Nothing Much To Do

If you ask Courtney, we did absolutely nothing today. Dad remembers it somewhat differently, waking up and making pancakes before heading down to our now ritual of arts and crafts at Bunnings.

Then after lunch, we took up the challenge of trying to make the largest bubble that the girls have ever seen, trying different solutions in our attempt.



Brooke had a sideline game going where she was trying to collect as many Rolly bugs as she could, putting them into one of Grandma's jeweller boxes...



Then the girls glued together every piece of scrap wood they could find in order to make a town and course for the match box cars and then this afternoon we (Dad walked) rode down to the shops for a milky way.



Perhaps Courtney was right – not much happened today.

First place

Today was the sports carnival at Courtney's school. She is so very proud of herself because she cam first in a running race. Apparently Mum was very proud, shouting out from the sidelines.

Historical Moment

Today Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, died after being struck in the chest with a stingray barb. The girls were always glued to the television when Steve was on.

Fathers Day

Yesterday, the girls went to the shops with Grandma, armed with a couple of dollars each to buy Dad a present. Three hours later they came home.

Fathers Day started with Courtney waking Dad, franticly saying “Dad, Dad… stay in bed okay!” A few minutes later, the girls came in with toast and a hot coffee. Dad was spoilt with a back massager, coffee mug, a key holder and key tag.



Dad also received a horse fridge magnet, a packet of colourful beads and a packet of open glitter glue pens. He also was given a nice book which contained pictures that the girls had drawn with the glitter glue pens….

We went back to Bunnings this morning for the kids workshop. Brooke had decided that the tool box that she made on Thursday, she wanted to give to Mum and the girls wanted to make another one for Grandad.





The girls spent a fair bit of the day blowing bubbles and this afternoon they rode (or got a tow on) their bikes to the park for a big play.






A really nice day.

Tool boxes at Bunnings

Tonight the girls went to Bunnings with Dad to attend a special craft workshop which was put on so girls (and other kids) could make something with their Dad. The project for the night was the kit toolbox that Bunnings sells.

Can't show the photo's just yet as it'll give away the surprise for those that may or may not be getting a tool b ox for Fathers Day.

The girls had a fantastic time. They're both fairly handy with a hammer but unfortunately they are not so versatile with a paint brush, getting paint all over their clothes.

The girls were spoilt by the Bunnings staff. Even after putting on the craft workshop, there was pizza, softdrink, a gift bag, mini putt golf and a raffle in which everyone (including Dad) got a gift.

School Excursion

Today Courtney's school went to the zoo. Her favourite animal there was the otter. We'll get her to write a story about it this weekend.

Sunday Sunday.

Lately Brooke has been trying very hard to stay in her own bed. That all got thrown out the window last night when she woke up, went to Grandma and Pa's room, switched on the ceiling light (obviously it was too dark) and jumped into bed. 20 minutes later, she announced that she was off to see Dad, jumped out of bed, switched off the light and went to Dad's room. There, she tickled Dad's foot until he woke up and then jumped in for a cuddle.

Today the girls went to Bunnings and made some letter holders in the arts-n-craft class and then we had a picnic at the five slide park where the girls stalked a duck for a while and then played in the play ground for ages.







Pa has planted a special "Courtney Brooke Mackenzie Lily" tree in the front yard.

Here She Is

Lilly Mae

Strange how the world works sometimes. After yesterdays sadness, today there is a lot of happiness. Thecranegirls have another cousin - Lilly Mae was born this evening and everyone is very excited to meet her. Hopefully we'll have a photo soon.

Farewell Little Pop

Sadly, the girls Great Grandfather, Little Pop passed away today after a battle with illness. We will all miss him very much. All is as well as it can be today.

Arts-n-Craft day

Brooke has been a little bit of, for want of a different term, a Mummy's girl lately. She has just prefered to be close to her Mum. So, she didn't sleep over last night. In some ways we think that Courtney might spend the whole week planting the seed in Brooke's head, because she loves having Dad, Grandma and Pa all to herself.

Today we heading down to Bunnings and CJ joined in the kids arts and crafts class. She made Mum a key board so she will never lose her keys again.



This afternoon, CJ continued to make craft items. She glued pop sticks together to make a house and then she painted it bright colours.

