My gorgeous boy...

Just a couple of photos of my gorgeous boy to share...
Doing drills at soccer practice.And at the park. He was funny at soccer on Monday. He has a bit of an issue with losing especially when they are playing cowboys and indians and we've had a few tears over that game. So anyway, the same happened this week, he got out and came sulking off the field with a lip dropped so low he could have tripped on it. He came over to me and I asked him if he wanted a drink of water, passed him the bottle and told him it's just a game blah blah blah. He told me "I just wanted a drink of water, that was why I was so sad". Cheeky little bugger.

Something different...

You know how it is, as a parent you're always looking for some new way to bring excitement to the life of your child, teach them something new and exciting so today we took Jack 10 Pin Bowling. Well what we thought was going to be a fun filled family activity turned out to be quite frustrating. I would recommend if you're taking your 4 year old bowling for the first time ever that you only pay for one game and that everyone uses the kiddie ramp so they don't realise there is an alternative. Jack tried pushing, kicking, tossing, etc etc the ball down the alley. It was quite excruciating to watch. I swear it took a good five minutes for some of those balls to make it to the end of the alley. I'm sure he had more fun sliding around the floor than actually bowling. He did manage to get a few pins down of course, you've gotta be thankful for bumper bowling. He was really funny towards the end. He'd get his ball, line up the ramp with some help from Dad and then go all the way out of the bowling area into the cafe area to start his run up to push the ball down the ramp.

Oh well, chalk it up to experience I guess.

Our afternoon...

Well I decided to have a go at making the yummy looking coffee eclairs they made the other night on Masterchef. They don't taste too bad at all. I was going to halve the recipe and then I wasn't sure it would make enough so I did the full quantities and it made LOTS!! I'll have to buy some more cream tomorrow to fill them all.So Jack and I grabbed a cuppa each and sat outside and had some afternoon tea. Jack didn't actually eat an eclair, just stuck his finger in it and ate some of the cream and of course licked off the chocolate, hence the face.Jack had a bit of dig around in the garden for awhile while, playing with the sprinkler making mud patties and picking flowers while I flicked through a book and took some photos obviously.Then we pulled out the giant bubble wand and both had a turn at blowing bubbles.
And here are just a couple of photos of Jack, the first one is him talking like a mouse.And looking cheeky sitting on the crossbar of his swing set. He thinks he's pretty clever.Two posts in one day = no life!! LOL, just kidding, I just love showing off my gorgeous boy.

Making me happy around our home...

Well most of my house is still it's normal messy self but yesterday I finally got around to giving our bedroom a real tidy up. I really like the feel of our room. It's a little cramped because the bed head and foot are so deep but I think it's nice and cosy and relaxed looking. I would like some sheer curtains to add a bit more texture but O is anti-curtain.
So after I cleaned up our bedroom I did a bit of organising and re-arranging in our bathroom. Our wall colour was a mistint that picked up cheaply and when I first painted it I thought it looked a bit poo-ey (our toilet is painted the same colour too) but I soon grew to like it.
I really like our white floating shelf. The contrast with the wall colour really makes it stand out. Unfortunately it houses all the junk we use on a daily basis like moisturiser and stuff but the other end is just pretty stuff.I decided last night that I'd have a nice relaxing candlelit bath so I filled the tub, popped in a Lush bath bomb, got a book, put on a face mask...& then it went downhill. I couldn't get the lighter to work (I think it got wet) and then I was just about to hop in when in comes a little visitor. "It was nice of you to make me a pink bath Mummy" says Jack. "Sorry sweetie, the bath is for me" I say. "Can I hop it too" replies Jack. "It will be too hot, when it cools down I'll call you and you can come in" I say wishfully. Bye bye relaxing bath. I closed my eyes and tried to pretend I was in a nice relaxing tub in some far off resort but it was a bit hard. Yabber, yabber, yabber, splash, splash, splash. Firstly he stuck his arms right in the bath whilst wearing a long sleeved shirt so off it came. Then he stuck his arms and his chest in so off came the singlet and then a couple of droplets had gone on his pants so off they came. Well I couldn't just leave him standing there starkers and cold could I so of course I added some cold, let out some water and Jack jumped in with me. Next time I'll wait until he's in bed!

Anyhoo, back to the happy house thing. This is my sofa table in the lounge room. I love this wall of photos of Jack and I love book stacks. I love flicking through cookbooks and books on home and garden design. I just love looking at pretty things. And some photos from outside. My chiminea, nice and plain & simple. I really like terracotta in gardens, it's such a nice accent. I wish our outdoor area was still all nice and we could have a BBQ. We used to have friends around all the time for BBQ's but after we had Jack it didn't really fit into our lifestyle anymore. Our outdoor setting is in need of a good sand and an oil and we have some plans for our yard that are bigger than our budget! but we'll get there eventually I guess.

