The Dower Family

We have a new family member.  Her name is Betsy and she is 98 years old. The other week while ambling through one of the local op shops (we have 14 of them within a few blocks.  I just can't help myself) I spied this beautiful piano - again.  I had seen it a few times but at the ridiculously exorbitant price of $200 I couldn't justify it.  Until,  HALF PRICE SALE!!  That's right - $100. Needless to say she came to live with us. She is in amazingly good condition for her age.  And we know her exact age as she came with the original certificate and warranty from 1915 as well as a receipt for when she changed hands in 1980. I cannot tell you how excited I was by this purchase.  I have always wanted to have my own piano and I especially wanted one that the children could play.  Ollie always has such a fabulous time playing the one at our playgroup hall - even if it is usually dinosaurs he is using to push the keys. Thankfully...

There has been a LOT going on around here of late in the milestone front. Probably the biggest in terms of impact on our daily lives is Evie's ability to move herself around.  I wouldn't quite go so far as to say crawling but it is definitely forward propulsion.  She needs to learn to lift her bum off the ground but even without that she is pretty darn quick.  So quick in fact that the gate has gone back on the top of the stairs.  I've included a little movie of her taken the other week (so she is quicker now!) - as usual it won't open on ipads/iphones etc.  Not sure why this is.  I hope to figure it out one day. An Ollie milestone is his drastic improvement in swimming.  I've started taking him for lessons at another swim school as our old one shuts over winter as it is outside.  The new one is like a different universe in terms of professionalism and the results are starting to show.  This also might be due to him having two less...

This vid probably won't open on an ipad or iphone but is totally worth checking it out on a real computer. Enjoy.

Easter came around again. We ate too much food, again!! But I thought I'd let the Easter photos tell the story this year. Enjoy. And in non-Easter news, Knights are really huge around here at the moment. Specifically "Mike the Knight" who is on ABC3 every morning. Ol is totally obsessed with him so it was only appropriate that he get his own Knight outfit. I knocked him up a shield to go along with the sword that Nanna Carmel bought him ages ago. But the best bit is the hat - you may recognise the blue ice-cream bucket from his robot outfit not too long ago. A bit of a snip of some paper, whip up a feather out of some felt and voila, Ollie the Knight. How do we know that he loves the costume? While it was still dark this morning, Nick found him wearing it in bed while reading books under his lamp.

Check out this beautiful little family!! Finally a photo with all of us in it. We were lucky enough to get some family photos taken on the weekend by a lady I came across who is building up her portfolio (read: free photos!!). This one is really the only posy posy one - the rest were just candid ones of us all being silly buggers on the beach. I will be getting my hands on all of them at some point but in the meantime this one can tide us over. Pity Ollie looks like a little urchin. By this point we had been running all over the beach and Ol was fairly drenched too. Oh well, at least it is a true likeness of him! We've had some lovely activities this week. The first was a wonderful family get together (sans Luke, Fiona & Alex) to celebrate Grandpa Rob coming home for a visit. Rob was certainly impressed with all the growing that Evie & Ol have done since he saw them last in November. And while Ollie was thrilled to spend some time with his Grandpa, he was still a ...