Recent photos

This week, Uncle Rob came for a visit and at last Courtney has stopped going on about when he is going to visit. CJ spent the afternoon making a spider web in the back of Pa's ute.



The other day, Brooke worked out she is old enough to make her own breakfast.

Life goes on

There is not really any great big news to report. The girls have both been carrying colds so that has kept us quiet on the weekends. The girls are really getting into having Grandma and Pa around, they love being spoilt.

Grandma has taken to paying the girls a gold coin each weekend when they clean their room and polish the furniture. CJ is saving her money for the Royal Show which means she will have about $10.00 by the end of September, should get her a hot dog and half a coke.

This week will see the 2nd anniversary of thecranegirls site. Although Dad has been a bit slow on the updates of late, it's still ticking along.

Illness

Both the girls have been a little unwell this week with the flu. Today was the first time that Courtney went to school this week but Brooke had to miss today. As always, you'd never know that they were sick, the girls still seem to have their sparkle.

Off to market

Yesterday Brooke wanted to stay home so Courtney had a sleep over all by herself and she made the most of it, getting spoilt by everyone around her.

Today Brooke joined in and we went to the markets in Waneroo. The girls bought something each from the two buck shop and they each had an icecream. All up a very quiet weekend.

Earrings come out

Tonight for the first time since they were put in, Courtney's earrings were taken out. In Courtney's mind it was going to hurt. Mum bribed her with an ice cream and she stood perfectly still waiting for Mum to pull the backing off. AS the tears welled in her eyes, Brooke came over and dabbed her wet eyes with her nigh nigh and then CJ noticed that Mum's hands had moved away and they were holding the earring.

Wide eyes like Christmas morning. 5 minutes later, CJ was putting in her own earrings.

Cup cake and missing teeth

Late last week, Mum kept the girls busy with something fun. She made a batch of small cup cakes and then the girls got to decorate them. The had hours of fun.



The weekend was fairly quite with a trip to Fun Station with Pa. On Monday night another of Courtney's teeth fell out. It appears that Brooke is starting to feel a little left out by the tooth fairy.

Economics

A couple of weeks ago, Grandma made the girls a simple deal. If they kept their rooms cleaned and the furniture polished for the week, she would pay them $1.00 each. Today the girls (with a little help) remembered to polish the bookshelf. They took every single book out of the shelf and piled them up on the bed and did a very thorough job. Grandma paid Courtney the money and then had her write a receipt. CJ then ran around the house making “business bills” (contracts) with everyone.

Censorship

Yesterday, Courtney asked that a previous post be edited and that a reference to a person be taken off their website. This blog is not open to free speech, it is the girl’s site and therefore has been removed.

I’m sure that Brooke won’t censor her comment on Sunday “I am an angel, I have blonde hair!”

Today, Courtney went to Natasha’s house for most of the day to play whilst Brooke helped Mum, Nana and Grandad with getting ready for a house inspection.

Google and Greyhounds

Last night Dad took the girls to see the Greyhounds. Although it was very cold outside, they both had a great time running around and cutting a rug on the dance floor. Courtney is now quite competent at filling in TAB tickets, although she and Brooke both seem to think that it's the same eight dogs each race.



Below is a picture of Brooke's diary. She writes pages and pages like this and they all mean something, to her. It's like a long story about fairies, ponies, horses and purple butterflies.



The funniest news was this morning when Courtney asked Dad "How do you spell heart?" A few minutes later, CJ comes out and asked for help with the computer... she wanted to learn how to use Google. Her query... "how do i win a boys heart"

We have no idea how she had worked out that Google will tell you the answer to everything.

Over the Hedge

The girls have done well for the the first day of the school holidays. Dad took them to the cinemas and we saw Over the Hedge. Not bad. Brooke got a little scared at the end when the bear was chasing the rest of the animals around.

School's out

This weekend the girls kept fairly quiet, gearing up for the school holidays. They have a fairly lengthy list of things that they want to do over the next few weeks, most of them costing money. Dad thought it was about time to survey the girls again.

