So Busy!!!

I’d started off this year with great intentions of keeping things (like this blog) up-to-date!

But there has been a bit of a bump in that road in the form of work!

Normally I work one day a week (office G), and every other weekend (office R). Occasionally I work for a week or two if someone is on leave in another office (office A), but it's only 3-4 weeks per year.

I was filling-in in ‘Office A’ before and after Christmas after a ‘reshuffle’ in one of their other offices.
During my this time I was approached to fill a spot in the other office – for a 3 month period, working 3 days a week.

So I now drive an hour each way to work – which is a bit different from the usual 5 minute drive! But it also means that some things don’t get done as often as I’d like – such as my poor blog – which seems to get left to weekends.

But I’ll keep blogging on!!

The Drags

Another round of the drags – complete with pictures!

The aim for this round was to crack a 10 second pass….

But that didn’t happen – but we won’t talk about drivers that forget to change back to first before taking off from the line…. Hitting neutral half-way down the track is not part of the idea!

But there is always next month!!!

Holiday Wrap-Up

So the kids holiday's haven't officially ended - they still have a few days left until they are back at school.

But here is a quick wrap up of what we got up to in the last week they were here!

Time at the beach.

It was a beautiful day at the beach! Sunny, no wind, no flies!!!

Splashing in the water

Collecting water for the sandcastle.

Starting building the sandcastle.

The sandcastle.
This photo was taken with my phone as the darn camera went flat, so it's not the best picture.
It does look like a person - they decorated 'him' and made him look pretty.

Olivia got her ears pierced!

I still remember that I was 6 when I went to get my ears pierced and chickened out. The girl had done the dots on my ears, brought out the piercing gun and that's when I went 'No Thanks!'
I was 12 when I finally got my ears pierced.....

Olivia was very brave, didn't flinch and proclaimed rather proudly that it didn't hurt at all. I on the other hand couldn't watch!!!


But on Tuesday it's back to school!!!

Kite Flying!

Today has been almost perfect weather for kite flying - a little bit cloudy, so it's not too hot, and breezy to help the kites fly.

Olivia got her kite for her birthday - but we haven't had a chance to take it to be flown yet - so that was today's mission - try to get her kite to fly.

The Dora kite flew quite well - Olivia got the hang of it very quickly - and soon there was no more string left on the winder!

Olivia flying her kite

No more string on the winder!

Alexander with the kite.

The Elmo kite we took for Alex to play with spent more time on the ground than in the air.... it's obviously not designed for high flying like the Dora kite.... But when the wind blew that bit harder he did go up in the air - but he just came back down again.

Elmo valiantly trying to stay in the air....

Where Elmo spent most of his time though.

The jam from yesterday? I must have let it boil an bit too long - it's kinda hard..... but it's OK, you don't need a chainsaw to cut it. But it tastes YUMMY! We made some scones for afternoon tea to have with our jam!

Holiday Fun - Strawberries!!!!

Today I decided it would be good to go and do something with the kids that we hadn't done before, so we went strawberry picking.

The strawberry farm is about 20 minutes from home (if that) and very reasonably priced for picking your own strawberries!

Olivia in there picking the Strawberries!

Alexander wondering why Mum has to
take the darn camera everywhere!

It didn't take long before we had a kilo of fresh strawberries and two very happy children!

Strawberry Pickers with their Pickings!!

We continued driving along the road and stopped at the Batman Bridge (pronounced Batmen - not Bat Man - no caped crusaders on that bridge). I gave the kids a quick history lesson on why the bridge was built and who it was named after.... having to convince Alex that it really was Batmen not Bat Man......

At the Batman Bridge

All the information you ever needed to know about the Batman Bridge

So we kept going on our way back home.

But what to do with a kilo of strawberries? Eat some is a very good answer! Make some yummy homemade strawberry jam is another! And there are some leftover to have on breakfast tomorrow morning too.

The jars are just finishing sterilising in the oven at the moment - so I'll take one last photo of the jam in the jar before uploading the photo's and pressing post!

The beginnings of the Jam!

Jam Cooking - bubbling away

YUMMY JAM!!!

Weekend Away

The one weekend we plan to go away to the beach and what happens???

It RAINS!!!

We'd planned to go to the coast with our friends to their parents shack, attend the local car show and then spend the day on the beach.....

We left home - the day was overcast, but not too bad... Half way there the drizzle started. The drizzle turned to rain and FOG!!! I figured once we got past the mountains we hit sunshine again.

I was wrong....

It rained all weekend - except for the hour or so when we braved the beach - but then the thunder started so we headed back to the shack....


So the kids have been promised another trip to a different beach - when it's NOT raining and freezing and we all turn purple and end up with goosebumps!!!

Some of the entrants at the Car Show.
Hubby won Best Modified Car!

Notice the beautiful weather?? No?
Not the nicest day for beach-going.

The kids had fun in the water!

Building Sandcastles with Bradley keeping an eye on the kids
and checking out the water.

New Car!!!

So she may not be a "new", new car, but she's new to us.

The problem is now to decide what to do with her? Do we leave her stock standard as she is? Or do we turn her into the drag car that everyone else wants us to do?




One sure thing, she has a big fan! Olivia now 'drives' her - while sitting in the driveway while hubby washes the car. She's figured out how to use the wipers!!



But it's just another project added to the list!!!

Motivation Time!

Well it's a New Year, so that means a fresh start on some of those darn projects around the house.

As this year is our turn for Christmas (as we were informed on Christmas Day), I thought it might be just the motivation I need to get the house looking ship-shape and getting those projects that never seem to be finished, over and done with.

This is the last list I wrote of things that need doing...... The list was written back here in March last year.....

