Typical of Elisa these days

What a cutie though huh! This page, and the previous post of Brooke's joke, were both done using quick pages ready made by someone else. I just added photos, journalling and titles. Gotta love the generosity of designers to give stuff like this away for free :)

Brooke the jokester

She must get her sense of humour from Regan. Betcha he'd "get it".

She's a star alright

Brooke had a GREAT day today. Her teacher spoke to us after school and said how well Brooke is doing with her reading, and that she advanced 3-4 reading levels today. She will get a more formal assessment tomorrow to see if she needs to go even higher. I'd been wondering if the books she was bringing home weren't too easy for her, but the teacher is obviously on top of things and we're all very happy. THEN, we went to swimming lessons after school where Brooke shone again. At the end of the lesson the instructor pulled her and another boy aside and advanced them to the next class. Our wee Brooke is now in the Bubble Fish class! :D

This means that her swim class changes from a Wednesday to a Friday at 5pm. We'll see how it goes - we can change days if we have to, but this was the smallest class, and I think the less kids in a class the better.

So, to celebrate her accomplishments, I took her out for a special Mummy/daughter dinner. (DH was working, and Elisa went down to Mum and Dad's today for a few nights). I thought she'd choose McDonalds or Burger King, but she surprised me and wanted Subway. After that we went to the Toy Library where she got to choose whatever she wanted to play with. We got home in time to read some books, look through her homework, and talk to Elisa and Nanny on Skype. She missed Elisa already, and couldn't go to bed without saying goodnight to her.

When I told her I was so proud of her, she asked why. I said I was proud because she moved up several levels in reading, she advanced a class at swimming, she was making really good friends at school, and she was a great helper at home. All these things showed me that she was trying hard at everything she did, and I was proud of her for doing that. She got all shy with that answer but said thanks and gave me a big hug.

I was all set to sit down and scrap a page about it, but time has flown, and I need an early night tonight. For family members reading this, if you could leave Brooke a wee comment here, I think she'd really love that. She really is doing so well in so many areas.

Project 365

One big circus

We took the girls to see Weber Bros Circus - Shokarn last night. It started at 7.30pm, so we weren't sure how Elisa would manage, but she was fine. Both girls loved it - in fact we all did. Going to the circus isn't so cheap these days - it cost us $78 for the cheap seats, but it's a once a year thing, and the girls love it, so we go. We didn't get home till 10pm, by which time both kids were sooooooooooooooooooo tired, but as usual they were up at the crack of dawn, happy and playful as usual. I might have to enforce some naptime this afternoon.

Here are my latest layouts for Sya's Creative Team.

Credits HERE.


Credits HERE.

Project 365 week 5

I really like this template by ChrissyW - it allows for a bit more journalling than the other pages.

Congratulations

We got some wonderful news on Valentines Day. With most of my family at my place for a long awaited BBQ (that's a whole other story by itself, LOL) my brother Regan called from Australia. He and Danielle are expecting TWINS! You should've heard the raucous all around me as I opened his email to see pictures of the ultrasound. What an amazing blessing! We are all so very happy for them and pray that things will go well for the remainder of the pregnancy and delivery. Two days later we are still buzzing. I sent them this:

More pages

Elisa is a lot better. Murphy's Law says she'll improve the minute you see the doctor, and that's just what happened. Again. I'd tell you what we did the rest of the week, but you can see it in my latest 365 page:

Project 365

So my photo a day thing is going OK. I sometimes only remember to take a photo at the last minute, but at least I've remembered. Here is my page with last week's photos:


Credits:
Page design by me
Balderdash borders by Rachel Martin
Button Down Days by BellaGypsy Designs
Ruffle Blooms by Laura Bratcher

Back to school

Brooke has been ever so eager to get back to school and see her friends. She was perfectly happy to go into her new class with new teacher on Monday, and has only had good things to say about being back at school. I can't tell you how that eases my heart.



Elisa on the other hand has been under the weather for 3-4 days now. She's not eating, is super clingy with me, and is sleeping a lot more during the day. She doesn't appear to be teething, doesn't have a particularly high temperature, and her ears, throat and belly seem fine. The doctor agreed today - no specific findings - which doesn't really help me much. So...we're just going to have to see how things progress. Poor little mite.



I have to say that the cleaning routine I put in place a month ago is working like a dream. You would not believe how organised I am now, and I'm really loving it. I'm even remembering now to water my plants (something I always forgot), clean the fish bowl (poor things only got cleaned when the water was so murky we couldn't see them), and wash my inside windows (another thing that only happened during spring cleaning). It helps that everything is written down too, because my mind is like a sieve some days. LOL. I've even scheduled paperwork/filing time on Fridays too, so I don't have a huge pile of unorganised mail on my desk anymore - it's all in it's proper place, or in the waiting-to-be-actioned file. Woohoo! I'm finding I have so much more time to spend with the girls (once the cleaning is done) each day, whereas before I would constantly be thinking about what else needs cleaning, or going off to actually clean/tidy something. Now I know I can leave it till the plotted day/time that is in the schedule, and relax with the kids. I really do feel more efficient, and at peace too. It's a nice feeling.

As always, I've managed to scrap a few more pages of the girls: