Helicopter madness

For Andrew's birthday he decided he wanted a model helicopter. During his week of 'looking after his wife and children' he spent a lot of time researching and buying the components for the chopper. Lots of strange boxes started arriving last week and now he is busy putting everything together. Too bad the pizza oven isn't finished yet! Maybe I should hide the remote control until the final inspection is signed off by the county?

The ironic thing is that on Saturday Andrew and Lucy went to the hardware store (to get a washer for our leaking tap) and the kids craft for the month was making a wooden helicopter! It was so funny to see the two helicopters together and very coincidental.

The wonders of audiobooks

This year I read Anna Karenina. Correction, this year I listened to Anna Karenina. Often voted as one of the best books ever written I always wanted to read it but was scared off by the complicated Russian naming conventions. So I decided to give an audiobook a try. After 36 hours of listening to the wonderful Davina Porter I was sad for the book to finish. She had different voices for all the characters and it was very easy to follow who was who. And I agree it is a fantastic book. It's just a pity that three books I read this year gave away one of the major plot developments (The Unbearable Lightness of Being;The Year of Living Biblically; The Elegance of the Hedgehog) It is amazing that I have lived for 34 years without knowing this plot development and then within 3 months whilst reading AK, 3 different books give it away!

I have two more audio books downloaded to listen to: The Canterbury Tales and Atlas Shrugged.

Check out audible.com for lots of different books and get listening!

Purple pals

Lucy and I cooked a chocolate caramel slice last week for Jackie's baby shower. Here we are in matching purple aprons - thanks to Alexis and Lilia!Lucy loved getting her hands into the biscuit base and squishing it around - almost as much as she enjoyed licking the condensed milk off the spoon.

Not Americanized yet?

Recently I didn't drive for about 2 weeks, 1 week before Henry was born and 1 week afterwards. Once I got back in the car it felt really strange to be sitting in the drivers seat on the left hand side of the car. Don't worry I drove on the correct side of the road, I just felt that something wasn't quite right. As much as I rail against strange American things I really do like living here. But it isn't home and the strange feeling I was experiencing just goes to prove that I'm not Americanised yet!!

Weekend happenings

This weekend was a fun one for us and the start of a new kind of normal for our family. The fun all started on Friday with a special playdate at Jackie and Ben's for Lucy. She had a fun and crazy 2 hours with her friends Ben, Lilia and Dominic whilst I had a two hour lie down at home (after I had organised the termite inspection guy to look around the house) On Friday afternoon our good friend Betsy (who looked after Lucy from 3am during Henry's birth) came over for a visit and a chat.

On Saturday we abandoned our regular pancake breakfast and headed out to Sweet & Savoury. The great thing about this place is that you always bump into friends and this day was no exception as we saw the Goss family & Fanie, and Kate. Whilst we were tempted to then ride over to the beach we resisted as it just would have been too much! In the afternoon I headed over to Alexis' house for a baby shower for Jackie. I made a diaper cake with a safari theme (photo above) and it was surprisingly easy to make - it took longer to plan and shop for than to put together. It was a lovely afternoon tea and the hostess with the mostess put on a great party. I won the word game so went home with a lovely Vera Bradley purse. Henry who was the only male present behaved like a gentleman for most of the time.

On Sunday we headed to church for the end of summer mission service - part rock concert, part church service. Afterwards we offered to make Lucy pancakes for lunch but she wouldn't have any of it as she insisted that pancakes can only be eaten for breakfast. Lucy then had a 3 hour nap, Henry had a 2.5 hour nap and I had a 2 hour nap whilst Andrew worked on the pizza oven to finish all the tiling. At 5pm Bill & Mary Lou (Poppy and Grammy Lou) came over with dinner and we had a lovely time catching up and eating together. Lucy was showing off to the maximum as the poor girl feels starved of attention. She makes up the most amazing songs and today she made up one about Jesus taking her to the moon.

Henry Thoms

We praise God for the safe and healthy birth of

Henry Lamberton Thoms

on 6th July 2009 at 4 pm

weighing 4.2 kg (9 lbs 4oz) and measuring 53 cm (21 inches)

Fiona and Henry are both doing well and are now at home.

Independence Day Weekend

Did you have a good fourth? That's the question everyone asks around here and yes we did have a good fourth even if Baby Thoms didn't make an appearance. Our good friends Alexis & Tim invited us to a cookout on Saturday. Lucy spent about 2 hours in the pool swimming by herself(!) with the appropriate swimming vest on. We ate cheeseburgers and hot dogs and tried to stay cool. Then we headed downtown to enjoy the fireworks from the riverfront boardwalk in front of the Tea Room. We had an awesome time and Lucy couldn't stop saying 'whoa' at all the different fireworks which lasted for 20 minutes. We ate chocolate desserts, the kids waved red white and blue glow sticks and the adults chatted. It was such a fun time! The rest of the weekend was spent watching Wimbledon, working on the pizza oven and just waiting...