christmas 2010

 Christmas Eve with Good Friends and kids....

Christmas day morning....

 

 

And dinner

and boxing day...

4 days to christmas...

So it's looking like a wet Xmas this year, to go with the rest of the wet month....so much rain - to think we had all those water restrictions and 10% dam levels just over a year ago and today they are releasing water from the local dam on a daily basis...well its keeping Karen busy with all her water sampling!

I think I have finished Xmas shopping after spending most of yesterday looking for an origami book for #1 -his request to Santa.... Just have to collect a few things to go in M-i-L's toiletry bag from the supermarket and that's it.
I've spent the morning building up a blog for the in-laws to post on while they travel Europe next year - that's going to be called F-i-L's Xmas present. I've spent hours on it, so I hope they use it!


We were supposed to celebrate our 9th Anniversary on Sunday nite, however plans got changed when an old friend from Sydney came up to the Gold Coast for holidays and decided they would visit for dinner on Sunday....while they didn't arrive (minus husband) until 6.15pm, it was lovely to see her and the girls....would have been better if they had have arrived during the arvo tho - and due to the rain we ended up bedding them all down for the night and they left at 6.30am. So a 12 hour visit -shame we slept thru most of it!

And the week ahead? Wrapping presents, covering books and keeping the boys from beating each other up as they go slowly stir crazy from being kept inside again....

YD turned 40

In my lapse of posting I missed Yes Dear's 40th birthday which we celebrated by going up to Bribie Island (about 1 hour north of Bne) for a few days. We had a great house there and had my folks, His folks, His brother and His cousin (and new 'friend') along for visits.

of course there was much food and a cake, 

and the obligatory  'bury dad in sand'....

..and I may have mistreated him a little....

but hey, I did give M-i-L some jewels! 



creative play

After being told to move away from our lovely Xmas tree,

the boys indulges in a tunnel making exercise

under the table and chairs, adding in tunnel walls,

and with *Boys mind brimming with scareyness,

adding warnings, bats, spiders and cockroaches .......

another year and more lights

 Last night we went cruising for lights and visited a local landscape yard (who also happen to own a xmas light shop) and let the boys run thru their garden of lights. There was carols and a sausage sizzle and paths thru the gardens with lit up creatures everywhere....

you'll smile...

Ok, so it's been a while but here's something to make you laugh (and possibly cry!)
Conversation with #1Son as I dried myself after my shower this morning....

#1- why is there hair on your nuts?
me- well I don't actually have any nuts but you grow hair down there when you get older.

#1- why don't you have a pen*s?

me- girls don't need them

#1- why do you have big boobies?

me- I fed you with them when you were a baby.

#1- why are they big?

me- they didn't go down after feeding you...

#1- Can I suck one?

me- NO there's no milk in there now!!!!

I know time, to organise a lock on the ensuite door....!

At last! some new crafting

So in desparation for a nice gift for a friend I purchased a cheap t-shirt and printed/ painted it with this design....

The face is hers (she didn't recognise it but 1 of the other girls did).

The flowers I tried to paint the way I face paint but it didn't exactly work as well.

Hopefully the white outline and green swirls will dry completely over the next 24 hours cos when I tried ironing it this morning it kind of spread like it wasn't quite dry.....

I think she liked it!

over the school holidays

We have just had 2 rainy weeks of school holidays - of course now they are back to school the sun came out for the week (only to return this weekend).


While we spent most of the time at home we did get out a few times...

We made one more trip to Dreamworld before our year pass ran out. #1 & I did the Log Ride for his 1st time and got appropriately soaked.... we also all watched the sheep shearing show which we hadn't seen before and #1 and I also did the Rapter Coaster rollercoaster which I hadn't done before. 

 The Monday of the 2nd week dawned with the promise of sunshine so we made the decision to go Whale watching from Redcliffe.

The day was perfect, water glassy, you could see the sand on the ocean bottom and there were heaps of whales in the bay.

Unfortunately, the whales were just swimming along not 'doing' anything but they did come near the boat for a brief look and one female was attracting a few other males while wontonly behaving with another....

All in hearing of a couple of calves with the mums too!

We learnt the boys don't react all that well to the rocking boat with both throwing up around lunch time. *Boy cleared the small area of deck we were on with his screaming up chucks....(consisting mostly of crisps given by dad on boarding).


We also visited the Lennon Bros circus - Australia's last 'animal circus' which was a tad lame but the boys enjoyed it all.


So now its back to school ......I'm already over the morning routine.....

