Cowebs

Recently our house was infested with cobwebs…these were no ordinary cobwebs….man girl made actually. It all started after a wonderful roast lamb dinner in early July celebrating Nana Hogg's birthday. Once the dessert has been devoured, the girls disappeared from the dinner table leaving the adults to enjoy some uninterrupted conversation!

We should have twigged earlier due to the unusual quietness of the girls play…however when we eventually did get up we discovered the it was almost impossible to walk down the hallway! The girls had unwound balls of wool then strung them around anything and everything! After negotiating the  hallway, we discovered the lounge room was decorated even more impressively! The photos below do not do this creative project justice. Unfortunately moments after these photos, it was apparent that some anchor points were not as robust as others as my potted orchid came crashing down off the bookcase...

The next day, one of Ella's friends came over for a play and with wool cobwebs fresh in her mind this was the results. Luckily this web was only confined to Ella's bedroom and kept them entertained for quite some time….

Child Swap

The girls have been nagging us for some time to invite a friend over for a sleepover. We finally bit the bullet and joined forces with the Jones/Walter Family. In an attempt to keep everything fair, it was decided (all very last minute on a Friday afternoon) that Ella would sleepover at Max's house and Mira would join Katy at our place.

Both houses looked very similar post dinner and needless to say everyone enjoyed the experience!

Inspiration by Observation

Last week, Ella told us that under no condition were we to enter her room as she was completing some secret business. Turns out she was creating clothes for three of her soft animals. The designs were inspired by the clothes worn by Elsa and Ana (from Frozen of course.) Ella had raided the sewing basket where she'd found blue, white and red pieces of scrap fabric which she then safety pinned together around each animal!

As the sewing machine was already out, it was decided that instead of reading, we could do some sewing together. Under my guiding hand, Ella sewed a skirt, top and cape for Grace (galah), Leppie (leopard) and Christmas Bear. She was very pleased with herself and with the end products.

I suspect that this sudden interest in sewing was a result of watching my attempts to salvage a set of Ikea chair covers. Unfortunately I inadvertently chosen covers to fit dinning chairs rather than barstools and so it seemed easier to adjust these ones rather than to drive to Sydney to swap them! Despite taking a few hours each, I think they fit fairly well.

Finally!

The ballet uniforms have finally arrived…only about 4 months late! The girls enjoy ballet even more now :) Poor little Alma has quite a wait for her turn. Rumour has it that the end of year production held at the Canberra Theatre is based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Long Weekend Ride

On the Monday of the recent long weekend, we decided to have a family outing…on bikes! Despite the slightly cooler conditions, we headed off with a picnic lunch for a lap of Lake Ginninderra. The girls had previously completed a lap of the lake on their bikes, however on that occasion we had driven down and parked at John Knight Park.

The ride to the lake was nice and easily slightly downhill and soon we'd found ourselves heading in an anti-clockwise direction. All smooth going around the eastern side of the lake. Everyone walked the steep pinch up to Ginninderra Drive. Ella expressed her future desire to be able to ride up it next time without stopping.

We opted not to venture around the peninsula as we thought we'd already chewed off enough! A brief stop on the next bridge to discuss the buoys on the lake which had caught the girls attention. Our lunch spot eventually came into view at just the right moment as energy levels were beginning to wane. A play on the flying fox (Ella) and the spider's web (Katy) before devouring our sandwiches, biscuits and fruit. Our stop was cut short by a brief shower and everyone starting to feel the cold.

We were happily travelling along the western side of the lake as Katy decided to stand up to pedal when her foot slipped off the pedal and she came crashing down. Although only having a little scrap on her knee, it was some time before Katy regained her composure enough to start riding again.

Fortunately we could use the cafe Black Pepper and the enticement of a hot chocolate with marshmallows to encourage the girls on! Andy who was on his annual self inflicted one week coffee free break also had to settle on a hot chocolate too!

With bodies thawed out and tummies warm, we pushed on for the final assault home. We were making good progress crossing Belconnen Way where we came across a small jack russell on the bike path. At first we thought it was trotting along behind it's owner however we soon realised it was lost. There was no way we were going to leave it, so luckily Andy managed to use a strap from his bag as a makeshift lead and walked back home with him. Meanwhile all the girls quickly returned home to call the ranger. It soon became apparent that being a public holiday meant that the ranger services were limited and we would need to drop the dog off at the RSPCA which we did.