Off and away

Another early start, bags packed, excitement rising, Toby's torch at the ready.

Sam's going to have so much fun, they have so much to see and do in Canberra.

The War Memorial, National Museum, Portrait Gallery, Parliament House, Questacon and lots more in between and at night.

They are going to be so tired when they come home.  I wish I was going, there's still a lot I haven't seen in Canberra.....and because I love exploring with my boys.

I think I did very well this morning only a few slight tears in the car before we left.

I was very brave, all smiles, lots of blow kisses and signing "I love you" back and forth.  I like my Sam, I like him a lot.  The house feels very empty now.  Just me and Tobs.

Sunday afternoon treat

It's been another hot day, I don't know where Autumn has gone to, it's supposed to be here, it's supposed to be cool and snuggly.  Sam is off to camp for the first time in the morning, so we had a special afternoon treat, iced chocolates and white/dark chocolate chip cookies.  The cookies are for Sam to take away, but we had to have some fresh from the oven. 

I just wanted him to remember that home is the best place to be, camp is fun but home is best.

Conniving aren't I?  Either that or I'm trying to make him sick so he doesn't have to go on camp.  I've been missing my Ethan and Donald this weekend.

They come home tomorrow night, so it won't be a full house until Wednesday night when Sam comes home.  

For the cookie recipe go here, I just used my jam drop recipe and added lots of white and dark chopped chocolate.

9 pm

Painting toenails by candle light during earth hour

I might just have to redo them tomorrow

10 am

Hair flying

Feet flying

Spirit flying

5 am

I just waved two of my boys off at the airport this morning.  

They are going to Brisbane for a wedding.  Donald's youngest brother Campbell is to be married this afternoon.  I wish I was there.  So does Sam and Toby.  Sam has his school camp on Monday and we need to be up bright and early again for that.  We are holding the fort, and going to soccer and church this weekend.

So this morning at 5am it was goodbye's at the airport.

We are home, the sun isn't even up yet.

I think I'll go back to bed.

For a little while anyway...

Friday afternoon munchies

Feel like a fantastic Friday afternoon treat?  

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Very ooey, gooey and yummy.

 Go visit "What's for dinner Mum?" for the recipe.

The front porch

I sit, I sniffle, I watch the clouds drift by.  I hear the gentle whistle of the rainbow lorikeets as they drink the nectar from  the delicate, pink camelia flowers.

I snuffle a little more and crochet a few more rounds.

Toby has persuaded me to make him a warm hat, he loves them so.  He chose the wool, the most colourful wool and now I crochet him a wonky hat.

The slow cooker is full of minestrone cooking for me, the bread maker is baking for me. I sit, I sniffle with my cold and tired head, I doze off....

I am awakened by the constant buzzing on and off, on and off of a whipper snipper a few doors down.  It goes on and on disturbing my beautiful but brief slumber.  I wish it would stop...

It has stopped at last and I hear the birds once again and smell a waft of baking bread and a hint of minestrone.

I do love my front porch.

I've been practicing...

...with some of my favourite colours.

I have some ideas up my sleeve, I just need a little more practice.

A weekend in Melbourne

A couple of weekends ago I spent 4 days in Melbourne visiting with my lovely Aunt Desley and the ever energetic Uncle John, on my own, without kids or husband.  I've just been a little too busy to blog about it though.  After an early start and arrival in Melbourne we stopped in Lygon Street for a little morning tea. 

It was building up to be a hot day, but that didn't stop us from going to the Melbourne zoo to visit the new baby elephant 'Mali'.

To get a glimpse of Mali we had to stand in line for about 45 minutes so that we could see her for a brief 5 minutes.

She is so adorable, just a tiny little munchkin with a sweet little trunk and she sticks close by to mum.  It was hard to get pictures when peoples heads were in the way, but I managed to hold my camera up paparazzi style and was lucky to come out with some good pictures.  I think there is another new baby elephant in Sydney's Taronga zoo, might have to go and visit her too!  Amongst other animals at the zoo we watched the gorillas,  various monkeys and the gibbons.  Although it is yet to be decided who was watching who.

This gibbon just liked hanging around and every now and then reached down to his bottom and had a little poop snack, a little gross, but had everyone in hysterics as he innocently reached down and had a nibble (and I mean the one in the picture above not below).

