Halloween catch up...

So Jack had decided that he wanted to be a T-Rex for Halloween so I did a little look around on the net and found some really easy to follow photo instructions on someone's blog about how to make a T-Rex papier mache mask and then he decided he wanted to be a Triceratops instead!! I used the same basic structural ideas as the T-Rex head and changed the shape etc to make a Triceratops head instead. 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.

The next day Jack and I went to my Aunt & Uncle's place for a farewell afternoon for my cousin Shane and his fiance Claire. They are getting married in Hawaii on New Year's Eve and then will be going to America which is where Claire is from. Shane had brought Claire to our house to go Trick or Treating with the kids the night before too.

This is my Grandma, my Aunt Marie, my Mum and my Aunt Jenny all looking very festively Hawaiian in their lei's.

A little time away...

My Mum and I had organised a little shopping trip away with Jack and a couple of days before Owen decided to come with us for the first couple of days.

We decided to drive down since we were going to be doing some shopping. It's about a seven or eight hour drive but the time went by easily enough even for Jack thanks to a portable dvd player.

We stayed at the Brisbane Holiday Village in Eight Mile Plains which was absolutely fantastic. If you're in Brisbane and need somewhere to stay, especially with kids, it is the coolest place. They have a few differnet styles of cabin. We stayed in a Metro cabin which was a two bedroom and really does have everything you need.

Jack had a very quick dip in the kiddie pool the first night we were there, the water was pretty cold. 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.

On Thursday we took Jack to Movieworld. They have Halloween decorations up everywhere. We had a great day, Jack had a ball. I loved the Shrek 4D movie, that is just incredible.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!!!!

After our day at Movieworld we stopped for dinner at Cactus Jack's. There used to be a Cactus Jack's in Rockhampton but it closed down a couple of years ago. The food and margaritas are still as delicious as I remember. After dinner we had a good browse through Ikea. They have some really cool stuf and so well priced.

Owen caught the early flight home on Friday morning and our bloody GPS stopped working just as I left the airport. I ended up driving aimlessly around Brisbane for and hour and a half before the GPS kicked back in (thankfully).

We caught a bus into the city for a full day of shopping and after a coffee and some banana bread for breaky we started shopping. I'm pretty sure we saw just about every store in the Queen Street Mall.

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,

Me: "Be careful Jack"

Jack: "Yes Mum"

Me: "Slow down Jack, be careful"

Jack: "Yes Mum"

Me: "Be careful Jack, you don't want to fall in"

Jack: "Yes Mu.......arrrrrghhh, SPLASH, glub glub glub"

...in he went, fully clothed, he even had a hat on so of course up I jump, one leg in, leather shoe and jeaned and all to fish him out. We dried him out with some of my purchases from the day and then dressed him in a rolling stones t-shirt Mum had bought for a gift (you know the one, the tongue out Stones logo). He got some very funny looks.

On Saturday morning we got up early and made our way to Eumundi. OMG, the markets there are phenomenal!! They are HUGE!!, there is so much to see. There is also a great shop on the main street there, All Things Christmas. I got a couple of ornaments and some pieces to add to my Christmas village. There is almost too much to see at the markets in one day. After the markets we headed to Montville for a browse through a few of the stores there. Again, lots to see, so many beautiful things and then we headed to Noosa to spend the night before driving home to Rockhampton (we did have a stop at the Gympie markets on our way home and I got a really cool pumpkin soup terrine)

It was so nice to get away and great to be able to spend some time with my Mum and O & Jack and nice to get out and do some shopping too.

Halloween is coming...

This year I decided to start decorating at the beginning of October so I can a full months

enjoyment out of the decorations before I have to extract all the faux cobweb from my house. There hasn't been as much paraphernalia around this year but I have found some great free printable labels on the net.

I got this cool cling from Spotlight which I have on the floor at my front door.

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.
There are a few more things that I still have planned which hopefully I'll get to in the next couple of weeks.

Belated Happy Birthday to Me & my Mum!!

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.

