First of all, please do excuse any typos, it’s 2am here and I’m very tired!
Well, the holidays have absolutely flown by for us. I can’t believe there’s only one more day left until Gwen’s back to school. I haven’t done NEAR as much what I wanted to do with her this holidays, so I’m having a bit of mummy guilt, but I have enjoyed just having her at home with me again. As much as I do love her being at school (especially when she’s a being a pain in the rear!), I do miss having her at home sometimes.
Anyhow, after a blissful sleep-in today we spent the afternoon shopping with her dad and grandma which was lovely. We spent an hour or two at home this afternoon (playing with some froggies!) before going over to our friends place for the night. Well, we were just going for a tea and a quick visit, but it turned into an all night bludge and have a chat on the couch which was lovely, we haven’t done it in ages! Gwen had a marvelous time playing with Jack & Alex, and she was so well behaved tonight on the way home. Not a tantrum when we had to leave (although I’m sure the two biscuits she had right before leaving did sweeten the deal a bit!), she ate a *whole* banana in the car on the way home for dinner (*ahem*.. 11pm dinner, a banana in the car. No mother of the year award there!), got herself dressed when we got home, brushed her teeth without arguing, and here’s the clincher – She let me brushed her whole head of matted hair without a single tear or whinge!! (erm, see very, very messy hair in photos.. those are 2 day old plats lol). She finally went to sleep like a dream at 12am lol, 7:30pm tomorrow, here we come!
All in all it’s been a lovely day, other then the fact that I’ve hurt my back somehow, and now I’m in a lot of pain.. Boo hoo, I know, I shouldn’t whinge! I hope it’s not too bad tomorrow!
Here’s my squinty eye’d girl, that decided it’d be far nicer to play with her toes then pose for me.

Now, we have a little pond out on our front porch, so we have little frogs everywhere!! They’re THE cutest little things you’ll ever see, and they’re deceivingly small! They’re the most gorgeous little frogs, they sit out there and croak all night (although, sometimes it’d be nice if they stopped at bedtime!). If you go out during the day, they all hop away and hide so fast, it’s hard to see them, but if you go out with a torch at night time it’s spectacular. I’ve never seen a frog croak in person, but if you shine light on the lilypads, you see all these little frogs with their throats puffed out, croaking away to each other. It’s spectacular to watch!

Here’s how tiny he is, he’s smaller then my fingertip!!

Here’s Gwen inspecting the frog on my fingertip. She wasn’t keen on holding it at all!

I do actually have a little story to go with this frog if anyone actually wants to indulge me and read along! It’s actually quite scary! He was sitting on the leaf (in the first photo) just minding his own business, so I picked him up (well, it wasn’t that easy, it took me a few minutes to catch him lol) to show Gwen. Anyhow, after a few minutes of holding him, taking photos etc, Gwen wanted to put him in a bowl to see him swim. Well, he didn’t want to do that lol. He just kept climbing to the edge which was very cute in itself, it was like he was popping up to say hello! Anyhow, The poor little thing had enough of us, so he made one swift hop over to the wooded retaining wall, when all of a sudden this huntsman literally jumped on the poor, beautiful little baby frog. Oh my gosh, I wanted to cry!
Thankfully for a bit of fast thinking, I chucked the bowl of water he was swimming in on to the spider and poked him with a stick a few times to make him let the frog go (he HAD him in his fangs!!). Rather sadly, I thought it was too late for the little fellow. He wasn’t moving much, and I was trying to pick him up out of a hole with a leaf to move him away from the spider but he just got more still. I wanted to cry, he was just sitting up on the leaf so innocently! His little heart was still beating so I put him in the pond hoping he’d swim away, but he just sat there, his legs didn’t even come out into a star. Oh my gosh, what did we do?? Anyhow, after about 5 minutes of poking and prodding in the water, he hopped out onto a pipe and sat there quite happily. Gosh, I don’t know if he was just playing dead (I probably would have too, if I was just in a spiders jaws!), or if the spider really did stun him. Either way, I’m glad the poor little fellow’s ok! I’ve never felt so bad about picking up a frog in my life lol. I won’t even think about WHY that naughty spider has a home right next to the pond.
Here he is, peeking out of the bowl.