Brooke;
Favourite food – Nutella Sandwich
Favourite drink - Coke
Favourite colour – Purple, blue and pink
Favourite song - My Little Pony
Favourite movie - Cars
Favourite place – Cinema
Favourite thing to do at school - Painting
What do you dislike? – “When Ryan doesn’t play with me”
What do you want to do when you grow up? – “Run like a horse”
What is your first memory? – “Playing with my horse” (at her 4th birthday)

Courtney;
Favourite food – Banana
Favourite drink - Milk
Favourite colour – Light blue
Favourite song – I Like to Sing
Favourite movie - Madagascar
Favourite place - Home
Favourite thing to do at school – Silent drawing
What do you dislike? – Isaac (but read on)
What do you want to do when you grow up? – “A rock star or a singer”
What is your first memory? – “My 3rd Christmas, at Nana and Grandad’s house”



The Fringe


Fancy Dress

Happy Birthday James

Unfortunately, the distance between us meant the girls missed out on James’ pirate birthday party – Happy 5th Birthday James.


James - The Pirate


Cameron


Uncle Gavin and Marcus


Uncle Scott and Mackenzie


Aunty Tarita and ...

Not much to say

Not really much has happened this week. Mum and Dad took the girls to Sizzler earlier in the week and again we are reminded that the girls are not the greatest eaters and that it is salad bar only for them from now on.

The weekend got off to a bit of a slow start with Dad spending most of Saturday on the couch The girls wanted to enjoy the weather and went riding on their bikes.

HAPPY Birthday to James and we hope that his pirate party went really well.

Moment of the week: Brooke watching a wedding on TV with Dad, Grandma and Pa. When the bride and groom kissed Brooke says, "Now they can sleep with each other".... Silence....

Scitech

Today has been full on. A lunch time the girls went to Natasha's birthday party at Go Bananas and then this evening we went to Scitech with Pa.

Brooke liked the 3D shark movie but once again the girls couldn't get enough of the construction site, they could have spent all night there.

Comedy Act

Today Courtney appeared in her schools talent quest at assembly. She and Madison W put on a comedy skit, telling jokes to the rest of the school. Surprisingly, Courtney was very dynamic when she was telling the jokes, it was very interesting seeing her being 'over the top' in public.

Q. Why did the toilet roll, roll down the hill...?
A. To get to the bottom.

Courtney also received a Merit Certificate for her recent efforts at school, so she is pretty pleased with herself today... and so are we.

A winter weekend.

This weekend the girls went to saw Cars at the cinemas. It wasn't a bad movie but we'd suggest that you wait until the DVD comes out. Even considering that the girls were very tired last night, they have not really mentioned the movie today.

What is the answer?

This morning Grandma made the girls breakfast. She ended up in a dead discussion with Brooke as to when a piklet becomes big enough to be called a pancake. Apparently Brooke will not accept piklets for breakfast.

School Assembly

Today Courtney’s class performed at the school assembly. Unfortunately the kindy kids do not get to go and watch but Dad, Pa, Nana and Grandad braved the cold to go and watch. CJ’s class sang songs about mosquitoes and other insects.

Afterwards, everyone got to visit CJ’s class room and she proudly showed everyone all the work she has been doing at school lately. After about ten minutes, she got bored of entertaining the adults and took off to play games with her friends.

Fancy Dress Day

Today was fancy dress day at the girls school. Courtney was a princess and Brooke was the "Bunny Easter". Both were very excited and they looked gorgeous. Dad got to stay on as duty parent in Brooke's class room, to see what they got up to.



This afternoon Pa and Dad took Courtney to her swimming class. She has a really different type of teacher. This lady Dad can only describe as a Russian gym coach, she yells at the kids, splashes water in their faces when they are not listening etc... Dad was just about to pull Courtney out when he noticed that all the kids love this teacher... strange.

Public Holiday

This week CJ's class are performing at the school assembly. Yesterday, Grandma asked Courtney if she knew why she was getting a public holiday. CJ answered "Yer, because we have such a busy week coming up, getting ready for assembly."

Dad's return

Dad is back in Perth and he was very keen to see the girls. After spending a week or so with James, Cameron and Marcus, Dad is very glad to back around quiet little ladies with some sense of fear.

Over the last couple of weeks the girls have been very busy. They have been on holidays to Busselton with Nana and Grandad but the only stories we've managed to get so far is that they saw somewhere where Grandad grew up and Nana caught a "Spiky Fish" on the jetty.

Today Dad, Pa and the girls had a picnic in the park. Brooke is getting very good at herding ducks away from her sandwhiches.

