We are on the countdown to our trip to Fiji - only 7 more sleeps until we leave. The girls are pretty stoked that they start their school holidays two weeks early and then come back and have another two weeks holidays. They have a week in Goulburn planned, and then a three day drama workshop at CADA (Canberra Academy of Dramatic Arts) for three days in the second week. They are looking forward to this!
So starting with our roundup of August -
1 The first highlight for the month was a trip to the snow - we won a day trip to Thredbo including the coach travel, ski hire, boots and lesson. It was an extremely early start (which my stomach never likes), followed by a 2-3 hour coach trip from Civic to Thredbo (in which I felt very ill - the motion sickness is a real winner, I never get it when I drive myself!).
The girls had a great time - Eliza was more interested in having snowball fights and building snow-men, Jazz caught on to the skiing without any problems, and didn't really need the lesson. Lucky she is so light that the snow ploughing actually works for her.
Dave and I looked a little like we escaped from Hogan's Heros - the helmets they hire out really are not that flattering LOL!
2 Chloe's birthday was the very next day in Goulburn. She turned 3, and my sister also made a cake to celebrate Dave's birthday as well, since it is 3 days after Chloe's.
3 On the night of Dave's birthday we went out to dinner at the local Italian Restaurant - The Wild Porcini. Julie and Les came up from Goulburn and came out with us, which was lovely. Especially since Julie made Dave his favourite dessert - lemon jelly cheesecake. It was what I was going to make him as well, and since she had the day off we decided it was much easier for her to make it.
All Dave's family chipped in and got him a limited edition collectible statue for his birthday - he was pretty pleased with this!
Lemon Jelly Cheesecake after dinner:
4. Eliza's class hosted one of the school assemblies. It's always nice to go back to the classroom, and check out some of her school work and art work. She always proudly takes me around to show me everything she has done. It was an extra bonus this day as it started snowing, and the teacher let the kids run outside to play in the snow for a couple of minutes. Many of the children had never seen snow before.
As you can see it has been a very long and cold winter here in Canberra!
5 In the middle of the month we travelled down to Nowra for our friend Andrew's baby boys baby naming and first birthday. We have been friends with Andrew from the start of high school, and have always kept in contact over the years. The extra special surprise after the baby naming ceremony was that Andrew got married to his lovely partner Kat! It was also great to catch up with Andrew's parents and brother and sisters.
On the way down we stopped at Fitzroy falls near Kangaroo Valley. The girls have never seen the falls - so it was a lovely stop on our journey.
The cute little Charlie:
Kat's boys - very cute and fitting t-shirts!
Dave and I - it was a lovely sunny day as well.
6 We also had Jasmin's next check up at the Sydney Development Centre. It was a little frustrating in that I just felt like we were on a conveyor belt. Every time we visit it is the same thing - she has her two tests, we get shuffled into the doctors office, where he weighs and measures, and then says exactly the same thing - improved but still a little way to go, then we fork out our $400 and come back for another appointment in 6 months. She is now doing well at school, getting B's and C's and every so often A's as well. So I am really happy with her, just hoping that she can come off the Ritlin sooner rather than later. Anyway - apary from that we had a lovely day in Sydney and a lovely weekend with our friends Mark and Michelle and the four boys.
Waiting at the train station in Riverstone for our train to the city:
Admiring the view at Darling Harbour where we met Les and Julie for lunch at I'm Angus:
The girls loved helping collect lemons from the lemon tree in Michelle's backyard. Jazz took these excellent pictures:
7 The girls and I braved a very tricky drive back to Goulburn for their second cousin's 6th birthday party - which was a Monster High themed party - so of course they went in their Monster High outfits. Half way back though it started snowing - there were cars pulled off everywhere, a car on it's roof, and we also saw a car with a caravan jack-knife on the highway. I simply drove at 25 kmph behind a ute and didn't have any problems (unlike the idiots that thought they could go faster!). It was a great party and by the time we drove back that night the snow had completely disappeared!
I gave Jazz my mobile phone to take some pictures, and she also sent text messages to her Dad and to Aunty Julie.
Jazz's first text message to her Aunty Julie LOL!
9 And finally - the beginning of September was Eliza's birthday. She turned seven. As part of her birthday present we got her ears pierced as well. She had a Very Pink birthday - that was the theme. So I made lots of pink food and decorated in pink. My sis-in-law also made the fabulous pink cake - she is a real gem!
Eliza had a fantastic time with her friends from school and her out of school girl friends as well.
Of all the places in the house she could play - she ended up in the bathroom playing mermaids with her friends!
We got a fairy floss maker for her birthday party - lucky my nephew Robbie was a pro at using it, and the kids loved it!
Julie did such a great job of the cake!
Reading
I have already reached my goal of reading 70 books this year - next year I will have to set the goal a bit higher. This months reads have included:
My favourite books this month included -
A History of the World in 6 Glasses - a very interesting non-fiction read which linked the development of drinks to a lot of world history and events.
Dragonfly in Amber - the second book of the Outlander series. As I was reading the book I was thinking that it would make a really good televisions series (it would have to be a HBO series or something as it is quite violent in some bits and explicit in others). Low and behold, when I was checking out the author's website it mentions that it has been picked up to have a tv series made! Can't wait - it would make a great series, as it combines time travel with historical fiction.
Gone - the first book in a series by Michael Grant, which is all about all the people 15 and above disappearing - just "poof", and an impenetrable wall appears around a little town in California. The book is all about the childrens fight for survival. Only some of the kids have developed powers - so the book is a little like Heroes mixed with X-Men mixed with Hunger Games! A book which is action packed - so you are never bored.
Still Lifes with Crows - and excellent Pendergast novel with a really creepy ending.
Flash Forward - another excellent book written by Robert J Sawyer, on which the TV series was written. Unfortuneately they only made one season of the series.
Photography and Scrapbooking
A couple of my favourite layouts for this month.
Eliza - from last years Dance Concert which had a Christmas theme, so I used Christmas papers and some washi tape.
I love this conversation with Eliza - so her:
Pictures from my niece's 2nd birthday - about time I did these considering she just had her 3rd birthday!
A double-page summary layout of the things the girls did on the last school holidays:
A layout about our morning routine.Love the coloured alphas from October Afternoon:
A layout about last month's Thredbo trip - lots of journalling!
I created the stars on this layout using two different masks - one from Heidi Swapp and one from The Crafter's Workshop. Had a lot of fun with the colours - matching the Glimmer Mists up with Eliza's Crazy Hair colours!
Cooking and Eating
No food pictures I'm afraid this month! Still planning and cooking about 4-5 different things a week which I really enjoy doing. Some favourites included a Three Cheese Bread which I made from scratch and cooked in the oven, a simple Apricot Fool, and a slow cooked Leg of Lamb - which was delicious. I also made the slow cooked Bolognese again this month - it is so delicious!
Well - I think that's enough for this month. My next post will hopefully be from Fiji (we have already packed!).
In the mean time we have another two birthdays to attend this weekend (Eliza went to a school friend's birthday this morning).
See you until next time. Di :-)
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