Family Day Fun at Double Island Point...

My favourite photo...

My vegie garden...

I love having a vegetable garden.  It is so rewarding to go out and pick fresh vegetables and use them in your own cooking. The butternut pumpkins have been so sweet. I have also just planted chinese cabbage but I'm not too sure how that will go. I will just have to keep watering and wait and see.

Above are photos of what I have planted at the moment.  They are not photos of my actual vegetables but Laura designed this picture for me in Photoshop. That is one of her subjects for school this year.

Our new Geography books have arrived...

I was so excited when our new books arrived. I have had these books on my 'to buy' list for years and I have also been enjoying a blog called www.aholyexperience.com.  I didn't even realise they are both written by the same lady.

In the introduction of the first book, it says 'There is nothing nicer than curling up with a good book... and your children. You are invited to come, snuggle, explore, discover, delight and worship our creator..."  I am off to grab a blanket and begin the journey. 

Playgroup...

The weather was so beautiful at playgroup this week. I love this time of the year.

Beautiful friend on slide...

Mates...

Having fun making a banging wall...

Jack loves the drill...

Date with my girl...

Last Saturday, Laura and I went out to spend some time together. We had such a lovely time. We started off early and stopped at the local service station for the Saturday paper. Laura got busy searching for garage sales and reading the street directory. (See, we even do homeschooling on Saturdays.) We found a couple of garage sales to stop at but our tummies soon needed feeding so we stopped for our morning coffee and some bacon & eggs. Friends met up with us and we enjoyed browsing (and buying) at one of our favourite gift shops and then we were back in the car and off exploring secondhand shops. We found a beauty that we will definitely be back to. Then we had a little bit more retail therapy, some sushi and back home to our boys. What a great way to spend a Saturday... I love my daughter so much and I love how close we are. She is so beautiful, not just on the outside but on the inside too. I am very proud to be her Mummy.

Enjoying a morning coffee...

Checking the 'Garage Sale' columns of the paper...

Here's another garage sale we could try...

Below are some of the garage sale/second hand shop finds...

Some books for Jack (this is one of them).

A gorgeous 'set of 2' teacups for Laura and I to use when we have teatime together. I love the pale blue and floral design.

A jug I am going to use for water at the dinner table at night. I love glass and I can always remember the big glass bottle my grandma used to keep in her fridge filled with icy cold water. The glass always seemed to make the water colder.

Taking home a little present for Jack too...

"Thanks Mummy and Laura for my new car."

Nature journalling...

Chris caught this lizard for Jack to have a look at. It was sitting on our fence when I drove into the driveway this week.

Fresh juice...

We love having fresh juice. Our favourite at the moment is ginger, apple, carrot and pineapple.

Jack loves helping us juice.

He is such a great little helper...

The carrots seem to disappear while we are juicing. Jack loves munching on them. 

Nature journalling...

Look at the froggie jack is holding. Chris caught it and Jack was so excited to hold it.

 

Random pics...

This is what I do when it's late and I'm tired and I'm lying in bed with my Macbook computer...

I find pics that make me smile.

Now who invented this fork.... someone with alot of time....

For those of you who need glasses and can't see, the fork has the letters F O R K on the end of it so when you bang it on something it leaves a dint. Jack would love one of these with J A C K on the end of it and he could leave his mark all over the dining room table. He already has but it only reads .  .  .  .  (that's the fork imprint) 


And how cool is this shirt...

I love stationery. It was one of my favourite times in the school year, buying new stationery and books at the beginning of the year. Covering all your books with paper and contact and having a new pencil case.
You can still find me wandering the aisles of Officeworks and stationery shops looking for new things....

Chooks at the Ekka...

Okay.... this is my last post about the ekka...

I loved the chooks....

The noise in the chook shed is incredible. Roosters crowing, chooks clucking, ducks quacking...

I love it.

Love the old writing above the chook cages. And the pale blue inside the boxes... my favourite colour at the moment.

We had chooks on the farm too... There is something about them that remind me of my Great Uncle George. He had Rhode Island Reds. (For all you city folk reading this blog, they are a breed of chooks...) Hopefully one day I will be able to have chooks again too.

Animal nursery at the ekka...

We had a great time in the animal nursery.  I loved all the baby animals and it was great to see Jack and Laura having such a good time with them all. When I was little we lived on a farm. We used to collect the eggs, milk the cow, ride horses... wish I could let my kids have that experience too.

Black and white cows are my favourite.

We used to have 3 goats on our farm.  We had Jet and Dora, the 2 kids that I had to bottle feed every day. And Zachary, a rather large white goat. When Chris and I were dating, he used to come and visit me at our farm and grab Zachary's legs and tackle him to the ground. One day Zachary had enough, and as Chris was walking along beside the barn, Zachary came running up behind him and butted him in his backside and Chris lifted off the ground up into the air. Don't think Chris bothered him much after that.

Resting with the calf...

Quack, quack...

Fun at the ekka...

I can remember going to the ekka when I was a kid. We would catch the train in and go home with showbags up each arm and a dolly or teddy on a stick.   Then there was the strawberry ice creams, dagwood dogs, fairy floss..... And the animals. They would have to be one of my favourite parts...

Well, it's a bit more expensive these days but I wanted my kids to have good memories too so we headed off to the ekka with my Mum and Dad. We bought one showbag each and had a strawberry icecream and shared a dagwood dog. I took our own salad rolls, juice and treaties and we all had a great time.

Ready for the big adventure.

Walking along with my Mum and Dad (and Jack)  Laura following along behind with the camera.  Really enjoyed the 'Woolworths Pavilion' sampling lots of yummy food. Dad bought some hot buttered mushrooms.  

We went to the showbag pavillion early to get Jack's Bob the Builder showbag before it got too crowded.

Pa also bought him the Blinky Bill showbag.

Laura found her new car. She really likes it and it's the colour she would love too.

Running out of energy...

Long trip back to the car with sore feet...

Thanks Grandma and Pa for a great day.

Handmade teapot cosies...

I was inspired to make some teapot cosies this week (thanks to my lovely friend Jenny).

No, I haven't been knitting... I made a trip to vinnies to find a beanie, which Jack thought was going to be for his head (now don't feel sorry for him, he already owns 3 beanies). And then I grabbed a pair of scissors and a few minutes later, you have a teapot cosy.

Jenny also gave me a sleeve off an old grey woolen jumper that moths had been eating and snip, snip.... you have another one. Now that's the sort of projects I like to do. They only take a few minutes and you have a sense of accomplishment.

Mmmmm..... what else could I use? An old footy sock perhaps..... :)