bought two cardigan/shrug things (both in pink – still can’t decide which I like more). I’ve got a underwear that goes up to my arm pits and will supposedly stop my stomach from moving independently of the rest of me. I have a date to buy a black bra (and sadly no amount of wonder bra is going to curb the side boobs girls… ) and while I’m still contemplating the shoe thing you guys gave me heaps of good advice. So I am back for some more.

Help me out with some bling please.

I have a chubby oval face, blonde shoulder length hair, blue eyes…. Trinny and Susannah tell me I should keep my necklaces ‘delicate’ so I think I’ll just wear my gold ‘K’, but what do I do about ear rings?

I have pierced ears but I always loose one of every pair of ear rings I’ve ever owned (what is with that?) so I’ll buy something new to wear, but what do I buy?

Obviously something gold if I am wearing my gold necklace, but do I go dangly or maybe little diamond studs? Ok fake diamonds, but something small and sparkly? Does it matter if I wear my hair up or down? (un-decided on this point as yet – hair cut Friday will be the clincher)… help? Please!

Oh and about the photo.. I was looking for a recent photo of me that shows all of my face so you could all make an educated assessment… but…. um… ahem… I really really don’t like having my photo taken so there just aren’t any. So this is as good as it gets… this is me at my wedding some 9 and a half years ago, and the guys is my brother-in-law, who’s wedding is the reason for all this buying a dress crap.

It’s been a while since I’ve played along with Sarcastic Mom’s Weekly Winners. To be honest, I’ve not had very co-operative photographic models of late and with the dreary weather I’ve not been very inspired to try capturing something that doesn’t whine, cry or pull faces. But this weekend we celebrated Muski’s birthday (and my nieces first birthday) so I have no excuse for not posting a few photos from the party…

Blowing out the candles on his car cake.

Reading with Aunty Sarwah (and by the way Happy Birthday to Man Candy who share’s Muski’s birthday – I knew you were a good man first time I met you, now just confirmed by sharing my boy’s birthday!)

And one last one of Izz… cause it is a rare day that I manage to catch her with a smile on her face of late!

A quick list to remind myself of the good things in life…

Grateful for…
Sunshine on a winter’s day.
Beating my loved one at wii bowling just that once.
Cakes that work out just like you’d planned!
The joy of unwrapping gifts.
Climbing mountains in our drive way.
Coping with the crap and finding your way to the good stuff.
Friends who are always up for a chat.
Riding bikes.
Hearing the Kinder Budgies chatter in the background (mostly because it means I haven’t killed them!)
Good drugs when you need them.
Fresh bread.
Friends who twitter good stuff when I need it.
Snow in the living room.
My family… which goes without saying but is actually worth saying often.

“Me Two!”
“Me presents!”
“Me bifday!”

(created using digi scrap products – full credits here)

He loves cars and trucks and dinosaurs and cows.
He likes to dress up in skirts and wear pony tails and cuddle Barbie.

He fights with his sisters, pushes their buttons and wrecks their stuff.
He offers cuddles when his sisters are sad and delights when they read him a story.

He says “no!” and “mine” and “nooooooooooooooo!”
He says “lobot” and “man candy” and “fut up!”

He loves to get dirty, play in the mud, and dig in the sand.
He hates to be washed, wiped or change his clothes.

He doesn’t nap during the day and he is in love with his dummy.
He sleeps all night long, except when he wakes for an insane midnight chat.

He loves “fweet bikits” and pasta and apple and sausages and tomatoes and chippies and cheese and broccoli and olives and food in general
He hates pumpkin and banana.

He dances like a crazy man and sings only one song (Twinkle Twinkle).
He likes to watch Play School and “Shaun Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeip!”

He loves “WoWo”, except for when he doesn’t… then he loves “Hhharper”.
He wishes his sisters would “Play me… play meeeeeeeeee”.

He is wild and rough and throws a mean left hook.
He is loving and squishy and gives wet smooshey kisses.

He drives me insane, doesn’t listen and climbs onto and into everything.
He crawls into my lap and whispers ‘love oo mama’ in my ear.

Our baby boy.
The one we waited and waited and waited for.
The one with the white blonde curls and the deep blue eyes.
The one who melts my heart.
My boy is two.

This is Hamlet and part of his harem… He is rather handsome don’t you think?

I play at Wordless Wednesday and Five Minutes for Mom. Find more wordless wednesday at Technorati.

It’s not possible for me to choose a favourite photo… so I knew this tag from the lovely SquiggleMum was not going to be easy. How do I choose one photo from the seven gazillion I have on my EHD and safely stored away on CDs and DVDs?

I couldn’t name one sole favourite, but for the sake of just blogging something for this tag I went with one of the few photos we have with all of us in it.

We call it ‘The Zubert Photo’ because that is what we are all doing, zuberting each other (blowing rasberries), even Muski who is not quite six months old in this photo is zuberting my hand. We are not looking out best I must say, everyone giggling and pulling faces… but it’s a pretty good reflection of what our family is actually like, and so I do love it.

Will you look at how little Muski looks in this photo… he looks almost as bald as his father! Even the girls look little in this picture… how much do they change in just a year an a half!

Anyway… the aim of the game, which was dreamt up by Chantelle from fatmumslim, is to choose your favourite photo, blog it then tag some fellow bloggers to join in. So let’s see… who wants to play?

Possum and Bee
A Roaming Aussie Mum
and YOU… yes you… if you are reading this consider yourself tagged! Make sure you leave me a comment so I can come and see your favourite photo!

On more than one occasion in the past few weeks I’ve wondered what on earth I am doing.

Why on earth am I dragging two five year olds to rehearsal after rehearsal?
Why am I putting more make up on their little faces than most grown-ups ever wear?
Why has their hair had so much hair spray in it that sets harder than their bike helmets?
Why am I scouring chemists looking for exactly the right shade of red colour stay lipstick?
Why am I searching the very same chemists looking for something to get off the lipstick?
Why am I counting and checking 8 duck costumes?
Why am I reminding my girls that they can not sit while wearing their tu tus?
Why on earth have I said yes to them dancing in both concerts – meaning that spent a grand total of nine hours in the theatre yesterday?

What am I doing?
They are only little kids!
This is way too much, too serious, too soon.
This is surely madness.

But then I stood there with a handful of parents back stage, in front of the blurry TV monitor and I watched my girls dance.

They didn’t do a perfect job in either of their dances but they danced, on stage, in front of an audience with such confidence and such delight. They came back to the dressing rooms beaming with excitement and pride. When it came time for the finale of the morning concert they walked on stage, the last group to take their bow… and they bowed, and they bowed… and they bowed… and they bowed some more while the audience cheered, and giggled, and laughed… and they bowed… until the curtain closed.

Then they did it all again for the afternoon concert…. with just as much delight and excitement.

And if any of that left me with any doubt…. the finale of the last concert surely answered my questions. At the very end of the presentations two names were called, one for pre-primary classical and one for pre-primary tap. It took a moment for it to register then they smiled…. and walked up to get their medals and take yet another bow.

My girls are not the most confident, out-going children in the world… but it seems dancing is their ‘thing’. Dancing is where they shine and what makes them proud. All the crazy stuff and the insane running around is worth it. I’ll drive them to the ends of the earth, count and carry costumes till my arms ache, scrimp and save to pay for it all and spend hour after hour backstage…. all the effort is worth it, just to see them shine.

And today? Today they are back to being five year old girls. Playing outside in the sunshine and the dirt… with the medals safely tucked under their clothes!