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.

Today was Grace's last day of Preschool and I think we're just as sad about her finishing as she is. Preschool has been the only constant in our lives since we moved here, and Grace doesn't understand why she can't go to both Preschool and 'big' school. 

We chose to keep Grace at Preschool after she turned five, which isn't the way things usually work here. Most children have their Number 5 Day at Preschool, then the following day they start school. We, however, didn't see any point in starting her at her new school in Mosgiel and driving her all the way in each day from Taieri Mouth when we were moving into town within the month. So Grace got to have her Number 5 Day on her birthday plus another farewell today, which made her last day very special for her.

I have no idea what I'll do without Preschool each day. Thank goodness we only have to wait six months until Charlie starts one afternoon a week.

We woke this morning to find ourselves snowed in. So with Bern stuck at home for an unexpected long weekend, we decided to ignore the packing cartons and go exploring. 

 

We ventured down the driveway and along our road, where we watched someone towing two kids behind a ute along the main road.

Grace desperately wanted to have a go, but had to be content with making snow angels instead. Much less adventurous, just as chilly and infinitely safer.   

While the snow-covered slide didn't deter some bottom-numbing slides in the playground, it wasn't long before Charlie decided he didn't really like being cold and wet. Or having snowballs thrown at him by his big sister.