Busy, Busy, Busy...

is what I have been which is very common for most at this time of year. School activities, dancing costumes, fun fair, swimming, Christmas cards, Christmas presents and silly me decided it is time for spring cleaning. Wow have I made some room in my cupboards by reorganisation and throwing out junk. I have sent piles of clothes to charity, put all of the baby toys away and reorganised the children's cupboards. The main stimulus for the clean was Penny's bedroom MESS. She is not great at cleaning up and so I have hopefully made it a bit easier by giving everything a place in a box in the cupboard. It was driving me mad. I have now moved onto my scrapbooking room which I share with the kids and we are working on making it a little more aesthetic.

We enjoyed the school fun fair last weekend. It went well despite the hot day and we raised approximately $4500 for the P&C. Penny had her face painted and looked gorgeous. She had to sleep with it on and ended up with glitter all over her pillow. I rubbed it off in the bath on Sunday night despite great resistance. Nick had a fun time going off with his friends to the rides. He even managed to climb the rock wall and ring the bell after putting some strategies in place after a couple of failed attempts.

Our friends, Marcus and Maree had a baby boy, Dylan during the week. All went well and we went to visit them today. He is just gorgeous and it is lovely to see them so happy and settled in their new home.

I made some more Christmas cards today and am up to 22 now so over half way.

More of the same this week- spring cleaning, card making, dancing bows etc, etc. I am feeling good though and on top of everything before school breaks up in a few weeks. I can't believe Nick will be finished Yr 1 so soon. He can't wait for holidays. Nick was moved up again at swimming this week to Level 5. He is just leap-frogging ahead now. I haven't included a photo of him for a while so will endeavour to do so next time. This is a very long post so shall sign off now.
Have a good week. Rach :)

Christmas Cards Started....Check!

Yes you've read correctly. I am already starting my cards for the Festive Season. My list has been whittled down over the years and I only have to make about 40. This year I have decided to use some die cuts from patterned paper that I have had for a couple of years and can't really use in a LO. The only drawback with this is that all of the cards are different. I usually mass produce the one design but am quite enjoying the challenge of different designs. I have only made 7 so the novelty may wear off halfway through. They are simple but I think effective.

Life is just speeding along as usual. Nicholas is becoming increasingly tired as the term wears on and finding homework a huge struggle. My fears were allayed the other night when I met with some other parents for our weekly fun fair meeting and found that all of their children are over it too. Speaking of which the school fun fair is on this weekend so we are hoping for a lovely day. This week will be busy with last minute organisational bits and pieces. The children are very excited and can hardly wait for the rides, lucky dip, fairy floss and much more. Penny received these gorgeous Dorothy dinosaur togs for her birthday and she looks so cute in them.

Yesterday, Nicholas and I went to see Astroboy at the movies. It was not on the top of my "To See" list but I have to say it was quite a good movie with some good messages. Not for the littlies though as some scary bits. Then home for a quick lunch and Penny and I went to see The Fairies stage show. She dressed up in her fairy outfit and loved the show, so much so that she cried when it was finished. It was well done and quite humourous in parts.

Have a good week.

Rach xx

Gingerbread Girl

Penny received this cute apron along with a matching pot holder (mini child size) and gingerbread man cutter for her birthday from Auntie Trudie, Uncle Richard, Alex and Lachie. We decided to try them out on Tuesday. Unfortunately I didn't have any ginger but we all think that they tasted better without it. The first batch were a little squashed as I put them too close to each other on the tray and the next batch ended up a little to browned as I forgot them. We plan to make another batch this week and I'm sure they'll be perfect as we are much more experienced. Penny didn't have the patience (nor did mother) to pipe on their faces and clothes so we just iced them in yellow and blue icing and added choc bits for buttons and sprinkles. Nicholas and Penny have eaten the lot so they must have been acceptable.We've had a reasonably quiet weekend as Craig has been away (in town) on a boys' weekend. I managed to complete the LO that I began last Sunday. I love this "Pennyroyale" pack from Kaisercraft it is so ornate and pretty. Petrina thinks it's just because it features my daughter's name. The name actually suits Penny as she thinks that she's quite royal especially when I ask her to tidy her room and she is too tired and thinks Mummy can do it.

I'm Getting Published!

After completing my blog post today I decided to try my luck with a couple of scrapbooking magazines and sent them the 2 LO's that I did yesterday. One of my LO's has been accepted by Scrapbook Creations for publishing early next year hence the reason for replacement of the LO in the previous post with a randy, hungry peacock that I photographed at Coffs Harbour on our holiday. I won't believe it until I see it in print as they can sometimes change their minds. I even get paid although unfortunately it won't buy me my next BMW. I was absolutely thrilled to receive the email. It made my day. I'll let you know if and when it makes it to the magazine for sale.

New Layouts

I went to scrapbooking with the girls yesterday for 5 hrs and had a lovely time. I didn't actually complete a LO but was able to put the finishing touches on last night. They are from 3 and a half years ago and very obviously I am a long way behind but over time the number of photos I have taken each month have reduced. I keep telling myself it is a work in progress so as to not stress over it. I managed to get another LO started and will work on that tonight and then I need to put it all away to write an educational newsletter for work and get onto the Christmas cards as that time of year fast approaches.

My Baby Is 4!

This time 4 years ago I was blissfully aware at how clever I felt at producing a little girl to complete our pigeon pair. Penny had a lovely day yesterday at daycare with her friends where she shared cupcakes and baby meringues. Today she woke to a lounge room of presents and was in a rush to open all of them. She was very excited on Thursday when we came home to discover 3 parcels on the door step. Thank you to all who sent presents and phoned today. Then it was off to dancing where all of her friends gathered around her in a circle and sang happy birthday. We then met Nicholas and Craig out at Krazy Maze for a play and then across to McDonalds for lunch - all her choice. A sleep was desperately needed at lunch time to recharge the batteries so that she could get down to some good hard playing this afternoon with all of her new toys. Her choice for dinner was just plain spiral pasta and ice cream with ice magic and sprinkles. Very easily accommodated.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BEAUTIFUL SWEET GIRL ;-)

Painful Exercise

I returned to the gym last week after an absence for a month and really suffered for the rest of the week. I couldn't return until 6 days later, although feel OK after the later session.

We're right into the swing of term 4 although already feeling tired. Nick has been put up to level 4 at swimming and now swims the length of the pool. Penny's dancing is going well with costume organisation in full swing.

We went fishing on Sunday morning in our little boat and caught a few whiting and bream in the river. Whilst it wasn't the most successful fishing trip in terms of yield, it was a beautiful morning on the water without a breath of wind.

Nicholas had a pupil free day today so he joined us to do the shopping and then we had friends, Lleyton and Aida over for a play this afternoon.

I have completed another LO over the weekend. I really like doing these picture type LO's that involves creating a background scene.