The Fancy Dress Ball

for Nicholas' school was held on Saturday night. The theme was multicultural/people of the world. Nicholas went as Ned Kelly and Penny as a Chinese girl. Luckily, her grandma (Pam) had given her some PJ's as a present on her return from an o/s trip last year. Nicholas and I cut out his cardboard suit of armour and added bullet marks and metal studs with a silver pen. It was very simple but he was thrilled with it. The kids had a great night. Nick could show us some of the dances he has been practicing at school with his class.

I am madly cutting out letters and shapes on my Cricut in preparation for our scrapbooking retreat which is on this weekend. I can't wait. Only 2 more sleeps. I have 10 LO's more or less prepared which I think will keep me busy enough on the w/end. I'm dreaming of the serenity and the delicious food! I hope to have many LO's to share next week.

Oh What A Big Belly You Have!

Penny, ate well at dinner on Saturday night and put her big belly on display!

We had a good, busy weekend. It was Craig and my 11th wedding anniversary on Saturday. We celebrated with chicken and chips for dinner. Nick had another great game of soccer and Penny danced well on Saturday. On Sunday we went down to a restaurant at the beach and enjoyed a delicious hot breakfast, followed by a play on the turtle playground and a frolic on the beach. It was interesting to see all of the dead foliage at the back of the sand that must have washed in during the cyclone and there were many more interesting shells.

I attended scrapbooking on Sunday afternoon with the club at a new air conditioned venue which was very comfortable and great to catch up. The conversation was mostly about our retreat which is on in 10 days. Everyone is very excited and getting organised to maximise the number of LO's they hope to achieve. I did a LO on Sunday which was from the March challenge pack to be displayed in April. I love the owls - so cute.

This morning my baby Cricut went to a new home, thank you Joanne. I decided to part with it as I use it very infrequently now that I have the big Cricut. I still have the special tote/bag if anyone is interested in purchasing it.

I also forgot to mention previously that Nick has moved up to level 3 at swimming. He was so happy as Penny is hot on his tail moving through the ranks. He received a certificate which he was very proud of. He had an audience yesterday at swimming as 2 of his friends from school came home with us yesterday. They had a fun afternoon.

Winners All Round

In full flight

Nick scaring the opposition!

Nick had his first game of soccer yesterday. He plays for Diggers (as Craig did) in the under 6 green team. They had a great game and won the day although the score is not kept. Nick didn't score any goals but he helped set some up. Auntie Annette was in town and came out to watch his first game with Grandma so he was very honoured.

I was also a winner during the week. The LO that I did for the shop from the January pack won and I received a lovely prize of papers and embellishments.

The weather has cleared up and that horrid Hamish bid us farewell towards the end of last week. We had about 2inches of rain on Friday and passing showers yesterday although I managed to get a weeks worth of washing done. Today is sunny and bright and hot again - great sheet and towel drying weather. I can hardly wait to do all of that ironing tonight - hope there's a good movie on!

Poor little Penny has another viral illness. She's had a croaky voice for a couple of weeks which has transpired into a upper respiratory cough. Yesterday morning she woke up with a red rash on her legs which got a bit worse throughout the day and by last night when we had pulled her out of the bath her little legs were covered in this red welty rash and quite swollen making it difficult to get her shoes on. I took her to the doctor and he checked her out and decided that they were hives probably from her virus but her lungs were fine. So a bit of Claratyne has helped settle the legs down a little but it could take up to 5 days so we weren't shocked when the welts were still there this morning.
We are having a quiet Sunday as Craig has gone away for the day to play match play golf. We took the bikes up to the park this morning and then we're off to have afternoon tea with my goddaughter and family before a family dinner with Annette and Pam.

Have a good week.

Rach xx

Happy Birthday To Me!

Thank you to all who sent me birthday greetings yesterday. I had a great day. The children woke me up with a book and a huge box of chocolates. While I had to work, it was good because they made a fuss of me. My good friend, Tracey had been into work on her day off before I arrived to drop off a cake that she had made. It read, "Happy Birthday Betty Baker". Most of the staff didn't know who this was as they weren't around 11years ago when the staff back then had decided to deface my middle name, Bettina. It was a long running joke - Big Bad Betty Baker, Sweaty Betty. We also had a yummy cake from the Cheese Cake Shop. Craig and the children also sent me a box of flowers (photo above) to work which was very special. I met Tracey and another friend, Margot for lunch and then we went out for dinner with the children and some other friends, Joanne and Bruce and their kids. We celebrated with a few champagnes and the kids had a great time.

What is it doing?

