Only 3 more sleeps

Well it's only three more sleeps until Dave and I leave for singapore. I am 95% packed, and starting to feel a bit nervous and excited at the same time.

We had a great long weekend, and as per usual I went back to work to have a rest. We stayed in Canberra - did lots of catching up with different friends that we don't see as often as we would like. We also went to Floriade, we picked the best day - it was a beautiful sunny day. I could have done without Eliza complaining almost all the way around the flowers - as she was more interested in going to the Circus (aka - the ferris wheel, and jumping castle). Here are a couple of my favourite pics:

Yes a sandcastle a Floriade - a strange sight indeed-

Jas dancing in the shade of an umbrella-

The view of Floriade from the Ferris Wheel-

Red and White Tulips - so beautiful-

The girls and I posing in front of the flowers and ferris wheel-

The umbrella display - very Springy (I'm sure that's not a word!)

My Favourite Gnome-

Dave and Eli-bear-

I am loving my new office space... although it feels a little strange to be on the opposite side of the house to Dave at night time, just waiting on my drawer handles and the glass fronts and shelves to the display cabinets, and I will post some completed pictures.... oh and also the carpet needs to be relaid.

Jas finished her school diorama - and feels that she went well in her talk. I am so happy that she has no problems with speaking in front of the class - I certainly could not have done it at her age. The teacher said the other day, that Jasmin is one of the best presenters in her class. Being good at public speaking has really boosted her confidence. She is doing so much better with her reading now, her memory seems to be improving, so will be interesting to go to her followup appointment in Sydney in December and see what the results are. I so want her to have the best opportunities, she loves being read to, so I really want her to be able to read fluently and with confidence. Here is the final diorama:


PS. I am very impressed with Jasmin's memory for song lyrics. She can listen to a song a couple of times and sing the lyrics back to you, normally with or without music. She really relates to it. I was so impressed when she sang the words to my favourite song (My Never - Blue October) to me after only hearing the song a couple of times! She can even sing the rap in Aeroplanes (B.O.B featuring Hayley Williams)

I haven't had a lot of time for scrapbooking, plus all my supplies have been boxed up in the garage. Had to do a couple of work layouts for a newsletter on using Page templates. I do like the simplicity of the results though-



Well - off to bed for me. I have to preview one more movie before ordering tomorrow night.

Friday night we head back to Goulburn after we have tucked the girls in for the night.... is it silly to miss the girls, when I haven't even left yet?

Random Things

Starting to get excited about my space being built coming up this Friday. We have emptied out the rumpus room - tidiest its been in years (hehehe):


You may wonder where all the stuff is? Well its in the garage, and my car is out on the driveway. Maybe it will rain and get a wash! I'm looking forward to posting some completed pics of the room, and also having a big purge of stuff as I put stuff back into the room!

I had to take passport photos for Jasmin this week. She is less than 18 months old on her first passport (so cute). It's now expired and she has to get a new one before our trip to Hawaii. Here are some pics that didn't make the cut!!

She was pretty upset at the beginning of this week, she found Eliza's purple goop outside and put it on top of the Lion statue, and told Eliza to take it inside. Eliza either didn't hear her (or ignored her), and this is the result:

Anyone got any ideas on how to remove goop from stuff? I'm guessing not. Statue might make a good Halloween decoration now. Will have to make the trip down to Mittagong to see if we can buy another one. After she took me out to show me, I could hear her mumbling to herself (she talks to herself just like I do) - "Oh why was I so stupid, I can't believe I did that". She had a couple of tears, but what can you do - accidents happen.

The bike for Eliza's birthday has really gone down well. She rides it all the time. She rides it down to school to pick up Jasmin in the afternoon. The new Barbie helmet is a hit as well. She announced the other day that she was no longer into Dora, she's a big girl now, so she loves Barbie.

Jas has almost finished her Diorama - still can't believe they are expected to construct one all by themselves (she's only 7!) She had to pick an environment she would like to work in - so she picked a restaurant. Here is the almost completed product - notice the art work she painted and added to the wall, and the bottles for the bar area!

Both excited and nervous about Singapore. I know I'll miss the girls even though they are in good hands! Last time we went away it was only 10 days - this time it's 14. I think mummy will find it harder than they will! So looking forward to taking them away to Hawaii. Only 11 more sleeps to Singapore ....

BTW - finished books 39 and 40 for the year:
39. Anita Blake Series - Vampire Hunter Book 2
40. Steig Larrson - The Girls who played with Fire

Now reading the last Steig Larrson book.

All partied out!

The last of the September birthday's are now over - what a couple of weeks it has been. I think we have all OD'ed on sweets and cakes!