Here’s said spider. He was actually VERY big!! Ewww it gives me the creeps just looking at it!

And here he is after he jumped out of the pond with a second chance at life. I didn’t take any photos of him um.. Floating. I was too distressed, and that would have been rather morbid, considering I did actually think he was dead lol.

Here’s our little self proclaimed Canadian. She’s sooo… Patriotic.

Another of our beautiful little green froggies.

Here’s the kids tonight, proud of their block tower they made. Mr Pose at Mum, Miss Cheesy, and Mr Stiff. Always entertaining in photos! (note Gwens horrendously messy hair. Under that scarf is plenty of matted knots, and the plats were like 2 big dreads. Ah, that’ll blame me for telling her that when it’s the weekend, I don’t have to do her hair. I’m not even allowed to BRUSH it some weekend days!)

Oh dear, Gwen got a little cranky when it got knocked over! Lucky it was short lived crankiness!

Here they are building another tower. Love Jacks cheesy grin on the right lol.

Since Gwen started school at the beginning of the year, as much as she loves her new school friends she desperately misses her close friends who she spent the last year or two with numerous times a week. The school holidays have been great, if only for the fact that she’s been able to play with her friends a little more. I haven’t done as many productive things this holidays with her like I was originally going to (they seem to have gotten away from me, only 2 days left and it’s back to school already!) which is a bummer, I’ll just have to try and do something tomorrow, Monday, and then after school some days to make up for it!
Now, I did mention in my January POTD that Gwen has a terrible fear of heights. This is one of the parks where I really see it over come her. This slide is actually quite scary to get to. It’s really very hard to explain, but there’s no platform to stand on, only skinny beams you have to climb across to get to it and they’re high! It really is the most ill designed slide I’ve seen, but most kids seem to love it. It’s just terrible for the littlies. Gwen turns into a stiff, sobbing mess when she tries to climb it, and one day I affectionately (albeit angrily!) named the way she COULD go the “Chicken way”.. It went something a long the lines of “Fine, if you don’t trust me to help you without letting you fall, go the chicken way then!!!” Oh dear, that certainly didn’t win me any mother of the year award lol. Needless to say, the name has stuck, Gwen now calls it the “chicken way herself”. I live in hope that one day she’ll actually give it another go. I’ll really never understand how phobias appear of nowhere!
Anyhow, here she is at the top of the slide after climbing all by herself – The chicken way!! Looking mighty proud of herself too.

Here’s Gwen and her friend Sammy who’s let me think, about 1.5 years younger or so, and brave enough to climb the slide the tricky (read: correct) way, even if it was a bit scary and he did need a bit of coaxing at first! He was so very proud when he made it there himself. Maybe if we go a little more regularly, Gwen will learn from her younger peers and get the courage to try again!

Another quick one from me tonight I’m afraid! I did have more plans for today, but after puncturing a tyre on my car and having a flat camera battery (whoops!), it just didn’t really happen for me today!
Now technically, because this was taken after midnight I *should* be using it for tomorrows post but I’ll let it slide because I was so slack and took nothing else today! Every night Gwen goes to sleep with 2 things. One of her Carebears, and a white terry towel. She hugs bot to sleep, but I usually end up moving the terry (like tonight) because she has it right up around her face and the sweats and gets so hot! So here she is, beautifully peaceful – Asleep with her Carebear.. This one’s a collectors edition gold bear (with beautiful swarovski crystal eyes and gold fur, the photo doesn’t do him justice!) so he doesn’t have a real Carebear name. She’s affectionately named him Goldie.

Amanda: Amazing angel shots and who do to an angel better then Gwen.
Gray: These are so beautiful and sweet. What wonderful images to get of your sweet little girl. You both looked like you had lots of fun too!
IamMel: She is quite possibly the most beautiful child ever! I adore her poses she is a natural. I can't pick a fav they are all insanely gorgeous but that last one does it for me. How do you choose what to put on your walls??
Renee Bell: lovely as always... these wings are divine!~!!
Karen Pfeiffer: Oh holy cow these are stunning. Just stunning. Thank you for sharing!!
shehana: She is stunning. The perfect Angel! She is such natural model.