A Fun Week

What a busy but fun week. We attended the Annual Scouts and Guides Trivia Quiz.

The theme was the Olympics and Husband Deluxe was the MC.

Fuzzy Wuzzy won 'Player of the Week' for his amazing soccer skills on field.

He played goalie and didn't let anything get past him.

What a star!

Squealy has also been enjoying soccer but invariably he ends up absolutely shattered and freezing after his early morning game.

Poor little guy just crashes out wherever he can!

Kiama Family Holiday #2

 The dinosaur show at the Illwarra Fly by Erth was awesome. A show with huge puppets and audience participation. Our family got lots of audience participation. Here are some photos. Excuse the crappy photos, light levels were low!


String Bean patting one of the baby dinosaurs at the start of the show.

 Squealy had a giant dragon fly land on his hand (I was too slow with the camera).

Husband Deluxe had to stand up and dance :)







 

 Shep (the presenter) selected Fuzzy Wuzzy because he was 'brave'. He didn't even have to talk him into it, he was all over it.


He did look pretty confident to begin with.






 

Triumphant at the end of the head biting!

Deck Reno #1

Ant and Petra + sledgehammer = noice!

Long time no blog. Master of Education sure takes up alot of my non existent spare time :) Anyways the revolting backyard is about to received a major overhaul worthy of a series of blog posts.

  L: Action shot of Squealy.  R: The old deck which is going to a new home at Alistair's place :)

 

 Husband Deluxe and Ant + splinter = poor princess!

 Our builder is starting so the massive job of demolishing our old wooden deck has commenced in such a flurry of activity, that I only got the chance to start taking photos after the boys had started... opps. Oh well not to worry.

Will def. be posting regular updates as the reno take shape. Can't wait to finally revamp our 'interesting' garden lol.

New Pergola #2

Here is a photo of our completed pergola from our neighbours Darren and Sue's place. Have spent more time out on the deck in the last 2 days than I have in over a year!

We also took the kids out for a walk tonight and I just happened to have my camera on me when they decided to jump up on our estates sign. Looks like another electrical storm is blowing in as there was alot of lightening in the clouds behind our place.

New Pergola

Husband Deluxe embarked on removing our pergola, painting it and it putting it back together on our deck.

Ended up being a huge job as the two walls it is attaching to don't have eves or gutters. Involved adding flushing, silicone and rubber seals. The previous owner used wood screws in a metal pergola, so it meant new screws and the correct spacers!

We are really thrilled with the outcome. The deck is now a space we can use, as before it faced full west and south. Very hot and exposed in summer. It is providing heaps of shade to our bedroom making it more comfortable.

Our next big project will be removing an existing wooden deck and getting a new deck and pergola built off the kitchen/family room area.

New Art

Husband Deluxe's sister in the UK sent him one of her original art works. Oil painting on canvas.

Just gorgeous and just in time for Christmas too. Thank you Chrissy, we L.O.V.E. it!

Courgette

Panacotta and berries.

Husband Deluxe had his Christmas party again at Courgette this year. Beautiful setting and the food is really something else!

The restaurant blurb:

Awarded one hat status by the Sydney Morning Herald three years running, Courgette is one of Canberra’s most gorgeous restaurants. Owned by celebrated chef, James Mussillon, Courgette is the ideal choice for an occasion that requires everything to be perfect.

We had lots of laughs, one practical joke and a few boring speeches. I've included a photo of the dessert as it was my favourite part of the meal!

Cricket Gala Day

Meeting the team players!

The boys cricket club was invited to gala day down at Manuka ovals.

They got to meet part of the Sheffield Shield Tasmanian team. Xavier Doherty, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Johnstone and Ashton May. Squealy scored a signed poster :)

The boys were also chuffed to received their Milo cricket kits. Fuzzy loves the fact that he is now a second year player and he now has a real wooden bat and a ball with real stitching. Very important things for a little dude.

Missing You.

Husband Deluxe is having at day at the snow with his mates.

Fuzzy Wuzzy is missing him heaps.

Here is the lovely card he decided to make for his Daddy. It is, apparently Sonic the Hedgehog Mega Collection.

How freakin' cute!

Love My Boys.

Morning cuddles for my 3 boys!

Lisa's Pikelets

Lisa's Pikelets

3 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups milk
3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder

1) Mix all ingredients together to form a smooth batter (add milk slowly!)
2) Heat frying pan and cook spoonfuls over a moderate-low heat until they form bubbles, then flip.
3) Serve.

