Celebration Day!

I can't believe that it's now over a week since Master M finished Primary school.  It's certainly the end of an era because my kids were 5th generation at that school and you don't hear or see that in many places anymore.

They have a bit of a tradition at the school that the graduating class gets to enjoy a special Celebration Day to finish of the year and as a fun farewell day before they head off to High school.

It's always held at Kings Beach in Caloundra and they get to play some games on the grassy areas, play in the fountains and swim in the pool.

The day was hot and sunny, but then that's about all it's been around here for months now.  Hats and sunscreen were a must and the kids had a great time being out of the classroom with their mates.

I think the pool was the most popular activity for the kids, followed closely by playing in the fountains as it gave them a chance to cool off.

I looked on with envy as they all enjoyed the pool but didn't have my togs with me.

Luckily the other fun part of the day is a special lunch at the Surf Club that the school organises every year.

The air conditioning was perfect and the view from my chair was pretty good too.....

There were also class parties to be enjoyed and cupcakes were requested as the dish of choice.  I really don't enjoy decorating cakes so I try to make things look as festive as possible with as little effort as possible.

I believe they were all inhaled relatively quickly :)

It's also been the only baking I've done in the lead up to Christmas so far.  It's been too hot and I really haven't felt like doing much in the kitchen at all but Miss R is nagging regularly requesting me to make the gingerbread muffins with cream cheese icing that I've been making the last few years so I believe I may be making some over the weekend.

I might make a double batch as they freeze really well and I can get the baking done on one day then put my feet up in front of the air conditioner while watching cricket and scoffing muffins.  Sounds like a plan!

I hope you are all enjoying a calm lead up to the holidays or you are at least able to find some calm in the frazzled moments.

Enjoy!

xx Susan

Tree Day 2019

The annual Tree Day occurred at my sister's late last week.

For those that haven't read my blog over the last few years I'll give you a quick recap.

Since my brother's and my children were very young, we go over to my sister's house in early December each year and they decorate her Christmas tree and her house.

It's become a tradition that they all love and receive their first gift of the season which is a new decoration from my sister.  Often it's a special one from her travels like the gold plated maple leaf from Canada or the kilt wearing piper from Scotland.

As usual the morning started with the gifting of their new decoration.

Then they're given their boxes full of their decorations from previous years.  As they're getting older it's wonderful to hear them get excited about a special one they remember receiving.

Then it's time to decorate the tree and it's on this day each year when you realise just how much the kids are growing and how tall they're getting!  I remember when they were all little and the decorations were clustered around the bottom of the tree because that's as far as they could reach!

Sophie is always on hand to supervise and gets so excited to have all the kids there.  You can hear the poor old thing's joints creak as she tries to join in but she loves being with her kids too.

So Tree Day is over for another year and it's on with the preparations for Christmas which all of a sudden is hurtling towards us at great speed.

Hubby will be home in a few days and then we'll have him until just before New Years which is wonderful.  He was supposed to work Christmas this year but was able to wrangle the time off so we're looking forward to having him here.

What traditions do you all have with your family, whether for Christmas or for another occasion you celebrate?

xx Susan

Checking in

My girl is 14!  I can't believe another year as whizzed around already and my little one is now as tall as me (well almost... says I as I stand up tall to try and stretch out my 5'3" height).  She's becoming such a lovely young lady.

I also can't believe that her birthday was 10 days ago and am wondering where on earth that time went.

It's been a bit mad around here lately with constant appointments and so many things happening.  I've been looking forward to the end of this week where I had intended to just have some quiet time to recharge.  Unfortunately both kids are sick this week so they're having miserable time cosied up on the lounge or in bed and I'm enjoying the quiet moments in between Mum duties.

My Dad also had his hip replacement yesterday.  He did lose a bit more blood than expected so it took a little longer for him to get back to the ward but he seems to be okay.  We'll find out more today but I won't be visiting him with two sick kids in the house.  I really don't want to pass on anything when he can least afford it.

Hope you are all having a fantastic week.  I'm off to do a little house scrubbing then reward myself with some crochet time.

xx Susan

A very special Ballet

On Sunday I had the wonderful opportunity to accompany my sister and Miss R to a special performance by the Queensland Ballet.

For a short season (about 10 days) the Queensland Ballet is putting on a production titled 

The Little Green Road to Fairyland 

which is an original and unique performance designed to introduce ballet to children.

