Six! SIX!!

Wow - Evie-chops is six!
Better get organised....
We waved her off to school which Harvey and a couple of bags of sweeties to share with her classmates, then made some Springy decorations and a little flower garden - inside the straws are treat messages or forfeit messages - everyone got to pick their own straw-flower and read their message, and then either choose their treat or do their forfeit.




We also had a table of tattoos.... Which was rather over indulged by some who went home with arms coveredin them. Oops.


And of course a birthday tea / picnic, including a fab chocolate and courgette (yes, courgette) cake.





And more fabulous face painting from the amazing Natasha.



Happy sixth birthday to my arty, sporty, gregarious, strong-willed, independent, big-little girl!

Baking

This is a sight that makes me happy....

We have 10 hours of electricity in 24 at the moment, so getting organised and lucky enough to have ingredients in the house, electricity to power the oven (to my knowledge, there are no gas ovens in Kathmandu), and a sensible stretch of time in which to do it all - well.... Let's just say Noah and I were pretty chuffed with ourselves. Mincemeat flapjack, peanut butter cookies (some with chocolate, some without), and the very popular cheesey biscuits. And check out my tiddly surface top oven...






And while we were baking, Thom was gardening.




Noah took my camera for a walk around the garden a bit later, and took these:






Yeah, yeah, I know I'm his mum, but I was rather impressed..!

And here's just a bit of self-indulgence - come on, it's not very often I have such smart and ungrubby rascals to show off! Thank you Grandma Rosemary, for the new, smart outfits!

Pokhara

Whoop!! I have a new camera! It's not a process without glitches, and I am not in love, but it is a step. We are friends. I may feel more trustful of it once I have knit it a cosy. Oh dear.
I have taken it for walks, and tried to ignore the fear that someone is going to take it away from me. I really didn't realise the emotional investment I made in my old camera until now, but, um, it's there. I think it maybe has something to do with the way the camera is so closely interwoven with my children, and their life experiences.
So, moving onwards, here are some pictures of out hols with Grandma and Granda, in Pokhara.... We stayed at a farmhouse, next to an organic farm.
I love the way the littles go from this....



To this.....




With me barely even noticing, and then I suddenly realise I have armfuls of clothing and wonder how they 'tricked' me.


We also managed a couple of teeny babu-treks - Lonely Planet classics - up to the Peace Pagoda, and Sarangkot. There are some sneaky, hidey Himalaya out there somewhere...

Mama Made Monday

So proud of this! I made a loaf from scratch and by hand for the first time ever! Yes, I know some people do this every day, but I don't..... We had a bread machine in the UK, and since we have been in Nepal, we have been buying loaves from various bakeries on the school run, the most exciting being the Secret Bakery which I will tell you about another time...
Anyhow, the bread - it was much easier than I thought. The recipe was very simple, and the kneading, which is what had put me off so far, was actually enjoyable, theraputic, mesmerising....
The most difficult bit is finding somewhere warm for the dough to prove - and co-ordinating it all within a period of electricity provision, (our oven is electric).
Tasted fanstic and only lasted a couple of hours!

Past Dhulikhel but not as far as Tibet....

....is where we went spent a happy, sunny weekend. These photos pre-date Christmas and camera thievery, but not by much, and I thought they'd be good to share. We went camping with some friends. And a few gravel trucks.... the river is the source of much building material used in Kathmandu. But they didn't really intrude on our little campsite. In fact they were pretty entrtaining to watch at times - the JCB digger is giving itself a shower..... Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of the two trucks racing across the river, but it was pretty bonkers.
I think I still have sand in my trainers....

Making things

Haven't been in the mood for blogging recently. My camera was stolen which, aside from peeing me off rather, has meant no photos to post. We've been using Harv's phone and occasionally Eve's camera, but it's just not the same. I have a replacement camera on the way but it'll be a month until it gets here, along with Harv's mum and dad who are coming to visit in February.
Anyway, I just wanted to wave hello, and here are some older photos to show you of things we been making.

We made some painted paper elephants to decorate the walls on the boys' bedroom as it was looking disappointingly bland. They have since been joined by several dinosaurs and an invasion of pirates, so it's much busier in there now.



And these are the decorations I made for the GP winter season swap - a poinsettia (LOADS of them growing here at the moment) and a holly leaf and a snowdrop.


And here's a view of our dining room from way back in the Autumn. Lisa sent us some Autumn leaves all the way from Weston Rhyn, so we stuck them on the walls, with our painted pumpkins.


And I'll leave you with a promise of something more uptodate very soon. Maybe even a few of Harv's phone photos from Thailand.........

Happy New Year!