Colourful Birthdays !

I cant belive how time flies! We have birthdays galore and it had been hectic but FUN ! The girls have discovered coloured cupcakes...photos below...and they have been "experimenting" in the kitchen...with some really "interesting" results ! 



Happy 18th Josh !




Harvey got a HEART in his cake! Special....




The letters say "Josh is OLD"...dontcha LOVE sisters?!




Josh has a cake monster...and Julian is looking worried....

  One month later ...(yeh I'm a bit slack at this blogging thing?!) We have Michaela's birthday....a 16th !

Miss Piggy....This is Michaela's Chinese horoscope year...No we arent being mean!

Blowing out her 16 candles...

Meanies tied a balloon to the dog ! :O

Everyone enjoying the chocolate fountain.

Cutting the cake...which was a rainbow ! :)



Random photos of the month...

Thought I'd share some happy snaps ...

Wating for dinner...hurry up !

Singing to all the birthday peoples.



Blowing out the candles.



Random photo of our naughty cat Whatt...who got into the toilet paper...again!

Karen Schokker and I at "Wicked"  11th Aug 2011

Birthdays continued....

So July is a BUSY birthday month for us...Mum's birthday is the 2nd, mine the 4th, Leonie (the sis-in-law) is the 5th, Harvey on the 7th and Marcus (bro-in-law) on the 10th !

So this is part 2 with more birthday news to come...

Harv's birthday was celebrated with "style". The children made dinner again...and he was thoroughly spoilt with lots of gift cards.

Super -duper hamburgers.

Yum!

Sharing a "toast" with Petrriti. Mmmm....

Cake ! Well...a fruit flan actually...but that is what Harv chose!

So with the fun gift certificates Harvey went to BUNNINGS ! His FAVOURITE place to shop. He used his certificates to get a wheel barrow - which is what he wanted most.

The wheelbarrow ...

TA-DAH !

Whatt going for a ride to "test" it out.

Reflections on the big 4-0 ...

IT HAPPENED ! Despite all my protest, tears and fighting it...the inevitable happened ...Sigh. For those not in the "loop" ...turning 40 has been a rather traumatic event in my life ...and despite my best intentions...it happened anyways ! How RUDE ! :D

Yes, I have been told on many occasion: it is JUST a number...etc...It doesn't matter what age you are...you are only as young as you feel...but you don't "look" 40 (like :40 has a "look"?!)...wow...you reached a milestone...etc. Well let me tell you this : it MAY be all those things and YES I understand its "all in my head" but I feel the way that I feel. I have come out on the "other side" of this event and you know what? ITS AWESOME !

When I was a teen, I couldn't wait to be old enough to become and an adult and have adult responsibilities. Like: What what I THINKING?! Life was so much simpler then and my decisions weren't as life altering or did anyone depend on the outcome of any choice I made. Someone on Facebook said that they wish they could turn back time to the "80's" when life was much simpler and you could resolve most issues with good music and a night out with some friends. Ah ...yeh !

So why all the turmoil? Hmm...I guess you could say it's because when you reach a "0" number its a time of reflection.  What have you achieve in a decade? What changes have happened? What growth in body, mind and spirit have been made? I have a GREAT life and I am richly blessed. Yes, things have changed quite dramatically in my "decade" of life...did I meet all my goals? No, not all of them. But my life is a "process" of learning and growing so I guess I can tick that box!

On the day of my birthday, I took the day off work and with my BFF (who unfortunately had to cancel due to having a sick child) went to a day spa for a relaxing massage and facial. OH HEAVENLY BLISS ! My therapist was a mid-20 something Irish gal with magical hands and a very lovely manner. She had travelled the world and has been to every continent. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I was SO deeply envious and by the time I had left the salon, I was melancholy too...regretting that I had not had had the same wonderful experiences. Driving along the freeway my CD player changed tracks and the next "random" song (it was on shuffle...so I had 60 odd songs it could have chosen from) was "Count Your Blessings". Like : WOW ! What a kick in the pants reminder ! I AM blessed. VERY BLESSED IN DEED. So with tears of thankfulness to my Father in Heaven, my attitude changed.

Once home, the phone kept ringing, email and Facebook messages rolled in. Friends ! How truly wonderful. My fabulous family locked me in my bedroom with my laptop and transformed the living area and cooked me a three course meal ! Visitors dropped by and oh WOW ! I felt the overwhelming love of friends, family and again my heart was full to bursting! Turning 40 isn't so bad after all !