Eliza had her birthday party the previous weekend - although it was a bit cold on the Saturday, the jumping castle was fantastic the kids had such a great time bouncing on it. Inside the castle was a hippo's mouth which would stay open for a minute, and then when it closed it raised the kids in the mouth up to the slide level so they could slide down the slide. I wish I was small enough to go on it too!



I laboured over Eliza's birthday cake the previous day - I think it was worth it. I'm not much of a cake maker (probably because I don't really like cake), but I do try and make the effort to make the girls birthday cake each year.


Eliza hates to get her hands dirty - so she found a way to eat cake without having to touch it:

This weekend just passed we had Annie's birthday in Goulburn - she turned two:


When it got to singing happy birthday, she got a little overwhelmed!

Last but not least Cam, my nephew turned 13.

The girls had a great time. It was such a lovely day they got to play outside for a while. I love this picture of Cam, Dan and Jas looking for bugs through the trampoline.

Here is Eliza with Cam, she's taken to calling him her "Love Boy" - I think she thinks she can marry him one day - I've tried to explain that she can't marry her cousin, but it just falls on deaf ears.

I love this picture of Dan and Jas together as well - they get on so well together:

I've packed up my scrappin room (the rumpus room), at the moment, so I haven't done a lot of scrapbooking - except for a couple of work layouts I had to do, to use the Magic Scraps Designer Flair pieces:




On the reading front I've finished my 38th book - Mockingjay - the third Hunger Games book. It wasn't as good as the first two books, but it was still a good read.

My Baby is 5

My littliest baby is five years old! WOW - where did it go. She's not so little anymore. Yesterday she had a great day - we gave her a new bike for her birthday (which she picked herself, as we wanted to make sure she liked it), but daddy also got her a new Barbie helmet for her birthday as the Dora helmet was just too small for her to wear anymore. Jas gave her a pretty heart bead with a pink stone in it for her pandora bracelet, and we also got her a new barbie from the Barbie and the Mermaids tale (she desparately wanted it!).

She rode her bike around at home almost all of yesterday (when she wasn't at school):

Being a new big five year old, she also answered the phone for the first time (she looked pretty chuffed), Nan and Pop rang before school to wish her a happy birthday:

On the night of their birthday they get to pick what they want to eat for dinner - Eliza picked spaghetti with fresh parmesan cheese - her favourite at the moment (she choose Chicken Nuggets last year!). Needless to say - us adults had a nice steak instead! After dinner we had a ice-cream cake for her, and she was proud as punch to blow out the candles.


She is so looking forward to having a birthday party on Sunday with our friends and family. We have organised a jumping castle for the occassion. Should be a lot of fun - I'm just hoping it doesn't rain. All tomorrow will probably be spent, making the castle cake for her birthday party!

Fly a Kite

It has been so windy here lately, that the girls actually went out side to fly a kite with Nan last week. It was sooooo cold, that they really didn't stay out there for long!

We are in the middle week of three weeks of birthdays - Bailie's was last weekend, she turned four. Arlene, as per usual, made a fantastic cake. The girls got to stay all afternoon and play with Bailie, while Julie and I did the Civic Video ordering. It was also nice to go out to Infuse for dinner, before the drive home.





This weekend it is Eliza's, which I am both looking forward to and dreading (probably the thought of making the princess castle cake on Saturday - baking cakes are not my forte). Next weekend it will be Annie's birthday - she turns two.

I am in the process of packing up all my scrapbooking supplies, which live in the rumpus room, ready for the construction of some office space at one end of the rumpus room. It is meant to be built for me on the 20th September, so I thought I would start packing it up now. I am so looking forward to having my own space, instead of working on the dining room table, and having to unpack and pack up my scrapbooking everytime I actually want to do a layout. I guess in a lot of ways I have always been a bit jealous of the fact that Dave has an entire study, yet I'm the one that works at home 3 days a week, does all the home finances and business work - and I have to work on the dining room table! Oh well, that's about to change. I'll have an office desk with return for my printers, a big bookshelf to display my albums, with lots of drawers for storing my scrapbooking stuff, and some specially made 12x12 paper shelves....I'll be in heaven. We are also getting two floor to ceiling display units at the opposite end of the room to store all the limited edition statues that we own, since the cabinet at the other end will be displaced. The pool table will stay- and I will also be getting a fold up top which sits on it, so that I can also use it for scrapbooking as well. When we want to use the pool table, we can just fold the top up and store it away!

I have read another two books since my last post:

36. Dead in the Family - Book 10 Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Series.
37. Book 1 of Anita Blake Vampire Hunter.

I am now in the process of reading Book 2 of the Anita Blake books, and also the third Hunger Games book called Mockingjay - Dave got this one from Audible, with our trial subscription. The only downside to the subscription is that you don't have access to all of the books that are released in the US.