Children's Springtime Festival

Jack and I met up with some friends today at the Children's Springtime Festival at the Heritage Village. It was pretty cool, a bit of a shame there wasn't more there but the things that were there for the kids were pretty good. There was face painting, pet rock making, collages, aboriginal painting, music, schoolyard games, soccer etc etc.
There was a lady teaching the kids hula hoop tricks. Jack didn't quite get it but you should have seen his friend Jared hula'ing away, very impressive!!There was a huge big canvas where the kids could have their hand included in some aboriginal art.There were sessions by "Play Music Play" which is a local program where the kids play different instuments and do some singing and dancing. I'm thinking of doing this for the next term since soccer has finished for the year.Jack, Jared & Ollie went on the big tunnel/slide jumping castle. Kids and jumping castles, perfect match.Jack and Jared had a turn on the fishing simulator which looked like so much fun. I didn't feel the weight in it but they looked like they were putting some real muscle into it.

It was a really good day and something that should be done more often. It was great to see what activities are available to the kids. Jack was driving me balmy when we first got there, straight away wanting to go on the jumping castle, especially when we had been at a party last night where he had free reign of a jumping castle for hours!!

Speaking of the party last night, it was a BBQ dinner Hen's/Buck's night and they had a 20 metre slip n slide set up in the backyard and at the top was a blow up pool full of Gelli!! Jack had a bit of a splash around in there before going down the slide, I touched it and it felt pretty slimy (and cold). It's pretty cool stuff. They had those giant padded sumo suits too, tons of fun.

That's all folks. I'm going to try to live a more exciting life so I have something to blog about. Ciao

Nothing to tell...

Long time no post hey, well that's because I have nothing to tell or show. Life is cruising, usual routine. I did go and see the production of Steel Magnolias last Friday night which was good and before the show my friend Kim and I went to The Edge for tapas which was really good and I sampled my first mojito, yummy!!
Jack's soccer break up was on last Sunday too. Here he is performing a power kick!! I'm dissappointed that there is such a big break between seasons for soccer, oh well, we'll have to find something else to learn.Not much happened during the week, just the usual jazz. Yesterday Jack and I babysat my friend Charlene's little girl which was interesting. You very quickly forget what toddlers are like. She was adorable.
Grandma came over today for her Sunday visit and we headed down to the creek. We won't be able to call it that soon, it's sooooooo dry at the moment. We havn't had rain in over 100 days apparently.
Anyway, here's Jack looking adorable.He had a haircut today. He sure is growing up.And lastly, check this out...colour me green!!!! Why oh why can't this be my attic instead of Martha Stewart's? She gets a beautiful big airy attic craft room and what do I have...a very noisy fat rat!! Unfair

Playdates with friends

On Friday Jack and I went over for a playdate with his friend Jared and his little sister. It's interesting to see boys playing together. The whole fight/wrestle/roughhouse thing must just be inbuilt in their genetics. It makes them seem so grown up already. I think next year with the influences from school are going to make a big difference to Jack's play behaviour. I think because he's an only child he may get a bit of a shock when he's mixed with so many other kids. He goes to daycare of couse and there are a few kids there that are a bit rough and it's always one of the first things he tells me about. I'm having lots of mother worries already and school is still months and months away. Maybe I really should home school him.

It wasn't all wrestling though, we went outside and the kids played playdough for awile before having a bit of a kick around with the ball and some chasey.Jared making some playdough wormsJack and that tongue...And look, it's catching...And then yesterday our friend Tricia invited us over for a BBQ and a play. Jack wanted to take over his bubble stuff. Here's Sofie making some giant bubblesAnd here's little Piper. She was having a ball trying to eat everything in site, the sand, some leaves...Jack playing in the sandpit.Sofie hanging upside down on the monkey bars. And as we were leaving the kids got to do sparklers...

This morning Jack and I went to the movies with my friend Charlene to see "Up". It was a lovely movie, sad and sweet and funny and nice. Animated movies nowdays are just so well done. The colours and the amazing details were just stunning. It's a very nice family movie to see but be warned I did tear up a few times.

Ciao