This weekend was cheerily busy. Such weekends are sometimes easily forgotten and I think it's worth devoting a blog post to it. It wasn't marked by anything special, but I feel great after it.
Saturday started out with Archer's most successful swimming lesson ever! He actually seemed excited to be in the water. We also got the children's achievement charts. Lily, at 23 months is very close to filling her chart, which means she can graduate to a preschool class. She was delighted with all her stars! Archer even has two stars! What a clever boy!
Then poor Oscar had to go to the vet because we've had a case of fleas here we haven't been able to kick. $200.00 later he is a much happier dog.
After that was some grocery shopping. We picked up some Easter eggs and Easter cookie cutters for gifts for Lily's kindy class.
And then I decided to tackle our garden. Our poor garden was a bit sad when we arrived, it's previous owners obviously devoid of garden love, and it hasn't gotten better. Happily, it hasn't gotten worse. So I gave it some TLC while Bob supervised the babies in the paddling pool. It looks much nicer now, but I fear it needs the true love of a professional. I also fear I may have pulled out some plants, as there is one spot that looks a little blanker than it should.
After that, I walked to Spotlight (no kids!) and got the finishing details for the Kindy Easter gifts, some sweet cellophane bags and a cute make your own Easter gift tag kit.
When I got home, I set about my project. I made 9 Easter gift tags. One for each of Lily's classmates and 2 for each of her teachers.
Then I made some playdough. We had all the ingredients, and as Woolies had food colouring on sale, I was able to make 7 different colours by adding 2 new colours to my stock. Pink, blue, purple, green, yellow, orange and red. It was really easy, fun and quick, not to mention cheap. I followed this recipe(minus the scented oils) and it made close to a cup of playdough per child. Including the teacher's eggs and the cookies cutters, I got change from $20, plus the enjoyment of the project. And each of Lily's class mates got an Easter cookie cutter and some playdough. Much nicer than chocolate or lollies for toddlers, IMO.
Bob cooked hamburgers from scratch, which, if you've ever encountered my husband's culinary skills before, you'll agree was a wonderful feat.
After dinner and after the kids were in bed (did I mention we have them on the same bedtime less than a week out from putting them in the same room?), I made the next two purees for Archer's weaning, carrots and apples.
Then we watched an episode of Game of Thrones, cleaned up and went to bed.
Sunday morning we decided to flea bomb as Grandma's dogs and cat will be staying here a few nights as they settle in to their new apartment. We weren't sure there were any fleas besides on Oscar, but we did it to be safe. Bob also had a soccer game, so it worked out perfectly in terms of length of time we had to be out of the house. We took the cat to Grandma's place and took Oscar to soccer.
As soon as we arrived at soccer, it became clear Lily was grumpy. Her nose was running, she kept getting mad at the bubbles I was blowing for her when they popped and she refused to get interested in her toddler sized soccer ball. And then archer joined in the chorus. I took them to some nearby seats, got out more toys and sat down to feed Archer. Just as he started to eat, Lily started to cry. She was COVERED in ants. I quickly brushed her off and she was bite free, but I felt we were best off heading to the car while Archer ate.
I put the air con on for a few minutes to cool the car off, and then sat Lily in the driver's seat and myself in the passenger seat. AND LEFT THE RADIO GOING.
Lily cheerily played with the buttons on the radio and honked the horn. At one point she switched the windscreen wipers on. I didn't even THINK of the headlights. Then she asked to watch her DVD player, so I turned the car off and started the DVD. It said it had low battery, so I decided for the few more minutes we would be in the car, it would be okay to let the battery charge. But the car wouldn't start.
Uh oh.
Meanwhile, the kids are both in long sleeves and it has gotten hot.
I panic and call Bob away from the soccer game. He calls NRMA, who signs us up for a mere $275 (we needed to join and it's 2 years roadside assist, so actually, it was good) and told us we'd be on our way in under 90 minutes as we had been prioritised because of the children.
Blessedly, there was a Maccas across the road, so we had an early lunch (the staff turned a blind eye to Oscar) and Lily played in the playground. After we'd been waiting an hour, Bob headed back to the soccer field with Lily and I took Archer inside the adjoining shopping centre. I changed his nappy and his clothes and he immediately fell asleep. Then I found him a VERY exciting clothing item for $5 at Kmart, and that's all you can know right now.
And right on an hour and half from hanging up with NRMA, we were on our way. We got the cat and headed home.
We spent a relaxing afternoon napping and playing outside.
And then it happened.
After dinner, Bob took the cushions off the lounge to vacuum it after the flea bomb. It's a white lounge and I KNEW it was dirty, I have two kids under two, a dog, a cat and a husband, of course it was dirty. But it was REALLY bad. I felt so sad. Right now we can't afford to get it professionally cleaned and I do try really hard to look after our nice things, and Grandma had gifted us this lounge. Busy with two children, if accidents happened, I have only spot cleaned them and the lounge was covered in water rings and was just plain dirty. I decided to clean it. Preen carpet cleaner in hand I got aggressive, but it wasn't getting any better. I Googled it. Steam clean or professional clean. Great. I felt there had to be a better way. So I cobbled together a few of the common cleaning items we had and typed "Can I clean my white fabric lounge with vinegar, bi carb and lemon" and set Google to work.
I came up with 2 cups warm water, 1 scoop ordinary laundry detergent and a splash of white vinegar. I soaked a chux in the mixture and, barely squeezing it out, coated the arms and seats of the lounge. I left it for a bit, maybe 20 minutes, and then Bob scrubbed it with fresh, warm water. The result was AMAZING. It does need a professional clean, but Bob and I think if we do it once a week for a month and then monthly thereafter, we can keep it nice. Much nicer than it was.
Then I baked a banana cake and tidied up for the day. And after this blog is written, I'm going to have a shower and go to bed.
What a wonderfully, rewarding, relaxing weekend of absolutely nothing.
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