Mackenzie at 1 week - more on the photo page

Welcome Mackenzie Kate

A great answer

Mum (inspecting the days lunchbox) : "Courtney, you didn't eat your apple"
Courtney : "I don't have any teeth" (flashing and pointing to her one tooth smile)

The sore head

Courtney got hit in the head with a rock today. Apparently the rock was about the same size as her head… I guess were lucky that she wasn’t seriously hurt. It appears that Isaac was trying to build big muscles in order to impress one of the girls in year five and he accidentally lobbed the rock on Courtney’s head as he threw it down – something like that.

Happy Mothers Day

On Friday the girls played up at netball, they were obviously making themselves well known the staff at the netball centre. One of the ladies told Mum that they were running around, causing a disturbance, the girls version is that they were being chased by boys.

As punishment for their ruckus at the netball, the girls have been banned from watching television, playing on the Playstation or using the computer all weekend and it must be said that they took it very well. In fact, Courtney spent most of the weekend reminding people that she had to obey the rules.

This morning the girls jumped into bed with Grandma and without trying, made her Mothers Day rather special. There was tears though when Brooke wanted to give Grandma’s card to Mum because she liked the butterflies on the cover… Guess who gave in first, Grandma or Brooke?

This afternoon, we took the bikes for a ride, which the girls always love doing and then the girls had their first ever ride on the back of a ute. Honestly, we only went about 5 km/h.

This weekend coming the girls are going on holidays with Nana and Granddad and they are really looking forward to getting away and going fishing.

Historical Event

Grant Webb and Todd Russell are freed after being trapped for 14 days in a gold mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania.

It begins

Grandma and Pa have arrived in town and the girls are jostling for Pa’s attention. Last night, Mum took the girls over their house to say hello and it appears that Pa paid too much attention to Brooke so suddenly Courtney had a sore throat and needed to be carried out to the car when it was time to go. There will be some interesting times ahead.

This weekend the girls are off to Brookton to visit Maddison, Courtney’s mate from school last year.

Not much to report

Today the girls went to Holly's 4th birthday party. It was a fairy party so the girls got to dress up in their outfits (photos on the other page)

It starts early

Today, Mum showed Dad how Courtney had collected over $70.00 in birthday, Christmas and Tooth Fairy money. Courtney wanted to go to the shops and spend $10.00 on buying some magnets. Like all good young ladies, she ended up coming home from the shops after spending 3 times more than she had planned. CJ spent $35.00 odd dollars on buying a board game.

Dad is now banned on taking Courtney shopping. Rightly so as Mouse Trap, the board game she bought has about 30 small parts and if a single piece goes missing it won't work. Not to mention that it's a little bit advanced for Brooke and there are bound to be some arguments coming up.

Donnybrook

Over the last few days, the girls have been down South. On Saturday we drove down to Donnybrook where the girls got to meet Isobelle and Aidan. The girls had a really great time, playing, feeding the neighbour's chickens and what ever else we could find to do. Dad had a good time drinking the local moonshine.

On Sunday we all took a day trip over to Nannup and had a BBQ (sometimes in the rain) at Barrabup Pool. The girls had a great time helping collect firewood, throwing dead leaves in the air and trying to catch marron with sticks. Both the girls were quite amazed that food could be cooked over a fire.

On the way home today, we dropped in an saw Dad's boss. Whilst playing there we found out that Courtney is above par with a hula-hoop.

Courtney's Birthday

Courtney seems to have had a great day. One of the special highlights was when she let Brooke open one of her presents, for no other reason than wanting Brooke to feel apart of it. I doubt that the little sister would have been so generous.

Obviously CJ got spoilt, jewellery, clothes, a television and a lamp for her room, pencils etc.

Instead of a party, Courtney wanted to go to the cinemas, which was fine with Mum and Dad. We took CJ's school friend, Mya (Dad'll check that spelling) and we watched Ice Age II which was pretty good.

Tonight we all had dinner at Nana and Grandad's house and Nana made fried rice just for Courtney becuase that's what she wanted for her birthday dinner.

Dad's camera went flat during the day, Hopefully we'll get some of the photos that Uncle Brad took soon.

Turn on your Child Locks

For some unknown reason, Brooke had an absolute brain fizzle today and decided it would be a good idea to open the door of a moving car, giving Nana and Grandad heart attacks in the process. None of us can understand why she would even contemplate doing such a thing...