So what needs to be finished:
* Painting kids bathroom
* Painting kitchen and laundry (can't do this until the next project is completed)
* Put new benchtops on in kitchen
* Paint and put new handles on kitchen cupboards.
* Buy a new back flyscreen door - it was patched today, so that will do for the moment.
* Finish painting lattice work outside - I started that the other month..... did a bit but then again the enthusiasm wained....
* Finish putting shelf and drawer liners in (I've done the laundry, have to do the kitchen)
* Replace roof on back porch - the green stuff is loose, broken and flaps around.


Since then we have....
* Put the new benchtops in the kitchen
* Stained and put the new handles on the cupboard doors - well some of them.....
* Painted more of the lattice work outside.
* Done half the draw and shelf liners in the kitchen

and today I finished painting the kids bathroom!!! YAY!!!

But as always there are more things to ADD to the list.... I think the poor list is going to be bigger than what it started out as....

* Painting kitchen and laundry (can't do this until the next project is completed)
* Paint and put new handles on kitchen cupboards (finish the other half)
* Buy a new back flyscreen door - it was patched today, so that will do for the moment.
* Finish painting lattice work outside - I did more, but must FINISH!
* Finish putting shelf and drawer liners in (finish kitchen)
* Replace roof on back porch - the green stuff is loose, broken and flaps around. (so not essential, but nice to be done)
* Garden - do something with it!! Remove weeds from lawn, put plants in garden, buy water tanks, new compost bin, finish back garden/plastic on back fence.
* Finish loungeroom wall patching....
* Finish Olivia's bedroom wall patching (just a few spots from where we put the new window in)


Yep, darn list is longer than the one I started with.... But I've found that if I do a little bit before I head off to work each day, and a little bit more when I get home then things are actually getting done!

Tomorrow morning I'm going to finish varnishing the skirting boards for the kids bathroom and the cupboard doors that I have stained - so they can go on tomorrow night.

And tomorrow night, if the weather is not too freakishly hot then we might get stuck into the back garden and get the plastic down properly, so our fence doesn't rot, that I started about 2 weeks ago now.....

Maybe by Christmas our house will look like a house, not a renovation nightmare!!

Alexander's Birthday

We're getting closer to 'now' - Alexander's birthday was at the beginning of this month - he has just turned 9!

Time for another "I can remember when he was a baby" photo.

Alexander at 6 hours old - my 1st photo of him.

For Alexander's birthday we had booked the bike centre too - as we had done for Olivia's birthday see here - but instead of friends for the bike centre we did a family time, as we had family visiting from the mainland and the house would have been kinda squishy.

At the bike centre

More fun at the bike centre

Alexander's cake

Even the grown-ups had fun at the Bike Centre!

So we had friends come around the next day and watch a movie (Monsters Vs Aliens) and they had fun eating pizza, popcorn, chips and chocolate!

Blowing out the candles

Eating cake after unwrapping presents!

The Burnie Show

Nearly 3 weeks ago was the Burnie Show - held on the Friday and Saturday.

We were invited up to display our cars - so we headed up and put our cars next to the very dusty trotting track - and ended up with very dirty cars.

All the cars

Mine and hubbys cars.

When I wandered away to have a look at the show (which took all of 20 minutes by the way) - hubby managed to grab the camera, and a passing guy dressed up as a lizard... This is the result....



They tried to get him IN the car - but his tail wouldn't fit. He will never be left again with the camera without supervision lol.

Our Melbourne Trip

So two weeks after the below birthday parties we took the kids and ventured to Melbourne for 4 nights.

We flew out on Friday morning - not too early!

Waiting for the plane at the airport.

I was very apprehensive about our accomodation. I booked it online because I could get a cheaper rate and have two bedrooms for 4 people, and then checked out the reviews.... bad idea....

But on arrival it couldn't have been better! OK, well it could have, but the rooms were fine - and was paint missing from parts of the wall really going to be the undoing of our holiday? I think not!

The view from our hotel room.

So on day 1 (Friday) after chucking our bags into the hotel room we set off for the Queen Victoria Market and wandered around looking at all these things we didn't want to buy. We then went down to the Spencer Street DFO - and that really hadn't gotten any better than last time we were there - nothing appealed to us. We also did a city circle tram ride - that takes an hour to do!

Lunching at the market.

Day 2 (Saturday) - we set off for the Zoo! An exciting tram ride for the kids. The kids had an absolute ball there (as did the grown-ups). The downside? My camera went flat only halfway round the zoo - darn new lithum batteries.

At the zoo

On our way back to town we stopped at the market again - Hubby wanted to buy some new shoes as the ones he brought with him were hurting his feet. And then we set off for the Museum and wandered around there - pity I had no camera, so no photos of Phar Lap - but I did get a postcard!

Day 3 (Sunday) - we decided to go to Chadstone shopping centre, so we caught the train out there. I remember it being wonderful.... it was wonderfully huge, easy to get lost... and we went shopping at K-mart... Yep, we went all the way to Melbourne to shop at K-mart.... We did buy some other things too, but buying mugs at the Reject Shop is not really a highlight.

On the train!

Day 4 (Monday) - we caught another train and headed to the Scienceworks Museum. Our local little museum has a small hands on science display - well this place is just amazing, and our little area would get lost in there! And they had a Star Wars exhibition too - so the kids had a ball looking at that too.


With Yoda! With Chewie!

Looking very small in a painted doorway... The whole background is painted actually.

Day 5 (Tuesday) - home day. We went back to the market for a last look and bought the things we hadn't done on the first two visits! And headed to the airport to sit around and wait.... After a delayed flight we made it home - exhausted.

View from airport window.

But not one complaint about the amount of walking, no tired legs, the kids did an amazing job!