Cricket Anyone?

The Great Australian Pastime.....

Cricket with friends on a warm Spring afternon.

Please teach me....

There was a lot of eager learning to be had today...

We all have something to share with the next generation who will be thankful that we did.

What did we see today?

Derek works at the one of our states power stations and over the last few months they have been preparing to and then preceding to take down one of the large stacks...today when we arrived to pick him up they were actually taking up workers in the cage to the top. See how they are nibbling it down little by little-quite the job.

We also decided to go and do some geocaching after we dropped Meg at a birthday party for a school friend....and we found a nice little stash...

Just what every 4 year old boy wishes to find in a cache...
An airplane whistle!

and no treasure hunt is complete without the play on the swings before we go.

I also squeezed in some of this for Meg's birthday friend.

Timber!!!!!

We have,oops had a lovely big tree that provided a nice canopy of shade for all sorts of fun.....but the root system was not so nice and so it had to go...can you hear the sobs?

We called in the professionals and resisted the urge to put money over safety!

Within 1 hour these guys had reduced our lovely tree to this...

and then this....

and finally a pile of mulch...what to plant in it's place is the question we are now asking ourselves.

At least it isn't the only tree we have in our garden for inquisitive little people!

Our Little Guy

How exciting for this little guy to head off for his Big Kindergarten celebration night to a packed house. All the anxiousness on my behalf was wasted energy 'cause he sang and performed with his little classmates beautifully.
What a big boy you were tonight.

Please play..

For the last week Meg has been wanting to play some games after dinner.There always seems so many things that need to be done and I have been putting her off....until tonight.
She set up Pictionary for us to play and too my surprise they both played well even Fraser did very well at drawing the required picture.
I know I need to put aside all the "doing" and just spend some more time playing.

Preparations

Preparations are being made for Fraser's School presentation night in two days time.....I am not sure he understands the whole having to perform in front of lots of people...not sure how to prepare him for that .
What I can do is make sure he looks the part by creating his Australian iconic costume...no Christmas angels or shepherds for this little kindy guy!

Saturday

Hope your weekend is going just how you wanted it to....

Straight from the garden

It is a lot of fun to go out into the garden and eat straight from the trees...Our peach tree and mulberry tree are loaded with fruit. We are just waiting on the strawberries ,orange and mandarins to one day soon produce some more ingredients for the fruit salad!

Remember my rescued roses?...

We have a flower...thanks to plenty of seasol and tender care by my green thumb hubbie.

What's for Dinner?

(taken at Melbourne Queen Victoria Markets)

Chicken and Celery casserole

1/2 cup plain flour
1kg chicken thigh fillets, chopped
60g butter
1 large brown onion
4 rashers bacon, rind removed,diced
1 1/2 cups water
410g can cream of celery soup
2 carrots, peeled,diced
1/2 cup grated cheese

• Preheat oven to 180 d. Coat the chicken pieces in the flour and then place in an ovenproof casserole dish in single layer.
• Melt butter in frying pan. Cook onion and bacon stirring for 5 mins or until soft.Add to chicken.Add remaining flour to frying pan. Cook,stirring for 1 min.
• Combine water and soup. Pour into frying pan stirring until mixture just comes to the boil. pour over the chicken.Add carrots and celery.Stir to combine.Cover and bake for 1 hour or until chicken is cooked through.
• Remove lid. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered for a further 10 min or until cheese is melted.

The great thing for me is that there is enough for dinner tomorrow night as well!

Wish list Giveaway

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

• Some time off as a family
• A new good summer reading book
• Handmade Home by Amanda Soule
• Some time and money to finish some renovation jobs at home
• To complete some scrap booking projects
  

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?

• Anything that my mum has made for me
  

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?

• Something" felted"
  

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?

• A family who loved to celebrate Christmas
  

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?

• Transformers
• IPod
• A new movie
  

6. What is your favorite holiday food?

• Good old Fashioned Roast Beef
  

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?

• As many gifts for friends as I can find the time for.
  

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?

• Sleepless in Seattle
  

9. Favorite holiday song?

• Paul Kelly's "Making Gravy"
  

10. Favorite holiday pastime?

• Having plenty of time to read my new book

• BBQ's with friends

Through My Front Door...

I like to drop in and read what is going on over here and I decided to join in on their Theme of the week challenge. So here is mine....
The theme is Through my front door...
When you open my front door you can see what is near and dear to me...
my children, my wedding photo,something old (my grandma's singer machine) and a warm welcome invite to friends and family. So through my door you get a snapshot all in one eyeful ,it's is only a small entrance which again gives you an insight into how our home is all the way through..filled with lots of things that hold lots of memories.
The doorway leads through to a sometimes quiet but most times not home, a place where we gather and create each in our own unique ways.

Missing pieces?

Do you have jigsaw puzzles with missing pieces? Are you looking for a neat Christmas craft idea?
Then try this.... I began by spray painting the pieces green..

Then at playgroup this week the mums and their little ones pieced together these Christmas trees finished with all the glitz and glimmer that it was deserving.

I found the idea here via here

A Good Day For....

A good day for...

having a friend over for lunch.

getting a lesson on putting up some downpipes.

finding and checking all the bird's nests in our garden.

Not a good day for the vacuum cleaner to blow or not being able to find a cache!
Oh well there is always tomorrow.

The last page

I found a few minutes today to finish this...

and in true Picoult style you must read right to the last chapter ,right to the last page and it will undoubtedly leave you feeling totally emotionally upended.

• added note...Derek actually placed first in his age grouping at yesterday's Triathalon...well done our sports star!
  

All in a Days Fun!

Our day began watching Derek compete in a triathlon -in South Fremantle...a lovely morning to be up at the crack of dawn.

It was then on to a busy bee at the church- many jobs to be a part of with many "busy bees" working together to produce a great effort.
Then while Meg danced the rest of us napped or continued the busy bee stuff around the house...
And to finish the day we thought a pleasant geocache find would be in order....
just one hill to climb...

and down again.....

and up another....

and another..

The last one was done by only one!

What that one discovered was that there was a path leading straight to it from the other side!
But what fun family time we would have missed out on if we had gone the short direct route.
The kids did extremely well to make it there and back again even before the promise of a special dinner to mark the big adventure