In better news, here is a sneak preview of Courtney's birthday tomorrow.

Easter time

Well, without very much fuss being made at all, the Easter Bunny came to the girls house again this year. It really didn't seem to be a very big event for either of the girls, not that they are complaining about the Easter Eggs.

Now we're all getting ready for school holidays and most importantly, Courtney's birthday on Wednesday. She is not having a party this year, she is taking a friend, Maya, to the movies to go and see Ice Age II

P.S - If anyone can see a 7 year old in the photo above - don't tell her grandparents

A new scar

Brooke came home from school the other day, sporting a new graze to her forehead. Nothing serious, just one of those little bumps on the head she'll get from running where she shouldn't.



Also worth mentioning. Courtney was telling Dad how she found out the other night that she quite likes "French Food" - satay sticks, spring rolls... that sort of thing.

Mum recalls that is was Thai. We have no idea where CJ got French.

Happy Birthday Mum

Today the girls had an Easter Parade at their school. All of the classes made Easter hats and then the kids got to show them off. The girls are starting to get keen on the idea of the Easter Bunny coming to town. They are not as excited as at Christmas time, just a general interest but no counting down the days just yet.

'No Boys Allowed'

Don't remember if it has been mentioned in the past. For about a month now, Brooke has left a little cushion with "No Boys Allowed" written on it, guarding the threshold to her bedroom. Even when she is upset and crying, boys (including Dad) are not allowed in her bedroom.

Sorry

Another week that is light on information. We can report that Brooke is very proud to be her classes "Tap Monitor", it's her job to make sure that the tap is turned off - very big responsibility for a 4 year old.

Dad's going out this weekend, celebrating two years in the city and then a wedding on Saturday. Maybe there will be some new photos on Sunday.

No News week

Not really much to report this week. Dad has been working too many hours and has not seen very much of the girls this week. Maybe soon there will be some more tales to tell.

Where did he go?

An interesting story from the weekend.

While the girls were on their way to Adventure World, they were chatting away together in the car. Dad manage to catch the tail end of a conversation which ended with Courtney saying, "I don't know where he died, I guess he went back to Queensland."

When quizzed Courtney told Dad that she and Brooke had been talking about Easter and where Jesus was when he died.

We're guessing Pa had something to do with this?

Adventure World (again)

The girls went to Adventure World again today. As always they had a great time although Brooke was a bit 'standoffish', not wanting to go down the water slides or go swimming. Still they went of a few rides and were really good (understanding) when they had to take turns or miss out on doing certain things because of the odd number.

Maybe next year, we'll only go once. We don't think the girls (as always) understand how good they have it.

It's all in the name

With Easter getting closer, Dad bought the girls some hot-cross-buns which they outright refused to even try, claiming that they had tried them before and that they definately did not like them.

20 mintues later... Brooke loves the 'rasin toast' that Dad made, it's just like the toast the Nana makes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTY JODIE

Brooke's 4th Birthday

Today was Brooke's 4th Birthday. Both the girls were very excited and could hardly wait to get into their party dresses. Brooke had some friends from school and her swimming class come over for a small party and then she got to have her My Little Pony birthday cake.

She was (as always) spoilt by everyone's presents, so far her favorite is the Pegasus and Cloud Queen (Barbie)

After her party, Brooke went with Auntie Kirstie for a play at her house and then we all had dinner at Nana and Grandad's - followed by another birthday cake.

The Beach

This afternoon, Dad and the girls went down to the beach and made sandcastles and played in ankle deep water. The girls loved it and no doubt we'll be going back before the end of summer.

Will it ever end?

Yesterday Courtney went to see the Doctor, with a view of getting the manky plaster taken off her arm. After getting it wet in the bath and Nana's pool, not to mention the paint, tomato sauce etc that was on it, the cast needed to be changed and was no longer offering any support.

The Doctor took the cast off and did not replace it - seems she is on the mend.

Then today, whilst playing at school, one of Courtney's friends swung he hand back and struck CJ in the face, knocking out another tooth. Unfortunately "the tooth landed on Madison's shoe, but she thought it was a coconut, so it's in ESC"

CJ wrote the Tooth Fairy a note which explained where she could find the tooth.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.