Happy Easter

 After attending church together we as a family break all the rules and break out the chocolate of Friday!


No sense waiting till the end of the weekend to enjoy all the chocolate!


You are never to old to enjoy the Easter egg hunt in this family.


And because we were all together we did the April birthday role too


Just in case we didn't already have enough chocolate to go around.


Hope you have had a great start to the Easter Break.

4 Birthday Wishes

...three  little people.......

Our extended family has grown to quite a decent size in the last little while.....

especially with the move back home of my baby sister, her hubbie and their five kids.

 

So it was decided that 2012 would be the year for celebrating birthday's by the month!

 

That means that one weekend each month we gather all together and celebrate those who have a birthday that month.

 

So we have had two months celebrated and this month, (which began this weekend with a long weekend for us here in Western Australia.)..saw four birthdays that needed a cake and celebrating.

 

 One will turn twelve

One will turn seven

One will turn two 

 

and a special one to turn sixteen.

 

I love my family and I just love celebrating with them. 

 

Happy Birthday March Babies xxxxx

December 1 {Thankful #1}

{ Blog 25 days of being Thankful..... this as a way of staying focused on the good , happy and pleasing moments....

it's a way of acknowledging all that we take for granted, all that we sometimes overlook as we let busyness take over.}

I am thankful today for excited children who love tradition......

once I located all the Christmas trimmings from cupboards all through the house it was on with the setup......

it is fun to rediscover ornaments from past years.....most of ours our handmade or hand chosen by the kids....

as Derek put up the tree he was wondering where the rest was....

Ah no honey it really is that small!

A huge tree would be fabulous but our home doesn't get any bigger each year neither does the cupboard we store it in!

Then at my insistence it was  the"photos taken in front of the tree time!"

Today signals the true start the festive season......

we even attempted a timed shot of us ...just for posterity!

Joining in with the "2011 advent Blog -Along" here

Bonfire Night

At the end of fire burning season we are invited to friends property for Bonfire Night....

Over the years the kids have had varying reactions to the whole concept of The Bonfire.

This year we added a new dimension.......

A Scarecrow or Guy Fawkes.....

Fraser was nominated the face drawer...while Meg and hubbie took care of the stuffing.......

Our friends were a little concerned that Fraser may have been a bit frightened by the whole concept....ha !!! He is a boy after all and it couldn't have hit the spot more!

While it was still light we headed down to place the subjects in just the right place for the biggest effect.....

It is such a lovely property with some friendly props for added fun......

(click to enlarge)

With Guy Fawkes (Plural)  in place we headed back for dinner and to wait for the darkness.....

Each of the families were given some matches and the dads began the lighting......

A bit gruesome looking but what a fire we made........

It was a perfectly still and quiet night... perfect for watching with anticipation as it grew before our eyes......

Of course the night was not complete without the toasting of marshmallows on the end of

VERY long sticks.......

Something spectacular and mesmerising about a controlled Bonfire. 

 

Where in the world?

There  was a very welcome Fathers Day gift this year, 
a world globe.....

not just any globe but it had to be a Topography Globe-

one that had all the raised surfaces depicting mountains and the like.

Well we found just the perfect one and it has been in constant use ever since......

We have had Grandparents travelling around Europe and have followed their travels.......

Excitedly we have family migrating from one side of our Continent to our side,holidaying along the way....{insert squeal with delight}

and finally we are now beginning to find out a little about a big event being held here in our own state next month.

CHOGOM

This includes heads of almost every Commonwealth country - 53 in total converging on our state of Western Australia.

I thought it may be a good idea to bring ourselves up to speed with some of these countries and where they might be in this world of ours....

So tonight over dinner the globe was placed back on the table ( where most of our looking is done)

and we spun it around and around trying to locate as many as we could find.

I am thinking that maybe a little "googling" will be in order to find out some fun facts about each country too.

How about you ...do you love to travel the world even if it is only at the family dinner table?

Pitter Patter

A new 

niece and nephew?

niece and niece?

Nephew and nephew?

We will have the pitter patter of two sets of little feet by the end of the year in our extended family......

So very exciting...

Now I am pretty sure we will not be told what the colour of those little feet will be so I must get to work soon.

I have already a blue variety of quilt done and waiting for the perfect recipient...I will now need to have on hand a pink variety and just in case  they are both the same will have to get to work on double of both!

 

 

Just the  labour of love this non-quilter is up for!

edited: I should have pointed out that the babies are coming from two different siblings....although the thought of twins would be fun!

Happy Birthday Dad

It is my Dad's birthday today and so we gathered for morning tea at a lovely coffee shop to celebrate.
Happy Birthday Dad / Grandpa...
Glad we can take time out together to enjoy each others company and share in each others lives.

Our Other Direction

Popping Rocks...

I found these at the supermarket while shopping the other day.I don't normally buy "gimmicky" things but this caught my eye and appealed to my childhood days. I put it on top of the ice cream tonight to see if it would live up to the memories.
It brought a smile and giggle to all of us as it popped and crackled in our mouths.
For Derek and I remembering it as kids and for the kids having it for the first time..

Go ahead and see if you can find some and have a giggle to!

How DO YOU eat a mango?

In our house mango eating has it's own ritual...I was watching my family go through the process today at lunch and asked Derek where he learnt such a thing...he said he didn't know it was just what he did, but I reckon if I did a family survey I would find a whole line of mango eaters doing the same ..
The kids just love mangoes as much as their dad and they are quite content to sit and watch the process which finally leads them to their own slices of "delish"
Me I am more than happy just to sit and watch the whole ritual play out!