Sure we all have "regrets" about things we didn't get to do. Sure we are going to moan and groan about the "lost years" but you know what? I don't think I would change any of the experiences or challenges I have had because they have made me into the person I am today. Each day is a new beginning full of surprises and adventure. Goals need to be set and achieved and ONE DAY I too will be able to share my travel adventures with a stranger. There are too many things to do and learn to waste time on regrets. Really. They say "life is for living". I think they maybe onto something there !

Thank you wonderful family for putting up with me as I reached this milestone ! Love you all ! ;)

Adventure Day and Sickness

This week was a BIG week. Yep, with a capital ! It certainly has not helped with me getting sick. :( "Just a cold"...turns out that I would lose my voice too! Oh well. The show MUST go on as they say...

Our school puts on "Adventure Week" for our senior students who dont go on school camp. The rest of the Education Support classes were invited to go along too. On Wednesday, we went to AQWA with all 30 students and 20 teachers and assistants. The weather was beautiful and the students all had a fabulous time. Luckily for me, my well organised assistants had sorted everything and all I had to do was walk around with my assigned student. Thankfully for me, I got the cutest student who is also in a pram.

Thursday was the day I was assigned. For eight weeks my assistants and I worked really hard to organise an adventure around the book "Possum Magic" by Mem Fox. "Possum food" was organised and we mapped out various activities that took each student to "stations" were they could earn badges. It was a fantastic day and thanks to the many prayers that were said, the rain held off. PHEW ! I had NO voice left at the end of the day but it was a huge success. I'm just glad its OVER.

Today is day 3 of Adventure Week. My boss determined that I looked and sounded sick enough to have today off...so I'm updating the blog, reading my book and watching very old movies on TV. Not a bad way to spend the day. :)

Prue's 9th Birthday

Prue's birthday was on a Sunday this year...and she was at her mum's on the Sunday...soooo we partied on the Tueday instead ! :)

On Monday we made the cake and decorated it...had a mini-crisis when we ran out of cake mix!? Eeekkkk! The cake decorating shop sold me some awesome "paste" that made the cream a true lilac colour...I think I turned out ok?



Julian played "Happy Birthday" on the flute




Daddy lighting the candles



Blowing out the candles and making a wish

Present time !

Catching up on our latest...

Its been awhile...Hmmm...Mother's Day was fun....got spoilt my the children and had a lovely day. I bought myself an ipod...now to work out how to USE it ! Had to watch a youtube clip to be taught how to download...instructions from and eight year old ! How tragic !

Mum and dad went on a three week holiday to South Korea and Malaysia, Kula Lumpur and Singapore. I missed them - like A LOT ! They had fun but didn't like that the Korean people were not too friendly. The food wasn't much to their taste but the good company made up for that.

Since there was no Grandparents around to chauffeur them to and from school, Michaela, Madi and JB has to learn to catch the bus. Bit scary for the ole mum to let them attempt this...but everyone has worked it out and its all good ! They are happy to have the grandparents home too...but especially ME since I know that the public transport system has some scary looking customers !

What else? Oh. My permanency has been confirmed ! YAY ME ! So no more looking for a job every year ! Woo hoo !

Oh yeh...we have booked our tickets to go to Tasmania in December! We got a good deal and took it in case we looked again for a better deal and missed out entirely...it happens a lot. No tickets home yet....but we will be there for Freed's birthday. The children are most excited - well Madison and JB especially since they have never been in a plane before. The girls aren't too exited about the fact that we are ONLY taking hand luggage ! Hee hee hee ! It will be fine I'm sure. Looking forward to having a very cool Christmas. I get to leave work two days early and I've already booked those two days off.

Michaela starts work experience on Monday. She will be a waitress at Miss Maud's in the city. It will be "interesting" to see how that all works out. She recently has to complete an assignment on "Moving away from home". She had to research 5 jobs in her area of interest, find out how much she would earn, find 5 rental places and work out her budget for the place she liked the most, work out a budget for furnishing the place, find 5 cars and work out the repayment for the car she liked the best, do a two week menu and work out a food budget and work out her fortnightly expenses for water, electricity and gas. It was a VERY good assignment! I loved that they were teaching her such good principals for budgeting and showing her the realities of what life is going to  be like!! Michaela actually got to see figures. She is now determined to NOT leave home because she said that she could not afford to live ! Ahhh....yeh....