I must be crazy!

OMG BBQ - what was I thinking? Twenty 9 years olds for a birthday party! Yes, my biggest turned nine on Sunday, and we had a Tropical themed birthday party which she invited her school friends to, as well as her cousins and a couple of other out-of-school friends. All the kids came dressed in tropical or summery clothes. I'm thinking next year we do something simple - a couple of kids to the movies or something like that.

Anyway, I think they all had a great time. I made tropical themed food - sliders, tropical pizzas, tropical fruit platter, tropical punch, tropical lollies, tropical cupcakes .... you get the idea! We had a blow up pool full of soft drinks, a hula skirt for the table, and other tropical table decorations, themed serviettes and cups.


When each child arrived Jasmin gave them a Leui and a beach bucket to put their goodies in.



I took a photo of each child in our tropical themed cut-outs, and we played some tropical themed games. They each got a prize from each game including a blow up mini beach ball, yo-yo and fluro bubbles... all to put in their beach pails to take home with them.

Aaron behind the surfer boy cutout:


Jazz behind the hula girl cutout:



Beach Ball run - they had to run races with beach balls between their knees:



There was a round of hula freeze:



Jasmin wanted an ice-cream cake for her birthday cake - she picked the biggest beach pail that we had - and Dave helped fill it with ice-cream with clinkas mixed through it. I sprinkled toasted coconut on the cake for beach sand, and we put chocolate shells around the bottom.



I also managed to get a photograph of all the kids at the end before they put lollie bags into their beach buckets and left. I then sat down with Ness and Ona for a much needed glass of wine!!!



I also got a present on Jasmin's birthday - a nice dress from Dave, to celebrate 25 years of togetherness. Would you believe we started going out on the 23rd October 1986 - who knew that we would have Jasmin exactly 16 years later! He is so sweet, it didn't even cross my mind that it was a special anniversary of sorts!



Doing it all agin next weekend for Halloween!

Another List Maker

Appears that we have another list maker in the family. Apparently Nan told Jasmin that she needed to be a little more organised in the mornings - so what does Jasmin do? She makes a list - she is so like me sometimes it is scary. So she made a list of the things that she has to do each morning and stuck it on the fridge. I was impressed that the list was so comprehensive - and I chuckled at the little pictures she had drawn.



A couple of layout shares - some more Double Take layouts. I only have three more double take layouts to do, and then the course is over. It's been good from the viewpoint of getting a lot of photographs scrapbooked in a short amount of time!




I have finished two books in the last week, and started on another two.

Finished White Tiger by Kylie Chan - interesting read as it has a lot of Chinese Mythology in it, fixed with Martial Arts. Also finished the 1st book of Night Huntress - First Drop of Crimson (I accidently read the second book a little while ago, so decided I should probably read the first book before reading the third one). Also finished Jasper Forde's The Last Dragonslayer.

I am now reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, and another book which has the word "Swallow" in the title - and I have now completely forgotten it's name. Must be time to go to bed!

The end of the holidays

So sad to see the end of the holidays, but it has been a great week (although I had to work!). The girls really enjoyed themselves this week - Eliza had tennis lessons for the half days in the morning:




and Jasmin had Pottery lessons for half days, also in the mornings:


She got to spin some pots on a pottery wheel which was quite the thrill for her, and her pots looked way better than the ones I did on a course many years ago!




I'm sure next year Jazz will want to do some more Pottery classes - she really loved it. She made two pots, a dog, a cake and a lizard. Will have to post some pictures after they have been fired in the Kiln.

The girls also got to check out the Looney Tunes show at the Canberra Theatre - and thought that was pretty good.

Later this week Jazz and I had a go at making sushi, and Nan made an Apple Alsatian Tart, Eliza even ate an egg roll which we made for her - although she wouldn't try the nori rolls (maybe we she gets a bit older LOL):



Eliza invited some friends around to have Little Pony Cupcakes on Saturday, which we made on Friday night (while Jazz went to a friends sleepover birthday party - apparently they stayed up until midnight talking!). We decorated the cupcakes on Saturday morning with a bit of help from Kate, and Aunty Fiona. They looked pretty good, and the little girls looked like they enjoyed them.





The kids had a great time playing together, bouncing on the trampoline and also playing with all Dave's Nerf guns (we will have to go out today and check for stray nerf bullets)! Believe or not, there were enough nerf guns for all the kids - with some left over, Dave really has an impressive collection and didn't mind the kids getting them out to play with! The mums did some scrapbooking (although I only did one layout - a bit scrapped out at the moment), Kylie did manage about 15 cards by the end of the day though!


I couldn't resist snapping this picture of Dave cooking some snags on the BBQ that night (it really is a rare sight worthy of taking a picture).


