Presents all 'round...

You know how I said I got some money? Well, so did Annabelle. Not only did she inherit a little bit, but we have been saving all her birthday money for quite a while and putting money into her account every fortnight so she's got quite a fat little bank balance for a three year old. The idea of the birthday money has always been to save it up and get her something for the backyard like a swing-set or trampoline and the rest is just hers to buy a house with or something. (Just in case you think we are cheapskates raiding her bank account to buy her presents LOL!! Well, ok we are...)

SO, we went to Toys R Us to try (for the gazillionth time) to get her something for the backyard. Every time we try to buy something "big" for her the stores are either out of stock or it's not on sale or it's going to take four months for delivery or something.... So her bank account keeps getting fatter and the backyard stays empty.

Well, this time they had them in stock. And it was swing-sets that were on sale, not trampolines. A bit like this one, except with a slide on the side.

I was swaying towards a trampoline because all her friends have one but when we saw the difference in prices, Mel was quite partial to the swing-set. And you know.. all her friends have got a trampoline so maybe swings are good for something different. So we ordered the swing set and it will be delivered this Friday. Which gives us five days to use it as a bargaining tool. "What's that? You don't want to go to bed? Oh well, looks like I'm calling up the man to tell him not to bring the swing set!". You get the idea. It's working so far.

But meanwhile, she spotted the bikes. We had every intention of getting her a bike for her birthday but she didn't want one; she wanted a scooter. So we got her a scooter and she does love it but she's a bit dorky on the scooter. She hasn't quite got the hang of it. So yesterday we put her on a bike with training wheels and she took off around shop, whizzing up and down all the aisles on it. Better still, she had zero interest in the "Barbie" bike for $150 and seriously wanted the "Butterfly" bike on sale for $70. Done deal.

When we got home and dad finished building the bike, we headed out to the park, her on her bike and me with my 450D. Still practising with the camera but got a few nice photos.