Hannah is less busy, Tilly is excited, Harriet worries about vampires and Reuben thinks that Dave may or may not be inspirational

Wow - can't believe I haven't updated the blog since June.  There was the small matter of surviving  semester, which started in July and was horrible while it lasted but is now OVER!
My translation diploma is now done and dusted and my students sat their German exam on Friday.  There are 30 exam papers ranging from dire to pretty good to mark by the end of the week, but I need a break from the red pen, so here in brief is what I haven't had time to be blogging about.

While I've been waiting for the exam papers to come through, I actually finished a job I started at least a year ago.  There's a big empty space on the wall in our living room:

BORING!

which clearly needed filling.  I started collecting old picture frames last year, and got them painted.  Then it only took 9 months to get around to ordering some photos and getting the frames up on the wall.  And the end result is:

No. of tongues on display: 7 (or 8 if you count the carved wooden pou whenua); no. of medals: 4; no. of zombies: 3;  no. of naked tummies: 1

Much better! 

Tilly is frequently excited by many different things, but losing teeth is a big deal at the moment.  Having lost one on Sunday morning, she told us before bed that she'd written a letter to the Tooth Fairy, and was clearly desperate to see what she might get in response.  

It was indeed a 'nise and shiny' tooth

Mmm, right, so that's why instead of the usual tooth/dollar swap we could be found in the kitchen worrying about how to fake handwriting and what would a Tooth Fairy's palace look like.  What is she going to expect next time?

Text: Burdekin; Illustration: Semple

Off to preschool with Harriet this morning, who overheard a trailer for the television series Victoria on the car radio.  "Age 18, she becomes ruler of an Empire", intoned the voice.  "A vampire?  A VAMPIRE?" asks Harriet.   "No..." I start to say but she's already pondering:  "Did Queen Victoria have fangs?"

A couple of weeks ago, Tilly wanted to know what 'inspirational' means.  I start to explain, and when I ask her where she heard the word, she says it was in Reuben's Fathers' Day card to Dave.  Yes it was:

But before I get too carried away with the emotion of the moment, Reuben butts in: "I only wrote it because I had to". "Didn't you mean it?" asks Tilly.

"Maybe", he says.  "Maybe not." (Sorry Dave!)

Even so, when it was Fathers' Day while I was away in the UK, he did organise the other two and they all presented Dave with breakfast in bed and got the tray downstairs without spilling anything.  So maybe the 'maybe' should be a 'yes'!