Happy 11th Birthday Jordan

Jordan's 11th Birthday - This year Jordan decided that she wanted to have a sleepover for her party and to take her friends to WetnWild - which is a large water theme park.

3 of the girls that she had invited all play netball (bar 1) had to play netball first - so we planned a picnic in the park between games. We had 4 games to attend (including Chelsea's) and they were every hour.

We took a quick detour home to get changed into swimmers and pick up another friend and were on our way to Wet n Wild. They swam, went on endless slides and fed their faces on junk food and sugary drinks...My plan was to keep them going all day so that when we got home that night we played a quick dress up chocolate game and then put a dvd on and they all fell asleep either in the middle of it or just at the end of the movie.

Jordan had a great day and was thoroughly spoiled with lots of gifts from family and friends.

Emma - The Big Move to QLD

Emma - This is Mal's niece - she was born in Canberra and has lived in Canberra her whole life - she is almost 18 and has decided that she wants to move up to Brisbane - work for a year before going to Uni. We offerred her a room to stay at our place until she found her feet and a job.

She turned up early Feb and on her first day at our place I turned up after work to find a shopping trolley outside my front door and loud music pumping out the windows...I was so embarrassed....what would the numbers think....

So - our adventures started with having a teenager live with us...something that has opened my eyes greatly - especially as the girls get older...

She slept all day, left her room extremely untidy, left washing in the machine and on the line for days, made huge messes in the kitchen, her ears either constantly glued to her mp3 player or her mobile phone...the list goes on...other than that - she's a good kid

She has since moved in with her Nan & Pa as she felt she had overstayed her welcome. She has a job and is making new friends. I miss our late night chats and our chocolate binges..larf larf...

Back to School

Back to School - After six weeks of holidays, going to the beach, endless days at Wet n Wild, a trip to Canberra to visit friends and family - it was time to go back to school. They were both extremely excited about going back and catching up with friends. Jordan is in year 6 this year and has been seperated from all her friends but has found that she has made new ones as well as hanging out with her old friends at lunch time. Chelsea is in year 4 and has her best friend in her class - they love school and love being with their friends - I can't believe how quickly they are growing up....

Spending holidays with friends in Canberra 2006

Christmas in Canberra with Family 2006

Girls - hanging out with some friends over the holidays in the Gold Coast

Bright Ideas

I had this great idea over the January holidays that me and the girls would do a jigsaw puzzle together. I thought I would get a circle one as it was different and the 300 pieces were way too easy so I thought this 1000 Marine Life jigsaw would be a lot of fun.....

So we set the puzzle on the table and the girls were great in helping me find all the edge pieces - that proved to be a lot more difficult but we persevered....then we tried starting on the inside well after that the girls weren't interested....I kept trying to encourage them to help me which they would come over for 5 mins look at a piece...think it was too hard and try something else - so I had this jigsaw sitting here for weeks - plugging away at it bit by bit by msyelf (awww...) and in the end I gave up too...I couldn't go any further and every piece seemed to be the same colour...why did I choose something with a lot of blue and gree in it????

So much for my bright idea - its now sitting in the cupboard - maybe we'll get it out next year...larf larf..

Christmas Day 2005

What a glorious day - quite a hot one (as usual in Australia). I was feeling quite low as it was a quiet day with the four of us plus mum and dad. I was missing my older sister and her husband and my younger sister and nephews.....they make their own plans usually for christmas and I was reminicising about the old days when we used to have a lot of people in our home on Christmas and all our family would get together and have a bbq...and for the last couple of years I was starting to feel like I'm the only child in our family...everyone's off doing their own thing...Auntie Margaret & Uncle Charlie have gone....

I was looking out the window (feeling sorry for myself) and I saw this rainbow and I knew that God was watching over me and he knew how I felt. I needed to appreciate what I had around me...look to the future not the past...

I know too that mum and dad feel the absence of family but that doesn't stop them blessing and bringing joy to us - especially the girls. So this year mum put on a seafood extravaganza and I've never eat so many prawns, oysters and salmon in my life.....it was a beautiful serene day...

Christmas Eve 2005

I have to recap due to the fact that I haven't blogged for quite some time and thought I would spend some time - catching you up to speed.....

Christmas Eve was a beautiful time with the 4 of us and my mum and dad - I cooked turkey but we had ham and salads as well...

As you can see from the picture below the girls got to open one present before Christmas day and of course they chose the biggest one - a massive pencil with lots of colouring in stuff from their Auntie Meg and Uncle Age...

I went on holidays Christmas Eve so it was a celebration for me as I had the next 3 weeks off work. Mal & I had a week together in January where we went down to visit Mal's family in Canberra and then he had an additional 2 weeks off...we have to split up our holidays so Mum and Dad don't have to look after them for the full 6 weeks - God Bless their hearts...