And around the other side of the house, the herb/vege garden. Owen re-did this area when he was on holidays last. It does need to be oiled, I should try to get around to that. Some things are really taking off in the garden, others not so much but it's nice to have a small useful patch of yard. We have our prolific lime tree, a new little lemon and mandarin tree and then we have a few different herbs, rosemary, thyme, lemongrass, dill (we both LOVE dill), sage, parsley, basil, oregano & chives and then we have a few other things planted, chillis, strawberries, snow peas and tomatoes. And one of our dogs, Poppy.

Well I guess I should go and hang out some washing or finish the cleaning.

Big day out!!

O and Jack had a day together the other day while I was at work and Jack went and helped O do an install and everything so for being such a good helpful boy Dad promised him a day at the beach. It's been pretty cold here the last week though so we changed our plans to a morning at the Crazy Joker which is a local kids amusement centre with a climbing thing, giant slide, ball pit and stuff. He had one turn on the slide by himself and one turn with Dad. He had sat up the top a few times but lost his nerve.

Sharing some of Daddy's iced coffee. It was a bit cold.When we came home hemucked around outside for awhile waiting for Grandma to come. He watered the plants, washed the wheels on Dad's car and then hosed off the jetski apparently getting it ready for Daddy's big race? (a little story he made up in his head)After a cuppa and some pie we headed over to the park armed with our gear for a bit of a play. We had a go at cricket which Jack actually surprised me with by connecting with the ball a few times.

Then we did a few soccer drills. Here's Jack and Grandma doing their indian call when we played cowboys and indians.

Here's Jack doing his victory dance when he shot a goal during drills.We also had a little visitor at our place on Sunday, a busy buzzy bee collecting pollen off our giant agave flower spike.Check out all the pollen on it's little legs and see it's tongue thing at the front. Pretty cool hey. And look what I got in the mail today!! I had asked the super talented Brenda for a copy of her pini pattern so I can try my hand at making some little cuties like hers. Thank you so much for sharing your pattern and thanks for the little extras too, a Martha Stewart mag and a cool gingerbread lollipop bickie for Jack hand picked by Miss Ruby. It's so cute!!

I work on Monday's now but I finish at 4 so I can take Jack to soccer training(if you could call it that). He is so funny to watch it makes me smile so much. He strides up to one of the coaches during the practice to show him his new soccer socks and then stops the other coach mid mini game to show him the scratch he has on his hand from the cat. So cute.

Well I'm off to do some blog hopping.

Catch u later.

Funny Faces

Jack was all snuggled up on the lounge yesterday morning under his blankie and looked so cute that I thought I'd take a couple of photos. Unfortunately he's in a no-photo faze at the moment and insists on making faces when I'm trying to take his photo.

The pulled down eyelid face, yucko!Mr Spit BubblePoking tonguesAnd fish kiss face.

Cheeky little bugger.

Jack and I were just heading out the door to go somewhere the other day and when we got outside Kitti-Mae had a mouse cornered in the garden so I put Jack in the car and put Kitti inside and we headed out. When we got home I was bringing in some shopping and had the door open while Jack said hello to the dogs. Just as he walked in Kitti scooted past him with the mouse!! I stuck her in the bathroom and went to get something to try to catch the mouse in. Jack thought it might have been Ratatouille but I'm pretty sure it was just your run of the mill wild mouse and not a culinary genius in a mouse disguise. Anyhoo, the little mousey scooted under the door to my scrap room before I could get it. I was cursing the cat all day. My scrap room is a MESS!!! It's our junk storage area and there is stuff everywhere. Finding a mouse in there would be like finding a needle in a haystack. So I was cranky, imaging all my papers being mouse distressed which I guess could be a new scrap technique. Well luckily we were awoken at 1.30 this morning by Miss Kitti who had trapped said mouse in our bedroom (well I'm telling myself it's the same mouse anyway, I'm sure we don't have mice in our house). So I went and gabbed the essential mouse trapping tools...some tupperware, a tea towel and a pair of tongs and then my brave and talented mouse trapping husband caught mr mousey with the aid of Kitti-Mae. So 1.30 this morning I was out on my front lawn in the freezing cold flicking a mouse out of my tupperware!! At least it's out of the house.

I watched a couple of movies last night, Bride Wars and Waitress. Bride Wars was really good, a bit immature and kitchy but a good fun movie all the same. The Vera Wang wedding dress in the movie was soooooooooo gorgeous(well both the dresses were gorgeous)

I've said it before but if I was getting married now there is NO way I could ever pick a style of anything after seeing this site, Style Me Pretty. There are just too too many beautiful things on that site. If you're planning a wedding you should definately check it out but be warned you may be so inspired by all the gorgeous ideas on the site that you might and up doubling your wedding budget!! So if you're after a funny lighthearted chick flick it's a good one.

