Each day before we leave to take Grace to school, the children race down to say good morning to the 'girls'. 

Who now, much to Bern's disgust, are now known as Mrs Bennett from Pride & Prejudice (did her character ever remind anyone else of a neurotic mother hen?), Little One and Sweetsies (Grace's choices). 

Then, as soon as Grace has changed into her play clothes after school, they are both back down at the hen house, chatting away to the hens. Who usually cower in the corner. 

This afternoon, however, we managed to have a little pat. Although the cock-a-oodles (as Charlie insists on calling them) were not terribly impressed with all the attention they received.

But we may have scared one of them more than we realised. Guess what we found this evening when Grace and I went down to feed them?

Our first egg. 

This week we won two Silver Pencilled Pekin bantams on TradeMe.  Before we had built their accommodation. Talk about putting the horse before the cart. Or, more accurately, the chickens before the hen house.

 

So guess what we spent the weekend frantically building? Luckily for us, there was an old wooden glasshouse frame at the bottom of our yard. Which has been given a new lease of life courtesy of Bern and Grace.

It's not quite finished yet but our three new feathered friends (when we went to pick up the hens we were given another one for free) were so traumatised by their small but enthusiastic welcoming committee that they didn't seem to mind one bit. 

After a baking disaster courtesy of the oven being opened repeatedly by an impatient kitchen hand who shall not be named, what was meant to be a lovely cake for Bern's birthday today flopped. Literally. In a very big way. So what was meant to be a layer cake quickly became a bombe alaska, courtesy of my good friend Donna Hay. Vanilla icecream in the middle, followed by a layer of (salvaged) chocolate cake, finished with thick meringue. Sounds crazy, putting an icecream-filled cake in the oven to brown the meringue, but miraculously it worked. 
 

Definitely not the prettiest birthday cake around. But our taste-testers were happy. And so was the birthday boy. Happy Birthday honey!!

Guess who received her first merit certificate at assembly today?!

This was the view from our kitchen window this morning. Makes dragging yourself out of bed on cold mornings worth it.

Almost.

This is where Charlie spends much of his morning. At his little table in our sunny lounge room, playing with his many trucks, trains and diggers. I often find him here, humming a little tune, totally immersed in his play.

I could watch him for hours. Except that when he sees me he stops playing and just sits there, looking at me. Like he wants me to go away. Serious stuff, this four-wheeled play.

After wild weather throughout the night, this morning we woke to snow and sunshine. Which is just as well, because today was my birthday. Bern managed to get to work, but the all the schools were closed, so the kids and I had yet another day stuck at home.

So Grace and I baked me a birthday cake. We may have gone a bit overboard with our four layer chocolate mocha cake with chocolate buttercream icing.

But it was lots of fun to make. And I had plenty of help blowing out my candles.

And my taste-testers agreed that it was delicious.

But as beautiful as it was, it's most definitely a once-a-year indulgence.

Yesterday, after days of severe weather warnings and freezing temperatures, it finally started to snow again. 

And it snowed, and snowed, and just kept on snowing until eventually, we were snowed in once again. For the second time in less than a month. According to the news, it's a polar blast. Whatever it is, it's brought with it the heaviest snowfalls in 40 years and it is FREEZING. And it's pretty much brought Dunedin to a standstill.

 

Bern got another 'snow day' off work. So he went out and pruned trees. Up a ladder. As you do when it's snowing. Then he and Grace made a sled-thingy from a packing carton, and had a wonderful time racing around the back yard. 

Grace obviously thought it was fantastic. 

Charlie was not so keen. I think it's safe to assume that a career in bobsledding is not on the cards. 

 

Today was Grace's great mate Liam's birthday party. It is all she has talked about since we received the invitation, and it was great to be back out at Taieri Mouth with friends. 

Grace had a fantastic time racing around like a wild thing and had a wonderful time with Liam. Charlie spent the first half of the party asleep, and the second half delightedly feeding their dog birthday cake whenever he thought nobody was looking. He also took the pacifist's approach to the pinata, resulting in a fire engine in the face on the return swing.  

Unlike his sister, who joyfully beat the stuffing out of it.

 

I'm not sure where five years has gone, but suddenly our baby girl is dressed in a uniform and off to her first day of school.

Buying her uniform last week was interesting. When the shop assistant showed us the tunic for Elmgrove, Grace took one look at it and politely told her that she wanted a pink one. Personally it wasn't the colour that bothered me. I was too busy looking at the zillion pleats I will be ironing each week for the next five years. That and the price. Obviously I should be sewing uniforms for a living.