I think I am coming to realise what a control freak I am as I can't stand this cyclone's indecisiveness. I was feeling more relaxed this morning when the path was shown heading out to sea by Wednesday but then late this afternoon the path kept turning anti-clockwise and it is heading straight back for us again. As Craig keeps telling me, it is too unpredictable to really tell what it will do on Wednesday. At least they are downgrading it to grade 2 by Wednesday afternoon, but this could change too. It has become much windier here today - 40+knots but we haven't had a huge amount of rain yet. Again, time will tell but I really wish it was over so that I could look forward to my birthday on Friday. Oh crikey it's Friday the 13th, is it an omen? Only joking!

Here is a family photo that we had taken yesterday. Nick needs it for show and tell at school tomorrow. Disgustingly it is the first family photo we have had taken in about 3 years as I'm always behind the camera. While it's not the best it will do and I like it.

I also finished a LO yesterday that I started over a week ago but I couldn't finish it as I was waiting for the red spot letters (Patch) to arrive. I am in scrapbooking retreat mode now designing sketches for LO's and putting papers and embellishments together with photos so that I get as many LO's completed as possible. The retreat is only 3.5 weeks away and is in a bush setting about 25mins from home. The accommodation is basic but the homestyle cooking is delicious and the friendships formed and nurtured are precious.

Cleaning Up The Yard

is what we did today. The cyclone is very slow moving but it's path is tracked to land near us so we decided to clear the yard of all furniture, toys and garden implements. It certainly looks much cleaner. The winds are starting to pick up this evening. I'm feeling a little panicky as I have never experienced a cyclone or flood before and the unsurity of its path is quite disconcerting. Time will tell and I'm keeping an eye on the tracking chart. - just click on the link (the words, tracking chart) if you're interested.
We had a lovely high tea at a good friends' house this afternoon whom we haven't caught up with for ages. Thank you Joanne and Bruce is was delicious and great to see you both. The kids all had a great play.
OK better go and do the ironing for the week and make the shopping list for tomorrow to stock up on non perishables. Will try and post again tomorrow with some photos.

Cyclone Watch

We're keeping an eye on cyclone Hamish as it has been forecast to come down parallel with the Qld east coast. Craig has cleaned up the back yard and we'll think about packing away all of the chairs and tables, cubby house and sandpit toys depending on the forecast tomorrow. They are forecasting it to become a category 3 cyclone and to be adjacent to Yeppoon by Monday morning. Watch and wait!I created this card this afternoon for Craig's aunty. We're attending her surprise 50th party.

We survived the busy week although feel quite tired. Penny didn't have a very long attention span at dancing this morning but she coped incredibly well with 4 days of daycare. I think it helps that she still has a sleep everyday. Nick is sleeping on the weekends too so that he catches up. Nick wanted to take some earthworms to school for show and tell this week so we dug them out of the garden on Sunday. We visited the internet and wrote down some interesting earthworm facts and Nick drew some pictures to jog his memory. Unfortunately the talk was forgotten on Monday but after big apologies from his teacher he did his talk on Tuesday morning. The other year 1 class also came to have a look at them. We have some quite fat worms out the side of our house! After the worms had been played with on a tray they were put in the school garden as they had become too smelly to bring home. It reminds me of when I was a child and I used to dig in the dirt and keep worms in a jar.

My terrible twosome ...

just love to stir each other but when the time is right, occasionally they play so well together. We had the playdough out on the weekend and Nicholas was helping Penny make and decorate biscuits. She just loves it when he wants to play with her and some days she misses Nicholas while he's at school. One day I hope they're good friends with Nicholas the big brother watching over his little sister.

Zoe,our dog and Holly our cat are never far from us when we venture outside and the kids just love giving them a good pat which is reciprocated with purrs, meows and wagging tails.

Rush Rush...

That is our life at present. I am working 4 days this week so am trying to be extra organised. I think I'll be pretty tired by Friday night though.

Craig received another promotion and is running the Bundaberg/SE Qld part of Lindsay transport as well as the rural part of the company (P&H Rural) which is fertiliser, chemical and irrigation. He certainly has his work cut out for him now and will be flat out but is relishing the challenge.

I managed to sneak in my golf lesson last week but unfortunately the practice has been sadly lacking. Craig and I intend to go and have a game on Sunday now that his mother (our babysitter) has returned from New Zealand.

Craig and I went to a sports dinner with his company on Saturday night. It was quite a good evening with an ex cricketer and rugby player speaking and the usual sports memorabilia auction. Most memorable was the magician who chose me to be his assistant. I was so nervous standing up in front of about 120+people. He was very entertaining and I came home with a pink balloon poodle for the children.

Apart from dancing, the children spent the weekend in their blow up pool as it has got very hot again. They had a relatively quiet weekend which they needed. While I was washing the car on Saturday I spotted 2 kookaburras on the light pole. They seem to be hanging around so much lately, so much so that I wonder if their habitat is sadly being destroyed with all of the development going on around us at present. Thank goodness we have the big beautiful swamp close by.