A great day at the zoo with Erik, Monica, and Lucas!

Look! An Elephant!!!

Ana (aka Little Miss Bossy) did a lot of this. Fortunately Lucas didn't seem to mind.

Tired girl needs a nap! Time to go home :(

Thanksgiving success!!

This year, for the first time ever, I made the Thanksgiving dinner! It was just the three of us (first time that has happened either) and it was great! We loved being just a family, and skipping the stress of travel. Also, I pulled off the meal. Yummy!!!

Later we had some friends over for a Wii party that extended into the wee (wii?) hours of the morning, and far too many gin and tonics were consumed.

All in all a great day!

My feast!

5k, tricky mummy and a princess castle

Sunday was a great day. I went to compete in a 5k race in Athens with some students from my running class. The race was at a lovely park, and the weather was perfect.

I even won an award!!


After the race we played at the park.

I spotted a slide with a pool of water at the bottom, so (being the mature individual I am) I said to James "Hey, try this slide".

Poor James slid right into the water. Mwahaha!

Here is my reaction!!

Here is James trying unsuccessfully to crawl back up the slide.

Here is loyal Briscoe trying to save his master by drinking all the water.

This is James trying to dig his way out and to splash me with the water.



Later we went to a really cool park that was a HUGE castle with slides, bridges, ladders, swings, etc. It was entirely build by volunteers and it was very cool. Ana loved it! She called it the Princess Castle. Unfortunately it was going dark when we got there so we promised to take her back again this weekend.

Talking to the grandparents

Ana cannot WAIT to see Nana, Grandad, Auntie Mel, Uncle Smooth and Baby Miaaaaaaaa

She asks about them almost every day.

Cold weather hits the deep south!

But Ana is ready!! She was all bundled up for our walk this morning!

Matching silly hats!



A running hug!

Guess who wears BIG GIRL panties???

If you guessed James, you're wrong (...I think)

It's ANA!

She is very proud :-)

Snakes!

Naturally, I think my child is a genius in many ways, but I don't think art is going to be one of them. Right now her favourite thing to draw is "snakes". She will go through an entire pad of paper drawing snakes. Each time I ask her "what are you drawing" she answers (in full concentration mode, without looking up at me, and in the most matter of fact tone imaginable) "snakes"

I think it is unbelievably cute, she had discovered something she can do (i.e. draw a line) and she's rolled with it. James is wondering why our house is covered in paper with lines drawn on it!

Ana's Snakes

Hi Baby Mia!!!

See you in a few weeks!!

Just Ana being cute!!

Time Out Mummy!

In case there was any doubt as to who is in charge in this house

Little toes!

Ana loves to have her fingers and toes polished :)

Fingerpainting...

...is fun, but very messy!!!

Slimming out!

Ana's body is changing, she is losing her tubby toddler belly (Lord knows how considering she always wants to eat). She is such a grown up girl now, I cannot believe it!

Safari Snaps

Feeding a camel
Ana was (quite rightly) terrified of this guy! In fact the animals were all over our car so she was terrified most of the time!

She loved being able to ride up front though!

Halloween 2008 - enter the dragon!

We began by continuing the theme from last year!!


This time she wasn't protesting the costume though, she was protesting me taking pictures of her. We soon got over this little meltdown and headed off trick or treating!!

We joined our usual gang..


Ana was initially shy but soon picked up the hang of it... especially when she realized chocolate was involved!


She tagged along with her new best friend Brad!


Seriously - she LOVES Brad!


Ana and Kendall in a rare quiet moment of peaceful playing.

Spot the difference?

James is visiting his mum in Florida this week, as she is not very well.

What happens not 30 min before he left?


Pray for me! This child can sense weakness!