Lesson 1...

in how to fall out of bed - load your bed with toys so that you have a slither left to sleep on! When I went to bed last night, here was Penny with her toys stacked beside her. Clearly, she doesn't go straight to sleep when we turn out her light. I just had to take a photo and straight after I did she rolled out of bed onto the pillows beside her bed. Luckily she didn't really wake so that once I'd cleared the toys out of the way she went straight back to sleep.I have been very busy creating Christmas cards this week (about 36 all up). I am really pleased with the way they turned out but unfortunately I ran out of envelopes so I hope to have them in the post by tomorrow afternoon. I also had to do up my annual Christmas letter and some photos of the children to slip in each.

Yesterday was a very hot and humid day so the children were content to stay in the air conditioning. To keep them amused we built a cubby house out of sheets hung off the clothes line in the garage. They had a great time playing. In the afternoon, Petrina, Angus and Thea came for a visit so the girls played babies and the boys played Lego and soccer amongst other things.

Today the children and I attended their friend, Zac's birthday party at a bowling and leisure centre. They had a great time bowling, playing on the adventure park and massive slide as well as in the games arcade. The lady from the centre who hosted the party was excellent and looked after the kids very well including taking Penny down the big slide.

This evening we enjoyed fish and chips down at the beach. It was beautiful down there, almost cool after the very hot day we have had. Well I'm hitting the sack as I have a busy week ahead trying to complete the Christmas shopping. I think I'll surprise the children tomorrow and we'll put the Christmas tree up after school, only I'll have to start early as the tree itself takes an hour to put up. Will post some photos of our efforts during the week.

180 Pages Completed!

I couldn't remember what I did last week when I wrote my post yesterday but after uploading some photos, I remembered. My week was filled with decorating 180 pages for 9 books for the children who attend the Southern Cross Kids' Camps (see earlier post). I decided use up papers that I don't seem to use anymore but in doing that I realised that they wouldn't be very appealing to kids either. So after lashings of paint and multiple stamps, the result was good. I delivered them to Petrina on Saturday morning. She is a real trooper and done over double my amount (total of 10). I hope the kids like them and find some happiness in slipping their photos and some words onto the pages.Here are the 2 LO's which I did at Petrina's class on Saturday. We used a sparkly spray product called Glimmermist and some clever little watercolours called Twinkling H2O's. It was lots of fun and quite messy too! I came away with some great ideas although these will have to go on hold whilst I get ready for Christmas with cards, crackers and decorations to be made.

Poor Penny is still unwell with the trots (day 7) but her pathology came back all clear. The Doc said it seems to take 7 days for the diarrhoea to go so here's hoping tomorrow is a better day. She is staying home with Grandma tomorrow whilst I go to work. Nick spent the morning at school today but came home before his class went to swimming as he couldn't swim with his sore eyes although they have greatly improved.

Did I forget to mention ...

that we won the raffle at the fun day for Nick's class painting? We didn't find out until the Monday as we had missed our name being announced on the day. Nick is pointing to the gardenia leaf from our garden that he stamped onto the canvas. I think the children did a great job. We are going to hang it in our back room where the children play as it is difficult to find a wall big enough that doesn't have a window or another piece of art hanging on it. It will be in the main thoroughfare to the backyard so should be well viewed.
In other news, Nick and Penny haven't been on top of the world. Nick came down with conjunctivitis yesterday and Penny has had diarrhoea for the last 6 days. After a trip to the Doc today and a poo sample to pathology we are hoping that Penny's tummy will settle down tomorrow. No swimming tomorrow for either of the children.
I attended a 3 hour class at the local scrapbooking shop on Saturday which was great fun and very productive for me - 2 LO's done. My friend, Petrina was the teacher and it was lovely to meet some new scrapping people as well as catch up with some old ones. I just have to finish the journalling and then will put them on maybe tomorrow. We visited the beach on Sunday and despite a cool breeze Nick had a great time wallowing in the waves. Amazingly the tables have reversed and Penny appears to be the scaredy cat this year. She's a mad sandcastle builder though. We also enjoyed coffee and cake at a local strawberry farm which has the most beautiful gardens.

A Card...

to show you. I created this card for a 5yo party which we attended at Crazy Maze on Sunday morning. I've discovered another great publication called Creative card making and paper craft which comes out 4 times a year. It is very inspirational and has great card making ideas using the Cricut and Cuttlebug (at times) both of which I have and a feature on scrapbooking too.

I attended my last Sunday afternoon club scrap for the year. Yes, you read that correctly, it's not the last one ever as two delightful ladies (also sisters) have decided to take over the running of our club. We start up again in January 09 which is great. We had a Christmassy afternoon with little puddings and champagne as well. A lady who demonstrates Stampin' Up products (party plan like Tupperware only mostly stamps, inks and a few other scrapping products) came along to showcase her wares. I have heard so much about these products but never actually been to a party and was astounded at the range and ideas from the books. I completed one LO which I still have to photograph and then we all got into creating pages for a 20 page album which will go to abused children at the Southern Cross Kids camps to be held next year. The 6'x6' pages are very simple and allow the child and their buddy to just slot in a photo and do some journalling. I hope to do up some more pages this week. It's amazing that for some of these children it may be the only photos that they ever receive.