Just hanging around watching movies today and chillin' out. Dave has ordered us some new iPhones, but we have to wait until November to get them - I am going for a white one this time. Can't wait to get them! Just got a call from Dave's sister to say that they were thinking of popping into the Hunter Valley on the way home from Newcastle - so I might have a case of Andrew Thomas Semillon on the way if they decide to go.

Long Weekend Happenings

Love how we have had two long weekends with the girls - I know it's only one extra day, but it's great to spend some extra time with them.

So far this weekend - we have gone to Kate's birthday at Lollipop's play land - Eliza and Jazz thought it was so much fun!



Then it was off to Office works to check out some new office chairs for our studies (the ones we have are just looking a tad tatty!). We saw what we wanted, I was hoping to get one with a massage back in it, but they had all sold out. Anyway - we will probably order them on-line and get them delivered - perhaps they will have a massage one online? I can only hope. Even though we went to look at chairs - we are all suckers for office supplies and managed to walk out with a basket full of stuff!

After returning home we had some friends from Goulburn visit for an hour or so, before they went to dinner at the Ottoman, and we went to dinner at the Cork Street Cafe in Gundaroo, with Les and Julie and all of Les's (our bro-in-law) family. They are a lovely bunch, and his sister and mum are heading off to Hawaii on Monday (so wish that we were going again too - you can never get too much of a great place!)






Sunday went so fast it wasn't funny. Eliza didn't get up until 9:30am and Dave didn't get up until 10:30! Both Jasmin and I were up before 8 of course!

We had a lovely lunch at Connect Bar and Cafe at Gungahlin (first time we have been here) before doing a bit of grocery shopping and coming home to watch one of my favourite movies - Ever After! By then the day was over, time for dinner and then bed for the girls. Note to selves: It's amazing how the girls will clean up their plate when told they can't have the special ice-blocks we bought at the shops until they do!




Today - the girls are having a PJ Day, and they wore their PJs all day even when they went outside to play. They haven't had a PJ day in ages.

Dave and I managed to construct our new outdoor settings (took a lot longer than expected); the lawns have been mowed; washing is done and dried on the line; I tidied up the girls bookshelves and managed to remove a tub worth of books and puzzles for Chloe; we played Boules outside (yes the girls played in their PJs); Jasmin watched all three Back to the Future Movies (and we watched Mars Needs Mums even before dad got up this morning); I went and purchased a new iron (the mother-in-law had a bit of an accident with the last one - and I am minus one of my favourite tops as well!); and now I think it's time to sit and relax before I have to cook dinner!





Layout Share:

Some double-take layouts:




A layout of Floriade - I bought the professional photo taken by the Canberra Times on the Saturday that we went, and also added the journaling of Dave's comments which appeared in the Canberra Times on the Monday.

Thank you Steve

I was so sad to hear of Steve Job's passing. This man truly was a visionary in so many ways, and has done so much for both the tech and the animation industries. You were a great man - may you rest in peace.

Neighbourhood walk

Well we finally got to do a neighbourhood walk on Monday with the girls. We took our sketch pads with us, and Eliza drew a map of the walk we took to the lake, while Jasmin drew some pictures of different things that she saw. The weather was stunning! We took some cupcakes with us for a little picnic, and also took some bread to feed the ducks - no sign of the black swans that we normally see though!

The girls have affectionately called this tree the Halloween Tree:


our favourite seat by the lake:


Feeding the ducks:


Chillin out with Dad:



Poor Jasmin went with Dave to the shops yesterday to get me crusty bread to have with soup on soup night - the poor thing got swooped and pecked by a magpie on the way home on her scooter near our house - she was wearing her helmet and it actually got her behind the ear under the helmet! This is the first time it's happened, as we have never been swooped before even though we live right next to the magpies tree. We figure one of the little ones is nesting for the first time, and is being a little over protective. Jazz is not too keen to go out the front door now!

Here is my layout share for today - a couple more layouts from the sketches on the Double Take course:




I thought I would also share some more Hawaii photographs. I have set up my laptop to change the background picture ever couple of minutes, and keep on seeing pictures of Hawaii going past. We are so looking forward to our trip to Queensland at the end of the year, and will definitely stop by Hawaii on the way back from US in 2013.

One day on Oahu we had a great time on a snorkelling tour - the girls very first go at snorkelling - lucky we had Aunty Julie and Uncle Les there, as I'm not the best snorkeler or swimmer!

the girls with Uncle Les


Dave snorkelling



Some sea life


We saw a heap of Hump Back Whales on the tour (more than we saw on the Whale Watching tour we did on the Big Island):


Views on the way back