Floriade

Here are some photos from the 21st Floriade. The kids enjoyed themselves but I must admit I wasn't as taken with it this year as I have been in previous years. I especially enjoyed the years that had a real art focus (think Chihuly glass work and the pottery of other years). The kids loved painting a gnome for Rotary. Nanny Sue bought them a gnome each and they spent a good hour painting them and getting them just right.
Busy Painting gnomes.




String Bean was captivated by these lovely children in traditional dress from Laos. They were so impressed that someone wanted to have a photo taken with them!







Squealy had fun patting/molesting the animals in the patting paddock. He approached everything with great toddler enthusiasm, and the animals ran far and wide....hehehe well as far away as you could get.

Token flower shot.

Mini quilt

String Bean's mini quilt.

Here is the finished mini quilt I started awhile back. The hand quilting got done super fast but the rest of it seemed to take forever. It has turned out beautifully. I'm def. getting better at this quilting gig. String Bean loves it and is especially happy I have made it into a cushion for her bed.

All finished...

My new Salt & Pepper mug. Very pretty ;-)

What a relief that the school term is over. I was so exhausted by the end of today. Was a real struggle to stick with it. I guess what has really tired me out has been the application process for a new position for next year. We were given two weeks to decide on positions, visit those schools and then write and lodge the online application. Not much fun.

I ended up visiting 6 different schools. All in my local area, no more driving to the other side of town. Some were really interesting and I got a good vibe from, while others were not my cup of tea. It has been quite a stressful two weeks and I'm glad it's over. I won't hear anything now until just before the end of Term 4. So it is now over and done with. I hopefully won't be applying again for about 8 years. I'm not going to use anymore brain space thinking about it.

So thinking about the great new position that I'm going to be placed into, I decided to treat myself to a new mug. I couldn't resist this one. It's pink, girlie and with flourishes too. Very happy here. I think I'm going to leave it on my desk at work.....as a positive reminder of moving on to bigger and better things.

More art....

Sydney Harbour Bridge illustration.

String Bean's class have been undertaking a unit of enquiry on the construction of buildings. She came home with a special lead pencil, art paper and a laminated photo of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Once again, I am amazed by how far she has come and so grateful that the many hours spent on OT are bearing fruit. It's starting to feel like we are getting somewhere.

Dora Show

As part of String Bean's birthday present we purchased her tickets to go see Dora's Pirate Adventure.

The show was a lot of fun for a 5 year old. Squealy was oblivious that we'd even been anywhere special. Fuzzy Wuzzy was happy as I was able to give him my Dora flag when I got home!




I got caught by Rotary who were there fund raising. So annoying that you have to pay $5 to park and at no point are you told this.

Of course I had no money in my wallet (well I did have .15c). I offered it to him, but he just waved me through.

So proud...

Look what String Bean made tonight......a turtle habitat. While on the shopping extravaganza I bought String Bean a turtle magnet. The whole way home she prattled on about making a turtle habitat.

She spent about an hour after dinner making this. She put in so much effort and she knew exactly what she wanted to do. She incorporated the bottom of the shopping bag that my natural soaps came in. Great recycling happening there. Used rocks, tanbark from the garden and left over scrapbooking ribbon for the flowers.

Pretty cool huh?

Oh dear!

Today I put the wrong memory card in the camera. Today was a big and important day. Today was Fuzzy Wuzzy's birthday surprise day. Today we went on the Heritage Train out to Bungendore and back. Today would have been a great day to take photos......argh!

Oh well. I made good use of the 7 photos I could fit onto the 32MB card. It meant reviewing every single photo, every single time I took one. Making sure everything was OK. I do after all have to scrapbook these photos, so they had to be good ones. 7 good ones.

Unfortunately the birthday boy is still going through his: 'Let's Impersonate Jim Carrey' phase (it better be a phase is all I can say). And well, his photos are not great. But after the 10th take of this shot I'd had enough. Not that you can tell at all. I look all smiley and happy lol.

I ended up spending heaps of money. *blush*. But there were so many cool things to get. I found a great shop owned by a large family mum who makes hand made soaps and creams that are all natural, organic and chemical free. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. So I bought a Berry Body Butter, 3 soaps and some bath crystals for the kidlets. I wanted to support such a cool, groovy Mumma to 5, by buying her lush products. I saved on postage and her products were cheaper than the online prices I usually pay....gee I'm good at justifying my impulse buys.

I also picked up a gorgeous 5 stranded beaded necklace from the half price area of one of the craft stores. I just had to have a gorgeous Dragonfly decoration for our front porch, which is so drab hehehe. We then ended up in the retro store, which had a great vibe but not much chop. String Bean, smart cookie that she is, summed it up perfectly. "Well there is not much to see here, but the music is good". How cool is that! My girly likes Nick Cave. Love it. That will def. be going onto a shopping diva LO very soon.

A lovely day

Mummy & Squealy.

Well after getting the heads up that Floriade was fully packed by 9am we decided to forego our planned trip there and headed to Cockington Green instead.

