Australia Day & School Return

Our Australia Day was a quiet day at home before the big return to school for Nicholas (yr2) today. The last few days have been particularly hot so yesterday the kids decided to set up the water slide and cool off. Nick has no troubles surfing down it on his belly but Penny is a little more timid and has to go down on her knees first. They then had a run through the sprinkler. Last night we had a lamb roast for dinner which was delicious.

Nicholas had a good first day of school and enjoyed catching up with his friends.

A Quick Trip

Last Saturday, we ventured down to Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast for a few nights. We stayed at the lovely Rydges Resort which was very family orientated and although not right on the beach, it had plenty to offer. The kids enjoyed the swimming pool and playing tennis. On Sunday morning we walked to the main street of Caloundra which was blocked off for the all day markets which were quite extensive. There were some lovely and interesting wares as well as a few stalls of fresh fruit and veg. On Sunday afternoon, we visited the Big Pineapple where we boarded a little train for an interesting tour of the property which had some exotic fruit trees as well as pineapples. It terminated at an animal nursery where the children fed and patted goats, sheep, alpacas, pigs, a calf, a donkey, guinea pigs, chickens. They really enjoyed this part! On Monday we spent a very hot day at Australia Zoo. We visited in 2006 a month prior to Steve Irwin's death when Penny was 9months old. There have been a few changes but we all really enjoyed the visit again.

We ate at the resort restaurant every night where the children were welcomed with colouring pages and pencils on arrival. Our meals were delicious. The kids menu was fairly standard. Penny had pasta and Nick had calamari rings every night (and they ate free)! I would recommend this place to anyone. Hop onto the Rydges website and join up to become a Rydges Priority Guest for free as we received 20% discount on all our food and beverage purchases, a $50 food/beverage voucher and 15% off our accommodation. We also enjoy visiting the Rydges resort at Yeppoon so we may get some value out of this membership.This weekend will be spent organising Nicholas for his return to school on Wednesday. Covering books, picking up shorts that my good friend, Petrina has re-dyed black for me and making sure all clothing is named.

Have a good weekend.

Rach xx

Creative Spree

I have completed 3 LO's and a card in the last few days which is pretty huge for me. I had a good afternoon scrapping with my friends at our first club get together for the year. I started all three LO's there but find it hard to do the journalling then so waited until Sunday evening. Two of the LO's are from Christmas morning 2005 where the photography leaves a little to be desired but the memories are all that matter and these help preserve this. The other LO is of baby Penny at 5 months enjoying showing off her rolling trick after a bath. I am going to begin making the Southern Cross Kids Camp album pages now.

This card I created today for a good friend from work, Carol who went into hospital for a cesarean today and gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl named Ciara (6lb0oz). We can't wait to meet baby Ciara although I think I may have to do it on my own as the children have colds at present. Congratulations to the Barazza Family!

Thomas LO

Here is the LO of Nick that I finished earlier in the week. He was 2y8mths and so cute and mischievous and absolutely besotted with Thomas.

I have been planning some LO to do at club scrapping on Sunday afternoon. Can't wait to catch up with girls. I've also put my hand up to help in the Southern Cross Kids Camp Page Drive which I did last year (LINK to previous post). We produce 20 6x6 inch pages (one album) with embellishments for a disadvantaged child and their buddy to add photos of their camp to. For some kids this may be the only photos they have of their childhood. Will have to start this next.

It has rained all week but today is bright sunshine and very humid with a swampy backyard! The kids have been to a birthday party this morning at Krazy Maze so have had a good lunchtime sleep. Well must be off to prepare for our BBQ with friends tonight.

Zoe Dog Turns 11

Our labrador turned 11 today. The children were quite excited about it so we made MINI caramel cakes when we came home from the gym as I'm sure cake is not too good for dogs. We sang Happy Birthday to her whilst she was salivating over her cake. She is such a good friend to all of us and we just love her so much. She has absolute unconditional love for us. Bit like a baby is to its mother but unfortunately they grow up and share their love around!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR ZOE GIRL!

The First LO For 2010

Well it didn't take too long for my first LO of Penny when she was a few months old. I am enjoying doing these photos as I kept a monthly journal of Penny's and Nicholas' progress for her first 9mths. I now wish that I had kept it going as it is very funny. Whilst my blog is good for remembering events I don't tend to put deeply personal bits and pieces on it. Maybe it is something I could begin again this year. Another goal coming up!

My new goals are posted at the side. I have readjusted the old goals to make them more realistic.

We have had a busy weekend. We took the kids for a ride on their bikes on Friday and got soaking wet so after drying off and a break in the showers, we went to play tennis at Nick's school. We had a good hit and only had to rest for one shower of rain. Today we ventured out for a brisk walk whilst kids rode their bikes around our local wetlands area, then onto a local leisure centre where the kids had a huge play and we rested with a coffee. This afternoon we went to the park to fly the kite that we had bought for our holiday last September. On holidays it was way too windy but today was just perfect with mild winds and a break from the rain. It was only a cheapy from the discount shop but worked brilliantly! I did 7 loads of washing full of clothes, towels and sheets as we expect the rain to return again for the next week. A storm looks ominous on the radar for later this evening.

Back to the gym again tomorrow and the kids have swimming again this week so some normality is returning. Fitness and eating correctly has become paramount in our house this weekend as part of the New Year resolutions. Penny decided to put on her sneakers and spurred Craig and Nicholas on to do some exercises with her this evening whilst I pushed the iron.

Well, I'm off to complete another LO of Nick as he has noticed the last few have been of Penny and asked if I could do one of him.

The End of A Decade

What a special decade it has been for us with the birth of our two children. We have also endured huge loss with the death of Craig's father. It's hard to believe that this time 10years ago we were wondering if our clocks would stop or our computers would crash. Looking back, what a silly concept!

I haven't achieved all of my goals for this year but I wouldn't want to make it too easy. While my scrapbooking suffered for a while during the year, I certainly have returned to cardmaking and far exceeded my projected quota. Book reading has been enjoyable and I have a couple lined up for next year. Being positive and smiling everyday has been tough at times this year but I'm hoping to improve on that goal next year too. I'll put up my new goals for next year in the coming days.

This week we have enjoyed rainy showers everyday which have been beautiful and all is lush and green again. It rained quite a bit on Tuesday so I decided to teach Nick how to play the original Monopoly board game. Well he beat me very convincingly and wants to play it all the time now. Penny was the banker off and on.

I have worked for the last couple of days. Nick has been to vacation care in which he went swimming at the beach and tried out his new Christmas scooter at the skate bowl on Wednesday and then he went to Sizzler today and indulged. I also managed slip in a little scrapping too and below is the result.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2010!

Love, Rach xx