I have spoken before about my love of Department 56 North Pole village pieces so here is my little Department 56 village display. There are a couple of pieces of Lemax in there too. It's sooooo cute.
Here's a couple of close ups...
And lastly Jack having a run under the sprinkler. Didn't you just love to do that when you were a kid.
For Christmas parties!!
Jack's daycare Christmas party was on Friday night at the Crazy Joker.
He had an absolute ball. Here he is on the carts with his daycare bestie.
On the giant slide with Dad...
Getting a present from Santa...
Unwrapping said present (which he then had a little hissy fit about because he didn't want books from Santa)
Then last night we had our work Christmas party which was also a great night. Jack and Owen had a good swim in the pool, the water was so devine I wish I could have gone in too. Everyone seemed to enjoy the night.
I'm a bit of a stickler for not decoration until the first of December but I've started laying our my Department 56 North Pole Village since it normally takes a bit of work. I'm waiting on a few pieces to come from America which I'm hoping will get here very very soon. Ahhhhhhh, I LOVE Christmas.I got some nice shots this afternoon while we were out on our Sunday walk. When we got to the playground our friends, the Bruckner's, were there so Jack had a great time playing with Jared.
Jack...
Jack's bestie, Jared...
More Jack...
Cute little Charlotte...
And again, more Jack...
And the newest member of the Bruckner clan, little Hunter...
Some flora...
And back to Jack...& Owen of course.
and got some noodles from The Noodle Box. Jack did pretty well with his first try using chopsticks.
There has been nothing really to blog about. Jack is not as easy to photograph as he used to be so I havn't even had many photos to show. My scrap room is full of old furniture and junk so I can't get in there to scrap but hopefully I'll get it cleared out soon because I feel like doing some Christmas things including some sewing projects so we'll see what happens.
I did get a couple of cute snaps of Jack when we went for our walk last week. He is growing up so quickly and is really changing lately. He's even skipped a couple of clothing sizes. He'll be off to prep next year which is Queensland's equivalent to preschool I guess but it is full time so that will be a huge change for our family.
It's exciting to see him grow and change and learn but as a Mum it does make me a little sad. He is truly such a beautiful, kind and sweet little fella.
Yesterday we went to the wedding of Ryan and Rosalie. Jack wore his first ever tie. He looked so adorable.
This is the face I normally get nowdays when I try to take photos. Even it is adorable.
Talk about being a poser though, LOL. 
Someone told him it was a headband so he happily wore it for the rest of the night. He had a great time carving up the dancefloor with one of the little flower girls, he even gave her a couple of spins and everything. They were so sweet.
We have a few things coming up in the next couple of weeks. We have our parent/teacher interview next week and then on Friday is Jack's daycare Christmas party and Saturday is our work one. We are getting a Trueline patio in the next couple of weeks too so that will make a big difference to our home and there are a few other things to organise along with that. We are getting a pool put in in January and Owen is re-building our back retaining wall so there are lots and lots of changes going on. I'm itching to start decorating for Christmas but I always stick to tradition and don't start decorating until the first of December. There are such great decorations around nowdays especially all the wall clings and things. 
Jack and I went shopping and he picked out the fabric for his costume, apparently Triceratops' are orange, and I made a simple shirt and pants for his costume. I stole this photo of my friend Tricia's facebook because I didn't get a very good photo of his costume. Here are the boys moving in for the Trick or Treating.
All ready to head off Trick or Treating. How cute do all the kids look.
Jack and I made a bat pinata.
Which kept the kids amused for awhile. No matter how thin I think I'm making pinata's they always take forever to bust.
And then in for dinner in the spooky dining room for the adults...
and the kids had their own little table set up in the theatre room and they got to watch Dora Halloween while they had their dinner which made it much easier for the adults to enjoy their dinner.
It was a really fun night. I love the mood of Halloween, it such a good night for a party.
Unfortunately we didn't get time to play but check out the mini gold course they have...
The staff were so friendly and helpful and we ate breakfast and dinner in the cafe. The meals were great and really good value for money. As I said, I would definately recommend it.