It first premiered earlier in the year in regional Queensland as part of the Queensland Music Festival and is now enjoying a short season at the Playhouse Theatre in Brisbane.

The easiest way for us to get there was to catch the train as there's a station right next to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.  The Performing Arts Centre is at South Bank in Brisbane where I spent a few days in April so it was nice to revisit there for a few hours.

It was a pretty exciting day out for my girl, not only catching the train but being in the city which she's only been to once and then going to the Ballet.

We had lunch at one of the cafe's at the performing arts centre.  It was a beautiful, clear winter's day but the breeze was a bit chilly so we were pretty happy to get inside the theatre for the performance.

As the ballet targets a younger audience, there's no interval and the whole performance lasts for one hour which is pretty well the limit of the attention span of many of the kids.

We also attended a special session designed with kids with sensory needs in mind so they dim the lights but don't turn the house lights off fully.  They also allow you to bring in fidget toys for the kids if they need them as well as ear plugs for the ones that are affected by loud noises etc.

As the place is half full of children some of the usual theatre rules are relaxed but the kids love it.

No pictures of the performance are allowed to be taken so you just get selfies of us at the theatre and the above photo of Miss R with her favourite Aunty, my sister Sandra.

A big huge and humungous THANK YOU to my sister's best friend Donna (who also happens to be hubby's cousin), for gifting us with these tickets when she first found out about the performance.  She thought of Miss R and knew that the three of us would love this special day together...and we did.

xx Susan

Knitfest 2019

This is the fourth year the Knitfest Festival has been held in Maleny and the first year I've been able to attend.

The weather for the weekend was a little typical of Maleny, which means it was misty, rainy and cool.  Quite perfect for celebrating all things yarn I think although perhaps not as great for walking around in.

There was some pretty spectacular yarn bombing going on around town.  One of my favourites would have to be Scarlett the car which sat outside Knitting Central for the weekend.  A lot of work went into creating this car cover made almost entirely of granny squares.

Maleny is also very much a dairy farming community and the metal cows on the way into town got a bit of a dressing up too.

The main venue housed plenty of stalls where you could purchase some gorgeous hand dyed yarn as well as plenty of other yarn related things.

There were workshops throughout the weekend working with all kinds of creative mediums.  There were knitting and crochet workshops as well as felting and the basket weaving one seemed pretty popular.

I didn't participate in any of the workshops this year but perhaps next year I'll be a little more organised and see what's available before I head up there for the day.

I loved the Knitfest bus which did a loop of the town and connected people to the different Knitfest venues, the main street and a couple of designated parking areas.  The gorgeous bunting and colourful blankets certainly helped keep everyone cosy on a cool and misty weekend.

I would love to have gone to see the Raw Fleece expo but it was only held on the Saturday and as Miss R had an appointment I was unable to go that day.  As I said, I'll try and plan things a bit better next year so I can get to see everything.

I spent a wonderful few hours with my sister wandering about the place, testing my willpower with regards to yarn purchases and just having a general mooch about the town.

The question remains as to whether I purchased anything or not?  Of course I did, but not what you probably would expect.

I'm surprised at my willpower and in the end didn't buy any yarn even though I saw plenty I liked.  I think going through my stash the day before made me realise exactly how much I have on my shelves and a lot of it I can buy online now that I've seen it up close and had a squish of it.

I did buy some cute little stitch markers though.  A tea pot and cupcakes are the perfect addition to add to my sweet little stitch marker tin and have already had some use.

It's still school holidays here and we're having plenty of slothing about time as well as some outings to mix things up a bit.  Nothing has been too strenuous though and I can't see that changing anytime in the next few days.

Enjoy your week!

xx Susan

15 Years!

Our 15th Wedding anniversary is finally here.

Since we celebrated it a couple of weekends ago, the day itself seems to have taken forever to arrive.

It's also one of my favourite kind of days with torrential rain pelting down on our tin roof.  That would truly have to be one of my favourite comforting sounds but it has meant that we've changed our plans from having one of our Date Days where we go for a drive and a bit of an explore.

Instead we went out for breakfast once the kids were at school and will be celebrating with the kids tonight, enjoying a wonderful slow cooked meal and perhaps a little something special for dessert.