Penny and I went to visit Petrina and Thea this morning. Petrina and I enjoyed our yummy Tony's Estate coffee whilst the little girls had a lovely time playing babies.

I just had to take this photo before dinner of Penny and Hannah our almost 12yo cat. Hannah will do anything to be inside, so if that means she has to be covered in Penny's babies blankets then so be it even if it is hot and humid. Poor Penny got a nasty bump on her head as we were leaving Petrina's house. She walked forward as I opened the car door and collected her on the forehead. She is such a tough little one though - the tears were over in a matter of minutes.

Well must sign off as our geckos are really active and noisy tonight. I think I need to give them some privacy as they're chasing each other round the walls making some weird noises. I think the study may be "rocking" tonight!

Layouts

I completed the school LO of Nicholas last week and the Little Miss LO of Penny last night. I have been procrastinating about how to use these big (10"x8") photos in a LO. Minimal embellishments appear to be the key. I have another LO for the shop competition and then I have to move onto creating Christmas cards, decorations and bon-bons, not to mention my annual Christmas letter. Hopefully I gain some good ideas at our last club scrap meet on Sunday. It appears that it may be the last scrap Sunday ever as Petrina and Cassie have understandably become very busy with work and family. I don't know how they've managed to juggle things this far. We will still have our weekend retreat next year which I am very thankful for as I really enjoy the weekend away. Have a good week.

Family Fun Day

The highlight of our weekend was Nicholas' school's family fun day. It opened with the school drum band who managed very well despite the hot, humid and very windy weather. As soon as they were finished the rides wound up. Penny was a little timid but Nick couldn't wait (he had an unlimited ride pass). He went on the spinning tea-cups, then up to have a sausage in bread and then back down to the rides.

He rode on the spinning chairs, down the huge slide, bounced in the bouncing castle and also bounced down the bouncy slide. He wanted to have a go at the rock wall climbing but the line up was long and didn't clear quickly enough for his liking. I think he may have been a little short to attempt it. Penny was most taken with the dunking tub whose contestants were teachers and every participant who payed $2 for 3 throws was guaranteed a dunking. In other words they kept throwing past their 3 throws if required. Penny was quite happy to sit on the grass and watch the teachers get dunked - very funny. Nicholas dunked the school policeman! He hit the target on the first throw but it wasn't hard enough but on the third throw the dunking occurred.

Penny managed to gain enough courage to venture on to the teacup ride with me but during the ride she wanted me to get off as she is a big girl now. The kids also enjoyed the bottle stall, lucky dip, balls in the clown's mouth and fairy floss. There was also a thong throwing competition and a tug of war. Luckily the predicted storms didn't arrive until 10.30pm last night. It was a great afternoon and the children can hardly wait until next year. There was no resistance to bedtime last night.

In other news, Nick was awarded worker of the week on Friday. I manged to juggle work so that I could see him awarded with his ribbon at morning parade. His teacher had written a lovely poem about him and I felt very proud of him. Hopefully I can get a copy of it for his scrapbook.

Wet Weekend

Our lives revolved around the water this weekend. On Saturday, I found the pool in the shed much to the children's delight. Penny kept jumping up and down screaming "Clever Mummy" and kissing me on the leg. They had great fun splashing around and running up and jumping in. It looked rather like wombat stew by the time they'd finished with lots of grass in it.
Craig took our big boat out to sea and came home with a good catch on Saturday. I was especially pleased to see our favourite fish (photo) in the esky - black king or cobia. When cooked it is slightly drier than other reef fish and it has a very fine flake which I enjoy.

On Sunday, our plans for a beach BBQ breakfast were foiled by light rainy showers. We had a slow morning and the kids ventured back into the pool. After midday sleeps, the sun was shining so we went to the beach where the kids played on the playground and then we ventured down onto the beach. Penny and I built sandcastles and Nick and Craig went to the water in the hope that Nick might ride his boogy board but at first he wouldn't even get in the water. After a little more coaxing he went and played in the shallow waves without the board. I think he will have to build his confidence over the Summer to graduate to the board. Our afternoon was finished off with yummy ice creams.

Spunky Boy!

On Friday, Nick had a free-dress day and crazy hair day. He had an enormous amount of product in his hair to make it spiky. Whilst it made his ears look bigger than ever, I thought he looked cuter than ever. Some of the other children had added colour and glitter.

During the week Nick was given a star writer award much to his mother's relief. I thought he'd never write but I have come to realise that Nick is going to be as stubborn as me and things will happen on his time!

On Thursday, Nick's class did an experiment with bicarb soda and vinegar which Nick called his potion. He had made the potion at home on Tuesday night and then told his teacher all about it on Wednesday. His teacher decided that it would be fun for the class to do so we did a "How To Do" sheet up on the computer and Nick got to stand in front of the class with his teacher whilst they did the experiment. He was so pleased with himself as we were proud. Clever Boy! xoxo