The meerkats were fascinating  creatures to watch as they slept sprawled out across each other while one stayed alert on guard, then they all did a mad scramble when the guard let out a warning.  Fun little animals.

I am a big fan of the giraffes and the zebras and love to watch the giraffes at feeding time with their long sticky blue tongues as they reach for their treats.  We didn't get to see them feed this time, we were in a bit of a hurry to get in line for the baby elephant, but the zebra's were so close you could almost touch them.

It ended up being an action packed weekend that Desley had lined up for us.  We went and saw 'Jersey Boys' on Friday night, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and how they came about.  Some fantastic singing by the cast, which kept the story flowing, I really enjoyed the performance.  On Saturday we went to a matinee of 'The Merchants of Bollywood', a highly energetic, colourful, loud, bollywood dance production that covers a little of the history of bollywood dance and movies.  

It was wonderful, yet exhausting watching, the dancers just kept bringing on the next dance and then the next, all with lively costume changes too.  Did I mention how loud it was??  I guess being in the 4th or 5th row from the front and right next to the speakers kind of contributed to that.  I love a bit of Bollywood, it has such a joyful, energetic way of telling a story, through dance and song.  Did I mention it was energetic??  I think 'The Merchants of Bollywood' is coming to Sydney next week, if you go keep an eye on the lead male, he doesn't say anything but boy can he dance (I think it's something to do with all of those rippling muscles).

My stay in Melbourne also involved going for a few walks, lots of sleeping in between activities, the movies (Crazy Heart) and catching up with the lovely Jessica and her beautiful little Harry.

The End

(PS:  Now you can see why it took me so long to post this)

Grand Final

Ethan's indoor soccer team made it to the Grand Final on Tuesday.  They beat the lead team in the semi final a couple of weeks ago which put them straight into the grand final.  That semi-final game was a cracker, I have never felt more stressed in watching a game than I did watching that one.

For the grand final they played the same team and it was a very close game with both sides very evenly matched.  Ethan did magnificently in the goals for the first half, unfortunately the other team managed to slip a goal in, but that was the only one with the final score 1:0.

Even though our boys didn't win I think we all felt like winners and still were awarded with a 'runners up' trophy.  They so deserved it.

Indoor soccer season over....outdoor soccer season begins!!

My Tuesday night table

School newsletters, junk mail, catalogues, book club, National Geographic, fruit, flowers, pre-school artwork, a trophy (more about that here), homework, an invitation.....

It's been a busy day but Tuesdays always seem to be the day that my dining room table gets over loaded with 'stuff'.  The school newsletter arrives, the mail box gets stuffed with catalogues and Toby's day at pre-school always produces some wonderful pieces of art.  I'm not very good at organizing this 'stuff', so when dinner time comes it then becomes a pile on the floor.....waiting for Wednesday to come along and then I add the local paper to it and anything extra that comes along.....hopefully Thursday I'll be able to deal with it all.

With a clunk and and a thunk

It is a quiet day today, the rain is trying hard to fall but the clouds seem reluctant to let go.  I hear the clunk, thunk, blop...blop...blop as the pecan nuts are shaken off the tree next door and land on our garage roof and roll off.  

The cockatoo's are gathering en mass, it seems to be the meeting, eating tree at the moment.  

The cockatoo's glide in, grab onto a branch and hang upside down as they reach for the nuts to crush them in their beaks.  Lifting their heads up occasionally with a beak full of nut clusters.

They are funny to watch, as I sit with my little soccer happy companion, with peanut butter smudges, who wants to take photo's too,

As we sit together he with his sniffles and I with my wonky ears, and watch the rain drip and cockatoo's fly off,

With a clunk, thunk, blop...blop...blop.......squawk!!

Do you think he looks excited?

 He's a natural, with legs bouncing and hair flying, Toby has been waiting for this moment a reeeeally long time.

Toby started soccer training yesterday but has been asking since last year when he could start.  He had to be the happiest boy in the world yesterday.  The day was filled with hugs, love and Toby telling us how much he loved everything and how much fun he's having.

The day ended with Toby not going to sleep and being a chatterbox all night because he was so happy.  

Now we have 4 boys playing soccer on a Saturday, how am I going to survive?

Look what I found

That's definitely colour change

Oh Autumn I welcome you with open arms