I won't send a gushing message to hubby as we're not really gushing kind of people and to tell you the truth, I don't think he's ever read my blog.

But for the record, Happy Anniversary honey.  Lets hope there are many, many more to come. 

xx Susan

Anniversary weekend

Our 15th Wedding anniversary is not until the 26th of June but we had the opportunity to go away for a couple of days last weekend while the kids had sleepovers with family members.

Our plans of going somewhere a little different, spending a couple of days exploring and making sure we went somewhere that had a fire place was abruptly put on hold because of a little drama with Patch.

He is fine.

He also has never had the chop so to speak (I wanted to get him done but hubby didn't), and the neighbours lovely little border collie happened to come on heat in the week before we were going away.

Of course hubby wasn't home and I spent the week trying to fix fences to stop two amorous dogs getting to each other.  I wasn't successful in stopping them because they kept finding some way to get through to each other and neither the neighbours nor I could work out how.

I had to keep him on a lead for most of the time when he was outside or in a side room we have as well as inside on occasion.  That resulted in the other problem of him crying nearly all night and me getting about 3-4 hours sleep each night.  I was a bit tired and grumpy by the time hubby got home.

Hubby found a spot at the back of the shed where they were getting under the fence so got to work and fixed it up and then we had two dogs running along the back fence crying to each other but at least they couldn't get through.  Patch then dug a hole next to the fence and lay there during the day and refused to make eye contact with me when I tried to take a photo of him.

So as much as we wanted to go away, we couldn't leave the neighbours always checking to make sure he wasn't getting through which meant a weekend at home was on the cards.

I was a bit upset at first but in the end we absolutely loved it.  We decided that the main appeal about going away was that we got to spend time together and we could still do that at home.

We went on picnics and outings.

We went out to dinner and the movies.

We went out for lunch and another movie.

Then after a day of being out and about, we really wanted to be at home so we ordered takeaway and built up the fire in the back yard and enjoyed some beer and wine and just really enjoyed each other's company for the weekend.

Looking at these photos it would seem our weekend revolved around food because that's about all I took photos of!  It was all good though.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves as well with Master M staying at my parents for a couple of nights and spent the whole time with his cousin R who also happens to be his best friend.  Miss R spent the weekend with my sister and had the best time with her favourite Aunty so it was really a little mini holiday for all of us.

Thank you to my wonderful family for your help with the kids over the weekend as we absolutely LOVED our weekend together.

xx Susan

Forty-five

Monday saw me celebrate another year, in this case it was my 45th Birthday.

I didn't have any plans except to spend the day with lovely hubby after the kids had gone to school.

How well he knows how much I love to go for a drive, even when it's cool, raining and misty.  That's usually the perfect stay-at-home kind of weather but it was nice to be driving around in it as long as I wasn't the one behind the wheel.

We headed up Maleny way and the more we climbed, the cloudier it got.  It brought back many memories of taking the same route in the school bus when I was in high school although the road was a bit more of a goat track back then.

Hubby was going to take me somewhere so we could go for a bushwalk but the weather wasn't very walk friendly and we weren't dressed for it either so we sort of did a bit of a funny loop through many of the hinterland back roads, avoiding most of the traffic.

He ended up taking me to Rick's Garage  for lunch which is a bit of an institution in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

It's an old garage and auto workshop that has been converted into a diner chock full of memorabilia.  Everywhere you look there's something to capture your attention or read and the atmosphere is pretty fun.

The place is popular for its live music on the weekends and also has a Whiskey Bar which is open on Thursday's through to Sunday (I think..).

Being a diner, burgers are the main food staple of the place but there is also a choice of a couple of seafood meals as well as some salads if that's what you prefer. They also serve Ribs later in the week but as it was a Monday it was the basic menu for us.  We went for the burgers of course which were huge and very filling.

The bar area reflects the restaurant's former life with plenty of chrome and memorabilia throughout.

There's even a beer garden to one side which is on the site of the old scrap yard (cleaned up now of course!)

Thank you lovely hubby for a wonderful 'me' kind of day for my birthday.  I do love a drive and good food.

We also celebrated with cake once the kids got home from school and other members of my family came to visit to help eat the cake because there was plenty!  No photos though.

Wishing you all a wonderful week and for those of my blogging friends who are struggling a little right now for various reasons, I send you hugs, warm thoughts and good luck wishes.

xx Susan