The Waitress well not so funny and lighthearted. Not a bad movie but now I NEED pie!! I have been doing quite a bit of cooking lately. Feeling very inspired with Masterchef being on every night. I'm going to try out a copycat recipe I found for Kate's Chocolate Tart with Passionfruit Syllabub but I've got to organise a girls night first so Charlene can try some too. Anyway back to the movie, as I said not bad, a bit slow and a tad depressing with of course an uplifting Hollywood ending. But the pies in the movie!!! YUMMO!! They looked delicious so this afternoon I am going to make pie! I don't know which type yet but I'm definately going to make pie.

Speaking of copycat recipes, I made a copycat recipe of an american seasoning called Old Bay. The other night I made Shrimp Scampi for dinner and tonight I'm going to try out another recipe I found on the site, Shrimp and Sweetcorn Fritters. I hope it's as nice as it sounds.

Well, I'm off to grab a couple of groceries, catch u later.

The Rockhampton Show

We had a fantastic time on Wednesday at the annual Rockhampton Show. I think Jack was on sensory overload. He absolutely loved it!!
Here he is looking all excited and ready to go.We started in the cooking pavilion to check if we'd won any prizes and look...

I won third prize for my mini cakes!!!

And first prize for my chocolates!! (Mind you there were only two entries for that category)

Here's Jack pointing to his muffin entry. That facial expession says it all!! It's his big smile for one of Mum's painful photos while it's really holding him up from whatever it is he really wants to be doing, which in this case is RIDES!! I don't blame him though.

So he went on a couple of rides before we went and checked out the other pavillions.

We had a look through a couple of pavillions and then grabbed some lunch and sat in the grandstand to watch the Hilux Heroes which is a driving display which was really good. After lunch we were going to have a look at the fish display and there was a little boy who looked like he was just wandering by himself. I just watched him for a couple of minutes and then approached him and yes he was lost. He wasn't distressed or anything and he was only about three. The police have a stand where you can register your details and they issue and ID band and he had one of those on so I took him back to the police stand and he had been reported missing and there were officers out looking for him. I don't know how long he had been wandering for, his poor family would have been beside themselves I'm sure. So we handed him over to the authorities and headed back to our looking around.

There wasn't really that many good stands this year which was a bit dissappointing. The last two years it has rained pretty heavily so I don't know if that turned some of the stall holder off. There is a huge big new shed which held all of the showbag stands. We didn't get a showbag this year. They are sooooooo expensive!! Luckily Jack's not old enough to worry about it.

Then we got to all the action!! Jack had a turn on most of the things. He didn't want to go on the ferris wheel, it was too big but he did want to go on the rollercoaster. Luckily for us he was under the height restriction. I'm sure he would have pee'd his pants if he had gone on it.

Dad took him on the dogem cars and you should have seen his face. He was smiling so much. I've never seen his dimple so pronounced.

He won lots of crappy little prizes...waterpistols, fishing game, inflatable ball etc which of course he loved.

He got a bonus ride on the kiddie ferris wheel, the guy forgot he was on there. You should have seen Jack's face. Every time he'd come past the ride operator he'd eyeball him and then we could see him singing to himself and we're pretty sure he was singing "What About Me".

The bumper boats was one of his favourite rides. The showie that was looking after it was really good with the kids and they all had a ball.

Jack refuses to go down the slide at the local amusement place but insisted on going on this one which is much bigger!! I thought he'd get to the top and chicken out so Dad walked up with him but he went by himself. O said that he said he didn't want to go at first but he went anyway. His face on the way down was hilarious. Mum and I were having a giggle, but when he got to the bottom he gave us a huge grin and wanted to go again. A lovely lady who was standing near us gave us a ticket for the slide and some other tickets for a couple of rides because she was going home and her kids were too big for the rides so that was lovely of her. So Dad went with him the second time.

We stayed and watched the fireworks which was another first for Jack. He normally screams/cries and refuses to look at them but he just lay on Daddy's lap and watched them this time. Dad covered over his ears which I'm sure helped.

It was so much fun, I just LOVE the show. I can't wait for next year!!

Lucky number 13!!

Well on this day 13 long years ago I was nervously watching the clouds in the sky, begging them not to rain on our wedding day. It did rain though, just a bit luckily and apparently it is just that, good luck, if it rains on your wedding day.


It didn't seem to do us any harm. Thirteen years later and we're still happily married...well most of the time.


Love you honey, Happy Anniversary.