What you get...

for your birthday when you have lunch with your face painting/ balloon twisting friends! Cool Huh?

ego boost

 This is my winning entry in the Australian Body Art Arwards monthly (September) photo comp for the convention next year. I won the cost of the convention -which I had already paid for, so now I can either get my money back or pay for one of the pre conv workshops.....oooh so lovely to have a choice!!

The theme was Beasts in Time - I chose the Gargoyle :
Gargoyles are mostly featured on medieval buildings where they threaten and scare to keep evil spirits (and People) from the buildings all the while doubling as drain pipes.  These Beasts have truely seen the passage of time since their creation, are spread throughout the world and still feature in today's mythology.

This time there were 6 other entrants, so I feel I actually did a good enough job to win!

get a load of me chest!

Ok, its not the best angle...but look at this great promo Tshirt I decorated on the ekka day holiday...

It was a looooong day, I placed every one of those dots, they catch the light but aren't the really sparkley diamontes type.......but I'm so happy with the result.....I just hope it stays in the wash!

Trying to stop still a while

Been missing a while but still posting in my head...
After the boys birthdays I went full tilt at all the things I'd delayed to organise the fete. Too many things.Must not delay like that next year!!

But the college Fete came and went on Saturday and I managed to get it all done even without a voice for the 3 days leading up to it. It was a perfect winter day and 10 minutes after the fireworks we got a very light sprinkle of rain for about 5 minutes as everyone left.

The boys had a wonderful time and it was the first time we (& a few other yr2 parents) let #1Son run off with his friends. Kept tabs on him of course but he thought he was free!

I'm just a bit tired - run down - and need a good sleep in. Got me some antibiotics Monday, so things are clearing up now....

SO what do I plan for next? Well ever so conveniently, I got an email today about the Australian Body Art Awards having $50 off their weekend event price....I'm thinking I'll be off to Daylesford in Feb2011!

bye pecker

This morning at 6.11am Pecker signed on for his trip to the farm.....1st a small tentative crow  -followed by a couple more, each gaining strength....

The Boys are quite understanding about it -hope he said goodbye to the girls..... 

And the big boy's 7

Highlights from yesterdays afternoon/evening at Dreamworld -we took his buddy with us and they had a ball.

My big boy is 7, the years are passing so fast.....

5 years on...

My baby still sleeps well.....Happy Birthday Star Boy

a bit of paint'll make it better

So #1 wanted some sheep skin slippers like Daddys, and after searching all the usual stores, it became apparent that size 13 were few and far between.

So when I found some in KMart, I thought the search was over..... but no, purple was deemed too girly and not for him.

But what if I painted some skulls on them????

That would be acceptable!

( He chose the colours)

I did it!

Well here are my results from my wonderful weekend up at the Eumundi Body Art Carnivale....

My lovely neighbour, pressed into modelling for me, did a superb job and even tho cold, managed to smile on stage. This was my first ever live competition and my first ever full body paint and I'm glad to say I wasn't the worst there, altho it would have been nice to have a novice section as there were quite a few of us having a go for the 1st time. It didn't work exactly how I'd hoped and I ran out of time for all the details I wanted to put in but I learnt heaps!

these are the Yay we've finished pics!

The next day I was pack for the Face painting, feeling much more relaxed, I mean we had 4hours to paint a face.....well let me tell you 4 hours can pass very quickly and I was rushing to finish I that last 45minutes! Still I was pretty pleased with the result and YD got his wish to be a model come true with cameras flashing at him all day!

Each category was only presented with a 1st prize and runner up and a people's choice. My friend Lorraine won the Peoples choice for the body art and it was only her 2nd body paint so we were thrilled for her. We weren't given any indication about how we did from the judges which was a shame, feed back is always good.


Oh I guess I should show you the winners.....no doubt a very hard decision given the talent there (and they were somewhat disputed behind closed doors....). The overall theme was Fantasy.

Winner-Body Art                                       the Runner Up & a special encouragement award went to sisters
Maria (from Melbourne)'s                    who were using rubbish paint but I don't know their names                 
Magic Faraway Tree

Lorraines People Choice winner
Tinkerbell

But This amazing work by Amy

got nothing!

The winner & Peoples choice winner

by Becca

Maria's Runner Up

Face Lift vs Time themed work

The weekend also had airbrush body art, air brushing on the 'Wicked' vans, Special Effects body art, chalk art and wearable art. It was great but I was sooo tired on Monday. I'll be back next year....