They have characters walking around that you can get your photo taken with. The look on Jack's face in this photo with Batman is pure fear. He didn't want anything at all to do with him. I thought he was just being shy but he wouldn't even look at him.
The Flash on the other hand, he loved. The actor was really good with kids, really friendly and took his time to make Jack feel comfortable.
The character statues around the place were great. Jack insisted on making a funny face. Here he is with Yosemite Sam.
Jack standing under the vulture topped entry to the Wild West Falls area. It looked like a great ride but you get soaking wet.
Daddy was a great sport and went on the rides with Jack. Here they are in one of Tweety's birdcages.
And on the train ride.
And riding a rocket with Wile-E-Coyote on the carousel. He also went on the Sylvester ride that goes up and down, he definately didn't want a second turn, he had the same face as the Batman photo. He had been saying he wanted to go on the roller coaster as well but quickly changed his mind when he saw it.
Here's Jack having a bit of a cuddle with Daffy Duck.
I had been trying to get Jack to go on the Scooby Doo ride which I thought was just a ghost train thing but luckily he didn't want to. Owen & I went on it. HOLY CRAP!! I nearly hyperventilated!! I have definately grown out of my ride/roller-coaster stage of life apparently. I screamed and screamed, it's actually a rollercoaster in a building, in the dark, with sound effects. As I said...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
We then headed over to the museum to check out the cool dinosaur display. Jack was amazed, as were Mum and I. It's suck a great display.
Jack wanted his photo taken with just about every animal in the display. Here he is with the gigantic prehistoric fish head skeleton.
Hamming it up with the crocodile skull...
Coyly patting the turtle...
Pretending to scratch under the leopards chin...
And checking out the starfish/anenome display...
After the museum we headed over to the Southbank Markets and had a ride on the giant ferris wheel. It's a great view from up there.
We had a good look at the markets and then grabbed some fresh corn for dinner and sat at the edge of the pool they have down there so Jack could have a little splash on the steps, well that was the plan at least. You know how you say something so many times that it acutally eventuates, 
The table in the entry is ladden with treats with the same labels I used last year from the Martha Stewart site.
The skeletons are hung over the dining table and I made a tabletop graveyard scene for my centrepiece this year.
A close up of the centrepiece with a partially exposed skeleton poking out of the dirt.
This year I made out buffet into a twisted apothecary table with a variety of cool witchy items.
I need to paint a couple of the jar lids because the green raguletto lids sort of lose the effect a bit.
but I found some super cool labels here at Love Manor. 
On Sunday I had invited my friends Charlene and Ann over for brunch and a catch up. We had a huge brunch of fruit, bacon, chipolatas, eggs benedict and chocolate french toast with chocolate dipped strawberries. I got Jack to take a photo of us, once it was straightened and cropped he had sone a pretty good job.
Sunday was also my Mum's Birthday so I hosted afternoon tea at my place to celebrate, I even cracked out my Noritaki. It was a lovely afternoon, a couple of my aunts came over along with my Grandma and Grandad. I tried out a couple of new recipes too. We had : Savoury Shortbread with Tomato Jam, Herb Piklets with Cream Cheese, Smoked Salmon and Faux Caviar (par cooked tapioca, soaked in soy),Finger sandwiches, Ham & Mustard and Chicken, Avocado, Cashew and Mayo, Fruit Kebabs, Scones with Jam and Cream, Melting Moments, Profriteroles and Chocolate Coated Strawberries.
As usual I over-catered so I even had left overs to take to work the next day which was my birthday. I work with an American lady named Sherrie and she made a brownie for my birthday served with ice cream and hot Hershey's chocolate fudge. OMG!!! It was to die for. Soooooooooooo yummy.
Sherrie also hosted a party at her & her partner's house the other night to introduce us to some American cuisine. There were oooooooooohhhhhs & aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhs galore. She is such a good cook. I've had a look at the USA Foods website and I think there are a few things I might have to try like candy corn for Halloween. Speaking of Halloween I've been busy decorating, I'll be back tonight to load up some photos.
