Steffi and Keith left this morning.  They should be arriving in Hay soon.

Sara is very keen to go and visit her Omi and Opa.

Today, Richard built a greenhouse with a lot of help from Keith and Steffi.



Sara had Mia around to play with all day.

Yesterday, I took Steffi and Sara to Katoomba for the grocery and to have a look in St Vincent de Paul store. Steffi's speciality is to find designer brand almost never worn things at a couple of dollars at such places. Unfortunately, we didn't find any. I could not believe the number of people in the store there. A very popular place. I think any good thing would be snapped up within a few minutes of arriving in the shop.




We then went to Leura and had a stroll around. We bought some chocolate bon bon from the award winning chocolatier. We came home and I made a strawberry tart and for dinner we made home-made sausages. They were a great success.

Today, the temperature dropped and is again windy. Richard and Keith have been working on the green house outside.

Steffi and Keith offered to look after Sara tonight, so Richard and I are going out.
How amazing.

Sara is a little singing machine. The song of the month is "I'm a little teapot".
She just goes on and on and on complete with the arm gesture and action.

Sara is also into changing the words around to suit how she feels. A creative little girl.

Steffi has been in a lot of pain for the last few days and have been taking it easy. Yesterday, she got fixed by Jonathan and is cleaning our windows this morning. I tried to talk her out of it. I guess she just can't live with those windows dirty any longer.

When I got up at 5.30am this morning, the sky was eerie orange all around. Outside, both Keith and my cars were covered in orange dust. I've never seen anything like this happen before. Poor farm land out Madgee way must have lost all their top soil.

I took Steffi to Aldi in Emu Plains yesterday. Poor Steffi was suffering from a very painful back. Keith has taken her to Jonathan's this morning. Hopefully, she'll come home all mended.

Lisette's car is out of action at the moment, so I picked up Sara and Mia from preschool yesterday and the girls played here till Lisette could get Pete's car. Sara hadn'd had a bath for a few days and Mia asked me if she could have a bath, so I put them both in a bubble bath. I don't think much scrabbing happened in the bath, but at least some dirt would have come off Sara's legs.

There is a little boy called Otto in Sara's Steiner playgroup. He is the same age as Sara. In fact he has a birthday party coming up in a couple of weeks to which Sara got an invite yesterday. Anyway, Otto and Sara were the first kids out to play outside and I went out there after them a few minutes later. Sara had Otto pushing her on the big swing (the single rope one with a disc hanging from a large tree). It was ever so sweet given that Otto is quite a macho little boy who seem only interested in 'boy' things.

I had a vision of Sara as a grown up ordering boys to do things for her....

When Sara and I came home from the Steiner playgroup, the Landy was gone this afternoon. The beast has departed.

This afternoon, we were visited by the green energy assessor and he went through the house filling out a very thick questionnair. One of the suggestions he made was to have curtains on all the windows in the house....... I know that Richard will never agree to it.

I have an amazing news today.
The Land Rover is SOLD.

Halleluyah.

I thought perhaps we were stuck with it for life, but no, the gentleman who came to see the car on Friday made Richard an offer which was accepted.
Amazing.

When Sara addresses more than one person, she calls out "hey guys!" like an American kid. I suppose she learned it at preschool.

It's really funny to hear her when she trys to get her Omi and Opa's attention by saying
"Hey Guys."

It's Keith's birthday today. Happy Birthday!!!!

Sara has a great sense of orientation and excellent memory of roads and landmarks.
She knows all the usual turn offs we use around the mountains, even the places she has only been to a couple of times.  I think she has a boy brain.

Since yesterday, Keith has been to the service station several times carting Landrover's battery back and force, getting a new one, getting some petrol and oil etc. so that the car would start when a potential buyer arrives this morning. What would Richard do without his Dad?

There are currently two interested parties who are coming to see the large metal box this week. With luck, it will be sold and be gone soon. Fingers crossed.



This photo is from Sunday when we went to Jasmin's birthday party.

It's a cloudy morning. Sara is at Andrea's today.
When I got back from dropping Sara off, Steffi had her sleeves rolled up and was tackling the grease on the BBQ. Oh dear, how embarassing.



In this photo, Sara looks a little upset. May be there was a little squabble with one of the girls in the tree.

Did I write yesterday that I had to take Sara to another birthday party yesterday?
Well, I did and I came home feeling utterly exhausted. I went to bed at 9.30pm.
I have been getting up rather early in the morning. Usually between 5.30 and 6am.
Long after Richard has left for the morning, however.