It was just beautiful and very much like Floriade anyway. The venue was full of perfectly manicured and maintained gardens, full of flowering annuals and bulbs.

We decided to let Squealy out of the pram. He was so well behaved, sticking to the paths and staying out of the displays. So proud of how grown up he is. Seems that now that his second birthday is just a around the corner he's lost his baby looks. He is such a little boy now.

Squealy fixated by the train.

Pecan Pudding

Photo Curtesy of: The Australian Women's Weekly

Microwave Caramel Self Saucing Pudding.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup self-raising flour
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter, melted & cooled
½ cup (125ml) milk
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped pecan nuts (you can substitute hazelnuts, almonds or macadamia nuts)

CARAMEL SAUCE
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cups boiling water

METHOD

Grease a 6cm deep, 6 cup capacity heatproof, microwave safe dish.

Combine flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs and nuts in a large bowl; mix well. Spread the mixture into the prepared dish.

CARAMEL SAUCE: Combine all ingredients in a medium heatproof jug, stir until sugar is dissolved.

Pour Caramel Sauce slowly over the back of a spoon over batter in dish. Bake in a microwave oven for about 10 minutes on Medium/50% or until firm in the centre. Stand for 1 minute.

Serve immediately with cream or ice-cream, if desired.

Guess Who Came to Visit?

String Bean, Uncle Andy & Fuzzy Wuzzy.

Uncle Andy popped in late last night to visit. After feeding him up we put him to work: listening to home reading and the reading of bedtime stories. Once the kids were in bed and actually sleeping (we caught Fuzzy playing Thomas and Friends online at 9.20pm!!!!) we sat around chatting and the boys consumed a few beers. Since I don't like beer I made a pecan & butterscotch pudding instead.

Oooo how exciting!

My layout is up on the Scrap Junkie Website. Ainslee actually said it was sensational.....feeling quite chuffed about that, as her standerds are very high.

String Bean and Ms Farnham

I'll also share a photo of String Bean and her gorgeous teacher on their last day together.

Just abit sad tonight....

Canvas For Ms Farnham


It is String Bean's beautiful teacher's last day at school tomorrow. She has had to resign due to medical reasons. If I think about it too much, I just start to cry. She has been so supportive of us and our need to talk. Her room was always calm and so much good learning was taking place. String Bean has improved so much this year, in so many different areas and I'm sure she has played a big part in it. It just seems so bloody unfair that such a wonderful teacher is having it all taken away. When you truly love teaching, the thought of not being able to do so anymore, is just heartbreaking. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult tomorrow is going to be for everyone involved. String Bean made her a beautiful card and even knew what "sentence" she was going to write. I made her a small gift, celebrating her important role as an educator. I hope that it will convey how much we appreciate her efforts.

Wishing her all the very best for a speedy recovery and fingers crossed, you will be doing what you love again soon.

Breakfast with Bob the Builder

We headed over to Brand Depot this morning for the Father's Day Breakfast with Bob the Builder. Fuzzy Wuzzy just had to get dressed up in all his Bob gear for the breakfast. He looked so gorgeous and was so surprised to actually win the 'Best Dressed' prize.










Fuzzy Wuzzy got to get up on stage with Bob and was presented with a 6 pack of donuts. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. If there is one thing Fuzzy likes to eat it is
donuts!

Sketch

Addiction Prescription initial sketch.

Here is my initial ideas for a new layout. I went to my local today and picked up my 'Addiction Prescription', which is a gorgeous Fontwerks stamp called 'Relax'. The idea is to use the product and then return your finished item back to the store for display.

I'm just hoping I can make the stamp do what I want it to do. Will have to have a play tomorrow if I get time......doubtful though (we have a Bob the Builder breakfast and a Disco Birthday party!)

Mini Olympics

Crab Walk between activities.

String Bean had a mini Olympics night at Guides last night. As it is Father's Day on Sunday all the Dad's were invited along. It was so funny watching them slog their hearts out doing the activities.



String Bean and her Daddy were representing New Zealand and won the third place in the Long Jump event. Pretty good going considering we still don't quite know what is wrong with his foot.



Throwing the Javelin.

The four rotations consisted of:

• Javelin (using a skewer)
• Discuss (using a paper plate)
• Shot Put (using a pom pom)
• Long Jump

Gee I wish I had been involved in Guides as a child. String Bean has so much fun. Tonight she has a Guides Disco to go to! Lucky for me I am training to become a Leader, so I get to join in. Better late than never ;)

Maddie's Birthday

Our niece turned 7 on the weekend. The kids had heaps of fun and I got some great photos of all the older ones together. Squealy decided that the older boys party in the adjacent party room was way better than a party room full of girls! Maybe they had better food?






Fuzzy Wuzzy invented a new game with his cousin K. He would find the fires and K would put them out. So, so cute. They all play beautifully together which is amazing really considering that when we get together there are always 6 kids running around!

I can't imagine actually having 6 children all the time mind you. Mothers of large families must have way more patience than I do. Or maybe it gets easier once the older ones can help you more? I'm beginning to think that three is a really good number for us.