SuzyBoo Notes:

This recipe makes a truck load of pikletes, far too many for our family, but they freeze really well.

Reduce the recipe as follows:
* 1 cup SR flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, 1 egg, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder.
or
* 2 cups SR flour, 2/4 cup sugar, 2 cups milk, 2 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.

We have been using this recipe for years now and have worked out some different toppings. Husband Deluxe loves his with corn kernels (I buy the little tins of the super sweet stuff). String Bean likes hers with a sprinkle of grated cheese (put onto the raw side, flip and cook till the cheese is crispy).

Trucks and Big Boy Pass Times

Fuzzy and Husband Deluxe helped our friends move house last weekend. Fuzzy just loved the moving truck and being a part of it all.

Tim, Dip, Simon and Husband Deluxe moved everything within 6 hours.

Fuzzy Truck Driver Extraordinaire

Being the sociable boy that we all love, he immediately on arrival, befriended the neighbourhood kids. Considering how much time we spend together, having friends for the kids is a real asset!

Kennards really does make life easier!

OMG Theatre!

SPAMalot set, Supa Productions.

Haha this is the only photo I got all evening, wasn't going to risk the Supa boys selling my little red camera baby on Ebay (as they threatened to do at the start of the show if they caught you taking photos).

Wow what can I say. Fantastic night from start to finish. Lovely dinner at Teatro Vivaldi, act 1, dessert served during the intermission and then act 2. For an amateur production it was unbelievably good. A large cast, beautiful sets and costumes. Wonderful singing and dancing. It had it all. And being Monty Python it was FUNNY!!!

Photo Courtesy of: citysearch.com

Def. recommended for the Monty fans out there. Season runs for 2 weeks, May 7th to 22nd... see it while you can. Read a review here.

Mother's Day

I had such a lovely day full of spoiling. The day started with a sleep in, followed by breakfast in bed and cuddles and gifts.

Stringy made me a gorgeous card, Fuzzy made a bookmark and voucher booklet. Squealy made me a hand painted tile.

The highlight of the day was a trip to the creek bike riding and BBQ lunch with friends.

A Spamalot Birthday

On Friday Husband Deluxe is turning the big thirty five (eeek here comes 40) so I have planned a big night out. Dinner at one of his favourite restaurants: Teatro Vivaldi followed by Spamalot both at ANU.

I know he is going to have the best night!

New Desk

I've been lucky enough to be given this gorgeous roll top desk from my friend Greg. He's in the process of decluttering and kindly offered us this desk.

Husband Deluxe last weekend mentioned that he was on the hunt for a small desk for me to store my laptop and assorted teaching bits and pieces in. Greg flipped out his phone and said he wanted to find a good home for his desk from his childhood... :-)

Husband Deluxe being completely fuckawesome has already made some minor adjustments to increase the desks usability.

He drilled a small hole at the back to feed the laptop cable through and raised the drawers so that my legs fit properly.

Such a fabulous husband and gorgeous friend. I am grateful for both!

Reno: Our Boudoir

Husband Deluxe was so keen off the mark that I have zero 'before' photos. Two weeks ago on a whim we decided to paint our bedroom. Here are the results.


















To say we're overjoyed with the results is a huge understatement. It looks stunning. Husband Deluxe decided it looks like a display home!

We used: shaded spruce for the feature wall, hazel snow for the walls and natural white (+ 2 shades) for the wood work. Unfortunately the camera isn't capturing the true colour in the photos.

We took the easy option of buying pre-made curtains from Spotlight to hang off our existing curtain rail and nice nets which I hemmed up quickly on the machine.

Picnics and River Play

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Tim, Greg, Husband Deluxe and Jeanette.
We had the best picnic and swim today down at Uriarra Crossing. Cath brought along her gorgeous pup: Raj and her parents dogs: Frankie and Jonney. The kids loved splashing around in the river with the dogs.

Was the perfect day for it, not too hot. River had heaps water flow due to the recent rains.

We'll be heading back soon!

Raj, Emilie, Jonney, Frankie, Cath and Abbey.

Empire Strikes Back...

... not much to say with this one. Pretty self explanatory.

Sea Scout in Training

Husband Deluxe has bought a cheapy fishing rod from Kmart and has been taking Fuzzy down to the lake for some quality boy time.

Lake Ginninderra doesn't have much by the way of edible fish.

But they did manage to catch some red fin perch.

These fish are considered a pest species, so Fuzzy brought them home to show String Bean and Squealy.

He was so proud of himself. All good practise before he joins Sea Scouts.