We didn't go to Steiner playgroup today as I just didn't have the energy.
In the afternoon, Lisette and the girls came over for lunch. Mia has recovered from the bug she had which was probably what Sara had last week for 12 hours.

It was quite a hot day today. Way too hot for September. The wisteria hedge is already half blooming, some 18 days earlier than last year.
I went to Blackheath Produce market with Keith, Steffi, and Sara this morning. In the afternoon I took Sara to Jasmin's birthday party in Faulconbridge.
I am so over birthday parties.

Sara turned 4 today. We had a party for her at Wentworth Falls Lake.
It was a beautiful day.

Friends who came today:
Mia (who got sick and had to go home early with her mum and baby sister Elly)
Isabelle (with her brother Anthony and her parents)
Holly with her dad Kelvin the jazz pianist and her baby sister Lily
Lily with her mum Dom
Sofala and Kalana with their mum
Tyller and his parents

Tosh gave me $100 for me to get Sara some new shoes. I got her a pair a few weeks ago that cost $30. With the change, I bought her the pink fairy dress she is wearing in the photo yesterday at the dance shop. Almost used up all the change....., but Sara loved it.

Happy Birthday sister for yesterday and Happy Birthday mum for today.

Life has been hectic around here for the last few days.
Steffi and Keith arrived safely. Now they are being put to work around the house already.

I took Steffi and Sara to Katoomba this morning for the last shopping before the big party tomorrow. Sara was an absolute pain, however, we survived the trip.

With the money Tosh gave me towards Sara's shoes, I bought her a pair that cost $30 last month. With the remaining cash, I bought her a dress for the party tomorrow. It is a completely impractical dress that will not survive the punishment Sara will put it through tomorrow, but it's her party and a girl only tuns 4 once in a life time.

Mia came over after preschool with her mum and sister Elly this afternoon as usual.
At once stage, Elly, who is 9 months old was nibbling on a little book of Sara's. Sara went to Elly and said "Ta" and got the book away from her explaining that she couldn't eat it because it wasn't good for her. She then handed Elly her green plastic toy to munch on instead.
How grown up she is!

We had a lovely father's day yesterday. Sara presented Richard with some ANZAC biscuits she baked at Family Daycare on Wednesday specifically meant to be given to dads on Sunday (which she really wanted to eat, so had to be hidden from her till yesterday morning).
I also got Richard Cooper's home brewery kit which he was very happy with.

We drove to Lithgow yesterday to get Sara a scooter from Target. It was such a beautiful day and the scenery was just gorgeous.
When we were leaving to go, Sara begged me not to go. She thought it was only going to be just the two of them and was looking forward to some lollies, chocolates and icecreams she evidently gets when she is out and about with Richard. I went along and spoiled her day....
In fact we all had some icecream we bought at Aldi on the way home. So it wasn't so bad after all that I came along, was it Sara?

I'll download some photos later.

We spent the day with Debbie and Torsten yesterday.
Debbie is going to make some miso with me. I explained how I made my first batch of koji and she went home with 4 grams of koji yeast.
I have now started my second batch.

Sara and I just came home from Katoomba from our shopping expedition. At one point, I left her in the trolley at Kmart and went around the corner to have a look at something. She was yelling out, "Mum! Mum! I'm the only child you got!"
This cracked me up because whenever she plays rough with me and hurts me, I tell her to be more gentle with me because I'm the only mum she's got.

We went to our local bistro for dinner last night.
When I told Sara that we were going out to dinner with Daddy, she must have known exactly where we were going as she said she was going to have chips.

Richard had a beef and guiness pie. Half way through the dish, my husband complained that it was heavy. I said "don't force yourself to finish it", being a sensible wife that I am. He said he won't, then finished the dish. Surprisingly, my beloved complained of eating too much later on.

Being sensible, I had a Thai beef salad. It was OK. The best thing was that I didn't have to cook or worry about washing up.

I had another scare with a huntsman in the car this morning while I was driving.
It was a horrible experience that left me feeling shaken all day.

However, now it is dead. When I had to get in the car again to go and pick Sara up, I was taking a good look in the car and I saw it. I really don't like to kill spiders, but if I failed yet again to get it out of the car, it could be dangerous not just for me and Sara, but for other drivers on the road as well.

Shudder!